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Dante & Vergil
2009-11-17, 06:46 PM
My Own True Sorcery Changes

Disclaimer: These are changes to a book called True Sorcery by Green Ronin Publishing, which makes it a third party book. Not very many people use these kinds of books, but for those of you who do, specifically this one, here you go.

When I first heard about the premise of True Sorcery, I was so stoked. Making your own spells AND on the fly?! Yes please! Although I couldn’t be more frustrated with how it was done. Damage grows in very small increments, making it worse than damage-dealing spells in Core (which is bad enough), you have to starve yourself to increase the duration of your spells in just as small increments, shapeshifting and summoning got the preverbal kick between the legs (but some of you may think this is a good thing), and almost nothing is based on caster level because of the ideas of the previous problems on how they have to be increased incrementally.
If you understood that (and you’re justified if you didn’t) then these are the proposed fixes to the ideas I have problems with. I may update this every so often, so you know.
Now, if you think what I am changing breaks the game, help me fix it to where it is within better numbers. I am not perfect person, so don’t be afraid to let me know. If there is something you think is wrong with the system, but I have not addressed, then say what you don’t like about it and maybe I or someone else will help fix it if you haven’t put up a fix for it already. If after all that you don’t like what changes I have done with the system and liked it the way it was before, you can speak your mind about what I’ve done, but please be courteous, and try not to derail from the main point of the thread too much. I would be very appreciative if you did that for me, but before I drag on too long here are some of the fixes.

The Changes
I think that this system is really cool, but maybe should be a supplement to magic instead of a complete replacement of the magic system, but you may feel otherwise. Just my opinion and hopefully a nice suggestion.

In Chapter Two
Augmentations
Damage
Change from +5 to +2 for adding damage die.
Empowering and Maximizing spell effects should probably be something that could be applied to any spell with variable numeric effects instead of just damage.
Empowering should be +10 instead of +20.
Maximizing should be +20 instead of +40.
Making something deal non-lethal damage shouldn’t cost anything (+0) instead of +10. (Maybe change it to a negative value.)
Now making something deal lethal damage instead of non-lethal should be changed to +10 instead of +20.

Area of Effects and Targets
*Nothing yet but the small areas are too weak to even consider so they will most likely get a change.

Range
Spells with a natural range of less then 30 ft. increase to 30 ft.
To change a spell from touch to ranged has a base of 30 ft instead of 10 ft.
Remove the “per 10/50/100 ft.” and replace them with these,
Increase range to short. - +1(DC)
Increase range to medium - +5
Increase range to long - +10

Duration
Spells with a normal duration of less than 1 round/caster level increase to 1 round/caster level.
Changing a spell from instantaneous to 1 round instead changes it to 1 round/caster level.
Remove the “per additional round/minute/hour/day”.
With the previous one in mind, when changing duration from round to minute/minute to hour/hour to day, that is per caster level.


Changes in Chapter Three
Specific Spells, in Alphabetical order
Afflict Dabbler: Add the following to the seed:
By increasing the Spellcraft DC by +15, you my instead apply a negative level to the target, which last 1 hour, instead of 1 round. If inflicting negative levels is the only effect of the spell, remove the "Will negates", with none. You may also augment the negative levels by the following table.
{table=head]Augmentation|DC Modifier|Example
Increase to 1d3|+10|Increase from 1 to 1d3 negative levels
Increase die type|+10|Increase the negative levels from 1d3 to 1d4
Per additional die|+5|Increase the negative levels from 1d3 to 2d3[/table]
Create Undead Second: Change duration to instantaneous and remove duration from augmented effects. *Specific kinds of undead will probably need to be lowered as they seem a little high.
Slay Third: The maximum HD should be based on caster level and should not have to be augmented, but still can1 doing raises your caster level with you. There really shouldn’t be a maximum HD but here is an alternative if you want something different.
Shapeshift First: The maximum HD of what you can turn into is now based off of caster level, but you still need to increase the maximum HD by augmenting it. You no longer have to augment both, but still can1.
Increasing the maximum HD should be changed from +5/HD to +3/HD. *The specific creature types will also need to be lowered because they are also too high.
Summon Dabbler: *It’s good that it’s based on CR instead of HD, but the extravagant cost is ridiculous to summon something level appropriate. There will be two versions of this spell; one to temporarily summon creatures to do your bidding already under your control (like the Summon series of spells), and another where you have to bargain with the creature (like the Planar Binding spells), but you’ll increase the duration of the spell (like one rank after all other augmentations).
1 These will most likely be optional rulings. Raising something based on caster level beyond what caster level you have should increase your caster level for that effect as well as the maximum.

Changelog
October 14, 2009 - When I first decided to write this up. I changed the Augmentations for Damage, Range, and Duration. Changed Create Undead, Slay, and Shapeshift.
November 17, 2009 - I actually posted it one GitP! Hurray!!:smallbiggrin:
February 25, 2010 - I removed certain changes as I have been informed that they are not needed.

hiryuu
2009-11-18, 05:40 AM
First, double-check the bonuses you can get by taking extra time, then note that you can prepare spells ahead of time: you can spend all the time you need casting, say, a standard fireball or other damaging spell and then "hold it" until you need it (right there on page 17). Also, don't forget to add components and a Focus (+10 to the check, that's +2d6 damage right there).

Summoning? Kick in the legs? HA! Note that you can get perma-minions with the Summon spell for very little personal cost as it stands; they may be weak, but given a couple of days you can have an army of little beasties at your beck and call (that's why they limited the HD you can control, clever bastards).

Second, True Sorcery is supposed to be a little weaker than PH spellcasting in exchange for versatility. On the other hand, you can get some bonuses to Spellcraft checks that Epic characters would envy very quickly (at around level 3 or so, you can get +32 to +44 easily, and only +2 of that comes from ability score modifiers), especially if you use those spell energy points you get from the class. In play, it works out to about the same.

Dante & Vergil
2010-02-22, 11:04 PM
It 's taken awhile but here's something.
1. If I read correctly, talking time bonuses apply after determining how many actions it takes to cast, so it takes longer periods of time to cast. If this is correct, I'm going change it so it applies beforehand. Of course you may have already known this. The memorization does help things so some changes I thought of aren't going to happen.
2. Yeah, I know that now.
3. I know it is, but some of these changes do have merit. This system is based on The Black Company Campaign Setting system, and I know, at least, increasing the number of damage dice was only +2 istead of +5 as it is now.
I also noticed the horrendous pricing of magic items, especially the major ones. The price difference may not matter if it's a complete magic system transfer, but if you are going to switch out the sorcerer or something like that, then something needs to change.
Also, I want to add negative levels to the afflict seed or another apropriate seed.

Dante & Vergil
2010-02-25, 04:34 PM
Under Augmented Effects for the AfflictDabbler seed, add the following:
By increasing the Spellcraft DC by +15, you my instead apply a negative level to the target, which last 1 hour, instead of 1 round. If inflicting negative levels is the only effect of the spell, remove the "Will negates", with none. You may also augment the negative levels by the following table.
{table=head]Augmentation|DC Modifier|Example
Increase to 1d3|+10|Increase from 1 to 1d3 negative levels
Increase die type|+10|Increase the negative levels from 1d3 to 1d4
Per additional die|+5|Increase the negative levels from 1d3 to 2d3[/table]