Wordmaster (3.5e Class)

Wordmaster
"Gilt Charg Wyd Bang Deth Deth Deth Deth Deth Deth Deth Deth! All shall fear my wrath when the world is controlled by my skeletal army! Muahahahahaha!"

"Heh. Only an idiot would combine Charg with Bang."

The Wordmaster is a dangerous foe, striking fear into the hearts of many and confusing all who oppose them. The Wordmaster is the spontaneous casting equivalent of the Word Wizard.

Making a Wordmaster
The Wordmaster benefits from their unusual ability to create new spells on the fly. However, the rules for how their spells are created is fairly restrictive, meaning that there are many strange things that Wizards and Clerics can do that Wordmasters cannot.

Abilities: Wordmasters use Charisma to boost the power of their spells and Intelligence to learn more words.

Races: Any mentally focused race is sure to have members that would enjoy being Wordmasters, especially those that enjoy linguistics.

Alignment: Any.

Starting Gold: 6d8.

Starting Age: Complex.

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Wordmaster.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Wordmasters are not proficient with any weapons. They are also not proficient with any armor and suffer from arcane spell failure penalties while wearing it.



When the Wordmaster levels up, they learn one new word at random. If their intelligence is at least 11, they roll for two random words and pick one. If it is at least 15, they can choose whether the word will be a Modifier Word, a Spell Shape Word, or an Effect Word. If it is at least 19, they can choose the word.

A first-level Wordmaster knows one Modifier Word of their choice, one Spell Shape Word of their choice, and two Effect words of their choice, plus a number of bonus Effect words equal to their Intelligence modifier. These bonus words are randomized as though they had acquired them on a level up.

All words the Wordmaster knows are drawn from the wordcasting page, and cannot be words that are specifically restricted to other classes.

The save DC of a Wordmaster spell is equal to 10 + one third the spell's word count + the Wordmaster's Charisma modifier.

The character casting the spell must then pass a Concentration check with a DC equal to half the number of words expended plus the Wordmaster's Intelligence modifier or the spell is countered.

The time it takes to cast the spell is reduced by one fewer than the number of words removed in this way, but all other attributes of the spell are left unchanged. ''For example, without using Nonrepetitive Prefixes, the spell "Bang Pyr Pyr Pyr Pyr Pyr" would normally take a standard action to cast. With Nonrepetitive Prefixes, it could be spoken as "Bang Pentapyr", meaning it would take a swift action to cast.''

However, they must pay 1/15th of the item's cost in XP instead of 1/25th. They must still possess the prerequisite feats.

As such, they take twice as many words to cross each time interval threshold.

They may cast that spell as an Immediate Action if it is fewer than ten words long, a Swift Action if it is fewer than fifteen words long, or a Standard Action otherwise.

Epic Wordmaster
Spellcasting: The Wordmaster continues learning words as normal (If there are any left)

Playing a Wordmaster
Combat: Wordmasters generally fill the same roles as Sorcerers or Clerics, although they do it less reliably and in a more adaptable fashion.

Advancement: Wordmasters would do well to consider gaining levels in Inanomancer, Scriptwriter, Literate Mage, Word of Life, Word of Undeath, Word of Lies, or Wordsman, since all of these are prestige classes designed for Wordmasters.

Wordmasters in the World
"Ahh, words. Such power they have, yet so overlooked."

Daily Life: Seliuh Monkoth, on a good day, wakes up, goes to the library and reads a large book, and then wanders over to some helpless bastion of good and slaughters all living beings within it in a blast of incredible death.

Notables: Seliuh Monkoth is the most notable Wordmaster, but Rejebus Vaweeler, renowned historian, scholar, and slayer of small armies is another one.

Organizations: Bookish Wordmasters often run into each other in libraries and bookstores. The more violent kind, however, is generally more likely to be found wandering between public speeches.

NPC Reactions: NPCs tend not to approve of Wordmasters. Sure, they are mere students of grammar and proper sentence structure. On the other hand, they have a tendency to annihilate small cities.

Wordmaster Lore
Characters with ranks in Knowledge(Local) can research Wordmasters to learn more about them. When a character makes a skill check, read or paraphrase the following, including information from lower DCs.