Advice on the Truenamer

[amethal]

One of the players in my forthcoming WotBS campaign has decided to play a Truenamer. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I've already offered him the following advice :-

"Don't." and then
"Have a backup character handy."

Since he still wants to go through with it, has anyone got anything more constructive?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I've already offered him the following advice :-

"Don't." and then
"Have a backup character handy."

Since he still wants to go through with it, has anyone got anything more constructive?

Well, since he won't listen, make sure he has access to the +skill item that he'll so desperately need. And maybe pick up some UMD ranks so he can pump out some wands to be useful.

A humorous DM (or RBDM) would, of course, keep making subtle references to his error in the game. Like the advertisements for medically-calibrated undead to remove his choice in class levels.

Brad

 

[Wolfwood2]

Couldn't the DM just tell him, "No"?

If the class is really that ineffective, the DM should either ban it or alter it to make it competitive.

 

[Nifft]

From what's been calculated, it looks like it's not actually that bad -- it's just relatively brittle. If you're facing 4 encounters with critters near or slightly below you each day, and you have enough wealth to keep your skill checks up, it's balanced. If you have lots of encounters with low-CR critters, it's strong; when you face the "boss monster" with a CR above your level, it's weak.

Advice to player: It's all about the skill checks, holmes. Scour every book for feats, spells someone else could cast on you, Bardic music effects, and magic items which boost skills. Buy them or (arrange for your friends to learn them & use them). There's an Utterance which gives you a +5 to skill checks. Guess what should be one of your favorite Utterances? Yep.

Use Magic Device -- for when you can't affect a foe with your Utterances. Or for whatever. Get a bag of Wands and Scrolls.

- - -

Advice for DM: Treat this guy more like a Fighter than like a Wizard. He's great against mooks -- so make sure there are some. He's also good for lots of fights each day -- he should be able to use each Utterance like 10 times (!!) each day before it burns out. Sure, he won't be able to do so reliably near the end of the day, but the same goes for Fighters -- they can't always hit, but they can swing the sword all day trying.

Make sure this character has appropriate gear for his level.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Piratecat]

Consider giving him an inherent +1 bonus to his truename skill every 4 levels.

 

[amethal]

Couldn't the DM just tell him, "No"?

If the class is really that ineffective, the DM should either ban it or alter it to make it competitive.

I could just tell him "No", but I'm not going to. That's not the way we play our games.

I don't really know enough about it to tweak it, so I'll just see how it goes and bring in Piratecat's suggestion of a +1 bonus every 4 levels if things start getting silly.

As for gear appropriate to his level - that's RangerWickett's responsibility, since we'll be playing WotBS.

Thanks to everybody who replied, much appreciated, and apologies for the delayed response!

 

[Jhaelen]

From what's been calculated, it looks like it's not actually that bad -- it's just relatively brittle. If you're facing 4 encounters with critters near or slightly below you each day, and you have enough wealth to keep your skill checks up, it's balanced. If you have lots of encounters with low-CR critters, it's strong; when you face the "boss monster" with a CR above your level, it's weak.

Advice to player: It's all about the skill checks, holmes.

I agree with this assessment. The class is not as bad as many seem to think it is. It's pretty balanced for almost all levels of play if you do everything do keep the Truenaming skill bonus as high as possible.

What I found quite illuminating was the DMG2 which contains a skill rank progression for npc experts. If you assume the Truenamer follows a similar progression he's doing just fine.
Additionally in the medium to high levels Truenamers can use area-effect utterances, which don't have as much of a problem with scaling DCs.

The only thing I'd consider house-ruling are the rules for researching specific truenames. I'd modify them to make the check easier rather than more difficult.