Pathfinder: Wordcasting

[ScubaGoomba]

I'm curious what people's general thoughts are about Wordcasting. Have any of you utilized it in games and, if so, how has it worked out for you? I'm considering using Wordcasting instead of the standard magic system (possibly just for Arcane casters, but I'm currently leaning for Arcane and Divine Wordcasters) for a game I'm going to be running soon.

My thoughts going into it is that it won't be any more abusable than standard casting and may be a little more accessible to new players or, at least, players new to spell casting (the Target + Effect + Meta aspect seems very intuitive).

Thanks!

[Pex]

Nice idea on paper. Too complicated in practice.

That could be personal gaming experience talking. Say "Fireball" or "Prismatic Spray", I know what the effect is of the spell being cast. With all the target and effect words and figuring out what goes where it takes too long to do. Prepared caster players need a lot of time to figure out what they want to do and what spell slot is used for each effect. Spontaneous casters "aren't" as they take several minutes to figure out what to do and how to do it. In the regular system, a newbie can easily go to the page where a spell is written and know exactly what it does.

To get the system to work the players and DM need to study it thoroughly. It's not something you can just casually integrate into a game.

[Teh_das]

CTP's guide to wordcasting (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=291907)

This may help.

[Alefiend]

I love the idea of wordcasting, and the system would be better (read: usable) if it had cards with the effects printed on them. You'd have a deck of the ones you know, and you put them together to create spells. Ongoing support of the system means expansion packs, therefore more sales.

In general, though, I agree with Pex. It adds complexity and confusion, and takes away the comfort of decades of system knowledge.

[ScubaGoomba]

I was actually looking at that a bit earlier today, which is what got me thinking about Wordcasting as an alternative; it's a great resource and I appreciate your linking it here. It certainly has great information about how to best utilize Wordcasting and I think, if I do decide to use it, I'll point my players towards it for some guidance.


I love the idea of wordcasting, and the system would be better (read: usable) if it had cards with the effects printed on them. You'd have a deck of the ones you know, and you put them together to create spells. Ongoing support of the system means expansion packs, therefore more sales.

In general, though, I agree with Pex. It adds complexity and confusion, and takes away the comfort of decades of system knowledge.

I was actually thinking of something along these lines. I don't think it would be too much of a hassle to make them as you go, using index cards. A first level character only has so many Words and, as you go up in level, you only gain a small handful more at any given time. Although, I think if I went that route, I'd certainly keep Divine casters with traditional spellcasting.