ok, I was thinking how I could alter how meta magic works to make it more interesting and not in general a waste of feats, but also don't want to make it overpowered. I was planning to keep the feat as it is, so you can still prepare and cast them in the normal fashion, just wanted to add something to make it more useful.
I was thinking to give a caster a meta pool the character can use these points to apply metamagic to spells she has prepared or knows for a spontaneous caster.
- meta pool, has points equal to metamagic feats * 3
- these points can be used when casting a spell to apply known metamagic to your spells, without increasing casting time or spell level
- It drains points equal to the level increase of the metamagic
- the modified level can not be higher than the highest level spell you can cast
- meta points are recovered much like spells are when preparing spells for the day
* so for exmaple a 10th level invoker has, quicken spell, intensify spell and empower spell giving him a total of 9 meta points.
Throughout the day he uses these in the following ways :
- empowered lightning bolt (2 points)
- intensified, empowered shocking grasp (3 points)
- quickened shield spell (4 points)
Part of the reason to change metamagic is because it is impractical to use and see little use by efficient players, I find the metamagic rods somewhat overpowered, so I'd change the prices on those and allow them to be used 3 times per day, but limited to the maximum modified level you can cast.
prices would be something like this, though I have not given any of this much thought yet :
silent spell rod 3,000 gold
empower spell rod 12,000 gold
maximize spell rod 27,000 gold
quicken spell rod 48,000 gold
basic formulae X^2 * 3 * 1,000, where X is the level increase and 3 is the number of uses per day. The rod would not be limited to specific level though capped by the maximum spell level you are able to cast.
Let me know what you think