Many fantastic buffs have short durations, and extending them can save you the trouble of casting the same spell twice. Even then, you don’t necessarily want to reroll the 3 to 5 lowest dice (depending on your spellcasting ability modifier), since some of those dice might be close to or above average for that die. In order to maximize the benefits of Empowered Spell, always reroll the lowest dice in your original roll. The math definitely makes this worth the tiny cost of 1 Sorcery Point if you’re hitting several targets with an AOE, but I usually don’t recommend using this for single-target spells because you don’t get as much for your Sorcery Point. The additional damage will be higher for spells which use bigger damage dice: 17.5 for d8’s, 22.5 for d10’s and 27.5 for d12’s. You can reroll any of the dice which you originally rolled, but rerolling 1’s has the most impact so it gives us a good sense of the maximum amount of damage which you can expect. You don’t want to use this on every spell that you cast, but if you’re hitting several targets with an AOE spell the 1-point cost will definitely pay off.Īs an example: If you have 20 Charisma and roll a massive pile of d6’s and 5 of those dice come up as 1’s, you can reroll them for an average damage of 12.5 (5 x 3.5 – 5) additional damage. The effectiveness grows as you add more dice because you’re more likely to roll 1’s as you add additional dice. If you reroll 1’s you might get a few extra points of damage. It does notably apply to spells like Thunderclap and Word of Radiance, but situations where you want to spend a Sorcery Point on a Cantrip are exceptionally rare. It would be nice if you could use this with cones, but cones have range of “Self” and an area of effect, so they don’t qualify.
There are some spells like Invisibility which have a range of Touch that could really benefit, but such spells aren’t numerous enough to make this not “situational” since in a lot of cases you can solve that problem by walking. Spells generally have enough range to get the job done in situations where they make sense to use. Situations where Fireball or a similar spell is the only option are extremely rare. Plenty of spells target only enemies, or you could cast a buff or an area control spell. While Careful spell is certainly tempting, you can usually solve the same problem simply by casting a different spell. Usually you can avoid hitting your allies by positioning your spells carefully, but sometimes you need to drop a fireball or some other big AOE like Fear and you don’t have a way to avoid hitting your allies.
Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. RPGBOT is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released and this article will be updating accordingly as time allows. The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games. We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. Blue: Fantastic options, often essential.Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichĪre extremely situational.RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance. Metamagic is the primary way that sorcerers spend their Sorcery Points, and budgeting that finite resource to get the most impact is an important part of mastering the Sorcerer. It is perhaps the best example of the Sorcerer’s philosophy on spellcasting: a few good tools, adapted as necessary to suit any situation.īut, while metamagic can be very powerful, it can also be complicated and costly. Metamagic is the Sorcerer’s signature mechanic, allowing you to twist and adapt your spells to suit the needs of the moment.