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A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
As everyone who has ever tried to use the Truenamer from the Tome of Magic knows, Truename Magic as written does not work. Unless you optimize your Truespeak check to the absolute maximum, including using such things as custom magic items and item familiars, you cannot have a reasonable chance of affect yourself or your allies with Truename magic, let alone a boss encounter several CRs above your level.
Further, the Truenamer lacks options. You are nearly straightjacketed into a single build to be effective, with only minor variations possible without shooting yourself in the foot. Few of the utterances that a Truenamer has access to are significantly different from what an equivalently leveled wizard or cleric could perform and are often much weaker.
To compound the problem, the presented prestige classes suck, with the possible exception of the Fiendbinder. They don't offer any interesting abilities and they more often than not lag behind their base class equivalents. None of them advance the Truenamer base class in any meaningful way, so only straight classed Truenamers get access to higher level utterances.
So, I decided to overhaul the entire Truename Magic system. Now, the presented fix is not too radically different from the existing system. Every utterance that previously existed still exists, the truenamer's utterance progression only had small tweaks made to it, and most of the feats are largely unchanged. The most severe changes are changes made to the levels and durations of many of the existing utterances, the addition of over a dozen utterances to the Lexicon of the Crafted Tool and the Lexicon of the Perfected Map, and the addition or redesign of eight prestige classes.
This latest edition adds only a single new utterance and only a single magic item, but now includes a preface, improved formating, a soulmeld, and a revision of the truename spells.
If you have any suggestions, comments, insults, etc. please feel free to share, especially the insults. I can't make it better if no one tells me anything. If anyone is interested in helping me put together an online playtest for this, just PM me and I'll see about putting together something once I get enough people.
Special thanks to those who have helped with this fix
Zaq
Draz74
Quirken
Ankh
Psyren
Yue Ryong
Without further ado, I present the Book of Words, in pdf format for your reading enjoyment.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
You are one of my favorite people for this.
I have to say, the stroke of genius had to be basing your truenaming level off your skill ranks; essentially, it gave it an awesome ability to multiclass around.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amechra
I have to say, the stroke of genius had to be basing your truenaming level off your skill ranks; essentially, it gave it an awesome ability to multiclass around.
Wait, what?? Isn't that how the truenamer has always been? Truespeak ranks set up how often you can use your utterance, Truenamer level gets you better utterances.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
The way you phrased it was nice and distinct, if I remember correctly.
Or it could be the lack of sleep talking.
Anyway, I am left wondering why the community seems to agree on Kellus' fix while yours is, well, cooler (not that I have anything against Kellus; his Fury system is/was awesome, but I really do prefer the neat Truename effects.)
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amechra
The way you phrased it was nice and distinct, if I remember correctly.
If you can point me to which page that's on, that would be awesome. I think I may be thinking of something other than what you are thinking of and it's been a while since I reviewed the entirity of my own rules.
Quote:
Anyway, I am left wondering why the community seems to agree on Kellus' fix while yours is, well, cooler (not that I have anything against Kellus; his Fury system is/was awesome, but I really do prefer the neat Truename effects.)
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
True, but I'm tired of homebrew systems where the majority of the effects are, well, "deal xd6 energy damage" or "you get a claw attack."
Which is why I always have failed to make my own, original systems; I just can't bring myself to do such bread and butter 'brewing, which is a BAD thing, on my part.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Overall, I like what you've done with the system, but why keep the law of resistance?
I've never got the logic in that (other than an attempt at PC control). By the logic presented why would the universe (a semi-sentient thing that remembers everything) suddenly decide to forget that you did the same thing yesterday, but still remember what you did two hours ago?
I played one of the TOM truenamers a few years back and we removed that "law". It made for less tracking and it didn't overpower it at all.
I do have a suggestion for the range of utterances. I haven't played it out, but it seems like it would be effective, without restricting truenamers to being in charging range with every utterance. Range: Unless otherwise specified, utterances have no maximum range, but have a range increment of 60 feet, with each 60 foot increment after the first imposing a cumulative -2 penalty to the truespeak check.
I seriously like the runeblade and the connection between runes and truespeech. Any chance you can work the runeblade into a base class?
The words of creation utterance states that the truenamer creates a functionally infinite plane, but the area listed is up to four 5-ft cubes
Last edited by silver spectre : 10-12-2011 at 05:38 AM.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Amechra
Anyway, I am left wondering why the community seems to agree on Kellus' fix while yours is, well, cooler (not that I have anything against Kellus; his Fury system is/was awesome, but I really do prefer the neat Truename effects.)
I don't one as being more popular than the other; anytime I see a TN thread, both fixes are usually mentioned (& often linked) in the same breath. Kellus' approach was a complete ground-up overhaul of the concept, whereas Kyeudo's tack was to take the existing system & beat it into a functional shape, essentially performing the editing & playtesting duties that WotC apparently failed to do.
I could see how some might view WotC's "system" as so broken that it could not be fixed, & therefore prefer Kellus' fix, but I can also see how others would prefer to take the mechanics that they know & make them work, & thus choose Kyeudo's fix. It's the difference between renovating a building so that it's better than it ever was & leveling the building to replace it with something completely new.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
I like this fix in particular, and I'm working on an idea for a related artifact or three (two minor, in the sense that multiple exist; the latter of the two may be major in power level) and a plane. Do you mind if I post them here?
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Well, I think they mostly turned out alright, though the Library doesn't have the detail a full plane should, and I'm kinda torn as to where one entry stops and another starts. Regardless, The Indices, the Library, the Librarian's Quill, and the Books.
Spoiler
The Indices:
The Indices are a nigh-infinite group of tomes which together include every personal truename in all time and all realities written in them. Any given index is a book in pristine condition, a foot wide by a foot long, with exactly 2,000 pages. Each page has a thousand truenames written upon it on each side, but many of these are irrelevent, and no noticeable order can be determined; for example, the personal truename of a particular blade of grass from seventeen thousand years ago might be next to the personal truename of a particular grain of sand on a beach twenty five million years into the future and the personal truename of the Acererak, who you seek to defeat before he achieves apotheosis. Regardless, the truenames are still only names; reading them, one with Truespeak ranks can glean the gist of what is named, but nothing more.
The number of "useful" truenames is dependent on what the GM considers "useful". If every magic item, spell, and person is "useful", then a given index will have 50d% useful truenames within its pages. If only artifacts and characters the party is likely to encounter are "useful", then it might be only five to ten in a given index.
Determining the relevance of a written truename can be done fairly easily by one who knows truespeech, as the general characteristics of a written name correspond to aspects of the thing described. Thus, scanning through a tome for useful truenames takes only an hour and a DC 20 Truespeak check per hundred pages; any useful truenames gleaned thusly require a DC 35 Truespeak check to determine the gist of what it describes and (optionally) a minute to memorize it.
While several extraplanar libraries, and a few rare Material Plane libraries, have an Index or two, the two largest are the library of Boccob in the Outlands and a plane that is simply known as The Library.
The Library:
The Library is one of the few planes that cannot be reached via the Astral Plane; instead, the only method of reaching it is through the Infinite Staircase. The closest landing to the Library connects to a door in Sigil in a dark alleyway, next to an identical door that serves as the entry to an empty five foot by five foot shack. From this door, if one ascends the Staircase (a trip taking 4d12 hours), he or she will reach a landing which is the only one of its sort; it has a stairway down, but there is no further ascending the stairs. Adorning this landing is a very simple door; upon going through it, one enters a lobby.
To one side is a hallway with a number of doors, each with a number of truenames written on it. The first has the truename of each of the party members. In it are a table and chairs for each person, to taste. Across from the entry door is a desk; behind it sits the Librarian. Each person, even if under the affects of a True Seeing spell, sees the Librarian as perfectly identical to himself or herself; if the Librarian speaks, each person hears his or her own voice. Finally, no magic of any kind works in The Library; not even a god, if one entered The Library, could have any power.
Giving the Librarian one of the Indices, if it was brought from outside, may allow it to lend its Quill in exchange. This is a powerful gift indeed, for the Librarian's Quill is the only thing able to write in the Books (next paragraph).
Speaking a word or truename to the Librarian results in it taking from under the desk a tome similar to an Index with that word or truename written on the front cover. A tome has written on its cover the word or truename described therein. First among the pages is listed the progression of truenames, which begins with the phrase written upon the front cover, then its truename, then its truename's truename, etc. The tome will not run out of pages; after it reaches about halfway through the text, no change can be noticed, even if multiple pages are turned at a time, unless it is closed. If the reader does not wish to read the progressions of truenames and meta-truenames, then he or she will find that the next time a page is turned, one of two lists comes up, depending on preference: a list of every personal truename that is a member of that word or personal truename's subset, a list of every truename that has interacted with the personal truename or a member of the word or personal truename's subset and the manner of the interaction, and a list of the word or personal truename's supersets.
For example, if the word "Sword" were spoken to the Librarian, every sword's personal truename would be included in the former list, and every shield which has blocked a sword, person killed by, wounded by, or wielding a sword, etc. would be listed in the second. The third would include "weapons", "things you can stick on a pole", etc. in addition to their supersets and several categories meaningless to those without Truespeak knowledge.
Development:
Spoiler
I thought of the Indices first; since there are so many, I felt it would be natural for Boccob to have a huge store of them, but barely any compared to the rest of the collection. That, of course, led me to wonder where they came from or where the rest of the collection is, which brought me to the Library. The top of the Infinite Staircase seemed appropriate for the location of something so marvelous. So of course, if there are Indices, there need to be something they refer to, no? And instead of letting you roam around and possibly harm the Books, the Librarian just happens to have the Book you seek under its desk.
And yes, Amechra, the Librarian has five hundred levels of your homebrew class of the same name.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
It took me a while to find, being in skills, but it would be worth including the DCs for Utterances in the "how this works" section. That's where i'd expected it to live, that's where i look to see how a casting system works...
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Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mulletmanalive
It took me a while to find, being in skills, but it would be worth including the DCs for Utterances in the "how this works" section. That's where i'd expected it to live, that's where i look to see how a casting system works...
Good point. I'll put that in the next edition's Utterances section, under Speaking an Utterance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedWarrior0
Well, I think they mostly turned out alright, though the Library doesn't have the detail a full plane should, and I'm kinda torn as to where one entry stops and another starts. Regardless, The Indices, the Library, the Librarian's Quill, and the Books.
Spoiler
The Indices:
The Indices are a nigh-infinite group of tomes which together include every personal truename in all time and all realities written in them. Any given index is a book in pristine condition, a foot wide by a foot long, with exactly 2,000 pages. Each page has a thousand truenames written upon it on each side, but many of these are irrelevent, and no noticeable order can be determined; for example, the personal truename of a particular blade of grass from seventeen thousand years ago might be next to the personal truename of a particular grain of sand on a beach twenty five million years into the future and the personal truename of the Acererak, who you seek to defeat before he achieves apotheosis. Regardless, the truenames are still only names; reading them, one with Truespeak ranks can glean the gist of what is named, but nothing more.
The number of "useful" truenames is dependent on what the GM considers "useful". If every magic item, spell, and person is "useful", then a given index will have 50d% useful truenames within its pages. If only artifacts and characters the party is likely to encounter are "useful", then it might be only five to ten in a given index.
Determining the relevance of a written truename can be done fairly easily by one who knows truespeech, as the general characteristics of a written name correspond to aspects of the thing described. Thus, scanning through a tome for useful truenames takes only an hour and a DC 20 Truespeak check per hundred pages; any useful truenames gleaned thusly require a DC 35 Truespeak check to determine the gist of what it describes and (optionally) a minute to memorize it.
While several extraplanar libraries, and a few rare Material Plane libraries, have an Index or two, the two largest are the library of Boccob in the Outlands and a plane that is simply known as The Library.
The Library:
The Library is one of the few planes that cannot be reached via the Astral Plane; instead, the only method of reaching it is through the Infinite Staircase. The closest landing to the Library connects to a door in Sigil in a dark alleyway, next to an identical door that serves as the entry to an empty five foot by five foot shack. From this door, if one ascends the Staircase (a trip taking 4d12 hours), he or she will reach a landing which is the only one of its sort; it has a stairway down, but there is no further ascending the stairs. Adorning this landing is a very simple door; upon going through it, one enters a lobby.
To one side is a hallway with a number of doors, each with a number of truenames written on it. The first has the truename of each of the party members. In it are a table and chairs for each person, to taste. Across from the entry door is a desk; behind it sits the Librarian. Each person, even if under the affects of a True Seeing spell, sees the Librarian as perfectly identical to himself or herself; if the Librarian speaks, each person hears his or her own voice. Finally, no magic of any kind works in The Library; not even a god, if one entered The Library, could have any power.
Giving the Librarian one of the Indices, if it was brought from outside, may allow it to lend its Quill in exchange. This is a powerful gift indeed, for the Librarian's Quill is the only thing able to write in the Books (next paragraph).
Speaking a word or truename to the Librarian results in it taking from under the desk a tome similar to an Index with that word or truename written on the front cover. A tome has written on its cover the word or truename described therein. First among the pages is listed the progression of truenames, which begins with the phrase written upon the front cover, then its truename, then its truename's truename, etc. The tome will not run out of pages; after it reaches about halfway through the text, no change can be noticed, even if multiple pages are turned at a time, unless it is closed. If the reader does not wish to read the progressions of truenames and meta-truenames, then he or she will find that the next time a page is turned, one of two lists comes up, depending on preference: a list of every personal truename that is a member of that word or personal truename's subset, a list of every truename that has interacted with the personal truename or a member of the word or personal truename's subset and the manner of the interaction, and a list of the word or personal truename's supersets.
For example, if the word "Sword" were spoken to the Librarian, every sword's personal truename would be included in the former list, and every shield which has blocked a sword, person killed by, wounded by, or wielding a sword, etc. would be listed in the second. The third would include "weapons", "things you can stick on a pole", etc. in addition to their supersets and several categories meaningless to those without Truespeak knowledge.
Development:
Spoiler
I thought of the Indices first; since there are so many, I felt it would be natural for Boccob to have a huge store of them, but barely any compared to the rest of the collection. That, of course, led me to wonder where they came from or where the rest of the collection is, which brought me to the Library. The top of the Infinite Staircase seemed appropriate for the location of something so marvelous. So of course, if there are Indices, there need to be something they refer to, no? And instead of letting you roam around and possibly harm the Books, the Librarian just happens to have the Book you seek under its desk.
And yes, Amechra, the Librarian has five hundred levels of your homebrew class of the same name.
Hmm, you've got some ideas there, but there are a few things I don't like.
First, I don't like the idea that one can figure out who and what a personal truename belongs to without an explicit label or further research. Personal truenames are so specific that they don't apply to anyone else in the entire universe and harder to say than others. Making them easy to figure out from context makes it hard to understand why truename research is so hard and so expensive.
Second, the Indices are either giant "I win" buttons for major encounters or else useless. I've made personal truenames fairly potent offensively, from the undestanding that to use one, you either had to perform expensive truename research or go on a quest of some sort to track down the personal truename of your archrival. If one of these Indices contains a major truename, that can be fine, provided it was reasonably hard to track down. However, if one of these doesn't contain a useful truename, then why the heck is it in the campaign? You need some sort of guarantee that you'll get something useful if one of these is floating around.
Third, you forgot to mention what the Quill does.
Fourth, the Library is a little too potent a place to be. Any personal truename you want just by speaking the right word and spending some time perusing a list? That's a little extreme.
Fifth, I don't like the idea of truenames having their own truename. It doesn't lend itself to a working model of the universe.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
*Pops by to be more of a bother.*
Was having a skim over some old magic items I made, and I found this little treasure, thought I'd give it a bit of a polish up for the newer rules and see what you thought.
Spoiler
Unnaming Daggers Lore: The first Unnaming Daggers were developed for an assassin who specialised in hunting shapeshifters, particularly doppelgangers. Seeking a way to be certain that he was attacking his intended target, he approached a powerful artificer of the time (who was also known to be proficient in the use of Truenaming) with his problem. Seeing both the challenge and the possibility of saving many innocent lives, the artificer agreed to make four daggers that would harm only the intended target in exchange for the agreement that the assassin would be bound by a geas to never slay any that he was not to be paid for. Surprisingly, the Assassin agreed, laughing that it was good business practice to do so anyway. And so the first Unnaming Daggers were born. The Assassin was enourmously successful with his chosen weapons, rapidly earning the admiration and fear of many in the shady underworld he lived in. Before long, knowledge of the daggers had spread, and replicas were made for every assassin with the cash to buy them. Still, the difficulties of using them make them extremely rarely used. - (Knowledge [History] DC 30)
Unnaming Daggers are used to erase their intended targets from reality in flares of Necromatic force, wiping away the creature's truename from the very essence of reality. They may only be used upon a single creature at a time, and it takes a long, complicated ritual to reset them to a new target. Still, the raw power these blades carry make them a favoured weapon of the most dangerous assassins. - (Knowledge [Arcana] DC 20)
Description: Unnaming Daggers appear as slender, bone-white stilettos with an inscription of the Personal Truename of whomever is the current target spiralling up the blade from the ebony hilt, which is often adorned with a Black Opal at the far end. Activation: Once chosen, the effects are constantly in place until reset against another opponent. Resetting the opponent requires an hour-long ritual that requires the wielder to speak the personal truename of the intended target (thereby requiring a truespeech check of DC 29 + the Target's CR). Effect: Whenever the intended target is struck by this +1 Paralyzing Dagger, they must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 wielder's level + Intelligence modifier) or be subject to the effects of an Unname utterance empowered by the use of the target's personal true-name. Whenever anyone other than the intended target is struck by the Unnaming Dagger, they take no damage from the attack (although they still suffer the Paralyzation effects). In the hands of a character with the 'Death Attack' ability, the character may make death attacks against the intended target with the dagger without studying their victim first. Aura/Caster Level: Strong Necromancy, Moderate Enchantment; CL 17th Construction:Craft Magic Arms & Armour, Craft Inscription, Hold Monster, Unname, Creater must have 20 ranks in Truespeech; 110,000gp, 8,800xp & 220 days; Weight: 1lbs; Price: 220,302gp;
Notes: Paralyzing is a +2 Ability that prompts a DC 17 Will save or be paralyzed for 10 rounds from the Book of Exalted Deeds (p113).
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
You've got a good idea there, but I would like to see it less bound up in the dagger and more universalized.
How about turning it into a weapon property, maybe call it Focused? If you write the personal truename of a creature upon a focused weapon, the weapon becomes unable to cause harm to any other creature (no check required, getting the personal truename is the hard part), but when striking the named creature, the victim gains a negative level in addition to any damage suffered.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Hm... Negative levels are pretty chunky... a +3? Maybe a +4?
*Checks SRD.* On the other hand, the Life-Drinker Axe is relatively cheap - if an effective 1 negative level in cross-balanced costs (i.e., 1NL to them = 1NL to you, which may well be a decidedly inaccurate comparison) clocks in at a mere +38kgp over and above the cost of a regular +1 Greataxe...
Certainly the object in it's original form would be well above the ratings for a +5 (hence why it's a +3 weapon that costs more than a +10 one, requires use of what is likely to be a cross-class skill for the primary users, and a fresh personal truename each use).
Hm... It would also depend a lot on the speed of the switch... for a 1 hour inscription speed, we're probably talking a... +3 ability? Hm... a little weak for a +3. Maybe drop it to a +2.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
The major drawback is the need for personal truenames. Those things don't grow on trees. It takes several weeks of research to get anything important and that truename only works for a single entity. Also, they are expensive.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
*Thinks some more.* Here's the thing... for the effort being put in, I'm not sure I'd buy it even as a +1. There's not a lot of ramp-up from Negative Levels, but even they're offset pretty seriously by the Personal Truename requirement.
If I've put the effort of getting a Personal Truename for each target, this needs to be a really heavy-duty advantage to make it worth it. That was why the original item is an Unname effect - it's for the people who you want to make extra certain won't get resurrected, and are willing to pay almost any price to do so. But having that serious an effect forcibly drags it up into the 'rare & unique item' category.
On the other hand... how does this sound?
Wordbound
Backed by the knowledge of a skilled master of the word, the blade of even the humblest farmer may become capable of slaying foes mightier than it's owner could have ever dreamed. Weapons forged with this ability frequently bear tracings in what appear at a glance to be some sort of script native to the reader, but closer examination reveals it to be little more than gibberish.
Wordbound Weapons are created by Truespeakers, both for themselves and for their allies, in order to render weapons capable of binding the destiny of mighty foes to defeat with the words of the universal tongue.
By spending a full-round action describing the target to the weapon (requiring a Truespeech check of a DC23 + the Target's CR), the traced lines and shapes formed by the ornamentation flow and shift in the eyes of the Target, until they suddenly realise that the weapon bears their name and that it is destined to end them.
Once so activated, the weapon cannot deal lethal damage to any creature other than the target (although non-lethally damaging abilities such as Merciful or Paralysing still apply), but against the target, it's full force is unleashed. With each strike, the weapon deals an additional negative level, draining their life-force and forcing them to make a save the following day (DC 16) or lose a level.
If the target's Personal Truename is used in the activation of the Wordbound weapon (raising the difficulty of the roll as usual), the target instead gains 2 negative levels with each strike.
Moderate Necromancy; CL 12th; Engrave Inscription, Essence of Lifespark; Price +4 bonus.
...I may have gotten a touch overwrought & dramatic with that. Sorry.
Also, can I just say, 10,000gp for a non-switchable, single-target Bane effect for someone who you already know the Personal Truename of? Not worth it. I'd stop at about 1,500gp there.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yue Ryong
On the other hand... how does this sound?
Wordbound
Backed by the knowledge of a skilled master of the word, the blade of even the humblest farmer may become capable of slaying foes mightier than it's owner could have ever dreamed. Weapons forged with this ability frequently bear tracings in what appear at a glance to be some sort of script native to the reader, but closer examination reveals it to be little more than gibberish.
Wordbound Weapons are created by Truespeakers, both for themselves and for their allies, in order to render weapons capable of binding the destiny of mighty foes to defeat with the words of the universal tongue.
By spending a full-round action describing the target to the weapon (requiring a Truespeech check of a DC23 + the Target's CR), the traced lines and shapes formed by the ornamentation flow and shift in the eyes of the Target, until they suddenly realise that the weapon bears their name and that it is destined to end them.
Once so activated, the weapon cannot deal lethal damage to any creature other than the target (although non-lethally damaging abilities such as Merciful or Paralysing still apply), but against the target, it's full force is unleashed. With each strike, the weapon deals an additional negative level, draining their life-force and forcing them to make a save the following day (DC 16) or lose a level.
If the target's Personal Truename is used in the activation of the Wordbound weapon (raising the difficulty of the roll as usual), the target instead gains 2 negative levels with each strike.
Moderate Necromancy; CL 12th; Engrave Inscription, Essence of Lifespark; Price +4 bonus.
...I may have gotten a touch overwrought & dramatic with that. Sorry.
That seems better. Let me take a crack at fitting the information into the format I'm already using when I can find the time.
Quote:
Also, can I just say, 10,000gp for a non-switchable, single-target Bane effect for someone who you already know the Personal Truename of? Not worth it. I'd stop at about 1,500gp there.
It's a hard to price effect. Bane is a +1 equivalent, which varies in price based on how much other magic is on it.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
What would you say is better about your fix than Kellus' fix? What would you say is worse? Any specific things you think are better than his? Anything you think is specifically better than yours that is his?
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
It's been a long time since I looked at Kellus's fix and I never studied it in depth, so I can't really answer the question without taking another look at it.
I do remember looking at it and basically ruling out copying any material from it. Something about a lot of hit point limits and common names being good enough to use in utterances and Truespeak having a synergy bonus with Speak Language is all I can remember off the top of my head.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyeudo
It's a hard to price effect. Bane is a +1 equivalent, which varies in price based on how much other magic is on it.
It's also a lot broader than the Inscription of Namebane. The Inscription works against one person and one person only. Regular bane works against countless millions of beings across all the planes. Single-target bane should be comparable to a Scroll of Foebane (Spell Compendium: Rgr4, 700gp), rather than more expensive than simply buying a second Bane weapon.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Here's a little something that I've been working on for the next update to the Book of Words. Let me know what you think:
CHATTERLING Small Magical Beast Hit Dice: 3d10 (16 hp) Initiative: +7 Speed: 30 ft. (8 squares), Climb 20 ft. Armor Class: 16 (+ 3 Dex, +2 natural, +1 size), touch 14, flat-footed 13 Base Attack/Grapple: +3/+0 Attack: Claw +5 melee (1d3+1) Full Attack: 2 claws +5 melee (1d3+1) Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft Special Attacks: Utterances Special Qualities: Chatter, Instinctive Utterances Saves: Fort +4, Ref+6, Will+4 Abilities: Str 13, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 16, Cha 10 Skills: Climb +11, Hide +7, Listen +3, Move Silently +7, Spot +3, Truespeak +9 Feats: Improved Initiative, Dodge Enviroment: Temperate mountains Organization: Solitary or pack (2-4) Challenge Rating: 2 Treasure: 1/10 coins, 50% goods, 50% items
This creature looks like an ant the size of a dog except for the forelimbs ending in mantis-like scythe claws. Once it spots you, its mandibles clack together in excitement, producing an incessant chattering.
Chatterlings are pack-hunting insectoid predetors, usually mottled green or brown in color. Though they are capable of using truespeak, they do so on instinct rather than from any particular study. They are incapable of communicating language and communicate with each other through the chattering noises they make.
Combat
A lone chatterling attacks from ambush, using reversed inertia surge only to hold fleeing prey in place while it closes in to attack. It uses its Dodge feat against the most threatening physical attacker. Packs of chatterlings hunt together, surrounding any targets crippled by reversed inertia surges to gain flanking bonuses. Utterances (Sp): Lexicon of the Evolving Mind: 1st - inertia surge Chatter (Ex): A chatterling speaks utterances more quickly than most creatures find possible. A chatterling can speak an utterance as a move action instead of a standard action if it wishes. Instinctive Utterances (Ex): A chatterling's instinctive understanding of truespeak allows it to use its Wisdom modifier instead of its Intelligence modifier on Truespeak checks. Saving throws against a chatterling's utterances are 10 + 1/2 the chatterling's hit dice + its Cha modifier. Skills: A chatterling has a +4 racial bonus on Hide and Move Silently checks and a +8 racial bonus on Climb Checks. A chatterling can always choose to take 10 on Climb checks, even when rushed or threatened. Chatterlings use either their Strength or Dexterity modifier for Climb checks, whichever is higher.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Hm... the only especially worrying thing is the possibility of abusing polymorph to get hold of the Chatter ability; I assume most DMs might be wise enough to intervene to prevent that, but just in case, I'd recommend making it a (Su) ability instead, preventing access with anything less than Shapechange. Seeing as how it's an ability that effects (Sp) abilities, the inability to use it in an Antimagic field makes no difference, and this locks it away from the lower-level spell shenanigans that could be used to access it.
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Hey, quick question about the Academic- his phrasebook seems to work a lot like a wizard's... can he pay to scribe extra utterances in it, beyond the 2/level he normally gets? For most of his career, he's only slightly ahead of the Truenamer in number of utterances known (21 vs 17 at level 10, and 41 vs 37 at level 20)
Re: A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grod_The_Giant
Hey, quick question about the Academic- his phrasebook seems to work a lot like a wizard's... can he pay to scribe extra utterances in it, beyond the 2/level he normally gets? For most of his career, he's only slightly ahead of the Truenamer in number of utterances known (21 vs 17 at level 10, and 41 vs 37 at level 20)
Yes. To quote from the rules:
Quote:
You can add any utterance you are capable of speaking (see the table below) to your phrasebook, provided you have the time and a willing instructor or another academic's phrasebook to copy from. Because each utterance represents hundreds of truenames and each requires exacting pronunciation notes when recorded, writing a new utterance into a phrasebook takes one page of space and one day of work per level of the utterance.
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A Book of Words: An Expanded Truenamer Fix [PEACH]
Isn't that how the truenamer has always been? Truespeak ranks set up how often you can use your utterance, Truenamer level gets you better utterances.
