I'll be using this topic to post my Words of Power playtest observations. I'll start off by showing the character that I'll be doing the playtest with, and then I'll add additional posts with my playtest experiences as they happen. This will be from the perspective of a GM running a GM character that I added in to help with the group's small party size. The character mostly plays a support role by buffing the party and throwing in occasional damage spells.
The Sorcerer is human and is using the Blue Dragon bloodline. Many of his feats are spent on crafting. I’m not going to bother writing out his full build because I feel that it is unnecessary for this sort of playtest...but if people think that it will really make a difference I may post it later.
Here is his original spell list. If the number of spells seems odd, it is because I used the Human Sorcerer favered class bonus to grant him a few additional spells. If the spell choices seem odd, it is because I wanted spells that would be useful to a GM, not necessarily the most optimal ones.
0th level: Acid Splash, Light, Read Magic, Mage Hand, Detect Magic, Arcane Mark, Prestidigitation
1st level: Disguise Self, Mage Armor, Enlarge Person, Magic Missile, Ventriloquism, Shield, Identify, Shocking Grasp.
2nd level: Acid Arrow, Bull's Strength, Resist Energy, Mirror Image, Whispering Wind, Scorching Ray
3rd level: Hold Person, Dispel Magic, Fly, Lighting Bolt
4th level: Greater Invisibility, Fear, Wall of Fire
5th level: Break Enchantment
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So, with this list in hand, I tried to create a Wordcaster version of this character that stuck as closely to the original spell list as possible. Because he is a Dragon bloodline sorcerer, he gets to keep the following spells: Mage Armor, Resist Energy, Fly, Fear.
I ran into one problem. How does the Human Sorcerer favored class bonus worth with Wordcasters? The favored class bonus states that he gains an additonal spell each time it is taken, but should he be getting effect words instead when he chooses this bonus? I decided to not use this favored class bonus to avoid throwing off the playtest.
Notable spells lost: Light, Read Magic, Shield, Mirror Image, Whispering Wind, Break Enchantment, Mage Hand, Improved Invisibility
I have to admit that when I first set out to start choosing the effect words and writing them down on my character sheet I was a bit overwhelmed. With standard spells you just write down the spell, a few details so you don't have to look it up, and its spell level. With words of power however you have to make sure you write down extra details like their costs and all the target words that work with them. I was also starting to get worried that I might not be able to handle running such a complex character while GMing the game.
In the end, I choose the following Effect Words:
0th level: All, and I had one empty slot. I’m assuming there will be more 0th level words in the future.
1st level: Burning Flash, Fortify, Shock Arc, Spook, Wrack
2nd level: Corrosive Bolt, Distant, Enhance Form, Force Bolt
3rd level: Lightning Blast, Complex Order, Torture
4th level: Fire Barrier, Perfect Form
5th level: Force Blast
Once I completed the list, I found that I had managed to organize the spell list in such a way that that it didn't look like piecing spells together on the fly would be too hard. I listed the max cost of each spell level right above the words for that level, so I knew that if I used a word of that level and wanted to keep it from creeping up to a higher level slot I could only add so much to it. I also made sure to list all of the target words on the spell list for quick reference.
Here are the encounters that happened on the first day of my playtest. This is a little short...I'm hoping to get another game in before the playtest period is over. The party’s current makeup was: Half Orc Inquisitor 10, Human Rogue 10, Gnome Bard 9, and (me) Human Blue Dragonblood Sorcerer 10.
Fight 1: 5 hill giants
The party encountered a group of 6 hill giants that were hunting a giant dire bear. They waited until after the giants fought with the bear (which killed one giant), and then attacked. I think everyone (including me) underestimated how much of a threat these guys were because they were fodder in some previous fights. Aside from the bard, no one buffed or used any of their more limited abilities, and the party almost died because of it XD
My sorcerer opened up by using a Mass Corrosive Bolt (lvl2, 5d4 over 2 rounds) on several of the giants. Next, he used a single target Lighting Blast (lvl3, 10d6+10) on a Giant that attacked him. After the lighting blast I realized that I should try to use lighting words as much as possible so that I could get +1 damage per die from his Blue Dragon bloodline power. Once another player distracted the giant, I had the sorcerer get away and drop a Small Burst Lightning Blast on the party’s rogue (who had improved evasion) and the 3 giants that were surrounding him. The rogue made his save, most of the giants didn’t and took around around 40 damage. By the 4th round of combat most of the giants were down, so I had my sorcerer cast a Mass Shock Arc (lvl 2, 5d4+5) to help finish them off. Before the fight was over the bard got smashed into the ground and had to use 2 hero points to avoid death (lol).
Thoughts on the fight: I should have opened up with a more powerful spell, possibly a Fire Barrier set in between the party and the giants. Either that, or I should have come up with a good Mass buff for the party. As a GM I found that it was hard to come up with anything more than generic AOE damage WoP spells with a single effect word while controlling the other monsters. Maybe I should look through the list and pick out some interesting combinations for future reference.
Non Fight Situation:
The party’s Inquisitor wanted to scout ahead on the Hill Giant camp they had found without having to fight a pack of Dire Wolves that were guarding it. Specifically, he was going to his his intimidation to get some information while using his aura of forgetfulness to make his victims forget that he was there. My sorcerer supplied a fly spell for this. He only had this because of his bloodline, I hope that there will eventually be a WoP version of this spell.
Fight 2: 8 Dire wolves
The party started combat against the dire wolves which were protecting the hill giant camp. There were a total of 8 wolves, but they were spread out. The fight started with 1 wolf, then the rest came into the fight spread over the next 2 rounds.
My sorcerer started off by casting Mage Armor before the fight and then Mass Fortify on the party at the very start. He followed up by casting a Mass Shock Arc (2nd level 5d4+5) to hit two wolves. When a larger group of 3 came running in from one side he cast a Small Burst Lightning Blast (3rd level, 10d6+10) on them...and rolled so high that he did over 50 damage and outright killed the two that failed their reflex saves.
Since the wolves were weak, the temporary HP from Mass Fortify stopped them from doing more than 1 or 2 points of real damage against any single party member by the end of the fight. Also, being able to shape my spells helped a lot here; I wouldn’t have been able to hit 3 wolves at once with a Lighting Bolt because they weren’t lined up. I could have used the sorcerer’s Staff of Fire, but that wouldn’t get his bloodline bonus.
Here are the main things that I noticed while doing this playtest:
- The Draconic bloodline ability to do +1 damage per die with spells of your chosen element becomes much more powerful when using Words of Power. This is because instead of being limited to only a few spells that matches his element, a WoP sorcerer can ALWAYS use his element as long as the target isn’t resistant to it. Since I was doing the playtest at level 10, that means he had a consistent +10 damage to his level 3 spells and +5 with level 1 and 2 spells. Per target of course.
- By switching between the different target words I was able to consistently hit at least half of the party’s enemies at any given moment with exactly the type of spell that I wanted to hit them with.
-Since I was GMing, I didn’t really have time to think up any fancy WoP combinations and ended up using fairly standard damage+target combos. I’ll have to write some more interesting stuff down in advance for next time so that I have something worthwhile to blow a 5th level slot on.
- I found myself shying away from using buff spells because of their short durations and instead focused on damage. The only buff I used was a Mass Fortify and Mage Armor (which isn’t even a WoP). This works somewhat against the support role that I had been intending to play this GM character with; I wanted to use him to buff the players so that they would be the ones ‘stealing the show’.
- Loss of the improved invisibility spell (until I can use a feat to get it and another spell at level 11) really decreased the party rogue’s damage per round. Sure, I could have had him blow his level 9 feat to get it, but a feat for a single spell felt expensive. I’m hoping that this will get added into WoP in some form. It seems like using Feats to buy spells is more painful for Sorcerers because their caster level increases 1 level later than Wizards...they have to wait 2 more levels than a wizard does to get the same benefit from Versatile Wordcaster. Score 1 for the wizard...and I was thinking that Sorcerers would always be the better Wordcasters.
- The highest level word I had was force blast...but I never had a reason to use it. For a Draconic bloodline sorcerer it is simply weaker than using your element and for other WoP casters you can still do more damage by combining together other words. The only reason I would want to use it is if I was fighting incorporeal creatures or ones that happened to have DR against all standard elements. It feels somewhat situational for such a high level Effect Word, maybe it should be 4th level or have higher damage?
Thoughts so far: Wordcasting is a little complex to use, but it definitely offers huge benefits to sorcerers. The ability to adjust my spells to fit the layout of the battlefield made dealing damage much easier. I’m a little worried about the short durations on the buff spells though, and I’m hoping that the final version of wordcasting will have some important effects that are currently missing from its list (invisibility, flight...).
I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what is possible with it in this playtest...mostly because as a GM I wasn’t able to devote enough thought to it. It seems to me that it is better for a player to use a wordcaster than a GM. However, I’m going to write out a list of word combinations to try for the next game so that I can do some more fun things.