Truenamer Character, please assist

[Thillidan]

So, Before everyone starts with the Hate... I Have a seriously difficult situation with Character selection...

We cannot have a similar or identical role as anyone else in the party.
we have: Monk(damage), Spell-thief (anti-caster), Wizard (blaster/sniper), Sorcerer (control), Scout/prestiges (Ranged)...

Also, I have previously played an Artificer, and an archivist, both of which were killed, by the DM. So I cant play those (as Im not allowed to play something already played, ie. any divine caster) and Psionics arent allowed.
Also, a limited number of books have been given. (Basically, PH1&2, all the Completes)... Items from the Magic Item compendium and DMG only...

However, my DM has said I can play a truenamer, given i like the "concept" of the class.
I will be a God-born, with some cool racials, as Im actualy a deity, who has been made mortal (the whole Thor movie thing?)

now I've read that the class is "terrible" and Honestly, I dont want a thread of "omg, dont play this class, are you retarded?" Cause I'll just ignore you. Please give any advice for the class that you can. feel free to ask me questions about what my DM is allowing and such.

[inertia709]

I'm not going to say anything ridiculous like "omg, dont play this class, are you retarded?" but I will ask: do you actually want to play a truenamer, or is the DM basically forcing you to play one? The fact that your previous two characters were tier 1's, both of which the DM killed, combined with your DM's restrictions on your class options and the fact that the Truenamer is generally considered to be at the bottom of the tier ladder, make me wonder if your DM is trying to nerf you. Again, I want to emphasize that I'm not trying to discourage you from playing a Truenamer just because of its bad rep - by all means, give it a go - I just want to make sure that it's YOU who wants you to play a Truenamer, and not your DM.

[Troacctid]

Not that Truenamer isn't cool, but have you considered Bard? Your party doesn't have a dedicated support character, so it should be a legal choice under your restrictions, and with the Words of Creation feat the flavor is very similar.

If you do go Truenamer, here's a handbook.

[Thillidan]

do you actually want to play a truenamer, or is the DM basically forcing you to play one?.

Ummm, well... Lets not get into this.... :/

[Sir Chuckles]

Ummm, well... Lets not get into this.... :/

I'll take that as a "Yeah basically".

I'm going to go in the boat of "Play a support", as that's not only what your Truenamer would be, but it can likely do it without the risk of devolving into a Expert.
Basically, you can delve into that handbook, or play a Bard. I'd go Dragonfire Inspiration. If you're god born, use that as flavor for said Dragonfire.

Given the limitations on your books and, what I assume to be, your optimization, Truenamer would be a difficult class to pull off. Would it be fun? Depends on your definition.

What level do you start at? Truenamers vary wildly at different levels.

[Kennisiou]

Rumors of the classes terribleness are highly overhyped. It's a supporting only tier 4 caster with some odd mechanics. It falls a bit short of adept and warlock but probably above rogue and ranger on the power level spectrum, and most people don't really look at you askance if you say you want to play those.

The problem is... that whole "they're basically a tier 4 class" thing? That's assuming you bring out the best of the class. If you don't they're junk-tier. Can't use their own class features half of the time or even more often than that. So it's a class you must optimize or it will just not do anything. So if it has to optimize to work why is it so hated among optimizers as well as those that don't optimize? The problem there is that it's just... boring to optimize. Really boring. Optimizing truenamer just means pumping the crap out of your skill rolls for truenaming -- something you can do using only three books, a couple magic items, and a couple feats. Boring and every truenamer winds up looking the same. I'm not saying any of this to put you off the class. I like the class. It's a fine class. But these are hurdles you will have to jump over to play it. You'll have to recognize that as a truenamer you're really not useful on your own since your features shoehorn you heavily into buffing/debuffing. You have to recognize that you're going to look like other truenamers. You have to recognize that getting the class to be functional -- not good, just functional -- takes a fair amount of system knowledge and getting it to be on the "basically as good as rogues/warlocks/etc" level I mentioned earlier requires even more work than that -- by the end of this you should wind up knowing most of the tricks for optimizing your skill roll output. You have to recognize that even in your class's area of expertise you will be outdone by other classes, which is true of almost any class that isn't wizard, artificer or archivist, but even more true for the truenamer who winds up outdone by bards, martial initiators, and even well built paladins and adepts.

Getting past that, though...

First step is you want your DM to include the paragnostic assembly from Complete Champion in your world somewhere. It is the single biggest non-item familiar permanent buff to your truenaming skill checks you can get (we'll talk about item familiar later). Without this group in your world you miss out on a +5 bonus to your rolls at minimum. You build your truenamer right and your DM rules that enough class features are transparent to other ones? Your bonus will easily pass +10. This gives you 50% less likelihood of failure overall on rolls. Seems nice? Realize that because DC modifiers stack up on the truenamer fast for some of your rolls maxing out truenaming and getting that +10 alone will mean you still fail most of your checks. Seriously, do everything you can to get as much out of this group as possible.

Next comes items. You'll want an item of +6 int as fast as possible, obviously, as well as getting a book for a +5 inherent boost to int as soon as you can. And put all of your level up ability points into int too, obviously. That gets you a fair bonus to your truenaming rolls. Get an amulet of the silver tongue (Magic Item Compendium has it iirc, if not then it's from Tome of Magic, same book as truenamer) +5 and then +10 as soon as possible. +10 is a lot of plus. See if the DM will allow a masterwork tool of truenaming, as those can exist per the rules but there's no detail on exactly what that tool would be for that skill. Nets you another +2 for very cheap. Per the DMG, you could also get a custom magic item of truenaming. It gives +x to your truenaming check dependant on cost. This actually stacks with amulet of silver tongue, since amulet is an enhancement bonus but the custom items in the DMG are listed as competence bonuses. This can get you another +10. Finally, wands or potions of spells that give bonuses to skills are nice, but make sure the bonus type doesn't overlap with any of the types you receive from other sources.

Aaand finally, Item Familiar. It's a feat from Unearthed Arcana, a book of variant rules that Wizards released for free. You can find it in the SRD. Item Familiar is an incredibly powerful feat that does too many things for too little cost. One of the things it does is give you a way to boost your skill checks with some skills to be disproportionately high. Annoying in the hands of people doing things like trying to make epic diplomacy or tumble checks at level 6, but generally not frowned upon when someone is using it to make sure their class features actually work. Talk to your DM about it. It's not in any of the books he mentioned, so he may veto it on that grounds, or on the grounds that it is simply too strong and abuseable a feat, but if neither of those are a concern you should go for it. Get those pluses. Truenamer needs as many as it can get.

So you see there are a ton of sources for these numbers. The problem is a lot of them are... contentious. The biggest problem with truenamer is you're going to miss checks if you miss out on some of these bonus sources. You can usually miss out on access to one of the bigger ones, maybe even one big one and a small one, but when you lose access to more than that you'll find that you start having trouble making the rolls. You start doing crazy things like taking the leadership feat exclusively so one of your lower level followers can always be with you making aid another rolls with truenaming to give you a +2 bonus. Leadership for a +2 bonus. That's a lot of hoops to jump through for +2.

So, yeah. Truenamer can be a difficult class to build and play, especially if you get source restricted. But if it works out? The class isn't bad. Far from great, but if you're at a table where warlocks or rogues or rangers or anything like that aren't looked at like "why would you even play that class?" then you're in a fine position power wise with an optimized truenamer.

[Jormengand]

If you weren't forced into being a truenamer, then look at the handbook. Also, empowered mortalbane reversed energy negation everything in the face, because it's funny.

If you were forced to, now is the time to crack open the Book of Vile Darkness, grab two goats, and wait until about midnight. Utter Hidden Truth and Universal aptitude on yourself, and sacrifice a goat. You get a greater planar ally; ask your deity for one with guidance of the avatar. Given that your deity knows you're about to use this to make him another sacrifice, he has no reason to refuse. Wait until midnight; you can now make another sacrifice. Your ally gets up and casts guidance of the avatar on you, you utter Universal Aptitude and Hidden truth on yourself, and make the DC 50 check to get a wish without much hassle. Wish for a skull talisman with the spell Apocalypse From The Sky in it. Blow up his campaign setting, and yourself. Tell the DM that you're not going to let him kill any more of your characters for no reason, or you'll keep killing all of his for no reason.

[sideswipe]

ok a saving grace as a truenamer, the handbook should say something similar.

you have med BAB which is good.

you have 2 low level utterances that up skill checks, use the knowledge one to boost knowledge checks at the beginning of combat. (this is a buff and worth it!)

the second if you have used it to many times today and need a boost to your truespeak check.

take knowledge devotion. and with a mid level, reasonable optimised (not cheesed) knowledge based build, you will be getting 40-50 in knowledge checks with the utterance boost. this is +5 to hit and +5 damage. so you have full base attack and a damage boost.

use your utterances to buff yourself and go full melee!

pump UMD and truespeak up through shenanigans. if you being forced to play then you should be allowed. a truespeak of less than 30 by level 10 is bad. you want to (CR appropriate) use 3-4 utterances a day without a check. then roll really low to fail on about the 7th use each day. you will enjoy the class.

[Psyren]

I suggest, rather than begging for item familiar and paragnostic assembly and all these other crumbs from various sources, that you simply use a fixed version and play normally. Ask your DM if you can use Kyeudo's Truenamer fix.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I suggest, rather than begging for item familiar and paragnostic assembly and all these other crumbs from various sources, that you simply use a fixed version and play normally. Ask your DM if you can use Kyeudo's Truenamer fix.

Or at the very least, ask that Truespeak DCs be based on 1*CR instead of 2*CR. That alone makes the class playable-- you no longer need to scrounge up an extra +1/level to stay functional.