View Full Version : In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was Suck: A Guide to Truenamers
In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was Suck
A Guide to Truenamers
Welcome, all and sundry, to my guide to Truenamers. Those of you who are familiar with my other thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114269) may notice some similarities, which is no accident . . . this is basically a revised version of that. Parts of it are copied directly. Many more parts of it are new, rewritten, or otherwise different.
Anyway, this guide will teach you what I know about Truenamers. Make no mistake, my friends: Truenamers are bad. Very bad. They are not a good class, and I don't have any hidden secrets on how to turn them into a good class. If you're thinking about playing a Truenamer, my best advice is not to. Save yourself the frustration. This guide is NOT intended to make anyone want to play a Truenamer. I mean it. If you still want to play a Truenamer . . . my second-best advice is the rest of this guide. You have been warned, though. The path of the Truenamer is one fraught with frustration, confusion, and lunacy. You'll be spending a lot of time talking to your GM about what some poorly-worded rules mean, about things you can do, and about what CR that thing is. To this day, every time I do a thorough read of the Truenamer chapter, I discover something new and stupid. (You don't want to know how many I found while writing this guide.) You're highly unlikely to be the MVP in any respect, and you will have to stay constantly vigilant to make sure that you're really contributing to the party. Your reward is . . . well, playing a Truenamer and saying that you did.
Words of Identification: What are Truenamers Good At?
So, Truenamers aren't good at much. I'm not gonna lie to you. They're not. That said, they do have a few niches they can carve out for themselves.
The first niche is the party encyclopedia. There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, you're an INT-based class with a skill list that consists of basically nothing but Truespeak, UMD, and Knowledges. You're going to end up with a handful of Knowledges pretty much no matter what, unless you're just being obtuse and intentionally trying to avoid them. Second, you get a class feature called Knowledge Focus which just flat-out gives you bonuses to Knowledges of your choice. Third, if you want to get into the Paragnostic Assembly (more on that later), you're going to be rewarded for taking a whole bunch of Knowledge skills, so there's that. Finally, there are two utterances that are very much worth taking (Hidden Truth and Universal Aptitude) that together can give you (or anyone) a +15 bonus on Knowledge checks (which they can then use untrained). Convinced yet? You're gonna be a smart fellow. When you see something weird, the party will turn to you to be the Pokédex and explain what it is. Your GM may love it (“ooh, I get to explain all those background details I spent all this time mapping out, and I don't even have to TRY to drop plot hooks!”) or hate it (“again? You got a 45? Really? Just take my notes and be quick about it”), but they're probably gonna have to learn to deal with it sooner or later. I'm writing this guide assuming that you're at least somewhat interested in playing a really brainy character who knows a lot of things about a lot of other things.
Another niche is that of a mage's cheerleader. Truenamers get a good handful of utterances that are much more useful to the Truenamer's mage friend than to the Truenamer proper. If you're willing to take up the pom-poms and make the party members who were already more awesome than you even more awesome than they already are, the Truenamer can do that, and they can do it relatively well. This is, I will add, a frustrating role to play sometimes, but if you're into that sort of thing, it's good for the party as a whole.
On their own merits, Truenamers make passable buffers and debuffers, assuming that they can make their checks. The Law of Sequence (combined with the lack of multi-target utterances) means that they won't be affecting too many people at once, but they have a few decent effects. How these effects stack up to what another class can do really depends on the level, since high-level utterances tend to suck.
Weirdly, at high levels, a Truenamer can make a decent healbot, though they probably shouldn't. From level 1, they can keep your HP filled with the Word of Nurturing utterances, and eventually (much too late, of course) they get a bunch of restorative utterances that will actually get rid of status conditions and the like. These usually aren't the best choices to take, but if you actually enjoy being the medic and your party doesn't feel like in-combat healing is a waste of time, a Truenamer can do it.
Finally, a Truenamer gets a weirdly large number of damage-over-time effects, which will appeal to some more hardcore players of MMOs. Damage-over-time effects aren't usually a good deal in D&D (much better to just kill them, since there's no real incentive to use slow burns), but if for some weird reason you just adore that archetype, you can pull it off. It won't be good, make no mistake, but it'll be possible.
Morphemes: Truenamer Class Features
Truenamers are caster-types who live and die by their spell-equivalents, but they do have class features besides. Most of them aren't worth much, but let's look at 'em.
Known Personal Truename: This is about half fluff and half crunch. Functionally, you'll get a net +2 (+4 bonus for it being yours, then –2 penalty for it being a personal name, net +2) to affect yourself with an utterance. What kind of bonus? Well, pg. 200 lists it as untyped, pg. 196 says it's a competence bonus, and pg. 233 says its a circumstance bonus. Beats me. I'm in favor of it being untyped, but since circumstance bonuses from different sources stack, it wouldn't be terrible to use pg. 233's rules either. Maybe you can argue that all three apply simultaneously, if you've got a really permissive GM!
Knowledge Focus: Basically, this is similar to a free Skill Focus: Knowledge that stacks with itself, if you so choose. It's a neat little prize, and you get a few of them. It's not ACTUALLY Skill Focus, so it won't serve as a prereq by RAW. But it's still a nice flavor ribbon with a bit of meaningful crunch to it. I'm a fan, though you'll never get me to understand how they chose the levels at which this shows up.
Truename Research: I don't think you're likely to use this, since the benefits of researching personal truenames are almost never worth the effort. Basically a useless bonus feat.
Recitation Feat: The recitation feats are pretty awful. They all take full-round actions, and few of them give anything worthwhile in return. Recitation of the Fortified State gives you a tiny bonus to natural armor in exchange for removing yourself from relevance. Recitation of Meditative State will basically never come up, since whenever a condition is bad enough to warrant the action cost, you can't use it. Recitation of Mindful State gives you a teeny-tiny competence bonus on skills that don't appear on the Truenamer skill list and that mostly can't be used untrained. Recitation of the Sanguine State is decent, but of course it forgets that Neutralize Poison has a duration, which gets weird. Recitation of Vital State is situational and unlikely to come up. I don't know why only Fortified and Sanguine have “the” in their names.
See the Named: Interesting, but researching personal truenames is an enormous pain in the butt, so this will probably never see use.
Sending: You see what I said about See the Named? As above, so below.
Speak Unto the Masses: This comes way too late (level 17? Really?), but it's a necessary tool that you'll be really happy to have (or that you'll really wish you had). Basically, this is great, but it would have been much better much earlier.
Say My Name and I Am There: Behold, perhaps the coolest capstone in D&D. I still say that the Elite Beat Agents (and perhaps the Ōendan) are 20th level Truenamers, probably gestalted with Bard. I can't say enough how awesome this is. How useful it is depends on how you use it, but it's definitely awesome.
Phonemes: Truenamer Stats
A Truenamer has a d6 hit die, Rogue BAB, a good Will save, and 4 + INT skills from a very limited list. They get simple weapons and light armor. They're pretty thoroughly caster-types.
STR: It is possible to make a Truenamer gish, but if you're not going to do that, you can safely dump STR. Just make sure to watch your carrying capacity, especially if you’re smaller than Medium.
DEX: You've got a few debuffs, so initiative matters. Keep this up if you can afford to.
CON: Again, d6 hit die. This is as important for you as it is for everyone else.
INT: You're not playing a Truenamer without INT. This drives your Truespeak skill, so obviously, you'll want it high.
WIS: You'll want to avoid having a penalty here (failing Will saves tends to suck, good base progression or no), but you don't have much direct use for WIS, since you don't have any skills or class features based on it. Also, if you plan on UMDing divine spells or spells that are normally cast off of WIS, having WIS can reduce the number of UMD checks you need to make.
CHA: The save DCs of your utterances are based on CHA, and you have UMD. That said, there are plenty of utterances that don't allow saves, and there are other ways of boosting UMD. If you plan on using a lot of utterances (or maybe even just one really important utterance) with saves, put as much here as you can safely afford to. If not, don't worry about it.
Lexicon of the Lexicons: Truenamer Vocabulary
Utterance: Basically, a spell, though technically all utterances are SLAs. This is what the Truenamer does with their time, aside from swearing in frustration.
Truespeak: A trained-only INT-based skill that you'll need to keep maxed at all times. Pretty much everything a Truenamer does requires a Truespeak check, and the typical DC is 15 + (2 × CR) of the target. Yes, this means that the typical DC goes up by 2 every level, while you can only add 1 rank every level. This is just as annoying as it sounds, and it means that you'll be spending a disproportionate amount of time trying to boost this check . . . then trying to figure out what to do with the check once you've boosted it.
Lexicon of the Evolving Mind (LEM): The "normal" category of utterances. These are the most common kind of utterances. They affect creatures (well, one creature at a time), and they're all reversible: each utterance is two utterances in one, which is kinda cool. They come in 6 levels. A level 20 Truenamer has 20 of these. The DC to speak one of these utterances is the familiar 15 + (2 × CR), where CR is (you guessed it) the CR of the target, or HD for PCs.
Lexicon of the Crafted Tool (LCT): These utterances affect items. You'll probably forget that you have them more often than not, because very few of them are actually interesting. These come in 5 levels, and a level 20 Truenamer gets 5 in total. Yup, one per utterance level. Hold your applause until the end, please. The DC to speak one of these is 15 + (2 × CL), where CL is the caster level of the item. If the item is nonmagical, the DC is a flat 25. Yup, that means that you'll have an easier time affecting the little trinket that the apprentice mage enchanted than the nonmagical thing he started with. Don't ask me. This was all WotC.
Lexicon of the Perfected Map (LPM): A breed of utterance that was clearly tacked on at the last possible minute (definitely after it could be edited), these utterances are your only AoE/multitarget options until level 17. They affect "places," which basically means that they're area effects. There are 4 levels of these, and a level 20 Truenamer gets 4 of them, so once again, one per level. Choose well. WotC literally forgot to include the DC to speak these utterances and had to include it in the errata. No, I'm not joking. That should give you an idea of just how much effort went into this section. (Whether "this section" refers to the LPM section or the Truenamer section is left as an exercise for the reader.) Just so you don't have to look it up, it's 25 + 5 per level of the utterance, with an additional +5 if you're trying to affect a "magical location," though what that means is undefined. This does mean that they're the only utterances who are harder to say if you're using a higher-level one.
Law of Resistance (LoR): The first Law of WotC Hates Truenamers, this is an annoying little rule that makes Truenaming harder as the day goes on. All those utterance DCs I gave you above are just for the first time you use any given utterance during the day. Each time you succeed, the DC of that particular utterance increases by 2, though (in a rare display of mercy) failing doesn't increase the DC. Yes, this is kind of a pain to keep track of. Anyway, I think this is intended to keep you from just using your utterances at-will, but it basically means that low-level or unoptimized 'Namers will have a hard time doing anything past the first combat of the day, while optimized 'Namers will basically just ignore this until they actually have to roll to Quicken. It's still annoying.
Law of Sequence (LoS): The second Law of WotC Hates Truenamers, this Law will be the bane of your existence. The LoS says that you can only have one "copy" of an utterance active at any given time. This means that if you have, for example, Knight's Puissance active on your Warblade buddy, you can't cast Knight's Puissance again on your Crusader buddy until the first one runs out, nor can you cast Reversed Knight's Puissance on the Bulette you're fighting. If you've never played a Truenamer, you might think that the LoR is worse than the LoS. You'd be wrong. I consider the LoS to be one of the single worst-designed parts of the entire Truenamer chapter, and you can quote me on that.
Recitation feat: A totally useless class of feat that you'll end up with one or two of as bonus feats. You'll forget you have them unless you're willing to use the Dark Chaos Shuffle, in which case they're a useful class feature.
Paragnostic Assembly: An organization from Complete Champion that every single Truenamer is (or desperately wishes they could be) a part of. This might lead to some weird fluff consequences, knowing that they hold sway over all the world's Truenamers, but the potential bonuses that the organization provides are just too good to pass up. They're one of the only places that Truespeak is mentioned outside of Tome of Magic.
Truenamer: You, you poor bastard.
**Semi-minor stylistic note: I'm kind of slowly shifting my internal "style guide" to be more like WotC's, including whether I capitalize the names of classes, spells, and similar abilities, as well as whether or not to italicize the names of spells and SLAs. This is a long-term project; I don't have the time or the energy at present to do a massive reformatting endeavor. You're going to notice some inconsistencies in formatting until I finish, and I'm not going quickly. I apologize to anyone in the publishing industry who may be offended by my inconsistency; rest assured that I am aware of it and that fixing it IS on the to-do list. Just not crazy high on the to-do list.**
Speakers of the Words: Races
So, before you have a class, you've gotta have a race, right? Very few races are uniquely well-suited to play Truenamers, but very few races are uniquely poorly suited to do so. Really, as long as you don't have a penalty to your INT score, you'll probably make no worse a Truenamer than the fellow next to you. Thus, I'll mostly stick to races that have something worth mentioning. These are by no means the only races who can Truename. If I don't mention a race and you don't see anything about it that would make it particularly ill-suited to the role, you can assume that “eh, it's probably okay.” Your race probably won't make that much of a difference. Do note that I really don't like races that aren't ECL 0, so I won't be bothering with anything that has LA or RHD. As a side note, if you're playing at very high levels (17+, when Speak Unto the Masses comes into play), it's often advantageous to make sure that all of the party members that you'll usually want to affect with a given utterance are the same creature type (humanoid, fey, outsider, etc.). That said, picking a weird type can be fun early on, so don't stress about that too terribly much unless you're actually starting with level 17 in reach.
In short:
INT penalties are bad. INT bonuses are OK, but not must-have. (Penalties hurt more than bonuses help.)
If you're taking utterances that allow saving throws or if you want to use UMD at lowish levels, be wary of races with penalties to CHA. Otherwise, don't worry about it.
Races that give you something different to do are usually worth a second look. Races that give skills as automatic class skills are worth a second look as well, since you'll have lots of skill points and not that many things to spend them on.
You're a caster-type with mostly debuff effects and a d6 hit die. CON is as necessary for you as it is for everyone else, and DEX (mostly for initiative) is nice to have, though it can be sacrificed if necessary.
You have to see something (or “perceive it in some other way that gets you as much information as sight”) to use an utterance on it. Whether that makes darkvision attractive to you depends on how much your GM likes turning out the lights and dousing your torches, but it's something.
Illumian: (Races of Destiny) This is the race that gets the biggest boost to Truespeak (the Naen sigil gives a +2 bonus on all INT-based checks at and after level 2), and the bonus to Knowledge skills at the same time is also pretty sweet. None of the combined power words really do much for you, so choose your second sigil based on what kinds of bonuses you like. Utterances are technically SLAs, so if you lose caster levels for some reason, Krau will bump up your caster level (if you care, of course, since you don't really have too many effects that are based on your CL). I like Uur for the bonus to initiative. Anything works, though. Also, the flavor is especially fitting, and the fact that illumians get Speak Language as a class skill when Truenamers usually don't is . . . well, it's something. Illumians are my favorite choice for this class. (They're my favorite race on the whole as well, but they make especially good Truenamers, such as it is.)
Human: (PHB) It is a fact about 3.5: There is nothing a human does poorly, and there are few things they don't do better than most other races. They're just good.
Azurin: (Magic of Incarnum) An azurin who spends their bonus feat on Shape Soulmeld (Lightning Gauntlets or Dissolving Spittle) gets an at-will touch attack (melee for Gauntlets, ranged for Spittle) that does 2d6 damage. At higher levels, if you don't spend some feats and/or levels getting more essentia, this tapers off in usefulness, but at low levels, it gives you something to do when you can't or don't want to use an utterance. If you're starting at very low levels, this might also mean that you won't feel compelled to take Minor Word of Nurturing as your first utterance, which is good, because you'd probably rather take Universal Aptitude or Inertia Surge in the long run. Dusklings have the same bonus essentia, but with that penalty to INT? Pass.
Half-Elf: (PHB) This is just if you want pity. It's telling that Khetarin, the iconic Truenamer, is a half-elf. Half-elves give you nothing of interest, but most other races won't either, and if you really want to play up the whole “GAZE UPON ME AS I OPTIMIZE A SUCKY CLASS INTO SHINING MEDIOCRITY” aspect, you might as well take a race with a reputation for being lackluster. If you do, make sure that your facial hair is just as stupid as Khetarin's is. Yes, even if your Truenamer is female.
Dragonborn: (Races of the Dragon) Personally, I don't like dragonborn that much, but the breath weapon makes them useful (like the azurin, it gives them something to do early on other than just be a Truenamer). If your GM plays a high-powered game, there's an argument that you can combine them with raptorans for flight AND a breath weapon, but some games will find that to be [at least] mildly abusive. Since "dragonborn" is as much a pseudotemplate as it is a race, you can tack it onto another race (losing 99% of the race's features but stacking their stat changes with those granted by dragonborn). This is notable if you want to be a gray elf; a dragonborn gray elf has net stat mods of -2 STR and +2 INT (canceling out the CON penalty that gray elves usually have to endure), which may be relevant to your interests. (Illumians still get a bigger Truespeak bonus, though.)
Killoren: (Races of the Wild) If you have good CHA for some reason (such as if you want to use utterances with saving throws), their built-in smite is pretty fun and might make the difference between hitting and missing, especially at low levels. This is one of those “I have something to do for a turn other than just be a Truenamer” races I mentioned earlier. If you're not into that sort of thing, a bonus to K: Nature checks can be interesting (since you're probably going to be a know-it-all), and the Aspect of the Hunter gives you a whole pack of little bonuses, including one of the only two racial bonuses to initiative that I know about. You even get to pick every day, so you might go for smites early on and skill/initiative bonuses later once you've got enough utterances that you don't need to find other ways to spend your actions. They even have a few interesting racial feats, and if you happen to be interested in stuff that requires the Fey type, they've got that as well. Nothing overwhelming out of this race, but they're definitely not bad.
Raptoran: (Races of the Wild) Flight. Nothing more, nothing less. Saving an utterance known on Seek the Sky can be a decent perk, though StS has other uses as well.
Kalashtar: (Eberron Campaign Setting) If you feel like spending a feat on Hidden Talent, kalashtar (and any other race with inherent psionics, like maenads, elans, synads, or xephs, but kalashtar do it best in the long run) can give you a backup option for when you don't want to be a Truenamer. Of course, since your manifester level for Hidden Talent doesn't increase, the power won't scale, so you're either going to be focusing primarily on the early game or else you're going to want to pick something that isn't really dependent on ML, but you can handle that. (Call to Mind can give you an even more disgustingly high bonus to Knowledge checks, for example, and Psionic Minor Creation can be used for shenanigans, though neither is something that one manifests in combat.) Also, having PP qualifies you for psionic feats, if you care about those.
Deep Imaskari, Gray Elf, Fire Elf, Dragonwrought Kobold, etc.: INT bonuses, but that's pretty much it. You probably don't need these as much as you think you do, and illumians will give you a bigger net bonus on Truespeak checks (excepting Dragonwrought kobolds starting with odd INT scores, who tie with the illumians). Still, they're here if you want 'em. Note that getting the INT bonus out of a kobold requires spending a feat on Dragonwrought, so if an INT bonus is all you're getting out of that deal, you're probably better off with another option, mechanically speaking.
Buomman: (Planar Handbook) These give you nothing of interest and aren't especially good, but I find the concept of singing Truespeech to be funny enough to mention it. You probably shouldn't play one, but I would giggle if you did.
Muckdweller: (Serpent Kingdoms) I mention these for three reasons. First, I think they're funny, and a lot of people don't know about them. Second, their Squirt attack is another entry in the “something to do other than utter” category (and one of, like, two DEX-based save DCs that I can think of). Third, they're really hard to hit (tiny size, +6 DEX, +3 natural armor), so that's something. If you can swing having an arcane caster level somehow, they're also a viable option for familiars, but somehow I don't see that happening on a Truenamer. Still, the little guys are fun.
Daelkyr Half-Blood: (Magic of Eberron) These get a free (scaling, even) symbiont, which are creepy little things that are treated as kind of being creatures and kind of being items. This sorta-kinda fits in the "I have a low-level trick that isn't just uttering" box. The symbionts you can get for free don't have any unusual synergy with Truenamer, but that doesn't mean they don't have uses.
Neraph: (Planar Handbook) Neraphim are Outsiders with 0 LA, which is nice for several reasons. One of those reasons is automatic proficiency with all martial weapons. Most 'Namers aren't especially interested in weapons, but if you want to be somewhat gishy or otherwise capable of making normal attacks at people, this can help. It also is not a bad thing to have +2 NA and Neraph Camouflage.
Conjugating the Words: Feats
There are a few feats that you're going to be taking. This is not negotiable. The first, as is probably obvious, is Skill Focus: Truespeak. Nothing fancy here, folks, just a +3 to the skill that makes you tick. Feat tax? Yup. You're taking it anyway. Probably at level 1, unless there's some really specific first-level-only feat you want (and even then, you'll probably wish you had SF: Truespeak).
The second feat is Quicken Utterance. You'll take this feat at level 9. Why? Because it's one of the only things that makes a Truenamer, well, almost decent.
Now, the feat is absurd on the face of it, and it really points out some of the problems with the design of the class. The DC is increased by 20. That means that in order to have any chance at all of succeeding at a Quickened utterance, you had to have had a greater than 100% chance of success before you Quickened it. Think about that for a minute. They printed this feat being fully aware that you needed to have that kind of Truespeak mod. That says something about this whole mess, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. Anyway, you're an optimizer. You can get a +20 above baseline if you really want one, right? Of course you can, one way or another. Even if you can't get yourself up to auto-success levels with Quicken, you lose nothing but your swift action for failing (and you'll notice how few native uses for your swift actions you have). Still, throwing out two of your highest-level effects per round is pretty nice. See, that's the thing . . . the DCs of utterances are based on the target, not on the utterance. Casting Minor Word of Nurturing (a level 1 utterance) on your friend is exactly as hard as casting Greater Word of Nurturing (a level 6 utterance) on that same friend. This means that as soon as you can get Quicken, you can Quicken your best utterances just as easily as your weakest ones. That's a trick that very few classes can replicate, which is nifty in its own right. Either way, assuming that you can get your Truespeak mod up to the stupidly high levels this requires, this is an immeasurably valuable feat.
Almost every Truenamer will also take Extend Utterance, just because the duration on your utterances is so bloody short. Now, you won't want to Extend every utterance you speak since the Law of Sequence (may it rot in Hell) will get in your way, but it's definitely an option you'll want in your toolkit sooner or later.
Anyway, here are a few feats that you might want to look into. They won't all be appropriate for every Truenamer, but they're some options. Note that not every feat I'm discussing here is necessarily one that I'm recommending; many of these are niche options that aren't going to be appropriate for every build, and some of them are even trap options that I'm trying to warn you away from. Regardless, let's begin.
Feats that boost your Truespeak numbers or make you more likely to succeed at your checks:
Skill Focus: Truespeak (PHB): This feat is boring. This feat is also mandatory. Just take it and move on.
Enhanced Power Sigils: (Races of Destiny, illumians only) The benefits of this feat are marginal at best, but if you're an illumian who's desperate for another +1 to Truespeak, this will give you some other bonuses as well, including to Knowledge checks. Not a top-tier choice by any stretch, make no mistake.
Make Your Own Luck: (Complete Scoundrel) Getting a bunch of rerolls is a decent way of making Truespeak more reliable, if you don't have any other ways of getting your check up high. You'll need other luck feats as well (one as a prereq, and others to get extra rerolls). Note that rerolling with this feat is an immediate action, so you can't Quicken in the same turn unless you blow a level on Fortune's Friend. If you go this route, I recommend Lucky Start as your prereq and Unbelievable Luck as a follow-up.
Favored: Paragnostic Assembly: (Cityscape) Assuming that you are in fact associated with the Assembly (see below), this can probably snare you a +2 competence bonus on Truespeak. Talk to your GM about having it increase your standing, too. All of the things I'm talking about here do rely on a bit of GM approval, so get in there and have that conversation.
Focused Skill User: (Complete Psionic) If you're psionic (perhaps from taking Hidden Talent or from being a race with built-in PP), you can get a +2 bonus to any three skills of your choice while focused, and yup, that includes Truespeak. It's a competence bonus, so if your GM lets you get a competence item, this won't stack, but it's there if you really need another +2 just that badly. Probably not worth the investment (one feat for Skill Focus is one thing, but this costs either two feats or a feat and a race, and that kinda hurts), but it exists. That said, if you're already going down this road for some reason, see Psymbiot below.
Psymbiot: (Complete Psionic) I can't decide if this name is brilliant or too clever for its own good. Anyway, this is super specific and pretty hard for a typical Truenamer to qualify for. Basically, if you've got a manifester level of 3rd or higher AND you've got a non-summoned buddy within 10 feet who also has a manifester level of 3rd or higher, you'll get a +2 typeless bonus on all skill checks (and ability checks and saving throws). This is a pretty nice effect if you qualify for some reason, but the downside is that it's really obnoxious to qualify. Assuming that you have a manfesting ally in the party that you're willing and able to stay within 10 feet of (and make no mistake, that is a big assumption that will not be true anything close to all of the time), you can maybe, maybe argue that a kalashtar's Mindlink ability, which is "like the psionic power manifested by a Wilder of 1/2 the kalashtar's Hit Dice" can qualify you after 6th level (or, similarly, a maenad's Energy Ray PLA, though maenad is a relatively poor choice overall for a Truenamer because Outburst is a trap), but you'll probably want your GM to sign off before you go too deep down this rabbit hole. If you were already planning to dip into a psionic class for some reason (probably Psion or Erudite just for the INT synergy, though I suppose it's theoretically possible that the granted mantle powers of certain mantles—don't ask me which—could potentially make an Ardent dip attractive), this might be more interesting, though you'll need to either expend another feat slot (read: Practiced Manifester) or multiple class levels to get your ML up to snuff here. Overall, this is the exact opposite of "generally easy and useful," and really the only reason that it's worth including in this discussion is that it gives both a typeless bonus to TS and also a typeless bonus to a whole pile of other stuff. But hey, weird builds happen, and the bonus is noticeable if you manage to set up everything perfectly enough that it actually comes up.
Ancestral Relic: (Book of Exalted Deeds) If your GM is very stingy with the magic marts, this is pretty much a guaranteed way to get an Amulet of the Silver Tongue, assuming you get treasure at all. If your GM will let you buy an AotST normally, this isn't as likely to be worth it unless you can get away with using it to make an item that gives a competence bonus to Truespeak (and once again, if you could have bought that with gold normally, spend the gold instead).
Craft Wondrous Item: (PHB) Much like Ancestral Relic, if your GM won't let you buy Truespeak-boosting items but will let you craft them, this might potentially be worthwhile. Ancestral Relic, above, implies that you don't need the prereqs for your relic, but CWI of course has no such implication. An Amulet of the Silver Tongue requires access to the spell Glibness, so if you're crafting that specifically, you'll probably either need a willing Bard ally or a UMD'd scroll/wand, which may or may not be easy to find in your world. Also worth mentioning is that there are basically no unambiguous printed items that can be created with utterances alone, but if your GM is willing to play ball and let you use utterances either to create items that require spells that are similar to your utterances (e.g., using Reversed Vision Sharpened for items that require Invisibility) or to make up new items that are thematically appropriate for your utterances, this feat might open some doors. I won't go into more detail than that because it's GM-specific, but as always, it can be worthwhile to have that conversation.
Item Familiar: (Unearthed Arcana) I've pretty much discussed this in the item section, but since Item Familiar is a feat, it's here too. Long story short, the way this works is you take the feat, you "invest" a whole bunch of skill ranks in the item familiar, and the item familiar gives you a +1 bonus to Truespeak (or whatever, but you want Truespeak) for every three ranks you invest this way, up to a max of however many ranks of Truespeak you have in total. You can invest any skill, not just Truespeak, but basically you only get the benefit of the invested ranks when you have access to the item familiar. This means that you're really in sorry shape if you don't have your item familiar with you, so you need to be insanely cautious about protecting it. And if it's destroyed, those ranks are gone for good, so you get permanently dumber. Do you see why I don't like this? There's a lot more that item familiars can do, including giving you free XP if you risk permanently losing XP if/when the item familiar is destroyed, which just seems terrible from start to finish, and even becoming an intelligent item and getting THAT can of worms involved, so there's a lot of potential headache here. I recommend not using an item familiar if you have any way at all to get your TS numbers up to par without it. If you absolutely must use an item familiar, I recommend just investing skill ranks and not making a big deal about the XP option or about the special abilities it can get, simply because the less of a spotlight you have on it, the less likely you are to have to deal with it being lost or destroyed. If you make a big deal about it and make it a huge spotlight hog at the table, your GM's probably going to make you lose it and have to struggle to get it back (or perhaps just suck forever if you can't get it back), and that's all on you. But yes, if you choose to go down this path, it WILL give you a very large Truespeak bonus. Sigh.
Dream of Instinct: (Secrets of Sarlona) This one's weird, and I'm not 100% convinced that it's a great idea as a primary strategy, but it's worth throwing out there if you've got free access to Eberron material. First, you take the feat Dream Scion (also from SoS), which lets you spend a full-round action a certain number of times per day (slowly but automatically scaling with character level; I haven't noticed a feat/item/class to improve this, but there might be one lurking somewhere in SoS) to enter a "dreamtouched state" for 3 + WIS rounds. All your mental stats increase a little bit while in this state (helping with your Truespeak checks and save DCs, though a small amount), and then Dream of Instinct gives you an additional +1 bonus on skill checks while in that state, so basically a net +2 to Truespeak if you don't have an insight bonus already. If that were all, I'd leave it alone, but Dream of Instinct also lets you end the state (no action listed) for a +10 bonus on a single skill check, which is certainly a large enough bonus to make me sit up and take notice! The only thing that stops me from recommending this as a go-to skill booster is the full-round action to start the ball rolling. With a short duration and no way that I know of to make this faster, that's a really gnarly action cost, and if you're doing it more for the +10 when you end the state and not the +2 while you maintain it, you're probably about as likely to succeed on a given Truespeak check by trying twice in two rounds (remember, failing a check has no penalty other than the wasted action) as by spending a round setting up and a round activating the check with a big bonus. Still, if you have good enough scouting capabilities in your party to semi-regularly get a buff round before a combat encounter, this is a small but noticeable encounter-long boost and/or a big spike of competence when you need it most. That +10 bonus can also be used on skills that aren't Truespeak, so if you give yourself Universal Aptitude and use Dream of Instinct, you can likely achieve a surprisingly high result (+15 above your other mods!) on any task that can be resolved with a single skill check and that can afford some prep time. (Also, you might be able to use it in combat after you've set up a Reversed Word of Nurturing by using the Swift Concentration skill trick to concentrate as a swift action? Don't ask me—I'm just the guy writing the handbook.)
Prophecy's Hero: (Magic of Eberron) Eberron has some weird stuff in it if you go digging deep. This is kind of like Dream of Instinct, above, and it also relies on your GM using the Eberron action point rules, which many GMs simply don't. First, you take the feat Dragon Prophesier, also in Magic of Eberron. This lets you spend a full-round action to enter a "prophetic favor" state, and the number of times per day you can do so is based on your HD and your WIS, so if you really want to do this a lot, invest in WIS. Anyway, prophetic favor does next to nothing on its own, but Prophecy's Hero gives you a bonus action point while in favor, and action points can be spent to add d6s to an arbitrary d20 roll (how many d6s depends on your character level). So if you have a round to buff, you can get a bonus to an important Truespeak check. There's a lot of moving parts here, to be honest, and it has almost all the same downsides as Dream of Instinct. The reason you'd look at this instead of Dream of Instinct is because you can enter prophetic favor more times per day than you can enter a dreamtouched state, and the prophetic favor's duration scales with your ranks in K: Arcana rather than your WIS, so it'll be ever so slightly easier to pre-buff with this one than with Dream of Instinct. It's weird, it relies on a campaign-specific mechanic, it requires two feats, and it involves pre-buffing, but you know what, it's there.
Ancestral Whispers: (Faiths of Eberron) This is a very bad way of getting a bonus, since it requires Turn Undead (which you don't have without a dip) and a standard action (yuck). But anyway, if for some reason you have Turn Undead and you feel like burning standard actions buffing TS, this feat will translate to a +4 sacred bonus. As discussed elsewhere in this guide, I personally do not believe that simply having an ability to take 10 "even when rushed or threatened" lets you take 10 on Truespeak (the skill has a specific clause saying you can't take 10, and being or not being rushed/threatened has nothing to do with it), but if your GM disagrees and takes a looser interpretation, this feat does have language about taking 10 despite being rushed/threatened. Still probably not worth a standard action and a dip on most builds, but I like throwing in weird feats as I stumble across them.
Precognitive Visions: (Fiendish Codex I) A +1 insight bonus for the cost of two feats is about the worst deal I can find, but in the interest of completion, this CAN give you an always-on bonus to Truespeak. I recommend, you know, not doing so unless you're already diving headfirst into Abyssal Heritor feats for some separate reason. Since that's usually not a good idea on most Truenamers, I think we're about done here. (I guess that if you take Keeper of Forbidden Lore as a prereq you'll at least gain Spellcraft as a class skill and get a +2 on K: Planes, but no. We're done here. You can do better.)
Chosen of Evil: (Elder Evils) Take 1 CON damage to gain an insight bonus equal to the number of Vile feats you have on one of any number of checks, including skill checks. No use limit other than your CON (and I'm sure we all know how to get around that), but it eats your immediate action, which means no Quickening. If you're into Vile feats that eat your immediate action but can give you Truespeak bonuses, check out Master's Will, also from Elder Evils. Nasty prereqs, though. Neither comes highly recommended.
Piddly Bonuses: (Varies) There are a lot of feats out there that can give you a +1 or +2 on a bunch of different checks a limited number of times per day. These are pretty much uniformly terrible unless you're using them for prereqs (and even then, I don't know of anything that uses these things as prereqs that's actually worth it), but just for completion's sake, here's as many as I could find: Devil's Favor (FCII; +2 untyped to any check 1/day per Devil-Touched feat); Heroic Destiny (RoD; +1d6 untyped to almost any check 1/day); Favored of the Companions/Knight of Stars/Servant of the Heavens (BoED; +1 luck to any check 1/day while performing an act of good); Disciple of Darkness/Thrall to Demon (BoVD; +1 luck to any check 1/day while performing an act of evil); Surge of Malevolence (HoH; slightly scaling bonus to check 1/day with magnitude related to taint). There may be others, but the point is, they're all terrible. Don't do this to yourself. As a general rule, a feat should matter way more than once per day, and if for some reason it does only matter once per day, it had better really matter on that one round when you use it. A tiny bonus like this does not count as "really mattering."
Delay Potion: (Complete Mage) Stay with me on this one. A wand of the spell Quick Potion (SpC) is 4,500 gp, or an Eternal Wand (MIC) of the same is 4,420 gp. This can go two ways (as far as Truespeak is concerned). First, you can get a wand of Wieldskill (Magic of Faerun) for a mere 750 gp, thus letting you make potions of Wieldskill very cheaply. Wieldskill gives you a +10 competence bonus to checks involving a skill of your choice (Truespeak!) for 1 min/lvl, so 1 minute if cast from a wand. (There are also other spells that give skill bonuses, but Wieldskill offers the best bang for the buck of the spells I could find that are potion-legal. No, Guidance of the Avatar is not potion-legal, so stop asking.) Why bother with the Quick Potion instead of just casting Wieldskill, then? Because of Delay Potion, the feat we're talking about. Delay Potion basically turns the use of a potion into a swift action, after some setup. Yes, this does compete with Quicken, but it's meaningful for two reasons: first, you'll only be able to use Delay Potion once per encounter, and second, there's a meaningful level range where you can afford this stuff but you don't have Quicken yet. Anyway, the second way this can go with respect to TS is that you can also see if your GM will let SLAs like utterances (by which I mean specifically utterances, which happen to be SLAs) be put into Quick Potions as well, in which case you can use Universal Aptitude instead of Wieldskill (+5 vs. +10, but typeless vs. competence). Per ToM pg. 262, LEM utterances of level 1 or 2 can be potionified, so this isn't that crazy. If you reach a point where your TS mod is high enough to not need the Delay Potion benefit anymore, remember that there are plenty of other normal potions that aren't bad to have as a swift action now and again. Also, if you can turn utterances into Quick Potions, this is a way to quickly get an utterance's effects without uttering out loud in the moment, so that might make Reversed Hidden Truth actually worth something. In short, using this feat requires a bit of effort and there are definitely some moving parts, but it's more effective than might be immediately obvious.
Leadership: (PHB) Yeah, okay, okay, I know, I know. I know. Leadership is a mess that's rightly banned most of the time for being too powerful at worst and too much paperwork at best. I know. Don't lunge for this option as a go-to. Please. But anyway, technically, it only takes one level in Marshal to get Motivate Intelligence, and so a cohort with one or more levels in Marshal and the Motivate Intelligence aura will directly increase your ability to use Truespeak. They honestly don't need to do anything else at all. (You can also just dip Marshal yourself if you don't mind losing a level of progression.) But hey, if Leadership is on the table, you've got a really obvious cohort to ask for. Oh, and since you just need one cohort with one single class level, you could also look at the Mentor feat in DMG2 and talk to your GM about that...
Feats that make your utterances better once you've succeeded at using them:
Quicken Utterance: (Tome of Magic) This should be your level 9 feat basically 100% of the time. As mentioned above, this feat is the single key factor that makes the Truenamer semi-relevant at mid to high levels; one utterance per round is going to stop mattering sooner than we might like, but two per round is noticeable once you've got the juice to muscle past the insane -20 penalty.
Extend Utterance: (Tome of Magic) This feat isn't mandatory, but it can be pretty useful. All utterances have very short durations, and many utterances have obnoxiously short durations. This can help a little bit.
Empower/Enlarge Utterance: (Tome of Magic) To be honest, I've never felt like these are worth the feat slot on a typical Truenamer. I don't think they're very good feats. I guess you could theoretically use Empower Utterance as part of a package with Mortalbane and Maximize/Empower SLA and stuff to make your damaging utterances more damaging, but that seems like a lot of effort to me, and I don't see this as being the part of that package that offers the biggest bang for the buck. (That said, if you DO end up making a Truenamer who wants to act like a "blaster," Empower is probably going to be part of that.) Anyway, in all my times playing a Truenamer, I've never once said "man, if only the range on this utterance were a little longer," so Enlarge doesn't seem very useful to me.
Mortalbane: (Book of Vile Darkness) If you're into directly damaging utterances, this is a decent damage bump, especially at low levels. Some GMs aren't too fond of it, but it's legit. This is also cool because it should trigger on every round of an utterance that isn't instantaneous (Energy Negation, for instance), allowing those dice to add up. Note that despite the name and the book, there's nothing inherently evil about this feat. I feel like this is likely more interesting than Empower Utterance because there's no "cost" beyond the feat slot itself and because it has a much bigger effect than Empower in the early game (Reversed Energy Negation, Reversed Minor/Lesser WoN, Agitate Metal, Energy Vortex, and Shockwave are all strictly better with Mortalbane than with Empower, and Reversed Moderate WoN is equivalent; you need at least 4th level utterances before Empower is unambiguously better). They should stack if you're really trying to build a "blaster" Truenamer, though I think that building a "blaster" Truenamer is going to be a doomed endeavor. I will admit that this feat is less useful if you aren't fighting enemies of the right type, but still, it should at least be functional in the early game.
Boost SLA: (Book of Vile Darkness) If you're going to be taking feats to bump up the save DCs of your utterances, this one is probably the best, since it works on ALL your utterances, and it works three times per day per utterance. You're not going to find a better deal than that.
Utterance Focus: (Tome of Magic) Unlike Boost SLA, this is always on. However, Boost SLA offers a bigger bump to the save DC and works on all of your utterances, while Utterance Focus only works on one. The only utterance with a save that's even close to being worth it is probably Eldritch Attraction, but even then, I think you can do better than this feat.
Focused Lexicon: (Tome of Magic) I'm not actually recommending this feat. I'm just pointing out something stupid, because we clearly haven't seen enough of that yet. I believe that this is intended to be similar to Spell Focus or Utterance Focus, but as written, what it does is make the Truespeak DCs harder, not the save DCs. (Contrast with the wording on Utterance Focus.) In other words, you're paying a feat to make life harder for yourself, with no direct benefit. RAI? I sure as hell hope not. RAW? Looks that way. (If you play this by what I believe RAI to be, i.e., that it works to increase the save DCs of your utterances against your chosen group, it's decent enough if you really have that many utterances that allow saves AND if you know what kind of enemies you're going to be facing, but it's probably not worth it overall—Boost SLA will likely do you more good. If you're really into this sort of thing, though, you might also look at Favored Magic Foe from Complete Mage.)
Sudden Metamagic feats: (Complete Arcane) Per pg. 71 of Complete Arcane, sudden metamagic feats work on SLAs just like they do on spells! The downside is that the ones that you probably care about (Sudden Empower and Sudden Maximize; Sudden Quicken has far too many prereqs) require that you know another metamagic feat first, which is obnoxious. Sudden Extend is a decent choice as that prereq, I suppose, but it's still kind of an obnoxious prereq feat. There's a clause on pp. 71-2 that indicates that Sudden Silent might not apply, though if it does, you might conceivably find a use for it now and again? I guess I've seen worse choices than going down this route overall.
Maximize SLA: (Complete Arcane) Utterances have relatively low spell level equivalents compared to actual spells, so you'll never be waiting terribly long before you can apply this to any given effect. That said, you don't have that many damaging utterances, the damaging utterances you do have aren't that damaging until you start stacking feats, and this only works on one utterance, so I'm not convinced that this is necessarily worth the feat space unless you're doing something really specific.
Empower SLA, Quicken SLA: (Monster Manual) As weird as it is to say this, the utterance-specific versions are better just because they work on any relevant utterance rather than one you choose in advance (and that you can't scale). I'd stick with the ToM stuff.
Heighten SLA: (Complete Arcane) Avoid this feat. Take Boost SLA instead.
Ability Focus: (Monster Manual) If your GM allows this to apply to class-granted abilities (do utterances qualify as a "special attack"?), it's better than Utterance Focus for that one utterance that you just care about more than any other. (So, you know, Eldritch Attraction, probably.) Still kind of a limited return on investment, though.
Vow of Nonviolence: (Book of Exalted Deeds) I mention this with great trepidation, because its reputation as a destroyer of group harmony is well-deserved. Always, always, always check with your party and your GM before you invest in character abilities that have a strong potential to directly penalize or harm your buddies. That said, if you're sure that you want to do this sort of thing, it's not actually that hard to build a Truenamer who never deals direct damage (just don't use the reversed version of WoN and then don't take any other damaging utterances; there are sufficiently few genuinely good damaging utterances that this isn't that big a cost), so this can theoretically be a +4 to many of your save DCs against humanoids and monstrous humanoids. Of course, you'll need to determine what "cause suffering" entails (is a dazed creature suffering? How about a nauseated creature? How about a frightened one?), but if you really want to focus on using the plentiful "save or suck for one round" utterances and you (and your group) can handle the gnarly RP requirements, a +4 bonus is a +4 bonus. Mind the obnoxious prereq, of course. Don't be tempted to use Vow of Poverty to get this "for free;" losing items (and losing the gold you need for your dues to the Paragnostic Assembly) is character-disabling on a Truenamer.
Other feats and/or feats that often don't involve utterances so directly:
Knowledge Devotion: (Complete Champion) You have a lot of Knowledge skills. You have an INT focus. You have ways to boost Knowledge skills and reasons to do so. If you ever want to use an actual weapon (even a crossbow in the back), this is for you. Even if you don't use weapons, the bonus to damage rolls granted by this feat is one of the rare bonuses to all damage rolls, so that would include damage rolls from utterances and similar magical abilities. Since Truenamers have a lot of utterances that apply damage over multiple rounds (the Reversed Word of Nurturing line, Reversed Energy Negation, Agitate Metal, and Energy Vortex, if nothing else), this bonus damage will add up. Sure, it's only going to be in the +2 to +5 range (I'm sure you can get beyond the +1 level), but apply it enough times over a fight or over a career, and that kind of ends up mattering.
Wild Cohort: (Online (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)) Definitely not for everyone, but this is useful for two reasons. One, it gives you a backup thing to do in combat (even if you rolled poorly on your Truespeak check or if all your useful utterances are tied up by the Law of Sequence, your pet can still eat something), and two, pets have low CR, so they tend to be pretty easy to affect with Truespeak. Handle Animal isn't a class skill, but if you stick to the basics, you should be OK with a few cross-class ranks (and perhaps Universal Aptitude).
(Minor) Utterance of the Evolving Mind: (Tome of Magic) Part of the problem with Truenaming is that there aren't enough good utterances in the first place, so you'll only rarely want an extra one (especially at the cost of a feat), but this does have a use or two. If you started at low enough levels (say, level 1) that you wanted to take an utterance that starts out OK and really doesn't help at later levels (say, WoN instead of Universal Aptitude), this can make that sting a little bit less.
Trivial Knowledge: (Races of Stone, gnomes only) If you're really dedicated to the cause of being a know-it-all, this might make being a gnome worth looking at.
Improved Initiative: (PHB) You're functionally a caster-type kind of fellow, and you've got a debuff or two up your sleeve. Going first for you is as nice as it is for anyone else. Worth a feat? Your call, my friend, but you'll probably at least notice this.
Skill Focus: Knowledge: (PHB) Truenamers have many flaws, but "insufficiently good at knowing things" is almost never one of them, so this isn't really something that's usually of the highest priority for you. Why mention it at all, then? It might bump you up to the next level in the Paragnostic Assembly (see below). If you're happy with your rank in the Assembly already, though, this isn’t likely to be worth your time. Also worth mentioning is that this benefit is relatively short-lived; since you can usually keep advancing with the Assembly as you gain levels, this feat might get you to a desired threshold faster, but it won't let you get to a threshold you could never get to otherwise. Use with caution.
Fell Conspiracy: (Exemplars of Evil) Like Mortalbane, despite the name and the source, there's nothing evil about this feat. You gain the ability to perform rituals that provide really impressive party-wide bonuses. The one you care about costs a trivial 50 GP per day (easily worth it every single time, especially if the party shares in the cost) to provide party-wide telepathy and a truly staggeringly huge bonus to Spot and Listen for the entire party. To me, this is easily worth the investment in WIS.
Dreamtelling: (Heroes of Horror) GM permission is required to take this feat at all, so be aware of that. Anyway, this gives you a new way to use K: Planes, and since that's a knowledge skill, you're likely to be really dang good at that. You'll likely be able to gain the effects of Augury, Divination, and maybe even Commune on a regular basis if your GM isn't actively sandbagging you. That's not nothing. If you want to really take advantage of this, make sure that you're not a race that doesn't sleep (elf, neraph, etc.) or that doesn't dream (kalashtar); sure, you can interpret your allies' dreams too, but why add that extra complexity?
Insightful Reflexes: (Complete Adventurer) As a purely defensive feat, this isn't going to be very high on your priority list, but since your INT is likely to be much higher than your DEX (at least if you're playing a "typical" Truenamer with "typical" stats), this can make you very difficult to hit with Reflex saves.
Dragonmarks and related feats: (Eberron Campaign Setting; racial restrictions apply) I don't usually like these too much, since I think they take too many feats for too little payoff. (They're also super tightly tied to Eberron fluff and are almost never available outside of an Eberron game, for what that's worth.) That said, the SLAs offered by certain dragonmarks can plug some of the stranger holes in the Truenamer's repertoire, even if not very many times per day. In particular, the Mark of Healing line (halflings only) can make up for the fact that Word of Nurturing only restores HP and doesn't do anything about nasty conditions or stat damage, allowing you to kind of actually take the role of primary healer if you make the necessary investment. The aberrant dragonmark line, which is further detailed in Dragonmarked, has some offensive options, but again, the feat cost is considerable. For a really crazy niche build, take the Mark of Making line (humans only) up to Lesser or higher (Minor Creation as an SLA is not the worst thing to have, especially if you have ranks in Craft: Poisonmaking), then take Dragonmark Adept from Dragonmarked to get Quick Potion 2/day. Since ToM pg. 262 says that any LEM utterance of 2nd level or lower can be made into a potion, you might wheedle your GM into accepting that you can make Quick Potions of your low-level utterances for those times when you don't want to use an utterance on the spot—perhaps you want to give a potion of Universal Aptitude or Reversed Silent Caster (which isn't an utterance you should probably take anyway) to your party scout for use a little bit later. This isn't actually a strong option so much as an amusing one. I guess technically you could then use Metamagic Catalyst on these Quick Potions, because that's totally something you care about at ECL 19, right? (Why bother? Because you can. Maybe. You might have to squint and fudge RAW a tiny bit. Whatever. Go leave me alone.)
Shape Soulmeld / Open X Chakra: (Magic of Incarnum) These feats don't have any special synergy with Truenamers or utterances, but if you're looking for a feat or two that can give you some tricks that you're not going to get from your utterances, you could do worse. There's too many to list all the good ones (and, admittedly, most of the ones that are really good are only great if you have essentia from somewhere), but you might be able to open up some tactical mobility, get some defensive bonuses you might not otherwise have, or gain some kind of enhanced vision/detection abilities.
Feats that affect your class skills and/or how you spend your skill points:
Able Learner: (Races of Destiny. See commentary about racial restrictions. 1st level only.) This makes dips out of Truenamer easier, it lets you take some skills that you wouldn't want to take otherwise (and Universal Aptitude can do a lot to make up the gap), and when combined with a dip in Rogue or Factotum, it can give you something to do with all those skill points you have. It's limited to humans only, but since illumians are humanoids with the [human] subtype, you can make a pretty strong argument that they qualify. Changelings should also have access to this feat, as per pg. 116 of Races of Destiny. The only downside is that this feat must be taken at level 1, which means you might not get Skill Focus until later. To be honest, I could see an argument for taking this even on a build that's just Truenamer 20. Just because you couldn't max the skills doesn't mean they're not worth investing in—especially if you get bonuses from another source, like Universal Aptitude or an illumian sigil.
Martial Study: (Tome of Battle) I see upsides and downsides here. You gain a new skill as a permanent class skill, which is always good for Truenamers, and you gain a single martial maneuver that is functionally usable once per encounter. The tricky part is that relatively few low-level maneuvers are that amazing if you aren't otherwise decent at hitting things. If you do happen to be decent at hitting things, then hey, you could do worse than getting an occasional trick and a new class skill. (If you're investing in Concentration anyway, the Diamond Mind save-replacers are decent defensive choices, but since Concentration is already a class skill for you, you're losing half the benefit of the feat.) If nothing else, Shadow Jaunt is accessible relatively early on and provides some acceptable utility (primarily out of combat), but the class skill portion is risky: think carefully before investing a ton in Hide if you aren't also getting a way to invest in Move Silently.
Apprentice: (DMG2. 1st level only.) The hard mechanical effects here are basically that you get two new class skills and some occasional bonuses to random tasks. (Oddly enough, of the RAW options, only Criminal offers two skills that are both initially cross-class for the Truenamer, though Entertainer can technically apply if you're interested in Perform that isn't Oratory.) So, you know, gaining new class skills is cool, though the fact that the class skills stop being class skills after level 5 (read pg. 178 all the way through, guys!) is slightly less cool than certain other ways of getting class skills. There's also some fluff elements attached here that should probably be taken into consideration; whether having a helpful mentor NPC (that you need to accept the direction of, mind you!) and then eventually gaining an apprentice yourself is a benefit in your game is kind of dependent on your GM and your group.
City Slicker: (Races of Destiny. 1st level only.) Three new class skills that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. They aren't always the most amazing skills on their own without a little help (in particular, using Disguise and Forgery without at least some token investment in Bluff is, shall we say, risky), but I meant what I said about new class skills being useful.
Criminal Background: (City of Stormreach. 1st level only.) To save you some time, this is on pg. 95. Anyway, this feat is remarkably similar to City Slicker: 1st level only, three new permanent class skills, including the always-useful Bluff. There's no overlap between City Slicker and Criminal Background, so if you happen to have multiple available feats at level 1, the two can broaden your skill horizons by a surprising amount.
Aereni Focus: (Player's Guide to Eberron. Elf only. 1st level only.) For your convenience, this is found on pg. 20. Make an arbitrary skill a permanent class skill and gain a permanent +3 bonus with it. If you feel like being an elf for some reason and you want to spend your 1st level feat on this, it is, admittedly, one of the broadest methods of gaining a specific skill as a class skill. I don't like the opportunity cost, to be honest, but it does its job if you're looking for a really specific skill and you really don't want to dip out of truenamer. (From another perspective, although this has language about counting as Skill Focus for the purpose of meeting prereqs, I believe that it does technically stack with Skill Focus if you felt like taking it for Truespeak. Of course, if you're already willing to commit to spending your race and an additional feat on improving Truespeak by +3, you might as well be an illumian with Enhanced Power Sigils, since that has some side benefits and doesn't force a CON penalty on you. But that's why this is in the "skill expansion" section rather than the "boost Truespeak" section.)
Guerrilla Scout, Guerrilla Warrior: (Heroes of Battle) These feats make it cheaper to buy certain skills cross-class (Listen/Spot for Scout, Hide/Move Silently for Warrior), but they don't actually lift the cap or make the skills in question class skills. Accordingly, these feats are pretty much strictly inferior to Able Learner; the only reason they're worth mentioning at all is if you can't access Able Learner for some reason: the Guerrilla feats aren't race-locked, after all, and they aren't locked as first-level-only. It'll be a rare build indeed that finds these feats to be cost-effective, but here they are.
Truename Training: (Tome of Magic) Don't take this feat if you're an actual truenamer playing things straight. You've got Truespeak in-class when you're taking truenamer levels (so you've solved the all-important rank cap issue), and it's not the end of the world to just brute-force the cross-class ranks when you're dipping out of truenamer—skill points are precious, but a single extra skill point per level (and not every level) is usually not the best trade for a feat except in very certain circumstances. This feat is primarily useful for non-truenamers who need Truespeak for some other reason, which is mostly outside the scope of this guide. But my point is not to take this just because you want to dip out of truenamer for a bit. Just pay the point cost and save your feats.
Disappointing feats that sound like they should be good for you but really aren't:
Words of Creation: (Book of Exalted Deeds) The fluff is dead-on, but you basically can't use any of these abilities. You don't have bardic music, you don't cast spells, you probably aren't crafting items that are "good," and the BoED rules for "true names" are both stupid and not particularly compatible with utterances. I don't recommend trying to see if you can mix your truenaming with BoED's "true name" rules; nothing good will come out of that.
Dark Speech: (Book of Vile Darkness) Somewhat less unusable than the Words of Creation, but you really don't want to be using the Dark Speech either. Technically, you can use "dread" (if you want to damage your own CHA and then force someone to make a saving throw with a DC based on your CHA), "corruption" (if it's your job to break through inanimate objects for some reason), or "dark unity" (if you feel like breaking the freaking game), but none of these things seem worth a feat to me. You can't benefit from "power" at all.
Words of Draconic Power: (Dragon Magic) Apparently dragons know better than to mess around with Truespeak, because these words of draconic power are definitely not your words of power. None of the ceremonies make you better at your job. They're even pretty darn bad for normal spellcasters, truth be told.
Doomspeak: (Champions of Ruin) You don't have bardic music. If you DO happen to have uses of bardic music to burn, I guess the effect is actually pretty nice, but the point is, this isn't intended for Truenamers. (Not sure if it's actually intended for Bards either, given that Intimidate—a prereq—is one of the very few skills Bards don't get, but eh, the point is that it sounds like a Truenamer feat but really isn't.)
Practicing the Words: Boosting your Truespeak Check
Or, "Truespeak, mother****er! Do you speak it?!"
Naturally, it should go without saying that you'll be keeping your INT as high as you can reasonably get it, you'll be keeping your Truespeak ranks maxed, and you'll be taking Skill Focus: Truespeak ASAP (probably at level 1 or at level 3). Whenever you can afford to keep Universal Aptitude active on yourself, do so. There are, of course, a few other ways of boosting your check, and you probably won't get very far if you don't take advantage of at least some of them.
The Paragnostic Assembly
This is a big one, and it's mildly controversial. That said, the bonus is just too big to ignore. Short of an item familiar, it's probably tied for the biggest nontemporary Truespeak bonus you can get.
So, there's this organization in Complete Champion called the Paragnostic Assembly, and you would do well to beg your GM to include them in your world (and suck up to them once they've been included). In short, they're dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge in all its forms, and one of the benefits of affiliation with them is a bonus to certain skills, one of which is (you guessed it) Truespeak. I know. I was just as shocked to read that. Mechanically, once you get your affiliation score up high enough, you'll get a +5 typeless bonus to Truespeak, which will eventually upgrade to a +10. To get the +5 bonus, you'll need to get an affiliation score of at least 4 (which is a piece of cake); to get the +10 bonus, you'll need a much tougher score of at least 23.
The ways to boost your affiliation score fall into two broad categories: purely mechanical and story-based. Since the story-based ones are something you'll have to work out with your GM (aside from “is a devout worshiper of a god of knowledge,” which is kind of a something-for-nothing, but at least the flavor fits), I won't talk about them too much, but you may want to ask your GM if you can sacrifice part of your wealth to the Assembly and write them into your backstory. Some GMs will let that fly, but some won't. I'll be mostly looking at the mechanical ones. Your character level increases your affiliation score by 1 per 2 levels, so that's easy. You get a +1 for being a Truenamer, since they have at least 3 Knowledge skills in-class. You get a +1 for every Knowledge skill you have 5 to 9 ranks in, which jumps up to +2 per Knowledge skill that you have at least 10 ranks in. (See what I mean when I say that you'll probably be taking a whole lot of Knowledge skills? There are several reasons for that!)
Two items warrant special mention, since they're definitely not RAW, but a nice GM might let them go anyway. The first is asking if your Knowledge Focus class feature (which is nearly identical to Skill Focus: Knowledge) counts as having Skill Focus: Knowledge. The second is whether utterances with obvious divination effects (like Vision Sharpened) count as divination spells, because if so, it might be worth taking one (being able to cast 3rd level divinations or better is a pretty significant +3!)
Basically, if the Assembly exists in your world and you have at least two Knowledge skills with 5 ranks each, you'll qualify for the +5 bonus as early as level 2 (+1 affiliation score from being ECL 2, +1 from being in a class with Knowledge skills as class skills, +2 from 2 Knowledge skills with 5 ranks each, and that's a total of 4 . . . which is enough). Of course, it's not a TOTALLY free power bump . . . you DO have to pay monthly dues, and you also have to give them a not insignificant percentage of any treasure you find. It's worth it, but don't go thinking that you're just gonna get this +5 and waltz away. Getting an affiliation score of 23 is much harder and pretty much requires you to either write the Assembly heavily into your backstory (again, always check with your GM first) or actually work with them in-game for a fair bit of time. In short, if the Assembly exists in your world and you're willing to give it a cut of your ph4t l00tz, you can count on getting at least a +5 from them.
Do also note that there are other benefits for being a member of the Assembly. If you get your affiliation score up to 16, you get one skill from a certain list added to your class skill list. You'll probably take Spellcraft, though Decipher Script is thematically appropriate. (No, Truenamers don't get either of those out of the box. This should not surprise you by now.)
Talk Isn't Cheap: Check-Boosting Items
Certain items can boost Truespeak checks, and these are the only items we'll be discussing in this section. The most obvious is the Amulet of the Silver Tongue, which gives a bonus of a weird type (enhancement). It comes in flavors of +5 and +10, and it's probably the first big thing on your wishlist. Get one. Protect it. (I protected my first one by making it out of riverine, buying a light spiked shield with a shield compartment in it, sticking the Amulet in the compartment on the shield, and using an Eternal Wand of Absorb Weapon to absorb the shield into my flesh while I slept.)
The next item to get (well, technically, you should get this one first, just because of the cost) is a masterwork tool of Truespeak. Yeah, I know, not every GM will let you get a masterwork tool of every skill, but you lose nothing by asking. A few suggestions for how to fluff it:
A megaphone
A book. I hate books as MW tools, but that's just me.
Some kind of drink or throat spray to keep your vocal cords from getting tired (this one might need refilling, like a healer's kit)
”A tool! What do you mean, what kind of tool? A masterwork one! It's written right here on my sheet, c'mon.”
The third item you might consider is an item familiar. I'm on record as being against item familiars, and I still stand by that. They present the GM with an annoying choice (let the player get a benefit that may or may not be proportional to that of other feats, or punish them perhaps unreasonably harshly by invoking the drawback that they theoretically accepted when they took the feat?), which they really don't need. GMing is hard work, and we don't want to make their jobs any harder. That said, it is a damn good way of boosting your skill checks, and if you ONLY use it for that, I don't think it's broken or especially out of line (nor is your GM as likely to be tempted to take it away). Basically, if you can get by without one, do so. You'll probably be happier for it. If you feel like you really need it, take it, but only use it to boost your Truespeak checks, and try very hard not to give your GM a reason to take it away.
The Amulet of the Silver Tongue, the MW tool, and the item familiar are the big three, but there are some other items that you might want to use to boost your check even more.
A Luckstone/Stone of Good Luck (DMG) will give you a +1 of an uncommon bonus type, but it's expensive.
A pale green prism ioun stone (DMG) gives you a +1 bonus to all skill checks (and other stuff), but it's a common type (competence) and also is even more expensive than the Luckstone.
Potions or wands of skill-boosting spells (Guidance of the Avatar (http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a), Divine Insight, Improvisation if you can get the CL up, (Greater) Heroism, Surge of Fortune, etc.) are nice to have as backup, though you don't want to rely on them (partially because of action economy, partially because of gold economy). Make sure you don't end up with overlapping bonuses.
Skill Shards (MIC) are another consumable but useful boost.
A custom competence item is always a point of contention. It's probably the most straightforward custom item in the game (there are so many examples that show exactly how it should work!), but since the item creation rules are guidelines and not hard-and-fast rules, items that give a competence bonus to Truespeak aren't RAW, so you can't rely on them. If your GM lets you take one, do so. Do so now. If your GM doesn't allow it, you're not done for yet, but you will have to work harder.
Speaking of custom items, I find it hard to believe that there are terribly many GMs who aren't cool with a basic competence item but who are cool with this, but here goes nothing: you can technically use the rules in Weapons of Legacy to found a new legacy item that will give you a competence bonus on Truespeak. There's a "skill enhancement" option on Menus A, E, and G, which I believe are available at levels 5, 12, and 17, respectively. They give a competence bonus to a specific skill (+5, +10, and +15, respectively). That's, you know, something. The downside is that you then have to start messing around with the Weapons of Legacy rules, and to be honest, I hate the Weapons of Legacy rules. The cost-benefit ratio is just scattered to the four winds, as far as I'm concerned. It's almost certainly easier to just take Craft Wondrous Item and lobby for a competence item that works exactly like every other competence item in the game. But hey, I'm trying to give you as many options as possible, so I guess that technically Weapons of Legacy is a book that exists and that has something that could conceivably be used here.
If you have a true "you can buy darned near anything" economy in your game, you might look into psionic tattoos. This is a weird dive into the weeds, so I'll stick it in a spoiler.
Basically, the way this trick works is to use the expanded tattoo rules (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031225a) from the Mind's Eye archives. Psionic tattoos are basically like potions, except you ARE allowed to make personal-only powers into tattoos (whereas you CANNOT make personal-only spells into potions), per XPH pg. 182. Note that this costs a bit more.
Why is this relevant to you? You want the power Precognition (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/precognition.htm), which gives you a +2 insight bonus to a skill check (or other check) of your choice within 10 minutes of when you use it. You use the Capacitor tattoo in the expanded tattoo rules linked above to make it "permanent" rather than consumable. Basically, a tattoo fades when used, but a tattoo linked to a Capacitor just goes dormant until recharged. The Capacitor can recharge a tattoo with 1 PP per day, and hey, Precognition only takes 1 PP, so you've basically got a 1/day item of Precognition for a total of 1,350 gp at market rate. If you feel like covering yourself in expensive ink, you can do this up to ten times, because you have twenty "slots" for tattoos. If you don't want to bother activating the tattoo in advance, you can also pay for a Mental Tap tattoo (800 gp more) to turn it into a swift action.
Now, a Capacitor seems to be written in a way that thinks that you're psionic, because it reduces your PP/day by 1 (implying that it's draining 1 PP per day from your mind and feeding it into the tattoo), but it doesn't say that it only works if you have PP in the first place, and tattoos can explicitly be used by anyone, even non-psionic folks. As I said, we're a little bit in the weeds here. But it should work by RAW.
Of course, you can look at other tattoos as well, but Precognition is the one that's relevant to boosting Truespeak. Thankfully, it's cheap.
tl;dr: If you use the expanded tattoo rules, you can buy "permanent" tattoos that will give you a +2 insight bonus on Truespeak 1/day for 1,350 gp, and you can buy multiple copies. You have to activate the tattoo up to 10 minutes before you use the bonus, but using the bonus itself doesn't cost an extra action.
These tattoos won't get you through the entire day, but an extra bonus here and there for a relatively cheap cost is worth discussing.
Saying the Words: Utterances
And here we go. This is the meat and potatoes of Truenaming: your utterances. These are your powers, your spells, your options. This is what you do. Well, it's at least what you TRY to do, but if you're optimizing, the check itself shouldn't be an issue. Now we're going to take a look at what happens when the check succeeds, and what we can do to make the whole thing worthwhile. (Spoiler alert: Not terribly much.)
Lexicon of the Evolving Mind
These are the big ones. You'll be using one of these more often than not, and you'll learn way more of them than the other lexicons. (Note that whenever I say “You get X of these,” I mean that that's how many you'll get if you always learn an utterance from the highest level that's available.)
A note on the Word of Nurturing line: You'll want one or two of these, but not more than that. Assuming that your check is high enough to muscle past at least a few dings from the Law of Resistance, they basically function as healsticks (wands of Lesser Vigor, don'cha know). The fact that you have to concentrate on the damaging versions is kind of a turn-off (and does mean that investing in multiple versions to stack them or spread them out is . . . hard to make worthwhile, just thanks to your actions), but they're also damned near impossible to stop (no save, you can ignore SR by increasing the Truespeak check, typeless but magical damage—it basically takes regeneration or immunity to all damage to stop them from hurting), which is situational but nifty nonetheless. As a very soft rule, if you're starting at mid-high levels, I'd say to take one that's one level below your highest-level utterance, but I can't stress enough that that's just a very rough guideline.
Level 1 LEM:
This is kind of a tricky level. You get two of these, and there are two clear winners. However, at the lowest levels (i.e., when you'd get these if you actually started from level 1), neither is especially amazing in combat, so you'll pretty much be in crossbow mode if you take them. Since there's no way to retrain utterances by RAW, you've got a choice to make. If you have an alternative combat option of some kind (see the section on races for a few suggestions, or just learn to love the crossbow) or if you're starting at a higher level, you're pretty much guaranteed to take Universal Aptitude and Inertia Surge. If not, you might want Minor Word of Nurturing for healing/direct damage and/or either Defensive Edge or Knight's Puissance for buffing/debuffing (Knight's Puissance is a bigger bonus/penalty, but Defensive Edge lets you focus fire, so I guess it's kinda party-specific which one is better, though they're both pretty bad). You know, if every level had an equivalent of Inertia Surge and Universal Aptitude, I think we'd all be a lot happier.
I will mention that if you miss one of the two big utterances here and regret it later, you can take the feat Minor Utterance of the Evolving Mind and pick up what you missed without actually losing an utterance known. Your call on whether that's worth a feat, of course.
Defensive Edge: Compared to Knight's Puissance, this is good because you can let your team focus fire with the reversed version and bad because it's a smaller bonus. Compared to any utterance that isn't Knight's Puissance, this is just awful because the bonus is pretty much too small to notice. At least the fixed duration means it'll last all encounter at level 1? It's still garbage.
Inertia Surge: This is a solid utterance, since it's one of those tricks that, while not unique to the Truenamer, is still not something you see every day. I wouldn't recommend getting this as your very first utterance, since the reversed version is pretty much just trading turns before you can extend it (and even then, only if your party has ranged attacks and your foe doesn't) and the normal version is situational (and you don't tend to NEED FoM at level 1), but there are many times when you'll be glad you have this one. Freedom of Movement never goes out of style, so this is useful even at high levels. I will note that the Truenamer is one of only two ways I know of to get a FoM-like effect at level 1 (the other is the Travel domain), and Inertia Surge is a lot more flexible than the Travel domain. (I have to take my victories where I can get them.)
Knight's Puissance: At low levels, every bonus counts, and this at least lasts a decently long time (way longer than anything that lasts rounds per level, at least right out of the gate). It fails to scale, though, so you'll probably forget you have this one after a few levels. I don't recommend taking this at the expense of one of the two good utterances of this level unless you're intentionally trying to do something weird.
Universal Aptitude: A real gem of an utterance, this is something that's hard for other classes to match, and I always rate those highly. This is one of the few utterances that's actually genuinely good on its own merits. A +5 typeless bonus to all skills is something you notice no matter what class you are and no matter what level you are. Naturally, it's great for boosting your own Truespeak checks as well. I've never run into a situation where the reversed version is the best use of my action (and I've looked), but the normal version is worth it. Solid gold. If you have to choose between this and Inertia Surge, it's a tough one, but I'd probably take this.
Minor Word of Nurturing: By the time you hit even level 4 or 5, you're unlikely to remember that you have this utterance (unless you have a high enough check to muscle past the Law of Resistance and use this like a wand of Lesser Vigor), but it's solid enough at level 1. The reversed version is strictly inferior to Power Word: Pain unless you pick up Mortalbane, of course. In a true level 1 situation, you might have to run the numbers to see if your expected damage is higher by casting the reversed version of this utterance or by just firing off a crossbow; your Truespeak mod isn't likely to be THAT high until this utterance scales out of relevance. If you think you can get by without it, I say skip it, but I suppose it does have its uses at the very start of the game.
Level 2 LEM:
These babies come online at level 3. For comparison, the Wizard has Glitterdust and Web, the Swordsage just learned how to teleport with Shadow Jaunt and how to punch through solid adamantine with Mountain Hammer, and the Incarnate will be unlocking his feet and hands binds soon. This is what you should theoretically be on par with. As was the case with level 1 utterances, you can take a feat to get another one of these, if you really need it.
The clear winner this level is Hidden Truth, which is no small part of why I keep saying that Truenamers make such good know-it-alls. I make no bones about the fact that it's pretty much my favorite utterance, and I wouldn't consider playing a Truenamer without it. That said, you get three of these in total, so you might start to spread out here.
Archer's Eye: If you agree that this lets you ignore total concealment as well as normal concealment (see “Truename Targeting Online” in the Naughty Words section), this is solid as long as you have at least one ranged attacker in the party. The reversed version is nice at first but fails to scale (since Protection from Arrows gives DR/magic, which won't be relevant for too terribly long after you first get this—though if your GM starts giving the enemy magic bows just to get past it, hey, extra loot!). Not a stupendous utterance, but hardly anything to be ashamed of.
Hidden Truth: YES. As I've been harping on, this is amazing, and it's hard for other classes to match these kinds of bonuses, especially with Universal Aptitude. Take it. Take it and don't look back. Don't forget that you can use it on your allies as well, which can get you another chance at knowing what something is if you're not quite sure you got the whole story (with a +10 and the ability to count as trained, even the BSF has a chance of knowing what that mysterious altar is for. Let him roll!) or whatever. I consider this utterance to be solid gold, honestly. Unfortunately, once you've taken Universal Aptitude, Inertia Surge, and Hidden Truth, you'll be out of solid gold utterances for a while, but at least you start out OK. I do admit that the reversed version is damned hard to use (since it's hard to explain why you had to make that big unsubtle utterance right before you or your Bard friend just made that charming speech), but oh well. I'll live.
Perceive the Unseen: This would benefit from being bumped down a level, I think, since Invisibility and See Invisibility are 2nd level spells, and this is strictly worse. Oh well, not the first such instance of this sort of thing, and definitely not the last. Missing is annoying, so letting your friend have a better chance of hitting those damned invisible things isn't going to go unnoticed. The reversed version is OK. Thanks to typical bad writing, it's unclear whether you can use this concealment to hide, but if you can, go for it. Overall, this is a decent utterance, though I wouldn't take both it and Archer's Eye in most cases, unless you really need to be the eyes for both your melee buddy and your ranged buddy. If you plan on using Fog from the Void a lot, this might help make that less party-unfriendly.
Silent Caster: Ridiculously situational. The short duration and noisy nature of this utterance (as with all utterances) makes it useless for stealth, and I can hardly think of a time when you'd want to just suddenly grant your Wizard buddy Silent Spell for a single round (maybe if you're both silenced, but you can cast thanks to the The Universe Hears Just Fine rule). It could have been an acceptable debuff on an enemy mage, but the saving throw and the tiny duration are annoying. Probably not worth it.
Speed of the Zephyr: Nothing special, but decent enough. You can get from Point A to Point B pretty well with the normal version up, and since the reversed version doesn't specify a minimum, it could theoretically immobilize someone if you stack it with enough other movement reducers. Note that the bonus is untyped, so it'll stack with whatever other speed boosters your party is using. I don't think you'll use it every encounter unless you're specifically going out of your way to wall-crawl (which is cool), but it's respectable.
Strike of Might: Decent early on, but tapers off pretty fast. This can help a friend punch through DR (which is probably the only time when it's better than just doing 10 damage yourself), and it's decent enough once you can quicken it, but it's nothing to write home about. The reversed version loses its luster very quickly, but it's funny when it works (especially if you combine it with Slow or some other way of getting a monster down to a single swing). Probably one of the weaker choices at this level, though. Depends on your party's average DPR, really.
Temporal Twist: Is your ally's attack better than anything else you can do with your standard action? If so, this is a good utterance. It's especially nice with ToB allies who have boosts that last for one round, since this means you'll be able to make that round contain more attacks. This is also a fun utterance to quicken (including on yourself, if you're a gishy 'Namer). The reversed version doesn't last long enough for something that offers a save, but dazed is at least a nasty condition. Now, this utterance does require two d20 rolls in your favor to actually do anything (your check and their attack, or your check and their save), so if you're not autosucceeding your Truespeak rolls, this is a risky proposition. In the right party, though, it's still useful. At low levels, the extra damage from your ally swinging twice may or may not outweigh the extra damage from them swinging with Strike of Might, but at higher levels, this is almost guaranteed to be better. Just be careful, since it doesn't stack with Haste.
Lesser Word of Nurturing: Since the competition for your slots isn't that stiff after Hidden Truth, this is as good a place as any to pick up your mandatory WoN. Without Mortalbane, the damage is less than you're likely to bring to the field with a solid Strike of Might or Temporal Twist, but you can't have everything, and at least this can do more damage with a single roll. Nothing really sets this apart from any other WoN.
Level 3 LEM:
There's no absolute must-pick on par with Hidden Truth, Universal Aptitude, and Inertia Surge at this level, but there are a few good tricks to have around, specifically Seek the Sky and Greater Speed of the Zephyr. These come online at level 6, and you get 4 of them. At level 6, the Wizard has Stinking Cloud and Haste, the Barbarian has an extra swing, the Crusader has Thicket of Blades, the Binder has Focalor and Paimon, and the Warlock has all-day flight. Before you're done with these, the Wizard will have Orb of Fire and Dimension Door, the Totemist will have two things bound to their totem, and let's not even mention the Druid. Can you measure up? Let's see!
Accelerated Attack: I can't see when I'd ever really need the reversed version, and the normal version is situational as well. Spring Attack's OK, I guess, but I'm struggling to think of when this would be the absolute best use of my standard action. If you've got Extend and/or Quicken, it can combine decently with Inertia Surge, but it's still not great.
Energy Negation: You can always find a use for energy resistance. The damage on the reversed version is pretty low by the time you get this, but at least Mortalbane doubles its damage potential (+10d6 isn't bad, though the fact that it takes 5 rounds is pretty lame, since we all know that D&D rewards alpha strikes far more than MMO-style damage over time). Still, resistance on command is useful enough that I wouldn't be ashamed to take this.
Incarnation of Angels: Very fluffy, but very weak. This grants darkvision, piddly DR, lowish SR, and lowish resistances, plus a 2/day smite (1 from celestial, 1 from fiendish, though obviously not on the same target). Even the Extraplanar Bouncer trick (see Naughty Words) doesn't really save this one. Skip it, unless you're just dying for the fluff.
Seek the Sky: Flight! Flight is nice. Everyone likes flight. The duration, like all utterances, sucks (hope you brought Extend!), but hey, it's flight. The reversed version is also pretty nice (the equivalent in traditional magic, Earthbind, allows a saving throw, so you're probably at the advantage there). One of the stronger choices this level.
4e has a class called the Runepriest, and it obviously shares a lot thematically and, to a lesser extent, mechanically with the Truenamer (focus on using the language of the universe as a source of power, reversible powers, etc.). I like the Runepriest a lot, but it didn't get a lot of support. One of the few Dragon articles it got with additional material contained a paragon path called the Enlightened Word, which, among other things, allowed the otherwise mostly earthbound Runepriest to fly, which is awesome. That particular article also contained lots of mentions of "red lightning," with many of the attack powers therein (including the ones granted by Enlightened Word) invoking red lightning onto the field.
I doubt I'll ever be able to prove it, but I believe that the red lightning referenced in that article is a direct reference to the fluff text of Seek the Sky, which causes your target to leave "a trail of crackling red bolts in her wake." I'll tell you, when I first read that Runepriest article, I geeked out pretty damn hard about that connection. Because of course I would. This is the kind of thing that being The Truenamer Guy does to you. Remind me again what ice cream tastes like?
Greater Speed of the Zephyr: If you haven't chafed under the Law of Sequence before, you will now. Haste and Slow are both top-notch 3rd level spells, so while having both is great, not having both at once is a bother. Also, Haste and Slow buff or debuff everyone on Team Hero and Team Monster respectively, while GSotZ doesn't. Still, this utterance is definitely worth it. No-save Slow is fun. I have a hard time seeing why you wouldn't take this utterance.
Temporal Spiral: Trading your standard action for one ally's move action doesn't seem amazing in a vacuum, but like the description in the book hints, setting up your BSF for a charge or a full attack can often be worth it. Once you can reliably quicken this utterance, it's interesting to use it on a Psion or other manifesting class who has Psionic Meditation, since spending your swift action to let them recover their psionic focus is a winning trade. Basically, if you have someone in your party who would really benefit from an extra move action (and do note that this is a full action, not simply the ability to move their speed, so if your target has any abilities they can activate on a move action, that might matter), this is pretty good. It's not for everyone, of course; read your party carefully. You'll have to ask your GM if the extra move action happens immediately or happens on the target's own turn, as the book is kind of unclear about that. The reversed version is one of the nicest utterances as far as ones that allow saves go (dazed is a deadly condition, and almost nothing's immune), so if you take this, you might consider trying to make your save DCs worth something. Do note that this can be used on yourself, and once you can Quicken it, it's basically Hustle, which might interest you if you're looking to gish it up. Who needs Pounce? (Don't use it on yourself before you can Quicken, of course.) You'll also notice that the utterance has a duration; ask your GM if Extend would allow the target to take an extra move action twice over two rounds (potentially very useful!) or if it would just extend the window over which they are allowed to take their single extra move action (significantly less useful).
Vision Sharpened: Nothing fantastic here. Invisibility and the ability to see the same are OK, but not an automatic pick by any means. The noisy nature of utterances makes this marginal at best for stealth missions (not that it lasts long enough for proper espionage excursions, even when extended), and by the time this comes online, Improved Invisibility would have been a lot more level-appropriate than generic Invisibility. See Invisibility has its uses, of course, though it's obviously dependent on the GM. By the time you have 3rd level Utterances, though, the golden age of invisibility is usually drawing to a close.
Moderate Word of Nurturing: Pretty much the same as every other WoN. Decent for what it is, but no more than that.
Level 4 LEM:
Hitting the field at level 10, you get 4 of these babies. For comparison, the Sorcerer (not even the Wizard) has 5th level spells, including Teleport, Wall of Force, and Waves of Fatigue. Among the saner classes, the Totemist can now become ethereal while moving, the Rogue is rocking Skill Mastery, and even the crazy dedicated Fighter has gotten their Zhentarim level out of the way and has moved on to bigger and better things. PrCs with 5 levels are reaching their capstones. Let's see what you can bring to the field!
There are a few good mage-cheerleader effects here in the form of Caster Lens and Magic Contraction, if you don't mind buffing the characters who are stronger than you are already. Spell Rebirth comes recommended to anyone, even if you don't abuse it. Other than that, there are a lot of defensive or restorative effects at this level, so if you're interested in playing that particular breed of support character, stock up. The only one I would consider good for pretty much any Truenamer (regardless of group) is Spell Rebirth, though, so look at your party before choosing. I generally consider this to be the last level where the utterances have a chance of being level-appropriate, but it's pretty obvious that they've been slipping for a while and aren't going to get much better, and many of these utterances really deserve to be closer to level 2 (or even level 1) than level 4. Do bear in mind that since you're level 10 by this point, I assume that you've spent your level 9 feat on Quicken Utterance, so all of these (and your lower-level stuff) can be Quickened by now.
Breath of Cleansing: This has a very 4e feel to it (I say this as a player and fan of 4e), with the whole “grant target ally a saving throw” thing. The duration doesn't make any sense, of course (does the saving throw take the whole round? Does the saving throw only give them one round of respite before the effect kicks back in? I don't know, and neither does WotC!), so talk to your GM about it. Chances are good that this was meant to be instantaneous, though we can't prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt. Still, removing conditions isn't a terrible use of your actions, so I probably wouldn't say no to this utterance. It is a little embarrassing that, by my interpretation of RAI, this is basically equivalent to the level 1 spell Resurgence, from SpC pg. 174 (the wording is almost identical), but at least Resurgence is a decent spell (contrast with Morale Boost, below), and I guess at least your range is greater than that of someone casting the actual spell? (Kindly ignore the fact that Mass Resurgence, which is pretty much strictly better than your utterance, has been a thing for five full levels now—okay, okay, this utterance is way overleveled, but this isn't exactly a new problem.) The reversed version is your basic save-or-suck-for-one-round deal, of which the Truenamer has so many for some reason. I wouldn't count on using the reversed version too often, even if you Extend it. Maybe if you Quicken it, but while I assume that you can autosucceed on your non-Quickened utterances, it does take at least a little bit of work to autosucceed on Quickened stuff, so then you've got the old "two d20 rolls need to go in your favor for this to matter" problem.
Caster Lens: If you have a caster in your party who has a Morning Buff Routine (I've seen a Favored Soul who called her daily ritual of casting all-day buffs on the party a “prayer breakfast.” She got a lot of converts), this is awesome. As I've mentioned earlier, it can chafe to know that you're basically just being a cheerleader for a character who's already more powerful than you'll ever be, but we all know that more magic = more better. If you have a manifester in the party, you will become their very best friend, since ML is arguably even more important than CL. As for the reversed version, I feel like it's not usually worth it, but a certain reading of the spellcasting rules indicates that you might be able to prevent your foe from casting their highest-level spells with this thing (for example, if you have a Wizard with CL 11 and hit him with Reversed Caster Lens to become CL 9, he might not be able to cast 6th level spells anymore, since his CL isn't high enough). Ask your GM. Of course, even then, anything you're facing at this level probably has enough juice to waste you (or at least make your day much harder) with their second-best spells anyway, so the reversed version isn't that awesome. Basically, take this if you want the casters in your party to love you, but don't expect to stop your foes with it.
Confounding Resistance: Decent enough, if really situational. Evasion/Mettle don't come up all that often in my experience, but when they do come up, they're nice to have. This is a case when being a knowledge-monkey is going to be very helpful, since you really want to know enough to use this utterance before the weird monster unleashes the effect that this is intended to protect against. The reversed version won't come up that often (and pretty much relies on you having a blaster in the party to even notice it), though I guess you could maybe find worse things to do with your action than to impose a –2 on saving throws for five rounds. You could probably find significantly better things to do too, of course. This one really requires you to know your GM and his or her playing style (especially with regards to who gets targeted with save-partial effects).
Magic Contraction: To my knowledge, there is no way to boost your Truenamer level up above your HD (except MAYBE with Bloodline shenanigans, but even I don't know how those really work), so this is, at best, 11 + HD SR, or a 50% chance to resist a spell cast by an equal-level mage with no CL boosts. If you run into a lot of casting mooks who use spells with SR, it's OK, but since SR is a two-edged sword, be careful. (Remember that you can make utterances ignore SR by increasing the DC by 5. Is that something you can afford? Probably, but be careful.) Of course, if you fight an enemy who has a backup healer/buffer, it can be funny to use this on THEM. The real gold, of course, comes in the reversed version, which grants freeeeeeeee metamagic! If you have a caster in your party of pretty much any stripe (especially if they have some flavor of boom spell, though, including Orbs), this is worth pulling out the pom-poms for. You're a cheerleader, but you're a damn good one. Empower is fair-to-middling at best when you have to pay for it, but when you get it for free on all your spells? Yeah, expect your Sorcerer to hug you. This should probably be the first thing you take if you have one or more casters in your party and you're willing to learn a drill routine.
Morale Boost: Remove Fear as the spell, huh? Just for reference, Remove Fear is a level 1 spell, and it's not exactly a top pick even at level 1 (contrast with Breath of Cleansing, above, which is still stupidly overleveled but at least mimics a fairly good level 1 spell). How insulting do you get? If your allies aren't immune to fear by now anyway, there are better ways of dealing with spooky things than this. The reversed version is a vanilla save-or-suck effect; the duration is at least nontrivial, but by level 10, more and more things will be immune to mind-affecting, fear, or both. Skip this utterance.
Spell Rebirth: I love this utterance because it is, to my knowledge, unique. I do not believe that any other class gets the ability to directly undispel things. For this reason alone, in my mind, this is worth taking. Sure, it's hard to find a time when undispelling (or undismissing) something will be worthwhile, but keep your eyes open and find a way (or MAKE a way) to use it. It's hilarious when it works. The reversed version is also pretty good, since it's a dispel that doesn't need a CL check, and you can always find a use for making sure that someone else is less magical than you are. (See the Naughty Words section for some other stuff you can do with this utterance.) This one is definitely worth taking, even if it doesn't necessarily come up every day.
Word of Bolstering: If, for some weird reason, you're stuck in the role of party healer, at level 10 you can finally cure ability damage/drain. Where's my confetti? Oh right, it's in the back, beneath a couple of crates of apathy. A wand of Lesser Restoration is almost trivially cheap by level 10, and you have UMD. OK, it's true, this cures drain as well as damage, but my socks are still remaining firmly un-rocked. The reversed version is even worse . . . it's a penalty with a duration, so not only doesn't it stack with itself, you can't even TRY to make it stack with itself, since the Law of Sequence prevents you from using it again! You can't even penalize two ability scores at once. Meanwhile, Ray of Enfeeblement has been dishing out a bigger penalty since LEVEL 1. This is just garbage. If you're running into things that drain (not just damage) your ability scores way more frequently than you'd otherwise think, this MIGHT be worth it, but that's rather unlikely to be the case.
Potent Word of Nurturing: By now, you've probably reached a point where the difference between FH 5 and FH 10 isn't going to matter in combat (and out of combat, who cares?), and while you'll technically be doing more damage per round than an equal-level Warlock who makes absolutely no effort to optimize Eldritch Blast (at least if you take this utterance as soon as possible), if you're counting that as a victory, I'm not sure that I can help you. If for some reason you desperately crave a direct damage effect at this level, this is technically your best bet, but I personally find it unlikely that you'll end up saying “man, I'm sure glad I took this utterance!” Of course, since there aren't that many really great utterances at this level, you might end up with it anyway.
Level 5 LEM:
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down. By this point, your utterances have pretty much officially stopped scaling at an appropriate level, and very few of these are on par with what you should be cranking out at level 14 (which is when you get your first of these). You get 4 of them, but I'm not sure you'll find 4 that you really want. For comparison, the Wizard is casting Power Word: Blind and Magnificent Mansion, and he's only one level away from Irresistible Dance, Mind Blank, and PAO. The Crusader is taking 11 on all their checks and will be dishing out no-save stuns next level. The Binder is an ethereal assassin with infinite monster summoning, and even the Shadowcaster is probably not going to run out of tricks before the end of the day.
Several of the better utterances at this level allow saving throws. If you're going to be willing or able to pump saving throw DCs, this level gets a little better, but still not great. You'll probably be taking Greater Energy Negation, but beyond that? Nothing's that good. I think the saddest part is that there's no utterances where the normal and reversed versions are both that good. The closest is Eldritch Attraction, but both sides of it suffer from the same problem.
Eldritch Attraction: I desperately want to like this utterance. I really, really do. Forced movement is relatively rare in 3.5, and since you can force the target to provoke, this actually has the potential to be one of your most damaging utterances if you've got strong melee allies. The downside, of course, is the saving throw. If you're starting at a level where this utterance is available (or if you otherwise reasonably expect to get it over the course of play), it MIGHT be worth pumping CHA just for this. That said, many Truenamers won't have the CHA to make their utterances truly fearsome (so few of the ones with saving throws are worthwhile!), and having two chances to fail (Truespeak check + saving throw) with no saveless backup option makes this, well, hard to love. If you can make it work, do so, because it's really cool and can actually be pretty devastating if your party has a lot of nasty zones, nasty melee-types, or both. (In a sufficiently group-optimized party where the rest of the party has built around this or at least built in such a way that this can shine, I could even go so far as to see someone taking Ability Focus/Boost SLA/Utterance Focus for this one, because it is genuinely awesome when it works, but that's not something that can always be relied upon.) As a final note (because I can't stay on message for five minutes without slapping myself with a caveat), I will mention that you will have a minimum of 13 other LEM utterances in your arsenal by the time this comes online, so it's not that bad to have a tool that can only be used when you trust that you can get something to fail a save. Think carefully.
Greater Energy Negation: Shock and gasp! An effect that mimics a spell that's only been around for three levels when you can first choose it? Be still my heart! OK, fine, the spell (Energy Immunity, SpC) lasts for 24 hours while the utterance lasts for 5 rounds, but in all honesty, this is still a better deal than you normally get. The reversed version isn't really worth it. 20 damage, which is slightly less than the average on 6d6, isn't usually encounter-changing at level 14+ (though it may at least redirect enemy attention away from the target?), and resistances/immunities are becoming more and more common. If you're up against a death-by-a-thousand-cuts style of enemy who somehow isn't resistant to one of the big four types (and you'll know which, you brainiac, you), this can be amusing, but you're really taking this for the normal version.
Essence of Lifespark: This is the very essence of too little, too late. Essence of Lifespark deals one no-save negative level, requires a Truespeak check, and comes online at level 14. Enervation deals AT LEAST one no-save negative level, requires a touch attack, and comes online at level 7. We're cooking with gas now, fellow 'Namers! I'd take this as a level 3 utterance, but as a level 5 (as a reminder, you're minimum ECL 14—how many negative levels can a CR 14 foe absorb before they become really hampered?), it's just not worth it. The ability to restore a negative level is, once again, better handled by someone or something else (as another reminder, you have UMD, and even with the expensive material component, a no-shenanigans wand of Restoration is about 17% of your WBL and can easily have its cost shared among the party), though I guess it could be worth it if you're the only magical character and your party is in, oh, Ravenloft. The sad part? It's still probably not the worst utterance of this level.
Preternatural Clarity: A floating +5 insight bonus is actually fairly decent, even if it eats the target's immediate action. Retroactive bonuses are actually reasonably powerful, even though the fact that utterances have short durations kind of turns this into a janky hybrid of proactive and reactive. Thing is, while a just-in-time +5 bonus isn't the worst thing you can hand out (especially compared to the rest of your utterances), I just don't feel like it's level-appropriate, especially since Moment of Prescience (with its minimum +15) comes online next level. That's really this utterance's great sin—it's truly not a terrible effect, but WotC seems to have forgotten just what level you are when you get it. If you take a slightly more liberal reading of the text (see “Suddenly, Rerolls” in the Naughty Words section), this becomes more worthwhile, but as it is? Eh, I'm not convinced it'll be the absolute best use of your actions. The reversed version is a basic save-or-suck that mimics a level 4 spell that isn't guaranteed to actually ruin the target's turn (in other words, a desperate gambit at best—yeah, pretty much just straight crap). Do keep in mind that this bonus only applies to attacks, saves, and opposed ability or skill checks, not just any old skill check you might choose to make. Which means that it's not likely to stack with Universal Aptitude or Hidden Truth. So it goes. One last thing: I will confess that this one gets a fair bit nicer in three levels once Speak Unto the Masses comes online. It's a much smaller bonus than Moment of Prescience, but Moment of Prescience is single-target without hardcore shenanigans.
Greater Seek the Sky: Compared to normal Seek the Sky, it's a speed increase (from 60' to 120') and a maneuverability increase (from good to perfect). The problem, of course, is that 60' and good maneuverability will usually get you where you need to go, so this doesn't feel like a huge upgrade. Even so, I'd consider taking this utterance anyway, just because you can either let TWO people fly, one with each (gasp!), or you can even chain the utterances, casting one when the other's about to run out. Chaining the utterances will let you fly for more than a minute at a time, Law of Resistance permitting, which just having one version of StS won't do. The reversed version is, in my estimation, strictly worse than the reversed version of the level 3 Seek the Sky, since preventing a target from flying is MUCH more tactically relevant than making them take a couple d6s of falling damage (even 20d6 isn't guaranteed to kill something at level 14, though I suppose the damage will probably be noticed if you actually get the maximum). Shame, really. Do recall that utterances have a range of 60'; in practice, I've found that the 60' range is usually pretty okay, but I acknowledge that it can be a bit limiting when trying to use this utterance on a flying foe.
Sensory Focus: This would be a perfectly respectable utterance if it lasted for, oh, 5 rounds. Blindsight is great, and True Seeing is also great. A one-round duration is anything but great (you literally can't use this on yourself and benefit long enough to attack with it up unless you have Quicken, Extend, or both). Even with Extend, you're going to be spending an awful lot of actions on this thing if you want to really use it. It's probably best to use it on a friend rather than on yourself, but that's still a lot of actions being spent. It does make a decent illusion check when you enter a new room, assuming that you can keep up with the LoR. The reversed version is a basic save-or-suck: nothing amazing, but not a lot will be totally immune to it, and the duration is still unfortunate.
Ward of Peace: The fact that area or effect (note that we're saying area spells OR effect spells, not only area OF effect) spells can pierce it is a bummer, since this would otherwise be decent for a buffer. Overall, it's okay enough, but by level 14, I feel like a lot of enemies are going to have ways to hurt you that aren't necessarily “what was your AC again?” If you take it, you'll probably find a use for it, and at least it doesn't allow a save to break through the normal version, but I wouldn't rely on it to the exclusion of everything else. The reversed version is, shall we say, situational. The duration of Concentration means that, at best, you're just trading actions (and since your concentration is occupied, you might be giving up your Quickened utterances as well; see the discussion on concentration several posts below this one), and they do get a saving throw. That said, I can see you getting SOME use out of it, but not a lot.
Critical Word of Nurturing: Remember what I said about Potent Word of Nurturing? That, only more so. The numbers are bigger, but they're not sufficiently bigger to keep up with the HP and damage being thrown around by your party and your foes at this level. Also, by this point, Mortalbane is officially ignorable (it was ignorable long before this, in all likelihood), so really, if you're still trying to do HP damage at this level, you're in the wrong class.
Level 6 LEM:
This is it. The big leagues. You're level 18. 9th level spells are on the table. 9th level maneuvers are on the table. PrC capstones are on the table. You're being expected to contribute alongside Shapechange, Strike of Righteous Vitality, Metafaculty, Fivefold Breath of Tiamat, Utterdark Blast, soul chakra binds (OK, you're one level ahead of soul chakra binds, but they're coming), and even the Monk talking to flowers.
Your tools are . . . well, what do you think? They're not up for the job. Even compared to things that aren't actually 9th level spells, they're just not that good. They'd probably be OK, oh, five to seven levels earlier (there's relatively few that are godawful in a vacuum), but they just plain don't measure up at the real endgame, since characters and character abilities don't exist in a vacuum. Do recall that you have Speak Unto the Masses by this point, so you can actually affect multiple creatures with one utterance (if you can make the Truespeak DC, that is . . . you've probably picked all the low-hanging fruit by this point, so you actually might be struggling a little to find ways to get your bonus up). You get 3 of these babies, if you want them.
Breath of Recovery: This is strictly worse than the level 4 Cleric spell Panacea, which has been in play since LEVEL SEVEN. The only benefit is that Panacea is touch range while this can be used 60' away, but even with Reach Spell bumping the spell level up by 2, "Reach Panacea" has been around longer and does more—it also heals a tiny amount of HP damage and clears a few conditions that BoR doesn't. (Meanwhile, at level 18, an actual Cleric is casting Mass Heal.) If you're really worried about this sort of thing, I'd buy a few scrolls of Panacea and UMD them. (Heck, with level 18 WBL, even a wand of Panacea is pretty close to being pocket change.) I am capable of imagining a party where you'd need this often enough to take it, but I don't think it'd be a top pick—or at least, I'd say that if everything else wasn't awful, so maybe you'll end up with it anyway. The reversed version is like Hold Person, only worse, since it doesn't last as long. Decent enough if you have high CHA (anyone up for a quick coup-de-grace?), but this utterance is not worth taking for the reversed version alone. Yes, Speak Unto the Masses does mean that you can sometimes come out ahead on the action economy game if multiple targets fail their saves, but that applies just as well to a lower-level save-or-lose-a-turn utterance like Temporal Twist or Temporal Spiral (which are harder to become immune to).
Ether Reforged: This utterance is broken, as in “does not work.” Instantaneous? This is just too weird. I can't even intuit what's likely intended here. This thing's unratable. See “This One's All You, WotC” in the Naughty Words section.
Greater Knight's Puissance: Okay, once upon a time, I called this the worst utterance relative to others of its level. There's a part of me that still feels like that's true, since this is an effect that really feels like it should hit the table at, like, maybe ECL 9ish or so rather than ECL 18. (I mean, if Knight's Puissance gives +2 to hit and is considered to be level 1, is the difference of another +3 to hit and +5 to damage really 17 levels more powerful? Sure, it's more powerful, but 17 levels more?) In truth, the value of this utterance really depends on your table and on how close to each other your group's attack rolls and your group's targets' AC end up. I'll admit that I've never played a beatstick at this level, but from what I've seen, it does look like you're often completely off the RNG and are pretty much checking for 1s and 20s most of the time, and if so, this utterance isn't going to be very noticeable. (The +5 to damage is not likely to be noticeable at all relative to CR 18+ HP totals unless you have a real high-octane death-by-a-thousand-cuts character in the party, though it is at least a rare unspecified bonus to damage, so it'll boost spells, utterances, and other things that aren't weapon attacks.) If for some reason that isn't true and the d20 rolls of your attack-focused party members really do matter, it's always better to hit than to miss, so I guess a +5 to hit isn't the worst thing you can give someone (or someones) who cares about making attack rolls. It's still way overleveled, of course, and I'm not in any way impressed with the reversed version, but I'm willing to admit that sometimes I can be more harsh than necessary. (That doesn't mean that this utterance is great stuff.)
Mystic Rampart: You won't notice DR 5/— at this level, but you'll notice a +5 on saving throws, since, although those are pumpable, they're not pumpable to the level that attack rolls are. This might actually keep you safe. The reversed version is about the same: the –5 AC isn't really a big deal for the same reason that the +5 to attack rolls from Greater Knight's Puissance isn't that big a deal (the ability to focus fire stopped being relevant when Speak Unto the Masses came online, since you can affect all the relevant targets), but the –5 to saving throws is noticeable. Might be worth it if you want to use some other utterances with saves and you can blow an action setting up. Aren't you glad that Quicken works on high-level utterances just as easily as low-level ones?
Singular Mind: Since it's really, really hard (probably impossible, but I can't say for sure) to increase your Truenamer level above your HD, this is unlikely to break any effects that Dispel Magic can't get rid of. (Of course, due to poor wording, it just checks your level straight up, not your Truenamer level, but again, hard to pump, since I don't think even Inspire Greatness will do it.) Let's face it, though, are you more likely to get cursed by the BBEG and/or his lieutenant, or by the little toadies they send after you? If you're getting cursed by mooks, this utterance will be faster than Spell Rebirth and won't risk dispelling buffs. If you're getting cursed by equal-level or higher threats, though? Probably not worth it. It does automatically get rid of possession, for what that's worth. The reversed version is, well, awkward, since it allows a save and is mind-affecting. No word about how this works if you target multiple creatures. Still, if you're going to be trading actions with an enemy, a dominate effect is about as good as you can get out of it, so if you're willing to risk the save and the common immunity, this is good control. Just be aware that you're ECL 18+, so you're presumably fighting targets who might not be so vulnerable to such things.
Greater Word of Nurturing: You're joking, right?
Saying More Words: Utterances Continued
Lexicon of the Crafted Tool:
These tend to be just toys, really, rather than anything really useful. This section will be pretty fast, since there are only ten of these printed. Yup, there are two per level. You get one of them. Choose well.
Note that while utterances allegedly have a default range of 60 feet, the vast majority of LCT utterances have ranges that are noticeably shorter. This isn't that likely to come up, but it is worth mentioning.
Level 1 LCT:
This is one of the only levels where I consider you to have a choice between two decent options, though neither is really the kind of option that's likely to totally reinvent your playing style or anything. The fact that you can't pre-buff (since the durations are just too short) hurts a lot, but you'll probably actually use whichever one you take at least once a day. You get this one at level 4. Technically, if you really want to have both of these, you can also take the feat Utterance of the Crafted Tool to learn the other, but as you'll see, there are some levels where there just plain aren't good utterances, so you can probably just dip back into this list later on if that's really so important to you.
Fortify Armor: This one is neat because it kind of scales. If you voluntarily increase the DC, you can get better effects. The ability to get 100% fortification isn't out of the question, and being able to negate sneak attacks like that is pretty neat. Of the two LCT utterances at this level, I prefer this one, especially if you're good at predicting who's going to be drawing the most aggro in a given encounter.
Keen Weapon: This is interesting because you get the effect one level before the Wizard does, at which point he outclasses you at it forever just through duration. (Yes, you can affect bludgeoning weapons, but that just means he has to pull out Weapon of Impact instead of Keen Edge.) Still, decent enough, I suppose. Since Team Monster tends to roll more attacks than any one member of Team Hero, I think that Fortify Armor is likely to come up more often, but this isn't terrible. Crits are, by definition, the opposite of reliable (so you can never be sure when you use this utterance that it's going to end up mattering), but everyone likes feeling cool when they score a big hit.
Level 2 LCT:
This is the other level where you actually have decent options. I find that Analyze Item stays useful longer than Agitate Metal does, but neither's bad. These come online at level 7, so you're a little behind the curve (since they mimic a level 1 spell and a level 2 spell), but they're something.
Agitate Metal: This damage was decent at level 3, but it's lackluster at level 7, saving throw or no saving throw. Mortalbane changes the equation a little bit and makes it relevant for a few more levels, though it's never great. It's close to unavoidable, though, assuming that they're not resistant (and with your Knowledge checks, you should know). Be careful with this, since if they die, you've targeted the item and not the creature, so you have to wait for the duration to run out (damned Law of Sequence) before you can apply this to the next target. This is interesting in that it's the only LCT utterance that's kind of reversible, which is cute (if not terribly useful).
Analyze Item: Identify without the expensive component. Hardly the only way to do so, but not bad, since knowing what it is that you picked up never really goes out of style. Decent utility.
Level 3 LCT:
This level has one of my favorite utterances in it. It also contains one of the worst utterances. This isn't really a choice. You're taking Rebuild Item. These hit the field at level 11.
Rebuild Item: This is fun because it's not something that everyone else can do. In fact, I don't personally know of any other effects that do exactly this, but I know better than to use absolutes when talking about 3.5. This won't come up often, but it's fun when it does. (I think it'd be neat to bash through a window, climb inside, then repair the window, but you'd have to be quick.)
Suppress Weapon: Let me get this straight. We're level 11, and you want me to spend an action to make the enemy's sword do 1d6 less damage? And it only works on energy-based enhancements? And I get smacked with the Law of Resistance even if there's nothing that it can suppress? And I don't even turn off energy burst unless I voluntarily increase the Truespeak DC, meaning that I have to know that it's energy burst ahead of time? Oh man, where do I sign up?! This is just insultingly bad. If you take this power, leave my dojo and never return, for I have nothing to teach one such as you.
Level 4 LCT:
These come online at level 15. You know, when 8th level spells hit the field. Just, uh, gonna throw that out there. I don't think you'll ever actually use either of these. Because, you know, ECL 15. You might dip back into a lower level here, though it's unlikely to actually make a noticeable difference.
Suppress Item: Concentration? Really? I'm supposed to spend my turns trading actions with an ITEM? Take Transmute Weapon instead. You're unlikely to use it, but you don't want to write this on your character sheet. It's shameful. (The one exception might conceivably be if you've invested heavily in getting other effects to concentrate on your behalf, but even then, this is still pretty shameful.)
Transmute Weapon: By level 15, your party is probably pretty on top of whatever special materials you need, but this is a backup option, I guess. At least it's not Suppress Item. This can be fun to use on enemies if you have DR of some kind that they would normally be able to pierce (if nothing else, making their weapon silver makes it do 1 less damage per swing! That's worth an action at level 15, right?).
Level 5 LCT:
You know, if these were available as level 2 utterances, they'd be decent. At level 19, when you get these, you'll almost certainly forget you have them. I don't think WotC remembered what level you're supposed to be.
Metamagic Catalyst: I can hear you now. “Holy crap, free metamagic? How could I forget I have this?” you say. Well, first of all, it's got a pretty small whitelist. Second, you have to touch the item, and then it has 1 round in which it can be used, so your action economy isn't great. Third, it doesn't apply to wands or staves. Basically, it just doesn't end up being efficient to use this. I guess slapping a quick Maximize on that scroll of Enervation is technically not the worst thing you can do with your action at level 19, but really, I don't see it getting much better than that, and that's still pretty bad.
Seize Item: This is like Telekinesis, only worse. And the range is weirdly tiny. And there's no way to get the bonus for having a two-handed weapon, which is a nontrivial part of disarming. And anything CR 19+ that cares about using a weapon is kind of likely to have bonuses that way outstrip yours. (Technically, your size bonuses, if any, will still apply, but your size penalties, if any, will also apply, because nothing says they don't, and since Truenamers aren't usually hulking big folks, this isn't likely to go in your favor.) Yeah, I just don't see it.
Lexicon of the Perfected Map:
You get four of these babies, one per level. There are two gems (yes, across all of them), and the rest are forgettable. Since WotC forgot to put the Truespeak DC in the book (no, really, this is from the errata file), I'll just tell you that the DC is 25 + 5 per level of the utterance, with an additional +5 “if the area is a magical location,” whatever that means. Yes, LPM utterances are the only utterances where higher-level ones are harder to say than lower-level ones. Weird, huh?
Level 1 LPM:
You're taking Fog from the Void. The utterance is so good that I think it's an accident. Just take it, stop asking questions, and move on before anyone notices. You get this at level 8.
Fog from the Void: Fog Cloud is a decent trick to have in your pocket. Solid Fog is an amazing trick to have in your pocket, and you get it only one level after the Wizard does! Classy. You have to hit a DC 40 Truespeak check, but you can do that, right? Do be careful and remember that you can't utter at what you can't see, so if something's hiding in your Solid Fog, you'll have a hard time affecting it. That said, Solid Fog is a top-notch BfC effect, and it's all yours. You're welcome.
Shield of the Landscape: This utterance is vague. I'm not sure what it really does. Does the cover move with you? Does the cover apply even if you or another creature moves while within the area? If you (or, more likely, an ally) have enough stealth juice to hide with only partial cover instead of total cover and you move from one square in the (tiny) area to another, are you hidden the whole time? Can your enemies hide if they happen to be within the area (in other words, is the "behind which you and your allies can hide" text descriptive or prescriptive)? I think that if this had gone back for another round of editing, it might be a solid choice (though you'd take it instead of your level 2 LPM, not instead of Solid Fog). As it stands, I don't even know what it really does.
Shockwave: This is basically Stomp, the 1st level psionic power. It targets Fort instead of Reflex, but that's not really a selling point, since monster Fort tends to be higher than monster Reflex. Don't ask why it has a duration, because no answer you come up with will make sense. Technically, I suppose this does affect creatures in the air as well as on the ground, but I still find the utterance to be insulting at level 8.
Level 2 LPM:
You're level 12 when you get this. I think WotC forgot that when they were writing these, because they'd be decent if you got them rather a bit earlier. There's no clear winner, but Speak Rock to Mud is probably your best bet.
Energy Vortex: Did I mention that you're level 12? You're level 12. You're not going to notice 2d6 points of damage a round at level 12 unless you do something to really charge this up, even if it does last for several rounds. I mean, even your squishy Truenamer butt will likely have somewhere around 69ish to somewhere in the vicinity of 92ish HP, depending on your CON, and 2d6 damage a round isn't much against that much HP. And you're squishy—just leafing through the MM1 and not even taking into account resistance, let's look at some CR 12 stuff: abyssal greater basilisks have 189 HP, displacer beast pack lords have 203 HP, a frost worm has 147 HP (at least it's vulnerable to fire!), a kraken has 290 HP, and you get the point. 7 HP a round (2d6 averages to 7) isn't a lot at this level. Even with Mortalbane doubling the damage, this just doesn't have any kick. It's saveless, but it's also party-unfriendly. If you must use this, consider mixing it with (Solid) Fog from the Void and/or Inertia Surge to keep your foes stuck inside. That said, I will concede that it's your only real source of multi-target damage before Speak Unto the Masses comes online, so I guess if you actually still fight lots of weak enemies at this level (I've never met a GM who actually runs such a game, but some people seem to think that such a creature exists), it's something? Again, the duration is a two-edged sword; if you're asserting that it matters because you can "set it and forget it" and keep pinging over the few rounds of the combat, you then need to consider that it'll hit your melee dudes as well. I really want this utterance to be good, which is why I'm spending so many words talking about it. It's arguably your best platform on which to hang increased sources of damage (Mortalbane alone isn't that much, but maybe Mortalbane AND Empower Utterance AND Maximize SLA working together can do something?), if you've got a million feats to spare. Knowledge Devotion, should you use such a thing, will offer its bonus damage on every ping, so I guess that's not nothing? You might find a use for this if you try hard enough, but still, it's a little hard to sell a power accessed at level 12 that has the same damage expression as an unmodified Flaming Sphere spell, save or no save.
Speak Rock to Mud: This is . . . okay, but underwhelming. The spell this mimics has only been around for 3 levels when you first get it, so it's only a little bit out of date, by Truenamer standards. It is ambiguous if you use Transmute Rock to Mud's area (two 10-ft cubes per level: nice) or the standard LPM area (20' radius spread: less nice), since the LPM chapter says that all LPM utterances use the standard area unless stated otherwise, Speak Rock to Mud says it is as Transmute Rock to Mud “except as noted here,” and doesn't have an area entry in its stat block. Yeah. I could go either way. Ask your GM. Without the companion spell Transmute Mud to Rock, this is less useful, but it's not unusable. Maybe you can UMD a scroll of TMtR after using SRtM? Of course, the weird part is that Transmute Rock to Mud is permanent until messed with, while Speak Rock to Mud lasts 1 minute. So you've got a built-in end condition, at which point the mud turns back into rock. That might be abusable if you've got a way to shape the mud into exactly the shape you want when the timer runs out. Don't, y'know, stick around in the mud.
Transform the Landscape: You know, I'd like to think that at level 12, we could have something better than this, but I guess not. If you're not flying by level 12, this could be worse, but it could be a lot better. Typical ambiguous wording makes it seem like turning difficult terrain into normal terrain MIGHT only apply to your allies and not your enemies, but that is, as I said, ambiguous. It's also unclear exactly what "natural" terrain (referred to in the first paragraph) refers to; does that simply mean "normal terrain that hasn't been magically affected," or does it mean "unworked/not man-made terrain"? No matter what you decide on, this isn't really amazing, but I guess it can be annoying to your foes, or it might help your charge-loving allies (who, um, still are dealing with difficult terrain at ECL 12+ for some reason)
Level 3 LPM:
You get this at level 16. Interestingly, all three of these admit that they copy spells. Ambiguous wording prevents me from picking a clear winner, but it's not like you have a lot to choose from—or like any of them will rock your playing style. They're all acceptable, though, and you'll probably get at least some use out of whichever one you pick.
Lore of the World: Well, it fits the fluff, at least. Of course, RAW, this doesn't really do much, since Stone Tell (which this references) is personal and lets you talk to stones, while LotW is an area centered on you. Does it let you talk to stones in the area? Does it let anyone in the area talk to stones? Does it not actually target anyone and thus not give anyone the ability to talk to stones? Nobody knows! Either way, the whole “knowledge of place within one mile” is cute, though a little bit out of date by 16. The usefulness of this utterance is pretty GM-dependent.
Master the Four Winds: This might be really good. It might be really bad. I can't tell, since it's too poorly worded. The book says that all LPM utterances have an area of a 20'-radius spread unless stated otherwise. Master the Four Winds references Control Winds and says that it functions as the spell “except as noted here.” MtFW has no area mentioned in its stat block. This is totally ambiguous. If you read the general rule “noted otherwise” as being the rule, and “as Control Winds” to be the specific note to the contrary, this is a really good utterance, since Control Winds is really powerful (even if you're not a Druid). If you read it that the standard area on pg. 250 counts as the “noted here” on pg. 252 and you end up with the tiniest windstorm ever? It's okay, I guess, but not really a big deal.
Thwart the Traveler: I like that you get this at the same level that a Sorcerer would get Dimensional Lock. That's pretty nice. This is pretty much just exactly like Dimensional Lock, except that it lasts 1 minute instead of 1 day per level. Interestingly, you might be able to use the “increase the DC by 5 to ignore SR” rule to give this SR: No status, which is better than Dimensional Lock. Also, while the same “as noted here” argument applies to this utterance as well, if it uses the standard LPM area instead of what Dimensional Lock usually uses, it's a spread instead of an emanation, which is slightly better and more pervasive. If your GM says that the standard LPM area applies to Master the Four Winds (making it weaker), you can take this one instead, where the same ruling makes it stronger. The fact that the spell lasts 23,040 times longer than the utterance (at level 16, getting worse later) is kind of a turnoff, though.
Level 4 LPM:
Couple things about this level. First, you get it at level 20. Not before. A single dip will mean that you don't get this. Second, yes, Conjunctive Gate does exactly what the rumors say it does, and yes, this is absurdly powerful. Let's look at the other ones anyway, though.
Anger the Sleeping Earth: Please refer to all the other LPM area disputes, then just repeat them here. A radius of 20' is rather a bit smaller than a radius of 80'. Of course, this does make it a little easier to use.
Conjunctive Gate: You know, I really hate this utterance. I hate the whole “hurr, Truenamers are good at level 20 because they get Gate!” mentality that it's bred. Yes, it's crazy powerful. Yes, Gate without an XP cost is just as bad as it sounds. Yes, this is clearly the most powerful ability you're ever going to get in your Truenamer's career. That doesn't matter. None of it makes up for level 19, in my opinion. One level with an overpowered ability does not make up for 19 levels of Truenamer. Anyway, this is Gate. Take it, go to town, finally feel like one of the big boys. Remember that the Law of Sequence applies, so you can only use it once per minute. Be safe, and I want you home by 12:30, OK?
Deny Passage: This is cute, especially combined with Thwart the Traveler. You'll need Thwart the Traveler if you want to use this, of course, since anything that can't teleport at level 20 is probably not that scary.
Translating the Words: Multiclassing
First, a warning. Truenamers are fundamentally casters, and we all know that losing caster levels is bad. That said, just how bad it is really depends on what level you are. A lot of the higher-level utterances don't really stick out as must-haves, so honestly, it's a lot easier to give up 6th level utterances than it is to give up 9th level spells. Losing a single level does mean that you won't get Conjunctive Gate, but unless you're going to hit level 20, that's not an issue. What might be an issue is not getting Speak Unto the Masses. If you think the game might hit level 17, you'll want to think long and hard about losing Truenamer levels. What really matters, though, is the level or levels you actually play at, so consider each case individually. Just weigh what you're actually losing versus what you're actually gaining and then go from there.
I will say that if you do take a dip out of Truenamer, don't freak out too much about Truespeak not being a class skill. Spending two skill points instead of one is something to avoid when avoiding it is easy, but your maximum rank cap is determined by whether it's ever been a class skill, not whether it's currently a class skill. A penalty of one skill point per level is not the end of the world; just pay the cost, keep your bonus up, and focus on why you dipped in the first place.
Factotum: Hailing from Dungeonscape, a dip into Factotum (with Able Learner, ideally) is as good for a Truenamer as it is for everyone else, since you'll finally have something to spend all your skill points on. You can even afford to do this at 1st level, since you won't have to buy Truespeak cross-class (insofar as that matters). You won't get much use out of the Inspiration abilities with only 1-3 levels of Factotum, and the 1/day skill boost from Cunning Knowledge is tied to your Factotum level (so don't think it makes you autosucceed on a Truespeak check once per day), but it's something. Take either 1 level or 3: 1 level opens up the skills (with Able Learner) and a little bit of use for your INT (add your INT to an attack roll, damage roll, or saving throw 2/encounter), and 3 levels gets you the delicious Brains over Brawn ability. Too much more than that, though, and you're pretty much more Factotum than Truenamer.
Rogue: Like Factotum, only somewhat more focused. You'd dip Rogue for the same reason you'd dip Factotum: to open up additional skills with Able Learner. Factotum offers more skills to choose from, while Rogue generally offers more skill points but can't buy Truespeak in-class at level 1. Since you won't actually USE Truespeak at level 1 because you don't have any utterances yet, this mostly just makes bookkeeping a tiny bit messier around level 2, but that's not a big deal. I honestly wouldn't take more than one level in most builds, though having a die of true Sneak Attack could conceivably open something up to you? Probably not, but you never know, especially in the early game. You could also take the UA variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#rogue) commonly referred to as "martial Rogue" and pick up a Fighter feat if that helps at all, but if you're doing this at level 1, watch the BAB requirements. A lot of them are stupid. If your GM allows changelings to qualify for Able Learner (they generally should; see the "Adaptation" section on pg. 116 of Races of Destiny), the Changeling Rogue sub level from Races of Eberron goes a long way towards giving you long-term out-of-combat tricks, if that's something you care about. If you're just dipping at level 1 to open up skills for Able Learner, whether Rogue is more interesting to you than Factotum pretty much depends on whether you want skills that Rogue can't offer (which is mostly "Rangery" or "Wizardy" skills like Survival, Handle Animal, Decipher Script, and Spellcraft). Your call.
Marshal: This class comes to us from the Miniatures Handbook. What you want out of it is the Motivate Intelligence aura, which lets you add your CHA mod as a circumstance bonus to any INT-based skills you use, including Truespeak and Knowledge. If you have a good CHA anyway (as you might for UMD or utterance save DCs) and you're desperate for bonuses, this might be worth it. If you don't have especially good stats, though, this probably isn't worth the level. It does at least give you armor/shield proficiency and martial weapon proficiency, though, so there's that, and while Skill Focus: Diplomacy isn't exactly game-breaking, it might serve as a prereq for something? Work with me here.
Incarnate: From Magic of Incarnum, the Incarnate does absolutely nothing* to advance your Truenaming, but even a single level in it can drastically increase your out-of-combat options if you know what you're doing. Not for everyone, and don't go too deep lest you forget to come out, but having a couple soulmelds never hurt anyone. * Okay, technically, the Lucky Dice can give you a +1 bonus on Truespeak checks, but it costs your swift action every round, making it such a bad deal that I don't even really consider it to be there at all.
Psion: This class can be found on the SRD and also in the Expanded Psionics Handbook. As weird as this sounds, a well-timed dip in Psion can get you a small bonus to Truespeak. How, you may ask? Psions get a bonus feat at level 1, and that feat can be spent on a psicrystal. Unlike familiars, psicrystals have true HD, which means that they get feats. They also have your ranks in whatever skills you happen to possess. So as long as you have 6 or more ranks in Truespeak when you gain your pet rock, you can have it take Minor Utterance of the Evolving Mind for Universal Aptitude, which is excellent for two reasons. First, if it can successfully hit you with UA, then that's UA, and we all love having a +5 to everything, right? Right. (The tricky part is bootstrapping your psicrystal's TS check up high enough, which may be nontrivial, but it's worth it if it works.) Almost as importantly, though, this will give your psicrystal the ability to, you know, speak utterances. Which means that it can actually use aid another on you, because the "you can't aid another on a task that you can't yourself perform" rule no longer applies! I think that's clever enough to be worth mentioning. For your actual powers, just pick stuff that works at minimum ML without being augmented, which will mostly be out-of-combat utility stuff. This also gives you a psionic focus, which might come in handy, and the ability to take psionic feats, which some builds will find to be useful.
Cleric: Truth be told, I'm not super fond of dipping Cleric on a Truenamer. Don't get me wrong, there are benefits, but I feel like the benefits are less pronounced for a Truenamer than they are for a lot of other classes. Still, you'd get access to Turn Undead (which can be a prereq or can be a currency spent on divine feats and devotion feats), you can get a free devotion feat (Knowledge Devotion being the obvious choice), you can get a Lore effect from Cloistered Cleric or heavy armor proficiency from regular Cleric, and you get the ability to cast all Cleric spells from wands without rolling UMD (and even Wizard spells too if you take the Magic domain). And I guess you get a spell or two, but after the very earliest levels, your utterances will bring a lot more noticeable magic to the table than having a couple of 1st level spells per day. These are all benefits, it's true, but I feel like relatively few of these benefits will take you places that are especially synergistic with Truenamer. My advice? Don't dip Cleric just for the sake of dipping Cleric, but if you're doing something unusual and you really need to dip into Cleric, make sure that you're optimizing it and squeezing as much benefit as you can out of that one level spent.
Swashbuckler: This Complete Warrior class isn't my first choice, to be honest, but I can see it on an extremely nontraditional build. Three levels of Swashbuckler will get you some BAB, Weapon Finesse, an Arcane Stunt a handful of times per day (don't you dare take Grace; see Complete Mage and get swappin'), and the ability to add your INT mod to damage rolls with finesseable weapons. If you care about hitting things with weapons but you still want INT as your primary stat, I guess this can technically be a way of using it? (Remember that you don't hit with INT, but eh.) My reaction is that the cost is rarely worth the benefit, but I know to never say never.
Exemplar: There's a little bit of controversy about this Complete Adventurer PrC. I am officially of the opinion that Skill Mastery does not apply to Truespeak for the same reason that it doesn't apply to UMD (it's not stress or distraction that's preventing you from taking 10; it's a clause in the skill itself), but hey, it's not awful to apply Skill Mastery to some other skills. That said, you'll still get a quick +4 competence bonus to a skill of your choice (which is Truespeak, right?), which can be worth it if you don't have a competence item. Whether that's better than a new utterance and another step along the path in your primary class is up to you, and basically depends on how much you like high-level utterances and how desperate you are for bonuses. This class isn't hard to qualify for, at least; you were already taking Skill Focus and already maxing out Truespeak, so you just need to dump a bunch of cross-class points into Diplomacy (which isn't a bad skill in the first place) and call it good. (A note about Skill Mastery: if your GM believes that Skill Mastery lets you take 10 on Truespeak, it might be worth it to take a look at the feat Hardened Criminal on pg. 95 of City of Stormreach, which has language that's even looser than Skill Mastery and is available for just two feats. Now, whether two feats is cheaper than one level is an open question, but Hardened Criminal comes online at a MUCH lower level than Exemplar. Either way, check it out. If you have a tolerant GM and a taste for CharOp tricks, the prereq feat is Iron Will, which you can buy from the Otyugh Hole.)
Uncanny Trickster: Coming from Complete Scoundrel, this is one of the only two PrCs that advances utterances (the other is Legacy Champion, and this gives you more out of the deal). This class is 3 levels long, and the last 2 advance all your Truenamer features, including utterances. In exchange, you'll get a greatly expanded skill list with way more skill points (even though you have to buy Truespeak cross-class, unless you have Able Learner), a few levels with a good Reflex save, and some bonuses to working with skill tricks. The downside is that it's hard to make a Truenamer qualify for a lot of skill tricks (you're pretty much getting Collector of Stories, maybe Swift Concentration, and that's it before you get into cross-class stuff), and you need to know four skill tricks to get in. This is much easier if you took a dip in Factotum with Able Learner, of course.
Heir of Siberys: This one is found on Eberron Campaign Setting, and it's restricted to members of "dragonmarked races," which pretty much means PHB races. The class is extremely Eberron-specific, as is the case with everything else dealing with dragonmarks. It's a late-game class that you can enter at ECL 13, and it only costs one questionable feat (plus some skill points you were spending anyway). The first level is pretty unremarkable, but the second and third levels each give you one daily use of a SLA associated with your dragonmarked house. These SLAs range from 5th level spells that normally have XP costs (awaken) to 9th level spells (mass heal, storm of vengeance), with a good representation of stuff in between. Since the Truenamer tends to struggle with high-level effects a little bit—high-level utterances are rarely on par with high-level spells and powers, after all—this can be a way to get at least one really big back-pocket trick to help out with the late game. The second and third levels of the class advance casting and the class is intentionally nonspecific about what sort of class structure it takes to enter, so you can ask for a houserule to let it advance utterances; that said, it also has a clause that grants bonus feats instead of casting if you have no casting to advance, so that might be a consolation prize. It won't make you better at utterances (no, don't use moment of prescience for a +15 to a single TS check per day; you can do better than that), but still, tossing around mass heal or prismatic wall once or twice a day goes a long way towards contributing to solving late-game challenges.
Fortune's Friend: The only reason you'd care about this Complete Scoundrel PrC is because you want to rely on luck feats to keep your Truespeak check up. See, luck feats are a double-edged sword: rerolling a d20 on command is not a bad way of influencing how reliably you can succeed, but spending your swift action on doing so means that you can't Quicken. Assuming you're following the advice I've been laying out for you, in the middle of the game, you'll pretty much ONLY be needing to roll to Quicken in the first place unless you're really worn out by the Law of Resistance, since you cannot Quicken at all unless you could have already succeeded without the d20. So investing in luck feats is kind of hard to support; if your bonus is low enough that you don't autosucceed when rolling normally, you probably should try to get your flat bonus up instead of pouring resources into rerolls, and if you're good enough to autosucceed on a standard-action Truespeak check but need help Quickening, you don't have the actions to use luck feats. They get you coming and going, right? It's all part of how questionably designed Quicken is in the first place. But anyway, Fortune's Friend offers a solution: with a single dip, you no longer have to spend a swift action on luck rerolls (or more accurately, the swift action you spend doesn't interfere with your ability to spend another swift action), so now you can reroll an attempt to Quicken! The entry is easy (you already have the skills invested, and if you're going down this road at all, you're obviously taking a couple luck feats), but the loss of a level of advancement is noticeable. It's the only way to make the luck reroll tactic work, though—which is, as stated, why the luck reroll tactic is not an automatic go-to, but the point is, you should do this if you have to and should skip it if you don't have to. Under no circumstances do I see it being logical to take more than one level if you're primarily trying to be a Truenamer, though.
Asking Nicely: Not-Quite-RAW PrCs
If your GM is very nice, you might be able to convince him or her to let a few PrCs that are especially thematically appropriate advance Truenaming, even though they don't do so by RAW. Since this isn't RAW, I won't spend too long here, but you might consider asking.
Paragnostic Apostle: You can qualify for this Complete Champion PrC by RAW, but you can't do much with it, since it doesn't advance utterances and the Knowledge Is Power abilities only apply to spells and invocations by RAW. You'll get a slightly expanded skill list (though Truespeak will be cross-class for you), a Bardic Knowledge-style effect, and a few little bonuses that mostly won't apply to your utterances even with houserules. It does advance your standing with the Assembly (which is the main benefit), and a couple of the Knowledge Is Power boosts are acceptable, but this is more a thematic choice than a powerful one. Basically, if you're asking your GM to let this advance utterances, the main reason why you'd care is to get that Lore effect and to increase your Paragnostic Assembly affiliation score.
Human Paragon: The Paragon classes from Unearthed Arcana aren't quite base classes and aren't quite prestige classes, but I didn't want to devote an entire section to it. You can easily qualify (the only prereq is basically to be a human, though ask if having the [human] subtype will get an illumian in the door). This is 3 levels long, 2 of which advance casting. You'll get to choose your own skill list (so you can get a few levels of actually taking other skills), you'll get a permanent class skill (so you can expand your Truenamer list a bit . . . or get Truespeak always in-class and dip away, but whatever), you'll get a bonus feat, and you'll get a stat boost, which will probably be INT. Worth a lost Truenamer level? You tell me. Decent choice if your GM allows it, though.
Urban Savant: Tucked away on page 100 of Cityscape, this PrC has 9/10 casting advancement, loses the caster level at the END (so you can just take 9 levels and be happy), and has a really cool knowledge focus. You already have crazy high Knowledge checks, and this lets you do something with them. You'll have to convince your GM that the Paragnostic Assembly is close enough to the League of Eyes, but if you're even considering taking this class at all, your GM's willing to work with you. You'll get an expanded skill list (even taking cross-class Truespeak, you're coming out ahead), you'll get something to do with your Knowledge checks, and you'll get a good Reflex save. Decent enough.
Dialects of the Words: Truenaming PrCs
Weirdly enough, none of the PrCs in Tome of Magic advance utterances. Not one. Yeah. They're not really made with Truenamers in mind, it would seem . . . nor are they written with anyone else in mind, really.
Acolyte of the Ego:
Entry: Easy. You basically can't not qualify, at least if you have any sort of inclination towards Truenaming.
I think this is meant to be the self-buffing gish Truenamer (full BAB, good Fort? Huh). Basically, you get a bunch of utterances-that-aren't-called-utterances that only affect you. Most of them aren't that good . . . the best is probably the one that lets you use Dimension Door. Nothing else really stands out, though the insight bonuses to STR/DEX/CON are at least interesting, if not particularly worth it. Most of the cadences (for so they are called) aren't as good as utterances, and that's sad. A Truenamer might consider dropping in for two levels to get Cadence of the Distant Step, but no more than that.
Bereft:
Entry: Easy/Medium. If you can find someone who can cast the Ritual of Renaming, this is trivial, though a bit late. If no one in your GM's world gives three bits of a damn about Truenaming, this is harder.
This class is basically too little, too late. The abilities you get are not that good, come online way too late, and have a really bad save DC (10 + class level + INT . . . on a class that's 5 levels long and that can't be entered before ECL 11. Oops). Also, too many things are based on your class level, which, as indicated, will not be much. The abilities are flavorful, but none of them are actually worth using: syllable of detachment is just a bog-standard -2 (much like shaken or sickened) with a short duration, syllable of affliction requires that janky save, syllable of exile lets the target escape as a swift action and still only lasts for one round even if they fail, syllable of dissolution would be more impressive if it were available before level 14, syllable of enervation isn't terribly meaningful until you can stack it with something, and word of unmaking is just a plot ability that costs XP. This class would be worth rebuilding from the ground up, since it's a neat concept, but it fails at everything it tries to do. (Fun fact: The sample Bereft has 10 levels of Fighter. Don't ask me.)
Brimstone Speaker:
Entry: Hard. You need at least 4th level Cleric spells, basically.
So, you need some nasty prereqs, and you're giving up 4 levels of Cleric casting. In exchange, you get some summons that you could probably get with Planar Ally anyway, as well as a really weak breath weapon. Um, yeah, pass. (I also find it weird that the Heavenly Entreaties are bound by both a daily limit AND the Law of Resistance. Harsh.)
Disciple of the Word:
Entry: Medium. A Monk with an interest in Truespeak will qualify pretty easily, but still, not like Monks have skill points to spare.
Yo dawg, I heard you like poorly designed classes, so we put a poorly designed class in your poorly designed class so you can fail to contribute while you fail to contribute!
Sorry. I've been waiting to do that. Anyway, yeah, this is about what you can expect from a class that blends Monk and Truenamer. Since Truespeak is based on INT and Monks already need STR, DEX, CON, and WIS, that means that CHA is your only potential dump stat! Are we having fun yet? Anyway, this class seems to state that it both explicitly does and explicitly does not advance flurry of blows penalty, which looks like it's actually like a riddle or a koan or something, but this is one of the few things they fixed in the errata: it DOES advance flurry of blows penalty. (This does not save the class, to be clear, but it's something.) Overall, you get a lot of “Spend a use of Stunning Fist and make a DC X Truespeak check to do Y.” Some of the later ones are OK, but none of them are great except for the capstone, and most of the low-level ones are pretty boring or underpowered. Notice that Word of Health Restored has no listed DC. It's also the only SLA in the class, for some reason. I do find it somewhat amusing that it's a DC 45 Truespeak check to overcome DR/epic, but I don't think that makes the class worthwhile. This is probably better than an additional 10 levels in Monk, but I don't think I'd even call it as good as 10 levels in Truenamer, and that's terrible.
Fiendbinder:
Entry: Hard. This requires you to have 4th level spells from a real casting class.
Basically, you can permanently bind fiends by spending gold, but since they'll refuse to take any actions you don't order them to, you can never break the action economy with them. For a design goal, this is good. Coming into the 3.5 milieu, this is bad, since everything else that summons breaks the action economy, and this doesn't get much to make up for it. As you advance in the class, you get different fiends to bind, though you lose 3 caster levels. At class level 9, you do get the ability to issue two commands at once, but it's probably not worth it. This class is interesting and fluffy, but don't try it in a high-op group, or you'll fall behind.
Reciting the Words: Concentration
Concentration, both the skill and the concept, is (are?) kind of strange on a Truenamer. For example, ToM pg. 232 tells us that we can "utter defensively" (read: no AoOs) by just taking a -5 penalty to the Truespeak check (per threatening enemy). But there's no reason why the general rules (PHB pg. 70) for using the Concentration skill to not provoke when using SLAs wouldn't apply; by RAW, you have two options to make your utterances not provoke. So that's already kinda weird. Weird in your favor, of course (having more options is good, and it's also pretty clear that you do NOT need to use both a penalty to TS and a separate Concentration roll to avoid one AoO), but weird.
Truenamers also have a nontrivial number of utterances with a duration of "concentration," which means that it can be interesting to invest in ways to potentially get some other game effect to handle the concentrating for you. Spellcasters (which, I will remind you, you are not) and manifesters have a handful of options for concentrating without spending (big) actions, some of which are more accessible than others. Few non-gestalt Truenamers, for example, will be able to take advantage of Solicit Psicrystal, Familiar Concentration, or the 10th level feature of Spirit Shaman, so we don't need to spend too much time on them. The three options that might potentially be most relevant to a Truenamer are (presumably a UMD'd wand of) the spell Sonorous Hum (SpC, pg. 196), the Extraordinary Concentration feat (CAdv, pg. 109), and the Swift Concentration skill trick (CSc, pg. 90). Please read this section all the way to the end if you're interested in trying any of these, because there's some kinda janky rules interactions that you're likely to need to ask your GM about.
Sonorous Hum is an option that costs you in gold (it's a higher-level spell than you can likely get by a simple dip) but gold is still arguably cheaper than feats. You'd spend an action to cast the spell (presumably a standard action without shenanigans), and then you could let the spell concentrate on your next utterance, which might be Quickened. This is a losing trade for a Word of Nurturing, since those cap at one round, but it can conceivably be useful for something like Ward of Peace. It lasts for a couple of minutes (up to whatever cap is imposed by your utterance, but the point is that you can pre-buff if you know trouble's coming), but it only works on one utterance per casting. It explicitly allows casting other effects while the spell is maintaining the first effect, which might be relevant (see below).
Extraordinary Concentration has the unfortunate prereq of Concentration 15, so you can't get it before level 12. (Thankfully, it isn't competing with Quicken for your level 9 slot, but this still isn't very wonderful.) It makes concentrating into either a move action or a swift action, depending on how good your Concentration check is. The move action might not be the worst idea, since your swift actions are probably spoken for by Quicken. If this option is feasible in your game (see below), the move action element might be the key to why this is the option you choose. It's also usable basically at will if you can succeed on the checks, which is significant.
Swift Concentration costs only skill points (which you can probably afford to spend), is always a swift action, and doesn't have a failure chance. It also only works once per encounter unless you're using Uncanny Trickster or something similar to gain bonus uses of it, because all skill tricks have a baked-in 1/encounter limit. Ask your GM if that means "one utterance per encounter" (meaning that you can sustain the SAME Ward of Peace as a series of swift actions) or if it means "one action per encounter" (so you can only make one swift action to concentrate per encounter, and then you're back to the normal rules for following rounds). If you feel like throwing your race at making this work once per day, a synad (Complete Psionic) can take an extra "purely mental" swift action once per day, and I'm pretty sure that concentrating on an existing effect is purely mental. The synad trick only works on swift actions, though, which is why it's worth mentioning in this paragraph talking about Swift Concentration.
Now, the reason why this whole topic is really kind of subject to table variation is because utterances aren't spells. They're SLAs. This has several implications. First, by RAW, Sonorous Hum and Extraordinary Concentration only work on spells, and they have no language indicating that they'd apply to SLAs. That said, SLAs are, by definition, very similar to spells in many meaningful ways, so you might convince your GM that Sonorous Hum and Extraordinary Concentration work on SLAs too. Swift Concentration should be fine because it calls out "similar effects," but Sonorous Hum and Extraordinary Concentration take a favorable ruling.
This gets worse when we consider why/whether it's necessary to get something that can concentrate for us when we've got Quicken on board. Concentrating on an active effect is usually a standard action, but you can still spend a swift action on a Quickened utterance if you can succeed at the Quickened DC, right? Well, maybe. But maybe not. PHB pg. 176 spells out in black and white that "you can't cast a spell while concentrating on another one." Which could indicate that you can't Quicken while you're still concentrating on that other utterance. Except, well, utterances aren't spells. They're SLAs. And there's nothing in ToM or in the general rules for SLAs that indicates that you can't cast a SLA while concentrating on another SLA, actions permitting.
So if you want to use utterances with a duration of Concentration and you'd also like to make use of other utterances while concentrating on those first utterances, you've gotta talk to your GM about just how like spells these spell-like abilities of yours really are. While your GM is the final arbiter and can technically pick another option beyond what I'm going to lay out here, these are the options that make the most sense to me.
Option 1: Utterances are not spells, so abilities that only work on spells (like Extraordinary Concentration) don't apply, but the rules from PHB pg. 176 also don't apply. Therefore, Swift Concentration is about your only option if you want to truly concentrate without spending that standard action, but you can Quicken normally while still concentrating (or utter normally with your standard action after spending your swift on Swift Concentration). This option is likely, though not irrefutably, the closest to RAW.
Option 2: Utterances are enough like spells that they should be treated like spells for this purpose. This means that Quickening out of the gate doesn't work if you're maintaining another utterance, but things like Sonorous Hum are allowed to affect utterances. This option isn't truly RAW but is reasonably consistent, and you can make an argument that the abundant language about SLAs working "just like" spells is enough to indicate that this option should be chosen. (Downside: Extraordinary Concentration might not do a heck of a lot if you don't have meaningful standard actions that aren't utterances, since you still can't cast/utter while concentrating on another effect, even if you're spending a different action on that concentration. Maybe try to figure out exactly at what point in the round Reversed Word of Nurturing pings, though.)
Option 3: Like Option 2, but we can assert that the intent of abilities like Extraordinary Concentration and Swift Concentration is to allow casting while spending non-standard actions on concentrating, so you can still cast/utter with whatever action isn't spent on concentrating. (This option has the least support by RAW, and in fact it's pretty flagrantly against RAW, but the reason that I mention it at all is because Extraordinary Concentration is otherwise actually kind of bizarrely useless even in the hands of a traditional spellcaster, since few spellcasters of an appropriate level will have the ability to do anything meaningful other than cast a spell with those now-free actions. I take that as evidence, however potentially flawed, that RAI is as described here. Again, your GM is the final arbiter.)
So there you have it. I assume we're all properly confused by this point? Truenamers might have options to ease up the action costs of utterances with a duration of concentration, but it's unclear which of those options are necessary and/or which of those options are available. If you care about that sort of thing, I hope that I've given you enough material to have a productive conversation with your GM.
Naughty Words: A Repository of Dirty Tricks
This section contains a bunch of stuff that, well, may or may not fly at any given table. Some of it is broken. Some of it is abusive. Some of it is merely interesting. Most of it is, I would venture, totally unintended. Let me be clear: I may or may not agree with any given tactic mentioned here, and I don't recommend necessarily using them in any game. There are some that are only mildly abusive, there are some that I'm not totally convinced work, and there are some that unambiguously work and unambiguously shouldn't. None of it will let you measure up in power to any T1 or T2 caster who knows what they're doing, but it's here mostly so that I can give it a token nod. With each one, I will include a “cheese rating,” which represents my opinion and my opinion alone. Ask your GM before you try to use any of this stuff, and do NOT expect “well, some guy on the Internet gave it a cheese rating of only 2/5!” to fly as a defense. Use with caution, and DON'T complain if your GM bans or nixes any of this stuff.
I will note that not all of this stuff is really that bad. This section basically boils down to “anything that I could see a GM raising an eyebrow over” or worse. You shouldn't have to feel ashamed after using all of these. Just after using some of them. You'll know them when you see them.
The Extraplanar Bouncer
Check out the utterance Incarnation of Angels. There's nothing saying that the target must be willing, and there's no saving throw. If you head over to the Monster Manual and look at what the Celestial and Fiendish templates do, you see that they grant the target the [Extraplanar] subtype . . . which means you can pull out a scroll of Dismissal or Banishment (or nudge your Wizard/Cleric buddy and have them do the dirty work) and just get rid of whoever you cast Incarnation of Angels on. Where do they go? It doesn't say, but it's unambiguous that they have the [Extraplanar] tag and thus will be no longer your problem, at least not for a while.
Cheese Rating: 2/5. Incarnation of Angels is a pretty sucky utterance other than this, and it's not like Dismissal is guaranteed to work, especially if you're scrolling it. There are plenty of ways to say “if you fail a Will save, you're not my problem anymore,” and this one is pretty elaborate for what it does. The real problem with it is that there's no indication of where Dismissal actually sends them.
Broken? Naw, I Rebuilt It
In Complete Arcane, there are rules for making “potion-tiles,” which are basically refluffed potions that you snap in half instead of drinking. The utterance Rebuild Item lets you repair items that have been broken within the last turn, leaving their magic wholly intact. Combined, you can basically get infinitely reusable potions, at least as long as you can succeed on the utterance (which isn't hard). This gets mildly abusive if you demand or have access to higher-level potion-tiles, such as those a Master Alchemist (Magic of Faerun) might make. I wouldn't count on that flying, by the way, but it's there. You might also be interested in Skull Talismans (Frostburn), Gems of Night (Tome of Magic), Essentia Jewels (Magic of Incarnum), or any other magic items that say that you break or crush them to activate them. (Do be careful with ones that say that they end up as dust, since that might not work.) Since you have to touch the item within one round of it breaking, I don't recommend being close enough to use this on a Staff of the Magi.
Cheese Rating: 2/5 on basic potions, 4/5 on more elaborate stuff. The fact that it takes an action to rebuild the item, that action MUST be within 1 round, and you must be close enough to touch the item is enough of a balancing factor, for me, to say that this isn't a problem if you're just rebuilding normal potions. (If I'm not mistaken, the PF Alchemist gets a spell that does pretty much exactly that.) Since Rebuild Item comes online at level 11, having reusable 3rd level spells isn't going to hurt anything . . . especially since doing so gives you really poor action economy. Now, when you start using it on Skull Talismans and Gems of Night, that's a fair bit worse, just because you're getting a much more powerful effect from it (hell, Skull Talismans can hold up to 9th level spells, and I'm wary of anything that can give you that). You're definitely going against the intent of the item in the first place (the fact that it's not reusable is intended to be a balancing factor), and not everyone is going to be OK with that.
This Truename Sounds Like “Iron Heart Sur . . .”
Check out the utterance Spell Rebirth. Check out the reversed version. In its entirety: “This utterance dispels the spell with the highest caster level affecting the target.” That's it. That's the entire text of it. Prima facie, it's pretty nice. A dispel that doesn't roll a caster level check? Sign me up! Sure, it only gets one spell, but that's still pretty nice. In my experience, casters tend to be boss-encounters rather than mook-encounters, so their caster levels can be pretty high (and thus tricky to dispel). This will vary from group to group, of course, but the value of a dispel that doesn't need a caster level check should be obvious.
However, there's more to this utterance. In fact, a lot more.
The Truenamer chapter is notorious for having terribly lazy editing. Inconsistencies, omissions, and absurdities abound. This, I would say, is one of those omissions or absurdities. Look at it again. “Affecting the target.” Now, what does this mean, exactly? Well, there aren't a lot of limitations on it. You can Spell Rebirth away, say, an area of magical Silence affecting the target. Or an area of Reverse Gravity. (Do you want to tell me that lifting someone up and slamming them into the ceiling isn't "affecting" them?) Do you see where I'm going with this? Spell Rebirth is basically the Truenamer's Iron Heart Surge. Sure, "spell" is a lot more limited than "condition" (thankfully), so we can't Rebirth away some of the sillier examples of what IHS can theoretically be used for (such as Surging away the burning on the Plane of Fire... which I don't think actually works, but which the text is vague enough to kind of support), but we can still Rebirth away a hell of a lot. The point is that Spell Rebirth, as written, can dispel any area spell (short of AMF, since Rebirth is an SLA and thus can't get past AMF without a scroll of Invoke Magic and some dubious transparency shenanigans) that can "affect" someone. Furthermore, unlike IHS, Rebirth dispels the spell. Again, as written, it won't simply remove the effect from the target... it'll dispel the whole shebang, no questions asked. You don't even have to stretch the reading the way you do with IHS... it tells you straight up that the spell is dispelled.
This, of course, leads to some real shenanigans if you're not careful. Let's say a castle is warded with Dimensional Lock... well, if you can just get a single Truenamer spy to infiltrate the area, it doesn't matter how high the caster level is, that sucker's open to attack. It's a little bit dicier as to whether or not it can get past, say, Obscuring Mist or Cloudkill, but it seems likely. I won't bother to discuss any other specific examples, but surely you can see by now the power and the danger inherent in this utterance.
If you plan on using the spell like this, get yourself a pet bunny (or a similarly minimally-CRed critter). The spell may have been cast by Boccob himself, but the utterance targets the bunny, so it'll be something like a DC 16 Truespeak check. Bonus for style points, of course.
Cheese Rating: Unratable. It totally depends on what you're dispelling. As written, you can get rid of epic spells affecting your pet bunny with a DC 16 Truespeak check. Whether that's going to cause problems, and just what problems that causes, are totally dependent on the game.
My Level or Yours?
This is one of the big ones. Let the record show that I don't approve of this trick, but by god, it's there. Check out pg. 234 of Tome of Magic. There's a sentence there (under the “Law of Sequence” paragraph, started on the previous page) that says “It's also okay to use a higher-level version of an utterance while a lower-level version is still active, or vice versa, because these constitute different utterances.” Flip back a page and look at the “Effective Spell Level” paragraph, which says that you can increase the “effective spell level” of an utterance by adding 4 (per increase) to the Truespeak DC.
So yeah, you can see where this is going. There is an argument that changing the spell level triggers the “higher-level/lower-level version of the same utterance” clause from the LoS paragraph. So you can just twiddle your check DCs up and down and spit in the Law of Sequence's eye.
Cheese Rating: 5/5. I am no friend to the Law of Sequence. I believe that it needs to go away and leave us the hell alone. However, I don't think that this is the way to deal with it. I believe that the intent of the “higher/lower” clause was to illustrate that Speed of the Zephyr and Greater Speed of the Zephyr are not, in fact, the same thing . . . but because no one bothered to make up a synonym for "level" or to check their own rules for ambiguity, you can make the argument that this works. Honestly, I'd rather just ask the GM to ignore the Law of Sequence altogether than try to sneak this in. I'm sure there are exceptions, but in my anecdotal experience, it feels like many GMs will either just not allow this trick or would, if asked nicely with good reasons why, just remove or relax the Law of Sequence without jumping through this flimsy semi-RAW justification.
Suddenly, Rerolls!
The utterance Preternatural Clarity looks like it's supposed to give an ally a floating +5 bonus to apply when needed, kind of like a much worse version of Moment of Prescience. However, the last sentence of the normal utterance says “The target can choose to apply the bonus after she has rerolled the d20, but before the Dungeon Master reveals the result of the check.” Back up a moment there. Rerolled the d20? Does Preternatural Clarity actually grant a reroll with a +5 bonus? Kinda looks that way to me.
Cheese Rating: 2/5. Yeah, it's horribly written, and it doesn't look like you were SUPPOSED to get a reroll out of it, but by the time you can get level 5 LEM utterances (that's ECL 14, by the way), letting an ally reroll something really isn't going to break the game, and I would in fact argue that it brings Preternatural Clarity up from “relatively insignificant” to “worth using.”
Cramming for the Test
Hidden Truth is one of my favorite utterances. This is no secret. This is something fun you can do with it. Note that the duration of the normal utterance is “instantaneous,” compared to the duration of one round on the reversed version. The utterance doesn't say when the bonus comes into play. I'm going to be gentle and assume that it applies to the next Knowledge check (though as written, that's not NECESSARILY the case) they make . . . but there's nothing saying that this check has to happen immediately. You can prime the party scout with it so that they can have a chance of knowing what it is that they find (sure, you're gambling that the next Knowledge check they make will be the big one, but it's not like it costs you much). You can cast it on every member of the party before they go to sleep (so the first Knowledge check everyone makes when they wake up will have the nice boost, without counting against you for that day). You can just use it while walking around in the hopes that the next Knowledge check you make will be useful. RAI? Unlikely. RAW? Probably!
Cheese Rating: 1/5. I really don't see how this can be abused. It's just bending RAI a little bit.
Sympathetic Healing
They really ought to have known better than to let this one slip through. Check out the Word of Nurturing line. I'll use Moderate as my example, but it applies equally to all of them.
Here's the text: “A nearly constant green tendril of energy moves up and down your target's body, healing any wounds it finds. You grant a creature fast healing 5.”
(Emphasis added.) So, as written, you don't have to heal the creature you used the utterance on. Your target, the one you actually made the Truespeak check against, is the one with the flashy green effects, but you can just grant any old creature fast healing. Stupid? Yes, very stupid, but that's how they wrote it.
Cheese Rating: 3/5. I can't see any real way to abuse this aside from the pet bunny trick (use it on your pet bunny, heal your friend instead, using the bunny's easier Truespeak DC), but it's so blatantly against what they meant that I can't really condone it.
This One's All You, WotC
Just go read Ether Reforged. Instantaneous duration? Really? You can just permanently instantaneously shunt a target over to the Ethereal Plane and poke them with Magic Missiles until they leave you alone, since they have no way of getting back (unless they can Plane Shift themselves)? You can just cast the normal version on your party one time and give them the benefits forever? Really? That's not even a willful misreading. That's just what's there.
Cheese Rating: 2/5. Ether Reforged comes online at ECL 18. I'm totally cool with making the party have what amounts to an always-on Ghost Touch effect at ECL 18. Things that you're fighting at ECL 18 may or may not be inconvenienced by suddenly finding themselves ethereal (with no save), though it's annoying that you probably don't want to use it on yourself. This is niche enough that I don't see it causing too terribly many problems, but it's still bizarre as hell.
Unstoppable? We'll See About That
Go read Energy Negation. That's not what I'm talking about today, but I want it for a point of comparison. Go read Greater Energy Negation. Notice something missing from the greater version? That's right: a whitelist. The lesser version says that you can get resistance to acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic, but the greater version has no such restriction. You can become immune to positive energy, negative energy, force, or even the dreaded city damage (no, really, city damage is a thing. Check out Cityscape)!
Cheese Rating: 1/5. If being immune to city damage is going to break your game, you play a different kind of D&D than I do. You're still taking blatant advantage of sloppy writing, but I don't think it'll hurt anything.
Scanning, One Moment Please
This one's pretty simple. Analyze Item is basically an at-will Identify. There's not much reason that you couldn't use it on an item that you suspect is magically trapped. Not sure if you should open that book? Analyze it! Think that tile looks suspect? Analyze it! Wonder if there's more to that statue than meets the eye? Analyze it!
Cheese Rating: 1/5. Knowing that there's a magical trap on something doesn't give you the ability to disable said trap (and no, Spell Rebirth won't work, since that targets creatures, not items). Plus, you have to touch the item in question, so it's only good for “explodes when you open the door” traps, as opposed to “explodes when you touch the knob” traps. What's more, it only works on magic traps. A good old-fashioned spring-loaded dart to the face will still get you. You're no Rogue, and don't you forget it.
404: Truename Not Found
I assume that you are aware when one of your utterances has succeeded or failed. There are a lot of things that just don't make sense at all if that assumption isn't in play. With that in mind, say that you're poking around in a dungeon and you see a statue, or a topiary, or something else that has a pretty good chance of coming to life and trying to kill you if you get too close to it. Take some kind of utterance (perhaps a reversed Word of Nurturing, if you're in hostile territory . . . or not reversed, if you don't want to risk offending something) and see if you can target the statue with it. If it's really just a statue and not a golem or a mimic or whatever, you won't be able to target it at all, since LEM utterances work on creatures, not objects. Depending on your GM, you might get an explicit “404, Truename not found” error, or you might just get “you fail.” Theoretically, if you are merely told that you fail and you aren't told why, it's possible that your check just wasn't good enough. That said, if your Truespeak mod is pretty solid, you can get a pretty good sense of whether or not that thing's alive. Note that the Law of Resistance doesn't kick in if your check isn't successful, so you have nothing to lose by trying.
Cheese Rating: 2/5. This isn't bad, but it can lead to paranoia lists if you abuse it (or, conversely, if your GM gives you REASONS to abuse it).
Truename Targeting Online
This one might actually be intentional. I'm merely assuming the worst, since the Truename chapter hasn't given me a reason not to.
To be brief, most things that allow you to ignore concealment say that they don't apply to total concealment. Archer's Eye merely says that you ignore penalties for concealment, with no mention made of being total or partial. Cast it on your friend, and they can fire with impunity at things that are invisible, or are 40' deep in a fog cloud, or whatever. Technically, the 50% miss chance from blindness stems from concealment as well, so you can even let someone ignore blindness (though only for ranged attacks). As I said, this may or may not actually be intentional, but I'd assume not.
Cheese Rating: 1/5. Just because it's unintended doesn't mean it's bad.
I Can See Forever
Sensory Focus gives the target blindsight and True Seeing for one round. The spell True Seeing has a range of 120 feet (and, since the utterance references the spell, we can safely assume that the same applies), but blindsight doesn't have a default range. Make of that what you will, but you're pretty keenly aware of everything you have line of effect to, since there's no reason to assume that there's a limit. Use this outdoors for the greatest effect (“exactly how many mice are in that field? I know they're there, after all”).
Cheese Rating: 1/5 in dungeons, 3/5 outdoors. Yeah, the difference between automatically detecting everything in a dungeon room and automatically detecting everything you have line of effect to from the top of a mountain is great enough that I'm going to give them different ratings. Note that I still don't think this is abusive . . . just a headache for the GM to deal with, at least if you push it to its limits.
Origami Sword of Death
The utterance Transmute Weapon can turn an enemy's weapon into whatever you want. How about, oh, ice? Or maybe paper? Note that the utterance does mention DMG pg. 283 and uses the term “special material,” so you could interpret that as being a restriction to only those special materials . . . but DMG pg. 283 itself does say something like “only a few special materials are listed here, and there are others.” Now you just have to convince your GM that whatever you're after is, in fact, a special material. (Bonus Points: Use this to make the enemy's sword into a metal with a low melting point, then use Agitate Metal. Very close to getting physics in D&D, which is very dangerous territory, but hilarious if it works.)
Cheese Rating: 2/5. This one has more room than most for the GM to legitimately say no, and it's hardly that abusive even if it works.
Hear My Words, O Dark Master!
Pop open the Book of Vile Darkness and read the rules for sacrifices. Then remember just how good Truenamers are at getting their Knowledge checks up to stupidly high levels. Between the INT focus, the fact that you're likely to take little other than Knowledge skills, the Knowledge Focus class feature, Universal Aptitude, and Hidden Truth, you can get a terrifyingly high K: Religion check (that's the one used in sacrifices, of course) as early as level 3 or so. Consider a perfectly reasonable illumian Truenamer with 16 INT and the Naen sigil . . . for almost no investment, you get 6 (ranks) + 3 (INT) + 3 (Knowledge Focus) + 2 (Naen) + 5 (Universal Aptitude) + 10 (Hidden Truth) = +29 before you even roll. By the time you add all the little trappings listed on pg. 27 of the BoVD, you'll be almost guaranteed to hit the highest level of rewards. And that's at level 3, with the only real investment being maxed ranks in K: Religion (doesn't hurt) and putting your Knowledge Focus class feature into Religion (which, again, is not much of a loss). Even if you don't add all the trappings, just leave one critter you kill every day alive (but probably unconscious) long enough to whip out your dagger and chant the name of your vile master a few times, and you'll be guaranteed to roll high enough to get a free Planar Ally. How sweet is that? Sure, you have to be unrepentantly evil, and your GM has to go along with it, but all the rules are right there.
Cheese Rating: Unratable. There's just way too much variation here to even start. If your GM plays it totally by the book and just hands out whatever rewards you want once per day, that's clearly absurd (awesome, but absurd). If your GM says that your god gets bored with you and won't respond to sacrifices more than once a level or something, that's a lot less compelling, though it's still a great card to have up your sleeve. That said, assuming that you take an interest in Knowledge checks, ANY Truenamer in the deep end of the alignment pool can just decide to start doing this. Chances are very good that you were going to take Universal Aptitude and Hidden Truth anyway (let's face it, being the know-it-all is pretty much the only thing you can do with that level of competence, and those two boosts are among the only things you can sling around that are hard for other classes to match), so you really don't have to prep for this one or do much you weren't already going to do.
I Can't Read, but Boy, Can I Speak
If Unearthed Arcana is in play, you can take the Illiterate trait to gain a +1 typeless bonus to Truespeak in exchange for illiteracy (which you can buy back with 2 skill points.) No comment on how this works with illumians, which are always literate.
Cheese Rating: 3/5. Is a +1 bonus for 2 skill points overpowered? Of course not. That said, this is so astoundingly against my idea of the flavor of a Truenamer that I'm going to frown at it. Right now. :smallannoyed:
It's Just Level 2, I Swear
Some SLA-boosting feats, like Empower SLA, Quicken SLA, and Maximize SLA, depend on the effective spell level of the SLA, with lower-level SLAs being easier to quicken/maximize/whatever than higher-level ones. ToM pg. 233 says that the effective spell level of an utterance is equal to its utterance level. LCT and LPM utterances, then, have abnormally low effective spell levels, making them particularly good targets for these feats. For example, Maximize is quite nice when combined with Mortalbane, especially if you take the "empower clause" to be a specific exception instead of a general rule. Energy Vortex's average of 7 damage a round (14 with Mortalbane) is forgettable at level 12, but 24 damage a round from a Maximized Mortalbane Energy Vortex does add up if you can keep them in the zone.
Cheese Rating: 2/5. This clearly isn't intended, but a feat is a big cost, so I really don't think that this is an issue. Besides, it's not like most LCT/LPM utterances are that good to begin with. If this makes them stronger, it's more likely to bring them up to a level where they're worth using than it is to bring them up to overpoweredness.
Soul Goes Where?
Transmute Weapon is an LCT utterance that can temporarily turn a weapon into a special material. One such special material is thinaun, from Complete Warrior. In short, thinaun weapons trap souls and make it very hard for them to come back, but destroying a thinaun weapon frees the soul. If you use Transmute Weapon to make a weapon into thinaun long enough to kill a creature and suck out its soul, it's entirely unclear what happens once Transmute Weapon wears off. It's pretty easy to argue that it's just gone, trapped forever in a weapon that no longer exists. Who needs Unname?
Cheese Rating: 2/5. This is hardly the only "you can't rez now, nyah" option you have by ECL 15, which is when Transmute Weapon comes online. I can also see some GMs ruling that the soul is freed when the utterance wears off, though I would personally contest that ruling.
Damage Is Damage
This barely counts as a naughty trick, since it comes online so late. Anyway, Greater Knight's Puissance gives a +5 bonus to damage rolls. Not melee damage rolls, not weapon damage rolls, but just damage rolls. Which means that it technically boosts ability damage rolls. I don't think you have any in-class sources of ability damage in the form of a roll, but any allies who have such a thing (say, the Poison spell, assuming that for some reason you can get something not immune to poison at ECL 18+ to fail its saving throw against a low-level spell—or to use another favorite, Shivering Touch) will benefit rather a bit from this. It's unclear if poison that came out of a bottle and got smeared on a blade would benefit from this, since it's not unambiguous that the target of GKP is the one doing the damage, but roll with me, dammit. Even ignoring blade poison, spells and stuff could work.
Cheese Rating: 1/5. GKP is a level 6 utterance that isn't usable before ECL 18. It is, allegedly, supposed to be on par with 9th level spells. It SHOULD be able to kick things up a notch or twelve, and you don't even have any in-class methods to abuse this particular bit of poor wording. (No, Word of Bolstering is a penalty, not a damage roll. I already checked for you.)
Denying the Words: Straying from the Mold
In my mind, it's pretty clear what the Truenamer is “meant” to do, or at least what they end up being good at doing. You're the smart guy who tells us what the monsters are and then applies weird effects to them, right? Well, what if you don't want to be the know-it-all buffer/debuffer? What if you want more out of the character? To what extent can you forge a new destiny and still earn your share of the XP?
Well, the Truenamer isn't a well-designed class. I've put so much effort into the know-it-all focus mostly because it works, not just because I like it. Most people would rather play to their strengths than to their weaknesses, and it's a particular strength of the class. That said, here are some rough ideas for breaking the mold a little bit while still staying a Truenamer, at least mostly.
Truenamers get enough buffs to make sorta-kinda okay gishes, and Quicken provides native action economy while doing so. If you're willing to keep the brainiac theme, Knowledge Devotion is a solid attack and damage buff that will almost always be on. Your big weakness will be defense . . . relatively few utterances will do much to protect you once you get into melee. I don't have an easy answer for fixing that (UMD, maybe? Just don't start down the partially-charged-wand route), but you can buff yourself up and head in swinging.
You might try being more of a jack-of-all-trades/skillmonkey. Universal Aptitude makes up a LOT of ground, and a quick dip in a skill-heavy class plus Able Learner will go a long way. This isn't something that's unique to you, of course (though Universal Aptitude is), but it's something. You might even take Recitation of Mindful state, though the bonus will still be insultingly tiny.
Being some kind of beastmaster/hordemaster is a decent choice, simply because it's usually easier to affect pets and cohorts with utterances. If you're allowed to take Leadership, this is an option, and of course Wild Cohort, Hidden Talent (Astral Construct), and the like have already been mentioned. If you're an illumian with the Krau sigil, one level dipped into an arcane casting class (maybe Bard, for the skill points) will still get you CL 3, qualifying you for Obtain Familiar. This is generally a bad idea, but it's a funny one.
If you've got a real taste for the bizarre, you might try being a crafter of some kind. Utterances can be made into magic items, though the rules aren't 100% clear about how they work. It might be a way to get around the Law of Sequence, though.
Spelling the Words: Truename Magic
I make no apologies for the awful pun. Anyway, the big problem with the Truename-flavored spells is that they often require personal truenames. Researching a personal truename is a really annoying process that takes multiple weeks in-game, which is certainly not an option that I want to assume everyone has. In short, if you have to know the personal truename of the target for the spell to work, the spell probably sucks. That's all there is to it. I've never seen a game where you can just casually spend weeks on end in-game looking up personal truenames (spending 1,000 gold per week, I might add). That's just not a healthy assumption to make. Even if you can, a lot of the spells require the personal truenames of your enemies, which are obviously a little more limited in use than the personal truenames of your friends (after all, if all goes well, you'll only need to deal with the enemies once). It's a poorly designed system all around, though this should surprise nobody at this point.
Of course, it should also go without saying that a character interested in Truename spells is going to have to put nearly as much effort into boosting their Truespeak check as a Truenamer is. They might not rely on their Truespeak check quite as heavily, but if the spell fails when you flub the check, well, that's a lot of effort (and a turn, and a spell slot) wasted, which nobody wants. What I'm saying is that using these spells is a fairly major investment, and I frankly don't see them being worthwhile.
Augment Truefriend: While it's faster than casting all three stat-boosting spells, it's also weaker (+2 instead of +4), and it requires personal truenames. As personal truename spells go, this is one of the better ones . . . and that's terrible.
Bane of the Archrival: The duration is what kills this for me (well, that and the personal truename). I think it would be interesting to use it to ward the throne room against a known assassin, for instance, but with that duration, it's not happening. Add in that you need your enemy's personal truename, and you have a real failure of a spell that could have been cool.
Beckon Person/Monster: One of the best spells in this chapter, and it's no coincidence that it doesn't require a personal truename. It's also got a weird DC mechanic (it's a flat 15, but you add duration to the spell by beating the check by a lot . . . which is probably a better mechanic for Truenaming as a whole, but I digress). This can force AoOs, spoil full attacks, and generally make life difficult for someone. Just make sure that they can't reach you, or that you can deal with them when they do.
Bulwark of Reality: So this takes my personal truename, only lasts a minute per level (thus taking an action in combat), doesn't stack with Mage Armor, and is only 2 points better than it? Oh boy, that sounds fun.
Expunge the Supernatural: A plot spell if ever there was one. The big problem with it, of course, is that I'm going to prep for killing one specific creature (you need their personal truename, after all), spend an 8th level spell on them, get past their SR, and get them to fail a save, why don't I just kill them? For the same amount of effort, you could just kill them. This is ignoring the fact that the Truespeak check is going to be quite difficult, the fact that the spell has an XP cost, and the fact that the XP cost goes off even if the spell fails in one of the three built-in ways it can fail. This is only good for shenanigans involving removing a harmful (Su) quality from you or your ally (and make no mistake, those are shenanigans indeed).
Hidden Truename: Since Truename research checks are made by the week, not the day, this spell is kind of weird. Also, a +2 to saves against utterances? For a level 6 spell that requires a personal truename? Wow, what a deal.
Horror of the Spoken Name: The name is cool. Nothing else about this spell is. At least it doesn't require a personal truename, so it's not ALL bad. Just mostly bad.
Ritual of Renaming: Plot spell. Nothing more, nothing less. Since it's implied that you get to choose their truename, try to resist the urge to name them something obscene or unflattering . . . which you didn't want to do before I planted that idea in your mind, did you? You're welcome.
Scramble True Position: I love this spell. It's not that great, but it's hilarious, and it can be a lot of fun. It doesn't require a personal truename, the save is just to prevent the prone and not the teleportation, and it's a prime target for sculpting. If there were more spells like this, I think we'd all be happy. See if your Truenamer can get a wand of this.
Spurn the Supernatural: See Expunge the Supernatural. As above, so below. Why not just kill them? Fun plot spell, but you'd never use it on your own.
True Banishment: Personal truename of an enemy. Sigh. I can at least see this one being used, since there's no saving throw and it's a thematically nifty effect (“we must find the personal truename of the demon or we'll never be free of him!”).
True Prayer of the Chosen: Well, at least it's only YOUR personal truename, but really, I expect better from a level 4 spell, particularly a Cleric self-buff.
True Prayer of the Faithful: This has a weird DC, but at least it only kind of requires personal truenames instead of requiring them flat out. Of course, the bonus is tiny (to a lot of things, sure, but it's still tiny) and probably not worth it, but it could be worse. Also, the fluff about “your deity is better able to identify your friends if you use personal truenames” is hilarious.
(Lesser/Greater/Normal) Truename Binding: This seems weird to me. Half the point of Planar Binding is that the minion is disposable, or at least partially so. (You don't generally kill them or send them on suicide missions, but you also don't generally want to bind the same one again and again, lest it take revenge.) Researching one specific creature just so you can bind it just seems like stalking to me, and that's not healthy. Basically, this is good in the same way that all Planar Binding spells are good, and bad in the same way that all spells that require a personal truename are bad.
Truename Dispel: Interesting, but not worth it because of the personal truename. This would be decent if that weren't the case, especially since it can apparently dispel ANYTHING.
Unname: Fun, fluffy, and totally underpowered. At least it's not a [Death] attack.
Warp Truename: I will never understand why this is a Druid spell. Anyway, this is like Baleful Polymorph, only worse, and it requires a personal truename on top of being worse. Pass.
Word of Genesis: Plot spell. Again. Weird that it's Cleric-only, but hey, there you go.
Reserved just in case.
Possible candidates for addition: Sample builds, a more in-depth item list, alternate rule sets (e.g., gestalt), the GM's point of view . . . taking suggestions.
That's everything. Post away, folks!
RaggedAngel
2011-09-04, 01:24 AM
Aria (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=266471), my long-lived and long-loved Truenamer and me are both huge fans of you, Zaq. I look forward to seeing this guide grow, expand, and shine, despite the... difficulty of the subject matter.
Perhaps we should open up a clinic, for those of us who just can't help but play a Truenamer. Not to get our love of badass word-magic removed, but to help us learn to taste ice cream again. :smallsmile:
flumphy
2011-09-04, 01:47 AM
I actually laughed aloud at the title. I feel blasphemous now. :smallredface:
As for the actual guide, it looks really handy. My group isn't very homebrew-friendly, so a compendium tricks that (arguably) work within the scope of the existing rules is useful indeed.
Psyren
2011-09-04, 02:16 AM
Can Buommi Truespeak? Without breaking their vow, I mean. Breaking the vow penalizes skill checks (including Truespeak!), and the penalties stack, and there's no way to remove them, and each time you do adds a whole day to their duration, and there is no cap. (How'd you like a nice fat -20 to Truespeak?)
The Cha penalty just adds insult to injury.
Anyway, excellent guide, have many cookies. :smallsmile:
Akal Saris
2011-09-04, 08:12 AM
Nice, always good to see some love for the poor truenamer :)
I'd like recommend a prestige class for them - the Legacy Champion from Weapons of Legacy. It gives 8/10 advancement of truenaming, and trades away 2 levels of truenaming for better HP, BAB, and saves, as well as various special abilities added/changed for the legacy weapon, suck as flat bonuses to skill checks. I saw it mentioned in the Uncanny Trickster description, but I think it deserves a second look, especially considering how few PrCs there are for truenamers already.
OMG PONIES
2011-09-04, 10:43 AM
Part shameless plug, part gratitude for your previous guide/journal, here is Sortes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11664034&postcount=132), a Truenamer that just took gold in round XXIII of the Iron Chef Optimization contest.
Knowledge Domain and Oracle Domain can help you with learning personal truenames (not to mention your ranking within the Paragnostic Assembly), and the 9th-level spell of the Destiny Domain allows you to reroll every Truespeak check for the duration of the spell.
While other fast-progression casters may be more powerful, the Divine Crusader fits nicely with the flavor of a truenamer's devotion to Truenaming and magic. Also, the capstone ability gives you the outsider type, so you can polymorph into a logokron devil for a +10 racial bonus to Truespeak checks that stacks with everything else.
EDIT: Can the Analyze Item/trap trick be used in conjunction with Spell Rebirth as a readied action? Round 1, you analyze the whatever and see that it's trapped. Round 2, you ready an action to utter Spell Rebirth as your fearless friend activates the trap. You utter, and it automatically dispels the spell "affecting" them before the bad stuff actually even happens. Could it work?
Aria (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=266471), my long-lived and long-loved Truenamer and me are both huge fans of you, Zaq. I look forward to seeing this guide grow, expand, and shine, despite the... difficulty of the subject matter.
Perhaps we should open up a clinic, for those of us who just can't help but play a Truenamer. Not to get our love of badass word-magic removed, but to help us learn to taste ice cream again. :smallsmile:
I was able to taste ice cream after the first topic, but I'm not sure I still can. I'm a little scared to try.
I actually laughed aloud at the title. I feel blasphemous now. :smallredface:
As for the actual guide, it looks really handy. My group isn't very homebrew-friendly, so a compendium tricks that (arguably) work within the scope of the existing rules is useful indeed.
I live to serve! One of the many factors that pushed me to finally write this thing is that I thought of that title and couldn't stop giggling at it. I just had to share it. 22,500 words later, I'm glad it made you laugh.
Can Buommi Truespeak? Without breaking their vow, I mean. Breaking the vow penalizes skill checks (including Truespeak!), and the penalties stack, and there's no way to remove them, and each time you do adds a whole day to their duration, and there is no cap. (How'd you like a nice fat -20 to Truespeak?)
The Cha penalty just adds insult to injury.
Anyway, excellent guide, have many cookies. :smallsmile:
Heh, it was just something I threw in there to be silly. Truespeech definitely isn't normal speech, so they MIGHT be able to sing it. Hell if I know. It was just something that made me laugh.
Nice, always good to see some love for the poor truenamer :)
I'd like recommend a prestige class for them - the Legacy Champion from Weapons of Legacy. It gives 8/10 advancement of truenaming, and trades away 2 levels of truenaming for better HP, BAB, and saves, as well as various special abilities added/changed for the legacy weapon, suck as flat bonuses to skill checks. I saw it mentioned in the Uncanny Trickster description, but I think it deserves a second look, especially considering how few PrCs there are for truenamers already.
The BAB and saves are actually exactly the same, so the only real benefit is a d8 HD instead of a d6 and an expanded skill list. While I can respect an expanded skill list, if I'm going to take a prereq feat and lose at least one level of Truenamer, I'd rather just take Able Learner and dip Factotum, since it's faster and even more flexible, especially since the only added skills are Decipher Script and Gather Info. That said, it might be an option for folks who don't have access to Able Learner. I might add it later.
Part shameless plug, part gratitude for your previous guide/journal, here is Sortes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11664034&postcount=132), a Truenamer that just took gold in round XXIII of the Iron Chef Optimization contest.
Knowledge Domain and Oracle Domain can help you with learning personal truenames (not to mention your ranking within the Paragnostic Assembly), and the 9th-level spell of the Destiny Domain allows you to reroll every Truespeak check for the duration of the spell.
While other fast-progression casters may be more powerful, the Divine Crusader fits nicely with the flavor of a truenamer's devotion to Truenaming and magic. Also, the capstone ability gives you the outsider type, so you can polymorph into a logokron devil for a +10 racial bonus to Truespeak checks that stacks with everything else.
EDIT: Can the Analyze Item/trap trick be used in conjunction with Spell Rebirth as a readied action? Round 1, you analyze the whatever and see that it's trapped. Round 2, you ready an action to utter Spell Rebirth as your fearless friend activates the trap. You utter, and it automatically dispels the spell "affecting" them before the bad stuff actually even happens. Could it work?
Sortes was one reason that I didn't judge last round (certainly not the only reason, of course). There was no way I could judge him fairly. Congrats on that, by the way. As for Spell Rebirth . . . I think that's firmly in "ask your GM" territory, but I'd personally consider allowing it to at least give your friend a save for half damage (or maybe you get to make a Reflex save for half damage on their behalf, since you have to be faster than the trap, and it does have to affect them at least a little bit). Definitely worth trying, but I'm not going to say that it absolutely works by RAW, at least not if the trap is a damage trap instead of a curse trap.
Xtomjames
2011-09-04, 01:00 PM
I would like to point out a few things that were more or less glanced over by Zaq in his FAQ.
Truename research is far more useful than he lets on, for one, you can take the time to learn the truename of spells, or any object. This actually can break the game because a truenamer that finally gets the Truenamer Research feat can, if he has access to a spellbook or library or scroll, learn any level spell and potentially use it once the truename is learned. In one campaign my truenamer learned the truename of the Limited Wish spell at level 2 and had complete access to it far before any character should. And because a truenamer's abilities lie in the ability to enact a truename, he is only limited by universal laws (as found in ToM) as to how often he can use learned spells. Thus a truenamer is far more versatile than explained. They can become very powerful very early on, and with high Int and bonuses to knowledge skills and the truespeak skill they can accomplish various magic very quickly with successful skill checks.
The fun part about this is that See The Named then works for known spells, any object that has that spell or any creature that can cast that spell pops up on the Truenamer's "radar" sort to speak.
Lastly, Zaq failed to mention the number one reason why the Truenamer is actually a very broken class (and therefore fun), a truenamer can cast a spell or utterance on a person without line of sight or affect, they can cast a spell on a creature, object, or thing that they know the truename of, from anywhere and affect that creature, they're also immune to many of the affects that dampen magic. Anti-magic fields don't necessarily apply to them and dispelling an utterance is impossible (except for another truenamer).
Lastly Truenamers can become masters of Dark Utterances and are most often immune to the affects of Dark Utterances cast on to them.
Otherwise a very nice guide that I'll be referencing in the future.
RaggedAngel
2011-09-04, 01:06 PM
I would like to point out a few things that were more or less glanced over by Zaq in his FAQ.
And so it begins.
Truename research is far more useful than he lets on, for one, you can take the time to learn the truename of spells, or any object. This actually can break the game because a truenamer that finally gets the Truenamer Research feat can, if he has access to a spellbook or library or scroll, learn any level spell and potentially use it once the truename is learned. In one campaign my truenamer learned the truename of the Limited Wish spell at level 2 and had complete access to it far before any character should.
This is not a thing that you can do. I don't know where you got this, but it's not RAW.
And because a truenamer's abilities lie in the ability to enact a truename, he is only limited by universal laws (as found in ToM) as to how often he can use learned spells. Thus a truenamer is far more versatile than explained. They can become very powerful very early on, and with high Int and bonuses to knowledge skills and the truespeak skill they can accomplish various magic very quickly with successful skill checks.
Again, you can't cast spells with Truespeak. If you could, it would be broken in the other direction.
The fun part about this is that See The Named then works for known spells, any object that has that spell or any creature that can cast that spell pops up on the Truenamer's "radar" sort to speak.
This isn't how See the Named works, and even if it was, it wouldn't work like this. It's like a Scrying spell, not "radar."
Lastly, Zaq failed to mention the number one reason why the Truenamer is actually a very broken class (and therefore fun), a truenamer can cast a spell or utterance on a person without line of sight or affect, they can cast a spell on a creature, object, or thing that they know the truename of, from anywhere and affect that creature, they're also immune to many of the affects that dampen magic. Anti-magic fields don't necessarily apply to them and dispelling an utterance is impossible (except for another truenamer).
He didn't mention this because it isn't true. They need line of sight, they need to be within range, and they can't Speak in an Antimagic Field.
Lastly Truenamers can become masters of Dark Utterances and are most often immune to the affects of Dark Utterances cast on to them.
This statement makes me think that you have regeneration overcome by fire and acid, if you get what I mean. I don't know where you're getting the rules for Truespeak in your game, but it isn't the Tome of Magic.
Thank you, RaggedAngel. What she said.
For the record, folks, none of what Xtomjames said is true.
Xtomjames
2011-09-04, 01:48 PM
And so it begins.
This is not a thing that you can do. I don't know where you got this, but it's not RAW.
Again, you can't cast spells with Truespeak. If you could, it would be broken in the other direction.
This isn't how See the Named works, and even if it was, it wouldn't work like this. It's like a Scrying spell, not "radar."
He didn't mention this because it isn't true. They need line of sight, they need to be within range, and they can't Speak in an Antimagic Field.
This statement makes me think that you have regeneration overcome by fire and acid, if you get what I mean. I don't know where you're getting the rules for Truespeak in your game, but it isn't the Tome of Magic.
And I'll disagree with you all and out here.
No where in the section on truenaming or the truenamer class does it say you Can't learn the truename of a spell. It does say that "Truenames encompass reality in it's entirety" and that includes spells. All things have a truename which can be used to command that thing or enact it. This is a fact of how the truenamer and truespeech functions.
So regardless of how much you may state it as false, it is absolutely true that a truenamer can learn and utilize spells via their truename. You're correct there is no RAW in the book that covers this because it is up to the DM to come up with true names and the truenamer class and the ability to use truenames is very liquid compared to most classes.
They even state in the section on utterances and lexicons that the lexicons are limited as written and it's more or less up to the players and DM to expand upon them.
Truename research applies to ALL things, period. All objects, all spells, all people, all creatures, all materials, places, etc. You use truename research to uncover the truenames of something. This again includes spells.
See the Named works in one of two ways depending on how you read it. Because it does state it "works as the scrying spell" but without the need of a focus, then in the case of scrying on a specific spell it'd act more like detect magic but for that specific spell.
While discovering the personal truename is relegated in explanation to living creature as explained on 197, and as per described in the Truename Research section on the previous page, the rules for discovering the truename of a spell work just the same (as is the case for any object).
Now, you may interpret the rules and the reading on truenames as limited (as you have) but it doesn't mean that the RAW doesn't include spells, as it most certainly does by the very wording of the section's introduction and general functionality of truespeech.
Analytica
2011-09-04, 01:52 PM
I'd like to play in a campaign where Truenaming was the only kind of magic. No Vancian, psionics, incarnum, ToB, factota. Maybe monks. Yes. Truenamers, ninja and monks, nothing else. Monsters with SLAs could keep them, but caster monsters get Truenaming instead. What would it play like, I wonder?
RaggedAngel
2011-09-04, 01:54 PM
Snip-ity-snip
Rather than reply point-by-point, which seems excessive and like a waste of time, I'll make a statement for you to brood on:
We're discussing RAW. You're discussing houserules that you have with your group, and treating them like RAW.
And I'll disagree with you all and out here.
No where in the section on truenaming or the truenamer class does it say you Can't learn the truename of a spell. It does say that "Truenames encompass reality in it's entirety" and that includes spells. All things have a truename which can be used to command that thing or enact it. This is a fact of how the truenamer and truespeech functions.
So regardless of how much you may state it as false, it is absolutely true that a truenamer can learn and utilize spells via their truename. You're correct there is no RAW in the book that covers this because it is up to the DM to come up with true names and the truenamer class and the ability to use truenames is very liquid compared to most classes.
They even state in the section on utterances and lexicons that the lexicons are limited as written and it's more or less up to the players and DM to expand upon them.
Truename research applies to ALL things, period. All objects, all spells, all people, all creatures, all materials, places, etc. You use truename research to uncover the truenames of something. This again includes spells.
See the Named works in one of two ways depending on how you read it. Because it does state it "works as the scrying spell" but without the need of a focus, then in the case of scrying on a specific spell it'd act more like detect magic but for that specific spell.
While discovering the personal truename is relegated in explanation to living creature as explained on 197, and as per described in the Truename Research section on the previous page, the rules for discovering the truename of a spell work just the same (as is the case for any object).
Now, you may interpret the rules and the reading on truenames as limited (as you have) but it doesn't mean that the RAW doesn't include spells, as it most certainly does by the very wording of the section's introduction and general functionality of truespeech.
You know what, you're right. Truenamers are great when you completely ignore the rules and make them up as you go.
I'm not going any deeper into this particular conversation. My guide is about how Truenamers actually work, not about how we want them to work.
RaggedAngel
2011-09-04, 02:05 PM
You know what, you're right. Truenamers are great when you completely ignore the rules and make them up as you go.
I'm not going any deeper in to this particular conversation. My guide is about how Truenamers actually work, not about how we want them to work.
To swing us back onto topic, I have a few ideas for some example builds for the thus-far unused post:
1. The 'ideal' Truenamer; and Illumian member of the Paragnostic Assembly with an Item Familiar, and the 'optimal' selection of utterances.
2. A "solid" Truenamer gish, busting out the Knowledge Devotion and... other things. Slightly less optimized for pure Truespeak, perhaps.
3. A Truenamer who can do more than Truename; a Raptoran Dragonborn with Soulmelds or somesuch thing.
4. A good gestalt build, or several. We could even bust out a Shadowcaster Truenamer, which would be awesome.
Flickerdart
2011-09-04, 02:41 PM
I'd like to play in a campaign where Truenaming was the only kind of magic. No Vancian, psionics, incarnum, ToB, factota. Maybe monks. Yes. Truenamers, ninja and monks, nothing else. Monsters with SLAs could keep them, but caster monsters get Truenaming instead. What would it play like, I wonder?
Combats would take forever, because everybody now sucks. Any bruiser monster would completely kill everything forever, because none of the three classes have good BAB, large damage potential or armour.
The Glyphstone
2011-09-04, 02:44 PM
Wow, Zaq, you got awfully bitter between your original guide and this one.:smallbiggrin:
Analytica
2011-09-04, 03:45 PM
Combats would take forever, because everybody now sucks. Any bruiser monster would completely kill everything forever, because none of the three classes have good BAB, large damage potential or armour.
Sorry, I was unclear. Those would be the only magical classes, there would still be rogues, fighters, barbarians and so forth.
Steward
2011-09-04, 03:53 PM
I really like the way you wrote this. I'm never, ever going to play this class but I love the bitterly sardonic tone you used. If you ever make an audio version of this, try and see if you can get Ricky Gervais to read it.
Coidzor
2011-09-04, 03:56 PM
Wow, Zaq, you got awfully bitter between your original guide and this one.:smallbiggrin:
...I... I kinda wonder if it makes me a bad person that I like this because of that...
deuxhero
2011-09-04, 05:47 PM
I don't have any hidden secrets on how to turn them into a good class.
Chain gate solars! Hellz ya!
RaggedAngel
2011-09-04, 06:05 PM
Chain gate solars! Hellz ya!
But...but...nooooo! Conjunctive Gate ruins everything forever, because it makes people forget all the other cool stuff a Truenamer can do.
And trust me, they can do cool stuff, by RAW, without stinky bleu. Truenamer's are one of the few casters that can dish out damage/debuffing that ignores AC, Saves, and SR. While a Reversed Moderate Word of Nurturing may not do terribly impressive damage, it will always do damage. They also have the wonderful ability, as Zaq has said, to know everything about everything.
I'm playing a Truenamer in a Red Hand of Doom campaign right now, and she's hit knowledge checks high enough to reveal half the plot to our group, and we're at Vrath Keep. In a group with a Focused Transmuter, a Beguiler with Mindsight, Red Knight Vindicator and a Druid she's holding her own in combat, because she's the only one that can cut through the SR of our Fiendish-templated opponents every single time.
And Conjunctive Gate makes people ignore all of that awesomeness, which makes me sad.
Flickerdart
2011-09-04, 06:58 PM
In a group with a Focused Transmuter, a Beguiler with Mindsight, Red Knight Vindicator and a Druid she's holding her own in combat, because she's the only one that can cut through the SR of our Fiendish-templated opponents every single time.
The RKV's sword and the Druid's claws can't penetrate SR?
RaggedAngel
2011-09-04, 11:31 PM
The RKV's sword and the Druid's claws can't penetrate SR?
:smalltongue: Sssssh. You're ruining my super-well-thought-out point about spellcasting. Though, to be fair, the RKV and the Druid are new additions to the team, and yes, they will both dish out far superior DPS.
Psyren
2011-09-05, 12:36 AM
@ Zaq: Can we have a color coding scheme for the Utterances? (e.g. blue = good, red = trap, black = meh, other color = must-have etc.)
@ Ragged: Of all the "cool things" the Truenamer can do, damage would probably be the last one I'd focus on. Level 1 FoM, refilling potions, "undispelling", and free metamagic for the team's casters would all take precedence.
To swing us back onto topic, I have a few ideas for some example builds for the thus-far unused post:
1. The 'ideal' Truenamer; and Illumian member of the Paragnostic Assembly with an Item Familiar, and the 'optimal' selection of utterances.
2. A "solid" Truenamer gish, busting out the Knowledge Devotion and... other things. Slightly less optimized for pure Truespeak, perhaps.
3. A Truenamer who can do more than Truename; a Raptoran Dragonborn with Soulmelds or somesuch thing.
4. A good gestalt build, or several. We could even bust out a Shadowcaster Truenamer, which would be awesome.
Hmm. Quite possible. I'm a little wary of calling anything I make truly "ideal," but I understand what you're going for. This is definitely on the table.
Wow, Zaq, you got awfully bitter between your original guide and this one.:smallbiggrin:
I really like the way you wrote this. I'm never, ever going to play this class but I love the bitterly sardonic tone you used. If you ever make an audio version of this, try and see if you can get Ricky Gervais to read it.
...I... I kinda wonder if it makes me a bad person that I like this because of that...
Heh, you know, I hadn't intended to be so bitter, but I'm certainly not prepared to deny it. Thanks, I think.
@ Zaq: Can we have a color coding scheme for the Utterances? (e.g. blue = good, red = trap, black = meh, other color = must-have etc.)
@ Ragged: Of all the "cool things" the Truenamer can do, damage would probably be the last one I'd focus on. Level 1 FoM, refilling potions, "undispelling", and free metamagic for the team's casters would all take precedence.
I had really strongly considered using a color-code system (probably the trap/meh/decent/good/great/mandatory scheme that's so popular on the WotC 4e forums), but the truth is, there's a lot of utterances that are really hard to rate. Some are simply party-dependent, some are really GM-dependent, some are level-dependent, and some just depend on what you want to do. For example, take the Word of Nurturing line. You'll almost surely want one or two of them, but which one or ones you want really depends on what level you're starting at, as well as what OTHER utterances you consider must-haves for your particular concept. That's not something that you can put a solid rating on. I think that I've done a decent job outlining which utterances are really top-notch and which utterances are garbage . . . and I've tried to present enough information to let the reader make an informed decision about the ones in between. (Besides, what color represents "this option isn't really good, but you might end up taking it anyway just because there's seriously nothing else at this level that's any better"?) If you really think it would help, I might be able to be convinced. (Thoughts from anyone else would also be welcomed. I do appreciate feedback.)
Feytalist
2011-09-05, 07:21 AM
I loved the previous guide, and I love this one. Awesome stuff, Zaq!
That said, I mostly read it for amusement value :smallbiggrin:
Arundel
2011-09-05, 09:50 AM
Well if I ever lose my mind or start feeling masochistic I know where to some for knowledge. Excellent thread Zaq.
OMG PONIES
2011-09-05, 10:47 AM
I just applied for a PbP on here with an illumian factotum/truenamer. If accepted, I'll post some thoughts here. If I get REAL crazy, I'll make a journal and post a link.
D&D is made to be a flexible system... why not homebrew some extra Utterances that are decent to make them more balanced?
Psyren
2011-09-05, 12:43 PM
D&D is made to be a flexible system... why not homebrew some extra Utterances that are decent to make them more balanced?
Well, as Zaq will no doubt tell you, the Utterances themselves are only part of the problem; you still have to deal with the poor scaling of Truespeak, the poorly-executed Laws, the various rules inconsistencies, the miniscule class features and the dearth of useful PrCs.
Having said that, there are already two great and widely-accepted Truenamer fixes in the Homebrew section, created by Kellus and Kyeudo respectively. Both include new utterances, as well as revisions to the existing ones, and address the various problems listed above in functional and creative ways. So rather than reinvent the wheel, I suggest leveraging one or both of those.
Scorpions__
2011-09-05, 01:43 PM
D&D is made to be a flexible system... why not homebrew some extra Utterances that are decent to make them more balanced?
I have a collection of new utterances that I gathered/created, the link is in my Signature.
Zaq actually helped to PEACH a couple of them.
DM[F]R
I have a collection of new utterances that I gathered/created, the link is in my Signature.
Zaq actually helped to PEACH a couple of them.
DM[F]R
This is true, though I totally dropped the ball and really didn't help you with enough of them. (Um, sorry about that, by the way. If you're still interested, PM me and I'll try to be less flaky.)
DiBastet
2011-09-05, 02:26 PM
I decided to ply a truenamer next time I get to play in my group instead of dming.
I also am taking my vaccines so I don't lose the ability to taste ice cream when I do that.
Ryu_Bonkosi
2011-09-05, 10:08 PM
Of course you would be the one to make this guide Zaq, but if not you than who?
Anyway great job, I love to tone of it.
Scorpions__
2011-09-05, 10:44 PM
This is true, though I totally dropped the ball and really didn't help you with enough of them. (Um, sorry about that, by the way. If you're still interested, PM me and I'll try to be less flaky.)
Of course I'm interested, I think I'll clean them up a bit, and then PM you about them next week.
DM[F]R
Darrin
2011-09-06, 08:09 AM
Dragonborn: (Races of the Dragon) Personally, I don't like dragonborn that much, but the breath weapon makes them useful in much the same way that an azurin would be. If your GM plays a high-powered game, combine them with raptorans for flight AND a breath weapon, but some games will find that to be [at least] mildly abusive.
Just wanted to note something here... Dragonborn of Bahumat allows you to swap one of your existing feats for a dragonblood-only, 1st-level-only feat. There are only three of these, and one of them is kobold-only (Dragonwrought... yes, you *can* become Dragonwrought after 1st level), but this lets you swap one of your useless class-feature bonus feats for Dragon Tail (secondary natural weapon, or add Prehensile Tail from Savage Species for a third hand) or Dragon Wings (which puts you one feat away from a true flight speed).
This is a great way for a Truenamer to swap Truename Research or a Bonus Recitation feat for something that might actually be useful. Taking the breath option and Dragon Wings + Improved Dragon Wings lets you add both a breath weapon and flight on a race other than Raptoran.
Also... Hengeyokai might be an interesting race. In animal form, they can still speak to other animals of their type. Sparrows have a better AC than Muckdwellers: +8 size, +6 Dex.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-06, 08:55 AM
So, I built a truenamer at ECL seven for a player of mine. After one play session, my group thought it was frigging awesome.
See, making a working truenamer is not as hard as frequently made out. It basically involves picking decent spells, like any other limited choice caster, and boosting truespeaking. That's it.
Now, granted, I may have gotten a static +41 to a level 6 truenamer, but that still gives him something like four uses of an utterance vs a CR 7 opponent before he even needs to roll(or use the skill boosting utterance to push it to +46), and of course, since he's using a variety of utterances, this is not really a problem at all.
See, standard caster rules apply. A combat is only going to last a few rounds. Average of four combats a day. He has absolutely no trouble contributing for every round of every combat(plus a bit of out of combat fun).
So...not really weak at all. And a *lot* of that optimization was pretty basic. Amulet of the Silver Tongue. Skill Focus: Truenaming. Good Int, maxed skills. Sure, I tossed in a little extra, and he's a level down due to going necropolitan, but a +30 or so is remarkably easy to pick up without significant knowledge.
I'm going to say they should be a Tier 4. Possibly jumping to Tier 2 with optimization. No attack roll/No save/ability to ignore SR is not trivial at all.
Fun fact: Since friendly DCs scale off HD, LA and level drain make them easier to heal.
BlueInc
2011-09-06, 09:28 AM
Hmm... I've read and reread your original guide a few times and it's convinced me that I love the fluff for Truenaming (while the crunch is absolutely miserable and needs to die in a fire).
I'm mostly a Pathfinder kinda guy, so I'm considering homebrewing a Truenamer-inspired class based on the Words of Power (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/words-of-power) from Ultimate Magic.
Steward
2011-09-06, 09:49 AM
I tend to measure the quality of a class by how many different books you need (outside of the book in which it was introduced) and how many house rules and homebrew recipes you need to make it effective. Part of the problem with this class is that it feels like the book in which was introduced doesn't really support it that well, and that a lot of the rules are so ambiguous that one interpretation can make it okay and another interpretation can make it frustrating. The fact that the game makers saw fit to make their casting as complicated as possible didn't really help; you really couldn't give this class to someone who wasn't a moderately good optimizer, could you?
Gametime
2011-09-06, 11:27 AM
I'm going to say they should be a Tier 4. Possibly jumping to Tier 2 with optimization. No attack roll/No save/ability to ignore SR is not trivial at all.
I can buy tier 4 (although without quite a lot of optimization, I'd still lean towards tier 5 simply because most utterances aren't that great). But tier 2? What utterances does a truenamer have that match up to sorcerer spells, or favored soul spells, or psion powers, or unlimited summoning? Especially at mid-to-high-levels, when their damage is outscaled by hit points and their legitimately useful effects (freedom of movement, solid fog) can be replicated or outclassed by anyone in tier 2.
Grendus
2011-09-06, 11:29 AM
One thing you might consider is adding a house rules section, for some ideas to make them a little more playable. For example:
-Instead of the Law of Sequence stating you can only have on instance of an utterance going at any given time, have it state that the DC for a Truespeak check goes up by 5 for every instance of that utterance you have going at the time. That's nothing to sneeze at, but especially for nova-esque fights or early in the day it can be overcome without too much work.
-Give Truename Research the ability to let you guess at someone's personal truename by making a knowledge check as if you were identifying the creature as a standard action (for simplicity, use the same rules for affecting them with an utterance to set the DC). It would at least be useful, especially in boss-type fights where every +2 could come into play.
-Set the DC of a truespeak check to 10+Creature's CR + 2xUtterance Level. Now the DC scales more reasonably, a first level Truenamer trying to affect a CR 1 monster would only have to beat a 13. Assuming 16 int, 4 ranks, and Skill Focus(Truespeak), he could do it on a 3 or better plus however much LoR he's accumulated by this point. A level 20 Truenamer trying to affect a CR 20 monster with a 6th level utterance would have to beat a 32... for a level 20 truenamer that's child's play (heck, for a level 6 that's no sweat). This still assumes you're hoarding bonuses, but even if you aren't going all out with the Paragnostic Assembly, custom items, and an Item Familiar you can still play a reasonable Truenamer.
-There's a fairly ambitious Truenamer homebrew that adds a mess of new utterances. I'm not a big homebrew fan, but for those that are it's a good starting point.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-06, 12:22 PM
I can buy tier 4 (although without quite a lot of optimization, I'd still lean towards tier 5 simply because most utterances aren't that great). But tier 2? What utterances does a truenamer have that match up to sorcerer spells, or favored soul spells, or psion powers, or unlimited summoning? Especially at mid-to-high-levels, when their damage is outscaled by hit points and their legitimately useful effects (freedom of movement, solid fog) can be replicated or outclassed by anyone in tier 2.
They're a solid limited list caster. At low levels, they require little to no optimization to be good, and at high levels, they get to gate for free. It is not an expectation of tier 2s that they will be able to break the game at every level.
I'll admit it's on the low side of tier 2s, but at high op levels, ignoring defenses is pretty huge. The mailman isn't relevant because of damage numbers...it's relevant because it's difficult to stop. And even that still requires an attack roll. Now, I'm not to claim that a high op truenamer is quite as good as a mailman...but the fact that it can stand up to comparison is pretty epic.
Also, I feel like everyone ignores the fact that UMD is a class skill. You can get some pretty awesome benefits out of this with relatively low investment.
OMG PONIES
2011-09-06, 12:27 PM
Now, granted, I may have gotten a static +41 to a level 6 truenamer...
Dear Lord, HOW? Did you use item familiars? That seems pretty darn impressive, just trying to do the numbers in my head. Is a breakdown available?
ThiefInTheNight
2011-09-06, 12:53 PM
I'll admit it's on the low side of tier 2s, but at high op levels, ignoring defenses is pretty huge. The mailman isn't relevant because of damage numbers...it's relevant because it's difficult to stop. And even that still requires an attack roll. Now, I'm not to claim that a high op truenamer is quite as good as a mailman...but the fact that it can stand up to comparison is pretty epic.
But a mailman can do things that ignore defenses, even if it is just omgwtf-huge damage (and with things like Enervation, Fell Drain, Fell Animate, Born of Three Thunders, etc., it's not just damage). What can the Truenamer do? I'm AFB and haven't read the Utterances recently, but I seem to recall them getting very, very little in terms of useful effects (ignoring Conjunctive Gate). There was Slow, which is fairly-solid, but Slowing one guy, even if he can do nothing to stop you, isn't really that impressive... I may not be remembering things, but if you can do something that ignores defenses, but it doesn't actually make any difference, that's... not really worthy of tier-ing.
I'm also really dubious of +41 at level 6 being anything but extreme optimization. It certainly runs contrary to Zaq's description...
9 ranks, maxed, obvious.
+7 Int, to be generous.
+3 Skill Focus.
+10 Amulet of the Silver Tongue (can you even afford a +10 at 6th?)
= +29. That's still far short of +41. Where do you find another +12? Paragnostic Assembly and Item Familiar seem likely, but I wouldn't call that kind of book-diving for bonuses to be "obvious"...
Also, I feel like everyone ignores the fact that UMD is a class skill. You can get some pretty awesome benefits out of this with relatively low investment.
UMD is ignored by the Tier list. Anyone can UMD; plenty of classes can UMD better than the Truenamer, thanks to the Truenamer's Int focus and lack of specific UMD-related class features. UMD is a feature of Warlocks and Artificers, but not the Truenamer.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-06, 01:18 PM
But a mailman can do things that ignore defenses, even if it is just omgwtf-huge damage (and with things like Enervation, Fell Drain, Fell Animate, Born of Three Thunders, etc., it's not just damage). What can the Truenamer do? I'm AFB and haven't read the Utterances recently, but I seem to recall them getting very, very little in terms of useful effects (ignoring Conjunctive Gate). There was Slow, which is fairly-solid, but Slowing one guy, even if he can do nothing to stop you, isn't really that impressive... I may not be remembering things, but if you can do something that ignores defenses, but it doesn't actually make any difference, that's... not really worthy of tier-ing.
See, this is the problem with comparing against theoretical archbuilds. Yes, you CAN make a mailman that does other things. And no...he DOES just do damage. You can't really just toss feats around, since the archetypal mailman build, Cindy, requires all feats, and really doesn't do anything other than stock god caster stuff until fairly decent levels.
Being able to pull stuff out of the sky, for instance, is nice. Not fantastic, but you're gonna know the Utterance anyhow since it lets you fly. At high tiers of optimization, flight is a very common thing for people to have, and making it go away is relevant. At op levels, it's not nearly as common, or common as early.
Additionally, I direct you to quicken. Note that it does not suffer the usual level stuff that vancian spellcasters do. You don't have to care about metamagic reducers, you ONLY need to optimize the truenaming check. Do that, and quicken suddenly becomes "wee, I cast two spells a round".
I'm also really dubious of +41 at level 6 being anything but extreme optimization. It certainly runs contrary to Zaq's description...
9 ranks, maxed, obvious.
+7 Int, to be generous.
+3 Skill Focus.
+10 Amulet of the Silver Tongue (can you even afford a +10 at 6th?)
= +29. That's still far short of +41. Where do you find another +12? Paragnostic Assembly and Item Familiar seem likely, but I wouldn't call that kind of book-diving for bonuses to be "obvious"...
No item familiar, actually. That could have pushed it much higher. A coupla feats(keen mind being one, Favored in Guild being another, don't recall third.) A masterwork tool. Then, a standard skill item with some extra WBL not used for other boosts/conversion to necropolitan(note that as it's ECL 7 starting, we have appropriate WBL for that, even though this build ends up at level 6).
Masterwork tools are core. They do not count as extreme optimization.
Googling for feats or spells that boost skills is not extreme optimization. I ended up not using any spell items because I wanted it nice and simple for a relatively new player to play. Just static bonuses.
I also didn't burn all his resources on truenaming. He's also a particularly stealthy fellow with a +....24 I believe to stealth? An undead whisper gnome that screams peoples names to make them die.
Hell, I hadn't even had him join the Paragnostic Assembly yet. I really should have, since there's good stuff to be had there, and he likely will at some point in the future, but again...this is only moderate optimization.
UMD is ignored by the Tier list. Anyone can UMD; plenty of classes can UMD better than the Truenamer, thanks to the Truenamer's Int focus and lack of specific UMD-related class features. UMD is a feature of Warlocks and Artificers, but not the Truenamer.
Good skill lists are arguably part of the class tier system. UMD is one of the best of skills. In class access to it is a notable virtue. Truenamer doesn't have the best of lists, but access to UMD is a strong redeeming feature.
Int is also a pretty great primary stat. You're pretty much guaranteed to be training UMD as a truenamer unless you're just trying to avoid power.
Psyren
2011-09-06, 01:23 PM
I had really strongly considered using a color-code system (probably the trap/meh/decent/good/great/mandatory scheme that's so popular on the WotC 4e forums), but the truth is, there's a lot of utterances that are really hard to rate. Some are simply party-dependent, some are really GM-dependent, some are level-dependent, and some just depend on what you want to do. For example, take the Word of Nurturing line. You'll almost surely want one or two of them, but which one or ones you want really depends on what level you're starting at, as well as what OTHER utterances you consider must-haves for your particular concept. That's not something that you can put a solid rating on. I think that I've done a decent job outlining which utterances are really top-notch and which utterances are garbage . . . and I've tried to present enough information to let the reader make an informed decision about the ones in between. (Besides, what color represents "this option isn't really good, but you might end up taking it anyway just because there's seriously nothing else at this level that's any better"?) If you really think it would help, I might be able to be convinced. (Thoughts from anyone else would also be welcomed. I do appreciate feedback.)
You did a great job in the detail, but someone skimming the guide - say, whose truenamer leveled during a gaming session and needs a refresher - would have to read that detail on every single option before making an informed choice. That's where color ratings come into play.
Equally important as a color rating for the Utterances, is one for the feats, particularly the ones that boost one's Truespeak check. You've listed several as options but wrote in the detailed text words to the effect of "Yeah you can pick this, but it's a really bad idea" - someone skimming your guide to build a Truenamer might see the feats listed in that post and not know which are must-haves and which are near-traps.
So in the interest of readability I think a color system is an essential part of any complete guide, particularly one about a class that is this easy to gimp. Some choices are situational, yes, but that's what the average rating is for.
Concerning the WoN line, the typical standard for ratings is a 1-20 build. Assuming you start a Truenamer from the beginning and take it to the end, which WoNs are best? You can then include a caveat that the ratings may change based on the campaign's beginning and ending point.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-06, 01:29 PM
Favored in Guild, as per Ravenloft campaign setting, would be pretty handy to include. Minor fluff stuff, but it's a flat +2 to the skill, provided you can justify a guild of mostly Truenamers. This overlaps really well with Paragnostic Assembly.
It's not quite as nice as Skill Focus, but it's still high on the list of feats to invest in.
Gametime
2011-09-06, 01:39 PM
They're a solid limited list caster. At low levels, they require little to no optimization to be good, and at high levels, they get to gate for free. It is not an expectation of tier 2s that they will be able to break the game at every level.
No, but there's a difference between "can break the game at mid-to-high levels" and "can break the game exclusively at level 20 in exactly one way." Being able to gate basically at will is obviously ridiculous, but it's also exactly one-twentieth of the Truenamer experience. Sorcerers can get encounter-defining spells starting on level one and only get better from there.
But if you want to place level 20 truenamers in tier 2, you won't get any argument from me. I just disagree that a single capstone utterance makes up enough of the class to justify its inclusion in a tier.
I'll admit it's on the low side of tier 2s, but at high op levels, ignoring defenses is pretty huge. The mailman isn't relevant because of damage numbers...it's relevant because it's difficult to stop. And even that still requires an attack roll. Now, I'm not to claim that a high op truenamer is quite as good as a mailman...but the fact that it can stand up to comparison is pretty epic.
But it can't stand up to comparison. Contrary to what you say, the damage of the mailman is extremely relevant to its power; so is ignoring defenses, but ignoring defenses is pointless if your attack doesn't do anything. If you can ignore saves and spell resistance and armor class, that's great, but if you're dealing less than massive amounts of damage, big deal.
A well-built charger or archer is likely to be able to kill most anything in one or two full-attack actions and have a high enough attack bonus (and enough magic items dealing with concealment or invisibility) to hit with great reliability. They're still only tier 4. So even if the truenamer's methods of beating things up is a lot more potent than Zaq's analysis implies, it's still not tier 2 material.
Also, I feel like everyone ignores the fact that UMD is a class skill. You can get some pretty awesome benefits out of this with relatively low investment.
Sure, but if "has UMD" was enough to justify inclusion in tier 2, it'd be a pretty full tier. (Or maybe you meant that should justify it in tier 4. I'd be more open to that suggestion; opinions differ on how much UMD should count for tier placement, but it does offer enough power and versatility to compete at that level.)
Tyndmyr
2011-09-06, 02:26 PM
None of those things alone are sufficient to make it tier 2. Action economy abuse is not enough, being a limited list caster is not enough, having a way to break the game is not enough. Having other interesting options such as UMD is not enough. But having all of those things? That's pretty much what tier 2 is.
Tier 2 has options, is good at it's role, and can break the game in some way. Check.
Claudius Maximus
2011-09-06, 03:02 PM
Tier 2 has options, is good at it's role, and can break the game in some way. Check.
I don't see how Truenamer has the first two in any really impressive measure, and it only has like 2 specific ways to do the third. I really wouldn't put it up there as a class. Maybe a truenamer can be built who hangs out with tier 3s or 2s but the optimization potential and necessary effort is much higher, which should impose a lower tier.
RaggedAngel
2011-09-06, 07:07 PM
Tier 2 has options, is good at it's role, and can break the game in some way. Check.
I have to agree with Claudius here; just because a cheesed-out character has the power of a Sorcerer or Psion doesn't mean that the class as a whole is at that level. The Tier system assumes that the classes are being compared at the same levels of optimization. If you take that into consideration, you're comparing your Truenamer to White Dragonspawn Dragonwrought Venerable Kobold Sorcerers, not your garden-variety Mailman.
ThiefInTheNight
2011-09-06, 07:28 PM
Good skill lists are arguably part of the class tier system. UMD is one of the best of skills. In class access to it is a notable virtue. Truenamer doesn't have the best of lists, but access to UMD is a strong redeeming feature.
Yes, a good skill list is a (relatively minor) factor, and UMD is a fantastic skill, but there are many better UMDers than Truenamer out there. Including Tier-4 Rogues, who can get more mileage out of Cha than a Truenamer can.
Int is also a pretty great primary stat. You're pretty much guaranteed to be training UMD as a truenamer unless you're just trying to avoid power.
Agreed on both points, but I don't think you can claim Tier-2 status just because you can UMD a Wand of Solid Fog or whatever.
None of those things alone are sufficient to make it tier 2. Action economy abuse is not enough, being a limited list caster is not enough, having a way to break the game is not enough. Having other interesting options such as UMD is not enough. But having all of those things? That's pretty much what tier 2 is.
Tier 2 has options, is good at it's role, and can break the game in some way. Check.
The Truenamer notably isn't good at its role, and cannot break the game (other than through UMD-access of another class's features) until level 20. So... that doesn't seem like Tier 2 at all.
I mean, I'll be honest: I've never played a Truenamer, nor do I know anyone who has, aside from Zaq who I know only through these threads. That said, I've read that section of Tome of Magic and I find Zaq's description of his experiences far more plausible than yours. What you're suggesting does not seem likely based on what I've read in Tome of Magic...
RaggedAngel
2011-09-06, 07:56 PM
I mean, I'll be honest: I've never played a Truenamer, nor do I know anyone who has, aside from Zaq who I know only through these threads.
Here are my (admittedly amateur) exploits with a Truenamer on this very forum. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183398)
It's not much, but it does give you a feel for the class, and it is a lot different playing one than it is reading about them. Like the Law of Resistance, for example; it sucks, yes, but I've never failed to use an utterance. It's the LoS that really kills you, potentially literally.
Now, let's not go impugning what Tyndmyr is saying just because his experiences differ from mine. I may have ended up as the de facto authority on Truenamers through a combination of luck and bullheaded stubbornness, but that doesn't mean that I speak with papal infallibility.
That said, I will mention that he's playing at the sweet spot for Truenamers. 6-10 is a decent set of levels, because not only haven't you run out of good utterances yet, but you also have enough resources to pick up a fair Truespeak modifier but probably haven't taken all the low-hanging fruit yet. If I were to recommend a good level range for 'Namers, it'd be about 6-10. At 9 you get Quicken, of course, and you can probably find a couple 4th level utterances you can use. Beyond that, things get sketchy, and there still won't be a lot of variety from 'Namer to 'Namer, but it's probably at its most playable.
As for what tier the Truenamer is . . . I stand by the opinion that they just don't fit into the traditional tier system. The amount of resources you have to pour into getting your Truespeak mod up (yes, it's certainly doable, but it takes feats and gold that other classes don't have to spend to achieve baseline competence at their stated role) just kind of flummoxes attempts to define a baseline of optimization . . . and, as I've stated, the fact that they just kind of run out of good things to take is definitely a strike against them. If Truespeak didn't exist and they just got their utterances at-will, I'd ballpark them around the level of the Warlock, so probably highish T4. With the existence of Truespeak, though . . . yes, you can get your mod up to the point where the utterances may as well be at-will, but it's not fair to ignore what you have to invest to get to that point.
Perhaps that's a point that I haven't made clear enough, and I'll consider going back and harping on it a little more. The fact that Truespeak exists isn't what makes the Truenamer bad. Hell, most of my analysis of the utterances is working under the assumption that you're practically always going to succeed at them. (I expect you to have Quicken, after all, and to even have a CHANCE of Quickening, you have to be completely unable to fail at an un-Quickened utterance.) The problem is that getting your Truespeak mod up basically eats the majority of the resources that would normally go into fleshing out and customizing your character . . . and then the reward, while not TOTALLY negligible, is still not nearly what you would expect. I'd never call the Truenamer unplayable (this guide would not exist if that were the case, as I'd like to think is obvious) . . . just very frustrating.
A Truenamer CAN be a functioning and valuable party member. It's just hard.
Anyway, as for the color-coding system, I may go back and install a simple three-color system (probably trap/average/good), intentionally leaving it coarse-grained. We'll see. It'd basically divide the utterances into ""please don't take this," "you should probably take this," and "you tell me whether you should take this." No promises, but I'll think about it.
Flickerdart
2011-09-06, 11:13 PM
Only if you mark the Truenamer itself in red, Zaq.
candycorn
2011-09-07, 04:57 AM
I'll look at level 10.
13 ranks max, but we'll likely be leaving a lot of knowledges at rank 10.
Let's assume that we had a base Int of 18, and were playing Illumian, without an item familiar. At level 4 and 8, boost to int.
Skills at level 1: 32
Skills at level 2-7: 8/level -48 total
Skills at level 8-10: 9/level -27 total.
Total Skill points: 107.
Truespeak: 13 ranks
UMD: 13 ranks
Knowledge (any): 11 ranks
Knowledge (7 others): 10 ranks
This makes getting the +10 bonus from paragnostic assembly easy (+16 for 10 ranks in 8 knowledges, +5 for 10 HD, +1 for class levels with knowledge in 3 class =22... find a bit more and you're good.)
On truespeak:
Assume the +10 amulet, as well, and that's a +22 without ranks. +6 int item, and you're up to +30. Add on ranks and you're up to +43. Skill focus + MW Item puts you at +48.
Not bad. Against a CR 10, you're looking at DC 35 checks, so even quickening has a decent shot at first. 95% if you boost all skills by 5 first. 100% if you're targeting yourself at that level, and you boost all skills by 5 first.
But that is a significant amount of optimization. More than typically goes into UMD cheese.
That said, your knowledge checks will likely be impressive (+30ish, for a nearly guaranteed ID of anything with 20 or lower HD, and a +4-5 range for knowledge devotion) -this assumes Hidden knowledge utterance.
Assume the most powerful Word of Nurturing? And you're looking at 6d6+5 damage per round, and likely 4d6+5 as well.
Combat would likely be:
R1:Utterance +5 to all skills
Quicken Utterance +10 knowledges
Knowledge devotion on everything.
R2: Quicken Seek the sky on self, fly somewhere
Post powerful Reversed WoN on enemy - 6d6+5 damage
R3: Concentrate on WoN - 6d6+5 damage
Quicken 2nd most powerful WoN - 4d6+5
R4: Concentrate, 2nd most powerful - 4d6+5
Quicken most powerful WoN -6d6+5
Move somewhere.
Note, you can maintain an average of 45 damage per round after round 2, and 26 on round 2. Not bad, but that's a LOT of resources for modest damage. Yes, it can ignore SR, but with quicken? That's a tall order, without item familiars. With item familiars? It's doable.
So SR may be a bit of an issue, but if you're willing to sacrifice damage and not concentrate, you could keep up 26 per round reliably on it (6d6 + max from Knowledge devotion, which will happen more often than not).
Dimers
2011-09-07, 06:23 AM
As a "passable buffer", a healer, a super-know-man and a mage booster, it sounds like a truenamer would be good for a cohort or DMPC. They'd make a great DM mouthpiece, for example, and they wouldn't overshadow too many PCs.
There's a cleric/paladin spell called divine insight that gives an insight bonus between +8 and +15 to any single skill check, and it can be cast well ahead of time and expended as an immediate action. Sounds like a good thing for a truenamer to keep a wand of. Possibly also a reason to multiclass [cloistered] cleric. (Which leads me to wonder how I could homebrew spending turn undead attempts to boost truenaming.)
candycorn
2011-09-07, 06:36 AM
As a "passable buffer", a healer, a super-know-man and a mage booster, it sounds like a truenamer would be good for a cohort or DMPC. They'd make a great DM mouthpiece, for example, and they wouldn't overshadow too many PCs.
There's a cleric/paladin spell called divine insight that gives an insight bonus between +8 and +15 to any single skill check, and it can be cast well ahead of time and expended as an immediate action. Sounds like a good thing for a truenamer to keep a wand of. Possibly also a reason to multiclass [cloistered] cleric. (Which leads me to wonder how I could homebrew spending turn undead attempts to boost truenaming.)
Would make a Truenamer / Archivist gestalt fairly competent.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-07, 06:39 AM
I don't see how Truenamer has the first two in any really impressive measure, and it only has like 2 specific ways to do the third. I really wouldn't put it up there as a class. Maybe a truenamer can be built who hangs out with tier 3s or 2s but the optimization potential and necessary effort is much higher, which should impose a lower tier.
So, you and RaggedAngel are agreeing with me? That's exactly what I said. A highly optimized truenamer hits tier 2, an average truenamer is parked at Tier 4. You can use it for it's job, but it's not great at it, and it's not very good at filling lots of roles.
Some classes vary in tier based on optimization levels more than others do.
Here are my (admittedly amateur) exploits with a Truenamer on this very forum. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183398)
It's not much, but it does give you a feel for the class, and it is a lot different playing one than it is reading about them. Like the Law of Resistance, for example; it sucks, yes, but I've never failed to use an utterance. It's the LoS that really kills you, potentially literally.
Yes. Everyone acts like it's the check scaling at 2 per cr/hd that matters. Meh. If you read that class, and your first reaction is not "I need to make sure I have a great truenaming skill check", you need to reread. LoS isn't that bad, though. It's annoying, sure, but only really from a healing/buffing perspective. You're not really a healbot, though you can fake it reasonably well. However, it does actually come up in play, so it's not as ignorable as the checks post-char creation.
Edit: I'm probably not that far off from Zaq, actually. I agree that the tier system doesn't capture it well. I certainly agree that a certain amount of money/feat investment is required. Hell, it's probably intentional, judging by the existence of the Amulet of the Silver Tongue. While it certainly didn't eat all my investment in my example char, it did take a substantial amount. Still, I had enough left over for necropolitan, stealth, and pulling a +10 to init. That's not terribly shabby. While a wizard or whatever may not require investment in casting to work...in practice, they tend to do exactly that anyway. And while a wizard is still much better than a truenamer...they do not benefit from this investment in the same proportion.
OMG PONIES
2011-09-07, 06:42 AM
Here are my (admittedly amateur) exploits with a Truenamer on this very forum. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183398)
Wow, it seems like you've got a great cast of roleplayers there. Having gamed with some myself, it's a privilege. I wish you and your group continuing greatness--it looks like you're off to a good start.
PM me if you ever need more players? :smallredface:
candycorn
2011-09-07, 06:55 AM
So, you and RaggedAngel are agreeing with me? That's exactly what I said. A highly optimized truenamer hits tier 2, an average truenamer is parked at Tier 4. You can use it for it's job, but it's not great at it, and it's not very good at filling lots of roles.
Some classes vary in tier based on optimization levels more than others do.
Yes. Everyone acts like it's the check scaling at 2 per cr/hd that matters. Meh. If you read that class, and your first reaction is not "I need to make sure I have a great truenaming skill check", you need to reread. LoS isn't that bad, though. It's annoying, sure, but only really from a healing/buffing perspective. You're not really a healbot, though you can fake it reasonably well. However, it does actually come up in play, so it's not as ignorable as the checks post-char creation.
I don't know. Light optimization for this class would be (level 1):
Max ranks in Truespeak.
High base stat
Skill focus (truespeak)
Assuming elite array, and 15 int, with a +2 int race?
+10 at level 1 - vs DC 17 checks
+14 at level 4 - vs DC 23 checks
+33 at level 12 - vs DC 39 checks (+10 amulet gained by this point)
+42 at level 20 - vs DC 55 checks
It becomes harder and harder to be viable as you progress. I'd put it solidly in Tier 5-6 without at least moderate optimization.
With moderate optimization, it could be tier 4, but only if you have a 50% or better chance to hit enemies with effective abilities at all stages.
With heavy, heavy optimization, I'd likely rate it at high tier 3/low tier 2.
But that's character rating, not class rating. As a class, this is pretty well stuck in the Tier 5 range. You must optimize more heavily than your companions to keep up. If a Sorceror optimizes to the same extent you do, he will always be well above the truenamer's power level.
Well above. As in, not even a reasonable comparison.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-07, 07:01 AM
I don't know. Light optimization for this class would be (level 1):
Max ranks in Truespeak.
High base stat
Skill focus (truespeak)
Assuming elite array, and 15 int, with a +2 int race?
+10 at level 1 - vs DC 17 checks
+14 at level 4 - vs DC 23 checks
+33 at level 12 - vs DC 39 checks (+10 amulet gained by this point)
+42 at level 20 - vs DC 55 checks
It becomes harder and harder to be viable as you progress. I'd put it solidly in Tier 5-6 without at least moderate optimization.
With moderate optimization, it could be tier 4, but only if you have a 50% or better chance to hit enemies with effective abilities at all stages.
With heavy, heavy optimization, I'd likely rate it at high tier 3/low tier 2.
But that's character rating, not class rating. As a class, this is pretty well stuck in the Tier 5 range. You must optimize more heavily than your companions to keep up. If a Sorceror optimizes to the same extent you do, he will always be well above the truenamer's power level.
Well above. As in, not even a reasonable comparison.
Look, the amulet of the Silver Tongue is pretty low op. It's in the same book as truenamer, it's not horrendously expensive, and it's pretty easy for even a casual player with limited sources to find.
Ditto masterwork tool. It's core, and it's dirt cheap.
Adding +12 to any of those checks make them a lot more reasonable. Sure, you won't be rocking the world at a low op level, but neither does an Adept or a Marshall. Those are both tier 4.
At low op, you have no quicken most likely, but you're contributing to every encounter and filling your role.
Dimers
2011-09-07, 07:07 AM
I'd like to post the inevitable reminder that tiers don't measure an individual build or one instance within the context of a particular party in a particular gameworld. They measure the class's inherent potential. Insofar as Truenamer has a measurable tier at all, it'd be quite poor, because it does rely on stuff outside the class (e.g. specific magic items, organizations) to even apply its basic ability to solving problems. It happens to have a higher potential optimizability built into it than, say, Fighter, but it wouldn't be a high tier as a result of that.
candycorn
2011-09-07, 07:16 AM
I'd like to post the inevitable reminder that tiers don't measure an individual build or one instance within the context of a particular party in a particular gameworld. They measure the class's inherent potential. Insofar as Truenamer has a measurable tier at all, it'd be quite poor, because it does rely on stuff outside the class (e.g. specific magic items, organizations) to even apply its basic ability to solving problems. It happens to have a higher potential optimizability built into it than, say, Fighter, but it wouldn't be a high tier as a result of that.
The amulet of the silver tongue, in fairness, is about as far outside this class as a magic weapon is for a fighter. Seriously, the only point of the item is to be a gold tax on the truenamer, just like skill focus is a feat tax.
Psyren
2011-09-07, 07:20 AM
Tier 2 has options, is good at it's role, and can break the game in some way. Check.
"Good at its role?" The closest role I can find for the Truenamer is cheerleader, similar to a Bard, and it's actually pretty poor at that (due to the Laws, short buff durations, limited utterance variety, the very late acquisition of Speak Unto the Masses etc.)
It does have options, but they start out not much better than the options other classes get at similar levels, rapidly degrade, and suddenly become at-will Gate.
Anyway, as for the color-coding system, I may go back and install a simple three-color system (probably trap/average/good), intentionally leaving it coarse-grained. We'll see. It'd basically divide the utterances into ""please don't take this," "you should probably take this," and "you tell me whether you should take this." No promises, but I'll think about it.
Should you do this, please extend it to the feats as well :smallsmile:
Tyndmyr
2011-09-07, 07:32 AM
"Good at its role?" The closest role I can find for the Truenamer is cheerleader, similar to a Bard, and it's actually pretty poor at that (due to the Laws, short buff durations, limited utterance variety, the very late acquisition of Speak Unto the Masses etc.)
It does have options, but they start out not much better than the options other classes get at similar levels, rapidly degrade, and suddenly become at-will Gate.
It's not quite that close to a bard. Optimized bards tend to fall into one of two categories...Inspire Courage optimization or "I'm basically a sorc". The Truenamer doesn't match either of these, really.
You're reliable, is what you are. You can heal well, but you'll never be the best in combat healer(though popping up a word of nurturing BEFORE a nasty fight is quite efficient). You deal damage quite reliably, but you'll never be the highest damage dealer. You have some buffs, but you'll never be the best buffer. But you have pretty good flexibility on which of those you choose to do at any given point in time.
I mean, a straight truenamer party would probably function. I'm now curious to try it.
Yeah, at-will gate is just a bit ludicrous. No argument there.
Cieyrin
2011-09-07, 02:40 PM
On a slightly different tack, I'll be playing a Daring Outlaw/Acolyte of the Ego shortly for a PbP. I took some tips from the the last guide (Paragnostic Assembly? Check! :smallcool:) and I'll see whether I can actually manage to pseudo-gish by boosting physical stats through the appropriate cadences, while dropping the occasional sonic breath weapon, finishing up the class with Uncanny Trickster to pick up a 6th Cadence and the corresponding boost to abilities there-in. If it goes somewhere and works out, I'll post the sheet and build for posterity. :smallwink:
MeeposFire
2011-09-07, 03:16 PM
As a "passable buffer", a healer, a super-know-man and a mage booster, it sounds like a truenamer would be good for a cohort or DMPC. They'd make a great DM mouthpiece, for example, and they wouldn't overshadow too many PCs.
There's a cleric/paladin spell called divine insight that gives an insight bonus between +8 and +15 to any single skill check, and it can be cast well ahead of time and expended as an immediate action. Sounds like a good thing for a truenamer to keep a wand of. Possibly also a reason to multiclass [cloistered] cleric. (Which leads me to wonder how I could homebrew spending turn undead attempts to boost truenaming.)
My truenmaer fix actually empathizes this. The truenamer gets many neat boosting abilities and can heal and remove status afflictions. My fix included making these essentially at will and allowed them to be effective trap destroyers/finders. This along with a few neat additions allowed them to fill all "required" class roles that don't always get filled and due to their helping nature it makes them about the best DM controlled party member ever. All of this while not stealing the spotlight.
I would like to mention that familiars, animal companions, and probably eidolons and summons have a CR of - which means a truenamer only needs a 15 to affect them.
sreservoir
2011-09-07, 06:06 PM
I would like to mention that familiars, animal companions, and probably eidolons and summons have a CR of - which means a truenamer only needs a 15 to affect them.
source?
(also, don't things without a defined CR just use HD?)
Flickerdart
2011-09-07, 07:45 PM
I would like to mention that familiars, animal companions, and probably eidolons and summons have a CR of - which means a truenamer only needs a 15 to affect them.
Not the case. While minions gained from class features don't add to the CR of an encounter, that doesn't mean they don't have a CR.
source?h
(also, don't things without a defined CR just use HD?)
The fact that when ever they are mentioned they have a CR of "-"?
Unless I just had a bad selection grouping
Also, the only group that doesn't use CR are PCs
Psyren
2011-09-08, 01:55 AM
The fact that when ever they are mentioned they have a CR of "-"?
Unless I just had a bad selection grouping
Also, the only group that doesn't use CR are PCs
ToM pg. 196: "For creatures that don't have Challenge Ratings, such as PCs, use a DC of 15 + (2 x the creature's HD)."
Having a CR of "-" means they default to the quoted rule, not to 15. (Unless they have less than 0.5 HD that is.)
candycorn
2011-09-08, 01:58 AM
Look, the amulet of the Silver Tongue is pretty low op. It's in the same book as truenamer, it's not horrendously expensive, and it's pretty easy for even a casual player with limited sources to find.
Ditto masterwork tool. It's core, and it's dirt cheap.
Adding +12 to any of those checks make them a lot more reasonable. Sure, you won't be rocking the world at a low op level, but neither does an Adept or a Marshall. Those are both tier 4.
At low op, you have no quicken most likely, but you're contributing to every encounter and filling your role.
I added the 10k item at the level 12 spot. I did not feel that the 2.5k one was incredibly likely at level 4, as it's about 50% of the character's total wealth. Similarly, I included no MW item, since it requires a small amount of custom item creation, and is not guaranteed to be allowed. This is the BASELINE numbers. And they included that Silver tongue amulet. (note your quoted text for level 12 "+10 amulet gained by this point")
Even then, they fall under 50% at high levels. That means that, at low levels, this isn't just Tier 4. It's non-still spell wizard in full plate... But without hours/level or even minutes/level buffs.
This class needs moderate optimization to even be playable. The class chassis, plus the base class resources are not enough to compete.
A fighter with a high strength and a magic weapon? Contributes.
A wizard with a high int and a spellbook? Contributes.
A truenamer with a high int, max skill ranks, feats spent, and magic item boosting? Sometimes can contribute. Maybe.
You need more than just that.
At level 16? DC 48 vs Truespeak +37, under the baseline numbers I got. Wizards are dropping mind blank, and you? Get to do your effects with 50% accuracy. Even a charging raging barbarian generally has a better than 50% hit chance.
Feytalist
2011-09-08, 01:59 AM
ToM pg. 196: "For creatures that don't have Challenge Ratings, such as PCs, use a DC of 15 + (2 x the creature's HD)."
Having a CR of "-" means they default to the quoted rule, not to 15.
Also, Zaq did mention the bunny trick only needs a Truespeak DC of 16. Improved familiars and the like will have higher DC's, of course.
ToM pg. 196: "For creatures that don't have Challenge Ratings, such as PCs, use a DC of 15 + (2 x the creature's HD)."
Having a CR of "-" means they default to the quoted rule, not to 15. (Unless they have less than 0.5 HD that is.)
Bleah, I miss remembered that.
I guess I have to try and prove my old statement false.
I suppose if their is a written rule as opposed to my inference from various stat blocks would work
At level 16? DC 48 vs Truespeak +37, under the baseline numbers I got Wizards are dropping mind blank, and you? Get to do your effects with 50% accuracy. Even a charging raging barbarian generally has a better than 50% hit chance.
Solid fog and control winds are only a DC 40 which is a pretty good chance, and rock to mud is only 35 which is a guarantee.
Question does a busted magic item have a caster level?
Tyndmyr
2011-09-08, 07:41 AM
Similarly, I included no MW item, since it requires a small amount of custom item creation, and is not guaranteed to be allowed. This is the BASELINE numbers. And they included that Silver tongue amulet. (note your quoted text for level 12 "+10 amulet gained by this point")
Level 12 is...slow. Like, really slow. I nabbed one for the level 7 char I created, and while it ate a goodly portion of WBL, it certainly wasn't all of it.
Masterwork tool is a line item. No custom item creation at all. Any class can be hurt by random bans of legit things.
Elite array is also not standard, or even common for character creation. I invariably see roll or point buy, and it would be a very low op group that doesn't understand the concept of putting your highest stat appropriately for your class. A wizard with terrible int is also gimped. That doesn't make the wizard low tier, because in practice, you don't make wizards with terrible int.
Consider a 17 int, at level 12. They have the amulet. They have +2 int as an enhancement bonus(more is easily accessible, but we're assuming fairly low competence here). They have skill focus, they have a masterwork tool. They have put level up bonuses into int. 24 int, aka +7+15ranks+2tool+3feat+10amulet = +37, facing DC 39. Wow. 5% failure chance.
There's a nice low level utterance that gives a flat +5, too. That's going to get busted out if there is any trouble.
Even then, they fall under 50% at high levels. That means that, at low levels, this isn't just Tier 4. It's non-still spell wizard in full plate... But without hours/level or even minutes/level buffs.
And what percentage of a monk or fighter's round will matter at high levels?
Also, at 20, it is normally assumed that people have bothered to pick up solid enhancement bonuses and inherent bonuses to their primary class. With a starting 18/19(+5 is possible but hey, they might have rolling and not rolled an 18), +5 from levels, +5 inherent, +6 enhancement. We won't count age, since, again, we're being very generous. That's still at least a 34, for a +12 from stats alone.
So, stat, max ranks, feat, mw tool, amulet = +50. Cast your vanilla +5 booster on yourself(oh look, you get personal truename for free. Buffing yourself is even easier!) and suddenly, you're automatically hitting checks. This is not high op. This is "basic understanding of the system" op.
Barbarians who fail to invest in primary stats and magical weapons also suck pretty hard at level 20.
This class needs moderate optimization to even be playable. The class chassis, plus the base class resources are not enough to compete.
And a barb needs feats, magical items and good stat distribution to be at all relevant at level 20 too. So? The barbarian is still tier 4.
Gametime
2011-09-08, 10:54 AM
Masterwork tool is a line item. No custom item creation at all. Any class can be hurt by random bans of legit things.
It isn't really a huge deal past the earliest levels, but I think you're being a little optimistic in assuming masterwork tools of truespeak are automatically "legit." The entry itself contains vague phrases like "bonus to an applicable skill (if any)" and "covers just about everything else" (emphasis mine).
It may be less ambiguous than custom item creation, but it's still more ambiguous than using almost any other printed item.
sreservoir
2011-09-09, 02:07 PM
It isn't really a huge deal past the earliest levels, but I think you're being a little optimistic in assuming masterwork tools of truespeak are automatically "legit." The entry itself contains vague phrases like "bonus to an applicable skill (if any)" and "covers just about everything else" (emphasis mine).
It may be less ambiguous than custom item creation, but it's still more ambiguous than using almost any other printed item.
This well-made item is the perfect tool for the job. It grants a +2 circumstance bonus on a related skill check (if any). Bonuses provided by multiple masterwork items used toward the same skill check do not stack.
it provides +2 circumstance to a check, if there is a check. sure, you might have trouble figuring out what sort of a tool you need (it's based on whether it's applicable, not actually keyed to a particular skill, as the popular interpretation seems to be), but there's no ambiguity as to whether it gives its bonus on the check.
sreservoir
2011-09-09, 02:10 PM
It isn't really a huge deal past the earliest levels, but I think you're being a little optimistic in assuming masterwork tools of truespeak are automatically "legit." The entry itself contains vague phrases like "bonus to an applicable skill (if any)" and "covers just about everything else" (emphasis mine).
It may be less ambiguous than custom item creation, but it's still more ambiguous than using almost any other printed item.
This well-made item is the perfect tool for the job. It grants a +2 circumstance bonus on a related skill check (if any). Bonuses provided by multiple masterwork items used toward the same skill check do not stack.
it provides +2 circumstance to a check, if there is a check. sure, you might have trouble figuring out what sort of a tool you need (it's based on whether it's applicable, not actually keyed to a particular skill, as the popular interpretation seems to be), but there's no ambiguity as to whether it gives its bonus on the check.
Gametime
2011-09-09, 02:43 PM
...Well, obviously there's no ambiguity that a masterwork tool applicable to Truespeak would provide a +2 circumstance bonus to Truespeak checks. The question is whether there are any tools applicable to Truespeak. I don't think it's at all a given.
RaggedAngel
2011-09-09, 03:02 PM
...Well, obviously there's no ambiguity that a masterwork tool applicable to Truespeak would provide a +2 circumstance bonus to Truespeak checks. The question is whether there are any tools applicable to Truespeak. I don't think it's at all a given.
Does this work for you? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11709387&postcount=398)
In essence, she's made the handle of the morningstar into a cheatsheet for Truespeak, covering it with the most common syllables in Truespeak spelled out phonetically in various languages that she speaks fluently, like Celestial and Infernal. It may be a bit stronger than the average tool, since it's a part of her weapon, but any reasonable DM should allow it, since we're talking about helping out a Truenamer.
Ryu_Bonkosi
2011-09-09, 03:10 PM
Clearly this is the masterwork tool you are looking for.
http://images.wikia.com/hitchhikers/images/0/01/Babel_Fish_diagram.jpg
Gametime
2011-09-09, 03:16 PM
Does this work for you? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11709387&postcount=398)
In essence, she's made the handle of the morningstar into a cheatsheet for Truespeak, covering it with the most common syllables in Truespeak spelled out phonetically in various languages that she speaks fluently, like Celestial and Infernal. It may be a bit stronger than the average tool, since it's a part of her weapon, but any reasonable DM should allow it, since we're talking about helping out a Truenamer.
For me? I dislike the idea of Truespeak being so easily distilled into a cheat-sheet. But I wouldn't deny a player something like this, if I was the DM, and I certainly am not trying to pass any judgement on other players using masterwork tools. Whatever works for you and your group.
I just don't think it's so explicitly spelled out in the rules that there must be a masterwork tool for every skill that players can justify being upset when their DM vetoes it, nor do I think disallowing a masterwork tool of Truespeak is on the same level of rule-changing as, say, giving the monk full BAB. That's all I'm saying.
Clearly this is the masterwork tool you are looking for.
http://images.wikia.com/hitchhikers/images/0/01/Babel_Fish_diagram.jpg
Now, this I would approve for a truenamer without a second thought. :smalltongue:
Human Paragon 3
2011-09-09, 05:57 PM
Gold Teeth. It's the Truespeak equivilant of gold stereo cords for an audiophile.
NNescio
2011-09-09, 06:21 PM
Gold Teeth. It's the Truespeak equivilant of gold stereo cords for an audiophile.
Bad example. (http://gizmodo.com/305549/james-randi-offers-1-million-if-audiophiles-can-prove-7250-speaker-cables-are-better)
candycorn
2011-09-10, 02:52 AM
Level 12 is...slow. Like, really slow. I nabbed one for the level 7 char I created, and while it ate a goodly portion of WBL, it certainly wasn't all of it.Level 12 is slow. I gave listings for level 1, level 4, level 12, and level 20. This assumed a Base 15 (elite array) in a stat, so I took a snapshot at any point where intelligence boost from level resulted in a modifier increase. Yes, I fully agree that such a character will likely have a +10 item before level 12, I seriously doubt that they'll have one at level 4, which was the snapshot I took before that.
Masterwork tool is a line item. No custom item creation at all. Any class can be hurt by random bans of legit things.
Really? I see no item that specifically states that it provides a +2 competence bonus on Truespeak checks. I see one that states that it provides a bonus on a "related skill check (if any)... But that requires the DM approve the existance of that item for each skill. This is the part that lets the DM state that no, 'Medium Rary's Clif Notes for Spellcraft' won't fly.
I'm not saying it's not balanced. I am saying that it's a custom item, just as a scroll of a Spell Compendium spell is. As such, it cannot be guaranteed to be allowed. If it is? Bonus prizes.
Elite array is also not standard, or even common for character creation. I invariably see roll or point buy, and it would be a very low op group that doesn't understand the concept of putting your highest stat appropriately for your class. A wizard with terrible int is also gimped. That doesn't make the wizard low tier, because in practice, you don't make wizards with terrible int.I stated that this was a LOW OPTIMIZATION build. I stated that up front. This is to determine if the class is even viable at light optimization/low power level. Elite array is representative of a low power game.
I did assume a +2 intelligence race, as well as the highest stat available to intelligence. That means the bolded text above is what those of us in the know refer to as a "straw man".
Consider a 17 int, at level 12. They have the amulet. They have +2 int as an enhancement bonus(more is easily accessible, but we're assuming fairly low competence here). They have skill focus, they have a masterwork tool. They have put level up bonuses into int. 24 int, aka +7+15ranks+2tool+3feat+10amulet = +37, facing DC 39. Wow. 5% failure chance.Remove a masterwork tool, Assume elite array, and a +4 item (net effect same, less skill points).
15% failure chance, the first time in a day.
25% the second.
35% the third.
45% the fourth.
55% the sixth (because they have likely failed one by now).
65% the seventh
75% the ninth
85% the eleventh
95% the sixteenth
There's a nice low level utterance that gives a flat +5, too. That's going to get busted out if there is any trouble.Not everyone will choose that. Granted, it SHOULD be chosen, but new/low-op characters generally also choose fireball over haste.
This is NOT about being "ok" with optimal choices. It's about being able to get by WITHOUT optimal choices.
And what percentage of a monk or fighter's round will matter at high levels?You want to compare Truenamer to a Tier 5 class? Thanks. You're proving my point. No longer are you comparing to those awesome tier 2 classes, and saying it can hang, cause even a low optimization sorceror will wipe the floor with a low optimization truenamer. Why? Because sorceror is ACTUALLY a tier 2 class.
Also, at 20, it is normally assumed that people have bothered to pick up solid enhancement bonuses and inherent bonuses to their primary class. With a starting 18/19(+5 is possible but hey, they might have rolling and not rolled an 18), +5 from levels, +5 inherent, +6 enhancement. We won't count age, since, again, we're being very generous. That's still at least a 34, for a +12 from stats alone. You and I have different definitions of "very generous".
I have a low-opt. character in one of my games. Doesn't look for everything. Duskblade. Put a high stat in strength... Put level ups in strength. Got a +2 strength item, and then sought a +4. Hasn't even discovered Tomes.
So, elite array. Starting 15. Assume PHB races (low opt), and we'll go gnome, cause that con boost is ok, and small size is nice. Really, it's hard to go wrong with a gnome.
Assume +5 from level ups. Assume +6 item. There's a 26. That's a +8 from stats.
The problem with high op trying to imagine what low op is? They're out of touch with it. It's an alien point of view. Most high op players, imitating a low op player, just imagine a high op player with less books. That's not how such players work. Even with the books they have, they're likely to miss many of those hidden bonuses, or misinterpret the value of others.
It really does make a difference.
So, stat, max ranks, feat, mw tool, amulet = +50. Cast your vanilla +5 booster on yourself(oh look, you get personal truename for free. Buffing yourself is even easier!) and suddenly, you're automatically hitting checks. This is not high op. This is "basic understanding of the system" op.Struck out flawed numbers based on flawed assumptions... That a low-op character is simply a high op player, building with less books.
It does not work that way.
23 ranks + 8 ability +3 feat + 10 enhancement = +44
CR 20 DC? 55.
If it has SR that you need to autopenetrate? DC 60.
If it's anything harder than a "run of the mill" encounter, such as a CR+3 bossfight?
DC 61-66.
Even your "generous" +50 is gonna be hard pressed to get a single ability through. The actual realistic low op number? Isn't gonna have a good day.
candycorn
2011-09-10, 03:01 AM
Does this work for you? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11709387&postcount=398)
In essence, she's made the handle of the morningstar into a cheatsheet for Truespeak, covering it with the most common syllables in Truespeak spelled out phonetically in various languages that she speaks fluently, like Celestial and Infernal. It may be a bit stronger than the average tool, since it's a part of her weapon, but any reasonable DM should allow it, since we're talking about helping out a Truenamer.
You're aware that the names for many things/actions are written in books thick enough to have chapters, right? And that's for a 2-5 syllable word? And botching even the tiniest portion of it, at that point, means failure?
If they're still trying to get that pronunciation down, methinks they'll have a rather challenging time with the timings, inflections, stressed syllable portions, rhythym, and all the other things that would likely be needed.
A monocle may provide bonuses to appraisal checks, because of enhanced vision. But will a masterwork hammer and anvil (MW Craft Weapon tool) provide a bonus to crafting a club? No. It's not applicable. If you need pages to describe something, and you have what chickenscratch you could fit on the handle of a stick?
Methinks the chances of your scratch being "applicable" are low.
BobVosh
2011-09-10, 06:06 AM
I've heard a suggestion of a pronunciation guide as a MW tool, and would allow it in my games. Poor True namer needs a little love.
candycorn
2011-09-10, 06:35 AM
I've heard a suggestion of a pronunciation guide as a MW tool, and would allow it in my games. Poor True namer needs a little love.
Ok, if we're looking at Truenamers as incredibly precise linguists, at the absolute pinnacle of verbal acuity...
why then are we saying they'll receive a boost from what amounts, more or less, to something not taught outside of grade school?
I agree they need a bit of help, but this makes as much sense as a Divine Mind's fluff.
I could see a 10 use throat spray, perhaps. Limber up the speaky-box... But pronunciation guide? Really?
Tyndmyr
2011-09-10, 07:55 AM
Level 12 is slow. I gave listings for level 1, level 4, level 12, and level 20. This assumed a Base 15 (elite array) in a stat, so I took a snapshot at any point where intelligence boost from level resulted in a modifier increase. Yes, I fully agree that such a character will likely have a +10 item before level 12, I seriously doubt that they'll have one at level 4, which was the snapshot I took before that.
Elite array is not standard or common. You're deliberately selecting unlikely circumstances at this point. Of COURSE it will appear less powerful in gimped circumstances.
Really? I see no item that specifically states that it provides a +2 competence bonus on Truespeak checks. I see one that states that it provides a bonus on a "related skill check (if any)... But that requires the DM approve the existance of that item for each skill. This is the part that lets the DM state that no, 'Medium Rary's Clif Notes for Spellcraft' won't fly.
It is a catch-all entry for all masterwork items not listed. They exist. The applicability of a given item to a given check is all that is limited. So, if you chose a masterwork pronunciation guide, and your character is currently blind, no +2 for you, since you cannot effectively utilize it in the circumstances.
Possible applications include:
Throat spray.
Pronunciation guide(I would like to point out that in the real world, they are a common tool for learning other languages, an incredibly similar task)
Memorization aide(seriously, hundreds of names, long and complicated? Yes, I'd want to write a cheat sheet.)
Megaphone.
I'm not saying it's not balanced. I am saying that it's a custom item, just as a scroll of a Spell Compendium spell is. As such, it cannot be guaranteed to be allowed. If it is? Bonus prizes.
No...it is core. And it is not found in the custom item creation section. It is listed under basic equipment.
I agree that the combo masterwork item/weapon is custom and is certainly not something to be taken for granted, any more than a combo divine focus/weapon should be taken for granted with clerics. This is mostly unimportant for truenamers, as they don't really need to muck about with weapons much.
I stated that this was a LOW OPTIMIZATION build. I stated that up front. This is to determine if the class is even viable at light optimization/low power level. Elite array is representative of a low power game.
Then I will compare against a similarly low optimization base. However, you will note that my original claim was tier 4 NORMALLY, and tier 2 in a high op environment. So, you're misrepresenting my argument a bit there.
I did assume a +2 intelligence race, as well as the highest stat available to intelligence. That means the bolded text above is what those of us in the know refer to as a "straw man".
Not at all. Your misrepresentation of my argument constitutes a perfect straw man, though.
Remove a masterwork tool, Assume elite array, and a +4 item (net effect same, less skill points).
15% failure chance, the first time in a day.
25% the second.
35% the third.
45% the fourth.
55% the sixth (because they have likely failed one by now).
65% the seventh
75% the ninth
85% the eleventh
95% the sixteenth
Not everyone will choose that. Granted, it SHOULD be chosen, but new/low-op characters generally also choose fireball over haste.
Given the amount of Utterances and that you quite literally have to take a couple first level ones...and later ones CAN be of a lower level, even a very suboptimal person, picking from available Utterances at random, perhaps with darts, at every level is quite likely to know this.
A similarly poor player is likely to have trouble making other classes work as well.
This is NOT about being "ok" with optimal choices. It's about being able to get by WITHOUT optimal choices.
You want to compare Truenamer to a Tier 5 class? Thanks. You're proving my point. No longer are you comparing to those awesome tier 2 classes, and saying it can hang, cause even a low optimization sorceror will wipe the floor with a low optimization truenamer. Why? Because sorceror is ACTUALLY a tier 2 class.
I said tier 2 in high op environments. Why are you deliberately, repeatedly misrepresenting what I said?
I said tier 4 in normal conditions. Note that the actual comparisons were mostly to barbarian, a solid tier 4 class.
I have a low-opt. character in one of my games. Doesn't look for everything. Duskblade. Put a high stat in strength... Put level ups in strength. Got a +2 strength item, and then sought a +4. Hasn't even discovered Tomes.
Lovely. I'm sure a tier 4 class, barbarian, is fantastic at high levels with a similar lack of optimization. Also, a lack of investing WBL into his core class ability, hitting things. By level 20, he'll be almost entirely irrelevant.
So, elite array. Starting 15. Assume PHB races (low opt), and we'll go gnome, cause that con boost is ok, and small size is nice. Really, it's hard to go wrong with a gnome.
Assume +5 from level ups. Assume +6 item. There's a 26. That's a +8 from stats.
So, entirely ignoring tomes AND wishes...inherent bonuses in general...and I might add that wishes are fairly notably known rewards. They occur somewhat frequently as rewards in higher level prebuilt campaigns. A player that is not at all out specifically for them might get them, browse over the list and decide that hey, the safe list looks pretty good.
The problem with high op trying to imagine what low op is? They're out of touch with it. It's an alien point of view. Most high op players, imitating a low op player, just imagine a high op player with less books. That's not how such players work. Even with the books they have, they're likely to miss many of those hidden bonuses, or misinterpret the value of others.
Right. Because I've never played low op before or met other low op players... cmon. Even the lowest op of players tend to figure out what the basic equipment for their class is. If a melee character fails to invest in a magic weapon, he'll suck a lot. Like, terribly. That's pretty extreme low op, though. ANY class can be made to suck if you choose exceedingly poorly.
If I was operating with simply books instead of an op perspective, I'd be UMDing core skill boosting spell items to automatically pass checks. Meh. I can make a truenamer work quite decently with just ToM and core.
Struck out flawed numbers based on flawed assumptions... That a low-op character is simply a high op player, building with less books.
You literally cannot miss the +4 bonus from knowing your own truename. It is an automatic class feature that you get too early to miss via prestige classes. If you are a truenamer, you have this ability, done deal. Therefore, anything targetting yourself is more likely to work than you have portrayed.
I've already pointed out that I've only taken the obvious options from those books. The bog standard things that do not require creative use of other skills, party members, or knowledge of other people's spells. I only assume that they read the truenaming section, and the basic character creation section(race, skills, feats, equipment). If you fail to read how those things work, you will likely do pretty terribly with anything. It's not like I included the bonus from, say, the ioun stone, which is also core.
It does not work that way.
23 ranks + 8 ability +3 feat + 10 enhancement = +44
CR 20 DC? 55.
If it has SR that you need to autopenetrate? DC 60.
Er, "autopenetrate SR" is not a low power, low op standard thing.
If it's anything harder than a "run of the mill" encounter, such as a CR+3 bossfight?
DC 61-66.
Not everything needs to target the boss. You can, say, target your party members. Note that friendlies are targetted by HD. So, if one of them is level drained or has LA? He's now easier to heal/buff.
Uh, 15 + 23 * 2 = 61. So no, not 66.
Even your "generous" +50 is gonna be hard pressed to get a single ability through. The actual realistic low op number? Isn't gonna have a good day.
You appear to be trying to use "generous" sarcastically and failing. Typically, quotes are used to indicate that you don't believe it actually is generous. You also appear to be arguing that 50 is unrealistically high. Remedial Sarcasm class can be found at your local 4chan or /b/. Enjoy!
+50 targetting CR 23 = DC
We will assume that, being low op, he didn't bother to research the truename of the big bad enemy of the campaign, and instead, just nukes things. That's a straight 50/50 shot at getting a word of nurturing through. And, if he does? Automatic damage next turn as well by maintaining it. So, second turn has a 75% chance of dealing damage(because if he fails, he'll presumably just nuke again)
This is on a player too stupid to realize over the course of twenty levels that a level 1 ability that gives him +5 to the check he keeps failing is a good idea to use. He literally just nukes and scratches his head if it fails. He also saw free Gate and went "ah, hell no". He didn't even bother looking at the meta-truenaming options. He didn't consider useful things like, yknow, paralyzing the enemy, which is basically a win for the team. He is literally playing as poorly as he possibly could without dumping his primary stat(and as discussed, a wizard with an utter lack of int would also fail).
Still, he pulls an average of 43.75 damage over two rounds. Is this poor? Yes, but it's spectacularly low power/low op, remember?
Now, let's consider ye olde barbarian, charging then full attacking over two rounds. Oh look, every core CR 23 opponent can fly. The solar has reach, and obliterates him on the charge in, even if he can reach. Also, it has DR 15/epic. Mr low op barbarian is pretty worthless here.
The others? They're all dragons. A barbarian facing a DC 33 will save is basically screwed. He is also extremely worthless here. DR/magic isn't fantastic at these levels, but DR 20 basically ensures that any melee attack that isn't magical is irrelevant.
Long story short, a low powered, low op, low experience tier 4 party facing a CR 23 enemy at level 20 is SCREWED. The truenamer happens to be marginally less so, but the party's still all going to die. This makes him a very solid tier 4.
candycorn
2011-09-10, 09:02 AM
Elite array is not standard or common. You're deliberately selecting unlikely circumstances at this point. Of COURSE it will appear less powerful in gimped circumstances.I'm not arguing whether or not it's less powerful.
I'm arguing whether or not it's viable at low optimization. I don't think so.
It is a catch-all entry for all masterwork items not listed. They exist.Strike out of text that is speculation.
The applicability of a given item to a given check is all that is limited. So, if you chose a masterwork pronunciation guide...And if it is deemed by your DM to apply to Truespeak...
, and your character is currently blind, no +2 for you, since you cannot effectively utilize it in the circumstances.Now, your statement is correct. And iffy.
Possible applications include:
Throat spray.
Pronunciation guide(I would like to point out that in the real world, they are a common tool for learning other languages, an incredibly similar task)
Memorization aide(seriously, hundreds of names, long and complicated? Yes, I'd want to write a cheat sheet.)
Megaphone.and provided your DM agrees that these examples fulfill the non-listed requirements that must be fulfilled for it to be applicable, those are perfectly right. But each must be interpreted by a DM to apply.
Thus? THEY CANNOT BE ASSUMED TO EXIST IN ALL GAMES.
No...it is core. And it is not found in the custom item creation section. It is listed under basic equipment. Really? Can you show me the item listing for throat spray, pronunciation guides, and megaphones? Odd, I've never seen any of those items in the SRD, anywhere.
I see a masterwork tool, and yes, I see that IF a DM agrees with your PERSONAL OPINION that it applies to Truespeak, THEN masterwork tool works.
But that is no more a guarantee than saying that if my car has gas, I can get to work.
I agree that the combo masterwork item/weapon is custom and is certainly not something to be taken for granted, any more than a combo divine focus/weapon should be taken for granted with clerics. This is mostly unimportant for truenamers, as they don't really need to muck about with weapons much.Now if we can just get you to concede the fact that any specific masterwork tool must be ruled to be applicable by a DM, and until it is, it does precisely squat.
Then I will compare against a similarly low optimization base. However, you will note that my original claim was tier 4 NORMALLY, and tier 2 in a high op environment. So, you're misrepresenting my argument a bit there.
Let's compare the same for a sorceror. Halfling, 15 Charisma, 13 Dex (bumped to 15), +1 at level 4, 8, and 12. Spell focus and Greater spell focus in a school. Say, Evocation.
This character, at level 1: Will be able to cast 1 spell per encounter, for 4 encounters. Remaining rounds, it can fire a light crossbow.
At level 4? Will have a 16-17 DC on evocation spells, and level 2 spells. Will now be able to cast one level 2 spell, and two level 1 spells per encounter.
Level 12? Will have 17-22 DC on evocation spells. Will have a stat of 22, with a +4 item, and will have 1 level 6 spell per encounter, 1.5 level 5 spells, and about 2 of everything else. That's 10.5 spells per encounter, more than the typical round. Now, there's plenty of bonus spells for buffing and such.
Every spell has a 100% chance to be cast. Every single one.
THIS IS HOW A TIER 2 LOOKS AT LOW OPTIMIZATION.
I've assumed no more for this build than I did with the truenamer.
Given the amount of Utterances and that you quite literally have to take a couple first level ones...and later ones CAN be of a lower level, even a very suboptimal person, picking from available Utterances at random, perhaps with darts, at every level is quite likely to know this.Ah, so now the lack of Truenamer spells is a FEATURE. I saw this line of thinking in smartphone ads, to explain why the fact that they did less than iPhone was a GOOD thing.
I didn't buy it there either.
A similarly poor player is likely to have trouble making other classes work as well.See above sorceror.
I said tier 2 in high op environments. Why are you deliberately, repeatedly misrepresenting what I said?Classes don't change tier. Builds do. I can say that wizard is tier 6 in low op, because I can give it an int 9. That doesn't change the tier of the class. Just the tier of the build.
I said tier 4 in normal conditions. Note that the actual comparisons were mostly to barbarian, a solid tier 4 class.Except that such a tier 4 class can build to 1 shot most CR appropriate encounters. Whereas the truenamer... cannot.
Lovely. I'm sure a tier 4 class, barbarian, is fantastic at high levels with a similar lack of optimization. Also, a lack of investing WBL into his core class ability, hitting things. By level 20, he'll be almost entirely irrelevant.
Half orc barbarian. 15 base strength. (17 after racial), levelups in Strength.
Level 12. +1 flaming weapon, +4 strength item, weapon focus, power attack.
+21 to hit, +24 raging.
CR 12 encounters?
ABYSSAL GREATER BASILISK - AC 17
Adult Brass Dragon - AC 27
Young Adult Bronze - AC 26
Monstrous Scorpion, Colossal - AC 26
Hydra, 11 headed - AC 21
Frost Worm - AC 18
Kolyarut - AC 27
Kraken - AC 20
Leonal - AC 27
Purple Wurm - AC 19
Roper - AC 24
Mature Adult White Dragon - AC 28.
Nope, such a barbarian can't hit at all. Not with 4 rages a day, and the ability to rage in most any combat. It needs a 4 to hit the highest AC on the list while raging. 2 if it charges.
So, entirely ignoring tomes AND wishes...inherent bonuses in general...and I might add that wishes are fairly notably known rewards. They occur somewhat frequently as rewards in higher level prebuilt campaigns. A player that is not at all out specifically for them might get them, browse over the list and decide that hey, the safe list looks pretty good. Yep. Might get 5 wishes, over the course of the career, and since they're not cast back to back, might get a +1 to the main stat. Fair enough.
Right. Because I've never played low op before or met other low op players... cmon. Even the lowest op of players tend to figure out what the basic equipment for their class is. If a melee character fails to invest in a magic weapon, he'll suck a lot. Like, terribly. That's pretty extreme low op, though. ANY class can be made to suck if you choose exceedingly poorly.I treat the Silver amulet that gives you a +10 to your Truespeak along the same lines as a melee character getting a magic weapon. You know, a low-op choice. :smallwink:
If I was operating with simply books instead of an op perspective, I'd be UMDing core skill boosting spell items to automatically pass checks. Meh. I can make a truenamer work quite decently with just ToM and core....good for you?
You literally cannot miss the +4 bonus from knowing your own truename. It is an automatic class feature that you get too early to miss via prestige classes. If you are a truenamer, you have this ability, done deal. Therefore, anything targetting yourself is more likely to work than you have portrayed.Yep, +2 DC for using a personal truename, +4 to the check for using yours. Net bonus? +2 to checks targeting yourself. Congratulations, a great reason to not target the enemy.
I've already pointed out that I've only taken the obvious options from those books. The bog standard things that do not require creative use of other skills, party members, or knowledge of other people's spells. I only assume that they read the truenaming section, and the basic character creation section(race, skills, feats, equipment). If you fail to read how those things work, you will likely do pretty terribly with anything. It's not like I included the bonus from, say, the ioun stone, which is also core.And pored over the DMG item lists for 127000gp tomes.
Er, "autopenetrate SR" is not a low power, low op standard thing. It's in the description for truenaming as an automatic option available to anyone that uses truename magic. I'd certainly expect a player to be more familiar with that, than, say, page 268 of the DMG.
In fact, it's in a bold text, under UTTERANCES, on page 232. It's in the freakin' overview section for speaking utterances.
I think universal options available to all truenamers are about as High Op as casting defensively. (in fact, the bypass SR option is right beside "Uttering Defensively")
Care to try that one again?
Not everything needs to target the boss. You can, say, target your party members. Note that friendlies are targetted by HD. So, if one of them is level drained or has LA? He's now easier to heal/buff.
Uh, 15 + 23 * 2 = 61. So no, not 66.Boss has SR 35+.
Increase DC by 5, automatically overcome Spell Resistance.
There's that basic Truespeak option again.
Long story short, a low powered, low op, low experience tier 4 party facing a CR 23 enemy at level 20 is SCREWED. The truenamer happens to be marginally less so, but the party's still all going to die. This makes him a very solid tier 4.
You and I seem to have differing definitions of "marginally less so". See? I see "Tynd compared Truenamer to generic sack of HP, and Barbarian to Solar and Dragon.
So, let's look. SR 32 Solar. That 50% hit chance? Either 25% to bypass the SR, or 30% to try your luck pushing that SR through, even on your numbers. Then obliterated by Solar.
Dragon? SR 29-30. Without spells or feats. Again, very low chance.
See? Once we start actually applying monster abilities to the Truenamer as well, like we did to the barbarian, suddenly things start to fall into place.
Such a CR 23 would ideally be a capstone fight, to end a campaign. But even so, CR 21 should be a doable fight. And it's not.
You have all these wonderful thoughts, but without serious opti-fu, a truenamer will not be quickening much. They'll have an unreliable time even hitting. And every time after the first? The chance goes even lower.
That CR 20 at the end of a day, when the Truenamer has already used his abilities 2-3 times each? Suddenly, that CR 20 may as well be a CR 23.
That's why truenamer is bad. Like, really. Yes, it can be made good. But you NEED to use multiple abilities outside the class to even make its class ability viable.
OMG PONIES
2011-09-11, 12:02 PM
Candycorn & Tyndmyr, if you want yo continue arguing, please do it via PM.
TurtleKing
2011-09-11, 01:27 PM
I see Zaq has left a post or two open for builds such as a gestalt build. Well would like to see the most optimised gestalt build can pull off. Well currently thinking of while having Truenamer on one side uninterrupted the other side sprinkled to gain the most out of the Truespeak check. So far I have Truenamer 20//Marshal 1/Factotum 2/?/Exemplar 1-10. On the non Truenamer side how can this be optimised even more?
Ryu_Bonkosi
2011-09-11, 01:28 PM
If you have a decent Cha would Marshal 1 be worth the dip?
TurtleKing
2011-09-11, 01:36 PM
It would for you get Minor Auras at starting at level 1. The Minor Auras grant Cha mod to the aura. Select Motivate Intelligence which affects all Int checks. So if you have a 18 Charisma when you activate that aura you gain +4 to all of your Int skill checks including Truespeak. So for the know-it-all Truenamers can pull off two more utterences as well as increasing knowledge checks for Knowledge Devotion.
I did go into a brief discussion of the Marshal under Multiclassing. Basically, it depends on just how good your CHA is, how desperate you are for bonuses, and what, if anything, you're giving up by losing a level of Truenamer progression. If you do decide to dip into Marshal, remember that you get armor proficiency out of it, and utterances don't have ASF or anything like that.
As for gestalt, that's a thorny subject, since I've never actually played a gestalt game, Truenamer or no Truenamer. My thought is that Truenamer is a very attention-demanding class (definitely the "active" side of the gestalt), so you'd definitely need to pair it with a nice passive class that won't demand too many actions. It's a toss-up as to whether you want to spend more than a level or two directly improving your Truespeak check. As I've shown, it's entirely possible to get your Truespeak check up to where you want it with just Truenamer 20 . . . there's just an opportunity cost for doing so. Whether that opportunity cost stays equally worth it in gestalt really depends on what you're trying to do. My gut says that it might be more worthwhile to just use standard Truenamer tricks and not interrupt your other side's progression with Marshal dips here and Exemplar dips there, but I freely admit that I have not yet delved into the specifics of the subject. I guess it depends on whether you want gestalt to make you a "Truenamer-plus" . . . or a "Truenamer, plus something else," if you catch the distinction. Off the cuff, I'd say that Factotum, Incarnate, Warlock, and Artificer would be good pairings.
Geigan
2011-09-11, 01:46 PM
I see Zaq has left a post or two open for builds such as a gestalt build. Well would like to see the most optimised gestalt build can pull off. Well currently thinking of while having Truenamer on one side uninterrupted the other side sprinkled to gain the most out of the Truespeak check. So far I have Truenamer 20//Marshal 1/Factotum 2/?/Exemplar 1-10. On the non Truenamer side how can this be optimised even more?
I'd definitely go all the way to 8 on factotum for cunning surge. It's good on truenamers, just like it's good on everyone else. The only question is what to do with that one extra level.
MeeposFire
2011-09-11, 03:09 PM
I did go into a brief discussion of the Marshal under Multiclassing. Basically, it depends on just how good your CHA is, how desperate you are for bonuses, and what, if anything, you're giving up by losing a level of Truenamer progression. If you do decide to dip into Marshal, remember that you get armor proficiency out of it, and utterances don't have ASF or anything like that.
As for gestalt, that's a thorny subject, since I've never actually played a gestalt game, Truenamer or no Truenamer. My thought is that Truenamer is a very attention-demanding class (definitely the "active" side of the gestalt), so you'd definitely need to pair it with a nice passive class that won't demand too many actions. It's a toss-up as to whether you want to spend more than a level or two directly improving your Truespeak check . . . as I've shown, it's entirely possible to get your Truespeak check up to where you want it with just Truenamer 20 . . . there's just an opportunity cost for doing so. Whether that opportunity cost stays equally worth it in gestalt really depends on what you're trying to do. My gut says that it might be more worthwhile to just use standard Truenamer tricks and not interrupt your other side's progression with Marshal dips here and Exemplar dips there, but I freely admit that I have not yet delved into the specifics of the subject. I guess it depends on whether you want gestalt to make you a "Truenamer-plus" . . . or a "Truenamer, plus something else," if you catch the distinction. Off the cuff, I'd say that Factotum, Incarnate, Warlock, and Artificer would be good pairings.
Actually I could see potential on the passive side.
1) A lot of utterances are very nice out of combat and utility. You can heal, remove status effects,and fix items. If you focus on this stuff you are using your truenamer abilities as a tool box rather than muscle which will help you not have to go as insane in the truespeack optimization.
2) Quickended utterances- If you do take the time to improve your true speak then you can use quicken at high levels and so any of your utterances can be used as a swift action. If your class does not use swift actions much then you can get some lileage from that.
It isn't wizard but it has some nice stuff in it.
Factotum has some nice stuff but unless you have a lot of different combat utterances that you can use in the same round (or your DM allows the different DC's trick) then the law of sequence will limit your potential.
TurtleKing
2011-09-11, 04:04 PM
Well guess should have clarified looking for the most optimised "Truenamer plus" gestalt build. I'll give my opinion on Warlock, Artificer, and Factotum. I haven't played the Incarnum classes enough to speak definitively other than adding a "something else" the character.
Warlock:
The Warlock adds skills not on the Truenamers list. Also takes care of the damage side with the eldritch blast. Decieve Item helps if focusing on the Use Magic Device. If doing that then the Charisma mod should be good so can pick up invocations that have saves. The Fiendish Resilience, Damage Reduction, and Energy Resistance helps with survivalability plus negating the need for picking some utterances directed at self leaving them to be used on others if picked. Some invocations duplicate several effects as some utterances so can choose other utterances. Same could be said for DFA.
Artificer:
Main part helping a Truenamer is crafting Amulet of Silver Tongue. The other part is enhancing Use Magic Device. Otherwise it is mostly a "something else" type character through crafting. Has synergy with the Truenamer by also focusing on Intelligence.
Factotum:
Now we have a class that just makes anything better. Brains over Brawns helps with Str and Dex checks since may have dumped them. Now the crown jewel is Cunning Knowledge. A 1/day/skill spend 1 inspiration point to gain your FACTOTUM LEVEL AS A BONUS ON THE SKILL CHECK. So with this a gestalt Truenamer 20//Factotum 20 can gain a +20 on one Truespeak skill check that day. Great for when you need the utterance to work that day. Not to mention several other abilities that can do similar things as some utterances. Oh did I forget to mention Factotums have EVERY skill as a class skill.
Here is what I have so far as for an highly optimised a "Truenamer plus" gestalt build.
Lets start with an Illumian with Naen for Int checks as one of the Power Sigils. The other could be either Hoon or Krau. Hoon helps with Constitution and Wisdom checks including skill checks. Krau adds a +1 CL on spell and SLAs. Level 2 increases this to +2 and Enhanced Power Sigil can increase this to +3 or +4. Only Naenhoon is somewhat useful if a divine caster or say Factotum which does get Turn Undead. Add feats such as Heroic Destiny for a +1d6 on one d20 roll/day. So Truenamer 20//Marshal 1/Factotum 8/Chameleon 10 or Exemplar 10. The last level can be anything really. Doing this can see having starting off with 18 Int and 18 Cha with Wish upto +5 on Int and tomes +5 Int and level ups +5 and Ring of Magnificence +6 to all stats:
23 ranks+Int 14+enhanced sigils 4?+ Skill Focus 3+Minor Aura 7+ 4 if Exemplar and +1-3 to Int mod if Chameleon+ Greater Amulet of Silvertongue 10+ Masterwork Item 2+ Paragnostic Assembly 10= static Truespeak modifer of 80 if Truenamer 20//Maeshal 1/Factotum 8/ Chameleon 10/ Exemplar 1. Can burst it upto 119 if you use Heroic Destiny, Guidance of the Avatar, Cunning Knowledge, and Universal Aptitude. Didn't even include Item Familiar since not sure how that works. So so far on a gestalt character with the highest optimisation could see having a static 80 modifer on Truespeak.
Is a static Truespeak mod of 80 with able to burst upto 119 the highest it can go? Is my math right?
Edit: Yes I know this is unrealistic, but wanted to see the cap of the ability.
Aharon
2011-09-11, 06:21 PM
@Zaq
Great guide! Better than Solo's, TG's or my own attempts :smallsmile:
@TurtleKing:
If you pile even more cheese on Zaq's 5/5 cheese, you can get to +108 at level 12. The following build uses and perhaps abuses much of the poor editing found in the Truenaming chapter, and relies on rules interactions that don't happen often and might require DM adjudication: Cheesy Truenamer (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=158919). (It also is 60% above WBL, as I misread the PHBII web enhancement. As the main focus is truespeak, if I were to ever update the build (which is unlikely, because I currently DM and don't throw that kind of thought experiment at my players), I would change other parts of the equipment so that Truespeak remains intact.)
If you crank the dial up even further, Garblers, a kind of monster found in the Tome of Magic, automatically succeed on Truespeak checks. This ability is found in the monster description at the place where racial skill bonuses are noted, so it can be argued that you gain this ability via polymorph.
TurtleKing
2011-09-11, 06:29 PM
Well I was going for static modifiers instead of quick boosts unless all of those scepters grant a continous bonus. The theorycrafting I did also included the ways I know of boosting it the top over what can do automatically. So say you take that Illumian Truenamer 20//Marshal 1/Factotum 8/Chameleon 10/Exemplar 1 can against a CR 20 have 13 "free" Truespeaks before having to roll.
Edit: As for WBL I pretty much ignored that in seeing what the most optimised can get to. The Ring of Magnificience adding +6 to all stats alone is 200K gold.
tyckspoon
2011-09-11, 06:39 PM
Well I was going for static modifiers instead of quick boosts unless all of those scepters grant a continous bonus.
If the build actually works (I admit I have no damn clue on looking at it, but if you actually got to play it in ToS it's probably either good or where it fails is incredibly hard to detect), then yes. He's using Rebuild Item to continuously reuse an 'oil' of Metamagic Item: Persistent Spell, and then applying that effect to a stack of wands of Universal Aptitude, using the interpretation that a Heightened Utterance is a different Utterance for purposes of the Law of Sequence.. so basically some rather exotic Persist cheese used to stack Universal Aptitudes.
TurtleKing
2011-09-11, 06:44 PM
That still is limited in Rebuild Item is uttered only som many times before the DC gets too high. I know there is a limit just trying find a way to get it has high as possible. Another thing is that rebuilding the items eats up your actions since have to do it immediately. The way presented didn't.
tyckspoon
2011-09-11, 06:52 PM
That still is limited in Rebuild Item is uttered only som many times before the DC gets too high. I know there is a limit just trying find a way to get it has high as possible. Another thing is that rebuilding the items eats up your actions since have to do it immediately. The way presented didn't.
Eh. Most people don't consider all-day effects like that to be 'eating up your actions' any more than a Wizard taking an hour at the start of the day to prep his spells is wasting time he could be doing something productive. It's a buff routine that can be done well in advance of when you actually need the effects.. and if you're optimizing your Truespeak to this point, I'm pretty sure you can Rebuild Item a dozen times or so before Resistance even starts to give you a chance of failure.
Aharon
2011-09-11, 07:00 PM
@Tyckspoon
It was submitted... Unfortunately, as the Test of Spite team was short on sheet checkers, I never got feedback on wether I made any mistakes. I think there were only 30something sheets to be checked before mine before the test went on hiatus :smalltongue:
Tvtyrant
2011-09-11, 07:18 PM
Good guide, almost makes me want to roll one up to act as a balance against my op-fu. One thing I think is really sad about the personal truename mechanic is it could have been built around buffing your party and yourself; granting extra actions, temporary invincibility, tons of temp HP that lasts one turn, etc.
Psyren
2011-09-11, 07:23 PM
Don't be sad; homebrew to the rescue. Kellus and Kyeudo did a bang-up job.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-12, 06:22 AM
Candycorn & Tyndmyr, if you want yo continue arguing, please do it via PM.
Little danger of that. I'm pretty much done with this until he addresses what I'm actually posting instead of sarcastic "here, let me fix that for you" edits and the like.
Now...the more interesting question...does a Heightened X count as separate from an X for the law of sequence? I don't know of any RAW specifically clarifying this...is there any for the similar case of spells?
candycorn
2011-09-12, 07:53 AM
Here is what I have so far as for an highly optimised a "Truenamer plus" gestalt build.
Lets start with an Illumian with Naen for Int checks as one of the Power Sigils. The other could be either Hoon or Krau. Hoon helps with Constitution and Wisdom checks including skill checks. Krau adds a +1 CL on spell and SLAs. Level 2 increases this to +2 and Enhanced Power Sigil can increase this to +3 or +4. Only Naenhoon is somewhat useful if a divine caster or say Factotum which does get Turn Undead. Add feats such as Heroic Destiny for a +1d6 on one d20 roll/day. So Truenamer 20//Marshal 1/Factotum 8/Chameleon 10 or Exemplar 10. The last level can be anything really. Doing this can see having starting off with 18 Int and 18 Cha with Wish upto +5 on Int and tomes +5 Int and level ups +5 and Ring of Magnificence +6 to all stats:
23 ranks+Int 14+enhanced sigils 4?+ Skill Focus 3+Minor Aura 7+ 4 if Exemplar and +1-3 to Int mod if Chameleon+ Greater Amulet of Silvertongue 10+ Masterwork Item 2+ Paragnostic Assembly 10= static Truespeak modifer of 80 if Truenamer 20//Maeshal 1/Factotum 8/ Chameleon 10/ Exemplar 1. Can burst it upto 119 if you use Heroic Destiny, Guidance of the Avatar, Cunning Knowledge, and Universal Aptitude. Didn't even include Item Familiar since not sure how that works. So so far on a gestalt character with the highest optimisation could see having a static 80 modifer on Truespeak.
Is a static Truespeak mod of 80 with able to burst upto 119 the highest it can go? Is my math right?
Edit: Yes I know this is unrealistic, but wanted to see the cap of the ability.Wish and Tomes don't stack, for one. They are both the same bonus type. That's on a cursory glance. There are likely other errors with stacking the same bonus type.
Little danger of that. I'm pretty much done with this until he addresses what I'm actually posting instead of sarcastic "here, let me fix that for you" edits and the like.
When you stop interpreting "a car that has gas can get you to work" as "there is definitely a car with gas, and it can get you to work", I won't need to correct your basic errors. Then I can move on to the less basic ones.
Geigan
2011-09-12, 09:07 AM
Wish and Tomes don't stack, for one. They are both the same bonus type. That's on a cursory glance. There are likely other errors with stacking the same bonus type.
When you stop interpreting "a car that has gas can get you to work" as "there is definitely a car with gas, and it can get you to work", I won't need to correct your basic errors. Then I can move on to the less basic ones.
Or perhaps he's interpreting it as, "I need a car with gas to get to work, and if I don't have one I'm gonna need to get one." I'm going to get to work one way or another. If the car isn't an absolute I'm gonna have to work around it sure, but if the car is so unreliable that I can't even count on it regularly I'm going to have to get a new car.
candycorn
2011-09-12, 09:14 AM
Or perhaps he's interpreting it as, "I need a car with gas to get to work, and if I don't have one I'm gonna need to get one." I'm going to get to work one way or another. If the car isn't an absolute I'm gonna have to work around it sure, but if the car is so unreliable that I can't even count on it regularly I'm going to have to get a new car.
No, he's assuming the car (masterwork tool) works.
"This well-made item is the perfect tool for the job. It grants a +2 circumstance bonus on a related skill check (if any). Bonuses provided by multiple masterwork items used toward the same skill check do not stack."
There's the car. He's assuming that Masterwork tools exist (they do, they're the car). He's also assuming that for each skill, a masterwork tool exists (that's what isn't guaranteed. That's the gas.)
IF a masterwork tool exists which is related to truespeak, then the +2 will apply.
IF a car has gas, then it can get you to work.
The problem is, for the masterwork tool, only one source can verify that a related tool exists. The DM of the game you're building the truenamer for. Because the rules don't guarantee that masterwork tools exist for every skill, only that (masterwork tool) exists.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-12, 09:57 AM
Look, that's a single +2 that you're quibbling over. It's nice, but it alone is not defining class tier.
No, barbarian is class 4. It fulfills it's role well with a nice selection of magical gear, but is pretty poor at anything outside it's role, and becomes increasingly irrelevant at high levels. If you match that, then by definition, you are tier 4. This is not a high bar for truenamer to hit.
TurtleKing
2011-09-12, 11:06 AM
So the bonus to Int from Wishes and Tomes is the same? Shame. Oh well only drops it what by 2 or 3?
Flickerdart
2011-09-12, 11:37 AM
18 starting Int + 5 from level ups +5 from tomes + 6 Headband + 3 venerable age = 37 Intelligence, or a +13 modifier. So you're only down by 1 point there, which can be recouped through Human Paragon, if you can spare the three levels.
However, Elf Paragon gives +2 Int, so Gray/Fire Elf into Elf Paragon is +4 Intelligence. If, as Zaq jokingly suggests, you do go half-elf, Half-Elf Paragon gives +2 to any stat and entitles you to enter either Human or Elf Paragon, meaning that you still end up with +4 Intelligence! This way, you get the same +2 bonus as the Illumian, even if the latter can take Enhanced Sigil and you can't.
Cieyrin
2011-09-12, 12:07 PM
18 starting Int + 5 from level ups +5 from tomes + 6 Headband + 3 venerable age = 37 Intelligence, or a +13 modifier. So you're only down by 1 point there, which can be recouped through Human Paragon, if you can spare the three levels.
However, Elf Paragon gives +2 Int, so Gray/Fire Elf into Elf Paragon is +4 Intelligence. If, as Zaq jokingly suggests, you do go half-elf, Half-Elf Paragon gives +2 to any stat and entitles you to enter either Human or Elf Paragon, meaning that you still end up with +4 Intelligence! This way, you get the same +2 bonus as the Illumian, even if the latter can take Enhanced Sigil and you can't.
Half-Elf Paragon is probably the sole reason to play Half-Elf, precisely due to Divided Ancestry (though Elf Paragon kinda blows compared to Human), though the bonus feat you get at level 1 isn't bad either. Persuasion is also nice for UMD and Iaijutsu Focus.
TurtleKing
2011-09-12, 12:24 PM
Can taking the Paragon levels get you to around 80 give or take about 5?
Tyndmyr
2011-09-12, 12:38 PM
If you open up UMDing wands and such, Guidance of the Avatar will get you what, a +20 to your next check? You most certainly *could* hit 80+ at 20, but it would require a certain degree of op-fu. But then, you could basically slap all the metamagic stuff ever on utterances and just nova off ridiculous stuff.
Note: If you Gate/Quickened Gate every encounter, your DM will likely throw books at you. Consider yourself warned.
RaggedAngel
2011-09-12, 12:40 PM
Note: If you Gate/Quickened Gate every encounter, your DM will likely throw books at you. Consider yourself warned.
You can't; the Law of Sequence doesn't treat Conjunctive Gate and Quickened Conjunctive Gate as different utterances. You get one Gate a minute, and there's no way around that.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-12, 12:42 PM
You can't; the Law of Sequence doesn't treat Conjunctive Gate and Quickened Conjunctive Gate as different utterances. You get one Gate a minute, and there's no way around that.
That's one interpretation of the Law of Sequence, yes. I don't recall anywhere in RAW where it specifies they are treated as the same regardless of metamagic.
Flickerdart
2011-09-12, 12:47 PM
Can taking the Paragon levels get you to around 80 give or take about 5?
The Paragon levels don't give you very much as a net benefit - +2 Intelligence for three levels of Human Paragon. If you can afford to drop Chameleon levels without losing other skill bonuses, then that +2 with the +3 from age completely recoups your loss from Wish not stacking.
RaggedAngel
2011-09-12, 12:51 PM
Greater Seek the Sky: Compared to normal Seek the Sky, it's a speed increase (from 60' to 120') and a maneuverability increase (from good to perfect). The problem, of course, is that 60' and good will usually get you where you need to go . . . but I'd consider taking this utterance anyway, just because you can either let TWO people fly, one with each (gasp!) or chain the utterances, casting one when the other's about to run out (so you can fly for more than a minute at a time, Law of Resistance permitting). The reversed version is strictly worse than the reversed version of the level 3 Seek the Sky, since preventing a target from flying is MUCH better than making them take a couple d6s of falling damage (even 20d6 isn't guaranteed to kill something at level 14, though it will probably be noticed). Shame, really.
I was reading through the Tome of Magic, and I noticed something about Greater Seek the Sky; the reversed version has Duration: Instantaneous, and the first line of the reversed version says:
With this word, you render a flying creature unable to fly.
It goes on to say that the subject immediately falls, but that's more of a clarification rather than the main point.
In short, I think Greater Seek the Sky is actually really, really good. You have to succeed once and you permanently render something unable to fly in any way, and the effect cannot be dispelled. That's pretty awesome.
Flickerdart
2011-09-12, 12:54 PM
Or you can read the first sentence as flavour text, and the rest of the entry as the "meat" - that is, the creature instantly falls down, and then the effect's ended.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-12, 12:55 PM
I was reading through the Tome of Magic, and I noticed something about Greater Seek the Sky; the reversed version has Duration: Instantaneous, and the first line of the reversed version says:
It goes on to say that the subject immediately falls, but that's more of a clarification rather than the main point.
In short, I think Greater Seek the Sky is actually really, really good. You have to succeed once and you permanently render something unable to fly in any way, and the effect cannot be dispelled. That's pretty awesome.
Oh yeah, it's quite fantastic. A handy, useful buff, since basically everyone needs a flight speed, and a great inversion app.
I actually like the inverted theme. Seems really fluffy somehow, for magic to be applied in such a way.
RaggedAngel
2011-09-12, 12:58 PM
Or you can read the first sentence as flavour text, and the rest of the entry as the "meat" - that is, the creature instantly falls down, and then the effect's ended.
You could, but the text is all clearly "rules" text; in WotC books text that is only for flavor is in italics. That doesn't mean that they don't mix up flavor and rules, (ToB, I'm looking at you), but it does mean that anything that is not italicized can be treated as rules text if it has a clear meaning. "Rendered unable to fly" has a pretty clear meaning in the rules.
mykelyk
2011-09-12, 01:13 PM
Gate has instantaneous duration, you can spam many of them in a minute.
RaggedAngel
2011-09-12, 01:19 PM
Gate has instantaneous duration, you can spam many of them in a minute.
Gate the spell does indeed have an Instantaneous duration. Conjunctive Gate, the utterance, has a duration of one minute.
TurtleKing
2011-09-12, 01:19 PM
Chameleon adds +6 to a stat you can switch around. You would need human, half elf, and elf paragon to equal that.
Fouredged Sword
2011-09-12, 01:29 PM
I think you can go half-elf paragon -> human paragon - > chameleon for +10, but at that point you are not really a truenamer.
Does Ruthgar (sp? PRC to be loved by elves) qualify tou as an elf for PRC's or is it just that one dwarf class? if so you could loop through it to go Halfelf, human, and elf paragon then go chameleon for +12. No room for truenamer though, maybe for a really strange gestault character.
Flickerdart
2011-09-12, 01:43 PM
Ruathar does not, unfortunately, turn you into an Elf.
maximus25
2011-09-12, 02:01 PM
If I wanted to run in a tristalt game, what in addition to Truenamer//Factotum should I pick up? Maybe a melee to supplement it?
Steward
2011-09-12, 02:19 PM
I think you should consider a class that benefits from the high-intelligence that a Truenamer requires, such as a Wizard.
Tyndmyr
2011-09-12, 02:50 PM
If I wanted to run in a tristalt game, what in addition to Truenamer//Factotum should I pick up? Maybe a melee to supplement it?
Something that either uses or pumps int.
For instance, if you're a grey elf, going elven generalist wizard and popping into elf paragon is fairly helpful.
Fouredged Sword
2011-09-12, 02:57 PM
Or you could play up the factotum and go wizard / swiftblade.
Very roguelike, but with powerful spells and abilites, but int focused.
You would get lots of actions every round, and I could see some exploits based on time stop and layering truespeaking / quickened truespeaking. You could potentialy throw out a lot of effects every round.
tyckspoon
2011-09-12, 03:04 PM
I think you should consider a class that benefits from the high-intelligence that a Truenamer requires, such as a Wizard.
Being able to Caster Lens/Magic Contraction/Spell Rebirth yourself would be pretty handy, especially if you can get your Truespeak high enough to reliably Quicken them, but otherwise you'd have very little reason to Utter instead of cast a spell aside from maybe saving yourself a spell known on Solid Fog. I'd not really be looking at castery/Int-stacking classes at all in this case (well, maybe a dip into Monk + Kung-Fu Genius/Carmendine Monk, 'cause why not) For a third class, I'd want something that stands on its own well.. Warblade, perhaps, which does still benefit from the Int and whose maneuvers should be complementary to Utterances, not completely overshadowing them like a full caster's spells would.
Fouredged Sword
2011-09-12, 03:14 PM
A warblade is a very nice choice. You got melee, casting (truespeaking), and skills. All int based.
You can self heal, use random spells (Factotum), and kill stuff. the Truespeaker functions much better when you are only useing it to cast quickened utterances to control the battlefield and self heal.
I would consider a 2 level monk dip still though. Int to ac when unarmored will prevent headaches with truespeaking being SLA's.
maximus25
2011-09-12, 03:28 PM
A warblade is a very nice choice. You got melee, casting (truespeaking), and skills. All int based.
You can self heal, use random spells (Factotum), and kill stuff. the Truespeaker functions much better when you are only useing it to cast quickened utterances to control the battlefield and self heal.
I would consider a 2 level monk dip still though. Int to ac when unarmored will prevent headaches with truespeaking being SLA's.
Sounds good, thanks.
Fouredged Sword
2011-09-12, 03:40 PM
In combat truespeaking would bloom late though. I would apply a DPS or self fast-healing and then go for the kill, useing truespeaking to heal after combat to allow for a reckless combat style.
Warblade manuvers should focus on damage. Tiger claw may serve you well.
Swift action economy will be a problem though later in the game. I think there is a warblade stance that allows you to take two a round. I would be prepared to choose every round to ether recover manuvers or use a quickened utterance. If I am right (AFB check me, it may just allow two boosts or something) about the stance that allows two swift actions then two quickened utterances a round will make truenamer really, really useful.
maximus25
2011-09-12, 03:44 PM
We are starting at 24th level. So I have a lot to work with. 200 million gold. Epic feats. :smallbiggrin:
Fouredged Sword
2011-09-12, 04:00 PM
Then go, be free.
Seriously though you may be faceing foes with such high CR's that hitting them is imposible even for epic wealth. I would pick utterances focused on quickened self buffs and area effects that bypass individual target CRs.
Also the capstone for Warblade is your friend, but take your first four epic levels in MoTN. Next level you will be able to be in three stances at once. That and being able to pull out a heal (devoted spirit final strike) at will is nice for undoing, well, everything bad that can happen to you.
If you take font of insperation a few times you are looking at a tremendous number of actions a round without magic.
OMG PONIES
2011-09-12, 04:04 PM
A general thought:
I just realized something that might be awesome if you have a DM working with specific fluff. The feat Aereni Focus from...Player's Guide to Eberron, I think, gives you a +3 bonus on a skill. Additionally, it's always a class skill for you. Lastly, it counts as Skill Focus for the purpose of meeting prerequisites, but doesn't say anything about being unable to take Skill Focus as well.
Could an elf with Aereni Focus and Skill Focus be a decent Truenamer base at low levels? You wouldn't need any Able Learner/factotum/Truename Training business to keep Truespeak as a class skill, and you get a +3 untyped bonus while you're at it. Seems pretty good to me, but what do y'all think?
maximus25
2011-09-12, 04:08 PM
Then go, be free.
Seriously though you may be faceing foes with such high CR's that hitting them is imposible even for epic wealth. I would pick utterances focused on quickened self buffs and area effects that bypass individual target CRs.
Also the capstone for Warblade is your friend, but take your first four epic levels in MoTN. Next level you will be able to be in three stances at once. That and being able to pull out a heal (devoted spirit final strike) at will is nice for undoing, well, everything bad that can happen to you.
If you take font of insperation a few times you are looking at a tremendous number of actions a round without magic.
I can get up to a 100+ truename mod easily, how is their CR gonna be so high that it's impossible to hit them? And even if I can't, I have warblade to be all like blam, axe to face. Or some other super weapon.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-02, 06:32 PM
If you're starting at level, say, 27, what's the best way to work out how much wealth you've lost to the Paragnostic Assembly? WBL is crazy at Epic levels, and losing 10% or more of that huge number is an enormous hit. Is this one of those "work it out with your DM" kind of things, or has anyone come up with a good method of dealing with this?
mootoall
2011-10-02, 06:36 PM
Starting at level 27? Who would start at such a preposterous number? :smalltongue: I'm watching you, Ragged!
Mr.Bookworm
2011-10-02, 06:45 PM
If you're starting at level, say, 27, what's the best way to work out how much wealth you've lost to the Paragnostic Assembly? WBL is crazy at Epic levels, and losing 10% or more of that huge number is an enormous hit. Is this one of those "work it out with your DM" kind of things, or has anyone come up with a good method of dealing with this?
You run the Paragnostic Assembly (note: If you do not run the Paragnostic Assembly, well, that's what conjunctive gate is for). Fill out checks to yourself if it makes you feel better.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-02, 06:48 PM
You run the Paragnostic Assembly (note: If you do not run the Paragnostic Assembly, well, that's what conjunctive gate is for). Fill out checks to yourself if it makes you feel better.
Mootoall? Does that sound awesome to you? Because I think it sounds like a great idea.
Okay, follow-up question. Are there any good homebrew systems for Epic Truenaming? I'm about to start using my Google-foo, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask here.
Lord_Gareth
2011-10-02, 06:48 PM
Starting at level 27? Who would start at such a preposterous number? :smalltongue: I'm watching you, Ragged!
I had my player start at level 27 once, in an effort to visibly demonstrate the tier system to them. They fought a 17th level (20th level experience, crafted three levels away) wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil. It was eight on one. The wizard spent every single standard action he had for the fight drinking martinis.
He killed them all.
Arundel
2011-10-02, 07:01 PM
I had my player start at level 27 once, in an effort to visibly demonstrate the tier system to them. They fought a 17th level (20th level experience, crafted three levels away) wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil. It was eight on one. The wizard spent every single standard action he had for the fight drinking martinis.
He killed them all.
This is probably the most outstanding thing I have read on these boards in a long time.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-02, 07:10 PM
I had my player start at level 27 once, in an effort to visibly demonstrate the tier system to them. They fought a 17th level (20th level experience, crafted three levels away) wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil. It was eight on one. The wizard spent every single standard action he had for the fight drinking martinis.
He killed them all.
I hope this was the kind of group that makes the "Fighters are awesome because they can use their weapons all day" and "Monks are awesome because they get so many abilities and attacks and stuff" arguments. I used to play with a group like that, until I got fed up with their terribleness.
To put my old group into perspective, I played a Truenamer with them once. I had to stop playing her, because she dominated every combat. Think about that for a minute. Yeah.
sreservoir
2011-10-02, 07:34 PM
If you're starting at level, say, 27, what's the best way to work out how much wealth you've lost to the Paragnostic Assembly? WBL is crazy at Epic levels, and losing 10% or more of that huge number is an enormous hit. Is this one of those "work it out with your DM" kind of things, or has anyone come up with a good method of dealing with this?
epic WBL might be crazy, but epic magic item costs are similarly crazy. it's just a loss of 10%; it looks like big numbers, but really isn't all that big a deal comparatively.
(still annoying, but not as much as having class features be useless.)
Steward
2011-10-02, 07:39 PM
To put my old group into perspective, I played a Truenamer with them once. I had to stop playing her, because she dominated every combat. Think about that for a minute. Yeah.
Did you roll behind a screen or something? Damn!
RaggedAngel
2011-10-02, 07:46 PM
Did you roll behind a screen or something? Damn!
You have to understand; when the Fighter is using a Bastard Sword and a Tower Shield, the Monk is alternating between running around "to distract them" and using his Flurry of Misses and the Rogue is shooting a crossbow from 45 feet away a polished Truenamer is extremely versatile and powerful.
Lord_Gareth
2011-10-02, 08:08 PM
I hope this was the kind of group that makes the "Fighters are awesome because they can use their weapons all day" and "Monks are awesome because they get so many abilities and attacks and stuff" arguments. I used to play with a group like that, until I got fed up with their terribleness.
The group was:
Monk 27 (The Inscrutable Master Girard): Built for kama use. Convinced that Monks were powerful caster-killers due to all-good saves and spell resistance. Smacked into a violet warding and failed his save, resulting in his transportation to Avernus.
Fighter 17/Kensai 10 (The Duke of Truth and Loss): TWF, convinced his sheer number of attacks > any enemy. Espoused that fighters are versatile due to their many feats. Killed by summoned balor.
Wizard 27 (Kratos): Evocation specialist, banned conjuration and abjuration. Didn't understand why blasting is sub-optimal. Killed by summoned balor.
Swordsage 20/Master of Nine 5/Rogue 2: Focused on Shadow Hand and Diamond Mind, fought with a greatsword. Fairly competent, was tragically killed by a summoned balor.
Bard 27: Tried being a buffamancer, got taken out by a warding that turned him to stone when he tried to charge the wizard.
Cleric 27: Priest of Elhonna, memorized healing spells and summons. Called several animals to the battlefield (that couldn't penetrate the wardings) before being taken out by the summoned balor.
Hexblade 27: "It's magic AND melee, man! You can't beat that!" Except the balor did, to the merry tune of the mage drinking martinis.
Compwar Ex-Samurai 17/Ronin 10: "Class flavor and mechanics aren't separate, man! If you wanna be a samurai you should just play one!" Sadly found that even the fighter did better. Killed by summoned balor.
Noticing a theme here?
sreservoir
2011-10-02, 08:39 PM
where'd the balor come from if the wizard was busy drinking martinis?
Lord_Gareth
2011-10-02, 08:41 PM
where'd the balor come from if the wizard was busy drinking martinis?
Party opted for three rounds of 'buff time'. Wizard used a scroll of delayed Gate, a protection from evil and the spell to conjure his lawn chair into his bag of holding during this time. Spent the whole fight sitting in said lawn chair, drinking martinis and occasionally hitting his 'no' button until the balor showed up.
BlueInc
2011-10-03, 02:14 PM
I had my player start at level 27 once, in an effort to visibly demonstrate the tier system to them. They fought a 17th level (20th level experience, crafted three levels away) wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil. It was eight on one. The wizard spent every single standard action he had for the fight drinking martinis.
He killed them all.
I kind of want to sig this.
Lord_Gareth
2011-10-03, 02:24 PM
Feel free, I'm flattered.
Essence_of_War
2011-10-03, 02:51 PM
That was pretty amazing Lord Gareth. :smallbiggrin:
How many rounds did this combat last for?
GoodbyeSoberDay
2011-10-03, 03:03 PM
Seems like you could have just pit them against, say, two Balors and still won, which speaks to their optimization level instead of the tier system. Especially since they had T1 characters on their side. But still, immediate actions ftw.
sreservoir
2011-10-03, 03:24 PM
Seems like you could have just pit them against, say, two Balors and still won, which speaks to their optimization level instead of the tier system. Especially since they had T1 characters on their side. But still, immediate actions ftw.
the fact that the wizard is capable of trivially getting balors and pressing no buttons does say something about the tier system, however.
optimization level more, perhaps, but.
Doug Lampert
2011-10-03, 03:30 PM
Party opted for three rounds of 'buff time'. Wizard used a scroll of delayed Gate, a protection from evil and the spell to conjure his lawn chair into his bag of holding during this time. Spent the whole fight sitting in said lawn chair, drinking martinis and occasionally hitting his 'no' button until the balor showed up.
I do hope that you announced the wizard's action each time his initiative came up.
Still, a party of level 27s unable to take a balor or two? Something amiss here.
There's a level 27 wizard, so he's got 4 epic feats, epic spellcasting (just because), multispell x2, automatic quicken spell (once only because you just qualified) makes for some powerful blasting if you have anything they're not resistant to.
Cieyrin
2011-10-03, 03:57 PM
I do hope that you announced the wizard's action each time his initiative came up.
Still, a party of level 27s unable to take a balor or two? Something amiss here.
There's a level 27 wizard, so he's got 4 epic feats, epic spellcasting (just because), multispell x2, automatic quicken spell (once only because you just qualified) makes for some powerful blasting if you have anything they're not resistant to.
Auto Quicken got nerfed in Complete Arcane, I believe. Instead of 0-3rd, it's 0th and 1st and then a new level each time you take it, so not necessarily a win button as before. I believe Auto Silent and Auto Still remain the same, however.
Doug Lampert
2011-10-03, 05:03 PM
Auto Quicken got nerfed in Complete Arcane, I believe. Instead of 0-3rd, it's 0th and 1st and then a new level each time you take it, so not necessarily a win button as before. I believe Auto Silent and Auto Still remain the same, however.
Hadn't heard that, its a good nerf (improved spell capacity isn't obviously a waste of a feat that could have gone to automatic quicken or multispell with that nerf).
But it's not good enough to stop the might of Stupid Blaster Wizard Man!
SBWM! gets 5 epic feats (not the four I gave him above), so he has multispellx4 and automatic quicken x1. He can cast 6 spells per round as long as 5 of them are either quickened or level 1.
SBWM! spends the princely sum of 56,000 GP on four metamagic rods of maximize. Then, SBWM prepares a bog standard magic missile in every level 1 to 3 slot he has.
Three Buffing Rounds: SBWM! sees no enemy to attack, he doesn't do anything but blast, so he sniffs some glue and then draws two rods.
Round 1: SBWM! throws 5 magic missiles (all maximized) for 125 force damage, SR can't help against this (balor's SR is 28, SBWM has penetration of 31 or so at level 27, one does not autofail). SBWM drops a rod, and with his move action draws his third rod. For his spell he throws a cone of cold, hitting the balor for over 50 cold on average, the balor has resist cold 10 so only >40 gets through for >165 damage.
Round 2: Thanks the the healbot cleric casting Mass Heal SBWM! is still on his feet, since the healbot failed to cast Holy Word (a nice level 7 spell that should be prepared and would trivially solve the balor problem) there are still two balors to deal with. SBWM! drops his other mostly expended rod, draws the last rod as a move action, and throws 5 more magic missiles for another 125 force damage, which puts the balor at >290 damage and it dies.
"I wonder how the rest of the party is doing against the other Balor?" says SBWM!. Then he greater teleports away to his favorite magic mart to buy two replacement rods.
I'm not sure I CAN make a less effective level 27 character than this. But he still kills a Balor fairly reliably in two turns.
DougL
Cieyrin
2011-10-04, 09:04 AM
Idk why he needs to buy new metamagic rods, given they're uses/day, not charged items.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-04, 10:39 AM
Idk why he needs to buy new metamagic rods, given they're uses/day, not charged items.
Don't question it. The mind of a player who looks at every single 1st-3rd level spell and thinks "man, these suck. Magic Missile for the win" is not a thing that you want to contemplate. It is a dark and scary place.
Of course, maybe he likes playing incredibly inefficient Blaster Wizards. I mean, I've played two Truenamers and I'm about to play an Epic Truenamer, so I can hardly throw stones at weak character choices.
Doug Lampert
2011-10-04, 12:09 PM
Idk why he needs to buy new metamagic rods, given they're uses/day, not charged items.
Eh? Three reasons:
(1) He's used 10 of his 12 uses already, and he has over a dozen magic missiles left.
(2) He just teleported out of the fiasco and prior to that had dropped two rods, he needs to replace them with the spare pocket change he found in his sofa this morning.
(3) He's SBWM!, SBWM! knows you can NEVER have too many quickened maximized magic missiles available, I'm honestly not sure what he's doing with his fourth level slots since they could also hold level 1 magic missiles and are clearly too weak to be otherwise useful since they can't hold Meteor Swarms or Empowered or Maximized Fireballs or Cones of Cold or anything like that.
Don't question it. The mind of a player who looks at every single 1st-3rd level spell and thinks "man, these suck. Magic Missile for the win" is not a thing that you want to contemplate. It is a dark and scary place.
Not true, SBWM! and his friends Useless Healbot Cleric Gal! Polish Minedetector Archer Rogue! And Fighter with Core Only Feats! Are a fine group to contemplate in the abstract. And as long as they only play with each other they may even be having fun with it (except the healbot, she's SOL unless she's only there to socialize and doesn't care about the game at all).
In theory the game was designed arround people only slightly more optimized than they are.
Lord_Gareth
2011-10-04, 08:14 PM
SBWM! gets 5 epic feats (not the four I gave him above), so he has multispellx4 and automatic quicken x1. He can cast 6 spells per round as long as 5 of them are either quickened or level 1.
Not so much. Additional Magic Item Space (Ring), Energy Resistance (Fire) x2, Epic Spell Penetration and Epic Spell Focus (Evocation).
He also didn't choose or use any metamagic or item creation feats, for all future reference, the former because "they aren't really helpful" and the latter because "nothing is worth paying XP."
You can see why I had the enemy mage drinking martinis.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-05, 12:13 AM
I finally did it. I went ahead and made a batch of Epic utterances, homework be damned. They're all (mostly) extensions of normal utterances, except that they should be level-appropriate for an Epic character.
Here's the thread. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=217712)
Doug Lampert
2011-10-05, 10:39 AM
Not so much. Additional Magic Item Space (Ring), Energy Resistance (Fire) x2, Epic Spell Penetration and Epic Spell Focus (Evocation).
He also didn't choose or use any metamagic or item creation feats, for all future reference, the former because "they aren't really helpful" and the latter because "nothing is worth paying XP."
You can see why I had the enemy mage drinking martinis.
How odd, but that's an entirely different form of stupid, we need another acronym. SBWM! loves metamagic, he still pines for 3.0 when you could stack multiple empowers on the same spell. If he knew about non-core sources and could chain and split he'd love metamagic even more. And as for crafting, SBWM! started doing that after his first day of adventure when he got people to return to town after one encounter with kobolds rather than continuing, because that encounter gave him 75 XP and he had about 160 GP and thus could make a scroll of 12 level 1 spells and ray of frost (for only 12 XP since you round down) and never again worry about running out of slots.
He's been crafting ever since because crafting saves money, money is power, and with POWER you can BLAST!
Doug Lampert
2011-10-05, 11:27 AM
Not so much. Additional Magic Item Space (Ring), Energy Resistance (Fire) x2, Epic Spell Penetration and Epic Spell Focus (Evocation).
He also didn't choose or use any metamagic or item creation feats, for all future reference, the former because "they aren't really helpful" and the latter because "nothing is worth paying XP."
You can see why I had the enemy mage drinking martinis.
I keep looking at that and I'm awed. Energy Resistance x2?!? Seriously? 20 fire resistance that DOESN'T stack with items? What's the point?
Epic Spell Focus?!? Greater Int I could live with, Int has loads of uses other than save DC. But what's the point of Epic Spell Focus? +1 to save DCs? I'd forgotten that feat even existed and had to look it up. I was expecting something USEFUL like a +4 bonus or so, but the same as the non-epic feat only it stacks higher?
I don't see Extra Slot unless you weren't letting them stack multiple effects on the same item. Otherwise extra slot is just a way to save small amounts of money. If this bozo cared about money he'd craft, he doesn't, ergo, he shouldn't think saving money is worth an epic feat.
Epic Spell Penetration is the only feat on that list that's even understandable, epic monsters have very high SR, I wouldn't take it, not even for a deliberately stupid build, but I can see the appeal. The rest are just wasted feats, and feats are almost all a caster GETS from being epic. I'd have more sympathy if he took melee feats, that at least suggests an INTERESTING way to fail.
GoodbyeSoberDay
2011-10-05, 12:12 PM
I think this teaches us a valuable lesson. At bizarrely low levels of optimization, the tier system disappears. In its place is the "we can't even beat CR=ECL-5 foes" system.
Tyndmyr
2011-10-05, 12:17 PM
I think this teaches us a valuable lesson. At bizarrely low levels of optimization, the tier system disappears. In its place is the "we can't even beat CR=ECL-5 foes" system.
Yes. Sufficiently poor play can make even the highest of tier classes terrible in practice. If you rolled 3d6 in order, and got a terrible int score, but still wanted to play an orcish wizard....well, life will not be kind to you.
There's a certain level of op that's pretty much required for things to work as advertised on the tin.
JaronK
2011-10-05, 02:14 PM
I think this teaches us a valuable lesson. At bizarrely low levels of optimization, the tier system disappears. In its place is the "we can't even beat CR=ECL-5 foes" system.
Yup. Remember, the playtesters (at least the ones that were listened to) thought 3.0 and 3.5 were balanced. So, at that level of optimization...
JaronK
Grendus
2011-10-05, 02:41 PM
I had my player start at level 27 once, in an effort to visibly demonstrate the tier system to them. They fought a 17th level (20th level experience, crafted three levels away) wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil. It was eight on one. The wizard spent every single standard action he had for the fight drinking martinis.
He killed them all.
By the end he was very drunk, and very very rich. He probably leveled, and is one exp from the next, that's something like a CR 32 battle. I'm also fighting the urge to sig that. How'd they take it?
Socratov
2011-10-05, 02:45 PM
By the end he was very drunk, and very very rich. He probably leveled, and is one exp from the next, that's something like a CR 32 battle. I'm also fighting the urge to sig that. How'd they take it?
I don't know, but I'm guessing they didn't...
Cieyrin
2011-10-05, 03:04 PM
Self Scrubbed for Extremely Poor Taste in Humor.
gkathellar
2011-10-05, 04:58 PM
That was in very poor taste.
Qwertystop
2011-10-05, 05:31 PM
I had my player start at level 27 once, in an effort to visibly demonstrate the tier system to them. They fought a 17th level (20th level experience, crafted three levels away) wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil. It was eight on one. The wizard spent every single standard action he had for the fight drinking martinis.
He killed them all.
I also want to sig this.
Cieyrin
2011-10-05, 06:19 PM
That was in very poor taste.
In hind sight, it was probably not a good idea to remind people of the dark age of gaming, so let me go scrub that post so people need not Google it and be horrified.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-07, 05:39 PM
Known Personal Truename: This is about half fluff and half crunch. Functionally, you'll get a net +2 (+4 bonus for it being yours, then –2 penalty for it being a personal name, net +2) to affect yourself with an utterance. What kind of bonus? Well, pg. 200 lists it as untyped, and pg. 196 says it's a competence bonus. Beats me.
You know how you said every time you read this chapter you find another mistake or error? It happens to me too.
Page 196 call this a competence bonus, page 200 calls it an untyped bonus, page 231 calls it a competence bonus (in the Recitation section), and page 233 calls it a circumstance bonus.
Rock on, WotC.
Gotterdammerung
2011-10-11, 10:58 PM
The monster manual list's fast healing as "Natural healing except as noted here."
One cheasy trick would be to get your party healer(or cleric or druid) to cast healthful rest on the entire party. Now your various different words of nurturing will give double the normal fast healing amount.
Probably a scaling cheasy rating.
1/5 for for minor since fast healing 1 and FH 2 isnt a big diff.
2/5 lesser FH3 becomes FH6
3/5 moderate FH 5 becomes FH 10
5/5 potent FH10 becomes FH20
5/5 critical FH15 becomes FH30
10/5 greater FH20 becomes FH40
BobVosh
2011-10-12, 06:08 AM
I had my player start at level 27 once, in an effort to visibly demonstrate the tier system to them. They fought a 17th level (20th level experience, crafted three levels away) wizard/initiate of the sevenfold veil. It was eight on one. The wizard spent every single standard action he had for the fight drinking martinis.
He killed them all.
I think the important question is "was it one martini per round, or 8 sips of one martini?"
I could see the COP questions now: "Assuming I drink one martini a round, how many martinis should I ready for my next fight?"
Obviously need a deity with alcohol as one of the portfolios.
Flickerdart
2011-10-12, 10:42 AM
I think the important question is "was it one martini per round, or 8 sips of one martini?"
I could see the COP questions now: "Assuming I drink one martini a round, how many martinis should I ready for my next fight?"
Obviously need a deity with alcohol as one of the portfolios.
That could easily backfire, as "one martini" might mean either a pushover, or such a powerful enemy that one round is all you get before you have to get serious (or are already dead).
Aquillion
2011-10-12, 11:54 AM
I'm not sure I CAN make a less effective level 27 character than this. But he still kills a Balor fairly reliably in two turns.That's not actually that suboptimal. I mean, sure, he's being stupid to focus on Magic Missile, but aside from that his feat choices are pretty good -- he at least recognizes the basic fact that "hey, I'm entirely based around spellcasting. Maybe feats that let me cast more spells quickly and stuff that lets me cast spells better would be a good idea?"
There are wizards who focus on Toughness.
GoodbyeSoberDay
2011-10-12, 12:15 PM
It's all relative, but cmon, DL's wizard is still on the shallow end of the pool as far as optimization level is concerned. A wizard who focuses on toughness wears water wings in the shallow end and still manages to drown.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-12, 12:32 PM
It's all relative, but cmon, DL's wizard is still on the shallow end of the pool as far as optimization level is concerned. A wizard who focuses on toughness wears water wings in the shallow end and still manages to drown.
I hate to say this, but this conversation, interesting though it may be, is a pretty clear derailment from a thread about Truenamers.
That said, Truenamers don't do that well in Epic games either, what with the complete lack of any Epic options outside of my signature homebrew.
Have any of you ever played a Truenamer in an Epic game without homebrew? How did it go? What did you do to "keep up"?
Doug Lampert
2011-10-12, 12:33 PM
That's not actually that suboptimal. I mean, sure, he's being stupid to focus on Magic Missile, but aside from that his feat choices are pretty good -- he at least recognizes the basic fact that "hey, I'm entirely based around spellcasting. Maybe feats that let me cast more spells quickly and stuff that lets me cast spells better would be a good idea?"
There are wizards who focus on Toughness.
For a purely bad build you can just take a wizard with less than 9 or fewer Int and low Con or take levels in commoner and not bother with Handle Animal.
IMAO a "good" bad build should have all the choices make sense from some point of view. In the case of Stupid Blaster Wizard Man! the POV is that of someone who wants to blast. To do direct HP damage in combat. To basically make an archer who shoots spells rather than arrows. That an actual archer can do it better is irrelevant to him.
If the choices don't make sense from the POV of the guy who wants to blast then that's not so much a bad build as deliberately nerfing the character.
Note that concentrating on MM wasn't a deliberate self-nerf, SBWM! concentrates on blasting, and MM is the cannonical level 1 blast spell, no save damage is actually pretty useful, and automatic quicken + level 27 means he'll NEVER waste an action in combat to cast an actual level 2 or 3 spell from an actual level 2 or 3 slot. Those spells come from level 6 or 7 slots as quickened spells or need a lesser rod of quicken. There are other level 1 spells that would be worth having automatic-quickened, maybe they're in his level 4 slots (I never did figure out what he was doing with them after all).
Similarly toughness strikes me as a perfectly tolerable level 1 wizard feat in a core only game. And core only you can't later swap it out to something useful. But I'm roleplaying someone who wants to live, whatever sort of training produces the toughness feat isn't a bad choice at level 1, and the CHARACTER doesn't know that the universe will conspire to hand him nothing but survivable encounters. But toughness at all levels doesn't sound like a "good" bad build to me, simply because I can't imagine what mind-set looks at the feat selections, and looks at a wizard, and thinks "I think I'll take toughness with every feat!"
Same thing with Lord Gareth's player with "Additional Magic Item Space (Ring), Energy Resistance (Fire) x2, Epic Spell Penetration and Epic Spell Focus (Evocation)." I just can't fit my head around a mindset that looked at the Epic feats for a wizard and thought that was a good build.
DougL
RaggedAngel
2011-10-12, 12:35 PM
For a purely bad build you can just take a wizard with less than 9 or fewer Int and low Con or take levels in commoner and not bother with Handle Animal.
IMAO a "good" bad build should have all the choices make sense from some point of view. In the case of Stupid Blaster Wizard Man! the POV is that of someone who wants to blast. To do direct HP damage in combat. To basically make an archer who shoots spells rather than arrows. That an actual archer can do it better is irrelevant to him.
If the choices don't make sense from the POV of the guy who wants to blast then that's not so much a bad build as deliberately nerfing the character.
Note that concentrating on MM wasn't a deliberate self-nerf, SBWM! concentrates on blasting, and MM is the cannonical level 1 blast spell, no save damage is actually pretty useful, and automatic quicken + level 27 means he'll NEVER waste an action in combat to cast an actual level 2 or 3 spell from an actual level 2 or 3 slot. Those spells come from level 6 or 7 slots as quickened spells or need a lesser rod of quicken. There are other level 1 spells that would be worth having automatic-quickened, maybe they're in his level 4 slots (I never did figure out what he was doing with them after all).
Similarly toughness strikes me as a perfectly tolerable level 1 wizard feat in a core only game. And core only you can't later swap it out to something useful. But I'm roleplaying someone who wants to live, whatever sort of training produces the toughness feat isn't a bad choice at level 1, and the CHARACTER doesn't know that the universe will conspire to hand him nothing but survivable encounters. But toughness at all levels doesn't sound like a "good" bad build to me, simply because I can't imagine what mind-set looks at the feat selections, and looks at a wizard, and thinks "I think I'll take toughness with every feat!"
Same thing with Lord Gareth's player with "Additional Magic Item Space (Ring), Energy Resistance (Fire) x2, Epic Spell Penetration and Epic Spell Focus (Evocation)." I just can't fit my head around a mindset that looked at the Epic feats for a wizard and thought that was a good build.
DougL
...This still has nothing to do with Truenamers. Seriously, threads can get locked for derailment, and that would suck. I am as amused by SBWM as you guys are, but let's show Zaq some respect by keeping his thread on topic.
Tyndmyr
2011-10-12, 12:40 PM
I hate to say this, but this conversation, interesting though it may be, is a pretty clear derailment from a thread about Truenamers.
That said, Truenamers don't do that well in Epic games either, what with the complete lack of any Epic options outside of my signature homebrew.
Have any of you ever played a Truenamer in an Epic game without homebrew? How did it go? What did you do to "keep up"?
I have not, but I would theorize that you'd probably spam gate, PrC out into something that actually helps you, since you can't reasonably get a great deal out of Epic Truenamer, and abuse the hell out of UMD.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-12, 12:44 PM
I have not, but I would theorize that you'd probably spam gate, PrC out into something that actually helps you, since you can't reasonably get a great deal out of Epic Truenamer, and abuse the hell out of UMD.
Assuming that you have a +30 (or higher, if you have a hell of a lot of money) competence item, Epic Skill Focus, and other boosts, you're pretty much casting and Quickening your utterances at-will. You can also "Heighten" them pretty high, meaning that your DC's will be fairly competitive as long as you keep your Cha high. I think the real problem is that you just don't have many utterances that matter to Epic opponents. Your party may be better off hiring the Balor you always Gate in instead of keeping you around. :smallwink:
RedWarrior0
2011-10-12, 12:48 PM
Oh, incidentally, there is one perk about being a Truenamer: That damn crab you're facing? Guess what. While your Fighter, CW Samurai and CA Ninja struggle against its real CR, and your Healer struggles to keep up with its real CR's damage output, you get to talk about its written CR.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-12, 12:50 PM
Oh, incidentally, there is one perk about being a Truenamer: That damn crab you're facing? Guess what. While your Fighter, CW Samurai and CA Ninja struggle against its real CR, and your Healer struggles to keep up with its real CR's damage output, you get to talk about its written CR.
...Dear god man, you're a genius. That is the true power of the Truenamer: being sort of decent against horribly under-CR'd monsters!
That said, it also means that over-CR'd creatures are harder for you to hurt than any of your party members, meaning that you get to such against weak things, which is kind of terrible.
Doug Lampert
2011-10-12, 12:51 PM
...This still has nothing to do with Truenamers. Seriously, threads can get locked for derailment, and that would suck. I am as amused by SBWM as you guys are, but let's show Zaq some respect by keeping his thread on topic.
Sorry, I was posting while you were posting. But you are correct. That should go in another thread.
I think your Epic Truenamer clearly takes Epic Skill Focus (you get one guess which skill). The extra (stacking) +10 bonus to truenaming is just too good to pass up. Great Intelligence might be worth considering, I'd probably take it everytime I had an odd Int score and got an epic feat.
An epic item of +truenaming simply breaks the system. There's no upper limit on the size of such bonuses for epic items other than money so you suddenly CAN make a +35 to truenaming item even if you were previously limited to +10.
You have to figure that at level 21 your truenamer bonus goes up by 35 or so points over what it was at level 20.
Truenamer isn't the class without a tier because it's weak, that's tier 6. Truenamer is the class without a tier because skill checks against 15+2*CR doesn't do what it's supposed to, it doesn't scale the class's abilities appropriately. At epic levels this problem goes on steroids. Truenamers may well be broken overpowered at epic levels, even without any epic utterances.
Tyndmyr
2011-10-12, 12:56 PM
Oh, incidentally, there is one perk about being a Truenamer: That damn crab you're facing? Guess what. While your Fighter, CW Samurai and CA Ninja struggle against its real CR, and your Healer struggles to keep up with its real CR's damage output, you get to talk about its written CR.
Thats true. Also, from experience, it means that the dude in your party who took a high LA race? Yeah, he's EASY to heal.
Getting to suck vs weak things, and be awesome vs strong things is actually pretty badass. Good for the party.
Honestly, I'd probably dive into Factotum quickly. Epic skill focus is a good choce, and more int never hurts...but Factotum is already int based, and I can now be good at everything, and additional actions for more truenaming beatdown? Yes.
The biggest problem I predict is that your damage doesn't scale. So, get far enough into epic, and you'll have scaling issues.
Aquillion
2011-10-13, 12:10 PM
I hate to say this, but this conversation, interesting though it may be, is a pretty clear derailment from a thread about Truenamers.
That said, Truenamers don't do that well in Epic games either, what with the complete lack of any Epic options outside of my signature homebrew.
Have any of you ever played a Truenamer in an Epic game without homebrew? How did it go? What did you do to "keep up"?Remember, an Epic Truenamer has nearly unlimited free Gates per day. Even with just that and absolutely nothing else, they're still going to utterly overshadow every class below Tier 2, and honestly, they're going to beat less optimized Tier 2s who don't dip into epic spellcasting. Casting Gate in every single encounter is fairly insane -- I mean, basically, you're "playing" as any outsider with twice your HD, selected per-encounter for whatever fits that encounter best. You can probably abuse it in insane ways people would never use regular Gate due to the XP cost, too -- for instance, your routine at the beginning of every day could be to Gate in a really really high-level natural casting outsider and have them buff you while you raise their caster level even higher with Caster Lens.
(Some DMs might allow a Truenamer to qualify for epic spellcasting, too, since Gate is a 9th level spell and they can cast it -- though obviously you'd want to find a way to add Spellcraft to your list.)
I mean, let's be fair, you're not a Truenamer at that point, you're that-guy-who-has-Gate-as-an-SLA. But whatever.
Doug Lampert
2011-10-13, 01:02 PM
Remember, an Epic Truenamer has nearly unlimited free Gates per day. Even with just that and absolutely nothing else, they're still going to utterly overshadow every class below Tier 2, and honestly, they're going to beat less optimized Tier 2s who don't dip into epic spellcasting. Casting Gate in every single encounter is fairly insane -- I mean, basically, you're "playing" as any outsider with twice your HD, selected per-encounter for whatever fits that encounter best. You can probably abuse it in insane ways people would never use regular Gate due to the XP cost, too -- for instance, your routine at the beginning of every day could be to Gate in a really really high-level natural casting outsider and have them buff you while you raise their caster level even higher with Caster Lens.
(Some DMs might allow a Truenamer to qualify for epic spellcasting, too, since Gate is a 9th level spell and they can cast it -- though obviously you'd want to find a way to add Spellcraft to your list.)
I mean, let's be fair, you're not a Truenamer at that point, you're that-guy-who-has-Gate-as-an-SLA. But whatever.
I would not allow Epic Spellcasting, Conjuctive Gate is not Gate.
You're not JUST "that-guy-who-has-Gate-as-an-SLA", you're "that-guy-who-has-Gate-as-an-SLA who can also do anything a truenamer can do". All the spellcaster assistance tricks and various words still work, and you can do them in the background with your suddenly totally absurd Truenamer Check while your solar or balor or whatever friend beats the crap out of people.
Tyndmyr
2011-10-13, 01:29 PM
Well, it doesn't matter if it is gate or not...it matters if it counts as arcane or divine. RAW, I don't believe truenaming is either(no ACF, no real basis for divine), and offhand, Im not sure how to make it one. If it doesn't meet that, then you're SOL regardless.
That said, once you have no real reason to go futher in the truenamer class, you can work on say, an accelerated casting PrC. Nine levels of Ur-Priest is a fairly straightforward way to qualify, and with the ability to gate in the solutions to all your problems, you shouldn't be exactly weak in the meantime.
Coidzor
2011-10-13, 01:58 PM
He also didn't choose or use any metamagic or item creation feats, for all future reference, the former because "they aren't really helpful" and the latter because "nothing is worth paying XP."
That is a disturbingly common pair of sentiments I've run into. :smallconfused:
Aquillion
2011-10-13, 06:26 PM
I would not allow Epic Spellcasting, Conjuctive Gate is not Gate.
You're not JUST "that-guy-who-has-Gate-as-an-SLA", you're "that-guy-who-has-Gate-as-an-SLA who can also do anything a truenamer can do". All the spellcaster assistance tricks and various words still work, and you can do them in the background with your suddenly totally absurd Truenamer Check while your solar or balor or whatever friend beats the crap out of people.You can do them, yeah, but they're going to completely pale compared to whatever you Gated in. A handful of of mostly level 3-4 spells which you can't spam thanks to the Law of Sequence, vs. Gate?
Plus, outside of combat, Gate as a utility spell absolutely blows the wheels off of everything else you can do (and, honestly, everything anyone else in your party can do short of Epic Spellcasting, more likely than not.) If there's a spell for it, chances are you can Gate something in that can cast that spell... and dozens more besides. Hell, is there a reason you can't just Gate in an epic spellcasting outsider to use epic spellcasting for you?
That is a disturbingly common pair of sentiments I've run into. :smallconfused:It's easy to see why. Most of the core Metamagic feats, if you use them stupidly on the most obvious spells, are not that great. Empowered Fireball? Eh. And at first glance, Quicken doesn't look that great -- spend two spell slots, one higher-level than it would otherwise be? Why not just cast a probably-more-powerful higher level spell?
It's only at higher levels, when you realize you probably won't be able to get through all your spell slots anyway, that things like Quicken and Extend begin to show their worth. This isn't obvious, though, to a new player who hasn't seen how things actually play out.
sreservoir
2011-10-13, 06:36 PM
You can do them, yeah, but they're going to completely pale compared to whatever you Gated in. A handful of of mostly level 3-4 spells which you can't spam thanks to the Law of Sequence, vs. Gate?
one thing gated in at a time, mind, so the buffing still can help. not much, to be sure, but.
willpell
2011-10-17, 08:27 AM
Enjoyed reading the entire guide itself (assuming you didn't extend it beyond page 1 of the thread), and am now subscribing just so I can see the hilarious name show up in my feed when it's bumped. As a fan of Mummy: the Resurrection, where the Nomenclature Hekau has the same theory as this with a much better execution, I find the concept of the Truenamer fascinating (espeically with the "sourcecode of the universe" flavor), and its poor execution terrible, so seeing it gone over with a fine-tooth comb was fun.
I wonder about Xtomjames's posts on page 1; it sounds as though he maybe guessed that Truenaming worked the same way its authors thought it worked but forgot to specify in the (we've established, incredibly poorly written) rules, and then got in such a huff when people panned the class that Wotco wouldn't let them publish clarifications lest they insult the audience, its mother, and its dog enough to affect profits. Certainly if you could cast spells just by researching their truenames that would justify how hard it is, and it's a cool enough idea that I could see someone actually allowing it in the right kind of campaign.
Aquillion
2011-10-17, 10:48 AM
I wonder about Xtomjames's posts on page 1; it sounds as though he maybe guessed that Truenaming worked the same way its authors thought it worked but forgot to specify in the (we've established, incredibly poorly written) rules, and then got in such a huff when people panned the class that Wotco wouldn't let them publish clarifications lest they insult the audience, its mother, and its dog enough to affect profits. Certainly if you could cast spells just by researching their truenames that would justify how hard it is, and it's a cool enough idea that I could see someone actually allowing it in the right kind of campaign.Honestly, even if you can get past the fact that the class is terribly-written (leaving out vital information, powers written in ways that sometimes make it impossible to figure out what they're really intended to do, etc) the Truenamer's basic mechanics are bad.
The fundamental impossible-to-fix problem with the class, underneath all its other issues, is that making skill checks to activate every single power you want to use is a terrible idea, since it's not a very valid way to give your enemies a chance to defend -- which, in turn, means that any offensive power requires at least two succeed-or-your-turn-is-wasted rolls, while powers that should be trivial still require one roll. Even aside from the balance of the numbers, that's just annoying on a physical level -- constantly rolling so many dice even to take very simple actions gets old fast, and it's frustrating when you have to constantly make sequences of rolls where any one of them will cause your action to fail.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-17, 11:26 AM
Honestly, even if you can get past the fact that the class is terribly-written (leaving out vital information, powers written in ways that sometimes make it impossible to figure out what they're really intended to do, etc) the Truenamer's basic mechanics are bad.
The fundamental impossible-to-fix problem with the class, underneath all its other issues, is that making skill checks to activate every single power you want to use is a terrible idea, since it's not a very valid way to give your enemies a chance to defend -- which, in turn, means that any offensive power requires at least two succeed-or-your-turn-is-wasted rolls, while powers that should be trivial still require one roll. Even aside from the balance of the numbers, that's just annoying on a physical level -- constantly rolling so many dice even to take very simple actions gets old fast, and it's frustrating when you have to constantly make sequences of rolls where any one of them will cause your action to fail.
I understand where you're coming from, but I still love the thought of a skill-based casting system. The Truenamer has a lot of flaws, but it's still a vaguely workable system that allows pure skill to create magical and powerful effects. I love that flavor, and the idea that casting a spell isn't a sure thing. Heck, I think that adding a skill check to normal spellcasting, while a bit cumbersome and time-consuming, is a way to balance it out a bit.
Honestly, I think WotC came close to hitting the mark when they made Beckon Person. The spell works when you hit a flat DC 15 Truespeak check, but the higher your check is, the longer it lasts. You'd have to rebuild the system from the ground up, but I think that has more potential than the binary nonsense we've got now.
Snowbluff
2011-10-17, 11:07 PM
Actually make me want to play a Truenamer for kicks.
Maybe fixing it/making a similar but better class will be my first attempt at making a base class.
Fax Celestis
2011-10-17, 11:12 PM
Honestly, I think WotC came close to hitting the mark when they made Beckon Person. The spell works when you hit a flat DC 15 Truespeak check, but the higher your check is, the longer it lasts. You'd have to rebuild the system from the ground up, but I think that has more potential than the binary nonsense we've got now.
I've been messing around with a preparation/check/recharge system: you prepare a couple spells that you can use basically at will. When casting them, you make a check. Your check determines any possible augments the spell might have and determines how long you have to wait before you can use the spell again (generally measured in rounds). I've not put it to paper, but I'm thinking about it.
TurtleKing
2011-10-18, 01:01 AM
Oh hey Zaq I see you still haven't posted sample builds for the Truenamer in Post 10. Well in my post 111 I presented a gestalt Truenamer that could pull off a high high check without nightstick-ish type abuse. You could use it if you want.
Psyren
2011-10-18, 02:22 AM
Actually make me want to play a Truenamer for kicks.
Maybe fixing it/making a similar but better class will be my first attempt at making a base class.
There are two very good fixes for it brewed right here in the playground -Kyeudo's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176665) and Kellus' older one (which I can't seem to find.) I prefer the former personally but they both get good reviews.
Not to stop you from doing your own thing of course, but if you want to see what the Truenamer should have looked like, those are great places to start.
Actually make me want to play a Truenamer for kicks.
Maybe fixing it/making a similar but better class will be my first attempt at making a base class.
Well, can't say I didn't warn you about what you've got ahead of you, but if you're really into it, let me know how it goes!
Oh hey Zaq I see you still haven't posted sample builds for the Truenamer in Post 10. Well in my post 111 I presented a gestalt Truenamer that could pull off a high high check without nightstick-ish type abuse. You could use it if you want.
I've been meaning to add builds (and a few other tweaks), but I haven't had the mental strength to put the effort into it that it deserves. If I half-ass it, I'm no better than WotC, right? Who knows, though. I'll see what I can do.
journeyman
2011-10-18, 02:30 PM
As a side note for optimizing your truespeak check at low levels I seem to have found a perfectly legit option you've overlooked. Fiendish Codex II offers the Pact Certain (pg24), a faustian contract in which a character sells his soul to a devil for any of a couple different possible rewards. Mechanically this exchange can get you up to a permanent +7 untyped bonus to any class skill (truespeak obviously) and doesn't actually cost you anything but the ability to be brought back by resurrection magics. It doesn't even impact your alignment by RAW (though I could see some DMs disagreeing depending on your presumed motivation for such blatant power grubbing). Of course, anyone planning to take the vile feats and use sacrifice rules may just consider this icing on the cake. For themantic fun you can always try to avoid your eternal destination via a friendly (or pissed off) Bereft and his word of unmaking. :smallwink:
RedWarrior0
2011-10-18, 07:45 PM
It doesn't even impact your alignment by RAW
Blatant lies. FCII, page 23, under The Pact Certain, second paragraph:
Mortals signing such pacts immediately switch alignment to lawful evil
Qwertystop
2011-10-18, 07:51 PM
Blatant lies. FCII, page 23, under The Pact Certain, second paragraph:
Well, if you're already Lawful Evil, or don't care about alignment, or are Good enough that you can work it off, it's still fine.
Good catch, though.
RaggedAngel
2011-10-18, 08:36 PM
Well, if you're already Lawful Evil, or don't care about alignment, or are Good enough that you can work it off, it's still fine.
Good catch, though.
You've made a bit of an alignment fallacy there. Taking the Pact doesn't set some cosmic scale to "Evil", which your character could then do good deeds to change back to "Good". It makes you malicious. It makes you hateful. It changes the very core of your personality to be selfish and cruel and dark.
Being changed to Evil isn't like staining your shirt. It's like changing clothes.
Cieyrin
2011-10-18, 08:48 PM
Being changed to Evil isn't like staining your shirt. It's like changing clothes.
It's more like getting a tattoo. Hard to get rid of and fairly obvious to those who know you.
RedWarrior0
2011-10-18, 08:50 PM
You've made a bit of an alignment fallacy there. Taking the Pact doesn't set some cosmic scale to "Evil", which your character could then do good deeds to change back to "Good". It makes you malicious. It makes you hateful. It changes the very core of your personality to be selfish and cruel and dark.
Being changed to Evil isn't like staining your shirt. It's like changing clothes.
Yeah, later on in the thing it says how, if you want to change back, you've got to forfeit any benefits from the pact. Plus, you'll probably peeve the devils a leetle bit.
Qwertystop
2011-10-18, 09:07 PM
You've made a bit of an alignment fallacy there. Taking the Pact doesn't set some cosmic scale to "Evil", which your character could then do good deeds to change back to "Good". It makes you malicious. It makes you hateful. It changes the very core of your personality to be selfish and cruel and dark.
Being changed to Evil isn't like staining your shirt. It's like changing clothes.
Ah. That wasn't specified, so I misunderstood. There are things that are one alignment morally but detect as another (Demons, Devils, and Archons can "convert"), so I thought this could be kind of like that: The alignment is set to that, and you will forever detect as Lawful Evil.
Aquillion
2011-10-19, 01:10 AM
I'm amused by the fact that a Chaotic Evil character will become Lawful Evil if they sell their soul.
"RAaaah! I, Grognar Fleshrender the Barbarian, will do anything to get more power so that I rend more flesh! Now I sell soul for more vicious fleshrending power! There, I sign stupid contract and... suddenly, Grognar Fleshrender feel need to wear suit. Maybe switch to rending flesh only within acceptable legal framework."
Also, if Grognar should become chaotic again, the deal is off. Hmm.
TurtleKing
2011-10-19, 08:10 AM
Well Zaq that is fine. Note thet since the the Tome and Wish have the same bonus not stacking the mod on mine goes down by about 2 or 3 sitting at 77 or 78. A static mod so rolla 1d20+78 with using a feat, utterance, class feature, and a spell could a +34-39 to the result 1/day. After that you only have the spell and utterance to boost it by 25 for as many times as can be done. Just the base modifer will allow you to get a utterance off on a Dream Larva with CR 31 before you have to start rolling. Yes I just said you can get a "free" utterance off on a CR 31 yet you are gestalt level 20. Still overall potent that also possesses 8 levels of Factotum fun as well as all of Chameleon. The Marshal dip even adds a little extra with the Skill Focus Diplomacy so can be party face even better. The gestalt build is in my post 111.
willpell
2011-10-22, 11:47 AM
The spell works when you hit a flat DC 15 Truespeak check, but the higher your check is, the longer it lasts. You'd have to rebuild the system from the ground up, but I think that has more potential than the binary nonsense we've got now.
This.
You've made a bit of an alignment fallacy there. Taking the Pact doesn't set some cosmic scale to "Evil", which your character could then do good deeds to change back to "Good". It makes you malicious. It makes you hateful. It changes the very core of your personality to be selfish and cruel and dark.
And? If you fail to roleplay your new alignment by continuing to do Good (or Chaotic) deeds, your DM may rule that you no longer fulfill your alignment. Which, as long as you're not using any alignment-dependent items or classes, is completely without effect. (Granted the pact we're discussing is such an "item", but it still means you could lean on the pact for a while until your truespeak skill improves enough that you can live without the bonus, and then break the pact - maybe leave a sealed letter to yourself with instructions to break it when you kill a monster of a certain threshold of nastiness without aid, as an in-universe level-meter. The letter then tells you that you no longer need the pact and that you should resume your original personality.) Alignment only matters if you buy into the team spirit; it doesn't actually force you to behave in any particular way.
Flickerdart
2011-10-22, 12:16 PM
It's quite fluffy, too: a hero realizing that he doesn't need a particular crutch to fight is a classic plot, more so if that crutch is an infernal contract. The devil won't be happy though...which means sequels!
Kymme
2011-11-09, 12:01 AM
Love this thread.:smallbiggrin:
But i think of truenamer as more of a test.
As in: You now you can min-max when you play truenamer and are still the most high damaging person in your party and can outclass even the wizard at level 10.
Maybe its because im the most experienced person in the group.:smallredface:
RaggedAngel
2011-11-09, 12:47 AM
Love this thread.:smallbiggrin:
But i think of truenamer as more of a test.
As in: You now you can min-max when you play truenamer and are still the most high damaging person in your party and can outclass even the wizard at level 10.
Maybe its because im the most experienced person in the group.:smallredface:
Yeah, some people forget, but poorly-played Wizards really are squishy, and they really do burn through their useful spells quite quickly. A Wizard pulling straight from Core with no Prc's and little thought put into spell preparation can be taken down by most classes if they're manned by someone who knows what they're doing. The Truenamer can certainly contribute more than a Wizard if they suck.
Psyren
2011-11-09, 10:09 AM
Love this thread.:smallbiggrin:
But i think of truenamer as more of a test.
As in: You now you can min-max when you play truenamer and are still the most high damaging person in your party and can outclass even the wizard at level 10.
Maybe its because im the most experienced person in the group.:smallredface:
That could just as easily mean that your wizard sucks.
This is why objective measures of power (e.g. tier lists) use external benchmarks rather than stacking PC up against PC.
Emperor Tippy
2011-11-09, 01:27 PM
Decent guide but a few points.
1) In the cheese category you should add using Archers Eye to gain Spring Attack and trade it away using Chaos Shuffle for unlimited feats. It's debatable rules wise thanks to gaining the "use" of the feat but no more so than the rest of Truenamers funky wording.
2) Expunge the Supernatural and Spurn the Supernatural can be hideously nice when you use them to strip an enemy of favored supernatural abilities. Use it to strip a Druid of Wildshape for example. Spurn is better most of the time, and it's always situational but they aren't exactly bad.
3) Unname is a standard Save-or-Die that get's past most of the defenses against such spells, is one of the only ways to destroy artifacts (grab a no name orc, learn it's true name, give it an artifact, Unname it, and the artifact is irrevocably gone), and is perhaps the most effective way to keep an enemy permanently dead. And arguably a creature who has been Unnamed can't have their Truename researched as it has been erased from creation. If you want someone really dead, learn their true name, Rename them something else, and then Unname them. Only you will ever be able to provide their true name to resurrect them.
4) Truename Dispel is the best spell in 3.5 for removing hostile magic from an individual. Learn your own True Name (and those of your party) and you can remove anything you want from yourself or your allies at the cost of 1 spell. And if you know your targets True Name you can rip off (without save or SR) all of their magical defenses. It's honestly one of the few ways to get past a high end prepared casters defenses.
Psyren
2011-11-09, 01:35 PM
...is one of the only ways to destroy artifacts (grab a no name orc, learn it's true name, give it an artifact, Unname it, and the artifact is irrevocably gone), and is perhaps the most effective way to keep an enemy permanently dead. And arguably a creature who has been Unnamed can't have their Truename researched as it has been erased from creation. If you want someone really dead, learn their true name, Rename them something else, and then Unname them. Only you will ever be able to provide their true name to resurrect them.
...brilliant. Bet Gandalf wished he'd thought of that one to wipe the Ring.
For your second point though, it's not foolproof - you can explicitly RoR an nonexistent target if they've been Unnamed (see the sidebar on 261) so you can't keep someone dead with this even if you Renamed them previously.
But they don't come back with any equipment either, so the artifact stays gone :smallamused:
Emperor Tippy
2011-11-09, 01:42 PM
...brilliant. Bet Gandalf wished he'd thought of that one to wipe the Ring.
For your second point though, it's not foolproof - you can explicitly RoR an nonexistent target if they've been Unnamed (see the sidebar on 261) so you can't keep someone dead with this even if you Renamed them previously.
Yes but RoR requires, as it's true name component, that you speak the creatures current true name. All the Unnamed sidebar states is that the target is changed for RoR, not the true name component.
So if the person doesn't know the old Truename, arguably RoR wouldn't work.
Psyren
2011-11-09, 01:48 PM
Yes but RoR requires, as it's true name component, that you speak the creatures current true name. All the Unnamed sidebar states is that the target is changed for RoR, not the true name component.
So if the person doesn't know the old Truename, arguably RoR wouldn't work.
No, reread the sidebar - it explicitly states that this use of RoR is intended for beings that had their truename removed. So rather than speak their existing truename (which nobody knows except the person who Unnamed them to begin with) you create a brand new one for them. It goes on to say that this is an explicit exception to the RoR, thereby nullifying the paradox that would result in needing to know the name of something that has no name.
In other words, the truename component for this version of RoR is the new name you plan to give that person, not the existing name.
You can also duplicate RoR with Wish (it is 8th level) and bypass the Truename component that way.
Emperor Tippy
2011-11-09, 02:01 PM
No, reread the sidebar - it explicitly states that this use of RoR is intended for beings that had their truename removed. So rather than speak their existing truename (which nobody knows except the person who Unnamed them to begin with) you create a brand new one for them. It goes on to say that this is an explicit exception to the RoR, thereby nullifying the paradox that would result in needing to know the name of something that has no name.
In other words, the truename component for this version of RoR is the new name you plan to give that person, not the existing name.
Incorrect. Probably RAI but by RAW all the sidebar alters is the target clause on RoR. It doesn't touch the true name component.
this is an intentional exception to the target described in the ritual of renaming spell
You can also duplicate RoR with Wish (it is 8th level) and bypass the Truename component that way.
True, hadn't thought about that one. Nice catch. It's still one of the most permanent ways to deal with an enemy.
lunar2
2011-11-09, 02:55 PM
one workaround to the Laws of Suck and Regurgitate is to allow truenamers to research utterances, or learn them off of scrolls, much like a wizard. give them enough variety to work with, and it doesn't really matter all that much if if they can only use a particular utterance once at a time.
RaggedAngel
2011-11-09, 05:27 PM
one workaround to the Laws of Suck and Regurgitate is to allow truenamers to research utterances, or learn them off of scrolls, much like a wizard. give them enough variety to work with, and it doesn't really matter all that much if if they can only use a particular utterance once at a time.
A quicker (and better) fix is to just let them cast off of their entire list (only for levels they would normally have, of course.) The problem still remains that the vast majority of utterances suck, are incredibly circumstantial, or are strictly worse than spells/maneuvers/soulmelds/invocations of equivalent level.
lunar2
2011-11-09, 06:03 PM
well, yeah. i know that. but still, i remember there was some weird combination of utterances that could kill any non-regenerating monster in the MM without ever touching the dice after rolling initiative, and a few other tricks that worked out really well, if you had access to the right utterances, some of which you'd need to research or get extra in another way. this is at Lv. 20, of course.
Emperor Tippy
2011-11-09, 06:17 PM
It would be interesting to see a Truenamer PRC that focuses on the alteration of a Truename to alter reality.
For example, the Truenamer alters their own true name so that they now have the ability to fly.
Instead of modifying the world around you, it's modifying the very definition of "you" that the world works off of permanently.
Let's see, aim for 10th level entrance.
Stuff like an untyped Truespeak bonus (perhaps equal to HD) as you are simply rewritten to remember and speak Truespeak better. Or perfect flight at your base speed. Or fast healing 1. Or DR. Or True Sight. All as Ex abilities of course.
Maybe capstone it with the ability to use Timeless Body as an Immediate action as you reenforce your true name, making yourself more real than reality and thus ignoring any effect for the duration. It's certainly less broken than gate.
Note to self, remember to only advance utterances on 9/10 levels.
Psyren
2011-11-09, 06:23 PM
That was supposed to be the idea behind Acolyte of the Ego, and to a lesser extent Disciple of the Word. Yep.
Kyeudo's fix rolls them both into one PrC.
Flickerdart
2011-11-09, 08:28 PM
one workaround to the Laws of Suck and Regurgitate is to allow truenamers to research utterances, or learn them off of scrolls, much like a wizard. give them enough variety to work with, and it doesn't really matter all that much if if they can only use a particular utterance once at a time.
That would work pretty well if there were more than a handful of Utterances that weren't terrible to start with.
speeddemon
2012-07-23, 02:24 AM
Wow, thanks for making this handbook Zaq, it's made me want to try out the class for the next character I make. Well actually the one after the next game cause in the game my current group is about to run, we're all making characters for one of the other players at the table (we only get to know the person who we're making the character for) and I dont want to make the guy I'm making a character for, who is rather new to RPG's, scared of truenamers forever :smallwink:. While their are not many Utterances that are great I can't wait for the right situations to use stuff like Archer's Eye and Spell Rebirth :smallsmile:
Answerer
2012-07-23, 10:00 AM
Wow, thanks for making this handbook Zaq, it's made me want to try out the class for the next character I make.
I'm... not sure that's the thanks that Zaq wanted, heh...
speeddemon
2012-07-23, 07:54 PM
I know Zaq may not have wanted to advertise it, but it does make for a very good loremaster type class, and that is something I've wanted to try for some time now. I'm mostly thanking him for the advice on how to build a truenamer (I didn't know about knowledge devotion before this handbook for one of the many important facts I learned about truenaming) that won't be completley terrible. Plus I want to see if I can get the GM to allow me to use this handbook as my masterwork tool :smallbiggrin:.
Psyren
2012-07-23, 11:44 PM
If you can't get a homebrew version of the Truenamer approved, at least ask your DM to let you craft that +30 competence item, an item familiar, or both. You'll need all the help you can get.
willpell
2012-07-24, 01:41 AM
I have plans to create a variant class called the Truespeaker. (Of course, I have many plans, and little motivation to further them.)
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