I really like the idea behind True Sorcery (free-form spellcasting), but (as plenty of people before me have noted) the DCs are ridiculous.
I'm wondering if any of you have seen (a) working fix(es) for any aspects of the spellcasting system?
Additionally, thematically speaking (as opposed to game balance considerations in this case), I don't particularly love that the spellcaster only ends up able to cast a small (~1/4-1/3) of the spells to be cast. While the True Sorcery Spellcaster gains unrivaled versatility with the spells related to the Talents he has, he again only ends up with a small subset of those Talents. It's hard to think of him as truly versatile without that second element at play.
can you link any of the things you mantioned here?
are they paizo material or 3rd party?
I only just discovered Words of Power. I like it, but it also suffers from a couple problems: 1) it's got very little support, and 2) in some ways it's not that far from Vancian Casting. Why does the Wizard have to prepare individual words in slots?
(Game Balance is the answer, of course, and I respect that, but flavor-wise it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.)
If worse comes to worse, this is definitely the route I'd take. (I'll have to expand the word options a bit to get some of the most flavorful spells, but it's a good option.)
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I've played a true sorcery Spellcaster before and the DCs do get pretty high when people decide to be ridiculous.
When I started using it I went for big effects and knocked myself unconcious repeatedly. Eventually I found thinking smaller worked best, a lot of the spells I used were very minor but still effective. They also took less time, less drain and were easy to roll.
The Big Spells were things I would cast ahead of time when I had an hour or two in the morning before we went adventuring. (EX: A tarot Card reading that would grant me one Large bonus at some point within the next 24 hours). The Prepared spells would also be some of my more powerful ones because you could use the longer casting time as part of the preparation.
When you get into it it's a really great system. Yes really big spells have really high DCs. This is offset by the fact that you can get a lot of bonuses on the rolls by taking more time to cast and spending Mana. Foci and Material Components are a big thing as well.
Sticking to the smaller uses of magic for most things ('I give the fighter a +2 Deflection bonus for a couple of rounds' or 'I throw a 3d6 bolt of fire') keeps you effective for most of the adventure. If you need something slightly bigger you ask the fighter to cover you for a few rounds.
You hold your two or three prepared big spells for when you really need to unload.
Unfortunately the system is still 3E not Pathfinder and could use some updating. I'm hoping it's on Green Ronin's to-do list.
Oh if you are using True Sorcery make your Spell Book. Can not stress that enough. Flexible system is great and all but writing your spells down ahead of time so that you know the DCs and casting times and everything else prevents you from bogging down the combat round. If you are going to be spontanious in your casting work the spell out while other people are taking their turn so that you are ready to go when it gets around to you.
Nothing hurts game flow more than Math and True Sorcery needs a lot of math
If you are interested there are some other magic systems you might want to take a look at.
Elements of Magic is kind of a nice middle ground between True Sorcery and Vancian Very Flexible spell point based system
Spheres of Power is a Talent based system that grants at-will magic that can be customized as you learn more. It's fairly recent and pretty well done with a lot of options for customizing the system to your personal setting
Awesome! Thanks. :)