Talk:Truespeak Fix (3.5e Variant Rule)

Ratings

	Cedric favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	Very interesting. I didn't know anyone else knew this knowledge. It is a bit of arcana regarding the "power of the Word". I've written some on it over at School of Merlin.

	balmz favors this article and rated it 4 of 4!
	Finally a useful truespeak and truenamer, nicely done

When you do the overhaul, I recommend 2 things: First, make the progression tied somehow to number of ranks in True Speech. Second, make it so that a very minor effect happens on a failed check so that they don't feel as though they completely wasted their turn. --Ghostwheel (talk) 07:47, 9 May 2015 (UTC)

What do you mean by the first? Like make the ranks in truespeak = caster level of a sorts? If so, yes, this is a good idea. It'll make it so you won't lose CL if you multiclass, just utterances known.

Amusingly, the latter was also intended, but not very fleshed out yet. I figure I will end up rebuilding the utterances entirely (especially since I plan to ditch the evolving mind/crafted too/perfect map split, they'll all just be normal utterances). -- Eiji-kun (talk) 07:56, 9 May 2015 (UTC)

Post-Playtest Analysis

There are a few bugs I intend to repair. Doing do will overhaul things. For sake of history, here are the original two laws in its previous form:

Law of Echoes

When you use an utterance successfully, you must wait for the universe to stop echoing with power before using the same utterance again (you may, however, use a completely different utterance). The cooldown time is equal to the 1 + the level of the utterance. For every 5 points you exceed the truespeak DC for your utterance, the cooldown time is reduced by 1 round, to a minimum of 1 round (so it can be used every other turn). Thus, you can use an utterance on a dark naga (CR 8, so DC 19), and if you get a result of a 30, you can reduce the cost by 2 rounds (minimum 1). None of this "unable to cast for the next 24 hours" business.

Law of Chorus

Most utterances only affect a single target. For these single target utterances, you can choose to raise the DC of the truespeak check by twice the utterance level (so a 2nd level utterance is a +4 increase). For every increase you make, you can target another creature with an equal or lower truespeak DC in range of your utterance, to a maximum equal to your character level.

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Let's see what I can do with this... -- Eiji-kun (talk) 01:27, 3 April 2018 (MDT)

Changes complete. In theory this might work; I didn't want to hard ban having more than one utterance applied ever to a creature at a time, especially since I don't know if I placed any perma-duration utterances in there. Instead I made it more difficult to stack many buffs and make it more unappealing or impossible to have allies walking around with 50 buffs all day every day; after all you don't want to try and save your friend from danger at a critical moment only to botch your check because their DC is a million now. It is also thematically appropriate I believe.

This enters in a bit of complexity in that now the DC of your targets is expected to change mid-battle. On the other hand, I ditched the Law of Echoes so now complexity concerning durations is removed. This may end up being an even trade. Let's see how it works. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 01:57, 3 April 2018 (MDT)

Apparently there are already problems. Further changes pending. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 19:00, 3 April 2018 (MDT)

Post-Post Playtest (Or Why Is This So Difficult)

About to undergo another major rebuild due to data recovered. The following is for record's sake...

Archive

You can also make a Truespeak check as a free action to identify an utterance being spoken, even when it's not your turn. The DC of this check is equal to the DC to speak the utterance you wish to identify.

Speaking a creature's personal truename increases the DC of the truespeak check by 2. You gain a +4 competence bonus on truespeak checks for saying your own personal truename.

Lastly, of course, is pronouncing the truename of a creature or object, a key function to the workings of truespeech-using classes. The DC for a truespeak check is DC 11 + the creature's CR (0 for objects). You must pronounce a creature or object's truename (common or personal) to affect it properly with a truenamer's utterances. More importantly, the former Law of Resistance and Law of Sequence are discarded, replaced by the Law of Alteration and the Law of Chorus.

Law of Alteration

When you use an utterance successfully, you inevitably make their truename and the means of affecting them more difficult. For an utterance of instantaneous, this is a non-issue. However utterances with durations will increase the DC to affect the target by an amount equal to twice the level of any utterances currently upon them. For example a target who normally has a DC of 15 has defensive edge placed upon them, a 1st level utterance. Their DC is now 17. If they subsequently gain critical word of nurturing as well their DC jumps to 27.

Law of Chorus

Most utterances only affect a single target. For these single target utterances, you can choose to raise the DC of the truespeak check by twice the utterance level (so a 2nd level utterance is a +4 increase). For every increase you make, you can target another creature with an equal or lower truespeak DC in range of your utterance, to a maximum equal to your character level.

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That is all, time to get to work. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 04:02, 21 April 2018 (MDT)

A Couple Suggestions?

1. It seems like if the Truenames of creatures aren't necessarily hard to say (i.e. "Bob"), does knowing the personal truename bestow some sort of benefit? I've reread this article many times and can't find how it modifies Truespeak checks since you no longer have to say the truename of the type of object it is.
2. I think you could have some versions of the (lore of the) Laws that are based more off of the grammar and linguistics of Truenames. Here's what I was thinking:
   • Every utterance just adds to a Truename: Perhaps the language of truenames is like German/etc. where words get ridiculously long due to all sorts of adjectives and modifiers applied to it. When you make an utterance, you're actually just saying a really long truename that's a combination of the subject's truename along with each utterance affecting it, which is why it gets harder to make Truespeak checks for utterances when there are already utterances affecting the subject; it's also why it's still hard to say a person's truename if you want any sort of benefit from it at all.
   • Law of Accumulation: A truename can only have one utterance added to it (or removed from it) at a time. (This is to prevent a player from making the conclusion that you can just start out with a ridiculously long truename with whatever utterances you like applied to it, as well as why adding another target to an utterance's effect doesn't suddenly apply effects from all utterances affecting one subject to affect the other subject as well, unless if you think that wouldn't necessarily break the mechanic.)
3. I think it would be interesting if saying an active Truespeak Utterance backwards dispels the utterance's effect on a subject by making a Truespeak check as if you were using that utterance on the subject.
4. This is more about the Truenamer rebuilt, but wouldn't it make more sense for utterances kown to be tracked in a similar manner to how wizards use spellbooks/gather them as they adventure? Like, they're words, and wouldn't it make sense that hearing an utterance should let the utterance user kind of be able to use it, at least while the utterance is fresh in their memory? Perhaps with a penalty maybe?

--MadmanFromSpace (talk) 11:52, 4 August 2019 (MDT)

law of resistance

so, just to make sure I get this right, you can use utterances of instantaneous duration on the same target, over and over and over again as long as you can consistently hit the same DC? not really arguing balance here since I dont really like the 15-minute work-day, just making sure. Dr.Drako (talk) 01:48, 1 January 2020 (UTC)

Yes. In reworking the system it was given an overhaul and decided that the easiest way of making this work was to keep it from becoming impossible to make the DCs merely by using your ability. However by doing that the utterances themselves needed to be rebuilt from scratch to account for them being more akin to warlock invocations and not spells. The Fix is built around the philosophy that the utterances are at will, and become more unreliable the more tricks you attempt to pull on them beyond base requirements. -- Eiji-kun (talk) 03:34, 1 January 2020 (UTC)