[3.5] Good Metamagic feats for a Beguiler

[Thurbane]

Hey all, just wondering in general, what metamagic feats would be good for a Beguiler? Let's assume his 9th level feat is Rapid Metamagic, and as a Beguiler he gets Silent Spell and Still Spell as class bonus feats.

[Zaq]

Every full caster is better with Quicken.

I don't know how many spells on the Beguiler list apply, but you can get a lot of mileage out of creative Sculpting.

Again, I don't really have the Beguiler list memorized, but Extend often helps.

[Optimystik]

Extend and Quicken, in that order.

[Thurbane]

OK, here's the ones I think could be good for a beguiler:

• Chain Spell
• Extend
• Fortify Spell
• Persistent Spell
• Quicken Spell
• Reach Spell
• Repeat Spell
• Retributive Spell
• Selective Spell
• Song of the Dead
• Twin Spell

...thoughts?

[Boci]

Split ray is good, but I do not know if the Beguiler has that many decent ray spells. You could get ray of dizziness via advanced learning which is a good start but not enough on its own.

I do not know all of the ones you listed but most seem decent choices. I'd skip repeat spell though.

[IthilanorStPete]

IIRC, the Beguiler list depends on a lot of save-negates for its offense, so I'd at least consider Heighten Spell. The essentials are Extend and Quicken, with Chain being very good. More than that, though, I don't think you need. (unless you're using MM reducers like Arcane Thesis)

[Thurbane]

Song of the Dead allows your mind affecting spells to affect intelligent undead - that's pretty handy for a Beguiler...

[Augmented Lurk]

Can beguilers even use Quicken? I thought the whole Full Round Metamagic rule applied to all spontaneous casters, not just sorcerers and bards.

[Pîke]

@Boci: Beguilers get no rays except through Advanced Learning, so Split Ray would be less than useful.

If you're fond of using Legion of Sentinels you may appreciate taking Invisible Spell (from Cityscape), as making the sentinels invisible should make them more effective. Otherwise it's not terribly useful, though, since few of your spells have visual aspects.

There's a rather good Beguiler Handbook over on Brilliant Gameologists which includes an overview of metamagic feats.

[IthilanorStPete]

Can beguilers even use Quicken? I thought the whole Full Round Metamagic rule applied to all spontaneous casters, not just sorcerers and bards.

That's why you grab Rapid MM at level 9.

[gorfnab]

Not a metamagic feat but Shadow Weave Magic (PGtF) is not too shabby. Versatile Spellcaster (RotD) is awesome. Conceal Spellcasting trick is very handy.

[Rettu Skcollob]

If you have access to Splatbooks, pick up ultimate feats. It has lots of really useful feats, but several that are fantastic for the Beguiler are:

Enchanter: Reduces the spell-slot increase from metamagic by one, to a minimum of 0. There's another feat, Metamancer (I think), that lets you spontaneously cast metamagic spells with no increase in casting time. Even if you don't take the latter, you can now still/silence your spells for free with your beguiler feats, and if you took any others (Extend could be quite useful, for example) then it just gets more and more useful.

Also; Beloved Master means that anyone under the effect of one of your Enchantment spells who is in melee with you grants you the effect of half cover. (+4AC, +2 Reflex Saves, IIRC)

Other than that, Spell Focus: Enchantment is useful and needed for the above feats.

Oh, and get the skill trick Conceal Spellcasting, it's a thousand times more viable than stilled and/or silent spells, except in specific circumstances. Still, with Enchanter and Conceal Spellcasting, you could easily Silence spells in social situations and disguise the somatic components as nervous gestures or what have you, so you can charm and dominate with ease.