Words of Power--anybody have their own brew?

[Fepriest]

I find myself disappointed by the Words of Power as they are presently manifested. Paizo introduced an interesting system, but the whole thing felt rather skeletal. And syntactically limp.

So--does anyone have their own version of this? I really hope so--the system could be fantastic with the addition of more words--but the whole system feels like a novelty right now.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

I have revised about 30+ words. The problem I am having with the system as presented is that some of the words are too focused. And the large variety leads a few holes open to abuse. I am slowly rebuilding the whole system. Less words and more boosts per word. There are too many words to effectively DM the system.

For example, there are 4 acid words. I reduced them to 1 word. I removed the acid effects built into the word.

ACID:

School conjuration (creation) [acid]
Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw Reflex half; Spell Resistance no

A wordspell with this effect word deals 1d3 points of acid damage.

Boost A wordspell with this effect word deals 1d4 points of acid damage per level of the wordcaster (maximum 5d4). Boosting this effect word increases its level by 1.
Boost A wordspell with this effect word deals 1d6 points of acid damage per level of the wordcaster (maximum 10d6). Boosting this effect word increases its level by 3.
Boost A wordspell with this effect word deals 1d6 points of acid damage per level of the wordcaster (maximum 20d6). Boosting this effect word increases its level by 5.

Other Stuff Changed:
1) Changed to make each class more distinct as to which words they can use.
2) Added a few new effects words (lingering, cloud, sphere).
3) Added new targeting word (glyph/rune)

Still a work in progress though. Building toward a Rune Guardian prestige class.

[Red_Dragon]

That sounds great! I'd like to see that when it's finished

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Fepriest wrote:

Paizo introduced an interesting system, but the whole thing felt rather skeletal. And syntactically limp.

What you said came back to me while playing Skyrim last night. You could create words or sounds for the words of power. Like how the Norse runes of power were unique to each individual. You could do the same in your game. Or create a primal magic language.

Example from the PRD:
Selected Alignment Shield Enhance Form Grave Bane (cleric 6)

Could be said as:
Vo(Selected) Sem(Alignment Shield) Grer(Enhance Form) Emist(Grave Bane)

I am going to do this for my words of power now. Seems I need to start looking into phonetics...

[Red_Dragon]

You wouldn't happen to still be working on this would you?

[Rashagar]

I find this idea interesting. Instead of learning each effect word separately a caster would learn the root word type and unlock the more powerful versions of it as they leveled up.

As a suggestion though, it might be better to replace "BOOST for better effect" with something more like "this can be used as this effect by using it as a 1st/3rd etc level effect word", since boosts are quite limited, and can have a different effect entirely than just making the numbers bigger.

Though then you might need to alter the number of known spells for sorcerers etc.

If you are still playing around with this I'd be interested in seeing what you came up with, since I'm also looking to change up the word casting system in a homebrew game.

[Goth Guru]

Acid 1-3 damage would be cantrip level. An acolyte could use it.
I assume this is non Vancian?

[ThassilonWiz4299]

Thomas LeBlanc: I like the idea of fewer words, though being able to access the higher levels via the boost meta word means that at high level the caster won't have enough boosts to prepare as many of the high level spells. Perhaps the "boost: do more damage. +X levels" should be "+X levels to do more damage" and no need to use the boost meta word.

Everyone: I was going through the core rulebook, looking for holes in spell effects that are not covered at all in the wordspells, and here is what I have here. This is a first draft and I hope will help inspire. The "Effect Word" tab has a list of effect words not in ABC order (those from Ultimate Magic are at the top), and the "Effect Word List" lists them all by category (acid, alignment...) in ABC order.

[Goth Guru]

How about each basic word starts at it's appropriate level.

Goblin could be a cantrip, you get 1 goblin for a round per level

Goblins could be first level spell slot and you get 1 goblin per 2 levels.

Persistent Goblin gets you one goblin for ten minutes per level.

For a second level spell slot you can get persistent Goblins.

The word for flyer lets you fly for 1 round per level.

Then there's persistent flyer or flyers at second level.

Persistent flyers at 3rd spell level.

You see where this is going.

[Thomas LeBlanc]

Goth Guru wrote:

How about each basic word starts at it's appropriate level.

Goblin could be a cantrip, you get 1 goblin for a round per level

Goblins could be first level spell slot and you get 1 goblin per 2 levels.

Persistent Goblin gets you one goblin for ten minutes per level.

For a second level spell slot you can get persistent Goblins.

The word for flyer lets you fly for 1 round per level.

Then there's persistent flyer or flyers at second level.

Persistent flyers at 3rd spell level.

You see where this is going.

Will there be a word for exploding? Then we can have flying kamikaze goblins...

[Goth Guru]

That's worth at least 4 spell levels, cause you are conjuring a delayed blast fireball.