Someone fixed the Words of Power?!?!?
Introduction
One of the major books from Paizo was Ultimate Magic. Apart from a lot of cool things like the Magus, tons of spell and the like, the book introduced a proposed, non-vancian casting system called Words of Power. It was interesting but poorly implemented and balanced. Enter Echoes of Magic, What is Spoken, the 1st part of a reinterpretation of the WoP system. Did it succeed? Read on!
NOTE: While the book doesn’t specifically mention it, you will need access to the Word of Power system, since this one is based on it.
What’s inside?: 45 pages of content (not counting covers, legal info etc.) which includes:
-The Word of Power system: Like the cool rune magic found in Pact of Magic by Ascencion Games, the designer presents the system as a possible replacement for Vancian, which after 30 years of playing D&D/PF it starts to feel old. When a character of any spellcasting or extract-using class become spellcasters, they can decide to become wordcasters instead, changing the dynamics of that class feature; even psychic classes use them, becoming kind of “thoughtcasters” since they replace the verbal components as normal. Since 0 level effects are important for the system, the addressing of classes that don’t get them, like Paladins and Rangers, is taking into account.
Like before, there are three type of words: Target (all of which all wordcasters know, even if they can cast them right away), Effect, and Meta (of which all wordcasters start knowing the Boost word).
-Target words determine the area of the effect, and can be affected by the Boost meta word in different ways. The new Target words presented here are Arcing, Aura, Roving, Splash and Ward, each one including which Effect words work with them. So the new 5 join the old 6.
-Effect words dictate what the effect will do, each one including several ways on how the Boost meta word affects them. 41 new ones are included, adding to the OG 143.
-Meta words: these enhance the other words, improving on their effects. There are 6 more of these, apart from the OG 8.
-Class Word List: this massive section includes the additional words from this book for the already-supported classes, and adding hybrid and psychic classes (plus the obscure omdura and vampire hunter classes!) with their full, consolidated word list.
-Locutor Prestige Class: A master wordcaster, they gain an incremental insight bonus to resist being countered, counter and even identify wordcasting. They also gain the new Polyglot feat 5 times (and later they can exchange their word choices for others!). They also gain several flavorful, mechanically interesting abilities that pertain their wordcasting, like hiding their words inside common speech and even being able to use them inside areas of silence or against deaf targets.
-11 Feats: 7 of these are for the WoP system, one also sporting the Sigil type from another book by the author, 2 are metamagic ones, and 2 have the akashic, combat and shard types. Let’s see some: The Deceptive Spell metamagic feat lets your spells appear to come from somewhere else (lots of possibilities here!), Emphatic Flourish lets you piggyback a 0 level effect onto another word, and Splintered Resonance gives you extra bonuses for every veil shattered you have.
New Veils: 18 new veils are presented, most of which deal with those that mix veilweaving with casting. There are also 4 new veil sets (great for certain feats), which are: Accolades of the Mystic (with no new veils), Implements of the Arcanist (8, of which 5 are new), Runes of the Thaumaturge (all of them variants of the Accolades’ title veils) and Regalia of the Celestial Maiden (all 5 of its veils new). Let’s check one from each set: the strangely named (for its effects) Celestial Tiara is a head/headband veil that improves your Perform (Comedy) skill… yes, that’s right, but not only that, you can use it instead of bluff for feinting, and you also get access to two cantrips, usable at will; the head bind let’s you also perform dirty tricks using comedy or feint several opponents at once, as well as a second attempt at a failed Diplomacy check, and the headband bind gives you two more spell-like abilities, and the ability to feint as part of a move action. Interesting, peculiar one!
Meditant Book of Sutras is a kewl variant of the Psionic Halo one, this one giving you some wordcaster abilities depending on the essence bound, and when bound it improves a lot, even giving you access to the Boost meta word.
Sigil of Necromancy is a hands veil that can grant temporary HP or deal negative energy damage to the target, who also suffers from a doom mark for a couple of rounds, and the veil can be shattered to affect an area instead. Essence increases the temporary HP, damage, and even gives you an attack bonus and longer reach. The hands bind makes those that have the temporary HP deal negative energy damage and apply doom marks, while attacking those affected by a doom mark grants you temporary HP. All temporary HP from this veil stack up to a certain limit. Also, by downing foes to 0 HP, you recover the veil’s burnt essence when broken, letting you recover it faster.
Of Note: Ah, I really like systems that let you build your own spells, and this book repairs some broken pieces I have forgotten about.
Anything wrong?: Well, the book does contains A LOT of “necessary evil” in the form of word lists, and it takes many pages from the book.
What I want: I really want to make a character that uses the new Regalia of the Celestial Maiden veils! They were the most entertain to read.
What cool things did this inspire?: There are a lot of neat stuff one can do by using a complex system like this. What about a dragon that uses words of power? Or an aberration that speaks an unintelligible language, followed by silence, then hell gets loose? What about basing the words of power on ideograms, real world or imagined?
Do I recommend it?: If you were interested in the original system but had some “bugs” and “crashes” while using it, perhaps this book can fix that. I think that this book alone is not worth the full 5 stars with all those word lists eating half of the book, so I will have to grade it as if it was a standalone, with 4 stars. The bundle though? 5 stars, no questions asked!
You can find this book HERE