I don't think anyone ever looked at magic missle and thought "wow this is so OPed, this needs to be level 2". Or thought that a 1 hr/level mage armor is OPed.
You are wrong about the first claim --- I've heard many people say magic missile is overpowered at first level, and that it's only still first level (or still auto-hit) because of legacy/sacred cow issues.
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I don't see how you can apply the selected target word to it when the restriction is burst?
It doesn't HAVE to use the selected target word. The effect word specifically says "a wordspell with this effect word makes any objects or creatures designated by the caster within the area invisible so long as they remain in the area"
That means even though it is a burst that the caster gets to select who is affected by the invisibility.
I don't get it. Unseen shell specifically says it has a target restriction of burst. You can only have one target word, so you have to use the burst target word. Selected is a single target target word.I don't see how you can apply the selected target word to it when the restriction is burst?It doesn't HAVE to use the selected target word. The effect word specifically says "a wordspell with this effect word makes any objects or creatures designated by the caster within the area invisible so long as they remain in the area"
That means even though it is a burst that the caster gets to select who is affected by the invisibility.
Think of it this way: it is a burst, but the effect being tied to the burst lets you choose what becomes invisible within it.
They had to make it so that you could choose what becomes invisible within the area not so that it could just avoid affecting enemies, but so it could avoid affecting objects as well. Trying to hide a group of people with an AOE invisibility is pointless if you're going to unintentionally hide random objects (or maybe even the ground and walls!). Enemies might realize that something is wrong if you were trying to stage an ambush.
Wordcasting is awesome for creative people playing spontaneos casters or prepared casters with limited spell lists. It's not so great for prepared full casters or people who don't want to bother making their own combos.
Sorcerers love it. It's also good for alchemists.
For flavor, my campaign refers to it as "runecasting" and it fits that well.
Wordcasting is awesome for creative people playing spontaneous casters or prepared casters with limited spell lists. It's not so great for prepared full casters or people who don't want to bother making their own combos.
Sorcerers love it. It's also good for alchemists.
I'm playing a spontaneous caster (an oracle) using the Words of Power system and I have mixed feelings about it. Being able to apply target words and boosts on the fly is obviously a big advantage for spontaneous casters, but the drastically limited list of spells that you can learn is a big disadvantage (especially when you consider that each new splatbook that comes out will have a few new options for a regular spellcaster and nothing for a wordcaster).
For example, you mention that alchemists make good wordcasters, but note that an alchemist has exactly two 5th level words available and exactly one 6th level word! That's not a lot of variety...
No but you can combine your lower level words into a higher level word extract.
No but you can combine your lower level words into a higher level word extract.
In which case you would end up using the same half a dozen words for your lower level extracts AND for your higher level extracts, which sounds pretty dull to me.
Frankly, I think the alchemist class is the worst possible example of a class that would benefit from the Words of Power system. For instance, I've played a regular alchemist from level 1 to 11, and my favourite level 1 extracts have been Enlarge Person, True Strike, and Shield: none of which has a Words of Power equivalent.