Hey folks, I finally got around to updating this a bit (my character got sidelined for a while, but he's back in the game now, so I'm taking in new information and new experiences). The update so far has come in the second post (I labeled it), but I expect there to be more over the next week or two as I have more gaming sessions.

Now, to answer a few questions...

Sstoopidtallkid: I wouldn't gestalt a Truenamer (since they're so high maintenance), but Artificer would be one of the best choices for it mostly for the reasons you mentioned. (The other natural choices would be Factotum or Archivist. A Trunamer//Totemist with really gishy utterances would be... interesting, if not exactly good. The big problem is a lack of swift actions to reallocate essentia, but I'm disgressing.) You can also use Universal Aptitude to great effect with your all-important UMD checks, and I can't help but think that there's something fun you can do with Rebuild Item.

Regarding Kyuedo's homebrew, I have to say that I like a lot of what he's done so far and I do recommend you check it out if homebrew interests you. (In the interest of full disclosure, he did ask for my assistance on a lot of it, so I'm not entirely unbiased.) It's at least had more thought put into it than the WotC version. (Yes, I know that saying that the class wasn't checked or edited is a grave remark to make. Game design is serious business, and a lot of work goes into it. However, I really do feel alright saying that a lot of work did NOT go into the Truenamer. There are just too many absurdities, inconsistencies, and omissions.)

One thing I noticed a little while ago while flipping through the monster section of the Truespeak chapter is that all of the monsters (except the Gibberer, who doesn't need to roll) have huge racial bonuses to Truespeak. So, evidently, someone at WotC playtested these monsters, noticed that they couldn't affect the PCs with their Truespeak abilities, and added the bonuses in to give the monsters a fighting chance... but didn't think "hey, maybe the fact that even monsters can't use these abilities effectively is indicative of a flaw in the system." (Well, to be fair, maybe they did think that, but if so they didn't communicate this to whoever was in charge of the rest of the chapter.)

Now, does anyone have any questions, suggestions for topics you'd like me to consider, or anything of that sort? I'll keep posting my experiences and my observations, but I'd be happy to talk about other things as well. Bear in mind once again that I'm most comfortable discussing what I've actually played in-game, but I think I've got enough firsthand experience to engage in a little theory-talk as well.