Powerful Words

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

It is just about here. The newest addition to the Pathfinder RPG line releases this week and you should be able to find Ultimate Magic online or at your local game store any day now. For our final look into this mighty tome of magic, we are going to look at the Words of Power chapter.

Words of power is an alternative system of spellcasting that allows the wordcaster to create spells using any of the words that he knows. While these spells still consume specific slots, what goes in each slot each day depends entirely upon what words the wordscaster knows and how he wants to combine them.

This system went through significant revision throughout the playtesting process. Originally, the system was based on points, with each word added to a spell costing a set amount. A wordcaster could add nearly any number of words so long as the spell slot in question had enough points to pay for them. While this was supremely flexible, most found the point tracking to be too cumbersome and prone to abuse. The new system allows a wordcaster to add one effect word of a level equal to the spell slot used, or multiple words of a lower level. In addition, each spell can have one of a number of different target words (which are not counted against the total number of words in the spell) and they can include one or more meta words (which add power and flexibility to the spell). This means that most spells can be built quite easily if that is what the caster wants (which is certainly the case on the GMs side of the screen), but each can also be carefully crafted out of multiple words to create interesting and unique effects. Take the following effect words for example.

Accelerate (Time)
School transmutation; Level alchemist 2, bard 2, magus 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, summoner 2
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
Target Restrictions selected
The target of a wordspell with this effect word can take one additional move action each turn. This move action can come before, after, or between other actions, but not during a full-round action.
Boost: If the target takes a full-attack action, it can, instead of taking an extra move action, make one additional attack at its highest attack bonus.

Perfect Form (Body)
School transmutation; Level alchemist 4, bard 4, cleric 4, druid 4, magus 4, sorcerer/wizard 4, summoner 4
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yes (harmless)
Target Restriction personal, selected
The target of a wordspell with this effect word receives a +4 enhancement to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution.

Accelerate is a simple enough word, granting its target an additional move action. Perfect form is also relatively straight-forward, granting a +4 bonus to physical ability scores. One of the great things about this system is that the two could be combined by any class capable of casting both into one 5th-level wordspell that enacts both effects simultaneously.

Things get really interesting with the addition of meta words. These words allow a spellcaster to access even greater powers without, necessarily, using up a higher spell slot. For example, the boost meta words can be used with the accelerate word to grant an extra attack instead of a move action. Boosting the selected target word allows a wordspell to affect more than one target, but this has the side effect of increasing the level of spell by three levels. While meta words add a great deal of flexibility to how a wordcaster uses his magic, there is a limit to the number of meta words a wordcaster can use per day. Take a look at this powerful meta word.

Irresistible
Level 5
Targets of a wordspell with this meta word must roll their saving throws twice and take the worse result. This meta word increases the level of all the effect words in the wordspell that allow a saving throw by two levels.

As you can see, there are a great deal of possibilities with the words of power system, especially with over 120 effect words at your disposal. And with that, we wrap up our look at Ultimate Magic. We hope you use it to add a bit of magic to your game. In the coming months, expect to hear a lot about the companion to this book, Ultimate Combat, due out in August. Until then.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer