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As one of the most iconic tabletop RPGs of all time, Dungeons & Dragons provides players with a myriad of ways to customize their characters, such as their choice of class, subclass, and race. One often-overlooked element of a character when it comes to character creation and progression is a character's access to feats.

Whenever a character would be able to improve their ability scores as part of a level-up (or at level one, if you're playing as a Variant Human), you can choose to gain a feat. Feats are effectively special traits and abilities that a character wouldn't have access to otherwise.

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While the Feats of D&D range greatly in their strength and complexity, Tasha's Cauldron of Everything introduced many notably potent feats to the game. One such is Metamagic Adept. While this feat has the prerequisite of a character needing to have either the Spellcasting or Pact Magic feature, for characters capable of casting spells, it can open a deep well of potential. As this feat can be quite complex in its various uses, we're going to explore everything you need to know about it in case you think Metamagic Adept might be right for your next spellcaster!

What Is Metamagic Adept?

Sorcerer discovering her ability

Deceptively complex, Metamagic Adept is a feat that provides a character with access to two Metamagic options of your choice from the Sorcerer Class, alongside two Sorcery points that may be cashed in to use them.

Metamagic options are essentially augmentations spells that any character with that ability can choose to activate when the spell is cast, allowing for already powerful spells to be made yet even more impactful. This can make this feat quite useful for Clerics, Druids, Wizards, and Warlocks. When planning around the use of Metamagic, one should remember that a character only regains their Sorcery Points upon concluding a short rest.

Note: Before we continue, we should note that we will not be discussing the Heightened Spell Metamagic option. This is because in order to activate Heightened Spell, a caster must spend three Sorcery Points. As this feat only provides access to two sorcery points, unless the character is a sorcerer, they will be unable to access enough Sorcery Points to use this option.

Metamagic Adept As A Sorcerer

Sorcerer Class art

While one of the main appeals of taking this feat is to provide a non-Sorcerer character with access to Metamagic, this feat can do wonders for Sorcerers as well. This is because a Sorcerer normally only initially has access to two Metamagic options, gaining a third at level ten and a fourth at level seventeen. As this feat provides access to any two Metamagic options of one's choice, it can be used to provide a Sorcerer with added flexibility through the use of more Metamagic options readily at their disposal.

This feat also provides access to two additional sorcery points, meaning a Sorcerer can be slightly more liberal with how frequently they use Metamagic if they have this feat.

Careful Spell

Dungeons & Dragons a wizard performing the sematic components of a spell
Tasha's Cauldron Of Everything Alternate Art By Wizards Of The Coast

For the cost of a single Sorcery Point, Careful Spell can be used when casting a spell that causes several creatures to make saving throws. Upon being activated, Careful Spell allows a number of creatures equal to the caster's Charisma modifier to automatically pass the aforementioned saving throw.

When playing a caster that uses a variety of are of effect spells, this allows one to keep their allies safe, even if they're within the spell's area of effect. This means that spells such as Hypnotic Pattern could be more easily used regardless of if an ally happens to be too close to the desired targets. This makes it a solid choice for any caster aiming to use several spells with large areas of effect.

Distant Spell

Fiery fantasy sorcerer character

Distant Spell is a Metamagic option that can double the range of any spell for one sorcery point. While at first glance, this may seem similar to the Spell Sniper feat, Spell Sniper can only double the range of spells that make spell attacks.

This means that Distant Spell can be used in a myriad of unique and helpful ways for various casters. Playing a druid and want to drop a Moonbeam from over 200 feet away? Playing a Wizard that wants to counterspell an enemy caster's magic from up to 120 feet away? Distant spell might be exactly what you're looking for.

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Empowered Spell

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For casters of any class looking to deal as much damage as they possibly can with their spells, Metamagic Adept may be worth considering entirely just for Empowered Spell. When rolling damage for a spell, for one Sorcery Point, Empowered spell can be used to reroll a number of the damage dice equal to your character's Charisma modifier. This can make getting higher average damage out of any caster's most explosive spells all the more consistent.

Extended Spell

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When casting spells that have a duration of one minute or longer, a caster can spend one Sorcery Point to use Extended Spell to double that spell's duration, though it can't be used to make a spell last for more than 24 hours. While this feature is solid for any caster aiming to maintain effects for lengthy periods of time, it's far from the most useful Metamagic option.

While quite narrow and time-consuming, as a Warlock is able to regain their spell slots after concluding a one-hour short rest, if a Warlock casts non-concentration spells with a duration of an hour or more such as Armor of Agathys using Extended Spell, if they immediately take a short rest, they will still have an hour (or more depending on the spell) of active use at the cost of time rather than spell slots.

Quickened Spell

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Quickened Spell is a Metamagic option that costs two sorcery points to use, meaning that if playing a non-Sorcerer spellcaster, it would consume each of your Sorcery Points for that day. Despite being rather costly, Quickened Spell is a stellar option that for some builds is often worth the resources.

Upon using Quickened Spell, a character can cast one spell that normally has the casting time of an action as a bonus action instead (though they can still only cast one non-cantrip spell that turn). This can greatly improve a character's damage output within a single round, creating an effect comparable to a Fighter's action Surge.

When used as a Warlock, this spell is capable of allowing you to cast Eldritch Blast twice within a single turn. As Eldritch Blast produces more beams as a character levels up, Quickened Spell can double the number of beams fired within a single turn, potentially dealing absurd amounts of damage when paired with Hex.

Seeking Spell

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mordenkainen's tome of foes cover

One of the most straightforward Metamagic options, Seeking Spell allows its user to spend two sorcery points to reroll a missed spell attack. When setting up key spell attacks that could have a major impact on an encounter, Seeking Spell can be used to attempt to turn success into failure in an effect comparable to making the attack at advantage.

Subtle Spell

Dungeons & Dragons an assortment of scrolls, parchments, and strange magical items
Xanathar's Guide to Everything by Jason Rainville

By and large the most underrated Metamagic option, for one sorcery point, Subtle Spell removes the verbal and somatic components needed to cast a spell. This means that if a spell has no visual element or has an effect that is distanced from you, there's no means of telling that you cast the spell.

This means that via Subtle Spell, enchantment magic such as Charm Person can be cast mid-conversation without any indicator. Subtle Spell can notably be used to cast counterspell without any indicator, meaning an enemy spellcaster wouldn't even be aware of why their spell failed. Additionally, as spells with no components can't be countered, when using Subtle Spell to cast a spell that lacks Material Components, it can be used to make a spell uncounterable by enemy spellcasters!

For the uncounterable effect that Subtle Spell provides, any spellcaster from Clerics and Druids to Wizards and Warlocks should consider Metamagic Adept if they're within a campaign rife with enemy spellcasters that may attempt to foil their plans.

Transmuted Spell

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For a single sorcery point, Transmuted Spell can be used whenever a character casts a spell that deals acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder damage to change the spell's damage type to another damage type from this list.

Though far from the most blatantly powerful Metamagic Option, for spellcasters focusing on a single damage type such as those using the Elemental Adept feat, Transmuted Spell can be used to provide that character with additional spell options of that type. For example, while there aren't as many Acid spells as one may hope in D&D, for a player aiming to build the Acid-based mage of their dreams, the Transmuted Spell can turn their Wizard's Fireball into a ball of Acid damage.

Twinned Spell

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jace with illusion clone mtg art

The last Metamagic option players could consider when taking Metamagic Adept, a character casting a spell can spend a number of sorcery points equal to the spell's level to activate Twinned Spell as long as the spell only has a single target.

If they do, they can choose an additional target for the spell. While Twinned Spell is most commonly used to double the damage output on a single-target damage spell, support characters such as Clerics can twin beneficial spells such as Shield of Faith to target more than one of their allies!

Next: Dungeons & Dragons: Best Eldritch Invocations In The Game