N'raac's page

ARISE, O THREAD

Why does everyone assume SM would be a tactical genius? He has a 20 INT, sure. He has not applied it to military or tactical training. Nothing in his history suggests he ever, during his lifetime, engaged in anything resembling a fair fight. Quite the reverse, he never confronted his victims face to face.

He's arrogant, overconfident, sadistic, and has pretty much zero combat experience. Viewed from that perspective, dividing his missiles over the PCs to maximize their pain and suffering, rather than quickly and ruthlessly putting each one out of their misery, seems perfectly in character.

It's also part of why he is a 6 CR, rather than a 9 CR, encounter.

From the Wizard: "To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the wizard must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. "

Metamagic feats are noted as: "In all ways, a metamagic spell operates at its original spell level, even though it is prepared and cast using a higher-level spell slot. "

So I concur that there's a lot of overthinking going on. The 12 INT wizard can learn, prepare or cast a spell of up to L2. A Metamagic'd L2 spell is still a second level spell.

As to why the player wants to play such a character, there are still some players who want to play a character for reasons other than maximizing the power of the character. It seems like a low INT wizard would create a different dynamic, and could be a fun character to play. Metamagic providing a use for those higher level slots seems like it will add to that character's viability.