Right... I'm sure this has been asked before, but I'm really not going to look through 200 pages of threads to find it, thus I'm asking following questions:

1. To me, the unexperienced caster user, I notice that few to none of the caster builds here get the automatic metamagic feats. Personally I'd think quicken and mabye still spell would be brilliant, as they apply to all your spells if you get three levels of the feat, right?

2. I was planning to make a pure caster or three, but I'm not sure what metamagics are worth taking. Some say spell penetration is worthless, but an added SR busting is good isnt it?

3. I think I got as much as maximize, extend and mabye empowered are common feats to get, and ofcourse spell focus in the wanted schools. But what about combat casting, or improved combat casting? Few seem to take those as well, and I would believe to avoid attacks of opportunity to be a good thing to avoid interruption as that may be the downfall of many mages.

Aand.. I think thats all I can think of right now. Extended spell is the most important metamagic for any buffer, but for a combat caster Maximized and Empowered are more useful... Still spell is very good to cast wearing heavy armor but it uses slots 3 levels higher, so automatic still spell can get to be useful, but quicken spell is very useless, since it's the same as Haste and you can simply cast Haste or get it from items and all your Quicken spells go to waste.

Spell Penetration is not a waste, depends on your caster levels, if you have over 35 caster levels then you won't need it, but if you have around 20-30 you might need it, and if you have even lower than 20 forget about it and try not to fight with spells too much, you won't beat almost any SR.

It's not really as if with 35 levels you can beat any SR, but you can beat enough SR so that it's better to spend your feats on something else, you don't get so many feats after all.

I don't like combat casting, and I never ever take it, but Improved Combat casting can be useful, it denies completely the Attack or Oportunity, take it if you want it, it's a fine feat I guess.
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Quote: Posted 12/19/06 19:54 (GMT) -- FinneousPJ

Thax the Shadow Dragon sez: MONKS USE KAMAS. Just ask him.

Edited By Thaxll'ssyllia on 07/22/07 17:08

Automatic Still Spell III + Improved Combat Casting makes you a combat caster, almost like a melee char.

The choose of metamagic feats is always, as you like, but firstly, what kind of a caster you want to be. The highest stock SR in the game is 32 (Monks can get much higher though). Of course, creatures can be customized to have higher SR, but I wouldn't think you'd run into that very much, so Spell Penetration is not a high priority in most cases.

Metamagic feats I always take with a primarily caster build are: Extend Spell and Empower Spell. Usually I also take Maximize Spell, but not always. I also take either Still Spell or Silent Spell - not for the actual application of the feat, but rather to round out the spell book with extra options.
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It's rogue, dammit, ROGUE!!! Aha... So for a party mage (wich is what I got in mind) all I need to get is extend, empower and mabye maximize? On my PW the first quest reward for all lowbies is a permanent haste item so quicken would be out of question I guess.

And after that its all spell focus and great int, and mabye an epic spell.

I guess that sorts out all I didnt know thus far, so thank you all.