I figured since now that "Tasha's Cauldron" is out; it's be nice to discuss one of their new feats, "Metamagic Adept":
Prerequisite: Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature
You’ve learned how to exert your will on your spells to alter how they function:
You learn two Metamagic options of your choice from the sorcerer class. You can use only one Metamagic option on a spell when you cast it, unless the option says otherwise. Whenever you reach a level that grants the Ability Score Improvement feature, you can replace one of these Metamagic options with another one from the sorcerer class.
You gain 2 sorcery points to spend on Metamagic (these points are added to any sorcery points you have from another source but can be used only on Metamagic). You regain all spent sorcery points when you finish a long rest.
...this means you, as a Wizard, get access to:
Careful Spell
When you cast a spell that forces other creatures to make a saving throw, you can protect some of those creatures from the spell’s full force. To do so, you spend 1 sorcery point and choose a number of those creatures up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one creature). A chosen creature automatically succeeds on its saving throw against the spell.
Distant Spell
When you cast a spell that has a range of 5 feet or greater, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double the range of the spell.
When you cast a spell that has a range of touch, you can spend 1 sorcery point to make the range of the spell 30 feet.
Empowered Spell
When you roll damage for a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll a number of the damage dice up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one). You must use the new rolls.
You can use Empowered Spell even if you have already used a different Metamagic option during the casting of the spell.
Extended Spell
When you cast a spell that has a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double its duration, to a maximum duration of 24 hours.
Quickened Spell
When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting.
Subtle Spell
When you cast a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to cast it without any somatic or verbal components.
Twinned Spell
When you cast a spell that targets only one creature and doesn’t have a range of self, you can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level to target a second creature in range with the same spell (1 sorcery point if the spell is a cantrip).
To be eligible, a spell must be incapable of targeting more than one creature at the spell’s current level. For example, magic missile and scorching ray aren’t eligible, but ray of frost and chromatic orb are.
...now, there are limitations: with only 2 Sorcery Points per long rest for a Wizard; you will only be using these Metamagics sparingly: once twice to instill a minor effect, like "Careful" or "Distant"...or a "big" effect, like "Quicken: or "Twinned" (if the spell level is low enough).
That, and certain effects are limited by your Charisma modifier.
Having said all that...this is still a great feat for Wizards.
Evocation Wizards already get their own type of "Careful" Metamagic in their subclass feature, "Sculpt Spells"...so giving them some added flexibility would compound their effectiveness..."Empowered" to really double-down on their damage...or "Subtle" to make sure they can still use their "big" spell in certain situations...even "Quicken" serves a purpose.
I also think Illusion Wizards would LOVE the "Subtle" Metamagic...not only do they get adaptive control of their illusions; with the "Subtle" Metamagic, they can do so without alerting anyone they're manipulation the illusion.
What are some Metamagic combinations you all feel goes well with Wizards?
Subtle spell is always good against other spellcasters - avoiding counterspells is excellent. It has lots of benefits for social interaction based spellcasting - you are trying to charm the mayor, but you don't want his lackeys to notice.
Heightened spell is great for enchanters, whose spells often target one person and rely on a failed saving throw.
Twinned spell isn't so great for enchanters, but it is very useful for other people who want to up the amount of enemies they hit. Most of th more powerful spells aren't eligible for this though, so I wouldn't bother.
Distant is really fun if you have spells that originat from you. Especially radius ones - like cirle of death - because the benefits are exponential. Trouble is, you're probably not going to be fighting that many creatures to merit a 120ft radius sphere of death.
Quickened spell is okay for anyone, but more tempting for bladesingers because it means their swords can be used at the same time.
Empowered spell is eh. It's an OK way to make sure you don't just get a really unlucky roll.
Careful spell is useful for non-evokers who don't want to accidentally fireball their friends. But if you're going with this kind of spell-lobbing, then you probably went for evocation anyway.
Any one Metamagic option is handy to have in the right encounter, but if you find yourself needing any of them regularly, you're probably better off finding a more reliable solution (Magic item, tactics, expand the party, etc...), at which point, the metamagic feat becomes redundant. Subtle spell is probably worth having just in case you face a Caster BBEG who will use Counterspell, but otherwise I've never felt justified in taking it compared to the other available options.
The ASI alternative gives +1 to Spell Attack/Save DC/Knowledge/Investigation/etc and feeds into class abilities.
Feat: Spell Sniper
Feat: War Caster
If Metamagic Adept let player recharge their sorcery points even once by converting a spell, it would be much more appealing. That would make it more versatile for non-sorcerers without making it more potent for sorcerers.
I also vote for subtle spell to avoid counters. It can be great for other shenanigans as well, such as subtle suggestion at a dinner party to make someone spill their soup or drink.
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Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
Careful Spell combined with Hypnotic Pattern would be incredibly useful for my Wizard. My party always ends up in chaotic melee where area of effect spells are less useful than they could be.
Lol, it's usually a good call to avoid multiclassing in general.
If you really want metamagic, then it might be easier to go pure sorcerer and find ways of expanding your Spell access, such as through magic staves or a Ring of Spell Storing.
I have considered this. My main beef with it is 2SP per long rest does not stack well with other feats. Something like Fey touched will give me 2 entire spells per long rest plus an extra point of intelligence.
Still I have thought about it for a bladesinger. Being able to bonus action cast while also attacking in melee would be a huge boost. Instead of throwing up PGE, blur or haste as an action on round 1 throw it as a BA and get it in a full attack sequence.
The only problem is it is one round of one fight you can do this on all day.
I'm a big fan of using extended spell for 8-hour spells such as mage armor, tiny servant, gift of alacrity, etc. Cast one of them before a long rest to have them persist afterward while you regain the spell slot and sorcery point you used to cast it. If your DM allows rest-tricking then this isn't as necessary, but it's still useful to make the spell persist a lot longer when you combine it with that.
Playing a somewhat demon summon themed wizard, will pick up extended spell to use on planar binding, especially later on with higher spell slots this is gonna bind me servants allmost forever
Extended spell can only increase the duration to a maximum of 24 hours. Planar binding already has a 24 hour duration, so it can't be extended. Just upcast it as high as you can.
too bad i guess, still helps keeping the magic circle around long enough without having to use something like glyph of warding... could have sworn it had no limit
The only class I've actually taken Metamagic Adept on so far was… a Sorcerer.
This is mostly because, as others say, only getting two points per long rest makes this a potentially very underwhelming feat for other casters. But for a Sorcerer who already has sorcery points equal to their class level, two extra is handy but it's having two extra metamagics that is why I took it, as I just couldn't get all the options I really wanted otherwise.
Now thanks to the feat I have Quickened Spell (always handy), Twinned Spell (great way to maximise a single target spell), Seeking Spell (for when I inevitably miss if I only attack a single target), Distant Spell (which has come up a few times in the campaign thanks to vampire enemies flying in from a distance), and Heightened Spell (so NPCs stop passing their damned saves against Geas). I also want Empowered Spell but I'll have to wait till my next Sorcerer pick for that, or swap out something I don't use much (I haven't actually used twinning a lot since getting higher level attack spells, since they cost more to twin).
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
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Metamagic Adept is a pretty underwhelming feat, all things considered. You get to quicken a spell once a whole day? Neat. Or.. yes, "Or", subtle spell 2 whole spells in a whole day? Cool. Hard pass.
That really sucks too because metamagic is super fun, in theory. Thematically it is cool to be able to tinker with spell effects and change them up a bit on the fly.
Sure, multiclass into sorcerer, and pick up a sorcerer-specific magic item.
Class-specific abilities help to differentiate playstyles. Making it too easy to blur those lines defeats the point of classes.
I'd agree with this sentiment if the origin of metamagic wasn't class-agnostic. In 3rd edition, where metamagic comes from, it didn't matter what class you were you could learn metamagic.
Ironically, it ended up being better for prepared spellcasters than for spontaneous spellcasters like sorcerer. Because if you could prepare a spell in advance you could prepare the metamagic'd version of it, so when it came to casting it it just went off as normal. but spontaneous casters, like the sorc, had to increase the casting time to be able to add metamagic effects. So, in practice, sorcerers were some of the worst metamagic users out there. There was even a wizard-like prestige class that forcused entirely around metamagic called the Incantatrix, and so if anyone was the defacto master of metamagic it was them.
The choice to steal metamagic from all the other classes, and then give it specifically to only sorcerers who until 5e released historically sucked at it, was and is a weird choice. it never belonged to them to begin with, and it shouldn't belong to them now.
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
If I get metamagic adept and multiclass into sorcerer do I get 4 metamagic options or just 2
If you take two three levels in Sorcerer (to get Metamagic) then with Metamagic Adept as well you'll have four metamagic options and four five sorcery points.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I figured since now that "Tasha's Cauldron" is out; it's be nice to discuss one of their new feats, "Metamagic Adept":
Prerequisite: Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature
You’ve learned how to exert your will on your spells to alter how they function:
...this means you, as a Wizard, get access to:
Careful Spell
When you cast a spell that forces other creatures to make a saving throw, you can protect some of those creatures from the spell’s full force. To do so, you spend 1 sorcery point and choose a number of those creatures up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one creature). A chosen creature automatically succeeds on its saving throw against the spell.
Distant Spell
When you cast a spell that has a range of 5 feet or greater, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double the range of the spell.
When you cast a spell that has a range of touch, you can spend 1 sorcery point to make the range of the spell 30 feet.
Empowered Spell
When you roll damage for a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to reroll a number of the damage dice up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one). You must use the new rolls.
You can use Empowered Spell even if you have already used a different Metamagic option during the casting of the spell.
Extended Spell
When you cast a spell that has a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double its duration, to a maximum duration of 24 hours.
Quickened Spell
When you cast a spell that has a casting time of 1 action, you can spend 2 sorcery points to change the casting time to 1 bonus action for this casting.
Subtle Spell
When you cast a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to cast it without any somatic or verbal components.
Twinned Spell
When you cast a spell that targets only one creature and doesn’t have a range of self, you can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell’s level to target a second creature in range with the same spell (1 sorcery point if the spell is a cantrip).
To be eligible, a spell must be incapable of targeting more than one creature at the spell’s current level. For example, magic missile and scorching ray aren’t eligible, but ray of frost and chromatic orb are.
...now, there are limitations: with only 2 Sorcery Points per long rest for a Wizard; you will only be using these Metamagics sparingly: once twice to instill a minor effect, like "Careful" or "Distant"...or a "big" effect, like "Quicken: or "Twinned" (if the spell level is low enough).
That, and certain effects are limited by your Charisma modifier.
Having said all that...this is still a great feat for Wizards.
Evocation Wizards already get their own type of "Careful" Metamagic in their subclass feature, "Sculpt Spells"...so giving them some added flexibility would compound their effectiveness..."Empowered" to really double-down on their damage...or "Subtle" to make sure they can still use their "big" spell in certain situations...even "Quicken" serves a purpose.
I also think Illusion Wizards would LOVE the "Subtle" Metamagic...not only do they get adaptive control of their illusions; with the "Subtle" Metamagic, they can do so without alerting anyone they're manipulation the illusion.
What are some Metamagic combinations you all feel goes well with Wizards?
Subtle spell is always good against other spellcasters - avoiding counterspells is excellent. It has lots of benefits for social interaction based spellcasting - you are trying to charm the mayor, but you don't want his lackeys to notice.
Heightened spell is great for enchanters, whose spells often target one person and rely on a failed saving throw.
Twinned spell isn't so great for enchanters, but it is very useful for other people who want to up the amount of enemies they hit. Most of th more powerful spells aren't eligible for this though, so I wouldn't bother.
Distant is really fun if you have spells that originat from you. Especially radius ones - like cirle of death - because the benefits are exponential. Trouble is, you're probably not going to be fighting that many creatures to merit a 120ft radius sphere of death.
Quickened spell is okay for anyone, but more tempting for bladesingers because it means their swords can be used at the same time.
Empowered spell is eh. It's an OK way to make sure you don't just get a really unlucky roll.
Careful spell is useful for non-evokers who don't want to accidentally fireball their friends. But if you're going with this kind of spell-lobbing, then you probably went for evocation anyway.
Chilling kinda vibe.
Any one Metamagic option is handy to have in the right encounter, but if you find yourself needing any of them regularly, you're probably better off finding a more reliable solution (Magic item, tactics, expand the party, etc...), at which point, the metamagic feat becomes redundant. Subtle spell is probably worth having just in case you face a Caster BBEG who will use Counterspell, but otherwise I've never felt justified in taking it compared to the other available options.
If Metamagic Adept let player recharge their sorcery points even once by converting a spell, it would be much more appealing. That would make it more versatile for non-sorcerers without making it more potent for sorcerers.
I also vote for subtle spell to avoid counters. It can be great for other shenanigans as well, such as subtle suggestion at a dinner party to make someone spill their soup or drink.
Anything is edible if you try hard enough!
I am a swimmer. If you see me running, you should run too, because it means something horrible is chasing me.
Careful Spell combined with Hypnotic Pattern would be incredibly useful for my Wizard. My party always ends up in chaotic melee where area of effect spells are less useful than they could be.
Professional computer geek
but I feel like my wizard needs more sorcery points than that! any non-homebrew way to do that?
Sure, multiclass into sorcerer, and pick up a sorcerer-specific magic item.
Class-specific abilities help to differentiate playstyles. Making it too easy to blur those lines defeats the point of classes.
true, but multiclass spellcasters freak me out.
Lol, it's usually a good call to avoid multiclassing in general.
If you really want metamagic, then it might be easier to go pure sorcerer and find ways of expanding your Spell access, such as through magic staves or a Ring of Spell Storing.
Yeah, good point! Thanks.
I have considered this. My main beef with it is 2SP per long rest does not stack well with other feats. Something like Fey touched will give me 2 entire spells per long rest plus an extra point of intelligence.
Still I have thought about it for a bladesinger. Being able to bonus action cast while also attacking in melee would be a huge boost. Instead of throwing up PGE, blur or haste as an action on round 1 throw it as a BA and get it in a full attack sequence.
The only problem is it is one round of one fight you can do this on all day.
I'm a big fan of using extended spell for 8-hour spells such as mage armor, tiny servant, gift of alacrity, etc. Cast one of them before a long rest to have them persist afterward while you regain the spell slot and sorcery point you used to cast it. If your DM allows rest-tricking then this isn't as necessary, but it's still useful to make the spell persist a lot longer when you combine it with that.
Playing a somewhat demon summon themed wizard, will pick up extended spell to use on planar binding, especially later on with higher spell slots this is gonna bind me servants allmost forever
Extended spell can only increase the duration to a maximum of 24 hours. Planar binding already has a 24 hour duration, so it can't be extended. Just upcast it as high as you can.
too bad i guess, still helps keeping the magic circle around long enough without having to use something like glyph of warding... could have sworn it had no limit
The only class I've actually taken Metamagic Adept on so far was… a Sorcerer.
This is mostly because, as others say, only getting two points per long rest makes this a potentially very underwhelming feat for other casters. But for a Sorcerer who already has sorcery points equal to their class level, two extra is handy but it's having two extra metamagics that is why I took it, as I just couldn't get all the options I really wanted otherwise.
Now thanks to the feat I have Quickened Spell (always handy), Twinned Spell (great way to maximise a single target spell), Seeking Spell (for when I inevitably miss if I only attack a single target), Distant Spell (which has come up a few times in the campaign thanks to vampire enemies flying in from a distance), and Heightened Spell (so NPCs stop passing their damned saves against Geas). I also want Empowered Spell but I'll have to wait till my next Sorcerer pick for that, or swap out something I don't use much (I haven't actually used twinning a lot since getting higher level attack spells, since they cost more to twin).
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I'd agree with this sentiment if the origin of metamagic wasn't class-agnostic. In 3rd edition, where metamagic comes from, it didn't matter what class you were you could learn metamagic.
Ironically, it ended up being better for prepared spellcasters than for spontaneous spellcasters like sorcerer. Because if you could prepare a spell in advance you could prepare the metamagic'd version of it, so when it came to casting it it just went off as normal. but spontaneous casters, like the sorc, had to increase the casting time to be able to add metamagic effects. So, in practice, sorcerers were some of the worst metamagic users out there. There was even a wizard-like prestige class that forcused entirely around metamagic called the Incantatrix, and so if anyone was the defacto master of metamagic it was them.
The choice to steal metamagic from all the other classes, and then give it specifically to only sorcerers who until 5e released historically sucked at it, was and is a weird choice. it never belonged to them to begin with, and it shouldn't belong to them now.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
If I get metamagic adept and multiclass into sorcerer do I get 4 metamagic options or just 2
If you take
twothree levels in Sorcerer (to get Metamagic) then with Metamagic Adept as well you'll have four metamagic options andfourfive sorcery points.Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Sorcerers do not get metamagic until level 3.
If you take 2 levels in sorcerer you will get 2 more sorcery points from font of magic, but still only have 2 metamagic options.
If you take 3 levels in sorcerer you will have 4 metamagic options.