Truenamerlocking(tm)*

[Flamewarrior]

* this doesn't constitute challenge to the trademark by Nifft.

I'm starting to think that all new classes should be based on Warlock-like or Dragon Shaman-like ability mechanics. Unlimited use, pay in actions rather than slots per day.

I'll bet we could make a Truenamerlock (tm) that would keep the flavor but be balanced. And we could do it off of Knowledge skills instead of making a new skill.

I may have taken this a bit too literally, but I thought a good thing to do was to ditch the widely-considered-unsalvageable skill use for magic (because skills are too variable, and all this you've probably heard already). Another reason for this is that I'd like there to be some few well-developed systems, rather than new, scantly-supported ones popping frequently. So, what I'm trying to do here is to make the utterances into invocations - that way, the truenamer class features would become options for the warlock, thus giving the latter more support (and let's be honest, the utterance list is very short, so "truenamers" - now warlocks - have the entire warlock invocation list at their disposal). Of course, with this, the truespeak skill goes outta the window, but I do have an idea for bringing knowledge checks to bear: making the effective caster level against a given target be the corresponding knowledge ranks, and all DCs be 10 + half knowledge ranks + Int/Cha modifier - the simple act of basing it off ranks instead of totals makes it a lot more manageable, and while now we'd be talking again about a different class, this seems to be something to consider. About the other elements of that chapter, the "metaspeak" feats would just be the "metaspell-like" abilities, focused lexicon is redundant with the variant about knowledge skills above, and all others have no place in the mechanics here (I'd like the idea of researching personal truenames, but this should be simply for raising DCs and caster levels, without extra rules baggage); the recitations are redundant with utterances; and, about class abilities, sending is redundant with warlock's call, speak unto the masses would need a revamp, and all others would be just options. So, there are the utterances-as-invocations, with grade, equivalent level, save type (normal/reverse effect, for the evolving mind ones), and possible modifications after a semicolon, if any. Nitpick at will, and thanks for the attention.

Defensive edge: least, 1st, none; +/- 2, swift action to use.
Inertia surge: least, 2nd, none/reflex.
Knight's puissance: least, 1st, none; swift action to use.
Universal aptitude: least, 2nd, none/will.
Word of nurturing, minor: least, 1st, none.

Archer's eye: lesser, 3rd, none.
Hidden truth: lesser, 3rd, none.
Perceive the unseen: least, 2nd, none.
Silent caster: least, 2nd, none/will.
Speed of the zephyr: lesser, 3rd, none/fortitude.
Strike of might: least, 2nd, none.
Temporal twist: lesser, 3rd, none/will.
Word of nurturing, lesser: impasse here. I consider this too weak as-is for a lesser invocation, and we already have a least version.

Acceletated attack: lesser, 3rd, none.
Energy negation: lesser, 3rd, none.
Incarnation of angels: greater, 5th, none.
Seek the sky: lesser, 4th, none/fortitude.
Speed of the zephyr, greater: lesser, 4th, none/will.
Temporal spiral: another impasse. The power difference to temporal twist is next to nothing in the normal effect and large in the reverse one.
Vision sharpened: lesser, 4th, none.
Word of nurturing, moderate: lesser, 4th, none.

Breath of cleansing: lesser, 4th, none/fortitude.
Caster lens: greater, 5th, none/will.
Confounding resistance: greater, 6th, none/will.
Magic contraction: greater, 6th, none.
Morale boost: greater, 5th, none/will; swift action to use.
Spell rebirth: greater, 6th, none; reverse effect requires caster level check.
Word of nurturing, potent: impasse again - see below.

Eldritch attraction: greater, 6th, will; no size clause.
Energy negation, greater: dark, 7th, none.
Essence of lifespark: greater, 6th, none.
Preternatural clarity: greater, 6th, none/will.
Seek the sky, greater: dark, 7th, none/fortitude.
Sensory focus: greater, 6th, none/fortitude.
Ward of peace: greater, 6th, none/will.
Word of nurturing, critical: it could be greater/6th ... but see below.

Breath of recovery: dark, 7th, none/fortitude.
Ether reforged: a priori, dark/7th, but the most important is that the normal effect's duration should be anything but instantaneous, the reverse effect actually has a non-instantaneous duration (as per the spell), and, since it's equal to a personal-range spell, it probably was meant to affect only willing targets (the flavor supprts this); otherwise, it should require a will saving throw.
Knight's puissance, greater: greater, 6th, none.
Mystic rampart: greater, 6th, none.
Singular mind: dark, 8th, none/will.
Word of nurturing, greater: ... (see below!)

About those damn words of nurturing, they could be a class ability akin to eldritch blast (with scaling equivalent spell level), or since there are no saving throws involved, it could just be 1st level (and least, of course). Alternatively, one could just screw the even-leveled ones and convert the others as above; but, if meant to auto-scale, it would be either fast healing = caster level or damage = (1 + half caster level)d6.


Fortify armor: lesser, 3rd, none. Personal note: I really, really hate how it's easy to negate sneak attacks; so, in my games, any heavy fortification gives a 75% chance of failure. Besides, since the very goal is forsaking the truename checks, it can't scale as written - I'd give it a flat 50% and call it a day. What do you think?
Keen weapon: lesser, 3rd, none.

Agitate metal: least, 2nd, will.
Analyze item: least, 1st, none.

Rebuild item: lesser, 3rd, none.
Suppress weapon: lesser, 4th, none; negates all energy damage from weapon properties.

Suppress item: greater, 6th, none.
Transmute weapon: lesser, 4th, none.

Metamagic catalyst: greater, 6th, none; doesn't scale and gives widen spell from the start.
Seize item: greater, 4th, none.


Fog from the void: ceases to exist, due to breath of the night.
Shield of the landscape: lesser, 4th, none.
Shockwave: least, 2nd, fortitude.

Energy vortex: lesser, 3rd, none.
Speak rock to mud: lesser, 4th, none.
Transform the landscape: lesser, 4th, none.

Lore of the world: greater, 6th, none.
Master of the four winds: greater, 5th, none.
Thwart the traveler: dark, 8th, none.

Anger the sleeping earth: dark, 8th, none.
Conjunctive gate: gate is a broken spell. Period.
Deny passage: dark, 7th, none.

 

[Nifft]

So, I've looked at this, and finally took the time to look through the Utterance list.

Some thoughts:

1/ Warlock is a good base for this class, but a lot of the core Warlock mechanics should be changed. Most obvious is the alignment restriction: but many people ignore that anyway. Others are the Fiendish stuff (energy resistance, DR and fast healing).

2/ Healing is problematic. The Truenamer "solved" the problem by making an effective limit on how many times you can "cast" each Utterance per day. Unlimited daily damage is fine; unlimited daily healing isn't. (But there are system changes under which it would be fine.)

3/ Really like the idea of using Knowledge skill ranks. There will be trouble in campaigns where Knowledge (Local) is broken into a bunch of different skills -- human yokels in remote locations will be able to shout "You don't know me!" and it will actually matter. But that's a house rule, I think.

4/ I much prefer Word of Nurturing as a class feature. You could just steal the Dragon Shaman's healing ability, but have it only work on people whose True Names you know... so when your PC gets dominated by a vampire and turns evil....

Not much insight on the Utterances as Invocations themselves. I don't really like most Utterances.

- - -

Genre Note: There should be a Feat where you pick an animal, and from then on, you can Wildshape into that animal at will. Some limit required so we don't see a Bbn 5 / TS 1 running around as a giant bear all the time.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Flamewarrior]

Thanks for the necrothreading ...

1/ Warlock is a good base for this class, but a lot of the core Warlock mechanics should be changed. Most obvious is the alignment restriction: but many people ignore that anyway. Others are the Fiendish stuff (energy resistance, DR and fast healing).

Yes, I ignore the former - and the latter can wait for now, until after the "utterances" look working.

2/ Healing is problematic. The Truenamer "solved" the problem by making an effective limit on how many times you can "cast" each Utterance per day. Unlimited daily damage is fine; unlimited daily healing isn't. (But there are system changes under which it would be fine.)

Honestly, there's a lot of people (me included) who wouldn't care much, especially with the wealth of instant-kill effects (and similar things, like über-charging) which obviate HPs; but what are those system changes?

3/ Really like the idea of using Knowledge skill ranks. There will be trouble in campaigns where Knowledge (Local) is broken into a bunch of different skills -- human yokels in remote locations will be able to shout "You don't know me!" and it will actually matter. But that's a house rule, I think.

I agree, and put humanoids under history (local, which isn't quite for PCs, is really for one local and lets people know about all creatures in one environment - but it wouldn't apply for truenaming).

Item 4 is great, and I didn't get this:

Genre Note: There should be a Feat where you pick an animal, and from then on, you can Wildshape into that animal at will. Some limit required so we don't see a Bbn 5 / TS 1 running around as a giant bear all the time.

 

[Simm]

Item 4 is great, and I didn't get this

I think he means that you know the true name of that animal and thus can transform yourself into it by temporarily "renaming" yourself. In many source which use truename magic it is a not uncommon ability.

 

[Simm]

I didn't get this:

Originally Posted by Nifft
Genre Note: There should be a Feat where you pick an animal, and from then on, you can Wildshape into that animal at will. Some limit required so we don't see a Bbn 5 / TS 1 running around as a giant bear all the time.

I think he means that you know the true name of an animal you can transform yourself into it by temporarily "renaming" yourself. In many sources that use truename magic it is a not uncommon ability.

 

[Nifft]

So, healing "fixes" that I've seen:

- Reserve Points (and no magical healing) -- basically PCs get an extra pool of HP, and these refresh fully overnight. I've heard good things about it in a low-magic setting, but have no experience. Available here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/reservePoints.htm

- Star Wars d20 uses a Vitality/Wound system (similar to the one here) and has a Force power that allows you to cure both VP and WP with a Force skill check. But you can only attempt the check once per hour. Something similar -- you can heal at will, but each individual critter can only benefit once per hour -- might work. Or even just once per day. So you could heal a whole village which inexplicably weathered a rain of sharp fish, but you're not refueling your party after every fight.


But honestly, I'd just give 'em Use Magic Device, and let them buy Wands of Cure Light Wounds like everyone else who's not a Cleric. The effect is the same as infinite between-combat healing, but it looks to the players like it's not free, so they actually think about not using it sometimes.


The "Genre Note" is about Sparrowhawk from A Wizard of Earthsea. It seems like the wizards there had favored animal forms. It'd be nice to model that via a Feat which some Truenamers took.


Let's see, what can we do with Truenamerlocks?


Truernamer

HD: d6
BAB: 3/4 (as Cleric)
Good Save: Will
Skills: 8 + Int -- Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language (None), Spellcraft (Int) and Use Magic Device (Cha).
Proficiencies: Simple weapons and Light armor. You do not suffer from arcane spell failure.

Level: Invocations / Special
1: 1 / Least Invocations, Talk Smack +1d6
2: 2 / ??
3: 2 / Talk Smack +2d6
4: 3 / True Activation
5: 3 / Nurturing Words (heal wounds)
6: 4 / Lesser Invocations
7: 4 / Talk Smack +3d6
8: 5 / ??
9: 5 / ??
10: 6 / Talk Smack +4d6
11: 6 / Greater Invocations
12: 7 / Nurturing Words (remove conditions)
13: 7 / Talk Smack +5d6
14: 8 / ??
15: 8 / ??
16: 9 / True Invocations, Talk Smack +6d6
17: 9 / ??
18: 10 / ??
19: 10 / Talk Smack +7d6
20: 11 / Speak of the Devil

Talk Smack (Sp): Ray (60 ft.) which deals the indicated damage plus your Charisma bonus. SR negates this damage, but you may bypass SR with a Knowledge check appropriate to the creature's type. This is a [Sonic] effect.

True Activation (Su): You may take 15 on any Use Magic Device check relating to a magic device which requires a command word to activate (such as a wand).

Nurturing Words (Sp): Just like the Touch of Vitality feature of a Dragon Shaman.

Speak of the Devil (Su): Whenever someone you know speaks your name, you are aware of it, and you may instantly transport yourself to their location.


Invocations
Least Invocations:
- Baleful Utterance
- Beguiling Influence
- Countersong
- Least Ward: protection from alignment or alarm
- Litany on Fear: cause fear or remove fear
- Litany Optical: darkness or light
- Magic Insight (Dragon Magic)
- Recitation on Valor: bless or bane

Lesser Invocations:
- Charm
- Command Gravity: featherfall or force flying creature downward
- Command Speed: single-target haste or slow
- Command Valor: doom or maximized aid
- Curse of Despair
- Dread Seizure (Dragon Magic)
- Lesser Ward: magic circle against alignment or resist energy
- Litany of Revelation: invisibility purge or zone of truth
- Enthralling Voice (Dragon Magic)
- Voracious Dispelling
- Wind's Whisper: command or whispering winds

Greater Invocations:
- Baleful Geas (Dragon Magic)
- Command Planar Travel: dismissal or dimensional anchor
- Terrifying Roar (Dragon Magic)
- Truespeak: tongues or glibness
- Warlock's Call

True Invocations:
- Command Sound: deafness or remove deafness
- Command Vision: blindness or remove blindness
- Litany of Motion: hold monster or freedom of movement
- Word of Changing
- Word of Power: blasphemy, dictum, holy word or word of chaos; causes you damage


... or something like that.

Cheers, -- N