Names have power.

We recently introduced a new playtest option for the wizard: Onomancy, the magic of names. Learn more about it in this video: – You have a lot of
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My advice is to use it just to help people like me that are not english speaking, to understand the Video/Podcast
Unearthed Arcana coming out

and there’s a lot of interesting ones.

One of them is there’s

a new wizard subclass

that feels very

much the stuff of legends, correct?

Tell me about this.

– So this week in Unearthed Arcana,

we unveiled

Onomancy,

a tradition of wizardry

that focuses on the magic of true names.

Now, true names, of course are a big deal

in real-world folklore,

this idea that you can gain

special power over someone

or something by knowing its true name.

This motif appears in many folktales,

in many fantasy stories;

it’s even something

that already is in D&D.

There is some commentary about true names

in the monster manual.

Demons

don’t like their true names being used.

And so we thought, as has been done before

in D&D’s past, we would explore

Onomancy as a form of magic.

And in this case,

specifically for the wizard.

And so what we did is

we created the subclass

that allows the wizard to gain advantages

over particular targets by

knowing their true name.

Now, one of those advantages

is literally having advantage,

I mean, rather them having disadvantage

on some of their roles

because you have uttered their true name.

– Which is already so mean (laughs)

– Oh, yes. Yeah.

– Yeah, it’s very power…

I mean

of course is what you want

and that’s like second level.

– Yeah.

– [Todd] Yeah.

– And we’ve also given this wizard

a suite of different abilities

that they can choose from

to modify the effects of a spell,

again, all relying on the

wizard knowing the true name

of the person they’re targeting.

These are things like

causing it to do more damage.

Again, making it harder for

them to save against the spell.

One of my favorites is

the one where we allow you

to target somebody who

you can’t see and is even

behind total cover as long as

you uttered their true name

and they’re within range of the spell.

Situational, but in particular situations,

that would be horrifying.

Just suddenly magic is happening to you

because somewhere nearby,

your true name was uttered.

– I love that.

That almost makes you the

Archaean archer of wizardry,

in a sense.

But, yeah, because I know your name.

You cannot hide from my magic.

That’s such a primordial

idea of magic,

right?

– And this wizard,

with that primordial power,

is also able to bolster allies

and curse foes by using

the bless and bane spells,

which is unusual for a wizard.

Those spells are typically associated

with a class like the cleric,

but this wizard, thanks again to the power

of knowing someone’s true name,

can utter an ally’s true name

and use that magic

to bless a group of

people or the opposite,

utter a foe’s true name and then cast bane

on a group of foes.

And we were, kind of,

imagining that the creature

whose name is being uttered,

they’re serving as a

conduit for those spells

and this wizard has both of

those spells always prepared.

They’re always ready to bless

people and also to curse them.

– I like it because, and how it’s worded,

the name of someone becomes the component.

– Yes.

And we also, in the subclass,

talk about what, in fact,

is a true name.

It could be your given name.

It could be a name you’ve chosen.

It could be a name you’ve earned.

If you’re worried about people

using your name in magic,

well then you might use a

pseudonym in everyday life.

There are many folktales that

involve people who use names

that are not actually their real name.

But then we even have a note saying

if you use a false name long enough,

it might actually become your

true name if it is the name

that you associate with yourself.

When you think of yourself,

if you have enough

mornings where you wake up

and the name that you

associate with yourself

is your false one,

well then that false name

might become your true name

and then could be used

against you by an necromancer.

– It’s a good example of…

Well, strangely, in my

family for some reason,

all the men go by their middle

name and I have no idea why.

– [Jeremy] Maybe so that a wizard

can’t use your true name against you.

– Hmm.

But also when you think of Batman,

or

Bruce Wayne, who is he really?

– [Jeremy] Right.

– Really feels like he’s Batman,

to make a comic book reference to that.

– Yeah, or

Gandalf has

a whole bunch of names.

– [Todd] Yes, Gandalf

has so many names (laughs).

– And

those names are not the

name that he originally had

in the West when he was a

divine being before being sent

to Middle-earth.

But then you wonder with Gandalf,

has one of those names become

actually his true name?

I mean, we don’t know, but–

– And that transition

from Gandalf the Grey

to Gandalf the White,

but Mithrandir’s the Elvin name for him.

– But even that’s not

his original name.

– [Todd] That’s not

his real name.

– Yeah.

– I feel terrible, but I

forget his real name right now;

it’s driving me nuts.

– [Jeremy] You have to go

to the Silmarillion for that.

– [Todd] Yeah, I know, I know.

I have the Silmarillion (laughs).

– I don’t wanna utter it because if I did,

he might appear and–

– [Todd] Please utter it–

– and be very…

– Cause if Ian McKellen just pops in,

that’s fantastic.

– It wouldn’t be Ian McKellen,

it would be Gandalf.

(laughing)

– [Todd] I think Ian

McKellen is his true name

(laughing)

– No, if it would summon Ian McKellen,

I would say it.

I would say it as many times as necessary.

– [Todd] Until he got very cross with you.

– Yes.

(laughing)

He would say, “Please,

sir, stop summoning me.”

– What is the story that you’re

telling with this subclass?

– So

it’s not only tapping into

folklore about true names,

but it’s also tapping into this

story of the wizard itself.

The wizard is all about knowledge, texts,

and a big part of text

is the name of things.

So this is a natural fit for the wizard.

We, of course , could

have explored Onomancy

in maybe another spell-casting class,

perhaps the bard.

But

the wizard as

the spell-caster of texts,

I mean, this is the only

spell-caster we have

where so much of their

identity is about a book,

and libraries, and things

being written down;

These are the spell-casters,

I think, that would most

master the power of the name.

– It adds another dimension to

magic, in D&D as well for me.

Like you said,

demons not wanting their true names known

and that’s a touch of paranoia.

– Yeah, yeah.

And

if Onomancy was turned into,

not only something for the

wizard in a particular campaign,

but a bigger deal in

the campaign at large.

You could imagine entire cultures

where people have multiple names

and

it just would become in practice,

that any of us might

have three, four names.

And in fact, I our

world, there are actually

a number of cultures

where that is the case.

I mean, even many of us,

I have a middle name;

I never go by it,

but it’s kind of a

fascinating cultural relic.

Why do I have multiple names?

And, again, there are a

number of answers for why,

but even in our world,

there are actually many

well-established traditions

that we don’t even think about

’cause we’re so used to it,

of one person having multiple names.

– That’s very interesting.

– [Jeremy] Yeah.

– Yeah, I love this brand of magic

and being able to change out and swap out

the effect that you can

place on any spell is…

If you wanna be the most wizardy wizard,

right now that’s what

it feels like for me.

– [Jeremy] Right.

– I can really attune my

magic very specifically

for that great effect,

but I have to think

about it ahead of time.

I needed to decide what

kind of wizard I’m gonna be

using these names.

– And if you are meeting

somebody for the first time,

you could try to get their

true name out of them

using your extract name feature.

If that fails, it will never

work on that person again,

but that doesn’t mean you

can’t get their true name;

it just means,

basically, you’re shortcut got blocked,

but you can now still try

to get it out of them,

either by being persuasive,

by reading their mind,

by doing some research.

– [Todd] Talking to their

friends, their family, yeah.

– Yep, talking to people

who know them well.

You could imagine a campaign,

actually becoming a lot about this,

this hunt for people’s real names.

– Yeah, I love it.

And I would totally play in that campaign.

(laughing)

When a name becomes more

important than a artifact,

or a powerful spell,

or

feeding this great creature,

when you can make an entire campaign

about finding certain names.

That lends itself to a

whole new kind of campaign

and I think that’s very exciting.

– And I would love

to see this triggered in

a group of characters,

suddenly this awareness of,

“Really, what is my true name?”

– [Todd] Yeah.

– I mean, even us as players

in DMs could ponder this

in the real world.

(laughing)

Yeah, when we hear our name,

do we really associate ourselves with it?

https://t.co/d6qJ2oqV2S via @YouTube #DnD @ToddKenreck @Wizards_DnD @Dan_Dillon_1

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) October 7, 2019