Anyone know any explosive runes tricks?


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I'm playing a kobold bloodline sorcerer, yes, b/c i hate myself :-p. But the point is, I get explosive runes as a 3rd level bloodline spell. It's pretty limited, as you probably know. Does anyone know ANY tricks to make this spell more useful? Was thinking of doing stuff like putting it on doors and luring enemies in that direction and when they see it, read it, it blows up. stuff like that. But anything more devious?


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Find your enemies' toilet facilities. Go inside the mens room when it is empty. Draw some boobies on the stall wall, put your explosive runes just below the boobies.

Write your explosive runes on a paper airplane. Toss the airplane at your enemies.

Write them on paper, then wrap your arrows with the paper. That way when they pull the arrows out, they find the message and read it.

Walk around the corner reading a book and laughing really hard, like it's funny. Refuse to let them see it. When they grab it from you, duck and run.


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If you haven't done so already, read Order of the Stick. Can get some ideas.

You could also try Charming someone, then ask them to read the Explosive Runes. I mean really, unless you got the ability to figure out that those are Explosive Runes, I really don't think anyone would be none the wiser. Just a thought, only just popped up in my head.

Sovereign Court

I remember one use being posted somewhere a long time back that went like this:

- you prepare a number of explosive runes and sew them onto a blanket (I think a small stack of scrolls bundled together would work just as well)
- levitate/mage hand/move said bundle next to an unsuspecting victim
- your rogue-buddy uses a wand of Dispel Magic (default caster level = auto-fail on dispelling Explosive Runes)
- repeat

IIRC, this method was used to take out a many-hit-die demon... can we say "medieval C-4"?


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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Sure I do.

Spoiler:
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!!!

Liberty's Edge

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Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

1. Petnap your enemy's cat/dog/axebeak/whatever. Buy it a cute little pet sweater or costume. Explosive monogram the petwear with something adorable/stupid. Send the pet back to its master, wearing the outfit.

2. Steal one of your enemy's lawn gnomes. Send your enemy a postcard from a different location every few days for a month and sign them as if the lawn gnome is on vacation. At the end of the month, give the lawn gnome a highly visible Explosive tattoo (the kind he might get while drunk) and leave it on your enemy's doorstep with half a bottle of tequila, a passed-out hooker and an ounce of mescaline.

3. Send your enemy a birthday cake with Explosive Runes frosting spelling out a message of well-wishing.

4. Send your enemies a letter telling them they have been selected to be contestants on Family Feud. Survey says!...Explosive Runes! Wheel of Fortune may also be an option.

5. Disguise yourself as a mattress salesman and sell your enemy a mattress with a tag on it warning him that removal of the tag will result in Explosive Runes!


Write it as an acrostic by spending a lot of bribe money on a google search.


Stick it in the middle of a massive government document such as a bill. If it goes off, yay exploding politicians. If it never gets triggered, call Congress out on not reading the bill properly. Win-win!


Velcro Zipper wrote:
2. Steal one of your enemy's lawn gnomes. Send your enemy a postcard from a different location every few days for a month and sign them as if the lawn gnome is on vacation. At the end of the month, give the lawn gnome a highly visible Explosive tattoo (the kind he might get while drunk) and leave it on your enemy's doorstep with half a bottle of tequila, a passed-out hooker and an ounce of mescaline.

NEVER abuse gnomes in this way. It's cruel.


Orthos wrote:
Stick it in the middle of a massive government document such as a bill. If it goes off, yay exploding politicians. If it never gets triggered, call Congress out on not reading the bill properly. Win-win!

All that'll do is kill a paralegal.

Liberty's Edge

As has been mentioned before, Order of the Stick.


Write the alphabet in big bold letters on 24 different rocks and chuck them at someone. After they hit the person in the head and subsequently land on the ground. Then read out loud the letter (you can trigger your own runes if you desire, it simply states that you can read them without triggering if desired) as a free action, or, if that fails, just point out the rock on the ground with all the D's on it and if they instinctivly read it, BOOM! and its in there square as thats where it landed.

Another interesting idea is Impaling critical. If you put it on a ightweight (10 Lb max) weapon and get a impaling critical, have a little blurb on the haft that says "to remove, PULL". he looks at the haft, attempts to remove it, and boom! he has an exploding Scimitar in his gut... chances are that it does a bit of extra damage, as having bits of wood and metal protruding from a stab wound is probably quite fatal... just make sure you clear out before it goes boom ;D

Considering all you have to do is put a letter or number or symbol on the item to make it elegible, you can actually do alot with this spell and still make it explode quite nastily (having your familiar read it for example, its not you...)

All in all this spell and all the runes are just epic fun all the time (try having a rune encrusted axe swinging around with different symbols; symbol of death, stunning, fear, insanity, mirroring (a favorite), pain, slowing, ect. you get one badass axe that literally wreaks those around you and messes with them soooooo hard, its kinda funny.


Put the spell on something that can be opened with a string, put that in the center of a bag of caltrops, hand it to someone else. Instant IED grenade.

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i didnt think it worked when something was opened anymore, just when it was read.


Orthos wrote:
Stick it in the middle of a massive government document such as a bill. If it goes off, yay exploding politicians. If it never gets triggered, call Congress out on not reading the bill properly. Win-win!

Orthos, I like your heath ledger joker style....seems it would be a cool find out who is doing these political murders and catch them hook.


Hire a kid to deliver a Candygram along with a note that you instruct him to only read when he gets there.


- Place the explosive runes on coins - lots of them (End of the day activity for any spontaneous caster). Toss the coins to the enemies - and wait for the booms (works very well against pirates - also useful for scattering a crowd if the market day is too filled with peasants).

- Explosive runes and golems go hand in hand. Nothing beats dealing lots of damage to every enemy close to your minion, while said minion is immune to the damage. (The important question is: How many runes can you stack upon a golem?)

- A cheaper version of the above is Explosive runes and the Mount spell. Works even better, when combined with Implanted bombs.


On my wizards I always make sure to trap up my own personal gear in case he ever gets captured. Especially his spell book. I also make sure to keep a spare.

I also carry around scroll cases labeled with what ISNT inside. Like "powerful combat spells". Inside are some scrolls with Explosive Runes and Snake Sigils on them.

I carry around potion bottles labeled "cure serious wounds" and put acid or poison in it.

I also arcane mark a lot of his gear so that it can easily be tracked with locate object.


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ever penned an entire roll of toilet paper with them?
The gnome I made was summarily killed by GM doom, for that prank
(And i was banned from playing gnomes for 6 months lol)


I'd take the idea of bottles or jars a step further: as Lune said,acid would be good. So would beads of force. Or maybe pieces of glass that look like diamonds so they look like spell components but act as shrapnel and augment (non magically) the explosion.

The trick is to put the runes on something people want to read. And then give them a combo 'splosion . That's how a kobold rolls.


On the treasure chest lock, and it explodes skunk odor all over the nearby characters.


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Put them on the labels of potion bottles.

"What did you find? Cure Light - BOOM"


For all those who mention turning explosive runes into fragmentary grenades, since there is nothing in the RAW that supports this, what do you see the glass, metal or other shards doing in terms of damage? How do you figure that out?


Ask Ravingdork. He knows all the cheese that can be used with Explosive Runes.


Axl wrote:

Ask Ravingdork. He knows all the cheese that can be used with Everything.

Quoted to fix an error that I saw.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

A few more I thought up...

Get a job at the same office as your enemy. Leave a wrapped sandwich in the icebox with a note on it that says "Property of 'your name' -Hands Off!" or something like that. Your enemy will naturally want to steal and eat your sandwich, which will explode when he reads the Explosive Runes written across the bread.

Disguise yourself as a pretty girl. Flirt with you enemy, let him buy you a few drinks and then slip him your "digits" and quickly leave to powder your nose.

Enter into a long-term relationship with your enemy. After a few months, suddenly break it off by moving out. Leave only an Explosive 'Dear John' letter.

Here's one of my favorites...

Fortune Cookies. That is all.


I once had a paper with the runes on it, and simply used mage hand to bring it to an enemy. Unless they somehow know NOT to read stuff, they will probably take a quick look.

A good question would be how likely would it be for a creature to avoid something that might have runes on it? Spellcraft? Knowledge Arcana? Since there are a few effects (symbols, glyphs, sepia snake sigils) that rely on just being looked at, it seems like an "old trick". On the other hand, how common are these things?


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Write it on any paper as long as directly above it, you write CONGRATULATIONS in really big letters.


Gold coins kept in your most-accessible (and thus easily-stolen) money pouch. You get robbed? Boom. You get cheated? Boom. You need to drop something that will slow down/distract the pursuing underpaid guard forces? Boom. Since it's a gold coin no one is going to ignore it and as long as the rune is big and obvious they are unlikely to be able to avoid reading it.

Then, summon (or animate) something capable of reading the rune, order it to charge up next to an enemy and read the rune. Since you can prep a lot of them before hand and at the harshest interpretation you can get 1d4+1 small air elementals that read Auran for a summon monster 4. Even if the enemy can ignore the rune, they aren't triggering the boom.

Ordering them to scream "allahu ackbar" would be in poor taste and mildly offensive, but you don't have to let that stop you.

Explosive runes leaves a lot to interpretation, if I read it from across the room because the rune is written really big does it go off and can it hurt me at such a distance? If it is a pictogram of a pair of boobs can the illiterate barbarian set it off? Is the illiterate barbarian immune to the spell unless he learns to read? I'm fine with that all being DM fiat, but that does mean you have to hammer out these things with the DM.


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Illiteracy as an immunity? I love it!

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I think you have to actually read it, and if you're outside the area, you dont get hurt. the intention is obviously that you have to be really close to read it, like text on a page, but the size of it is up to the caster. hmm... i'm considering just studying guard routes, and writing things on the wall. or casting spiked pit, levitating or flying down into it, inscribing "look up" or.. "gotcha" on the walls and putting kobold bloodline trap runes on the floor of the pit. then use hydraulic push to push them into the pit with no save. xD fall, take 5d6 falling, 2d6 piercing, several 1d8+level elemental blasts, and then some 6d6 force damage hits when they stand up and look around.


Force someone to take a sheet with explosive runes on it via beguiling gift?

Only problem is that they are different spell lists. You could UMD a wand for that though.


the easiest way to "set-off" an explosive trap is with the Open/Close cantrip on a door.... so, you can be away from the trap when it goes off.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Accessories, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

i wasnt aware that it went off when you open something it's scribed on. i was under the impression you had to read it. i think you might be thinking of fire trap.


I think Dirk is suggesting that you scribe the rune on a door and then close it in someone's face. They are then staring directly at a rune the size of a door and will have little chance of avoiding it.


Well... bluff skill and high charisma can go a long way toward making the enemy read it. It puts a new dimenzovanýminsion in the "Look behind you!" tricks.


I wonder if you could use prestidigitation to make floating glowing text appear in the air that spelled out the explosive runes. Hrm....


placards hung around the necks of summoned monsters.


So I know that it has a size limit on what you can actually write it on, but I was wondering if anyone had a way to write it on someones forehead? Possibly writing it on while he sleeps then wait for him to get up in the morning? Possibly trap every sleeping guards forehead so when you set off the alarm, all the guards wake up and see something on each others forehead?


just scraps of parchment and a tiny dap of sovereign glue, Gobo Horde!

Sovereign Court

Pin an explosive disclaimer note on all your zombies' foreheads, then place them as sentries in rooms just behind the door. Looking at the body in front of you as you enter should be instinctive.

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