Wordsmith Wizards: Practitioners of Paronym Follow-up

Recently, I've become very taken with the OSR (and +Arnold K's GLOG in particular) and I started to compile some homebrew rules and classes and whatnot for my future use.

My table took a look at the doc I was working on, and found +Type1 Ninja's Cleric rendition to be very fun! The very first spell they made was Annihilate Baby, so of course they fucking liked it.

They desperately wanted an equivalently random school for the wizard, and so I obliged.

(Thanks so much to +Martin O and his Paronym wizard order, which I shamelessly riffed off of, my players for their feedback, and to +Ben Milton for his fantastic magic tables in Maze Rats that I happily stole.)

Wordsmith Wizard

Status: Chartered

The world was spoken into being, many say. The Wordsmiths are obsessed with language, and seek to unravel its secrets to reshape reality. The current state of affairs is.. grim, but the pursuit goes on.

Perk: You remember everything you read exactly as it is written. Gain the Law skill.

Drawback: To cast spells, you must be able to speak and hear yourself clearly. The words don’t come out right otherwise.

Cantrips

1. You can touch paper and some form of pigmented fluid, instantly creating a full page’s worth of words from your thoughts OR editing words on the paper.

2. You can burn a Magic Die to change, remove, or add a letter to one word of a spell you cast.

3. You can create enough ink to fill a teacup once a day.

Spells

	Effect	Element	Form
Ethereal	Unobservable Forces	High Concepts & Metaphysics	Intangible Manifestations
Physical	Observable Forces	Classical Elements & Flora/Fauna	Tangible Reality

For this wizard’s spell list, you will pick any two categories below and roll to generate each spell.

Generally, any two of the categories explained above will produce sensible spells. (Excluding Form and Form, because Loop of Trap doesn't exactly seem cool, but you do you. Although, Loop of TrapS sounds kinda awesome...)

When rolling, use 2d6; one for the individual block and one for the numbered entry therein.

EX: I get a 3 and a 5 for my Physical Effects roll, so I get Illuminating.

1. Physical Effects
1.Animating 2.Attracting 3.Binding 4.Blossoming 5.Consuming 6.Creeping	1.Crushing 2.Diminishing 3.Dividing 4.Duplicating 5.Enveloping 6.Expanding	1.Fusing 2.Grasping 3.Hastening 4.Hindering 5.Illuminating 6.Imprisoning
1.Levitating 2.Opening 3.Petrifying 4.Phasing 5.Piercing 6.Pursuing	1.Reflecting 2.Regenerating 3.Rending 4.Repelling 5.Resurrecting 6.Screaming	1.Sealing 2.Shapeshifting 3.Shielding 4.Spawning 5.Transmuting 6.Transporting

2. Physical Elements
1.Acid 2.Amber 3.Bark 4.Blood 5.Bone 6.Brine	1.Clay 2.Crow 3.Crystal 4.Ember 5 Flesh 6.Fungus	1.Glass 2.Honey 3.Ice 4.Insect 5.Iron 6.Lava
1.Moss 2.Obsidian 3.Oil 4.Poison 5.Rat 6.Salt	1.Sand 2.Sap 3.Serpent 4.Slime 5.Stone 6.Tar	1.Thorn 2.Vine 3.Water 4.Wine 5.Wood 6.Worm

3. Physical Forms
1.Altar 2.Armor 3.Arrow 4.Beast 5.Blade 6.Cauldron	1.Chain 2.Chariot 3.Claw 4.Cloak 5.Colossus 6.Crown	1.Elemental 2.Eye 3.Fountain 4.Gate 5.Golem 6.Hammer
1.Horn 2.Key 3.Mask 4.Monolith 5.Pit 6.Prison	1.Sentinel 2.Servant 3.Shield 4.Spear 5.Stead 6.Swarm	1.Tentacle 2.Throne 3.Torch 4.Trap 5.Wall 6.Web

4. Ethereal Effects
1.Avenging 2.Banishing 3.Bewildering 4.Blinding 5.Charming 6.Communicating	1.Compelling 2.Concealing 3.Deafening 4.Deceiving 5.Deciphering 6.Disguising	1.Dispelling 2.Emboldening 3.Encoding 4.Energizing 5.Enlightening 6.Enraging
1.Excruciating 2.Foreseeing 3.Intoxicating 4.Maddening 5.Mesmerizing 6.Mindreading	1.Nullifying 2.Paralyzing 3.Revealing 4.Revolting 5.Scrying 6.Silencing	1.Soothing 2.Summoning 3.Terrifying 4.Warding 5.Wearying 6.Withering

5. Ethereal Elements
1.Ash 2.Chaos 3.Distortion 4.Dream 5.Dust 6.Echo	1.Ectoplasm 2.Fire 3.Fog 4.Ghost 5.Harmony 6.Heat	1.Law 2.Lightning 3.Memory 4.Mind 5.Mutation 6.Negation
1.Plague 2.Plasma 3.Probability 4.Rain 5.Rot 6.Shadow	1.Smoke 2.Snow 3.Soul 4.Star 5.Stasis 6.Steam	1.Thunder 2.Time 3.Void 4.Warp 5.Whisper 6.Wind

6. Ethereal Forms
1.Aura 2.Beacon 3.Beam 4.Blast 5.Blob 6.Bolt	1.Bubble 2.Call 3.Cascade 4.Circle 5.Cloud 6.Coil	1.Cone 2.Cube 3.Dance 4.Disk 5.Field 6.Form
1.Gaze 2.Loop 3.Moment 4.Nexus 5.Portal 6.Pulse	1.Pyramid 2.Ray 3.Shard 4.Sphere 5.Spray 6.Storm	1.Swarm 2.Torrent 3.Touch 4.Vortex 5.Wave 6.Word

Emblem Spells

11. Paronym

You speak amendments unto reality’s laws with authority. You can take any two words from the spells on your list and smush those into a new spell upon casting. For each MD invested, the effect is strengthened (whatever that means) and you may change 1 letter in either word. The exact effects are debated upon by you and the GM.

12. Tongues

R: touch T: [dice] creatures D: [sum] days

Eyes turn a worn beige, and whatever words are read or heard scroll over them in inky print. The affected are able to interpret any attempt at communication with utter accuracy. Improvised hand gestures, symbology in dying blood, and the Language of Gods are all fair game.

Mishaps

1. MD only return to your pool on a 1-2 for 24 hours
2. Take 1d6 damage.
3. Random mutation for 1d6 rounds, then Save. Permanent if you fail.

4. Blinded for 1d6 rounds.

5. Spell targets you (if harmful) or enemy (if beneficial) or fizzles (if neutral)

6. Deafened for 1d6 rounds.

Dooms

1. You are unable to understand written or nonverbal communication for 1 day, and must save or misunderstand spoken communication for the duration.

2. You are unable to understand any language or form of communication for 3 days. Words actively flee from you.

3. You lose the gift of communication permanently, locked inside of your mind and body without escape or reprieve. The quiet will likely drive you insane immediately.

This doom can be avoided by seamlessly assimilating two different cultures (with different languages) into one, or by inventing a complete language from the ground up.

Design Notes

This school's cantrips and dooms are my primary attempt to deliver the flavor of this class. I imagine them, in my world at least, to be the most anal-retentive of all the schools. They have all the skills necessary to create incredibly rich and decisive treatises on the world, and their biggest power and temptation is to alter the world through their words. (Not unlike the Sorcerer from Skerples.) I hope that comes across in this class.

That's my first blog post, everybody. There it is. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.