So, I was in the middle of eating exorbitant amounts of cheese, and, as usual when doing said activity, I had an interesting idea. For the idea to work, however, I first have to know if the ability mystic past life of a samsaran work with words of power. Does it? I'll tell my idea if I get an answer ;)
Fine, I'll say it anyways, but only because the voices told me to. If a character uses mystic past life (mpl from now on in this thread), especially a summoner, it seems like it would be much more valuable. It seems like an interesting combo. Back to the summoner, the ability to choose a bunch of extra words would give tons more variety to a summoner's somewhat limited spell list. Is anyone else seeing this? Does this seem like a good/interesting/effective idea?
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It'd be up to your GM to decide if it works. It'd wouldn't likely be anymore overpowered for a wordcaster than it already is for a regular spellcaster though. What words in particular were you thinking to add to Summoner list?
I was thinking to use them on animating dead and blasting words. Animating dead because it has no material component with words of power and blasting words because summoner's don't have them, and they allow for many combinations of damage spells. That would give a summoner, with his limited spell list, a lot more versatility. BTW I'm making a samsaran synthesist who has 20 CHA as of starting (18+ 2 more for age), so I'm looking for which five words anyone thinks I should take. I'm leaning towards what I described above, but I'm keeping an open mind. Thanks!
Well, your plan sounds reasonable - certainly the Servitor words aren't really all that useful to a Summoner whose SLA Summons are already better than the words are. Have a look at the thus she spoke wordcaster sorcerer guide for ideas on what are the five best words to chose if you want to make your Summoner play that way.
I'd go with Undeath, Wrack, Frost Fingers, Lightning Blast, Negation, and Torture. (You get six, not five - it's 1+casting mod) That gives you access to Ice, Electricity, and Acid (the Acid cantrip's already on your list) to build blasts with, along with the two best Save-or-suck words, and the two major words that are better than their spell equivalents.
Thanks for your views Zanthrax, but I can't use my summons SLAs when I have my eidolon on which will be most of the time. Would that change any of your opinions? Lastly, I have read that guide and its very good. I got some inspiration from there. And if anyone else has opinions, they'd be greatly appreciated too. It doesn't seem to me that negation is that great. Also, it would take a long time to get and I'm not sure the game will go to that level. I probably won't take that one. So, if negation is out, what other word would you take? I was thinking either greater heal, fire blast, or friendship. Those would not only be gotten earlier but are always useful.
Negation is anti-magic field except that it has a range. You can AMF the enemy caster(s) and then continue blasting his minions. If you don't expect to get much use from it, then I'd say go with Friendship; you don't really need all four elements, and fire's the most commonly resisted.
You can't get the healing words; you have to pick one other spell (word) list of the same type; either arcane or divine. Well, you could choose the bard list instead of the sorcerer list to get words from, but I think you're losing a lot of potential by doing so.
I can get the healing ones because witch is an arcane caster, isn't it? Assuming it is, which is better, friendship or healing? I agree with you about fire blast though.
I always forget about Witches. That's probably your best bet then. Get Revive (because it's much better than Raise Dead), Burning Flash, Ice Blast, Wrack, Paralyze Humanoid, and Moderate Cure (the higher level ones are all late entry for the Witch). You're down to two elements from three, but you've got one of the ones that are your choice of touch attack or allow saves, and Ice Blast comes with automatic Rime. Paralyze Humanoid instead of Torture gives you a Will target word to go with Wracks's Fort target. There's unfortunately no room for Friendship; it's nice to have, but you want a will target Word that can be added to your blasts when needed, and I think most DMs would object to the target saving against the charm effect when that effect is combined with massive fire damage.
No more Undeath by selecting from the Witch list, but I personally don't like it just because creating undead is Evil. It's also possibly redundant for a Summoner.
I've looked over the effect words, especially those that were recommended ( thanks again), and I've decided on undead, wrack, paralyze humanoid, moderate cure, frost fingers, and lightning blast. I'd rather make undead than raise my teammates, frost fingers is better than burning flash, and lightning blast because that's a different element. Lastly, I know this is a rules question, but can you explain how the spell slot used for a word spell is determined? I don't understand the rules.
Just look at table 4-1. A single effect word creates a wordspell of that level. Two effect words of the same level creates a wordspell two higher than the words. And three effect words of equal level create a wordspell three higher than the words.
Some effect words are higher level when boosted (or when the target is boosted), but not all, and not by the same amount. Other than Boost, none of the other meta words alter the word level; they're instead limited by the meta word / day limit.
Ok, so the spell slot used is dependent on just the effect words? That's what I though, but thanks for confirming it.