Truespeak Fix (3.5e Variant Rule)

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Author: Eiji-kun (talk)
Date Created: 5-9-15
Status: Complete
Editing: Clarity edits only please
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Truespeak Fix[edit]

Somewhere deep within the realms, within the ivory towers along the coast, the wizards sat and pondered creating all manner of spells, and altering the very fabric of the cosmos. Among these coastal wizards, many sat in thought on what next to add to the universes they create with a whim.

"I have an idea!" shouted one such wizard, standing from Simbul's Strange Seating spell. "It will be the best idea ever."

"You say that about everything. You said that about your Complete Warrior Samurai too." his co-conspirator replied, bored. "Still, beats nothing. What do you got."

"So you know how we have normal Vancian spellcasting..."

"Uh huh..."

"And then we had spellcasting with points, and it made psionics?"

"Uh huh..."

"And then we figured out spellcasting at-will, and made warlocks!"

"What's your point?"

"A new spellcasting system! Spellcasting... based on skill checks!"

"That's..." His partner paused and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Actually kind of interesting. But tricky. Very tricky. You know how easy it is to optimize skill checks, so if the casting is based on a skill, whatever numbers you put in will surely become unbalanced. Still, it has potential. Perhaps if there are fixed DCs, or you could somehow account for additional bonuses, then maybe you might be able to pull off-"

"And done." With a click of a button on Microsoft's Magnificent Machine, he had just sent off a PDF to the world outside.

"Wait, what did you do? You're done already? Please tell me you haven't published it already! What about balance?"

"Of course I'm done, deadlines and all. The elder evil Hasbro won't stand for it otherwise. Don't worry, your concerns about huge skill checks are no more. I just made it impossible to do skill checks after a few times, and made it you can't use it more than one at a time. I don't remember if you could dismiss them, but I'm sure it's not important. Who would cast the same spell more than once? I typed a number on a d8 and gave them that many spells known. Called it truenaming, I did! It'll be a big hit."

The other wizard groaned and went back to his work.

The Problem[edit]

Truespeak is broken. The idea is so promising, the flavor, perfect, and the execution is a natural 1. Even now as I type this, fixing truenaming is almost impossible. This variant is to be used with the rebuild of the truenamer class here.

The Solution[edit]

The following replies all traits and functions of the Truespeak skill.

Truespeak (Int; Trained Only)

Truespeak can be used to perform several effects in addition to the uses performed by truespeech classes. Everything has a common truename (the equivalent of "dog" or "orc") and a personal truename ("Rover" and "Bob"). Personal truenames are difficult to discover, and rightfully so, as they can invoke additional power over the creature. If you have the personal truename of a creature, you can specify them in a [Summoning] or [Calling] effect can conjure them through. You can also use a personal truename to force a unique creature through a gate without a save (though it does not impart control). Truenames are also used as blackmail for many outsiders, as it opens them up to the whims of mortal spellcasters and their abuses. As a result, they take great care not to reveal their truenames.

It can be used to identify key properties of a creature normally not known to characters in-game (such as hit dice... so that's how you research it...), hit points, status effects a creature or object is under, or even discover a truename. Consult the following table.

Truespeak
Truespeak Effect DC
Divine HD 10 + the creature's HD
Divine Level/CR 10 + the creature's CR
Divine Current Hp 10 + the creature's HD
Divine Status 20 + 10 for every additional status you divine
Divine Personal Truename1 20 + CR of the creature ×3
  1. This use requires research no less than 1 day per HD of the creature. The DC is lowered by 4 if you have a personal item of the creature's as a focus. Other circumstances may raise, lower, or otherwise make the DC impossible. Once you gain 1 rank in Truespeak, you automatically know your own truename.

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.

The utterances now have set base DCs with results for successes and failures, and sometimes augmentations you may use with your utterance which adjusts the DC. The DC for a truespeak check is usually DC 5 per level of the utterance. Specific utterances and augmentations may vary this DC. 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[edit]

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 defensive edge normally has a DC of 10 to place on a creature. If the creature is also affected by other utterances such as critical word of nurturing the DC increases by +10, to 20. Thus a creature can only be afflicted by so many utterances at once before it becomes difficult to impossible to target them.

Law of Chorus[edit]

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 3rd level utterance is a +6 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 number of targets equal to your character level.

The Finisher[edit]

Because saying a truename is such an idiosyncratic, exacting task, you can't take 10 or take 20 on Truespeak checks.

Action: Speaking a truename is a standard action that provokes attacks of opportunity.

Try Again: Yes.

Synergy: if you have 5 ranks in Truespeak, you gain a +1 bonus on all Knowledge checks.


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Eiji-kun's Homebrew (5605 Articles)
Eiji-kunv
AuthorEiji-kun +
Identifier3.5e Variant Rule +
Rated ByCedric + and balmz +
RatingRating Pending +
SummaryTruespeak, and truenamers, are terrible. I try my best to fix it by throwing most of it out. +
TitleTruespeak Fix +