stack
2011-06-17, 12:54 PM
Does anyone have thoughts on Ultimate Magics new words of power (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/words-of-power) system?
As far as I can tell, caster level damage is un-capped; i.e. level 0 acid burn on selected target (both level 0 words) will do (caster level)d3 damage. This seems to make it objectively more powerful than the equivalent cantrip, which does not increase in damage. So a level seven wizard would shoot 7d3 acid splashes all day, or a lvl5 magus could channel 5d4 electrical shocks every round.
Nevermind, specific words say if they scale.
Upon further study, they seem really bad for a magus. The magus focuses on channeling touch spells through a weapon (similar to the 3.5 duskblade). Touch spells use the same target word as rays, so the effect word's levels seem to scale with equivalent ray spells, effectively raising the spell level verses a standard touch spell:
IE shocking grasp is a level 1 spell, does 1d6 /CL, caps at 5d6, intensify spell meta magic raises cap to 10d6 for a level 2 spell.
Lightning Blast effect word with selected target word is level 3, 10d6 cap.
Shock Arc effect word with selected target word is level 1, but only does 1d4/CL, cap at 5d4, plainly worse than lvl 1 shocking grasp.
Making no distinction between ray and touch spells also makes the close arcana useless, though selecting which to use at the time of casting could be a boon.
The words allow for flexibility (more spells with less total words) and are probably great for sorcerers and oracles, but seem less useful for prepared casters and actively harm anyone using touch spells. I would have expected there to be a +/- level applied to each target word, rather than a flat minimum 9which is rarely a factor on effects above level 1.
I like the idea of word casting, not sure on the implementation.
As far as I can tell, caster level damage is un-capped; i.e. level 0 acid burn on selected target (both level 0 words) will do (caster level)d3 damage. This seems to make it objectively more powerful than the equivalent cantrip, which does not increase in damage. So a level seven wizard would shoot 7d3 acid splashes all day, or a lvl5 magus could channel 5d4 electrical shocks every round.
Nevermind, specific words say if they scale.
Upon further study, they seem really bad for a magus. The magus focuses on channeling touch spells through a weapon (similar to the 3.5 duskblade). Touch spells use the same target word as rays, so the effect word's levels seem to scale with equivalent ray spells, effectively raising the spell level verses a standard touch spell:
IE shocking grasp is a level 1 spell, does 1d6 /CL, caps at 5d6, intensify spell meta magic raises cap to 10d6 for a level 2 spell.
Lightning Blast effect word with selected target word is level 3, 10d6 cap.
Shock Arc effect word with selected target word is level 1, but only does 1d4/CL, cap at 5d4, plainly worse than lvl 1 shocking grasp.
Making no distinction between ray and touch spells also makes the close arcana useless, though selecting which to use at the time of casting could be a boon.
The words allow for flexibility (more spells with less total words) and are probably great for sorcerers and oracles, but seem less useful for prepared casters and actively harm anyone using touch spells. I would have expected there to be a +/- level applied to each target word, rather than a flat minimum 9which is rarely a factor on effects above level 1.
I like the idea of word casting, not sure on the implementation.