True Name (Wizard Spell)

True name grants a wizard great power over any living thing that has a name, generic or individual, known to the caster. Naturally, most true names aren't known, even by the creatures themselves, for the common names of most things aren't their true and secret names. True names are discovered through hard work, spying, extensive use of legend lore, and diligent sagecraft.
Casting a true name spell requires the wizard to call out the true name of the subject and then begin reciting a verse that describes the nature and history of the subject. This involves a casting time of 3. Thereafter, in rhyming verse, the caster must describe the desired result of the spell. The results are variable and have varying casting times, as noted below.
* Multiple suggestion: The verses of the rhyme contain from one to four suggestion spells, each treated as a separate spell. Each verse (suggestion) requires a casting time of 1 to recite.
* Weakness and surrender: Each subsequent verse reduces the subject's magic resistance, attack rolls, damage rolls, and saving throws by 1. With each verse, the target must save versus paralyzation or meekly surrender. (Once the fiend fails a save, no further saves are necessary.) The meekness lasts as does a charm person spell.
* Polymorph: The verses change the subject into something else, just as if a polymorph other had been cast. No system shock roll is required. The number of verses and the casting time vary depending on the degree of change:
:: mineral to animal = 10 verses
:: mineral to vegetable = 9 verses
:: vegetable to animal = 8 verses
:: animal to animal = 4 verses
:: vegetable to vegetable = 3 verses
:: mineral to mineral = 2 verses
: The subject returns to its natural form in time; the spell lasts for 6 turns per level of the caster minus 1 turn for every verse required for the transformation.
* Transport: The target is teleported without error. The number of verses required depends on the destination:
:: same plane = 5 verses
:: one plane removed = 6 verses
:: two planes removed = 7 verses
:: three planes removed = 8 verses
:: Greater distances are not possible.
* Domination: The subject is allowed a single save. If it is unsuccessful, the target must serve the caster to the best of its ability for a single day. If the target's required to perform an act highly against its code of ethics (for example, a paladin compelled to slaughter a village of innocents), the subject's allowed another save. Every failed save means that its next save is at a cumulative -1 penalty. A body under domination is aware of what his body's doing, but he's helpless to stop it. Failure to make the saving throw doesn't affect the victim's alignment in any way, but most good creatures will want to atone for any atrocities committed.
Willing subjects receive no saving throw or benefit of magic resistance. If the caster is inter­rupted at any time during the recitation of the spell, the magic fails and the spell is lost.
Notes: Rare spell.
==Planescape Lore==
True name magic is a force of order, opposing the school of wild magic. Since they define the essence of the being named, they contain great power for those who know how to exploit them.
Learning true names is an arduous process, no one source will have catalogued more than a handful. If a true name can be discovered at all, the search can be expected to take 2 to 12 months (or even more) for a high-level wizard with access to libraries and sages, and who has the ability to travel to far-flung places and even other planes. The more powerful the intended subject, the more time is required for the search.
The Powers of the planes have no true names, so far as is known. True names are most often used to summon fiends, and to bind them, using such spells as cacofiend, ensnarement, and spiritwrack. Even a chaotic fiend must keep a bar­gain with a wizard who knows its true name.
Category:Wizard Spells
Category:Spells from The Planewalker's Handbook
Category:Spells
Category:Spells from Wizard's Spell Compendium