So, I'm not real happy with the way the "Word" spells work in my game - Dictum, Holy Word, Blasphemy, and Word of Chaos. They're horribly unfun (either hugely devestating or utterly worthless, and way too big an AoE), and out of control when used in certain ways such as with caster level boosts or the half-fiend template on a high hit die, low CR critter like a dinosaur. At the same time, I'd like to keep some of the flavor of the spells.
My main problem with this series of spells is that it's based on caster level and hit dice. This gets problematic when caster level and hit dice aren't approximately equal to the average party level. I've considered adding a save to the series, with a successful save moving you up one Hit Die category. Enough of a fix? Not enough? Too much?
I think I might also need to standardize the effects of the different spells, especially since half the spells have an effective kill range of of to CL-5 (through a minutes long paralysis effect), while the other two kill only at CL-10. That seems unbalanced. Thoughts on that part of the fix?
My main problem with this series of spells is that it's based on caster level and hit dice. This gets problematic when caster level and hit dice aren't approximately equal to the average party level. I've considered adding a save to the series, with a successful save moving you up one Hit Die category. Enough of a fix? Not enough? Too much?
I think I might also need to standardize the effects of the different spells, especially since half the spells have an effective kill range of of to CL-5 (through a minutes long paralysis effect), while the other two kill only at CL-10. That seems unbalanced. Thoughts on that part of the fix?
