Truename Magic

[Dannyalcatraz]

Excellent summation!

 

[Summer-Knight925]

Close, but you may have also jumped a conlusion shark when you said 'truemagic",

Actually, I made a typo, I meant truename magic, thank you? I guess?

But you actually answered my question from the start of this thread, and with that, I am changing how it works in my system.

Rather than it being along the same lines as fireball and invisibility, it is an aspect of magic that you described.

And for that, I thank you.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Today, 02:19 AM #11 (permalink)
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[Jhaelen]

Back in the days when I still played AD&D 1e/2e I created a set of truename spells, one for each spell level. It was my attempt to boost the divination school and make it worth it to specialize in it.

Basically the first level spell was a ritual that allowed you to divine the truename of a being, and each of the higher level ones granted you some kind of control over a being whose truename you had found out. It started with weak effects, like dazing the target and ended with permanent domination.

The first level ritual had a long casting time (minimum 1 day), potentially required expensive material components (depending on the target's power), and wasn't guaranteed to succeed.

The higher level spells, however, didn't allow a save and circumvented spell resistance, making them very effective and worthwhile if you were able and willing to make the initial investment.

Each of the higher level spells could also be used with a diminished effect on 'similar' beings (without the above extra benefits).

I was quite pleased with how it worked, although we never got past the mid-levels.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

There's a schtick in Glen Cook's Black Company series where, given a wizard's true name, you can permanently unmake their magical abilities. So wizards go to all kinds of efforts to conceal their names, hide their past, etc.

it was cool in the book, but I don't know if that's something you'd want to have happen in a game -- especially if it's something that could happen to PC wizards.

-rg

 

[Zelda Themelin]

Earthsea books had truenaming as explained before. However it was magic of that universe, there wasn't any other magic there.

In D&D universe wizards can already do all that with regular spells. I'd use element that knowing someone's personal true name gives power over that person, like he can't save against your mind-affecting magic. Some bonuses to spell effectiviness for non-personal true names. I would do somehting like this if I'd want truenaming on top of regular magic.

Thieves world books wizards had to hide their names and also some chosen secret.
THere were other caster types than wizards though.

Oriental Adventure for AD&D had some truename based spells. In regular spells it was mentioned in imprisoment, there were couple of others.

I think Tome of Magic (3.5) had very interesting ideas but not so well implimented.
Book of Nine Sworlds was much more useful book. I also lliked Binder, though we used it more like template rather than character class.
Shadowmagic and Truenamers were too weak as written. Which woudn't be bad if they would replace regular casters rather than live side by side, but systems written for them were also bit clumsy and sometimes weird with stupid limitations.

Truename magic is not very popular apperently. Haven't seen it lot in fantasy books recently.

Now oldish youth book series starting with "Dark is Rising" had true names magic. Interesting books, horrible movie made out of them recently.

"when dark comes rising, six shall turn it back..." that book, if you remember the poem as I do.

Don't remember much else, some vague memories of horror stories that used it too.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In D&D, it may simply be best to have a mid- to high-level divination spell, "Detect Truname", and have knowledge of a creature's Truname give ridiculous bonuses.

I might even have the spell's efficacy depend upon how much time you have. Used as a ritual over the course of the day, it's results could be devastating. Used in combat, you only get a piece of the Truname, with only modest bonuses for a limited time.

 

[SkidAce]

In D&D, it may simply be best to have a mid- to high-level divination spell, "Detect Truname", and have knowledge of a creature's Truname give ridiculous bonuses.

I might even have the spell's efficacy depend upon how much time you have. Used as a ritual over the course of the day, it's results could be devastating. Used in combat, you only get a piece of the Truname, with only modest bonuses for a limited time.

I like this, but would add some (more?) restrictions to the ritual.

Determining a true name should not be a trivial task or one spell cast. Wizards may have been hunting for the true name of the dark one to free themselves from his power for ages, one ritual/spell casting should not provide the answer.

On the other hand, as much as I have thought about this over the years, I don't know how to get there from here...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Determining a true name should not be a trivial task or one spell cast. Wizards may have been hunting for the true name of the dark one to free themselves from his power for ages, one ritual/spell casting should not provide the answer.

You could do it as a Spellcraft task with increasing DCs for each level of info you're trying to get- 3 successes means you get the whole Truename. The first failure costs you some HP. The second costs HP & XP. The third?

 

[Summer-Knight925]

I like the ritual concept, but I also would like to have treasure that is a truename, perhaps not for an individual, but for a group of creatures, like the truename of red dragons or the truename of balrogs, even the truename of dyrads (because they're living in our trees, just waiting, watching, plotting)

Certain creatues would have the individual truename, and that would be very powerful.

And if you ever learned the truename of a deity......