Truenamer in play?

[Fishbone]

Without resorting to out of core cheesy material like Item Familiars, wands of Improvise, and custom crafted items to give up to +40 to your skill checks the class seems woefully underpowered. DC 55, 45 after using a Quickened Utterance, seems way too harsh.
Max Ranks+Utterance +30 Intelligence+Item equals a check of 53 though, so it shouldn't be too bad. Without pumping items and a jacked intelligence this thing looks like a nightmare to play, though. Could be a saucy little gestalt combo with the Warblade, though.

 

[SteveC]

I have to say this is one of the best classes in terms of flavor that I have ever seen. I set up a Truenamer at level 4 for a campaign that never got off the ground, and I have to say that it looked like it was going to be very weak. You are so incredibly dependent of magic items to use your class abilities at all that after I ran the numbers, it would have been a very weak addition to the party.

That's too bad, because the class oozed flavor.

--Steve

 

[paradox42]

Though I've never played or run one, I have to agree that the DCs for the Utterances seem absurdly high- and this is coming from a man who runs games where he can reasonably expect to see PCs rolling skill checks in the 70s and higher every session. Really, the class sort of operates like an Epic spell system used from 1st level onwards, without spell slots or power points to rein in the use- just ratcheting-up skill DCs. I think other posters have hit on good ways to balance this though, the one-per-encounter idea is probably the best- or maybe the Law of Resistance applies on an encounter basis instead of daily.

It also struck me that the Lexicons are rather arbitrarily set in place, level-wise- wouldn't it make the class more fun and interesting if the character could choose the order with which they are gained? For example, you could do the book-mandated order of Evolving Mind first, Crafted Tool second, and Perfected Map third if you want. But the Truenamer over in the next valley started with Perfected Map at 1st level, and Evolving Mind at 4th- if he makes it to 8th he'll get Crafted Tool then. This makes the Lexicons more like spell schools or psionic disciplines, and you can even name the types of Truenamers who specialize in them for extra flavor if you like. For instance, one who starts out with Evolving Mind could be an Evolver, or a Lifenamer, while one who starts with Perfected Map could be a Geographer or a Placenamer (okay, needs work, but you get the idea).

Obviously, if you went with my second suggestion, the Lexicons would need some rebalancing- all three would need to go up to 6th level, for the most obvious one. You'd also want to carefully consider the higher-level Utterances, i.e. 5th and 6th level, since even a 20th-level Truenamer would only ever get 6th-level Utterances from one Lexicon (the one he picked at 1st level). But I think this change alone would greatly benefit the class- and really, are the 1st-level Perfected Map in the existing system all that more powerful than 1st-level Evolving Mind? How is a Fog Cloud at will (Fog From the Void) worthy of one of the character's precious Utterance slots at 8th level, except for the fact that he's mandated to take one from that Lexicon?

Anyway, that's my thinking on the subject. Take it or leave it as you will.

 

[Hussar]

I honestly think this is one of those looks bad plays good sort of things. I have a truenamer cohort in my WLD game and he's working great. 11th level, with a +30 truespeach (14 ranks +3 feat, +3 ability, +10 amulet) which means that he get's to use all of his utterances about 5 times a day before he even needs to roll.

After every fight, he rolls out the Word of Nurturing (fast healing 10 for 5 rounds), meaning he's effectively got unlimited Heal spells per day. 5 before he even needs to roll - the party casters are used up long before he is.

As a buffing machine, he's pretty good. And that utterance that immobilizes targets for 1 round (no save) is bloody nasty. Never mind the reverse which gives freedom of movement for 1 round as well - instant get out of grapple.

I don't know what will happen at very high levels, but, as it stands, the truenamer is really helping with my party. It's like a bard really. If you want to be the guy in the front line laying down the beats, don't be a truenamer. If, OTOH, you enjoy a more strategic character that helps the entire group, I can see Truenamers working well.

 

[GQuail]

I really don't believe any of the Tome of Magic classes were playtested. I think more material should be released for them to make up for it.

I'll have to concur with Kilamanjaro when I say that I don't follow the logic here. "This class doesn't seem to work very well so people don't play it@ we should totally provide more stuff for it!"

(To be fair, I do kinda know what you mean: it just seemed phrased a bit funny)

I notice most people who are talkign abotu this class are prefacing it with "I haven't played it, but.." or "I was gonna play it, but..." - and those people who have actually have, like Hussar, say it's actually alright. I think it's perhaps a case of The Bard Problem, as was noted in this thread: it's not great at any one thing, but it can try it's hand at lots and is a good "5th party member" or cohort.

To be fair, I haven't played on either: but I did stat one up for an NPC and he didn't seem all that bad. Sure, he needed to spend cash on class-related gear to eb effective, but amongst the powers I noticed he had was the Identify-utterance that has no material component and takes one round: in my group, that was considered quite funky. Insta-identifying without sacrificing a combat ability? It's, however, clearly not a top-tier power.

Still, there are certainly some oddities to the class which are the main reasons I've seen people object.

(1) That CR is used at all as the basis for the DC rather than the more universally applied HD. Though arguably, this avoids the problems high-level clerics have turning CR-appropraite Undead, it changes CR from a DM guide into a variable that can affect in-play actions directly.

(2) That's it's CR times 2, which means that a Truenamer is always "running to stay still" vs CR apporpriate opponents; most magic using classes have some requirement for magic items to stay competitve, but the connection to skill bonus rather than an ability bonus makes this effect more profound.

(3) That using abilities on your allies is just as hard as using it on enemies: so a high level cleric can still whip out a Cure Light Wounds, even if it's less useful to his buddies, whereas a high level truenamer finds even his lowliest powers harder to use on his fellow party members as they progress, and at a rate that exceeds ihs ability to non-magically catch up.

To be fair, all of these could be considered necesary sacrifices to make a skill-based magic system balanced: certainly, without something like the Law of Resistance, someone could easilly put together some brutal combination, and it's arguably refreshing (and goes against the "power creep" allegations) that a new base class was introduced that was pretty clearly not a high power choice. But the changes some people are looking for are so broad that they far outstrip the remit of an article or errata on the subject: it's basically a new system with the same name.

 

[Kapture]

I suspect the Truenamer NPCs are going to get awfully boring to loot...

PC: What's this one have?
DM: A silver amulet, identical to the first three. Three potions...
PC: Alchemy check 35, baby!
DM: ... potions of fox's cunning.
PC: Again?!

-- N

Not a problem. All the mooks are boring to loot in my games, because they're even more boring to equip.

 

[ohGr]

I honestly think this is one of those looks bad plays good sort of things. I have a truenamer cohort in my WLD game and he's working great. 11th level, with a +30 truespeach (14 ranks +3 feat, +3 ability, +10 amulet) which means that he get's to use all of his utterances about 5 times a day before he even needs to roll.

How, exactly, are you getting 5 uses per day before rolling? The DC to target an 11th-level character is 37; with a +30 check, you need to roll a 7 right out of the gate. That's a 30% chance of failing your first use, and it's only going to get worse from there.

 

[Hussar]

*Smacks self on head repeatedly*

I can't believe I forgot to add the base 15 to the DC. ROTFLMAO. Well, now I know why the cohort was so bloody effective.

 

[Lilith]

I have a monk/truenamer in my campaign, and so far, he's worked out pretty well. Adjusting the DCs for utterances seems to have worked best.

 

[airwalkrr]

*Smacks self on head repeatedly*

I can't believe I forgot to add the base 15 to the DC. ROTFLMAO. Well, now I know why the cohort was so bloody effective.

Nevertheless, 30% chance of failure is not bad, especially considering that some truenamer effects are pretty powerful. After succeeding once, you have a 40% chance, then a 50% chance, and so forth. Chances are you can use any one utterance several times before it gets really difficult to use.

As I see it, playing a truenamer requires careful planning, much like playing a character with prepared spells requires careful planning. First of all, a truenamer needs to avoid using his most powerful utterances until critical moments arrive in order to prevent the Law of Resistance from interfering with his ability to use those utterances when he really needs them. A truenamer's first action in important battles should almost always be universal aptitude to give themselves a +5 to truespeak. Since your own truename is a bit easier to say, you should usually be able to accomplish this. Truenamers also benefit from having a bard in the party or a cohort to inspire competence and cast heroism and greater heroism on them. Even without such a character, the truenamer would be well-advised to keep some scrolls of heroism and greater heroism available for use with Use Magic Device.

There are many ways of improving one's truespeak skill to make the DCs manageable. The truenamer is not a warlock. He was not intended to be. His utterances are more powerful than most warlock invocations and he gets more of them, but he pays a price. Utterances are not 100% reliable. It is a skill-based magic system, and I think it works fairly well, even if I haven't played one. According to my thought exercises, truenamers will rarely, if ever, run out of steam completely. Most of the time, they will have utterances available that are reasonably reliable and in dire situations, they can use certain abilities to boost their truespeak immensely. Even if they can no longer use their utterances they still have a skill list that includes Use Magic Device (staffs are great), and decent fighting ability. Also bear in mind that they can use a number of their buffs outside of combat by simply taking 10.