There is some debate on if you can up-cast a cantrip (let light pierce higher level darkness magic, or prevent counter spell, ect...). JC did say "no" in a tweet once, so it might be a bit of a stretch but if you DM is happy for you to waste higher level spell slots on cantrips for lil/no benefit...
But then casting something you can twin as a bonus upcast to lvl 9, and then cantrip with a 9th lvl spell slot for your action will let you hit 24 theoretically. (but i think 22 is your max assuming you take the feat and are lvl 20).
How many Sorcery points is the maximum you can use in a single turn (excluding reactions)
Based on my calculations I say 19
Bonus action- use 7 sorcery points to create a 5th level spell
Action- cast a 9th level twined spell for 9 sorcery points, that is both seeking for 2 sorer points and empowered for 1 sorcery points.
7+9+2+1= 19
Anyone have any ideas on getting to 20 or why my example is disallowed?
Getting to 20 is easy:
Follow your suggested procedure and attempt any skillcheck on the same turn (e.g. by long jumping) so you have an opportunity to fail the check and spend 1 point on Magical Guidance.
Because Empowered Spell is used at damage time, not at cast time, you can cast a spell that deals damage later, like Wall of Fire or Cloud of Daggers. Because you can then use Empowered Spell whenever the spell deals damage, you can burn 1 additional sorcery point economylessly whenever it would come up.
Both Empowered and Seeking don't happen at cast time, which means if your DM follows strict RAW, both are spammable on the same spell. For example, you can upcast Scorching Ray to level 9, which will give you 10 spell attacks, each of which can be Seeking and/or Empowered (and applying Seeking or Empowered to 1 of the rays doesn't apply it to any of the others). That's more expensive than twinning an L9 spell if they all miss, then Seeking makes them all hit, then you Empower all 10 damage rolls: that costs a whopping 30 sorcery points to do, and you can raise that to 31 with Distant or Transmuted spell.
There is some debate on if you can up-cast a cantrip (let light pierce higher level darkness magic, or prevent counter spell, ect...). JC did say "no" in a tweet once, so it might be a bit of a stretch but if you DM is happy for you to waste higher level spell slots on cantrips for lil/no benefit...
But then casting something you can twin as a bonus upcast to lvl 9, and then cantrip with a 9th lvl spell slot for your action will let you hit 24 theoretically. (but i think 22 is your max assuming you take the feat and are lvl 20).
I'd be inclined to agree with Crawford since Cantrips don't have upcasting notes in their description and instead have character level increases. But even still, I'm not following your math. Are you saying that you'd twin spell the 9th level spell and the upcast to 9th level cantrip? for a total of 18... where are the other 6 points from?
How many Sorcery points is the maximum you can use in a single turn (excluding reactions)
Based on my calculations I say 19
Bonus action- use 7 sorcery points to create a 5th level spell
Action- cast a 9th level twined spell for 9 sorcery points, that is both seeking for 2 sorer points and empowered for 1 sorcery points.
7+9+2+1= 19
Anyone have any ideas on getting to 20 or why my example is disallowed?
Getting to 20 is easy:
Follow your suggested procedure and attempt any skillcheck on the same turn (e.g. by long jumping) so you have an opportunity to fail the check and spend 1 point on Magical Guidance.
Because Empowered Spell is used at damage time, not at cast time, you can cast a spell that deals damage later, like Wall of Fire or Cloud of Daggers. Because you can then use Empowered Spell whenever the spell deals damage, you can burn 1 additional sorcery point economylessly whenever it would come up.
Both Empowered and Seeking don't happen at cast time, which means if your DM follows strict RAW, both are spammable on the same spell. For example, you can upcast Scorching Ray to level 9, which will give you 10 spell attacks, each of which can be Seeking and/or Empowered (and applying Seeking or Empowered to 1 of the rays doesn't apply it to any of the others). That's more expensive than twinning an L9 spell if they all miss, then Seeking makes them all hit, then you Empower all 10 damage rolls: that costs a whopping 30 sorcery points to do, and you can raise that to 31 with Distant or Transmuted spell.
I don't usually allow players to dictate skill checks during combat but I guess that is feasible. Your empowered spell dissection is very true and not something I'd considered but I was just hoping for answers for a single turn not an entire round which is why I excluded reactions. The reason I ask is, I am building a custom Wild Magic Surge table and one of the Surge effects I'd like to use is the opposite of the 99-100 roll on the Handbook Version where all your Sorcery points are replenished. I want to create a surge that makes all the sorcery points volatile and will explode if not used by the end of the next turn. So if a wizard gets to level 20, and for some reason doesn't want to "controlled Chaos" their way out ,I wanted a way they could theoretically use all 20 of their sorcery points and avoid the damage It'd impose. But I believe you did hit on the way it would work based on two targets of the twinned spell getting empowered/seeking which would add 3 more to my 19 for a grand total of 22... and that even covers if a person takes metamagic adept. cool.
How many Sorcery points is the maximum you can use in a single turn (excluding reactions)
Based on my calculations I say 19
Bonus action- use 7 sorcery points to create a 5th level spell
Action- cast a 9th level twined spell for 9 sorcery points, that is both seeking for 2 sorer points and empowered for 1 sorcery points.
7+9+2+1= 19
Anyone have any ideas on getting to 20 or why my example is disallowed?
There is some debate on if you can up-cast a cantrip (let light pierce higher level darkness magic, or prevent counter spell, ect...). JC did say "no" in a tweet once, so it might be a bit of a stretch but if you DM is happy for you to waste higher level spell slots on cantrips for lil/no benefit...
But then casting something you can twin as a bonus upcast to lvl 9, and then cantrip with a 9th lvl spell slot for your action will let you hit 24 theoretically. (but i think 22 is your max assuming you take the feat and are lvl 20).
Getting to 20 is easy:
I'd be inclined to agree with Crawford since Cantrips don't have upcasting notes in their description and instead have character level increases. But even still, I'm not following your math. Are you saying that you'd twin spell the 9th level spell and the upcast to 9th level cantrip? for a total of 18... where are the other 6 points from?
just using your example of +2 seek, and +1 to empower after the fact. Makes each twinned lvl 9 cost 12 sp.
but quindraco's answer is much better
I don't usually allow players to dictate skill checks during combat but I guess that is feasible. Your empowered spell dissection is very true and not something I'd considered but I was just hoping for answers for a single turn not an entire round which is why I excluded reactions. The reason I ask is, I am building a custom Wild Magic Surge table and one of the Surge effects I'd like to use is the opposite of the 99-100 roll on the Handbook Version where all your Sorcery points are replenished. I want to create a surge that makes all the sorcery points volatile and will explode if not used by the end of the next turn. So if a wizard gets to level 20, and for some reason doesn't want to "controlled Chaos" their way out ,I wanted a way they could theoretically use all 20 of their sorcery points and avoid the damage It'd impose. But I believe you did hit on the way it would work based on two targets of the twinned spell getting empowered/seeking which would add 3 more to my 19 for a grand total of 22... and that even covers if a person takes metamagic adept. cool.