Words of Creation

[Venser]

Hello :)

I have been running a campaign in a homebrewed setting for quite some time now.

In short, the players have messed up a prophecy and now the God of death walks the world. They have been transported on another continent which is still warded by powerful spells so that the God of death can not enter it yet.

Now, they are looking for the origin of the prophecy and a way to destroy him. I was thinking of giving them the Words of Creation, which can be found in the Book of Exalted Deeds. The problem is that there are only 4 ways of using these words described in the book so I am thinking on adding some new ones that might help them in their upcoming battle aka the grand finale of the campaign(which won't happen that soon, but they need the words now).

I need ideas for the use of the words. Please, help me :)

[limejuicepowder]

Are you looking for uses of the words right this moment in the campaign, or later on when they are battling the BBEG?

I'm not sure what to tell you about the former (mostly cause I don't know the setting), but I would suggest working the words in to the fight against Death - that is, give Death powers that would otherwise destroy the party quickly unless they figure out the proper use of the words. This isn't to say that the words should be the only important thing in the fight, but something along the lines of giving Death invulnerability that can be brought down with the words, allowing the party to romp on him with their normal attacks. Perhaps also giving Death an AoE-type attack (like a breath of poison) that would kill the party in a few rounds, unless negated with the words.

[Venser]

The words should play a huge part in the final battle, but since a mortal mind can comprehende only 3-4 words of creation, I was thinking of adding some words that would help them in variuos situatuions yet don't turn them into overpowered characters.

[marcielle]

Party Composition and usual tactics might help in balancing, as well as what types of scenarios this campaign will be leaning towards.

[NichG]

I can't help but think of Skyrim-style shouts here.

One obvious thing you could do to retain strong balance control is that the words only interact with what it means for the God of Death to be divine. So one word shuts down his auto-kill-all-mortals-within-5-miles power when spoken, one word allows him to actually die, etc. The order is therefore important, especially if speaking the word is non-trivial. Maybe these are phrases that must be spoken simultaneously so it takes multiple PCs spending their actions to create the effect (you need four simultaneous mortal voices to obtain the range and harmony inherent in the voice of the divine, or something like that). The risk there is that the PCs will vastly prefer to do their own thing rather than to burn a ton of actions on some effect they think they can get away with not using.

It'd also be more interesting if the words also had effects outside of the big battle IMO. I'd suggest the following words perhaps (the idea being that each PC learns one of them max):

- Word of Fate Unbound: This word allows the speaker and those who hear it to shed the shackles of Fate for a moment, reforging their destiny. Mechanically, this gives immunity to any effects described as 'manipulating fate/destiny' or any predetermination or future senses for one hour. As such, this word could be used to obtain partial immunity to a deity's portfolio sense on future actions, allowing the would-be god slayers to not be utterly anticipated by the God of Death. It also breaks Geas/Lesser Geas, and can be used to violate prophecy at the right place and time. Using it unnecessarily however creates the risk that the God of Death can escape prophecy just due to fate becoming tattered in the area.

- Word of Mortality: This word is associated with the concept of mortality, that all things must eventually die. When spoken offensively, it causes the target to lose the benefits of any form of immortality they possess and begin aging normally as if from the point they gained immortality. In the case of undead or constructs, this manifests in the form of falling apart and decay. Things that never had a finite lifespan automatically recover from this word after an hour - they can however still be made to die of age if the effects of this word are maintained upon them for a hundred years. This word also shuts down abilities that make it so the target cannot be killed or automatically comes back, such as the Tarrasque's particular regeneration, ghost remanifestation, the Death Pact spell, etc. This word allows the God of Death to actually be killed.

- Word of the Duel: This word conveys the idea of a formalized contest. When spoken it creates a link between the speaker(s) and target(s) representing their will to fight eachother. So long as one side remains undefeated, fleeing from the battle is impossible, as the universe itself rebels against such cowardice and rearranges to keep the sides in conflict. This word prevents the God of Death from fleeing.

- Word of the Divine: This word captures in its speaking the faintest whispers of what it means to be divine. Those who are subject of the word find part of themselves blossoming forth and strengthening their position in the cosmos. The effect is that for the purpose of effects that care about whether the target is divine or not, those experiencing the word are treated as being of Divine Rank 0. Furthermore, effects they create are treated as having been created by a deity (so their magic works in an antimagic field, etc). They gain no other benefits of Divine Rank. The effects of the word fade after one minute and tend to exhaust the listener when they receed (small xp cost, whatever).
Non-mechanically, experiencing this word is transformative and somewhat addictive. It also tends to enhance any existing feelings of superiority or megalomania. This word lets the heroes fight the God of Death without being auto-slain.

- Word of the Mantle: This powerful word allows the speaker to assume the mantle of a position that is absent if spoken quickly after the position becomes vacant. The universe rearranges somewhat to enable this. For the case of the God of Death battle, this would allow a PC to replace the God of Death if killed (which depending on your setting may be a bad thing absent a replacement). More mundanely, this word is really good for seizing power - kill the captain of an orc squad and speak the word and now you are the captain of the orc squad. Only one Mantle may be held at a given time, and there should be a cost of transferring Mantles.

- Word of Exile: This word contains the concept of exile, of banishment. If the PCs do not wish to kill the God of Death they can use this to return him to the heavens (or wherever). The Word of Exile can only be used against a foe whose will is broken and against whom the speaker has proven themselves (defeated or knocked out, though this could also be social defeat not just combat). This word prevents the target from returning to a specific place the speaker is considered 'a part of' with respect to the target. It could be used to forever banish a child from one's house, an enemy from one's nation, or a god from the mortal realm. It however has certain limits in that the target must somehow not belong inescapably/fundamentally to the place they're being banished from: it can't be used to banish some random orc from the mortal realm though you could banish a ghost from the mortal realm.

[Psyren]

Doesn't Truespeech incorporate the WoC? You could open ToM and borrow a ton of thematic effects from various utterances and truespeak spells, and simply tweak their effectiveness.

You can also look at various other "word" spells such as the power word and dictum line, and if all that isn't enough you can borrow from Pathfinder's words of power.

[Qwertystop]

Doesn't Truespeech incorporate the WoC? You could open ToM and borrow a ton of thematic effects from various utterances and truespeak spells, and simply tweak their effectiveness.

You can also look at various other "word" spells such as the power word and dictum line, and if all that isn't enough you can borrow from Pathfinder's words of power.

Except that Truenaming sucks as written.

[Psyren]

Except that Truenaming sucks as written.

Hence "tweak."

OP wants fluff/homebrew, not RAW.

[Qwertystop]

Hence "tweak."

OP wants fluff/homebrew, not RAW.

So just take the idea and do something entirely different with it?