Zaq
2021-02-14, 03:36 PM
Hey folks! I'm tinkering with the truenamer guide again (off and on, at least; I'm going to be making a pretty major overhaul if I can stay on task) and I'd like to crowdsource some brainstorming.
In general, damaging utterances are kind of forgettable and underwhelming. That said, I'm interesting in collecting ideas for game elements that are accessible to a pure-class or nearly-pure-class truenamer that would increase the damage dealt by damaging utterances, just to see if it's possible at all to cobble together enough nickel-and-dime stuff to make a "blaster" truenamer semi-functional.
Remember that utterances are SLAs, for what that's worth. So we're mostly looking for game elements that can increase the damage dealt by an arbitrary SLA and/or game elements that provide bonuses to "damage" (versus, for example, bonuses to "weapon damage").
I'm looking for game elements that directly increase damage. (For example, Extend and Quicken can be said to indirectly increase damage, but I'm not interested in that today.)
Here's the easy stuff:
Knowledge Devotion (feat, Complete Champion). Provides a bonus to damage and doesn't specify weapon damage. Easily accessible to a truenamer and thematic to boot.
Mortalbane (feat, Book of Vile Darkness). Damaging SLA deals +2d6 damage to creatures whose types are on a defined list, 5/day/SLA. Doesn't have any prereqs and works a reasonably large number of times per day, so it's not bad even if it doesn't scale and if it doesn't affect all critters.
Empower Utterance (feat, Tome of Magic). Does exactly what you'd expect.
Empower Spell-like Ability (feat, Monster Manual). Arguably might stack with Empower Utterance? Maybe? The requirements aren't great but it does exist.
Maximize Spell-like Ability (feat, Complete Arcane). Does what you'd expect. Again, requirements kind of suck.
Sudden Empower, Sudden Maximize (feats, Complete Arcane). Since the Sudden feats can explicitly apply to SLAs, these are valid! 1/day, but you don't have to pick the target for the feat when you take the feat, so that's kind of nice.
Greater knight's puissance (utterance, Tome of Magic). Kind of a dishonorable mention here since you can't get this before ECL 18 at the earliest, and that's terrible. But it does provide a +5 bonus to damage and doesn't limit itself to weapon damage! (This... is still not really worth mentioning.)
Duel of wills (skill function, Tome of Battle). Okay, so, this is not actually very useful. First, Intimidate is cross-class for truenamers, so you've gotta get it in-class somehow to matter. Second, there's four outcomes to a duel of wills (opponent ignores, opponent submits, opponent participates and you win, opponent participates and opponent wins) and only one of them results in a bonus (namely, opponent participates and you win). That said, if you manage to somehow get this going, your reward is a +1 bonus to damage that isn't limited to weapon damage! Against one opponent! Woohoo! *koff*
Luck Devotion (feat, Complete Champion). I don't love this one, but it can technically increase the damage you deal with a SLA from below-average to average. For one encounter, at least. Feels like a lot of effort.
Pact augmentation (binder class feature, Tome of Magic). Requires dipping out of truenamer, but at least it only takes two levels? At level 2, a binder gets a pact augmentation when bound to a vestige, and one of the choices is a +1 bonus to damage rolls (not limited to weapon damage). Probably not exactly a primary choice.
There's gotta be more. There's just gotta be. What else can you help me cobble together?
In general, damaging utterances are kind of forgettable and underwhelming. That said, I'm interesting in collecting ideas for game elements that are accessible to a pure-class or nearly-pure-class truenamer that would increase the damage dealt by damaging utterances, just to see if it's possible at all to cobble together enough nickel-and-dime stuff to make a "blaster" truenamer semi-functional.
Remember that utterances are SLAs, for what that's worth. So we're mostly looking for game elements that can increase the damage dealt by an arbitrary SLA and/or game elements that provide bonuses to "damage" (versus, for example, bonuses to "weapon damage").
I'm looking for game elements that directly increase damage. (For example, Extend and Quicken can be said to indirectly increase damage, but I'm not interested in that today.)
Here's the easy stuff:
Knowledge Devotion (feat, Complete Champion). Provides a bonus to damage and doesn't specify weapon damage. Easily accessible to a truenamer and thematic to boot.
Mortalbane (feat, Book of Vile Darkness). Damaging SLA deals +2d6 damage to creatures whose types are on a defined list, 5/day/SLA. Doesn't have any prereqs and works a reasonably large number of times per day, so it's not bad even if it doesn't scale and if it doesn't affect all critters.
Empower Utterance (feat, Tome of Magic). Does exactly what you'd expect.
Empower Spell-like Ability (feat, Monster Manual). Arguably might stack with Empower Utterance? Maybe? The requirements aren't great but it does exist.
Maximize Spell-like Ability (feat, Complete Arcane). Does what you'd expect. Again, requirements kind of suck.
Sudden Empower, Sudden Maximize (feats, Complete Arcane). Since the Sudden feats can explicitly apply to SLAs, these are valid! 1/day, but you don't have to pick the target for the feat when you take the feat, so that's kind of nice.
Greater knight's puissance (utterance, Tome of Magic). Kind of a dishonorable mention here since you can't get this before ECL 18 at the earliest, and that's terrible. But it does provide a +5 bonus to damage and doesn't limit itself to weapon damage! (This... is still not really worth mentioning.)
Duel of wills (skill function, Tome of Battle). Okay, so, this is not actually very useful. First, Intimidate is cross-class for truenamers, so you've gotta get it in-class somehow to matter. Second, there's four outcomes to a duel of wills (opponent ignores, opponent submits, opponent participates and you win, opponent participates and opponent wins) and only one of them results in a bonus (namely, opponent participates and you win). That said, if you manage to somehow get this going, your reward is a +1 bonus to damage that isn't limited to weapon damage! Against one opponent! Woohoo! *koff*
Luck Devotion (feat, Complete Champion). I don't love this one, but it can technically increase the damage you deal with a SLA from below-average to average. For one encounter, at least. Feels like a lot of effort.
Pact augmentation (binder class feature, Tome of Magic). Requires dipping out of truenamer, but at least it only takes two levels? At level 2, a binder gets a pact augmentation when bound to a vestige, and one of the choices is a +1 bonus to damage rolls (not limited to weapon damage). Probably not exactly a primary choice.
There's gotta be more. There's just gotta be. What else can you help me cobble together?