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View Full Version : Rebuilding the Truenamer



willpell
2012-09-03, 12:45 AM
We all know how terrible the Truenamer is, but I've been thinking about the way that the concept could have worked. It seems to me as though the Wotco folks started out with something immensely powerful (at-will SLAs) and then gimped it into oblivion (Law of Sequence, Law of Resistance, absurdly high Truespeak DCs, and weak utterance effects).

Let's consider what the Truenamer could have been. Take a level 1 Truenamer with 18 Intelligence and the Minor Word of Nurturing utterance. Reversed, this deals 1d6 damage for 2 rounds; that's a fairly good chance of dropping your average Goblin. As-written, the goblin has a truespeak DC of 17, so even with your +4 Int, +4 ranks and a Skill Focus, you'll still fail a fourth of the time. But if the DC started at 10 instead of 15, you'd never fail with this build. Now drop the two Laws, and suddenly you're probably killing a goblin every 2-4 turns, with no save, from 60 feet away.

The question becomes, then, exactly how much of that power should the Truenamer have been permitted to retain? Is just dropping the Laws enough? What if the Law of Resistance added only +1? What if the truespeak DC only went up +1 per CR? It also seems pretty obvious to change some of the utterances; Defensive Edge giving only +1 while Knight's Puissance gives +2 is pretty unforgivable. The Recitation feats are meaningless, and Truename Research is a tiny advantage requiring immense effort; some changes are definitely called for here as well.

The objective here is to create something that is as close as possible to the RAW truenamer (so no dreaming up unique utterances that do something completely new to the class), but functional, coming in at a Tier 3 or 4 level of utility - it doesn't have to be terribly strong, just good enough that you can play a Truenamer without having to suffer for the privilege. Tinker away.

LordErebus12
2012-09-03, 01:01 AM
i have no real experience with truenamers and have never seen one used, however, the concept is neat and exciting. Im hoping to assist where ever I can.

P.S. have you read the Symphony of Ages series? Rhapsody (one of the three main characters) is a Namer and Singer.

During her time as a prostitute one client in particular, called Michael, became obsessed with Rhapsody. He grew as a power in the area in which she lived. Rhapsody was completing her studies when a minion of said monster tried to fetch her back to him.

In eluding Michael's men she met 'The Brother' and Grunthor, adopting them to convince the town guard they were her brothers and in doing so accidentally renamed 'The Brother' as 'Achmed the Snake.' In renaming Achmed, she inadvertently released him from the slavery he had been suffering under the power of the F'dor Tsoltan, a demonic entity bent on destroying the world.

In order to ensure that no harm would come of his renaming, Achmed took Rhapsody with him to Sagia and into the tree, leading her along the Axis Mundi away from the destruction of Serendair. Rhapsody remained convinced that he did this to save her from Michael, not seeing his true intentions.

long story short: she changed his Truename to something else, removing the Fire Demon's Unbreakable control over Achmed, freeing him.

She also redefined herself and Grunthor too. She granted him power over the earth, as she gained power over fire. unique, i might add, as far as stories go.

Ninjadeadbeard
2012-09-03, 01:38 AM
I've also never played a Truenamer because...well...it's unplayable (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214115). But the idea behind the class is too cool to pass up! I've tried coming up with my own fix (everyone has) where Truenaming is just a skill (class skill for all classes) and everyone had access to the Utterances (much more reasonable DCs). Thematically it would work great in something like a Pseudo-Celtic Mythology campaign, but I've never tried it in practice.

But I've got more ideas to help the poor Truenamer! I'm on-board! Although also thematically I'd prefer a Truenamer class to hit Tier 2 at least.

Grod_The_Giant
2012-09-03, 10:24 PM
Personally, I swear by Kyeudo's fix (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11971747). It's very subtly different from the book version, but superior in every way-- better DCs, tweaked Utterances (though you could probably use it with the book versions), and so on.