I just read through the Words of Power PDF and I have to say I'm impressed. Next time I make a caster I plan to use this system. With that in mind, I have a couple of things I wanted to clarify.
First, the Mass target word; the word Mass is usually associated with positive spells (such as bull's strength or cat's grace). However, the target word doesn't mention anything of the sort. Am I correct in assuming that this can be used for offensive spells as well?
If this is correct, I could combine Mass with Burning Flash (boosted) to create a spell similar to Scorching Ray. A 4th level sorcerer could then deal 4d6 damage to up to 4 targets, with a reflex save for half damage. This seems significantly more powerful than Scorching Ray. If I used Frost Fingers instead of Burning Flash, I could deal the same damage and stagger all the targets.
These are really fun spells, but they seem a little more powerful than the baseline.
My second question is less of a rules clarification, and more of a design question. Can anyone explain why a spell must contain two effect words before a meta word can be used?