Fixing Truename Magic Math (Tome of Magic)

[airwalkrr]

Truename magic (Tome of Magic) is something many people (myself included) feel breaks down mathematically at higher levels. But I really like the concept and think the implementation is the only issue. What are some of the ways in which truename magic might be made viable? I have thoughts on a few solutions.

1) Give Skill Focus (Truespeak) to truenamers at level 1. It is a needless feat tax.
2) Allow more truename magic scaling items. A +20 superior amulet of the silver tongue could grant +15 to the truename skill bonus for 22,500 gp and a sovereign amulet of the silver tongue could grant a +20 bonus for 40k.
3) Grant every truenamer an amulet of the silver tongue as a bonus item and allow him to enhance it incrementally by +2 every 2 levels (to a maximum of +25 at 20th level, and so on into epics if need be).
4) Reduce the truespeak DC to 10 + (2 x CR/HD).
5) Reduce the truespeak DC to 10 + (1.5 x CR/HD).
6) Reduce the truespeak DC to 15 + (1 x CR/HD) and remove amulet of the silver tongue (which is a magic item tax).
7) Cut the empower, enlarge, etc. feat cost to truespeak DC by half (maybe more, such as increments of +2).
8) Allow truename magic to ignore SR.
9) Allow truenaming one's self to automatically succeed (but still count for Law of Resistance).
10) Reduce the Law of Resistance penalty to +1 DC per successful utterance per day.

Obviously you wouldn't want to do all of these. But I have to imagine some combination of the above could produce the desired result. The concept is sound. The math just needs a little work. Personally, I like the combination of 1 + 6. At 20th-level the truespeak DC for a CR 20 monsters would be DC 35. A truenamer with base 15 Int +5 from levels +6 from headband of intellect would have a 26 Int. So 23 ranks + 8 Int + 3 SF would be a +34. A truenamer with an 18 Int wouldn't have a huge advantage either (+35 vs. +34). That practically guarantees the first utterance will be successful. This is similar to the 20th-level wizard being able to guarantee his 9th-level spell will work (although he may have more 9th-level spells, the truenamer has more chances to succeed at his utterances per day).

One other simplification might be to eliminate Truespeak as a skill and just make it a class ability of the truenamer which is equal to Int + 1 per truenamer level. Then reduce the DC to 12 + (1 x CR/HD), getting rid of the amulet of the silver tongue as above. Functionally the same and doesn't have the skill tax either (truenamers will already have the caster skill tax of Concentration after all). This solution does not allow other classes to get truenaming as easily (although feats could grant it), but I doubt that is a big issue for just getting the core mechanic to work.

What do you think?

 

[Empirate]

I think the major problem with Truename magic is threefold:

1) Basing it on a skill is hugely problematic on its own. Truenamers will always max the skill as much as possible, by any means you provide them with. This is always just a tax. It's simply mandatory to put all your resources into a maxed out Truespeak check, there's no way around it. So why not just make Truespeak into a class feature that scales automatically in the first place?

2) Utterances are, for the most part, pretty underwhelming, to the point of being bland and boring, both mechanically and flavor-wise. Some don't even scale well. Lexicon of the Perfected Map comes far too late and is far too limited, and it doesn't mesh well with the whole flavor of Truenaming.

3) The actual true name of stuff mostly doesn't enter into the picture. So you're not actually researching new true names all the time when you play a Truenamer. Instead, you're a Sorcerer with a different casting mechanic and different spell selection. The mechanic itself is not far enough removed from other casting mechanics to make the Truenamer class stand out as unique, or even live up to its own flavor.

Instead of just fixing the math on the skill bit, this is where I'd start: every creature and item in the game needs true names (maybe even tiers of "different, but all true" names, like my first name has a different connotation from my last name, any nicknames that I pick up in my life, any titles I might earn such as Ph.D., Mr. President etc.), and a Truenamer needs a way to find out about these and use them to his advantage. Given the flavor, this should always just work (no save, no SR, no attack rolls etc.), since knowing a true name is supposed to give you non-negotiable power over the named creature or thing.
I can see how this will be hard to balance. But I'd have no problem giving the Truenamer some more generic arcane magic (maybe as a half-caster like the Bard), and tacking on a completely new mechanic to find out how many and which true names the Truenamer knows or can research. These true names should then be convertible into really unstoppable power over the named.

 

[Dandu]

Giving the class a bonus to its truenaming checks based on its caster level might be a solution.

 

[airwalkrr]

I agree with [MENTION=78958]Empirate[/MENTION] about Truespeak being a skill tax. The whole idea does seem rather unnecessary in the first place. Perhaps a truenamer level + Int check to make truename magic work instead of a skill check and then balance the math based on that.

I also like the idea about not allowing it to be resisted. If you know a creature's truename, it should give you special power over the person such that they cannot resist it. The style of the magic is such that the difficulty is in the speaking of the truename. The amount of power exerted upon the creature should perhaps depend upon the degree to which the truenamer succeeds. So perhaps each utterance should have a tier of effects. I am thinking there is tier 1 where it has full effect, tier 2 where it has a lesser effect, and tier 3 where it has no effect.

I really want to re-write this class. I love the concept, but the implementation just does not work well.

 

[airwalkrr]

Here's an idea. If truename magic is supposed to be so special because truenames have such inherent power, what if the system didn't allow for saving throws OR spell resistance?

Worthwhile then?