In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word Was Suck: A Guide to Truenamers

[Bonzai]

I recently finished playing a a Truenamer in a campaign that lasted from 3rd level to 15th. We went through the twighlight tomb mod and then through the tearing of the weave trilogy. A full diary of it can be found HERE.

First, I would strongly advise anyone interested in playing one to not do so unless you have a DM that is willing to work with you and do some minor home brew. Or at the very least allow the item familiar feat. That alone does wonders, as you can actually improve your character like any other class, instead of always playing catch up. The second important thing, for me anyways, was a homebrew feat that allowed you to target multiple team mates with an utterance. Speak to the massess comes far to late, and how often is a party actually composed of a single race? By being able to target the entire party at once, you can generally up your usefulness to the party by a lot. Then of course there are some no brainer things to add, like Maximize utterance.

My suggestions would be;

Focused Linguist
Player can invest skill points each level into this feat. For every 3 skill points invested, the player recieves a +1 bonus to truenaming checks. This bonus cannot exceed his maximum rank in True Speech. * Essentially Item Familiar, minus all the objectional stuff that make DM's uneasy.

Ritual of Association
By researching a group of individuals, the true namer can link them together by creating a True Name for the group. The cost of the Ritual is the same as researching a personal truename. If the membership of the group changes, an additional week of research must be undergone to include them, though at no additional cost. Once the ritual is complete, the True Namer can now target the group with an utterance as they would with an idividual. The base DC for this is equal to the highest CR in the group, +2 for each additional target. The laws of Sequence and Resistance apply normally, and the utterance can still be enhanced by feats. This counts as one use of the utterance for the law of Sequence. * This will allow you to buff your entire party at once, which really ramps up your usefullness.

With these two some what minor fixes, I find that the True Namer can hold his own and make a meaningful contribution to the party. Without them, or something like them, the class becomes an excercise in sadism. Zaq does a good job of covering that, so I won't go into detail. Overall, I had a hard time defining my character into a certain niche. Some times I am party support, some times debuffer, some times problem solver, and in some encounters even the primary damage dealer. There were a few times were me being a true namer saved the day. There were also a few times where I was completely useless. But for the most part I was zero drag on party resources, and contributed in some way. That being said, I was also playing a Focused Conjurer/Master Specialist/Thaumaturgist in another campaign, and the difference between the two classes was marked. There is really no comparison between the two. If your only incentive is the free gate spell, I would say that the price of 19 levels of True Namer isn't worth it. If you choose to play a True Namer, it's a labor of love... or sadism. Either way, power isn't the payoff.

Some things I would like to add are some magic items that I found useful. This is ignoring the obvious buys like Amulets of the Silver tongue, belts of battle, headbands of intellect, etc...

1. Eternal Wand of Detect Magic: It's funny, but the True Namer has no real way of detecting magic until it gets Analyze item. This saves time and allows you to narrow your searches down. Plus the eternal versions are only marginaly more expensive than the normal ones. A very nice buy, particularly if you are the party "Caster". Buy it early, and it will keep it's usefullness your entire career.

2. Eternal Wand of Healthful rest: This is up to DM interpretation, but our DM ruled that fast healing counts as natural healing. If this is the case, then it doubles your healing ability, and makes words of nurturing a great pre-fight buff. This is particularly great if you are the only source of healing the party has.

3. Ring of Silent Spells: an inexpensive ring from the MIC, that allows you to trigger a silence spell centered on you. Since a true namer can overcome silence, this can help in situations where stealth is important. In addition it is a tactical option where you can stand next to an enemy caster and trigger it, shutting them down while ony mildly inconvieniencing yourself. Situational? Sure, but a nice trinket to have for 2k. There are probably even cheaper ways of getting silence, but it was cheap utility and I like it.

4. Harrow Rod: Another MIC find. 3 times a day it can shoot a 9d6 cone of acid. It's not that expensive, almost makes reversed words of nurturing obsolete in the damage department, and solves a big problem. That problem is golems. Golems have an imunity to magic that is defined as "A spell resistance that cannot be over come". The True Namer can raise his DC and automaticaly overcome SR. It's a bit of Immovable object vs Irresitable Force arguement. However, my DM ruled that I could not overcome a golems SR. Normally I would just focus on bufing the melee's in the party, but latter on the party got caster heavy. This item made me some what useful against them. It was kind of sad that a 14K item out damages my True Namer until 17th level, but we didn't choose to play a true namer for the big booms.

5. Luck Blade & Mantle of Second Chances: Re-rolls are nice for a True Namer, though to tell the truth I used them to re-roll saves for the most part.

Anyways, good luck to everyone who wants to play one. It's not as bad as it is made out to be, but it is only a great experience if you really make it one.