So I've recently purchased the True Sorcery document, and on a whole, I'm genuinely impressed with the supplement. The open-ended, free form spell effects is a definate relief from the stifling standard d20 spell slots. The only part of True Sorcery I have an issue with is the lengthy casting times; I'm a fan of fast-paced, cinematic magic and was wondering if there were alternatives to shorten the time of lower level effects to a full round or standard action. All I've come up with so far is a Spell Mastery like feat that allows the caster to be able to cast a number of spell effects equal to his/her intelligence modifier as a standard action. Is this a good idea or should I try something else? Also, would it be vile blashpmey to lower the Base Spellcraft DC of effects above Dabbler by 5 (again, for my love of flashy magic)?
True Sorcery Question
- Thread starter Nowhere
- Start date
What I would do is something more along the lines of a feat that adds +x to Magic Use skill, solely for the purpose of determining casting times. You can make +x fairly large (+10?), because this is the only benefit the feat grants.
You can even add a variant of this to the True Sorcerer's class features. Say, for every y levels, they get an additional (small) +x bonus to Magic Use for determining casting times only.
This would be much better than a feat which allows True Sorcerers to cast 3-5 spells a round or more.
Lowering the DC of Talents is a tricky thing. Sure, you can get your spellcasters throwing flashy spells around, but you always have to be aware that magic, in general, and True Sorcery, in particular, can end up being game-breaking. Give it a try, and if suddenly everyone is taking levels in True Sorcerer, you know you've made it too effective.
You can even add a variant of this to the True Sorcerer's class features. Say, for every y levels, they get an additional (small) +x bonus to Magic Use for determining casting times only.
This would be much better than a feat which allows True Sorcerers to cast 3-5 spells a round or more.
Lowering the DC of Talents is a tricky thing. Sure, you can get your spellcasters throwing flashy spells around, but you always have to be aware that magic, in general, and True Sorcery, in particular, can end up being game-breaking. Give it a try, and if suddenly everyone is taking levels in True Sorcerer, you know you've made it too effective.
Pbartender
First Post
Nowhere said:
Yep, it's easy, there's two ways to do it, and they're both already right there in the rules...
First, just make sure that the total DC of the spell is low enough, and your Spellcraft bonus is high enough.
A 3rd level Spellcaster with an 18 Intelligence can have a Spellcraft skill of +10. With Skill Focus and Magical Aptitude as feats, it goes up to +15. Add in Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus, you can boost it up to +18 for a single Talent. Any Spellcaster, regardless of race, can have all four of those feats by 3rd level.
So, this particular Spellcaster can cast effects with a DC of 15 (18 for a single Talent) or less
as a swift action, DCs of 16-20 (19-23) as a standard action, and DCs of 21-25 (24-28) as a full-round action (or two standard actions). That's not too shabby. All of the easiest effects that emulate low-level spells like shocking grasp and burning hands will cast very quickly.
In addition, you can still prepare a handful of spells ahead of time to cast as a standard action (pages 17 & 18 in TS)...
That means our 3rd-level, 16 Int Spellcaster can stash away three of his biggest spells to use at a moment's notice.
There really isn't any need to mess with this particular rule in TS.
M'kay, thanks for the feedback. I'll leave the Spellcraft DC untouched. I think I'll play test with varient casting times, but if it doesn't work out, I can just as easily go back with the offical times.
Well, that's the general idea; I'm running a d20 Modern campaign wherein the Spellcaster is a racial/class (giving them acces to the various magnitude class features at the approate character level that corresponds to the d20 Fantasy Spellcasting class; not sure if I'm gonna give em the bonus Talent feat at every other level though) template applied to the PCs. The basic premise is a small group of paranormal investigator-mages, each with their pwn particular area of magical experties, fighting against supernatural threats, evil wizards, and Lovecraftian horrors much in the tradition of Hellboy. Not the most original concept, but it works for me.
Tarek said:
Well, that's the general idea; I'm running a d20 Modern campaign wherein the Spellcaster is a racial/class (giving them acces to the various magnitude class features at the approate character level that corresponds to the d20 Fantasy Spellcasting class; not sure if I'm gonna give em the bonus Talent feat at every other level though) template applied to the PCs. The basic premise is a small group of paranormal investigator-mages, each with their pwn particular area of magical experties, fighting against supernatural threats, evil wizards, and Lovecraftian horrors much in the tradition of Hellboy. Not the most original concept, but it works for me.
Pbartender said:
I've asked about this in different threads, and never seem to get a straight answer. Any chance you might know the answer?
If you've got a spellcaster with 16 INT, and he creates 3 different spells, say, a Fireball (4d6, 30' rad), Armour (+6 AC, 10 rounds), and Fly (30', 5 rounds), does he have to prepare all three ahead of time? More specifically, if he uses that Fireball he prepared ahead of time, does it get "used up"? Like once he uses it once to cast it as a standard action, does that mean that if he tries to cast it a second time in a combat, he's now taking the 5 rounds to prepare it again?
Or can he continue to use those 3 spells he's prepared, all day long, as long as he's not running out of energy points?
This is something I've been trying to figure out, but haven't found a straight answer on.
Banshee
igavskoga
First Post
Regarding Storing Spells:
The wording is a tad ambiguous, however, the way I would, and have, run it would be fire and forget. The fact that the spell is "completed" upon uttering the initiator, that one must concentrate on the spell effect to keep it in mind[1], and the fact that you lose the spells if you go unconscious (asleep, negative hp, etc) all points towards a fire and forget... at least to me.
That's how I'd read it at any rate. Being able to spend hours casting spells well above your level and have them available as standard actions until you went to sleep or were knocked out would be a tad unbalancing. Tho it would be somewhat self-correcting, since you suck the drain when the spell is completed, each time its completed, so it may not be that bad to allow it.
[1]- Hence anything distracting would require a concentration check - its not explicitly stated, but the old wording in the BCCS magic section does, I'm not sure why it didn't carry over since the entire section is almost word for word, errata maybe?
The wording is a tad ambiguous, however, the way I would, and have, run it would be fire and forget. The fact that the spell is "completed" upon uttering the initiator, that one must concentrate on the spell effect to keep it in mind[1], and the fact that you lose the spells if you go unconscious (asleep, negative hp, etc) all points towards a fire and forget... at least to me.
That's how I'd read it at any rate. Being able to spend hours casting spells well above your level and have them available as standard actions until you went to sleep or were knocked out would be a tad unbalancing. Tho it would be somewhat self-correcting, since you suck the drain when the spell is completed, each time its completed, so it may not be that bad to allow it.
[1]- Hence anything distracting would require a concentration check - its not explicitly stated, but the old wording in the BCCS magic section does, I'm not sure why it didn't carry over since the entire section is almost word for word, errata maybe?
Similar Threads
