I’ve always had a great love for metamagic. I’d love to see an archetype that uses them masterfully! Unfortunately, it seems to fall on one of two extremes: metamagic is mostly useless (often how it is in Pathfinder) or it is completely broken. (See Incantatrix, Arcane Thesis, and other fun stuff from 3.5)
I’d like to develop an archetype that truly utilizes every metamagic feat it gets, by inspiring you to prepare spells with metamagic and allowing you to spontaneously add metamagic if needed.
(Not too creative, so for now, why not? Hopefully it's not as broken as its namesake)
School of Metamagic
An Incantatrix has 4 oppositions schools and does not gain a bonus spell slot at each level.
This replaces arcane school.
Arcane Pool
At 1st level, an Incantatrix has an amount of a number of points in her arcane pool equal to her Incantatrix level + her Int modifier.
When an incantatrix prepares her spells, she may spend points to more easily add metamagic to her spells.
Reducing metamagic adjustment vs cost
1 level: 1 point
2 levels: 3 points
3 levels: 5 points
4 levels: 7 points
You also must pay an additional point to get an adjustment from level 1 to level 0.
4 – 0 points
3 – 1 point
2 – 3 points
1 – 5 points
0 – (7 + 1) or 8 points
So to prepare a quickened magic missle cast as a 4th level spell would cost 1 point, as a 3rd level spell would cost 3 points, etc.
Empower – Level adjustment vs cost
2 – 0 points
1 – 1 point
0 – (3 + 1) or 4 points
Empowered Fireball as a 4th level spell would be 1 point, etc.
Extend - Level adjustment vs cost
1 – 0 points
0 – (1 + 1) or 2 points
Extended Rope Trick as a 2nd level spell would be 2 points.
Spontaneous Metamagic With Arcane Pool
You may spontaneously add metamagic at a 50% increase in points. (You must spend enough points so you can cast the spell from the slot that it is in.) If you wanted to spontaneously add maximize to a fireball you were casting, it would cost 9 points. Extending rope trick spontaneously would cost 3 points. Quickening a spell would cost 12 points.
You may also sacrifice spells to add temporary points to your arcane pool equal to the slot the spell occupied. In addition, if points were spent on that spell, you gain those points back. (These are normal points) You may use this ability as a free action. Temporary points last for 1 minute. Temporary points may only be spent to spontaneously add metamagic to your spells. The amount of temporary points you can generate in a day is capped at your arcane pool’s normal capacity, regardless of how many spells you sacrifice.
This ability replaces Arcane Bond.
Metamagic Bonus feats:
At 2nd level and every 2 levels thereafter, an Incantatrix may choose a metamagic feat as a bonus feat. (You must still meet the prerequisites)
Metamagic Mastery
At 5th level, an Incantatrix can choose any metamagic he knows: permanently reduce its level adjustment by 1. You can only apply this to a metamagic once, and you cannot reduce the level adjustment below 1. You can choose new metamagic feats to apply this ability to at 10th, 15th and 20th level. (You cannot choose Heighten Spell or Reach Spell with this ability, nor any 0 or 1 level adjustment metamagics)
This replaces wizard bonus feats.
Metamagic Supremacy
At 20th level, an Incantatrix is able to spend he points much more efficiently.
Reducing metamagic adjustment vs cost
1 level: 0 point
2 levels: 2 points
3 levels: 4 points
4 levels: 6 points
You no longer have to pay an additional point to get an adjustment from level 1 to level 0.
...so...
Balanced? Broken? If broken, can a minor tweak fix it? How would you like to see a metamagic archetype done?
Hmm... I think you're on to something. I agree that there should some sort of metamagic focused archetype, and this might work out, but there are a couple things I'm not sure about.
First of all, you'll either need to change the name of Arcane Pool or specify how it works in conjunction with the magus ability of the same name: Do they stack? Are they independent pools? etc.
There's only so much you can do with metamagic feats and significantly less if you're a buffer. Non-damage focused mages are going to cap out on the useful metamagic feats they can get very quickly (for buffers that's about 5 or 6 feats, and Silent Spell and Still Spell are really situational). This class choice is going to heavily favor blasters. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something to keep in mind.
Can you quicken 6th through 9th level spells with this? If so, can you really justify allowing anyone to cast two wish spells in one turn?
I'm not sure about having four opposition schools. Is that just for universalists? If you are a specialist do you pick two more? It seems like you're taking away the biggest advantage that wizards have over sorcerers (versatility).
I like where you're going with this though, there is certainly a niche that needs to be filled.
How about designing an alternate specialty school of magic that wizards can take instead of a whole new archetype?
Maybe something like this:
Metamagic Arcane School
Some wizards prefer to focus on perfecting the arcane art of metamagic.
The additional spell slot per spell level from specializing can only be used to prepare a spell effected by a metamagic feat.
Metamagic Focus (Su): Whenever you apply a metamagic feat to a spell that increases the slot used by at least one level, increase the spell's DC by +1. This bonus does not stack with itself and does not apply to spells modified by the Heighten Spell feat. At 20th level, you may reduce the level increase of all metamagic feats you apply by one, to a minimum increase of one. This effect does not stack with metamagic mastery.
Metamagic Intensity (Su): Whenever you apply a metamagic feat to a spell that deals hit point damage, add 1/2 your wizard level to the damage (minimum +1). This bonus only applies once to a spell, not once per missile or ray, and cannot be split between multiple missiles or rays. This bonus damage is not increased by Empower Spell or similar effects. This damage is of the same type as the spell.
Whenever you apply a metamagic feat to a spell that has a duration greater than instantaneous, increase the duration by a number of rounds equal to 1/2 your wizard level.
You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
Metamagic Mastery (Su): At 8th level, you can apply any one metamagic feat that you know to a spell you are about to cast. This does not alter the level of the spell or the casting time. You can use this ability once per day at 8th level and one additional time per day for every two wizard levels you possess beyond 8th. Any time you use this ability to apply a metamagic feat that increases the spell level by more than 1, you must use an additional daily usage for each level above 1 that the feat adds to the spell. Even though this ability does not modify the spell's actual level, you cannot use this ability to cast a spell whose modified spell level would be above the level of the highest-level spell that you are capable of casting.
Well, you pointed me here yourself, so you know I had a very similar idea.
I must say, I had to carefully read your post three times just to understand your point-system, especially because you mix spell levels and metamagic adjustment levels by calling them both only "levels".
(I wonder if I was the only one confused.)
But what you are basically saying is:
"You can reduce the required spell level increase of metamagic feats by using a number of points from your pool. Reducing the MM-adjustment by one level costs 1 point, by two levels 3 points..."
So reducing a quicken (with a MM-adjustment of 4 spell levels) or an empower (MM-adj. of 2 spell levels) by 1 (to 3 respectively 1 spell level) costs 1 pool point each.
A still or silent spell can be cast without increase of the spell level by spending 1 pool point, too.
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This also means, that a wizard could pack up armor and cast all his spells still with only 1 pool point cost each.
Now me, I never had a problem with wizards and armor. At least, not because it was "hindering their somatic components" but simply because the weight was hindering their concentration. So...
Well, you pointed me here yourself, so you know I had a very similar idea.
I must say, I had to carefully read your post three times just to understand your point-system, especially because you mix spell levels and metamagic adjustment levels by calling them both only "levels".
(I wonder if I was the only one confused.)But what you are basically saying is:
"You can reduce the required spell level increase of metamagic feats by using a number of points from your pool. Reducing the MM-adjustment by one level costs 1 point, by two levels 3 points..."
So reducing a quicken (with a MM-adjustment of 4 spell levels) or an empower (MM-adj. of 2 spell levels) by 1 (to 3 respectively 1 spell level) costs 1 pool point each.
A still or silent spell can be cast without increase of the spell level by spending 1 pool point, too.
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This also means, that a wizard could pack up armor and cast all his spells still with only 1 pool point cost each.
Now me, I never had a problem with wizards and armor. At least, not because it was "hindering their somatic components" but simply because the weight was hindering their concentration. So...
Yeah, it's not written in the most intuitive way, I'm sure. >_>
But in actuality, adding still to a spell costs 2 points (1 point for 1 level adjustment, plus the 1 point "penalty" of making a metamagic adjustment reduced to 0. Double check my examples, hopefully it'll make sense...?)
This 1 point penalty is tacked on for several reasons. A serious balance issue a occurs when it's trivial to add metamagic with no level adjustment. So adding on still costs 2 points, empower 4 points, widen 6 points, and quicken 8 points.
A nice thing about even point costs, is that reducing a level adjustment to 0 results in even numbers; spontanteous metamagic requires 0 level adjustment and adds 50% to the point cost, so this is cleaner. Spontaneous adjustment is still 3 points, empower 6 points, widen 9 points, and quicken 12 points.
...more later? I've got to go. xD
Alright, let’s say I’m a 7th level Incantatrix with 20 Int.
So… I have 12 points I can spend each day. (Level + Int mod)
So spell slots per day: (Remember; no school spell slots for this archetype)
6 (4+2) 1st level spells
4 (3+1) 2nd level spells
3 (2+1) 3rd level spells
2 (1+1) 4th level spells
I prepare most of these slots as normal, but some of them I wish to spend points on:
1 Empowered Magic Missile as a 1st level spell
(4 points; 2 metamagic level reduction, level adjustment reduced to 0)
1 Extended Mage Armor as a 1st level spell
(2 points; 1 metamagic level, reduced to 0)
1 Extended Rope Trick as a 2nd level spell
(2 points; 1 metamagic level reduction, reduced to 0)
1 Widened Stone Call as 3rd level spell
(3 points; 2 metamagic level reduction, not reduced to 0)
1 Empowered Fireball as 4th level spell
(1 point; 1 metamagic level reduction, not reduced to 0)
…for a total of 12 points spent during spell preparation.
Now, at any time I can sacrifice spells to generate temporary arcane pool points, as well as refund points invested. I can generate up to 12 temporary points in a day. Let’s say I want to spontaneously quicken a fireball I already have prepared. In order to do that, I’d need 12 points.
This could be accomplished by sacrificing Widened Stone Call (3 temporary points for the spell being in a 3rd level slot, and 3 regular points for the points already invested in the spell) Empowered Magic Missile (1 temporary point and 4 regular points) and a 1st level spell (1 temporary point).
This action only generated 5 temporary points, so you could still generate 7 more temporary points that day before you reach the temporary point cap.
...really hoping this is helpful and not even more confusing. More later?
I infer then that pool points not used in preparation become pseudo temporary points. Since those points freely become temporary points for spontaneous metamagic.
Let me ask a loaded question that your example almost hints at:
1 Empowered Fireball as 4th level spell
…during spell preparation.Let’s say I want to spontaneously quicken a fireball I already have prepared. In order to do that, I’d need 12 points.
Let's say that the Fireball that you want to spontaneously quicken is the same Fireball that you had previously prepared as empowered? Any problem with that?
Is metamagic stacking a problem?Let's say I wanted to prepare Magic Missle in a level 1 spell slot with the following metamagic feats? Toppling (+1), Intensified (+1), and Quickened (+4).
The table doesn't go to 6 levels of metamagic reduction, so does that mean it can't be done? Extrapolate the table and it costs 12 (11+1)
Or
calculate each individually. Topple +2, Intensify +2, Quicken +8 for a total of 12?
Hey! What do you know! same result!
Nice touch with the even numbers for spontaneous use.
By saying that the Arcane pool replaces the Arcane Pool Class ability one gives up the low-level damage ability and all the other boons that come from one's school (often 8th and 12th level). Except for the capstone ability that you included. The mid-level bonus also.
Just noticed a feat every other level. Probably too fast. Consider 1st, 2nd, and every 4 levels thereafter. Maybe with that reduction you could 'justify' dropping to only 3 opposed schools.