ForewordAs the title says, this is, at least initially, a thread only for the discussion of the Truenamer class, not a thread for a new iteration of the class. I want to explore the various themes of the Truenamer, both as presented in Tome of Magic and as presented in other, non-D&D media, themes both literary and mechanical. I also would like to explore existing efforts to make the Truenamer class playable, to "fix" the Truenamer class, or to rewrite the Truenamer class.
The goal of this exploration is to come to a conclusion of how best to execute the Concept, what the existing Problems are with the published Truenamer, and to brainstorm possible Solutions. Once I've come to these conclusions, I hope to produce a decidedly
not quick-and-dirty fix for the Truenamer in the form of a complete overhaul. The Truenamer concept has always been a favorite of mine; the WotC implementation of it was awful and even the best efforts of homebrewers that I've seen fall short at a fundamental level. It's about time I did something about that.
The ConceptSo, from works like
Hellboy to
Eragon, and many in between, the use of True Names as a magical device, apart from sorcery has been around for a long time. Even
the wizard, Gandalf, used crude forms of this linguistically-based magic as he opened mines with Elvish words, and shook the earth with words spoken in the Black Tongue of Mordor. True Names are often used in conjunction with the notion of a dead True Language, the language of the gods, or the language of the cosmos, but this is not always the case. One thing all uses of the True Name concept has in common, or at least to my knowledge, is that knowing a creature's True Name always grants you great power over that creature. The depth and breadth of that power changes depending on the source material, but it seems always to be the case that possession of a True Name is synonymous with power.
In translating this concept from literature to D&D, the authors of the Tome of Magic used a slightly different interpretation of True Names than I have seen used before. In D&D, a Truenamer uses Utterances, phrases of words of Truespeak (the true language of the cosmos), to effect creatures, objects, and places. The Truenamer never needs to know the True Names of anything to use his magic power, but he can research a creature's True Name in order to gain bonuses to his Utterance's effects. A, perhaps, more apt name of the class then would be Truespeaker. As I understand it, D&D Truespeak isn't even actually the secret language of the universe, but a sort of pidgin dialect of it that represents mortals' best approximation. Which doesn't seem very impressive at all, really.
Now, the idea that speaking the (proper) language of the cosmos gives one command over primordial magic power is one that really grabs the attention, and combining that concept with the concept of True Names is one that sounds very powerful indeed. However, I feel that D&D went about this in the reverse order. It shouldn't be easy to determine a given creature's True Name, by any means, but it should be that much harder to fluently speak a turn of phrase drawn from the secret language of the universe. This is the Truenamer, after all, and knowing a thing's True Name is how you wield power over it. The basic effects of a Truenamer seem like they should revolve around the acquiring of a creature's True Name, and the more advanced and highly impressive effects should be "utterances of Truespeak" wherein the Truenamer uses a thing's True Name in conjunction with a phrase of Truespeak that declares something about that thing (a change, a curse, something).
Third Party TruenamingThere has been a lot of hubbub made over the years over the Truenamer presented in the Tome of Magic. A lot of discussion about its flaws, a lot of quick fixes to the Truespeak check DCs, and even some third-party truenaming design (either with new magic systems that incorporate True Names, or with new True Name themed classes). I myself have produced a "quick-fix" version of the Truenamer before, as well as two additional truespeaking classes, the Truthseeker and the Egocaster (I'm not particularly proud of these works). I know of one
Guide to Truenaming, written by Zaq at GitP, that goes to great lengths to outline the flaws of the Truenamer class, but also to illustrate the rare strengths of the class and give as much advice as possible about playing the class. There are also two homebrewed ground-up redesigns of the class that I know of, both of these also produced at GitP,
the first written by Kyeudo (and organized into a
PDF), and
the second written by Kellus. Paizo Publishing even took a foray into truenaming with the
Words of Power sub-system, presented in the Ultimate Magic supplement to its Pathfinder d20 rules system. If you're interested in the concept of True Names, then I urge you to review all of the links given above. They are valuable resources and innovative designs.
Problems With the TruenamerTome of MagicWhere, o where, to begin? The simplest place to begin, I'd say, is to discuss the skill-based "casting" that is the foundation of the Tome of Magic Truenamer. Here we have a new skill, Truespeak (Int-based), one that is trained-only, and one that is a class-skill only for the Truenamer (or Expert or Factotum, if they choose). The only usage of this skill is to pronounce the True Name of a creature or item, which, unless you have specific class features, does absolutely nothing. It's also very difficult. The check DC to speak the True Name of a monster is 15 + Double the monster's CR. This means that, at 1st level, a character with max ranks in True Speak, and Intelligence 18, for a total +8 bonus to Truespeak checks, has only a 60% chance to correctly speak a given monster's True Name. That character has an equal chance to correctly pronounce an ally's True Name, or his own, though the DC is calculated slightly differently as 15 + Double the Player Character's HD. Unfortunately, these formula mean that, without bonuses apart from maximized ranks in the Truespeak skill and the highest Intelligence score available, a character cannot possibly pronounce the True Names of anything correctly before long as the DC generally increases by 2 at every level while the character's bonus to Truespeak checks only organically increases by 1 at every level. The DC to pronounce the True Name of a CR 20 monster is 55, and, without additional bonuses, a Truenamer would need maximized Truespeak ranks and Int 34 to succeed on a roll of 20.
To compound the issue of the impossible skill check, there are the Laws of Truespeech, which make the skill check even more difficult and add a new mechanical restriction to the use of Utterances, above and beyond the skill check. The Law of Resistance states that for each time you successfully use any given Utterance in a day the check DC to use that Utterance increases by a cumulative +2, employing the rationalization that the Universe doesn't like being changed at the whims of mortals. The Law of Sequence states that if you speak an Utterance with an ongoing duration that you cannot speak that Utterance again until the duration has expired. There ought to be a law in between Resistance and Sequence, called the Law of Termination, because there is a separate rule outlined earlier in the same chapter that states that Utterances are not dismissable and always run the full course of their durations. These "three" Laws combine to make speaking Utterances a hassle even if you are able to surmount the impossible skill checks needed to use them in the first place with outside bonuses to your checks, and even then the skill checks continue to get more difficult as you use your Utterances. Sheesh!
But the problems with the Tome of Magic Truenamer don't stop with the incredibly harsh skill based mechanics, nor with the Laws of Truespeech. There are a whole host of editing errors, mathematical errors, and mechanical errors that plague the Truenamer entry in Tome of Magic and the entire Truename Magic section of the book. Not only that, the design of much of the material designed to add or improve the options of a Truespeak-based character is so poorly designed that sometimes this material makes the character strictly worse. I could make a long list of specifically bad decisions on the part of editors or designers, but I'm not going to bother. Instead, I'll keep talking about other problems of the class.
I hadn't ever considered it before, but someone recently made the assertion that the mechanical effectiveness of the Truenamer class is comparable to that of the Expert class (an NPC class that is intended to be clearly less effective than PC classes). Seems ludicrous, or that it should be, at first, but when I thought about it, it's pretty reasonable. Comparing the base statistics, the Truenamer and Expert have the same HD, the same Base Attack Bonus, the same Base Saves, but the Truenamer gets 2 fewer skill points per level. If we look a little deeper, then we notice that the Truenamer has class features and Utterances Known, while the Expert has access to all skills as class skills which gives him options that the Truenamer doesn't have. Most people would look at that evaluation and think, "well, surely those class features and Utterances are worth a lot more than the Expert's two skill points per level and wider class skill access," but when you get down to it, that's very debatable. Considering how difficult it is to use Utterances, which is literally almost impossible, and that the Truenamer's class features either depend on his Utterances or are free Skill Focus (Knowledge) feats, it becomes clear to me that an Expert can easily be compared to a Truenamer. Harsh.
Now, the extreme difficulty that comes with making Truespeak checks would be at least partially excusable so long as each Utterance spoken by the Truenamer was an earth-shattering event. Unfortunately, this is just not true. I wish it were. There are FAR too few Utterances in the first place (throughout 6 levels of Utterances, there are literally just 45 that target creatures and a grand total of just 67 besides). Out of those Utterances, each Truenamer knows 29 (barely under 1/3), and you will be filling out that total with many that you are likely to never use. Of the Lexicon of the Evolving Mind, you'll learn two 1st level Utterances, three 2nd level, four 3rd level, 4th level, and 5th, and three 6th level (you learn 20/45 possible). Of those Utterances, only three 1st level Utterances are worth learning, only four 2nd level Utterances, only three 3rd level Utterances, only three 4th level Utterances, only five 5th level Utterances, and only five 6th level Utterances. You'll notice that there aren't even enough 3rd or 4th level Utterances worth taking for any given character. And these Utterances are really just worth taking, none of them even offer impressive or unique abilities. If they were usable, rather than impossible, then they'd just give the Truenamer something to do.
The differences between Kyeudo's Truenamer and the one found in Tome of Magic are difficult to spot on the surface. It has more class skills, additional class features, and it knows a few more Utterances, but the class features the two classes share are the same (or mostly the same), and both classes have the same basic chassis. All of the rules for speaking Utterances are identical with those found in Tome of Magic, except that the saving throw DCs for Kyeudo's Utterances are calculated more generously (10 + 1/2 character level + Intelligence modifier as opposed to 10 + 1/2 truenamer level + Charisma modifier). The same Utterances that weren't worth speaking in Tome of Magic are present here.
The DCs for making Truespeak checks have been alleviated some, though the Laws of Truespeech are still in full effect. The DCs are actually slightly harder for a low level character to make than in the normal rules for Tome of Magic (DC 18 for a CR 1 creature as opposed to the normal 17, DC 22 for a CR 3 creature as opposed to the normal 21), but are definitely easier for a high level character than normal (max DC 47 for a CR 20 creature as opposed to DC 55). The Truespeak skill now has other uses outside of Utterances and class features, and, now, characters of any class can take feats to learn Utterances. There are plenty of new Utterances available here and many of these new Utterances are worth taking. Some of the Utterances that weren't worth taking in Tome of Magic have at least been reduced in level here, so that now they are worth taking at the appropriate level anyway. It also is MUCH easier to effect level-appropriate enemies with lower-level Utterances (which wasn't even a separate distinction in Tome of Magic).
The biggest problem with Kyeudo's Truename Magic is that it's still incredibly difficult to speak Utterances without lots of bonuses to your Truespeak check. At 20th level, Kyeudo's Truenamer, with maximum ranks and Intelligence 34, has a +38 modifier to Truespeak checks, giving him a maximum 60% chance to effect a level-appropriate enemy with a level-appropriate Utterance without other bonuses to his Truespeak checks. The rules for speaking Utterances still totally suck (max range 60ft, single-target only until 13th level, increasingly difficult checks as the day wears on, the same restrictive rules about Utterance durations). Basically, Kyeudo's Truename Magic makes some nice changes and it takes a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough in making the True Name concept playable.
Kellus' Truename Magic is a full-fledged, ground-up rewrite of the True Name concept, inspired by the rules found in Tome of Magic, but mechanically different in every way. It makes a lot of interesting decisions, from move-action Utterances to stance-like Recitations, to psionics-like Utterance augments, but it has one fatal flaw and a list of lesser problems all its own. Even in Kellus' complete redesign, the mechanics of speaking True Names is still dependent on Truespeak skill checks, which is somewhat surprising, because it seems that everyone agrees that "skill-based casting" is a Bad Idea™. But that's not what's totally damning about his system. The Absolute Limit mechanics really make a mess of these rules.
Attempting to give a Power Word: X feel to his True Name system, Kellus devised the Absolute Limit mechanics. Absolute Limit represents a Truenamer's limit in terms of current hp of a creature he wishes to speak an Utterance on. A creature whose current hp are more than a Truenamer's Absolute Limit is immune to that Truenamer's Utterances. The formula for determining a Truenamer's Absolute Limit is complicated, and in some ways unintuitive, but is, basically, simplified as (1 + Cha modifier)/level. So, for a 1st level Truenamer with Cha 18, that means that he can't even use Utterances on a creature until that creature has 5 hp or less. Horribly this formula ignores non-permanent bonuses to Charisma and it doesn't retroactively apply, so, for example for a 20th level Truenamer with Cha 34 this doesn't mean that he can use Utterances on creatures with 200hp or less, it means that they need to have a whole lot fewer hit points than that (closer to 125). Holy crap that really sucks.
Now, Kellus' Truenamer can also use Incantations which do not target creatures and are not subject to Absolute Limit, but most of these are not very good. Necessarily, Kellus' Utterances and Incantations can't be very good, because they're activated as a move action, and thus up to two can be used per round. Sadly, some of the Incantations especially are incredibly good, far better than spells that they are based on, allowing no saving throws and operating at-will. Incantations like Dissolve the Bonds, an at-will instantaneous Freedom of Movement effect, or Rewrite the World, an at-will Wish (with a negligible penalty associated), are broken, especially with large bonuses to your skill check.
Another issue with Kellus' Truenamer is that his version of the Truespeak skill goes back to doing nothing, just like the Tome of Magic version. On top of that, Kellus abandons the idea of any sort of unified Truespeak check DC formula that's easy to adjudicate, replacing that with a unique check DC for each Utterance, Incantation, and Recitation. Trading out an impossible skill check for a highly convoluted system (separate DCs for each power, different augmentations for each power, two powers per turn, absolute limit, etc), Kellus' truenaming is much easier to use (at least the individual powers are). The Utterances, Incantations, and Recitations are extraordinary abilities, activated as a move action, they don't provoke attacks of opportunity, they aren't subject to SR, they don't allow saving throws, and the Truespeak DCs to speak them are easy to meet (probably too easy if you ask me). So the powers are easy to use, but the system is unwieldy, and some of the powers are probably broken. Ultimately, this is not for me.
(More discussion to come...)
