D&D General The 3.5 Binder was a really cool class

[LuisCarlos17f]

It would be funny if somebody did a redesign of Truenamer but the uterances had a name (animal, aquam, corpus, herbam, ignem, imaginem, mentem, terram and vim(power)) and a verb (creo, intelego(I perceive), muto, perdo(I destroy) and rego(I control)).

I imagine the shadowcaster like a spellcaster who investigates the dark matter and the dark energy of the universe (I talk about astronomy and scientific cosmology.

How would be a bard playing "the music of the spheres" with a game mechanic like the truename?

 

[Voadam]

I had a player want to play a truespeaker in a game but I felt it was way too fiddly mechanically for specific DCs and scaling and specific buffing gear so I came up with houserules to simplify it a bit.

Truespeaking (Level Check + Int vs. 10+CR)

Law of Repetition houserule. Each use against the same target is at +1 DC after each successful use of specific utterance against same target. Utterances used with truenames are exempt from Law of Repetition.

This way you would have diminishing returns each day against the same target (both offensive against enemies and buffs for allies) unless you got an enemy's true name or your allies trusted you enough to give you theirs. This meant that the longer a fight went on the more a truespeaker would diminish over time against opponents, but they could handle multiple encounter foes and multiple encounters fairly consistently. It also meant their allies would get buffed less and less as the day went by unless they shared a truename.

The formula I felt scaled well with getting a better than 50/50 against equal or slightly above CR foes that scaled well. With a +5 bonus at 20 int it would be 3/4 success against a CR equivalent foe, close to what I think you want with weapon attack success rates.

 

[Tigris]

I had a player want to play a truespeaker in a game but I felt it was way too fiddly mechanically for specific DCs and scaling and specific buffing gear so I came up with houserules to simplify it a bit.

Truespeaking (Level Check + Int vs. 10+CR)

Law of Repetition houserule. Each use against the same target is at +1 DC after each successful use of specific utterance against same target. Utterances used with truenames are exempt from Law of Repetition.

This way you would have diminishing returns each day against the same target (both offensive against enemies and buffs for allies) unless you got an enemy's true name or your allies trusted you enough to give you theirs. This meant that the longer a fight went on the more a truespeaker would diminish over time against opponents, but they could handle multiple encounter foes and multiple encounters fairly consistently. It also meant their allies would get buffed less and less as the day went by unless they shared a truename.

The formula I felt scaled well with getting a better than 50/50 against equal or slightly above CR foes that scaled well. With a +5 bonus at 20 int it would be 3/4 success against a CR equivalent foe, close to what I think you want with weapon attack success rates.

But this rule makes most of the truename "metamagic" completly unusable.

Quicken especially with a check of +20. So this is after level 9 a lot weaker than a normal truespeaker who is allowed to get skill boosting items.

(Typical Crafted 5/10/15 competence item, silvery tongue amulet 5/10 enhancement bonus, masterwork truespeak item (+2), member of Paragnostic Assembly (+5/+10))

 

[jmartkdr2]

But, how would you get that result? In 2024, you could cast a Fireball but it's extremely unlikely. Like about .3% chance. And, even then, that's after you've surged. Most campaigns are never going to see that happen.

Having seen more than a few Wild Mages in action, I don't think anyone really seems to have much of an issue with it.

“It probably won’t happen” isn’t much comfort when it happens.

 

[jmartkdr2]

Shadowcaster doesn’t make sense as an entire class in 5e; Shadow Sorcerer captures the flavor almost perfectly and warlocks captures the mechanical feel pretty darn well. “A proper shadow warlock” is about all you can ask for and hexblade is already halfway there.

Which is broadly true of several other highly-specialized late 3.5 classes like Beguiler or Necromancer.

In PF2, Shadowcaster as a class might have some legs.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Binders, warlocks clerics and god-worshiping paladins are basically the same to me; they are literally lore-powered characters. When a PC plays such a class, they are signalling to the DM "one or more NPCs is going to be important to me, tying me more strongly to the setting than a rogue or wizard".

A fighter sees a goal and asks the DM "how do I do this?". A binder sees a character and asks the DM "how do I replicate this?"

 

[Voadam]

But this rule makes most of the truename "metamagic" completly unusable.

Quicken especially with a check of +20. So this is after level 9 a lot weaker than a normal truespeaker who is allowed to get skill boosting items.

(Typical Crafted 5/10/15 competence item, silvery tongue amulet 5/10 enhancement bonus, masterwork truespeak item (+2), member of Paragnostic Assembly (+5/+10))

Yep, we swapped those out to use the monster spell like ability metamagic feats, so no DC increase but usable x times per day. Keeping it simple.

The truespeaker was a member of the Paragnostic Assembly, but it was a flavor thing tying him into the plot, not the prestige class.

 

[Tigris]

Yep, we swapped those out to use the monster spell like ability metamagic feats, so no DC increase but usable x times per day. Keeping it simple.

The truespeaker was a member of the Paragnostic Assembly, but it was a flavor thing tying him into the plot, not the prestige class.

Ah ok sure can understand that. But for me what makes the truespeaker interesting is the different way of casting. Including the "rules" which some people hate.


(Given a high enough bonus to truespeak).

Lets say you have a 130-150% chance to hit. Each spell has 2 modes and each time you successfully use a spell the chance to hit decreases by 10%. A spell can only be "up" once at the time. (So increasing duration of a spell might have a negative side effect).

You can empower your spells by decreasing their chance to hit. Like -100% chance to hit for casting it at swift action speed. You lose (almost nothing just the swift action) if that spell does not hit. Or empower a spell (50% more effect) for -50% hit chance.


Its really different from normal casting and "forces" you to use many different spells. But the 2 different uses per spell allow to have with not too many spells still a broad variety of effects.


Also each 5% additional success rate does count! Because it gives not only sdditional spell uses, but also incresses the chance of your enhanced spells. Maybe enough to put 2 enhancements on some spells.