Coming up in the next campaign my group is going to be running I intend to play a Halfling Draconic Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple. For those that care, I know its not the most optimized but I am sticking to the fearless halfling with mysterious Green Dragon heritage for roleplay reasons.
Since the book is released I am considering trying out Wordcasting. My question is what do others think about the words of power system? What are some good combinations you have already thought of?
FYI, the primary schools of magic I am intending to use if I stick with normal spell rules are Enchantment, Illusion, and Evocation. Mostly Enchantment and Illusion with enough evocation to support when blasting may be needed. Of course, other schools arent off limits just not necessarily the focus. Also, I am not married to those 3 schools as primaries, those are simply my thoughts for now. I certainly do not want to create just a blaster though, I want utility.
Any advice would be appreciated.
I'm still in the process of absorbing the Words of Power system, so I can't give you too much advice. I'm designing a sorcerer as well, and I'm considering being a wordcaster; from what some people have posted, it has the potential of offering some versatility to the sorcerer, something it desperately needs, IMO.
That being said, from what I've heard, the system favors certain types of spells while making others less effective. For instance, the equivalent to mage armor only lasts 10 min/level, instead of an hour. I'd think about what kind of caster you wish to play, and then examine the wordspells that might apply. Compare the two and see which is more to your liking. It might be that the standard system works better. Or not.
Potential word list when the halfling is 10th lvl. UMD will be a maxed skill btw, intend to make full use of any magical item I can.
0 lvl - Sense Magic, Lift, Echo, Decipher, Cramp, Acid Burn, Force Block
Meta - Distant, Lengthy
1st lvl - Friendship, Simple Order, Fog Bank, Wrack
Meta - Quiet
2nd lvl - Decelerate, Corrosive Acid, Disappear, Sense Hidden
3rd lvl - Complex Order, Dimensional Hop, Paralyze Humanoid
4th lvl - Life Leech, Extra Word Feat(Blizzard, Fire Blast)
5th lvl - Im thinking either Crush Will or Dimensional Jump as the 1st 5th lvl word.
Bonus Spells from Blood line - Mage Armor, Resist Energy, Fly, Fear, Spell Resistance, Form of the Dragon 1-3, and Wish.
If I decide to go the route of word caster I intend to discuss with my DM if I can substitute the word equivalents for the bonus spells that have one, such as Mage Armor is equivalent to Force Shield.
Of course the above would completely depend upon just how the campaign plays out. If I find out we face alot of immune to mind affecting then my spell list will need to change. Also, I would definitely use the Manifestation meta word as my next 4th lvl word at lvl 11 to help stick enemy casters with enchantment effects.
I've spent quite a bit of time looking at the Words of Power system, and I would recommend just using the Experimental Spellcaster feat a few times to get whatever words you're after. There's too many weaknesses in the system to justify going full Wordcaster.
For example:
1) Force Shield is a really really bad version of Mage Armor
2) You can't get the equivelant of the Shield spell. Protection from XXX is the only effect word which provides a Deflection bonus, and it's not as good as the standard Protection From Evil/Good/etc.
3) You can't cast spells like Blur, Displacement, Mirror Image, etc
4) Multi-monster Summoning is horrendously expensive, although single monster summoning is slightly improved
5) No Color Spray, Glitterdust, etc equivelant
6) No permanent walls, such as Wall of Stone or Iron. WoP walls all last rounds/level.
Essentially all you can do with the WoP system is Charm/Dominate, Hold, and get some very flexible blaster combinations. You can get access to these things through the Experimental Spellcaster feat, and maintain the power of a standard spellcaster.
*I haven't mastered this, please take this with a grain of salt*
I think wordcasting is best for blasters, allows TONS of flexibility, like the 3.5 warmage.
I'm most impressed with the barrier and blast targets.
Opens up really nifty effects, like a simple order barrier, or a hold person 20' radius.
rkraus2 wrote: *I haven't mastered this, please take this with a grain of salt*
I think wordcasting is best for blasters, allows TONS of flexibility, like the 3.5 warmage.
I'm most impressed with the barrier and blast targets.
Opens up really nifty effects, like a simple order barrier, or a hold person 20' radius.
This is the type of trap you get sucked into with the WoP system, on initial reading. You see all these awesome possibilities. And then you go back and read the fine print, and realize that no Binding word can have a Target word of Burst.
A lot of the cool combinations you come up with on initial read through turn out to either be illegal due to Target word restrictions, result in prohibitively high wordspell levels because a lot of effect words are over-priced, or turn effects with durations of rounds/level into instantaneous (aka useless) because you wanted to add some other component to the spell (like a blast).
Before taking this system, I'd consider what types of regular spells you'd want your caster to have. And then see if it's even possible to create those under the WoP system. If not, at least you know going in that you aren't going to ever be casting those spells, except from a magic item.
Adam Ormond wrote: I've spent quite a bit of time looking at the Words of Power system, and I would recommend just using the Experimental Spellcaster feat a few times to get whatever words you're after. There's too many weaknesses in the system to justify going full Wordcaster.
For example:
1) Force Shield is a really really bad version of Mage Armor
2) You can't get the equivelant of the Shield spell. Protection from XXX is the only effect word which provides a Deflection bonus, and it's not as good as the standard Protection From Evil/Good/etc.
3) You can't cast spells like Blur, Displacement, Mirror Image, etc
4) Multi-monster Summoning is horrendously expensive, although single monster summoning is slightly improved
5) No Color Spray, Glitterdust, etc equivelant
6) No permanent walls, such as Wall of Stone or Iron. WoP walls all last rounds/level.
Essentially all you can do with the WoP system is Charm/Dominate, Hold, and get some very flexible blaster combinations. You can get access to these things through the Experimental Spellcaster feat, and maintain the power of a standard spellcaster.
I agree with many of your points but I also see some flexibility in the system that regular spell casting does not have. Such as,
2) Your right that Alignment Shield does not have the protection from compulsion effect in the word, however you get to choose the alignment at the time of casting. Arguably not that great considering a party is normally going to be using prot from evil and not the others but still good flexibility.
3 and 5) The lack of these equivalents is something I seriously do not like as well.
As for other flexibility I like that in WoP a caster can learn 1 word for an effect and get both its normal version and greater version...
-Disappear is Invisibility and Boost Disappear is Greater Invisibility
-Selected Complex Order is Suggestion while Boost Selected Complex Order is Mass Suggestion.
--The same for Crush Will
-Decipher is Read (Insert Language at time of casting) Thats awesome!
-Accelerate is a lesser version of Haste, however, Decelerate is a 2nd lvl version of Slow to a single target. Yes, sadly to make it full slow it would be a 5th lvl word though.
-Boost Selected Borrow Future is broken imo.
-Fog Bank is much better than Fog Cloud. The versatility of the word version far surpasses the regular spell.
--Barrier Fog Bank, Burst Fog Bank, Burst Boost Fog Bank
--Fog Bank, Echo - While that increases the lvl it provides sound inside your fog, you can create the thought that there is something/someone coming out of it or behind it. Fog Bank, Echo over a pit...there are some good possibilities with this one.
Lastly, Dimensional Hop seems potentially broken. At 1st glance Im sure most see a bad version of D Door. I did too. But as I thought about it I think its very powerful within its own right.
-Selected Dimensional Hop - 3rd lvl spell. For a sorcerer its at least 6th lvl caster so Selected would give it a range of 40 ft when 1st taken. The combination does not require you to touch the target, only that they are willing. So within 40ft radius of the caster you can move any single person on the battlefield to any other location within your sight.
--Need someone grappling/disrupting the caster in the back?
--Is your friend in the jaws of a huge monster?
--Is a party member about to die and no one can get to him?
-Selected Dimensional Hop Distant - 4th lvl spell, do all that within 180 ft.
-Boost Selected Dimensional Hop - 6th lvl spell- Party wide, 220 ft.
However, I am not trying to sell the WoP system. I am not sold on it myself. I am just bringing up some of the good things I see in it and asking if others see other good things or if the consensus is to just take a few words through the Experimental Caster Feat.
Am I missing something or does this system completely nerf illusions. The 3rd level word Glimmering creates a visual illusion...? That is equivalent to the first level spell minor image. Whoopdidoo. The 3rd level wizard spell Major Image has visual, audible, olfactory, and thermal components. The word of power pretty much sucks.
arkady_v wrote: Am I missing something or does this system completely nerf illusions. The 3rd level word Glimmering creates a visual illusion...? That is equivalent to the first level spell minor image. Whoopdidoo. The 3rd level wizard spell Major Image has visual, audible, olfactory, and thermal components. The word of power pretty much sucks. I agree, illusion isnt represented well in WoP.
From what I can tell, WOP gives a lot of versatility to blasters but screws you on pretty much everything else.
Being able to blast and throw in, say, a hold person effect so the whole spell can target Will save is nice. No more evasion!
I got really excited about this, but after some thinking I would probably only take the Experimental Caster feat.
AceMcGrudy wrote: From what I can tell, WOP gives a lot of versatility to blasters but screws you on pretty much everything else.
Being able to blast and throw in, say, a hold person effect so the whole spell can target Will save is nice. No more evasion!
I got really excited about this, but after some thinking I would probably only take the Experimental Caster feat.
Ditto. I'll probably end up taking Experimental Caster a few times down the line to pick up the wordspells that are scalable; Disappear is a nice two for one deal, as are some of the other wordspells Fing used as examples. Those wordspells would be awesome for sorcerers.
Adam Ormond wrote: I've spent quite a bit of time looking at the Words of Power system, and I would recommend just using the Experimental Spellcaster feat a few times to get whatever words you're after. There's too many weaknesses in the system to justify going full Wordcaster.
For example:
4) Multi-monster Summoning is horrendously expensive, although single monster summoning is slightly improved
Not true, In fact, it's the opposite. You simply boost the summon and you get 1d4+1 of them! And there is no added levels for boosting! You can only boost a certain number of times per day, but the summon is much more powerful since the average boosted summon will be 3-4 monsters at once!
Plus, it only takes a standard action to summon them.
This is EXTREMELY powerful.
FaveDave wrote: Adam Ormond wrote: I've spent quite a bit of time looking at the Words of Power system, and I would recommend just using the Experimental Spellcaster feat a few times to get whatever words you're after. There's too many weaknesses in the system to justify going full Wordcaster.
For example:
4) Multi-monster Summoning is horrendously expensive, although single monster summoning is slightly improved
Not true, In fact, it's the opposite. You simply boost the summon and you get 1d4+1 of them! And there is no added levels for boosting! You can only boost a certain number of times per day, but the summon is much more powerful since the average boosted summon will be 3-4 monsters at once!
Plus, it only takes a standard action to summon them.
This is EXTREMELY powerful. Read it again. You don't boost the effect word Servitor, but the target word. The only target word allowed is Selected. Boost Selected increases the level of all effect words by +3.
VERY expensive.
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