In the 2024 edition of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, the Sorcerer is an incredibly powerful spellcasting class. While it can not learn as many spells as its fellow spellcasting classes such as the Wizard, Cleric, or Druid, it makes up for this by having access to an incredibly powerful, flexible class feature known as Metamagic. Metamagic 5e allows the Sorcerer to alter the way it casts spells in a myriad of ways, from doubling their ranges to making them harder to defend against to even changing their damage types. However, Metamagic is also a very complex feature, as it gives your Sorcerer a nearly overwhelming number of options. This guide will seek to rectify that, seeking to simplify, explore and explain the many options that Metamagic presents.
Sorcery Points
To properly understand Metamagic, you must first properly understand the resource that fuels them, that being Sorcery Points.
Your Sorcerer’s Metamagic runs off a limited resource known as Sorcery Points, which the Sorcerer acquires at level 2, starting with 2 Sorcery Points and then gaining more as they level up, maxing out at a total of 20 at level 20. These Sorcery Points are used not only for Metamagic, but can also be converted into spell slots, with a 1st level spell slot being worth 2 Sorcery Points, a 2nd level being worth 3, and so on. This is an incredibly powerful, flexible feature that can give your Sorcerer far more spell slots to play with between Long Rests than the other spellcasting classes. For example, if your Sorcerer runs out of spell slots vs a powerful monster, they can use Sorcery Points to give them a few more to keep them going. Conversely, if you run out of high level spell slots but have plenty of low level spell slots, you can convert those into Sorcery Points, and then convert those Points back into spell slots. This is an incredibly powerful feature that most Metamagics will have to compete against, albeit not always directly.
In terms of acquiring Sorcery Points, the easiest way to regain them is to take a Long Rest, which restores all of them. However, Sorcery Points can also be regained by converting spell slots into Sorcery Points at a rate of spell level = Sorcery Points, so a 1st level spell slot equals 1 Sorcery Point and so on.
As you gain levels, you also gain another way to regain Sorcery Points. At level 5, you get a feature called Sorcerous Restoration, which allows you to gain back Sorcery Points on a Short Rest up to half their Sorcerer level rounded down. Once used, this feature can only be used again after taking a Long Rest.
Essentially, Sorcery Points are a limited resource which, while they can be replenished in a variety of ways, still require careful, clever management. When considering the best Metamagic options, one not only has to consider the effectiveness of each option, but also its cost, both in terms of Sorcery Points and of choosing it over another options.
Metamagic
Metamagic, the Sorcerer’s bread and butter, is also gained at level 2. When obtained at level 2, Sorcerers obtain two Metamagic Options. These are the options for modifying their spells and are the trickiest part of building a good Sorcerer. Two key points about Metamagic to consider are that they can only use one Metamagic option on a spell at a time (unless noted otherwise), and that they gain two more options at level 10 and another two at 17. Since most campaigns end before or around level 10, most Sorcerers are going to have at most, two Metamagic Options, so picking the absolute best ones is paramount. However, there is a level of flexibility with them, as when you level up, you can replace one of the Metamagic Options they chose with another one, meaning that if an option was picked that you didn’t like, you are not stuck with it.
But at the end of the day, for most of the campaign, you will have exactly two Metamagic Options at your disposal, making the task of picking the right one rather daunting. Luckily, this guide will go over each option, explaining how effective or ineffective it is and the various use cases for them.
Careful Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 1 Sorcery Point
When you cast a spell that forces other creatures to make a saving throw, you can protect some of those creatures from the spell’s full force. To do so, spend 1 Sorcery Point and choose a number of those creatures up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one creature). A chosen creature automatically succeeds on its saving throw against the spell, and it takes no damage if it would normally take half damage on a successful save.
Careful Spell is a Metamagic Option that heavily emphasizes the “blaster” and “battlefield control” aspects of the Sorcerer. Powerful spells such as Burning Hands, Thunderwave, Fireball, Hypnotic Pattern, Lightning Bolt, Slow, Evard’s Black Tentacles (If you choose to go with the Aberrant Sorcery subclass), and Cone of Cold, which are normally risky to cast since they can potentially hit allies within range, become much safer and easier to cast thanks to Careful Spell making it so they cannot affect your allies. This is undoubtedly one of the best Metamagic Options you can pick since it not only applies to a wide variety of powerful spells, but it also has a low cost and can be taken advantage of from the moment you get Metamagic. It also scales wonderfully into the later levels if a campaign goes that far with spells like Circle of Death, Fire Storm, Sunburst, and the incredibly powerful Meteor Swarm (Imagine taking out an entire town’s worth of enemies while you and your friends stand there unscathed!)
Distant Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 1 Sorcery Point
When you cast a spell that has a range of at least 5 feet, you can spend 1 Sorcery Point to double the spell’s range. Or when you cast a spell that has a range of Touch, you can spend 1 Sorcery Point to make the spell’s range 30 feet.
Distant Spell is a rather niche Metamagic Option which doubles the effective range of any spell it applies to. While the idea of doubling the range of Chromatic Orb, Burning Hands, Thunderwave, or Hold Person is a tempting one, it is one which, in practice, comes up less often than one would think. The most interesting application of this Option would be turning a Touch spell like Haste, Fly, Vampiric Touch, or Invisibility into one with a 30 ft range, making them slightly more useful in combat, since you want to stay out of melee range at all costs due to their low AC and D6 hit dice.
However, even these use cases do not justify taking this over a more broadly applicable Metamagic Option, despite the low cost.
Empowered Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 1 Sorcery Point
When you roll damage for a spell, you can spend 1 Sorcery Point to reroll a number of the damage dice up to your Charisma modifier (minimum of one), and you must use the new rolls. You can use Empowered Spell even if you’ve already used a different Metamagic option during the casting of the spell.
Empowered Spell is a rather interesting Metamagic Option. Being able to reroll damage dice on a powerful spell is a tempting proposition, especially if those damage dice end up being 1s or 2s. While you might be inclined to use this on say, a low damage Fire Bolt, it is often best used on spells that roll a lot of damage dice such as Fireball, Lightning Bolt, and Burning Hands. On something like Fireball for example, Empowered Spell can add 12.5 addition points of damage on average (3.5 for d6 x 5 rerolls - 5). This can add a lot more oomph to a spell that might have otherwise done little damage. In addition, it is one of the few Metamagic Options that can be used in addition to another Option. With the Fireball example, a Careful Fireball could also be Empowered to do more damage. This combination can do wonders for “blaster” Sorcerers that tends to roll badly, or one that just wants a bit more firepower, especially since this combination only costs 2 Sorcery Points. It is important to note that to maximize the power of Empowered Spell, you should only really use it to reroll 1s and 2s, since if it is used on higher individual damage rolls, it could potentially reroll the spell’s damage to be lower.
However, one thing worth considering is that, at least until level 10, this takes up one of your two available Metamagic Option slots, so this is being picked over potentially more powerful and broadly applicable options. For this reason, Empowered Spell is a decently powerful Metamagic Option, but perhaps one you should only take at level 10 or above.
Extended Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 1 Sorcery Point
When you cast a spell that has a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can spend 1 Sorcery Point to double its duration to a maximum duration of 24 hours. If the affected spell requires Concentration, you have Advantage on any saving throw you make to maintain that Concentration.
Extended Spell is a surprisingly niche Metamagic Option. In theory, doubling the duration of a powerful Concentration spell can be very useful. Making a Slow or Hypnotic Pattern or Hold Person last longer on paper seems quite potent, game changing, even. But most combats last a maximum of 3 to 5 turns, making spells with a Duration up to a minute such as those (1 minute=10 rounds), more than enough on their own to last an entire combat. Spending a Metamagic Option on those, then seems rather pointless
Spells with longer durations and obvious out of combat utility, such as Charm Person, Fly, Invisibility, Darkvision, and Mage Armor benefit much more from this, and something like a 16 hour Darkvision spell can do great for dungeon crawls, or Extended Flies for more vertically inclined challenges, but even these are somewhat niche applications, especially compared to the benefits these spells can get from Options such as Twinned or Subtle.
Finally, advantage on Concentration saves is a very powerful feature, but one that can be replicated by feats such as War Caster or even Resilient (Constitution), which provides an objectively stronger numerical advantage for far less cost.
Overall, Extended Spell is a very situational Metamagic Option, and one not worth immediately taking.
Heightened Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 2 Sorcery Points
When you cast a spell that forces a creature to make a saving throw, you can spend 2 Sorcery Points to give one target of the spell Disadvantage on saves against the spell.
Heightened Spell is an incredibly potent, albeit somewhat costly Metamagic Option. Spells that force saving throws are not only incredibly common, but many of them are some of the best spells in the game. Now while one might immediately think of using this on a damaging spell such as Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Cone of Cold, or Burning Hands to have a higher chance of doing significant damage (especially if combined with Empowered Spell, though that is quite costly), the true power of this Option comes from non-damaging spells. Many spells benefit greatly from this Option. Heightened Spell can not only impose Disadvantage on the initial saves vs these powerful spells, but also on every subsequent save. The applications of this are immense. Being able to more easily shut down a powerful monster for an entire encounter with these spells is nothing short of incredible, especially when combined with cantrips such as Mind Sliver that can give further debuffs to saving throws. Like Careful Spell, this Option also scales incredibly well into the higher levels, with spells such as Disintegrate, Plane Shift, Dominate Monster, and Psychic Scream being able to readily take advantage of its ability to make saving throws much harder to deal with (Heightened Psychic Scream is especially potent, being able to even further punish monsters with poor INT saves, which are exceedingly common). As an added bonus, since many of the game’s strongest monsters have Legendary Resistances (which let them automatically succeed saving throws a limited number of times), Heightened Spell can be incredibly effective in forcing them to burn through this valuable resource, opening them up to being exploited by allies.
Heightened Spell is genuinely one of the best Metamagic Options in the entire game, hampered only by its cost. This is an easy recommendation for every Sorcerer, no matter how they are played.
Quickened Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 2 Sorcery Points
When you cast a spell that has a casting time of an action, you can spend 2 Sorcery Points to change the casting time to a Bonus Action for this casting. You can’t modify a spell in this way if you’ve already cast a level 1+ spell on the current turn, nor can you cast a level 1+ spell on this turn after modifying a spell in this way.
Quickened Spell is a solid Metamagic Option. Being able to change the casting time of most major spells to a Bonus Action opens your Sorcerer to do a variety of things. You can Quicken a Thunderwave to get a horde of enemies off them and then dash to get out of range. You can cast Mind Sliver to impose a 1d4 penalty to a saving throw and then cast a powerful spell like Slow or Hold Person as a Bonus Action. You can even use Sorcerous Burst as an action and then Quicken another Sorcerous Burst. There is a good range of use cases for Quickened Spell beyond even what I’ve gone over here, especially if you decide to look into multiclassing (Warlock with a Sorcerer dip at level 17 can in theory throw out 8 Eldritch Blasts for a total of 8d10+40 damage) However, 2 Sorcery Points can be a steep cost, especially at lower levels, and unlike Heightened Spell, which can be applied to almost every good spell the Sorcerer has and can have a rider that lasts beyond the immediate turn, Quickened Spell’s effectiveness is often more short term and ultimately narrow in its application. Quickened Spell can also scale surprisingly well. Cantrips gain bonus damage dice as you level, and as such being able to cast two Sorcerous Bursts/Fire Bolts in a single turn literally doubles in effectiveness as you level.
Overall, Quickened Spell is a good, but somewhat costly Metamagic Option that is still worth taking, even at level 2. However, it is not quite as good as the likes of Careful Spell or Heightened Spell.
Seeking Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 1 Sorcery Point
If you make an attack roll for a spell and miss, you can spend 1 Sorcery Point to reroll the d20, and you must use the new roll. You can use Seeking Spell even if you’ve already used a different Metamagic option during the casting of the spell.
Seeking Spell is a Metamagic Option that can be classified as “outclassed”. Powerful low leveled attack roll spells such as Chromatic Orb and Witch Bolt can feel quite bad to miss at low levels, so Seeking Spell allowing you to reroll those attack rolls and potentially hit can be quite useful. However, the amount of powerful leveled attack roll spells the Sorcerer has access to is limited, and as your Sorcerer gains levels, save-based spells such as Slow, Fear, Fireball, Hypnotic Pattern, etc become more common and far better, with attack roll spells being mostly limited to cantrips, which not only are not as worth using Seeking Spell with, but can also be replicated by quickening them with Quickened Spell (Since both instances quite literally allow two separate attack rolls. Quickened also has a much higher payoff with being able to do more damage if both attack rolls succeed). Even the bonus of being able to combine this with other Metamagic Options such as Quickened or Empowered Spell does not do much to help offset these issues
Seeking Spell is fine for very low levels, but very quickly falls off. This is best used between levels 2 and 4. Once level 5 is reached, you should be replace this with a Metamagic Option that scales better, such as Careful Spell or Heightened Spell.
Subtle Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 1 Sorcery Point
When you cast a spell, you can spend 1 Sorcery Point to cast it without any Verbal, Somatic, or Material components, except Material components that are consumed by the spell or that have a cost specified in the spell.
Subtle Spell is a rather niche Metamagic Option. Being able to ignore components entirely outside of Material components with a cost can be rather strong in social situations. Being able to cast Invisibility, Charm Person, Minor Illusion, Sleep, or even Silent Image without tipping anyone off can be rather potent in situations where discretion is key, such as in prison breaks, infiltrations, or negotiations. In addition, being able to make it so enemy spellcasters cannot tell you are casting a spell makes it harder for them to Counterspell you. With a cost of 1 Sorcery Point, this can be effective.
However, situations like these not only require you to take these spells (which in and of itself comes at a great cost owing to their limited Spells Known), but that you use a precious Metamagic Option slot for it. Not only that, but enemies that explicitly know and use Counterspell can be exceedingly rare. There are uses for it, and there are ways to utilize it well, but when compared to options like Quickened Spell, Careful Spell, or Heightened Spell, it simply cannot compete unless you know you are using this character in a largely roleplay/socially based campaign. In campaigns like those, this is an easy pick. Otherwise, it is not worth taking this immediately.
Transmuted Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 1 Sorcery Point
When you cast a spell that deals a type of damage from the following list, you can spend 1 Sorcery Point to change that damage type to one of the other listed types: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Poison, Thunder.
Transmuted Spell is another solid Metamagic Option. Since Sorcerers have few Spells Known, being able to switch damage types on the most common damaging spells you have can be potent, especially in campaigns that utilize enemies with resistances to common damage types such as Cold, Fire, and Poison. Being able to do so for the low cost of 1 Sorcery Point makes this quite efficient as well. A Lightning Fireball or Thunder Cone of Cold can come in handy in a large number of situations. This is another Metamagic Option that is tailored towards and recommended to “blaster” Sorcerers who rely more on high damaging spells than non-damaging ones.
For those kinds of Sorcerers, Transmuted Spell is an easy low-level pickup. For those who prefer non damaging spells, this is one that can probably be ignored until the higher levels where damage resistances become near omnipresent.
Twinned Spell
Per the PHB (Player’s Handbook):
Cost: 1 Sorcery Point
When you cast a spell, such as Charm Person that can be cast with a higher-level spell slot to target an additional creature, you can spend 1 Sorcery Point to increase the spell’s effective level by 1.
Last among the Metamagic Options is Twinned Spell. Twinned Spell is a niche Metamagic Option can be potent with the right setup. The specific wording of the Option makes the number of spells it applies to rather narrow, so no Twin Fireballs or Hastes. It does, however, apply to spells such as Command, Charm Person, or Hold Person, and being able to upcast these for the low cost of 1 Sorcery Point can be game-changingly strong. That does not change the fact though, that the list of applicable spells is incredibly small, amounting to a total of 14 spells on the Sorcerer’s spell list and 20 spells overall. Considering that the 2024 PHB has 391 spells, this is downright barren.
As such, unless you are frequently using spells such as Hold Person and Banishment, Twinned Spell cannot be recommended as a viable option, and even if they are, options like Heightened Spell combined with an upcast are genuinely more effective
While this does go over all the Metamagic Options and use cases, there is still slightly more to discuss when it comes to Metamagic as a whole.
Other Metamagic Considerations
Innate Sorcery/Sorcery Incarnate
At level 1, your sorcerer receive the Innate Sorcery feature which, twice per Long Rest and at the cost of a Bonus Action, allows a Sorcerer to both increase the save DC on Sorcerer spells by 1 and add +1 to the attack rolls of all Sorcerer spells for up to a minute. While this is already potent on its own, the way that it interacts with Metamagic is worth discussing. The +1 to attack rolls combines quite well with Seeking Spell, making those rerolls even more likely to turn a miss into a hit, and the increased save DCs make the likes of Heightened Spell even more dangerous, since it makes those saves that much harder to succeed at
Even at level 2, Innate Sorcery and Metamagic play off each other quite well, and the power of this feature is worth considering when picking Metamagic Option. However, where things get far more interesting and complex is with the Sorcerer’s level 7 feature, Sorcery Incarnate, which reads:
If you have no uses of Innate Sorcery left, you can use it if you spend 2 Sorcery Points when you take the Bonus Action to activate it. In addition, while your Innate Sorcery feature is active, you can use up to two of your Metamagic options on each spell you cast.
Being able to add two of any Metamagic Option to any spell you cast has an endless list of applications. Quickened Spell and Transmuted Spell become much stronger, allowing for things such as Quickened Transmuted Lightning Fireballs or Quickened Heightened Slows or Quickened Careful Fire Cone of Colds or even Transmuted Careful Thunder Burning Hands
Of course, there is a high cost to combine these features, but the payoff is immense. This also does make Metamagic Options such as Seeking Spell and Empowered Spell slightly weaker, since their unique conditions of being able to be combined with other Metamagic Options. Notably, these cannot even be combined with the other two Options applied to a spell to give a potential third Metamagic Option, dampening their viability even further
Innate Sorcery and Sorcery Incarnate add much more flexibility and power to a Sorcerer’s Metamagic and should absolutely be considered when picking Metamagic Options and the spells to use with them.
Arcane Apotheosis
Most campaigns will not make to the extremely high levels, but for those that do, this powerful feature awaits the mightiest of Sorcerers at level 20:
While your Innate Sorcery feature is active, you can use one Metamagic option on each of your turns without spending Sorcery Points on it.
This effectively takes Innate Sorcery and Sorcery Incarnate and cranks it to 11. Being able to use any and all Metamagic Options your Sorcerer has at this point (and by this level they have six), with one of them being free each turn opens a Pandora’s Box of possibilities. Free Quickened Sorcerous Bursts for up to a minute which allows for more chances to get its’ rider effect off, Heightened Empowered Fireballs at ⅓ the costs, Careful Cone of Colds and Sunbursts with little to no cost. All these options are incredibly potent. This also makes it easier to use niche options such as Seeking, Empowered, and Twinned spells as there is little cost to them. But there is yet another, possibly overlooked benefit to this: the lack of spent Sorcery Points means that those Points can now be used to fuel spell slots, making it easier to use powerful spells such as Cone of Cold, Fireball, Fear, Slow, Banishment and many others repeatedly
This is an incredibly potent option, perfectly befitting and benefiting the most powerful of Sorcerers.
Conclusion: Metamagic 5e
To summarize, Metamagic is an incredibly powerful, defining, and complex cornerstone of the 2024 Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Sorcerer. Though its complexities and costs can be daunting to many players, the benefits of navigating and mastering them can make Sorcerers one of the most powerful spellcasting classes in the game and your Sorcerer a boon to any party
For a final ranking of the Metamagic Options, it would go as such
10. Distant Spell
9. Seeking Spell
8. Extended Spell
7. Twinned Spell
6. Subtle Spell
5. Empowered Spell
4. Transmuted Spell
3. Quickened Spell
2. Careful Spell
1. Heightened Spel
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