Wordsman (3.5e Prestige Class)

Wordsman
"They thought me a simple swordsman until I teleported up to them and lit them on fire."

The Wordsman sacrifices a large portion of her wordcasting power in order to become a more dangerous physical combatant.

Becoming a Wordsman
Characters pursue this class in order to wreak havoc in a more up close and personal manner. Words of Life, Words of Undeath, and Inanomancers get particular bonuses for entering this class.

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

You do not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If you had more than one wordcasting class before becoming a Wordsman, you must decide to which class to add each level for the purpose of determining words per day, caster level, and words known.

 (Su): At level 1, the Wordsman gains the ability to spend 5 words before making any melee or ranged attack. If she does so, that attack gets a +3 bonus to hit. If the Wordsman has any Word of Life class levels, the attack deals an additional 1d6 damage to evil targets. If the Wordsman has any Word of Undeath class levels, the attack deals an additional 1d6 damage to good targets. If the Wordsman has any Inanomancer class levels, the attack deals an additional 1d6 damage to lawful targets. If the Wordsman has any Word of Lies class levels, the attack deals an additional 1d6 damage to targets who believe they she has no magical powers.

 (Su): At level 1, the Wordsman regains words whenever she successfully reduces an opponent to 0 or fewer hit points with a melee attack. She regains a number of words equal to the opponent's Hit Dice divided by 2. At level 7, she regains a number of words equal to the opponent's Hit Dice instead.

 (Su): At level 1, the Wordsman regains 1d6 words whenever she successfully gets a critical hit against an opponent with a ranged attack. At level 7, the Wordsman regains 2d6 + her Intelligence modifier words instead.

 (Ex): At level 1, word spells the Wordsman casts no longer have a somatic component. However, they are still affected by arcane spell failure.

 (Ex): At level 3, the Wordsman may use her attacks of opportunity to cast immediate action-length spells. If she does so, she must use a single-target spell shape that targets only the character provoking the attack of opportunity.

 (Ex): At level 5, the Wordsman gains the ability to deliver melee touch attacks with a melee weapon and ranged touch attacks with a ranged weapon.

 (Ex): At level 7, the Wordsman's word spells are no longer affected by arcane spell failure.

 (Ex): At level 9, the Wordsman may spend any multiple of 10 words as a standard action to get a +4 bonus to Deflection AC, attack rolls, Strength, Dexterity, saves, and skills for one round per 10 words spent. If the Wordsman has any Word of Life class levels, she also gains fast healing 4. If the Wordsman has any Word of Undeath class levels, she also gains Damage Reduction 4/Good. If the Wordsman has any Inanomancer class levels, she also gets a +10' bonus to her move speed. If the Wordsman has any Word of Lies class levels, she also gains total concealment and becomes completely noiseless.

 (Su): At level 9, the Wordsman may inflict any amount of damage upon herself to regain that many words. Damage dealt in this way cannot be healed for 24 hours.

Playing a Wordsman
Combat: Wordsmen function much like Paladins.

Advancement: Wordsmen should probably gain levels in Inanomancer, Word of Life, and Word of Undeath, if they haven't already.

Resources: There are definitely forms of Wordsmen who organize.

Wordsmen in the World
"You know what's great? Beating people to within an inch of their lives, and then turning them into skeletons when they try to run away."

Characters of the Wordsmanly persuasion are likely to work as mercenaries, adventurers, brave heroes, and paragons of pure evil.

NPC Reactions: That really depends, now doesn't it?

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