My group managed to get in a fairly short session today, although two players who were supposed to show up, didn't. Anyway, I was playing a level 7 Boreal Sorcerer who I decided to go ahead and convert to Words of Power for playtesting. We were playing the very start of Varnhold Vanishing (no spoilers are included).
Here's his spell/word list, for the record:
0--cold snap, force block, sense magic, cramp, echo
1st--(enlarge person), force shield, fortify, wrack, servitor I
2nd--(rage), frost fingers, enhance form, force bolt
3rd--(elemental aura [cold]), force armor, wind barrier
The words were chosen to keep within the Boreal Sorcerer themes -- wind, cold, and physical enhancement -- as well as provide basic functionality -- AC, detection, etc.
We didn't get much combat in, unfortunately. There were only two fights; I used a level 2 small cone fingers of frost against a couple of enemies that happened to be vulnerable to the effect, and just used physical attacks in the second fight. Neither fight lasted more than a single round.
My feedback:
With a level 7 character without the Word Burning feat, I did not feel like I really had any versatility at all. Almost all of my effect words had higher costs for multi-effect spells, and that combined with the 10 cost maximum for 3rd level spells just meant that I really could not combine them in any meaningful way. I could do a personal fortify force shield, but that was really the only viable multi-effect I could come up with, and its duration and effect just did not seem like they were worth a top level spell slot (9 points puts it in the 3rd level spell slot range).
Other possible combos I could have used:
- Personal + servitor I + force armor (or any other buffing word); at level 7, CR 1/3 creatures, even with +5 AC or +4 strength, really aren't useful.
- Single + frost fingers or force bolt + cold snap, cramp, or wrack; a 3rd level slot for moderate damage and maybe a minor status effect to a single target isn't worth it compared to a 2nd level slot for the same (frost fingers by itself).
- ... that's pretty much it.
Admittedly, I didn't pick all of my 0 and 1st level effects, but I just ran out of things that fit the character. Echo, cramp, and wrack are already stretching it.
It really didn't feel like I had any real versatility or ability to mix-and-match spell effects, and this is with a 7th level character, someone who's already a third of the way or more through his adventuring career. It felt like I was playing a standard sorcerer, except without the full list of interesting magic spells to choose from.
Oh, one more observation:
The lack of mage armor's hour per level duration really sucks. It's bad enough that I had to use a 3rd level slot for a very slightly improved 1st level spell effect, but having a duration of 70 minutes instead of 420 minutes meant that I couldn't just cast it and have it up for basically the whole adventuring day; I had to know that a fight would be coming in the imminent future, which means it was utterly useless for traveling. Which meant I had an AC of ... 12. Which meant surprise rounds were even more unpleasant.