Okay... I'll bite.
I am a self-proclaimed "Truenamer Nay-Sayer" as evidenced in an early post in this thread. I will admit that we have not seen it in play. But before I get lambasted for falling for the 'looks bad plays good' bit, let me ask you the following question:
What do you get when you put together an engineer, an accountant, an art major and a friend who has waaaay too much spare time and does nothing but read D&D books (stop me if you've heard this one)?
Over-analyzation of a new D&D class that sounds cool but something about the mechanics seems off.
I don't have the book with me right now so I can't go into the number crunching details at the moment (I myself don't even own the book but I know a few people who do). My beef with the class isn't the fluff or the concept. It isn't that it is a skill based mechanic in-and-of-itself. It is the mechanics of said skill-based system and the fact that they break down at mid-to-high levels.
Every level above first, the DC to affect yourself or your allies (of the same level) goes up by 2 but you can only put 1 rank into the skill. This creates the problem where it becomes more difficult to do the exact same thing that you did last level. Why is it more difficult to give your ally a boost to AC or attack - the exact same boost, same "spell" and everything - simply because said ally went up a level? Yes, there are magic items and spells that help out with this but these shouldn't be needed. Does a cleric need a magic item to cast Cure Light Wounds on his ally? Does it become harder for a wizard to cast Magic Missile at the average enemy just because he went up a level?
I wouldn't mind playing a Truenamer in a low level game - one where we wouldn't be going past... say... 8th level. The skill based setup works fine for the lower half of the spectrum (I forget where it really starts to break down and becomes a train wreck). A couple of tweaks and the class would be great! If they get the magic item for free that helps with the ranks (and gets better as they leveled up like a familiar or something) or maybe if allies could do the equivalent of a 'voluntary fail' against the Truenaming DC. But those would be house rules and any class that needs to be house ruled to work needs to go.
I am a self-proclaimed "Truenamer Nay-Sayer" as evidenced in an early post in this thread. I will admit that we have not seen it in play. But before I get lambasted for falling for the 'looks bad plays good' bit, let me ask you the following question:
What do you get when you put together an engineer, an accountant, an art major and a friend who has waaaay too much spare time and does nothing but read D&D books (stop me if you've heard this one)?
Over-analyzation of a new D&D class that sounds cool but something about the mechanics seems off.
I don't have the book with me right now so I can't go into the number crunching details at the moment (I myself don't even own the book but I know a few people who do). My beef with the class isn't the fluff or the concept. It isn't that it is a skill based mechanic in-and-of-itself. It is the mechanics of said skill-based system and the fact that they break down at mid-to-high levels.
Every level above first, the DC to affect yourself or your allies (of the same level) goes up by 2 but you can only put 1 rank into the skill. This creates the problem where it becomes more difficult to do the exact same thing that you did last level. Why is it more difficult to give your ally a boost to AC or attack - the exact same boost, same "spell" and everything - simply because said ally went up a level? Yes, there are magic items and spells that help out with this but these shouldn't be needed. Does a cleric need a magic item to cast Cure Light Wounds on his ally? Does it become harder for a wizard to cast Magic Missile at the average enemy just because he went up a level?
I wouldn't mind playing a Truenamer in a low level game - one where we wouldn't be going past... say... 8th level. The skill based setup works fine for the lower half of the spectrum (I forget where it really starts to break down and becomes a train wreck). A couple of tweaks and the class would be great! If they get the magic item for free that helps with the ranks (and gets better as they leveled up like a familiar or something) or maybe if allies could do the equivalent of a 'voluntary fail' against the Truenaming DC. But those would be house rules and any class that needs to be house ruled to work needs to go.
