Nyarlathotep made a comment in another thread that many people don't like or use meta magic because they don't see it's use. I am definitely one of those. So if you do use it; what for and why? I've seen a couple of posts on extended haste, but not really much else and I am interested to learn more. I've never been able to bare the thought of giving away a high level spell slot to a lower level spell!
Hmmm the max damage of a fireball is 10d6, but with a meta magic feat you can insure that all 10 die are sixes. Cone of Cold is a fifth level spell, but with a meta magic feat it can become and function as strong as a seventh level spell. Grease is a level one spell that is very effective for crowd control, but how effective would it be if it lasted longer than one round per caster level? A meta magic feat can make it last considerably longer. When fighting a higher level foe sometimes, no matter how good your caster is, she just can't seem to beat their saving throws ... but spell penetration might make the difference. IMHO, (OK not all that humble) meta magic feats can be a very useful tool.
The metamagic feats are very useful, but if you have more than one spell casting class. It only works right for the left most tab. Any second or third spell casting class (sor./wiz. or cleric/wiz. ect.) will have the feat placed on the wrong spell.
I don't always pick metamagic feats but when I do the ones I choose are usually these: Abjuration spells deal with protection and the Extend Spell metamagic feat certainly makes them more effective. Maximize Spell can help both healing and damage spells as can Empower Spell while Heighten Spell actually increases the level of a spell- great for those still effective low level spells that you might want to use to get past lesser spheres of protection or spell resistance. And of course, if you really want to get your spells out there quickly nothing is better than Quicken Spell- the ability to have the same caster cast 2 spells in the same round is extremely handy.
Metamagic spells are also better for certain classes like sorcerers where you cast spells on the fly so if you ran out of lvl 3 fireballs, you can then cast empowered ones at 5. With their limited spell selection, whatever they picked at 5 may not be good for the situation as well. It gives sorcerers more castings of the same spell as well. I think clerics using extend makes a lot of sense since they have a lot of spells that last only 1 min/lvl or 1 rd/lvl. Less so for wizards. Since wizards also get scribe scroll free, metamagic (imo) isn't as needed since you can just scribe whatever is the better spell a few levels higher normally. I think heighten is an awesome meta-magic feat though, especially if you use a lot of enchantment / control spells. It keeps a few low level spells useful at higher levels. Charm Person is really powerful and some fights can be over before they start if you just charm a few of the biggest / baddest enemies. I'm playing a D1/W9 now and starting the moat house again and the frogs with charm animal make great pets. Same goes for all the bandits. Depending on how many feats you have left though, you might not have room for it...(I didn't since I got the Spell Focuses instead which is sorta like heighten spell, but without giving up a higher level spell slot. For a lvl 20 character, I'd agree that quicken would be a nice have.
First of all, Meta-magic is best used for non-preparing casters (Bard & Sorcs), though it has its uses also for the other casters (like "Extend spell" for summoners & battlefield controllers). If a m-mf is followed by the "@" symbol, this means it's one of those that will also handy for non-innate casters. Innate casters have a shorter known spell list, which is why meta-magic feats (m-mf) are so valueable to them. Some m-mf's can effectively almost double your amount of known spells: a)- Heighten spell @ :thumbsup: b)- Silent spell :roll: c)- Still spell :roll: What's the added benefit of those? with a, you are making it more difficult for your enemy to resist the spell and its effect. This will also make it more difficult to dispell its effects. In my opinion, one of the most desirable m-mf's around. While b) & c) are applicable to every spell, their uses are not alway needed. Most of it's desirability comes from how you use your (other) spellcaster(s). If you use a lot of web, entangle or silence, you will use these m-mf's frequently. If that's not the case you probably won't need them. Then there are those that - if used correctly - will enhance a fair share of your spells. Offcourse you will need to check that you apply it to the correct spell - Extending a Magic Missile would be useless. d)- Empower spell @ :thumbsdow e)- Extend spell @ :roll: f)- Widen spell @ :roll: Benefit: While lots of casting classes will be able to use d), its net return is not that great knowing that it makes a spell 2 lvls higher. On the other hand, e) & f) can be pretty damn potent. A dedicated summoner has a longer standing army, controllers will not need to cast the same spell twice in long battles, buff bitches will see their work go on longer... all because they choose e). The f) is in the interest of controllers & artillery-like builds. A bigger "blast zone" means more victims. Offcourse that also implies that your own comrades might be included in the blast, so be carefull with this one. Then there are the ones that you'll only be looking to once your are a high-lvl caster, as they take up quite some spell lvls: g)- Quicken spell @ :thumbsup: h)- Maximise spell @ :roll: Benefit: With g) one of the nice things is that you can put it on every spell, though because of its high spell-level increase it is not a true "known spell doubler". But being able to cast 2 spells in 1 round is certainly not a bad thing. And while h) might look like a good deal, don't forget to be carefull on what spell to put it - only damaging or curing spells will benefit from it. Personally, I don't use it at all, but some people love it to bits. And then there's the one m-mf which I think is almost useless: i) - Enlarge spell :thumbsdow Benefit: Most of the time, your caster(s) is (are) close enough to the enemy not to need this m-mf, but sometimes you wish you had it - being the fights where the enemy uses his fear "ability", obliging your character to stand too far to be of any good. If you have choosen more than 1 m-mf, you might also want to combine some of them. For instance, a Heightened & Widened Glitterdust spell could immensely aid the damage output of your rogues and double also as a protection for your own characters. M-mf's can be so versatile and if used wisely, can give some formidable results.
Thanks for the super detailed answer. This was the sort of thing I was looking for but not expecting! I would be interested to hear other's views on this. It seems to me innate spellcasters could use these. I rarely take sorcerers (usually taking wizards), but now I might at least give these a go.
And remember that metamagic is also good for divine spellcasters. I frequently use Empower Spell with Flamestrike, Searing Light, and Holy Smite. Also good are Extend Spell with buffs and Quicken Spell with Divine Favor and Divine Power.
I posted this for another thread awhile back I use meta magic feats but hated it when I assign one to a spell and it was useless; because I didn't fully understand the feat or spell..so here is my quick cheat sheet when assigning meta magic feats to spells. Empower and Maximize-If it has a Dice roll (random variable) examples would be cures/fireballs/produce flame etc.. Enlarge-If it has a range examples are grease, command, chain lightning Extend-If it has a duration examples are barkskin, protection from arrows, cats grace, command, bulls streagth Heighten-If the target gets a save against my spell examples hold person, command, lightning bolt, charms and dominates Widen-any spell with an area of effect examples web, grease, fireball even things like bless and entangle but those already have pretty wide areas to begin with. Quicken-any spell I feel I may have to cast close to enemys and want to avoid attacks of opportuinity and casting defensively or any spell I want to be able to cast and then immeditely follow up with anthor spell by the same caster in the same round. Silent- don't really use but basically any spell that has a verbal componant that you want to be able to use when silenced. Still- same as silent but for somatic componant, I find it more usefull since it works when inmobolized which seems to happen more the silenced Once again hope this helps, and don't forget you can apply more then one metamagic but the spell slots are cumulative so they can take up some pretty high up spell slots when you start doing this.
One thing more - as I just found out about this "bug"... Every so many lvls (I think it's 5) You can unlearn a spell and learn a new spell instead. But if you got a metamagickid version of the spell, you will see twice the spell in your spell list. The first one in the list is the original, the 2nd ove is the altered version. If you now take away the original and replace it by an other one, you do not loose the altered version
