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Well, the level 9 bard actually has a +25 perform check with his instrument: 22 cha = +6 (18 base, +2 from bonus ability points, +2 enhancement bonus from a cloak of cha) +2 competence bonus (circlet of persuasion) +2 circumstance bonus (masterwork instrument) +12 ranks +3 skill focus. So he always succeeds in intensifying spellnotes 100%. (I'm aware that parts of this are my fault, including ruling for the +3 skill focus alternative) I'm thinking of ruling that the circlet of persuasion doesn't apply to combat perform checks, and I'm going to be a real stickler about making sure he has his instrument out if he's using it, but the point remains, especially given that there's no critical failure of skill checks.

27d6 is the limit for a sorceror in the PHB, who can only metamagic one spell in a round and can't quicken . . . though if you allow the arcane preparation feat (which in fact I do) that problem is solved. I do take the points on multiple opponents and range, and in fact, in this particular combat, the final opponent kept himself alive for quite a while merely by staying out of range.

As to the subject of how to revise things I think failure if you fail the perform check is too harsh particularly if combined with limiting it to 1 per round. I /had/ considered if you fail the perform check having damage reduced by 1 die or 50%, but as I pointed out above, that wouldn't change things for me anyhow.

In many ways, my concern isn't really so much the actual damage figure coming from a bard, its that he's using so few /spellnotes/ to do it. (Which combined with the ability to break chords into spellnotes means he can keep it up for a /long/ time). A sorceror or wizard metamagicing a spell bumps it to a higher spell level (as does a bard when he uses the weave ability), a bard using metasong has absolutely no penlaties for things that would cost a sorceror or wizard several spell levels(doubling the damage would be +4 spell levels). As a sidenote, this means that I don't see any need to limit the number of times a bard can weave in a round.

On the whole, when I originally looked at the metasong feats, I agreed with Postell: Bards are already performing to cast their spells, and a metasong feat was just stressing a particular aspect of the performance with a perform check to see if they did it well enough. Only one metasong feat could be applied to a spell. I rather like postell's idea of having it take a bit longer and allowing more from an abstract standpoint, another possibility is you up the DC. (You declare all the metasongs on a spellsong, then make a perform check DC=DC of highest metasong effect + 1/4th the sum of the DCs of the secondary metsong effects) However, in consideration of game balance for the moment I think I'm going to have to stick with 1 metasong feat applied per round on the theory that applying one is an extra effort above the standard casting. I remain curious what Monte was thinking on this subject when he wrote it, as opinion seems fairly evenly split.

-Arkenian the Golden