SRD:Metamagic (Feat Type)

This material is published under the OGL

Metamagic Feats

As a spellcaster’s knowledge of magic grows, she can learn to cast spells in ways slightly different from the ways in which the spells were originally designed or learned. Preparing and casting a spell in such a way is harder than normal but, thanks to metamagic feats, at least it is possible. Spells modified by a metamagic feat use a spell slot higher than normal. This does not change the level of the spell, so the DC for saving throws against it does not go up.

Wizards and Divine Spellcasters

Wizards and divine spellcasters must prepare their spells in advance. During preparation, the character chooses which spells to prepare with metamagic feats (and thus which ones take up higher-level spell slots than normal).

Sorcerers and Bards

Sorcerers and bards choose spells as they cast them. They can choose when they cast their spells whether to apply their metamagic feats to improve them. As with other spellcasters, the improved spell uses up a higher-level spell slot. But because the sorcerer or bard has not prepared the spell in a metamagic form in advance, he must apply the metamagic feat on the spot. Therefore, such a character must also take more time to cast a metamagic spell (one enhanced by a metamagic feat) than he does to cast a regular spell. If the spell’s normal casting time is 1 action, casting a metamagic version is a full-round action for a sorcerer or bard. (This isn’t the same as a 1-round casting time.)

For a spell with a longer casting time, it takes an extra full-round action to cast the spell.

Spontaneous Casting and Metamagic Feats

A cleric spontaneously casting a cure or inflict spell can cast a metamagic version of it instead. Extra time is also required in this case. Casting a 1-action metamagic spell spontaneously is a full-round action, and a spell with a longer casting time takes an extra full-round action to cast.

Effects of Metamagic Feats on a Spell

In all ways, a metamagic spell operates at its original spell level, even though it is prepared and cast as a higher-level spell. Saving throw modifications are not changed unless stated otherwise in the feat description.

The modifications made by these feats only apply to spells cast directly by the feat user. A spellcaster can’t use a metamagic feat to alter a spell being cast from a wand, scroll, or other device.

Metamagic feats that eliminate components of a spell don’t eliminate the attack of opportunity provoked by casting a spell while threatened. However, casting a spell modified by Quicken Spell does not provoke an attack of opportunity.

Metamagic feats cannot be used with all spells. See the specific feat descriptions for the spells that a particular feat can’t modify.

Multiple Metamagic Feats on a Spell

A spellcaster can apply multiple metamagic feats to a single spell. Changes to its level are cumulative. You can’t apply the same metamagic feat more than once to a single spell.

Magic Items and Metamagic Spells

With the right item creation feat, you can store a metamagic version of a spell in a scroll, potion, or wand. Level limits for potions and wands apply to the spell’s higher spell level (after the application of the metamagic feat). A character doesn’t need the metamagic feat to activate an item storing a metamagic version of a spell.

Counterspelling Metamagic Spells

Whether or not a spell has been enhanced by a metamagic feat does not affect its vulnerability to counterspelling or its ability to counterspell another spell.

List of Metamagic Feats

Disguise Spell Empower Spell Energy Substitution Enlarge Spell Extend Spell Persistent Spell

Heighten Spell Maximize Spell Enhance Spell Intensify Spell Quicken Spell Reach Spell

Repeat Spell Sacred Spell Silent Spell Still Spell Subdual Substitution Widen Spell

 

SRD Metamagic Feats

Feat	Summary	Prerequisites
Disguise Spell	Bardic spells not visibly cast by you.	Bardic music, Perform 12 ranks.
Empower Spell	Variable numeric effects in spells are increased by one-half	None
Energy Substitution	Energy Spells may deal different types of energy damage.	Any other metamagic feat, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks.
Enlarge Spell	Spell range increases by one step.	None
Extend Spell	Spell duration is doubled.	None
Heighten Spell	Cast a spell at a higher than normal level and gain DC.	None
Maximize Spell	Variable numeric effects are maximized.	None
Persistent Spell	Spell has a duration of 24 hours.	Extend Spell.
Quicken Spell	Cast spell as a free action.	None
Reach Spell	Cast a touch spell as a 30 foot ray.	None
Repeat Spell	Spell effect is cast again at the beginning of your next turn.	Any other metamagic feat.
Sacred Spell	Half of spell damage becomes divine.	None
Silent Spell	Spell takes no verbal components.	None
Still Spell	Spell takes no somatic components.	None
Subdual Substitution	Spells dealing energy damage may use different energy type.	Any other metamagic feat, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks.
Widen Spell	Spell area doubles.	None

 

Epic SRD Metamagic Feats

Feat	Summary	Prerequisites
Enhance Spell	Damage cap of spells increases by 5 or 10 dice.	Maximize Spell.
Intensify Spell	Variable, numeric effects of spell are maximized, then doubled.	Empower Spell, Maximize Spell, Spellcraft 30 ranks, ability to cast 9th-level arcane or divine spells.

 

Homebrew Metamagic Feats

Homebrew feats using this type appear below. These are not part of the SRD, and are presented for ease of reference only. Click "Show" below to view them.

Feat	Summary	Prerequisites
Accelerate Spell	Cast a spell a little faster, but not too fast.	None
Acid Trip	Cause the target to experience an acid trip	Only usable on spells with acid descriptor, that deal acid damage
Advancing Wall	You make your wall speed slowly move in a direction of your choice.	None
Altered Frequency Spell	Silence your Sonic spells, just enough to make it unaudible.	Silent Spell
Amanachian Spell	Use the energy of the Eater of the Divine to make an anathemic spell.	ApostateEIE
Ambush Spell	Fires weapon-like spells from behind, allowing you to strike at flatfooted targets.	Bluff 6 ranks
Annihilating Spell	Your spells destroy the bodies of your victims.	None
Artillery Spell	You're very good at working with other casters to blow things up from very far away.	None
Astrological Spell	Waiting for the stars to align now pays off.	None
Black Blood Spell	You turn energy into vile blood, dealing vile damage.	Blood Sacrifice, caster level 5th.
Blood Spell	Your blood empowers your spells.	Knowledge (Arcana) 6 ranks, any other metamagic feat
Bloodseeking Spell	Your magic draws out the blood from those it injures, making any injuries more severe.	Heal 4 ranks
Boiling Liquid Spell	Use overheated Water spells to inflict fire damage.	Ability to cast Fire spells
Brimstone Spell	Burn your evil foes with this fire	one metamagic feat known, ability to cast spells with the fire descriptor, caster must be non evil, spellcraft 9 ranks
Burnt Spell	Make a spell much stronger at the cost of yourself.	None
Burrowing Spell	Cast spells without line of effect.	None
Cacophonous Spell	Your sonic spells are so powerful, they tear through resistances and immunities.	None
Cast In Hands	You can use your many floating hands to cast more than one spell at once.	Signcaster, Hands Aghast racial ability (2 hands or more)
Clone Spell	Cast a spell along with a second copy that may have different targets or options.	None
Corrosive Spell	Your acid spells are so powerful, they tear through resistances and immunities.	None
Creative Bond	Your creation spells are bonded to you, allowing you to keep track of, summon, or deny access to your creations.	None
Cross Explosion Spell	Transform your lines into rays, that subsequently explode into multiple lines a round later.	None
Cult Spell	Soon, people will understand why you let peasants in deep robes follow you around everywhere.	None
Cyclonic Spell	Become a master of winds by gaining more flexibility with Air spells.	Ability to cast Air spells, Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks.
Deathblast Spell	If your spell kills an enemy, they become a waiting proximity mine waiting to explode!	None
Debris Spell	Area effect spells leave behind a field of difficult terrain which damages creatures passing through it.	None
Delayed Spell	Make the poor bastards think they're off the hook, only to crush them once most opportune.	None
Electroconvulsive	Cause seizures in the target.	Ability to cast spells with the electric descriptor, including a spell that deals electricity damage
Enhance Spell-CE	Increase the damage cap on spells.	None
Entropic Enchantment	Failing to resist mind spells has bad consequences	must know level 5 enchantment spells, one metamagic feat, spellcraft 8 ranks
Envelope Spell	Encase a small object (such as a vial) in your spell.	None
Expand Spell	Like Widen Spell, but more versatile. Increase the area of a spell's effect.	None
Familiar-Blooded Spell	You can sacrifice your familiar to empower your spell, spell-like ability or supernatural ability.	Spellcraft 9 ranks, must have a familiar.
Favored Summon, Variant	Your summoned creatures gains additional benefits at the cost of quantity	Ability to summon creatures via a Conjuration (summoning) spell, Augment Summoning.
Force Substitution	You alter an energy spell into a [force] spell.	Any other metamagic feat, Knowledge (arcana) 5 ranks.
From the Breach the Chaos Spread Out	Spread chaos and darkness from high in a stormy sky and conjure lightning in your enemies.	Chaotic Alignment, Able to cast Stormclouds of Dark Omens spell, Must have been cast Stormclouds of Dark Omens at least 10 times.
Gatling Spell	By focusing your power, you can cast spells in quick succession.	None
Ghostflame Spell	Turn fire damage into ghostflame.	None
Glowing Spell	Your spells glow, and leave glowing residue behind.	At least one [Light] spell known
Gravitic Spell	You modify spells with intense gravity, dealing bludgeoning damage and bending gravity around it.	None
Greater Envelope Spell	Encase a spell inside another spell	Envelope Spell, Quicken Spell or a means of casting two spells in the same turn
Guarded Spell	Your casting does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and if disrupted the spell is not lost.	At least two abjuration spells known
Hellfire Spell	You turn your fire spell into hellfire spell, burning people to the bones.	None
Hexed Spell	Use an hexblade curse to deal extra unholy damage and curse the targets of your spell.	Hexblade's Curse Class Feature
Icy Spell	Your spells are able to leave slippery ice	ability to cast spells with cold descriptor
Impetus Spell	your force spells ignore more effects	None
Independent Mage of the Arcane Order	You do not need to be a member of the Arcane Order to access their Spellpool.	Must be able to prepare 2nd level spells.
Infinite Spell	A spell becomes reusable until you next prepare spells (+4 slots)	None
Interwoven Spell	You can weave two spells together and have them affect a similar area. Add a touch spell to a ray, and so forth.	Any two metamagic feats, ability to cast 2nd-level spells, Spellcraft 8 ranks.
Item Focus Spell	Allows you to cast with your hands full, provided one of your hands is holding the focus.	None
Lapis Metamagic	You can meld your very soul into your spells when empowering them. Like Midnight Metamagic, but not limited to once per day.	Caster level 1st, any Metamagic feat, must possess either Con 13+ or at least one point of Essentia
Lasting Spell	Not quite Persistent Spell, Lasting Spell still increases spell duration significantly.	None
Legion Spell	You buff entire armies in a single fell swoop with legion-augmented spells.	None
Lunatic Spell	Your spells cause madness in all who are struck by them.	None
Magic of the Planetary Alignment	You have 1 chance on 1,382,400 to make your spell near invincible.	Non-Evil alignment, Caster 8th level., Magic of the Stars Canvas OR Profession (Astrologer) 12 ranks
Magmatic Spell	Combine fire and bludgeoning damage.	None
Mass Spell	Your spells can benefit more targets.	Caster level 9th.
Master of Land, Sky, and Sea	Apply the Animal of the Land, Animal of the Sea, or Skyfish templates on your summons.	None
Master of the Mind	you can effect creatures usually immune to effects	one metamagic feat, spellcraft 8 levels, must know 5 4th level illusion or 5 4th enchantment spells
Mediocre Spell	You can make your spells reliable but unimpressive.	Ability to cast 1st-level spells.
Metamagic Essay	You make using certain metamagic feat look so easy.	One Metamagic Feat
Metamagic Expertise	You may add one free metamagic spell level to your spell by extending its casting time to 1 round.	One metamagic feat. Must be able to cast 3rd-level spells.
Metamagic Savant	Use Charisma in place of Intelligence for metamagic feat prerequisites.	Improved Metamagic, Caster Level 10th, Charisma 20
Metaword	You can get metamagic for the use of utterances.	None
Mist Phantom Spell	Summons and created objects appear invisible while in a deep mist, as if they had the mist phantom template.	One other metamagic feat
Molten Spell	Fire spells leave molten residue behind, scorching the battlefield.	None
Muddy Spell	Cover enemies with soaked earth to slow them.	None
Multi-Spell	Cast multiple spells with a single action.	Caster level 5th
Nuclear Spell	Mix force, fire, acid and sonic damage to destroy your opponents.	Caster level 12th
Numbing Spell	Your cold spells are extremely gelid.	None
Organic Spell	Avoid damage against animals and plants, and deal extra damage against aberrations and constructs.	Must be pretentious.
Paranatural Summons	Your summons count as natural creature whenever doing is advantageous. You may also summon in zone where planar travel is restricted.	Spell Focus (Conjuration)
Persistent Spell, Rebalanced	A rebalanced version of the SRD feat.	Extend Spell
Phantasmal Summons	Summon the object mentally, only affecting intelligent creatures.	Able to cast at least on Conjuration spell.
Physical Spell	Turn your fireball into a bladeball and deal slashing damage! Or bludgeoning! Or piercing!	Spell Focus (Conjuration) or at least two force spells known
Priority Spell	You cast a spell at the start of initiative.	None
Pulverizing Spell	Add a simple effect to force spells	Caster level 12th
Purified Energy	Half the energy damage you deal with spells is divine damage.	Knowledge (Arcana) 6 ranks, Knowledge (Religion) 3 ranks
Rapid Spell	Cast a spell a little faster	None
Rayblade Spell	You turn your rays into swords.	BAB +1
Reckless Summoning	Summon stronger creatures, but lacking any sort of control.	Able to cast a [Summoning] spell.
Ritual Spell	Cast a spell over a long time to cast it without consuming the spell slot.	Spellcraft 4 ranks
Runic Ward	Make the AC granted by spells apply to touch AC.	None
Sacrifice Spell	How many people have to die before you're satisfied? Ten. The Demon you've summoned might not be, though.	None
Safeguard Spell	Your spells won't affect you, allowing you to target places too close for comfort.	None
Sanctuary Healing	Protect those you heal by forming a magical sanctuary on them.	Able to cast at least one divine spell from the Conjuration (Healing) school, Heal 6 Ranks, Spellcraft 6 Ranks
Scorching Spell	Leave a burning mark with your fire spells.	None
Selective Spell	Your spells are laser-focused on only particular types of creature or objects.	None
Sentient Spell	Your spell auto-concentrates for you, and can make spell choices with no action on your part.	None
Share Spell Metamagic	Changes target from "You" to "One Willing Creature"	Character Level 5
Signcaster	You use sign language in place of verbal components for your spells.	Caster level 1st, must be able to speak at least one form of Sign Language (Such as Drow Sign Language).
Single Target Spell	Make a spell with multiple target only affect a single target.	None
Sonorous Spell	Your sonic spells ruin the earing of their victims.	None
Spell Cascade	You can bottle up your energy, allowing for a cascade of spells that rain quickly upon your foes.	Must be able to cast 4rd-level spells, spellcraft 7
Spell Drain	Magical foes damaged by your spell also gain a spellstrained level.	None
Spell Macgyver	When it comes to logical casting you know how to make those around you ask, "How did he do that?"	None
Spell-Like Imbuing	Arcane Archers can normally only use spells with their abilities. Now they can.	Imbue Arrow or a similar ability and at least one Spell-like ability.
Spells in Communion	Cast spells in unison with your allies in a surge of magical power.	Able to cast a spell of 7th level or higher, Spellcraft 18 ranks
Spontaneous Metamagic	Are you a spontaneous caster who likes metamagic? Of course you are. Here, have a feat.	Int: 13, Spellcraft: 4 ranks, Must be able to cast arcane spells spontaneously.
Spreadfire Spell	Like Quicken Spell, but the quickened spell cannot overlap the same targets.	One metamagic feat
Strategic Spell	You greatly increase the size of an area of effect spell.	Widen Spell
Stretch Spell	Increases the duration of a spell through sheer force of will.	None
Sudden Metamagic	Applies metamagic suddenly.	None
Super Quicken	You cast spells fast enough to react to people.	Quicken Spell
Superconducting Spell	Your electric spells are so powerful, they tear through resistances and immunities.	None
Swift Spell	You can cast spells more efficiently, more quickly, but with less staying power.	None
Thousand-Spell Style	You can fight in a flurry of spells and skeletal fists.	Thousand-Hand Style, Cast In Hands, Combat Casting
Thunderbolt and Lightning, Very, Very Frightening	Frighten your enemies with electricity	spell with electric descriptor, able to cast spells
Thunderstruck	Your electric spells and abilities are so intense that they can damage creatures normally resistant or immune to electricity.	None
Toxic Acid	Acid spells are toxic to living things like real life acid	must be able to cast spells with acid descriptor
Toxic Combustion	The spell inflict toxic burn on your targets and may even leave a cloud of toxic fume.	None
Tracerlight Spell	Your spell leaves a tracer behind and marks your opponent.	Must be able to cast a [Light] spell.
Unbelievable Spell	Your spells are too good to be true. Oddly enough, they are.	Ability to cast at least one 3rd level Illusion spell
Undetectable Spell	You can use Silent or Still Spell with no level adjustment, or both at once at a +1 adjustment.	Silent Spell or Still Spell
Utility Summon	Your summons last longer, but can't fight to save their lives. Or Yours.	Augment Summoning
Vitriolic Liquid Spell	Use sulphurous Water spells to inflict acid damage.	Ability to cast Acid spells
Wildfire Spell	When you burn things, the fire spreads wildly.	Ability to cast Fire spells, Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks.
Wrathful Spell	Allow you to cast a spell while raging and it deal more damage.	None
Zodiacal Spell	As a master stargazer you can channel the power of constellations to empower your spells.	Profession (astrologer) 4 ranks

 

Epic Homebrew Metamagic Feats

Homebrew feats using this type appear below. These are not part of the SRD, and are presented for ease of reference only. Click "Show" below to view them.

Feat	Summary	Prerequisites
Certain Spell	Increases the save DC to infinite.	Any one metamagic feat
Strategic Spell	You greatly increase the size of an area of effect spell.	Widen Spell

---

Back to Main Page → System Reference Document → Feats