Casters are not overpowered and don't take advantage of the action economy. Permanently quickening a solution?

[GM Stargin]

So I was thinking about this and I figured it would be good to run it past more experienced folks here.

For spells other than the ones that already play well with the action economy like Magic missile and heal why not reduce the action to cast by 1? (min 1). Add MAP to subsequent offensive spell casts to balance multiple spells in a round and... It should be fine? Definitely a power bump but since the spells themselves are tuned down as well I think it works? Allows more dynamic caster turns as well. Move spell move anyone?

[Darksol the Painbringer]

You'd also have to add MAP to spells with Saving Throws as well; I have always considered making MAP become "Multiple Activity Penalty," which also reduces Save DCs, Subsequent Skill DCs, and Movement Speed by 5 per identical action spent.

But really, this is why spellcasters having Haste is nice, since it allows precisely what you describe 90% of the time.

[GM Stargin]

Haste is a limited resource, and the Quickened Metamagic feat is far less powerful than what I described. I'm just wondering if there's any major downside that I'm not seeing from just reducing spell action cast across the board.

And yeah I was thinking of reducing save dcs etc by 5 for the second spell cast and 10 for third as apporpriate.

Maybe 4, or 8 honestly as spells don't get the bonuses that mundane attacks do.

[Samurai]

GM Stargin, this question has been asked quite a bit around here. Some feel everything is fine as is, others (like me) feel as you do, that they don't take advantage of the 3-action economy.

The favorite solution has been to allow spells that RAW take 2 or 3 actions can be cast with -1 action by taking the Flourish trait. This means they can cast only 1 such Flourish spell in a round, but they will still have 2 or 3 actions to move, sustain a spell, cast a 1 action spell RAW, etc.

[thansel]

GM Stargin wrote:

So I was thinking about this and I figured it would be good to run it past more experienced folks here.

For spells other than the ones that already play well with the action economy like Magic missile and heal why not reduce the action to cast by 1? (min 1). Add MAP to subsequent offensive spell casts to balance multiple spells in a round and... It should be fine? Definitely a power bump but since the spells themselves are tuned down as well I think it works? Allows more dynamic caster turns as well. Move spell move anyone?

What I did was add a few feats that allow “spell then step”, “touch spell plus strike”, or “touch spell plus grapple”

I also added a second tier to some of the meta magic to make it useful. Basically a feat that augments reach spell that adds the +2 to attack at 6th (same as fighter/archer +2). I am still working on the others.

I was also thinking of a focus spell that gives quickened, but only allows use of the extra action for striding, stepping, and a curated list of self only spells.