My Experiences as a Truenamer

[Vauron]

I actually played with a group that allowed EVERY 3.x product (3rd party included!) but disallowed the Truenamer because it, and I quote "Broke the game" not because it was broken in the unplayable sense, but because it "literally broke the campaign". Suffice to say, I did not play with those folks for very long.

....How did they come to that conclusion? The only thing I've seen that was comparable was one guy who thought that truenaming was overpowered. Near as I could tell, he had assumed that since it has fluff that indicated you controlled someone whose personal truename you spoke, they would actually have the ability to do that. After calling him on that and him looking back through, he wasn't even sure where he had gotten that idea in the first place.

[Bonzai]

The trend I see with True Namers, is that they have to wait longer to get their abilities, but when they do get them, they are slightly more powerful than usual.

Take the reversed Words of Nurturing line. Normal damage scales with a D6 per caster level, up to around a 10d6. Our damage lags behind that for a while, and eventually catches up. However, our damage is untyped, so there is no resistance, there is no attack roll or miss chance. SR can be automatically over come. So while we are behind on our ability to deal damage, ours is a little more reliable and powerful. All we have to do is see our target.

Another example is our slow line. Our Slow has no saving throw, making it useful for our entire career.

Our Dispel Magic is similar. Sure it can only effect one spell at a time, but that spell could be cast by a 100th level caster, could be an epic spell, etc..., it doesn't matter. It's gone.

We can heal ability damage/drain as a standard action, which is handy in combat, as opposed to a 3 round casting of restoration.

This isn't always the case, but for the most part, that is the pattern.

[Zeta Kai]

Hey Zaq, I heard that you're done with your TN experiment. Any final words on the subject? You seem to have tested this class about 1000% more than the nameless abomination that wrote it, so I was hoping to read your definitive thoughts on the subject. Something to quote if any asks about the TN again (because you know they will).

[taltamir]

Hey Zaq, I heard that you're done with your TN experiment. Any final words on the subject? You seem to have tested this class about 1000% more than the nameless abomination that wrote it, so I was hoping to read your definitive thoughts on the subject. Something to quote if any asks about the TN again (because you know they will).

what a mean thing to say about a child...
obviously the class was written by a 10 year old whose dad is an exec in WOTC... :P

and 1000% of 0 is still 0... :P

but yea... joking aside, you are very right. This is an impressive playtest.

[Zaq]

Hey Zaq, I heard that you're done with your TN experiment. Any final words on the subject? You seem to have tested this class about 1000% more than the nameless abomination that wrote it, so I was hoping to read your definitive thoughts on the subject. Something to quote if any asks about the TN again (because you know they will).

Heh, since you asked so nicely, I've added a long bit to the third post. It's probably very rambling (it's rather late here), but hey, it's something.

I'm going to repeat what I said there and once again welcome any Truenamer-related questions anyone has. My character has retired, but my experiences are still relevant... and that includes the experience of spending a cumulative total of I-don't-want-to-know-how-many hours reading, re-reading, cross-referencing, checking, pondering, and swearing at the Truenamer chapter of Tome of Magic. If my mastery of this dubious subject can be of use or of interest, well, I'd like that.

[Scorpions__]

Man... I've always been a stubborn supporter of the Truenamer class, saying that it's hard but WotC had it right... I guess the reason is that I was always able to argue against what people said cause no one had ever really played it before... Your 'journal' or sorts really made me accept that the class is somewhat... underwhelming during play to anyone who doesn't just love it for its fluff.

I would never want to make the class unrecognizable however, that would be too much revamping anyways.

How about these few, quick changes?

-No law of sequence
-Speak Unto The Masses at Level 9 (When a lot of mass spells kick in)
-LEM Utterance DC = 10 + (2 x CR)

This all of course along with the new utterances I've already shared with you.





DM[F]R

[Kyeudo]

Check my sig for a fix to the Truenamer. It stays recognizable and backwards compatible, but has much more flexibility and power. Not Tier 1, but maybe Tier 3.