Words of Power Handbook (WIP) (Help wanted) (PF)

[The-Mage-King]

This is your wizard...

This is your wizard using WYRDZ!

Now then, since I've gotten that out of the way, the actual point of the thread.


A handbook on Words of Power, an OGL variant from the Pathfinder supplement "Ultimate Magic".



Why use wordcasting?

Do you dislike the lack of complexity in the standard Vanacian spellcasting system? Would you prefer some more flexibility with your spells? Look no further than the Words of Power variant! You have a pool of words that you know and can combine on the fly to create spells suited for the situation at hand^*.

With more than one hundred words available to learn, you can create almost any type of spell you can imagine.



Why to not use it?

Some people like to keep things simple, and find the standard spellcasting system just fine. These people are still cool, despite being squares who dislike the hip new thing.



If you're on the edge....

There's a feat to allow normal spellcasters to pick up a few Words of Power for use. It's called Experimental Spellcaster. Basically, you learn all of the target words, the boost word, and one effect word of any level you can cast. The best thing is that, if you say "Hey, I like this!", you can take this feat more times, picking up two additional effect or meta words of up to your highest level of spell each time you do. You get the familiar spellcasting system and a flexible variant, combined. Win/win, right?


Classes for words of power use
Any of the following caster classes can use words of power, at the cost of not being able to use regular spells.

Sorcerer: One of the best classes for use with this variant. They can use any of the words they know to create a wordspell on the spot. It gives them a primal feel, as though they were manipulating the raw arcane energy when casting, something that they need. They also learn their bloodline's spells, even if they're wordcasters, so you have some premade spells to work with, too.

Oracle: Another of the better classes for this subsystem. Like the sorcerer, they can use any of the words they know to make a wordspell on the spot. They also learn the spells from their Mysteries, so there's a fallback plan.

Wizard: As usual, wizards can potentially learn all of the words on their list. However, unlike the sorcerer, they have to arrange wordspells daily, and can't change them later on. Still, this gives them a bit more versatility, because even if they use the exact same effects, the targeting can change each day.

Cleric: It's a cleric. It knows all of the wordspells for the class, but has to arrange them and can't change them until resting for 8 hours. And they have to prepare their normal domain spells in their domain slots, still. Minor spontaneous casting from the Healing or Wounding group, depending on their alignment.

Druid: Well, pretty much the same as the Cleric, but only if they choose a domain over an animal companion (unlikely as it may be), and only from the Summoning group for the spontaneous casting. Still good with this in play.

Bard: A bit closer to the Sorcerer now. They cast spontaneously, so can make up wordspells on the fly. Unfortunately, they don't have a way to learn regular spells too, other than one feat. Not bad.

Alchemist: Yeah, you read that right. The Alchemist can learn wordspells. Unlike the rest of these guys, he only learns the personal and selected target words. They, like the Wizard, can potentially learn all of the words on their list.

Summoner: Another spontaneous caster, limited by his spells known list for words known. Nothing new here.

Magus: A prepared caster with a spellbook. Can learn any and all words from their list.

Ranger and Paladin: Let's face it, we don't really care about these two, do we? Prepared casters.

Witch: Replace "Spellbook" with "Familiar", and it's the same as the wizard. Plus they get to keep their patron spells, which is a nice addition.


* Assuming spontaneous caster

____________________________________
To the meat of the thread: the words themselves.

Now, there are far too many specific words to do a complete write up on all of them, so I'll just list them by their "group", then pick out the better choices for each level of them.

Format:
Word (Level/level if appearing at two different levels on different lists)- Comments

Effect Words

Acid words
Acid Burn (0)- What can I say? Effectively Acid Splash which can have its target changed. Not too bad of a choice, honestly.
Corrosive Bolt (2)- Acid Arrow with changeable target. Kinda useful, but there are better effects to use..
Acid Wave (4)- Ding ding ding! Orb of Acid, anyone? A good choice for a wizard or sorcerer who isn't crazy enough to ban Conjuration/ignore it.
Caustic Cloud (6/7)- Acid fog, anyone? Because that's what it is, basically.


Alignment words
Alignment Shield (1)- Protection from (Alignment), basically. No, entirely. At least you can combine it with a bigger buff.
Alignment Assault (4/5)- Smite me, oh mighty smiter! This is probably not that bad of a choice for an oracle, because they make up their words on the fly, and once they figure out their foes' alignment... Well, it's smitin' time, possibly with fire added.
Alignment Aura (8)- A bigger alignment shield. Woo. Gives SR, though.


Animal words
Nature's Calm (1)- Calm animal. Woo. Though it does affect magical beasts, too, so if the wizard's dire badger familiar starts raging, you can calm it down.
Wild Lure (2)- Charm Animal. Yay. Though, again, it also affects magical beasts.
Nature's Command (4/5)- Dominate animal. Woo. Also affects magical beasts.


Armor words
Force block (0)- Well, it gives a minor bonus to AC against incorporeal opponents as a standard action with no real cost to you. Not that bad. *Snerk* Yeah, right. At least you can combine it with some other buffs.
Force Shield (1)- So.... Mage Armor? Alright. I wouldn't spend a spell known slot on it, though.
Force Armor (3)- Better than Force Shield. Might be worth giving up a spell known slot for. Wait, if the target already has a better armor bonus, you add 1 to it and it can protect against incorporeal opponents? Yeah, perfect for a party buffing sorc or wizard. Or a Magus. Use this in either case.
Force Ward (6)- The same as the last, but with more plusses. I'd avoid.


Binding words
Lock Ward (1)- So you lock something, and can add another word to it to make something happen to anyone who opens it. Not that bad.
Paralyze Humanoid (2/3)- Hold Person. You can combine it with other stuff, though.
Paralyze Creature (4/5)- Hold Monster.
Permanent Paralysis (6/8)- This... Is kinda bad. See, it's an Enchantment (compulsion). Know what that means? Mind Blank. Don't bother trying, unless you can overcome SR easily and have a way to boost the save DC by a bit.


Body words
Fortify (1)- Oh, hell yes. A wizard wordspell that gives HP, even just temporary ones? Just what they always wanted. A good choice.
Energy Resistance (1/2)- Meh. It's resistance 10 to any energy type. At least you can boost it to 20.
Enhance Form (2)- Oh, I like this. +4 to any physical ability, and you can burn a swift action to make it +8 until your turn ends? Nice.
Perfect Form (4)- Wat. This is worse than its 2nd level counterpart. Avoid. I have been corrected. +4 to all physical abilities. Very nice, though it lacks the clause of Enhance Form.
Energy Immunity (6)- Gives Energy Immunity. Duh. Maybe good.


Change words
Altered Form (3)- Well, a minor boost to melee for you is sometimes nice. Not that bad. And you can boost it to help the fighter out, too.
Bestial Form (4)- A better version of the last one. If you can retrain, upgrade to this one ASAP.
Monstrous Form (5)- Rawr. I'm a monster. Again, a better version of the last one. Not much else to say.


Cold words
Cold Snap (0)- Oh, wow. Freezing Ray. Avoid.
Frost Fingers (2)- Kinda meh. The fact that creatures that fail their saves are staggered is ice, though.
Ice Blast (4)- Again, meh. The entange addition could make for a chilling spell combo.
Winter's Wrath (8)- This is kinda cool. Dex damage on a failed save? Nifty. And a blizzard? Very ice.


Command words
Friendship (1)- Charm person. Yay?
Simple Order (1)- basically, lesser suggestion. Not that bad.
Complex order (3/4)- Kinda meh, but useful.
Crush will (4/5)- Dominate Person, basically.


Concealing words
Fade (1)- One round of invisibility. Not bad. Might be useful with a rogue who needs SA activations in the party.
Disappear (2)- Normal invisibility. You can boost it to greater invis, though.
Unseen Shell (4)- Creates a sphere of invisibility. Again, you can boost it to greater invis strength.

Death words
Undeath (2/3)- Holy moley. This is great for necromancers. Create 2HD skeletons or zombies/CL, and it's level 3 for sorcs/wizards. Not bad. And a level earlier than Animate Dead, to boot!
Grave Bane (4/5)- Fairly good. No negative levels, +4 Sacred bonus on saves versus [Death] spells and magic death effects, and you stabilize automatically below 0 hp if you aren't killed.
Life Leech (4)- Enervate. And if you boost it, it gets worse. Those negative levels? Permanent.
Slay (6/7)- standard "Deal a lot of damage if it fails its save, a bit if it doesn't" spell. Maybe useful.

Destruction words
Damage (2/3)-Standard Object destroying spell. Move along
Rumble (8)- Basically? Earthquake.
Catastrophe (9)-Causes a big storm. Next.

Detection words
Sense Magic (0)- Well, they can't leave out detect magic!
Sense alignment (1)- What it says. If you boost it, you can detect two alignments, or all four, if he ups its spell level more. Very good. Combine with the aforementioned smiting spell, and you'll have fun.
Sense Thoughts (2)- What it says on the tin.
Sense Hidden (2)- See invisbility, and if you boost it, True seeing. Very nice.

Dispelling Words
Suppress (2)- Basically, this little thing suppresses a spell affecting one target. Kinda meh.
Resist Arcana (5/6)-Spell Resistance! At 12+ CL! Awesome, though a bit more of a speed bump than an actual defense.
Unmake (5/6)- Dispels all magical effects on the target, with a caster level check. If the target makes a will save, it only dispels the highest level spell.
Negation (6/8)- Antimagic field, basically. Can't be combined with other effect words, for some reason...

Divination Words
Beacon (0/1)-Lets you know which direction it is to the point that you cast this at. Not bad.
Far Sight (3)- Basically, scry location. Boost it to scry a being.
Locate (6)-Let's you know the direction of a location the caster names.

Electricity Words
Spark (0)- Useful, in its way. On the same level as the Cold cantrip.
Shock Arc (1)- Wow. 1d4 points of electricity damage/CL, up to 5d4. Really racking it up, aren't we? [/sarcasm]
Lightning Blast (3)- Basically? The electric Fireball. Useful in some situations.
Ball Lightning (5/6)-MOAR ELECTRICITY! d8s, and up to 15 of them this time.
Thunder Strike (8/9)- Now we're getting somewhere. Shame it's level 8.

Fear Words
Spook (1)- Frightens anything with less than 5 HD. Not too bad, if you can trade it out later.
Terror (3/4)- Better. Shaken is a pretty good effect, to be honest.
Horror (7)- Woah. 10 damage/CL, or 3d6+1/Cl on a successful save. Nice.

Fire Words
Flame Jet (0)- BURN! BURN FOR ME! AHAHAHA! Ahem. A fledgling pyromancer's best friend.
Burning Flash (1/2)- Burning hands, basically.
Fire Blast (3)- Fireball. Yeah.
Cinder Storm (5)- Bigger fireball.
Inferno (8)- Still bigger fireball.
True Fire (9)- PYROMANCER'S BEST FRIEND. No SR. No Save. Single target. When you absolutely, positively, have to kill the rogue with fire, this is your best bet.

Flight Words
Glide (1)- Actually pretty good for its level. Not too shabby.
Float (2)- Basically? Levitate. Not much to say.
Soar (3/4)- Fly. Take it, like usual for the spell Fly.

Force Words
Force Bolt (2)- Strictly worse than the fire stuff. 1d4/level selected, with a max of 5d4? And it counts as Magic Missile? Nope.
Force Blast (5)- Again, it's like Paizo hates Force effects. level 5, and it can only do 10d6? What are they smoking over there?

Gravity Words
Lift (0)- Ooh. Mage Hand.
Unfetter (6/7)- Reverse Gravity on a single target. Not too bad, for messing up melee enemies.
Repulse (6/8/9)- Oh yes. Throw things away from the center of the sphere? Hells yeah! Drop an Unfetter on yourself for lulz as you move with it..

Healing Words
Southing Touch (0/1)-Stops the target from bleeding out. Boosting it removes Shaken, sickened, or fatigued. Not bad.
Lesser Cure (1/2)- Not that good. Slightly worse than Cure Light, in that making it work costs one of your few metaword uses.
Moderate Cure (2/3)- See Lesser Cure, replace Light with Moderate
Greater Cure (3/4)- See Lesser Cure, replace Light with Serious
Elder Cure (4/5)- See Lesser Cure, replace Light with Critical

Illusion Words
Echo (0)- Ghost sound. Not much else to say.
Glimmering (2/3)- Minor Image. Meh.

Illumination Words
Radiance (1)- Lights the area like a torch for 10 min/cl. Not bad. Better things could be done, though.
Gloom (2)- So... Darkness. Yay?
Sunshine (3)- Meh. Only there to take out Gloom. And light sensitive creatures.

Language Words
Decipher (0/1)- The ability to read any one language chosen at casting. Not bad.
Translate (2/3/4)- The ability to read/write/speak one language. Nifty.
Far Casting (5)- One creature telepathy. Kinda nice.

Life Words
Purify (4)- So... Restoration, but... different? Odd, but nice.
Revive (5)- 3.5's Revivify, with a less harsh time limit. Me likey. Also, no material component!
Life Touch (8)- Very nice. Note the lack of material component in here as well.

Pain Words
Cramp (0)- For one round, the targets have their move speed halved, with a minimum of 10 feet. And it's a cantrip/orison. So long as you can reliably get someone with it, or just tack it onto a bigger spell you're already casting to add an effect, you've crippled your opponent's mobility. Not too shabby
Wrack (1)- Sickened for 1 round/level on a failed Fort save. Useful for debuffs.
Torture (3)- Note- not actual torture, but instead Nauseated for 1 round/ level on failed Fort save, with another save at the end of each of their turns to end the effect.

Power Words
Blind (7)- Ooookaaaaayyyyyy.... Power Word Blind. NEXT!
Stun (8)- ...Power Word Stun, NEXT!
Kill (9)- ... Was Paizo even trying? Power Word Kill.

Sonic Words
Discordant Note (2)- 1d4/level (max 5d4) sonic damage and a potential staggered condition for a level 2 slot.
Sound Blast (4)- Fireball, with Sonic damage instead of fire. I like it.
Destructive Vibration (6/7)- Up to 15d6 sonic damage with a chance to deafen. Kinda useful.

Summoning Words
Servitor [I-IX] (1-9)- These are basically Summon Monster, unless you're a Druid. Then they're Summon Nature's Ally. With a cooler name. However, you can add buff spells when you cast these, so... Prebuffed monsters!

Teleportation Words
Dimensional Hop (3)- Line of sight teleportation within range. Nifty.
Dimensional Jump (5)- Teleport to a previously visited place, no chance of failing. Nice.
Dimensional Shift (5/7)- Plane Shift, but no longer usable offensively.
Dimensional Gate (8/9)- Holy siht. A non-broken form of Gate.

Time Words
Fleet (1)- +10 foot base land speed for 1 hour/level. Very nice. Not many spells up base land speed, after all.
Dash (1)- +30 foot base land speed for 1 minute/level. So, Expeditious Retreat.
Accelerate (2)- BEST WORD FOR BUFFING. TAKE.
Decelerate (2)- The target is Staggered for 1 round/level or until it makes another Will save. Kinda meh. Boosting it makes that little "until is makes another Will save" go away, though.
Predict (2)- Want to know if something is a good or bad idea? This is your wordspell.
Borrow Future (4)- Dammit, Paizo. We thought that by switching to this, we'd avoid Clerity and it's ilk, not- Wait. Oh. selected target, with the target losing it's entire turn? Less unbalanced than I thought. Still a bit of a no-brainer, though.
Control Time (9)- It's... Less OP than Time stop. 1d4 standard actions instead of 1d4+1 rounds of free movement. Same restrictions, though.

Wall Words
Wind Wall (3)- It's... Wind Wall. But with a built in "no pictsies." clause in the DC 10 Str check to pass through, and a "no" to any missile weapons that aren't better suited for destroying castles.
Fire Wall (4)- While sounding like a fancy term for an arcane defense designed to keep hostile programs out of a computer, this is... Well, Wall of Fire, but worse.
Ice Wall (4)- Wall of Ice, but worse.
Stone Wall (5/6)- Wall of Stone, but... Worse.
Blade Wall (5/6)- Blade Barrier, but... Better? What?



(Commentary completed. Snark directed at individual word lists commencing)
_______________________________________

Hold off on posting for a few so I can get the next few posts reserved.

Pictures were suggested by Rhaegar14. Thanks.

[The-Mage-King]

Rating System!
Excellent- You definitely should take this.
Good- You probably should take this.
Standard- a solid choice, but there's better for somethings.
Subpar- Most stuff is a better choice than this
Bad- Ackbar, if you would?



Alchemist Words

The poor alchemist gets no love with these things. Their selections are... sparse, to say the least. At least you can combine them.

Spoiler

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1st-Level Alchemist Words

Dash
Decipher
Fade
Force Shield
Fortify
Glide
Lesser Cure



2nd-Level Alchemist Words

Accelerate
Disappear
Energy Resistance
Enhance Form
Float
Moderate Cure
Sense Hidden
Sense Thoughts


3rd-Level Alchemist Words

Altered Form
Greater Cure
Soar
Translate


 
4th-Level Alchemist Words

Bestial Form
Borrow Future
Elder Cure
Perfect Form
Purify


5th-Level Alchemist Words

Monstrous Form
Resist Arcana

6th-Level Alchemist Words

Energy Immunity

[The-Mage-King]

Post reserved for more stuff.

[The-Mage-King]

Post reserved for still more stuff.

[The-Mage-King]

And a last one for good measure. Feel free to comment. I figure if I posted that first part now, then I'd be motivated to finish the rest, as opposed to losing interest in it and keeping the file somewhere on my compy. Thoughts, suggestions for formatting, and recommendations?

[peacenlove]

Subscribed!
I always wanted to learn about wordcasting still not many people use it.
Maybe use for words a color system (That is commonly used in WotC/BG forums)?
Also good combinations (Wordspells) would be cool at the end of the guide.

[Rhaegar14]

Wizard:

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Wizard with Words:

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Suggestions. Accept or ignore at your leisure.

[The-Mage-King]

Subscribed!
I always wanted to learn about wordcasting still not many people use it.
Maybe use for words a color system (That is commonly used in WotC/BG forums)?
Also good combinations (Wordspells) would be cool at the end of the guide.

I was considering the color system, but I think I'll finish my comments on each word first. As for the wordspells, I was already planning that, with 1 for each class for each level of spell it can learn.

Looking at them, the Time group is going to make some people very happy. Specifically, accelerate. Look at that thing.

Wizard:

Spoiler

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Wizard with Words:

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Suggestions. Accept or ignore at your leisure.

These will work. Give me a minute and they'll be up.


Anything else?


Oh, yeah. I'll also edit in the word groups from Binding through Cold.

[stack]

I looked at the numbers the other day regarding the magus, post generated no interest though, but I'll quote it here as it seems relevant:

Spoiler

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Upon further study, they seem really bad for a magus. The magus focuses on channeling touch spells through a weapon. 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.

Long and short - the ray/touch flexibility actually hurts the magus by raising the levels of his bread and butter spells, unless I totally misunderstood things, which happens.

[Coidzor]

Druid: Well, pretty much the same as the Cleric, but only if they choose a domain over an animal companion (HAH!), and only from the Summoning group for the spontaneous casting. Still good with this in play.

What are you trying to convey here? And should you be?

[The-Mage-King]

What are you trying to convey here? And should you be?

I'm trying to convey that a druid is unlikely to take the domain over the animal companion. Would it be clearer as "unlikely as it may be"?

Anyway, some more of the word groups are incoming. I need a few more minutes to finish my writeups.

[McSmack]

<--is ridiculously excited about this thread. I've got a PF fire sorcerer who'd like some more versatility. Hoping I can convince the DM to let me switch for this system.

Also, was toying with the idea of incorporating a similar system for a Dresden game a friend is working on. I know Dresden already has an RPG, but it uses the Fate system, and we don't think we're gonna like it much. Plus the DM only knows 3.5/PF and really doesn't want to learn an entirely new system. So this might make a good middle ground for him.

[The-Mage-King]

Command through Detection are up, with comments. As usual, you can't go wrong with divination.

[Curious]

<--is ridiculously excited about this thread. I've got a PF fire sorcerer who'd like some more versatility. Hoping I can convince the DM to let me switch for this system.

Also, was toying with the idea of incorporating a similar system for a Dresden game a friend is working on. I know Dresden already has an RPG, but it uses the Fate system, and we don't think we're gonna like it much. Plus the DM only knows 3.5/PF and really doesn't want to learn an entirely new system. So this might make a good middle ground for him.

Ooh! I've had this awesome idea for a blaster sorceror I've been wanting to try out! Using the cross-blooded archetype (Human to make up for spells lost) you can get both the Orc and Dragon bloodline arcanas, netting you a solid +2 to damage for each die in your spell. Combine with Empower metamagic to taste. Profit!

Also quite eager to see where this thread goes, OP, I've been wondering about the Word system.

[Chess435]

I've been wondering: Do you think if we scaled up Words of Power, we could use it as a functioning alternative to Epic Spellcasting?

[The-Mage-King]

It might work, though... It'd recieve the "You're just adding more 0s to the end of it!" commentary, most likely.

Maybe if we hashed out the rules for spells of greater than 9th level using multiple effect words...


Anyway, I'm about to go to bed, so I'll continue my critisim in the morning.


And when I'm done with individual effect words, I'll implement the color system (left to right, best to worst). Accellerate will get the Teal, without a doubt. Cast it on a melee dude? Move and full attack.

Wizard? Move and summon.

[Coidzor]

I'm trying to convey that a druid is unlikely to take the domain over the animal companion. Would it be clearer as "unlikely as it may be"?

That would be a lot clearer, yeah. I couldn't really tell what you were going for & could have gotten a couple of different things from that. Sorry about how terse I was, just noticed it as I was looking over before I headed out the door and it caught my eye.

[McSmack]

Ooh! I've had this awesome idea for a blaster sorceror I've been wanting to try out! Using the cross-blooded archetype (Human to make up for spells lost) you can get both the Orc and Dragon bloodline arcanas, netting you a solid +2 to damage for each die in your spell. Combine with Empower metamagic to taste. Profit!

Also quite eager to see where this thread goes, OP, I've been wondering about the Word system.

I'd be going that route if I'd chosen human instead of gnome (made the character before I knew about the extra spells for humans.)

I really considered it anyway, but I just couldn't take the spell loss as a gnome.

S'okay though, gnome pyromaniac racial +red dragon bloodline + Magical Lineage (burning hands) + Intensify Spell means my burning hands hits for 7d4+7 as a lvl 1 spell.

[Larpus]

I finished reading the srd for this but am still kinda confused:

Words of power are like normal spells except that you can mix and match effects, range and etc, right?

Like you can make Forceballs instead of Fireballs, Walls of Acid and that sort of deal, right?

Is there any downside to this other than the more complicated system?

And in the case of the Alchemist I'm guessing he keeps his half-spontaneous way of preparing spells, by requiring to prepare the Extracts before use but being spontaneous until they do, correct?

[The-Mage-King]

I finished reading the srd for this but am still kinda confused:

Words of power are like normal spells except that you can mix and match effects, range and etc, right?

Like you can make Forceballs instead of Fireballs, Walls of Acid and that sort of deal, right?

Is there any downside to this other than the more complicated system?

Basically, a wordspell has the following components:
1) An Effect Word (or two, maybe even three)- This is what it does.
2) A Target Word (everyone but the Alchemist knows all of them)- this is how it does it.
and maybe 3) a Meta Word- this changes what it does by a bit.


Now, Effect words have restrictions on what Target words may be applied.

Let's use Caustic Cloud as an example.

Caustic Cloud (acid)


School conjuration (creation) [acid]; Level sorcerer/wizard 7, witch 6

EFFECT
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw: Fortitude half; Spell Resistance no
Target Restrictions Burst

Now, this has the Target Restriction "Burst". It can only be used with the Burst target word. However, it's friend, Fog Bank...

School conjuration (creation); Level cleric/oracle 1, druid 1, sorcerer/wizard 1, witch 1

EFFECT
Duration 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw: none; Spell Resistance no
Target Restrictions barrier, burst (emanation)

Has a different Restriction. It can be used to create a barrier, and to make a burst around you.

Unless the effect word allows you to use barrier with it, it won't work.

As for downsides, I think that wordspells won't recieve as much support as normal spells, so there's going to be a lot less variety of them available.

And in the case of the Alchemist I'm guessing he keeps his half-spontaneous way of preparing spells, by requiring to prepare the Extracts before use but being spontaneous until they do, correct?

What? Alchemists are as "half spontaneous" as wizards are, under either system. They prepare their as many of their extracts as they want after resting, then can (not the "CAN") prepare any they didn't prepare earlier.


Any other questions?

[Larpus]

Any other questions?

Only a couple:

First, just to be clear: when the Effect Word has no Target restriction written it means that it can use any Target word, right?

Glazing over the list it seems that every spell effect so far can be reproduced (and fairly easily converted in future installments) in words, is that a correct assumption?

The Meta words work as using multiple Effect words right? Bumping the spells' levels due to their usage.

Also, how does one learn them? Normal word learning, everyone simply already knows all of them or is it a feat or something?

And can you apply normal metamagic feats to word spells?

[The-Mage-King]

Only a couple:

Alright, shoot.

First, just to be clear: when the Effect Word has no Target restriction written it means that it can use any Target word, right?

It would, but there's not a single Effect Word (that I've found) that has no Target Restriction.

Glazing over the list it seems that every spell effect so far can be reproduced (and fairly easily converted in future installments) in words, is that a correct assumption?

Looks to be so, but... Well, I can't see a company putting extra work into a variant, and some spells might be more unique than these can be.

The Meta words work as using multiple Effect words right? Bumping the spells' levels due to their usage.

Meta words do not affect spell levels, other than maybe the boost word. They have a "use per day" restriction instead. So yeah. Maybe Imbal. :V

Also, how does one learn them? Normal word learning, everyone simply already knows all of them or is it a feat or something?

Normal effect word learning/a feat called "Meta Word Mastery" that lets you use them another 3 times/day and gives you another known.

And can you apply normal metamagic feats to word spells?

Yep. But if you have an meta word, like, say, Lengthy on a spell, you can't use Extend. You have to pick between the metamagic feat and the meta word.

[Larpus]

I see, thank you very much for the quick replies, those were all my questions =)

[The-Mage-King]

Updated with Electricity through Gravity. Sarcasm is heading off the charts.

[Shadow Lord]

This stuff is cool. Please continue, I'm fascinated by it.

[Starbuck_II]

Are you ever going to list the Divine words (at least the healing ones)?

[The-Mage-King]

Are you ever going to list the Divine words (at least the healing ones)?

I'm doing this alphabetically, so when I get to them.

I'm working on the commentary for the Healing Words now, actually.

[stack]

After you finish the basics, perhaps an analysis of a crossblooded orc/draconic (red) half-orc would be in order. Should get +2 per die +lvl/2 damage to any fire spell, with the orc bloodline also adding +1/die to any other damage effect. Seems potent if you stack three effect words in one spell, each getting bonus damage on all the dice.

[The-Mage-King]

Healing through Life words are up.

After you finish the basics, perhaps an analysis of a crossblooded orc/draconic (red) half-orc would be in order. Should get +2 per die +lvl/2 damage to any fire spell, with the orc bloodline also adding +1/die to any other damage effect. Seems potent if you stack three effect words in one spell, each getting bonus damage on all the dice.

Sadly, that won't work. You're limited to 1 die/CL damage in wordspells, so you can't stack three fire spells up to get more than CL dice of fire damage.

It's like they saw through that idea at the start...

[stack]

Bah...still nice extra damage, but no more abusable than the same combo on a regular sorcerer. Still...nice if you want to blast.