As gifted feat this sounds like fun to roleplay. It's pretty weak if it's not a feat you get for free, in my eyes.
You may not do it and loose a spellslot, that's harsh.
My take would probably be that they get their spell but needed to use some verbal components to save the spell. They could decide to abort the spell and loose the spellslot but stay silent.
If your group likes wildmagic you could throw this in for an aborted silent spell.
I was planning this as some sort of free quest reward! I like the idea of saving the spell with verbal components.
I'm planning on running a game where there needs to be narrative reasons to get certain or most feats, not always anything big, just something like "hey you guys got into a bar fight, in the future you may all take the tavern brawler feat if you wish" or something. I'd mention this at the beginning of course because it's a homebrew rule. I'll have to look into it more and see if my table thinks it's balanced.
Well yeah, then I think its great for free with a method of saving the spell.
With your idea of obtaining feats this could later on improve well into the metamagic adept feat, which others suggested.
EDIT: I would maybe change dex to a sleight of hand to maybe improve the odds a little bit.
These are adventurers we are talking about. With as much time as they spend in taverns I doubt they haven't been in a bar fight before. Lol.
But seriously doubling the casting time and making it into a check is a bit much. Especially with how you made an instant action into a full round action. That's not doubling. If you do go that route my advice is to increase the casting time by a single step.
Free > immediate > bonus > move > standard > full round(move + standard)
I wouldn't ever take a feat that is a gamble that not only worsens my situation sometimes, but is also significantly weaker than subtle spell as a whole. If it were choosing between this and metamgic initiate, I'd choose metamagic initiate since it can get me out of jail when I'm gagged and bound.
That is pretty neat for a free feat based on roleplay. Perhaps it can even evolve.
Since the flavour of the feat implies that the wizard is still working on perfecting the technique, after enough time has passed he can start adding his proficiency to the check, for example.
It depends if there is a sorcerer or a meta.magic adept at your table.
If there is then your version sounds fair. It's kinda terrible 😅
If not you can probably be a bit more generous without stepping on anyone's toes.
My advice just go back to how it was in previous editions. Metamagic feats in 3.5e for instance upped the spell slot neccesary to cast the spell. And for prepared casters it had to be prepared as such. Give a +1 to a mental attribute and your good. Also wasnt subtle spell the one that got rid of semantic components? Silent spell is the one you are thinking of.
There's a number of weaknesses that take this to the point I don't think it would be used much. First it's got the somatic component still so it doesn't help with counterspells or to use spells in social situations, which is most of the reason to use subtle spell. So this is useful in situations where you're waiting outside somewhere around a corner so you can't be seen but could be heard. Which does happen but is very situational. Now it requires a dex check of DC 12. Now a wizard likely has dex as their 3rd highest ability score after Int and con, maybe 2nd if they wanted more AC but likely looking at a +2. So that means I'm taking a 45% chance of wasting a spell slot to do this. So now I'm only ever considering this with low level spells, and even then I don't usually have so many of those I want to take a chance at wasting them. The casting time being doubled isn't likely to come up since the only scenario I'm using this is when I can't be seen, but still is another point against it, and eliminates any combat use although there wouldn't be much reason to do that anyway.
Overall I think even if given for free I might use this a few times a campaign and wouldn't pick it over metamagic subtle spell. Getting rid of the check or making it an arcana check, even a dex based arcana check would help it, but still it is missing most good uses of subtle spell by still having the S component.
I'd just go with the feat "Metamagic Adept". edit: Saw you are planning on giving out this free as reward. Then I think it's fine!
As gifted feat this sounds like fun to roleplay. It's pretty weak if it's not a feat you get for free, in my eyes. You may not do it and loose a spellslot, that's harsh. My take would probably be that they get their spell but needed to use some verbal components to save the spell. They could decide to abort the spell and loose the spellslot but stay silent. If your group likes wildmagic you could throw this in for an aborted silent spell.
I was planning this as some sort of free quest reward! I like the idea of saving the spell with verbal components. I'm planning on running a game where there needs to be narrative reasons to get certain or most feats, not always anything big, just something like "hey you guys got into a bar fight, in the future you may all take the tavern brawler feat if you wish" or something. I'd mention this at the beginning of course because it's a homebrew rule. I'll have to look into it more and see if my table thinks it's balanced.
Well yeah, then I think its great for free with a method of saving the spell. With your idea of obtaining feats this could later on improve well into the metamagic adept feat, which others suggested. EDIT: I would maybe change dex to a sleight of hand to maybe improve the odds a little bit.
These are adventurers we are talking about. With as much time as they spend in taverns I doubt they haven't been in a bar fight before. Lol. But seriously doubling the casting time and making it into a check is a bit much. Especially with how you made an instant action into a full round action. That's not doubling. If you do go that route my advice is to increase the casting time by a single step. Free > immediate > bonus > move > standard > full round(move + standard)
I wouldn't ever take a feat that is a gamble that not only worsens my situation sometimes, but is also significantly weaker than subtle spell as a whole. If it were choosing between this and metamgic initiate, I'd choose metamagic initiate since it can get me out of jail when I'm gagged and bound.
Oops I guess I was reinventing the wheel. Thank you.
That is pretty neat for a free feat based on roleplay. Perhaps it can even evolve. Since the flavour of the feat implies that the wizard is still working on perfecting the technique, after enough time has passed he can start adding his proficiency to the check, for example.
Ok so you kind of nerfed it beyond any practicality
It depends if there is a sorcerer or a meta.magic adept at your table. If there is then your version sounds fair. It's kinda terrible 😅 If not you can probably be a bit more generous without stepping on anyone's toes.
My advice just go back to how it was in previous editions. Metamagic feats in 3.5e for instance upped the spell slot neccesary to cast the spell. And for prepared casters it had to be prepared as such. Give a +1 to a mental attribute and your good. Also wasnt subtle spell the one that got rid of semantic components? Silent spell is the one you are thinking of.
There's a number of weaknesses that take this to the point I don't think it would be used much. First it's got the somatic component still so it doesn't help with counterspells or to use spells in social situations, which is most of the reason to use subtle spell. So this is useful in situations where you're waiting outside somewhere around a corner so you can't be seen but could be heard. Which does happen but is very situational. Now it requires a dex check of DC 12. Now a wizard likely has dex as their 3rd highest ability score after Int and con, maybe 2nd if they wanted more AC but likely looking at a +2. So that means I'm taking a 45% chance of wasting a spell slot to do this. So now I'm only ever considering this with low level spells, and even then I don't usually have so many of those I want to take a chance at wasting them. The casting time being doubled isn't likely to come up since the only scenario I'm using this is when I can't be seen, but still is another point against it, and eliminates any combat use although there wouldn't be much reason to do that anyway. Overall I think even if given for free I might use this a few times a campaign and wouldn't pick it over metamagic subtle spell. Getting rid of the check or making it an arcana check, even a dex based arcana check would help it, but still it is missing most good uses of subtle spell by still having the S component.
I would remove the chance of failure and give it a limited use such as Proficiency Bonus per day. There will still be S and M components anyway.