Happy Glogmas to mendesMadness- WORD MAGIC SORCERER AS SPECIES

 

I, Too, Would Recommend Making a Blog! Even if it ends up abandoned for literal years!

mendesMadness of the Phlox Discord server made a few posts in a Prompt Suggestion Box

I will thus combine them into my best first attempt of "Word Magic Sorcerer As Species"


"SORCERER"

You are a Sorcerer, a member of a unique species evolved to gain nutrition from the Dreamscape where Spellwisps and the Words of Creation dwell.

You look like a cross between a tapir, a tiger, and a tortoise, with your magnificent shell being the surface upon which you write your MAGIC WORDS

A bit like this, with a big shell (Source)

A:  MAGIC VOCABULARY, STRAIN d8, ADJECTIVE 
B: +1 WORD, STRAIN d6, VERB
C: +1 WORD, STRAIN d4, NOUN
D: +1 WORD, UTTERANCE
E: +1 WORD, ECHOING PROCLAMATION

HD: d4

You may not wear armor but your shell grants you protection as Chain Armor would.

A:

MAGIC VOCABULARY - You may collect a WORD from your immediate environment. This word is then forever inscribed as a magic rune onto your shell, and is part of your VOCABULARY from which you may INVOKE your abilities.

STRAIN - Whenever you Invoke a WORD, roll a d8. Take Wisdom Damage equal to the amount rolled. Pass out upon exceeding your maximum Wisdom. STRAIN damage is cleared after a nights rest or upon eating a magic component.

ADJECTIVE - You may use your WORDS to add their attributes to a target for as long as you can see them. 

B: 

VERB - You may use your WORDS to force a target to take their embodied action a single time.

C:

NOUN - You may use your WORDS to physically summon a thing into physical space until you fall asleep or it is slain. You have no special control over that which you conjure and such beings act naturally.

D:

UTTERANCE - You may combine words together, mixing their desired effects, such as both an ADJECTIVE and NOUN together for a new class of being - each WORD invoked still causes STRAIN damage.

E:

ECHOING PROCLAMATION - Changes you make to the world using ADJECTIVES and NOUNS no longer have a time limit and can be dismissed at will.





Sometimes you might find additional magic WORDS naturally in places of power or hidden away - these you may also inscribe into your shell. 


Some WORD Examples in play:

BOAR: ADJECTIVE- target becomes bristly/hoofed/tusked/short-tempered VERB- target charges to attack a foe NOUN - summons a boar (a copy of the one present when you inscribed the WORD)

FIRE: ADJECTIVE - target becomes hot-tempered/can't sit still/literally hot VERB- target fires a ranged weapon/dismisses a subordinate NOUN - summons a fire elemental

TREE: ADJECTIVE - target becomes rooted to a single spot VERB - shelter someone or something/t-pose NOUN - summons a tree


Adventure Hooks Three:

• In a hidden swamp within The Dimension of Black Forests and White Castles lies an ancient community of Sorcerers who jealously guard the secret WORDS of NIGHT and DAY. They would be willing to let an outsider inscribe one of these words in return for the death of an "evil hag" on the other side of the swamp who has been stealing their children (The "evil hag" in question claims that she's simply a misunderstood hermit and that the Sorcerer children are all runaways from the overly strict parents)
  
  
• A "mad" Sorcerer is building a weather machine, with the goal of being able to summon and bind a TORNADO so that she may inscribe that WORD. Right now all it can do is summon rainclouds, and the villagers are complaining their crops may be ruined in all the bad weather, begging the adventurers to check out the "weather witch's lab" on the nearby hilltop.
  
  
• A Sorcerer has been recently rendered mute by a powerful curse - the curative waters to break it lie at the bottom layer of a nearby dungeon. In return for your help in escorting him there he will reward you with his prized WORD - MEGALODON
  
  

See Also:
I previously did a "Wizard as one of three genders" for my bee-like Beylar race in Wizzzargh's Godbound Game
I'll link Kouros of a Man's Wizard Foxes, Arnold K's Spherical Wizards, and Manses' Nespo Nespo as good examples of "Wizard Species"
Special Shoutout to this post on WORD magic