Sir Poley's Blog, page 64

I must say, I love HP&tN20. Between it and the Order of the Stick I fell in love with primary casters (particularly wizards) before I ever read the Player's Handbook. It's been bugging me though; Which book says what happens to the familiar of a dead wizar

It doesn’t say anywhere what happens to a familiar whose master dies.

I looked and looked and looked. If there’s any clue, it’s in a Dragon Magazine or something similar. So… I basically made a list of possible options and chose my favourite. Here’s what I came up with:

-The Familiar disappears and the Wizard needs to summon a new one after being Raised. (This sucks, as I like Mordy, and don’t want him to suffer sudden existential failure like that)

-The Familiar goes on as usual. (This struck me as probably the most likely to follow the rules, but still weird—why aren’t there dozens of familiars kicking around of dead wizards? Actually, that would be a really cool detail in a campaign… the familiar of a long dead, all-powerful wizard who is a powerful entity in its own right now. Oh man. I just realized the potential of how cool that NPC could be.)

-the Familiar dies and ends up in the afterlife as well (I toyed around with this idea, but dismissed it. Milo never really had any time alone in the whole series, and I wanted to see what happened when left by himself in the afterlife).

-The Familiar reverts to pre-Familiar animal state as the Wizard’s power vanishes. This is the one I chose, because it struck me as the most ‘plausible.’ Also, it had good story possibilities.

I must say, I love HP&tN20. Between it and the Order of the Stick I fell in love with primary casters (particularly wizards) before I ever read the Player's Handbook. It's been bugging me though; Which book says what happens to the familiar of a dead wizar

It doesn’t say anywhere what happens to a familiar whose master dies.

I looked and looked and looked. If there’s any clue, it’s in a Dragon Magazine or something similar. So… I basically made a list of possible options and chose my favourite. Here’s what I came up with:

-The Familiar disappears and the Wizard needs to summon a new one after being Raised. (This sucks, as I like Mordy, and don’t want him to suffer sudden existential failure like that)

-The Familiar goes on as usual. (This struck me as probably the most likely to follow the rules, but still weird—why aren’t there dozens of familiars kicking around of dead wizards? Actually, that would be a really cool detail in a campaign… the familiar of a long dead, all-powerful wizard who is a powerful entity in its own right now. Oh man. I just realized the potential of how cool that NPC could be.)

-the Familiar dies and ends up in the afterlife as well (I toyed around with this idea, but dismissed it. Milo never really had any time alone in the whole series, and I wanted to see what happened when left by himself in the afterlife).

-The Familiar reverts to pre-Familiar animal state as the Wizard’s power vanishes. This is the one I chose, because it struck me as the most ‘plausible.’ Also, it had good story possibilities.

I must say, I love HP&tN20. Between it and the Order of the Stick I fell in love with primary casters (particularly wizards) before I ever read the Player's Handbook. It's been bugging me though; Which book says what happens to the familiar of a dead wizar

It doesn’t say anywhere what happens to a familiar whose master dies.

I looked and looked and looked. If there’s any clue, it’s in a Dragon Magazine or something similar. So… I basically made a list of possible options and chose my favourite. Here’s what I came up with:

-The Familiar disappears and the Wizard needs to summon a new one after being Raised. (This sucks, as I like Mordy, and don’t want him to suffer sudden existential failure like that)

-The Familiar goes on as usual. (This struck me as probably the most likely to follow the rules, but still weird—why aren’t there dozens of familiars kicking around of dead wizards? Actually, that would be a really cool detail in a campaign… the familiar of a long dead, all-powerful wizard who is a powerful entity in its own right now. Oh man. I just realized the potential of how cool that NPC could be.)

-the Familiar dies and ends up in the afterlife as well (I toyed around with this idea, but dismissed it. Milo never really had any time alone in the whole series, and I wanted to see what happened when left by himself in the afterlife).

-The Familiar reverts to pre-Familiar animal state as the Wizard’s power vanishes. This is the one I chose, because it struck me as the most ‘plausible.’ Also, it had good story possibilities.

I must say, I love HP&tN20. Between it and the Order of the Stick I fell in love with primary casters (particularly wizards) before I ever read the Player's Handbook. It's been bugging me though; Which book says what happens to the familiar of a dead wizar

It doesn’t say anywhere what happens to a familiar whose master dies.

I looked and looked and looked. If there’s any clue, it’s in a Dragon Magazine or something similar. So… I basically made a list of possible options and chose my favourite. Here’s what I came up with:

-The Familiar disappears and the Wizard needs to summon a new one after being Raised. (This sucks, as I like Mordy, and don’t want him to suffer sudden existential failure like that)

-The Familiar goes on as usual. (This struck me as probably the most likely to follow the rules, but still weird—why aren’t there dozens of familiars kicking around of dead wizards? Actually, that would be a really cool detail in a campaign… the familiar of a long dead, all-powerful wizard who is a powerful entity in its own right now. Oh man. I just realized the potential of how cool that NPC could be.)

-the Familiar dies and ends up in the afterlife as well (I toyed around with this idea, but dismissed it. Milo never really had any time alone in the whole series, and I wanted to see what happened when left by himself in the afterlife).

-The Familiar reverts to pre-Familiar animal state as the Wizard’s power vanishes. This is the one I chose, because it struck me as the most ‘plausible.’ Also, it had good story possibilities.

I must say, I love HP&tN20. Between it and the Order of the Stick I fell in love with primary casters (particularly wizards) before I ever read the Player's Handbook. It's been bugging me though; Which book says what happens to the familiar of a dead wizar

It doesn’t say anywhere what happens to a familiar whose master dies.

I looked and looked and looked. If there’s any clue, it’s in a Dragon Magazine or something similar. So… I basically made a list of possible options and chose my favourite. Here’s what I came up with:

-The Familiar disappears and the Wizard needs to summon a new one after being Raised. (This sucks, as I like Mordy, and don’t want him to suffer sudden existential failure like that)

-The Familiar goes on as usual. (This struck me as probably the most likely to follow the rules, but still weird—why aren’t there dozens of familiars kicking around of dead wizards? Actually, that would be a really cool detail in a campaign… the familiar of a long dead, all-powerful wizard who is a powerful entity in its own right now. Oh man. I just realized the potential of how cool that NPC could be.)

-the Familiar dies and ends up in the afterlife as well (I toyed around with this idea, but dismissed it. Milo never really had any time alone in the whole series, and I wanted to see what happened when left by himself in the afterlife).

-The Familiar reverts to pre-Familiar animal state as the Wizard’s power vanishes. This is the one I chose, because it struck me as the most ‘plausible.’ Also, it had good story possibilities.

I must say, I love HP&tN20. Between it and the Order of the Stick I fell in love with primary casters (particularly wizards) before I ever read the Player's Handbook. It's been bugging me though; Which book says what happens to the familiar of a dead wizar

It doesn’t say anywhere what happens to a familiar whose master dies.

I looked and looked and looked. If there’s any clue, it’s in a Dragon Magazine or something similar. So… I basically made a list of possible options and chose my favourite. Here’s what I came up with:

-The Familiar disappears and the Wizard needs to summon a new one after being Raised. (This sucks, as I like Mordy, and don’t want him to suffer sudden existential failure like that)

-The Familiar goes on as usual. (This struck me as probably the most likely to follow the rules, but still weird—why aren’t there dozens of familiars kicking around of dead wizards? Actually, that would be a really cool detail in a campaign… the familiar of a long dead, all-powerful wizard who is a powerful entity in its own right now. Oh man. I just realized the potential of how cool that NPC could be.)

-the Familiar dies and ends up in the afterlife as well (I toyed around with this idea, but dismissed it. Milo never really had any time alone in the whole series, and I wanted to see what happened when left by himself in the afterlife).

-The Familiar reverts to pre-Familiar animal state as the Wizard’s power vanishes. This is the one I chose, because it struck me as the most ‘plausible.’ Also, it had good story possibilities.

When on Friday do you update? I've been trying and failing to work it out. -Smurfton

The honest truth is that I generally finish it on friday around 6, email it out to my editors, panic for a few hours while they catch typos and such and hope it’s good, then release it to the wild.

So, basically, I release the chapter when I finish it. That’s why when there’s a disruption in my life (like when I spend a few days in another city), I can’t post a chapter that week. I don’t have a lot of buffer time, but that’s okay, because I usually write better under the gun anyway.

I've been reading you for a long time and never actually thanked you. Consider the problem solved. And by the way I had never heard of Darths and Droids before... I don't know if I should really thank you for this second time devoring machine you just sent

Well, you’re very welcome! Thank you for taking the time out of your day to thank me. Lots of people don’t do that.

(Also, there is no finer way to devour time than to read Darths and Droids)

What's your opinion on the truenamer class? How would you optimize a character of that class to be playable?

Ack, Truenamers.

I want them to work. Or rather, I want the concept of True Names to be baked into the D&D system across the board, because it’s just such a cool concept (as seen in the Dresden Files, for example), and it has simple rules that make it fit in a good game setting.

But the class is just broken. Not in the way that people usually mean the word, as in that it’s overpowered or works in an unintended way, but broken in the sense that it just doesn’t work.

The fundamental mechanic for the Truenamer is simple in and of itself: you need to make a skill check with a DC of 15 + (2x target creature’s CR), or 15 + (2xCL) for a magic item.

And that right there is where the class just completely falls apart. It’s simple math, and nobody at WotC bothered to do it. (There’s a whole nother line of argument that says that targetting the DC based on the creature’s makes no in-universe sense, as CR is supposed to be a tool for the GM, while HD is supposed to be the in-universe measure of power—as used by every other ability in the game).

For those who don’t know, CR is a measurement of how powerful a monster is, and therefore what level PCs are supposed to fight them. A reasonable encounter pits a creature with a CR equal to the PC’s level against each other.

At level 1, say you’re fighting a CR 1 gnoll. The DC to Truename it is 15+2=17. Let’s be generous and say your Int bonus is +3, you have 4 ranks in Truenamer and you took Skill Focus (Truespeak) for +3. This makes your bonus +10, so you have to roll 7+ to use your ability on the Troglodyte. That’s a 70% chance of success—not too shabby. Let’s be really generous and say you have +4 Int and somehow convinced your DM that you could get a 50gp Masterwork Tool of Truespeak (Let’s say it’s a Kazoo of Truespeak). This puts your bonus up to +13 total, so you need to roll 4+, or 85%. Sounds good.

At level 2, things are looking rosy. You put 5 ranks in Knowledge Arcana, so you get another +2 for synergy, and +1 for more ranks. Your bonus is (at most) +16, now. A CR 2 Skum has a DC of 19 to beat, so your odds of success have increased to 3+.

At level 3, things are still going pretty well. You put another rank in Truespeak and bump your bonus up to +17, and you need to hit 21 to target a level-appropriate monster. That means you need to roll 4+.

By level 7, you’re probably starting to notice a concerning trend. You keep putting ranks into Truespeak, but you’re starting to fail more and more. Your bonus is up to +20 now, but the DC you need to roll to hit the monsters that are being thrown at you is 15+(2*7)=29, and you need to roll 9+. This gives you a success rate of only 60%, a far cry from the 85% you were getting at level 1.

And it only gets worse from there. If you put a point in Intelligence every level, you can get another +1 to your skill check every eight levels. If you throw all of your money at Headbands of Intelligence, you can keep up for longer, but the cost increase of those are nonlinear. You can scrounge about for feats to give you minor bonuses to skill checks, but the core mechanic—that the DC you need to beat goes up by 2 every level and your bonus goes up by 1 most levels (more with great expense) means you’re pretty much screwed. Note that all of this is before the Saving Throw that your enemies generally get from your attacks. Casters usually either have to make a check (like a touch attack) or their targets make a save, but if you’re a Truenamer you have the unique “privilege” of both. Huzzah?

Many of your abilities don’t allow saves, though, and you should focus on those. For some reason, your save DC is based on Charisma, instead of Intelligence, like every other Truenamer ability (seriously, wth? Charisma?), so your DC will likely be crap, anyway.

On top of that, for inexplicable reasons, every time you use the same Utterance (a Truenamer spell) again in a day, the DC increases by a cumulative +2.

In short, this class sucks. But, if you had to play it, there are things you can do to make it work. Complete Champion introduces an organization called the Paragnostic Assembly, and if you beg and plead your DM to introduce it in your world, you can join it and do some trickery and get +10 to any skill. To do that, you basically have to dedicate the entire party to doing quests for the assembly to get affiliation points, until higher level when you can do some of the solo ones (like having 10 ranks in any knowledge skill). The other thing is you can get Knowledge Devotion, an amazing skill that can get you +5 to pretty much every attack and damage roll, if you can make some pretty easy knowledge checks. And you can’t do anything else, so you may as well optimize for knowledge (Truenamers get some class bonuses that play to that as well).Other than that… okay. You have one ability that you can use that nobody else can: Quicken Utterance. It increases the DC of your Truename check by an absurd +20, but let’s you cast as a Swift Action. The real kicker? That means it’s just as hard to cast a quickened utterance of your highest level as it is of your lowest level. So if you can hit the skill DC, you can Quicken everything. You can quicken every spell as soon as you learn it. Wizards can only quicken spells they could cast eight levels ago.

The real beauty is that, as Quicken Utterance uses your Swift action, and you don’t have a spell/day limit, there is no cost in trying. Every single round, even if you only succeed on a 20, cast a quickened utterance in addition to your regular one. It probably won’t work, but if it does? Holy carp, you just got two turns in one.

You can get the Amulet of Silver Tongue for a +5 or +10 bonus to Truespeak, and you can talk to your DM about a custom magic item giving a competence bonus using the guidelines in the DMG. From there, you’re on your own. Best of luck!

Looking at the D20 SRD Summon Monster 1 list, I see "Celestial Owl" and "Celestial Dog" (both LG). Two questions: could Milo summon a Celestial Owl and have it deliver letters for him, akin to a HP owl? (I doubt he *would*, since that'd be a dreadful waste

1) He couldn’t have it deliver a letter, because the duration that a summoned creature exists is only 6 seconds times his level—just under a minute, in this case, which is hardly sufficient to fly anywhere at all. Also, his summoned owls wouldn’t have the curious ability that HP owls have to locate the recipients of their letters. (Seriously, how does Hedwig keep finding Sirius in hiding?). There’s a spell, Animal Messenger, that does almost exactly what the HP owls do, but it’s not available to wizards without hijinks.

2) He *could* do so, I think. Most things are possible in 3.5, but off the top of my head, I’m not sure how he would. Actually, literally as I typed this I figured a way: he could make a constant-effect magic item of Summon Monster I for 1(1st level spell) * 1(caster level)*4(duration measured in rounds) *2000 (constant effect)=8000gp.

However, if that was his goal, he wouldn’t really need to do that. He’s the only one in the universe who understands how his magic really works, so he could just say that having a giant black dog following you around is normal for Wizards like him, much in the same way that having a super-intelligent rat is.