Some of the new spells presented in Tome and Blood were simply old spells with feats applied built in. Should sorcerers and wizards have the ability to learn a spell with feat built in as a new spell?
A wierd example would be:
Maximized Fireball
Evocation [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
As fireball except deals 6 points of damage per caster level (maximum of 90 points at 15th level*).
*Maximum damage dice is based on spell level according to page 95 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Note: The above maximized fireball spell could not be empowered as the original spell in regards to the Empoer Spell feat would be maximized fireball, not fireball. You could make an empowered maximized fireball:
Empowered Maximized Fireball
Evocation [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 8
As fireball except deals 1d6*1.5 + 6 points of damage per caster level (maximum of 20d6*1.5+ 120 points at 20th level).
Note: If I interpret the Empower Spell feat example, correctly, if this spell were empowered, it would use xd6*1.5 + x*6 as the base variable damage. Then, the feat would multiply the result of (xd6 * 1.5 + x*6) by 1.5. and do 225 to 450 points of damage (average 337.5) at 20th+ level*.
My original interpretation of the feat before reading the example would have been that the +6 per level would have been added after the modification for the Empower Spell feat making the resulting metamagiked spell deal 165 to 390 points of damage (average of 277.5) at 20th+ level*.
*As this uses a 10th level spell slot, it would require the caster to be over 10th level.
Changing the damage caps is probably the only advantage for a wizard with the appropriate feat. Although I don't know if it throws the power balance off. Sorcerer's and bards would additionaly be able to cast the spell faster.
Not all metamagic feats would benefit from this, Heighten Spell, for example, wouldn't be a likely candidate for this.
The big problem is Divine Spell Users. Unless you make them keep prayer books equivelant to wizards' spell books, allowing this would mean all divine spell users get all metamagic feats for free. (as the modified versions of existing spells would be provided by the spell caster's deity)
A smaller proble is the Eschew Materials feat. If you would allow the Eschew Materials feat to be incorporated as described above, the original spells would fall into disuse. It would be better to remove the feat and just ignore spell components with a value of less than 1 gp ...
This would be an easy way to add new spells, however.
A wierd example would be:
Maximized Fireball
Evocation [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 6
As fireball except deals 6 points of damage per caster level (maximum of 90 points at 15th level*).
*Maximum damage dice is based on spell level according to page 95 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Note: The above maximized fireball spell could not be empowered as the original spell in regards to the Empoer Spell feat would be maximized fireball, not fireball. You could make an empowered maximized fireball:
Empowered Maximized Fireball
Evocation [Fire]
Level: Sor/Wiz 8
As fireball except deals 1d6*1.5 + 6 points of damage per caster level (maximum of 20d6*1.5+ 120 points at 20th level).
Note: If I interpret the Empower Spell feat example, correctly, if this spell were empowered, it would use xd6*1.5 + x*6 as the base variable damage. Then, the feat would multiply the result of (xd6 * 1.5 + x*6) by 1.5. and do 225 to 450 points of damage (average 337.5) at 20th+ level*.
My original interpretation of the feat before reading the example would have been that the +6 per level would have been added after the modification for the Empower Spell feat making the resulting metamagiked spell deal 165 to 390 points of damage (average of 277.5) at 20th+ level*.
*As this uses a 10th level spell slot, it would require the caster to be over 10th level.
Changing the damage caps is probably the only advantage for a wizard with the appropriate feat. Although I don't know if it throws the power balance off. Sorcerer's and bards would additionaly be able to cast the spell faster.
Not all metamagic feats would benefit from this, Heighten Spell, for example, wouldn't be a likely candidate for this.
The big problem is Divine Spell Users. Unless you make them keep prayer books equivelant to wizards' spell books, allowing this would mean all divine spell users get all metamagic feats for free. (as the modified versions of existing spells would be provided by the spell caster's deity)
A smaller proble is the Eschew Materials feat. If you would allow the Eschew Materials feat to be incorporated as described above, the original spells would fall into disuse. It would be better to remove the feat and just ignore spell components with a value of less than 1 gp ...
This would be an easy way to add new spells, however.
