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Would that work? Instead of a +1 level metamagic, you have to make a, say, DC 20 Spellcraft check to modify your spell. Maybe DC 25 for +2 level and DC 30 for +3 level?
I don't play caster that often and am just starting to play with metamagic, but I'd like to find a better way of involving Spellcraft, especially in the actual casting of spells.
I'm not crazy about the idea, mostly because it's so easy to get large bonuses to skill checks. So you have to either create insanely high DCs to challenge optimal characters (cf. the 3.5 truenamer class) or you end up with optimal characters always getting free metamagic.
I would love that. I have made a lv 12 who could use the codex of infinite planes without trouble so he would be able to crush any spell-craft DC's you made.
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I did something like this once, but only for one specific Feat: Spell Thematics.
Benefit: Due to the unusual appearance of your spells, the DC of any Spellcraft check made to identify a spell you have cast increases by +4. In addition, you may designate one spell you know per spell level as a thematic spell and cast it at +1 caster level. As you gain access to new spell levels, you can designate new thematic spells; you don't need to select this feat again to acquire new thematic spells. Nearly any theme is possible, so long as you can describe a visual link for unification. For example, your theme might be "lightning," " spheres," or "screaming skulls." If you choose spheres as your theme, your magic missiles might take the form of glowing spheres of light, and your summoned monsters might emerge from mysterious rainbow-colored globes. If your theme is "lightning," your haste spell might manifest as a bright green spark that leaps from ally to ally. You can't use this feat to make your spell manifestations invisible, nor do your spell thematics change the type of damage a spell deals, regardless of its appearance.
This was in Magic of Faerun and I liked the sound of it, but I knew nobody would ever spend a feat on it so I got rid of the +1 caster level bonus thing and let players make a Spellcraft check to apply a theme to their spells. I think I set the DC around 20+Spell Level so disguising Magic Missiles as flying pink kittens for instance was a DC 21 Spellcraft check.
Short of that, I'd never swap out the metamagic feats for a Spellcraft check. I'm just not interested in that sort of arms race with my players.
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All fair points. I just NEVER see anyone use metamagic, except in the form of rods, not in the 3 Pathfinder home campaigns I've played/GM'ed, or ever in PFS. Nor have I seen much use of Spellcraft beyond identifying spells, but even then, it's just for curiosity sake - no one EVER counterspells.
BTW- I wasn't suggesting that they no longer require feats to learn, just that they possibly use Spellcraft to cast rather than a higher spell slot. (Note: I guess that would mean they'd all need to spontaneously addable as well. Hmmm. Maybe just that... they still take up a higher spell slot, but you don't have to memorize them in advance; instead, make a Spellcraft check at the time of casting to be able to metamagic-ize an existing spell. You'd have to loose a higher slotted spell, but Druids and Clerics have that choice all the time as is. Anyway, just more thinking out loud...)
@fictionfan, if you come back to this thread, just curious, how high IS your 12th level's Spellcraft?
Technically Spellcraft is supposed to be used for detect magic which gives it a lot of mileage.
People use the rods because they don't raise the spell level and that let's them meta their most powerful spells. If you use a skill check to meta, the same thing will happen but it will be much, much harder to control. My wizard would break your game if this were the case due to his build.
Not sure about fictionfan, but mine would be +31 (12 ranks, +3 class skill, +8 Int mod, +2 circumstance for masterwork tool, +1 luck for stone of luck, +4 morale from greater heroism, +1 competence from ioun stone) at 12th lvl (or +37 with Skill Focus since I don't need feats for metamagics anymore).
All fair points. I just NEVER see anyone use metamagic, except in the form of rods, not in the 3 Pathfinder home campaigns I've played/GM'ed, or ever in PFS.
I think that's at least partly because of the feat cost(s); each metamagic feat is only going to benefit some small subset of your spells, so it's hard to justify spending a feat that way. Having said that, I've seen sorcerers use Empower Spell, and I have a cleric who's always casting Extended Command (but only because she has the Magical Lineage trait to reduce it to +0 level adjustment in that case).
One of the things that's nice about the Words of Power system is that metamagic-style effects are cheap; "meta words" are effectively treated as low-level spells known rather than feats, and most of them don't raise the spell slot needed (although they're only usable a few times per day).