It's generally accepted that if you want to apply metamagics to a spell, there's going to be a spell level adjustment. Some rare metamagics cost +0. But... is there another way of handling metamagic costs?
For instance, are there any prestige classes that offer an alternative to increasing a spell's level to tack on your extra or modified effects?
What if metamagic instead cost caster levels? Like... if you took a metamagic's spell level adjustment, and applied twice that as a caster level penalty (where 0 = 0.5, natch) in order to apply the metamagic? That would still limit metamagic to higher level casters, but it would also reward casters who intentionally increase their caster level.
Obviously, some metamagics are simply better than others, but has anyone developed an alternative system that might not use such a linear device to control metamagic placement?
Like... uh... (pulling half-formed thoughts out of nowhere, here) saying that a character gains a metamagic score, and that you can apply any metamagic you want to your spells, but that some of them require other, lesser metamagics to be applied before they can. A chaining system, that is. For example, Maximize could have a chain of 3, which means that you have to apply a metamagic with chain 2 to the same spell, and that metamagic would (as a matter of its nature) require that you affix a metamagic with chain 1 to the same spell. The complete modified spell would have a metamagic of 6, which means that only a caster with a metamagic score of 6 or higher could pull it off.
Or... uh... a synergy system, instead. Herein, you learn some metamagics, but others can only be gained by applying the synergistic metamagics that form them. Maximize, for instance, might be formed by applying Heighten and Empower to the same spell. Also, you would have a limit on the maximum number of metamagics you can apply to individual spells (but not to metamagics derived through synergy). This way, more powerful metamagics could be controlled by making them derive from larger numbers of lesser metamagics.
I know these are really vague ideas, but I would very much like to explore this concept...
