Abuse of Explosive Runes


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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How to do this?


Cast explosive runes. Get people to look at them.


Cavall wrote:
Cast explosive runes. Get people to look at them.

But that's use, not abuse.

Could explosive runes chain-reaction trigger other explosive runes?


Build a golem (junk golem is only 5.2k, but wax golems are more fun in a lot of ways), put the rune on the golem's shield, repeat, repeat, repeat, cover shield with a cloth. have the golem walk up to someone and remove the cloth.

EXPLOSIONS!!


I have wondered if one can write it on a scrap of cloth and attach it to a javelin or harpoon. Attack the BBEG, BBEG pulls it out to read it, boom.

Seems a big circumstantial and cheesy though.


Beguiling Gift is one way---I'm sure this has been suggested...


No. They don't chain react. In fact an argument could be made that the first explosion damages the rest of the runes as to waste them all.

Unless you have someone that keeps reading with every rune they don't trigger each other. They are runes not gasoline.


I dont' think they do.

Tossing arock with runes on it at someone and going "hey catch" people will usually look at it and read it instinctivly.

aternatively you could just write biiig symbols around the corner or behidn a door so it opens and people read it instinctively.

Sneak in to the enemy camp invisibly write up some of them on sheets of paper. Wrap them around people's blades put it back into the sheath. When they draw it they will obviously note the paper and be confused.
boom.

use a familiar to drop a ton of written explosve rune fliars onto an enemy camp and they might read it.

be a seriel villian working for the newspaper for a day and trap a ton of papers.

sneak into an enemy camp. trap their map or plans so next time the leaders are examining and making plans they go boom.


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You want to talk to Anzyr. He's the expert on this subject.


You need to fail to dispel the runes, using the area option of greater dispel magic, to trigger multiple runes (generally). There might be other ways, but that's the standard.


My Self wrote:
Could explosive runes chain-reaction trigger other explosive runes?

No. Explosive runes say that they blow up when people read them. So they blow up when people read them.

A rune blowing up next to it is not "somebody reading it" so it doesn't explode.


Crimeo wrote:
My Self wrote:
Could explosive runes chain-reaction trigger other explosive runes?

No. Explosive runes say that they blow up when people read them. So they blow up when people read them.

A rune blowing up next to it is not "somebody reading it" so it doesn't explode.

From what I understand, you need a lower level ally, I.E. a cohort, follower, summon etc... to cast greater dispel magic and fail, because you automatically succeed on attempts to dispel your own spells.

Personally, I think this is not "creative" but more "lame" and "gaming the system" for a specific exploit from something clearly not intended to allow this. But to each their own.


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I guess, but your cohort has to be able to cast 6th level greater dispel to do that. And then to consistently fail, it means YOU have to be like 17th+ level.

At which point you have a million options as good or better than rune chain bombs, so who cares? "Ehr ma gerd! 9th level spell-capable casters have found a way to cause a lot of damage at once!" >.>


Crimeo wrote:

I guess, but your cohort has to be able to cast 6th level greater dispel to do that. And then to consistently fail, it means YOU have to be like 17th+ level.

At which point you have a million options as good or better than rune chain bombs, so who cares? "Ehr ma gerd! 9th level spell-capable casters have foud a way to cause a lot of damage at once!" >.>

But it could end up being a practically unlimited amount of force damage in a small area. Don't tell me that isn't cool.

Lantern Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

Label jars of alchemist fire with explosive runes? Poor schmuck reads the runes, jar probably gets destroyed, alchy fire is exposed to air, fire ignites. *FWOOM*
Not terribly exploity, but a fun double trap.

Dark Archive

familer/cohortuses scroll of greater dispell magic on your carpet of explosive runes, fails the check and sets them off. thats about it for abuse.


Or maybe don't abuse spells? It usually sets a bad tone for the GM and the other players. It isn't cool, it's trying to exploit a questionable interpretation on the rules.

If your GM goes for that, then check out Anzyr's threads. This is his go-to thing.


My Self wrote:
But it could end up being a practically unlimited amount of force damage in a small area. Don't tell me that isn't cool.

Lots of ways to do this. One idea, 12k gold and CL 12: Cast a permanent wall of fire in a handy haversack, close it, heat is being made but has nowhere to go, eventually becomes 100 trillion degrees or whatever. Anyone who opens it (or a little rube goldberg method to open it after you teleport away, or a trained monkey) = nuclear holocaust.

Or make a demiplane that is only a few cubic feet large, and use the "access portal" ability twice, once to connect to the plane of fire/water/whatever, once to connect to target location.

Quote:
on your carpet of explosive runes

Nitpick, but this would not work, since greater dispel only cycles to each object once, and would do one spell on each object. All you have to do is have several separate sheets of paper that you bundle together later to get around that, but just sayin'.


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As a GM, I am inherently cautious whenever someone says they want to abuse the rules.

I might also rule that a person can only "read" one set of runes at a time, so they couldn't be chained. And also that there's a limit on how much can be deliberately read each turn.

(And important enemies would start expecting that strategy and planning accordingly. Interesting plan to use once - and might be permitted for that - but it would never be a hammer for every nail. XD)


GM Rednal wrote:

As a GM, I am inherently cautious whenever someone says they want to abuse the rules.

I might also rule that a person can only "read" one set of runes at a time, so they couldn't be chained. And also that there's a limit on how much can be deliberately read each turn.

(And important enemies would start expecting that strategy and planning accordingly. Interesting plan to use once - and might be permitted for that - but it would never be a hammer for every nail. XD)

Of course it's not a hammer for every nail. It's merely a really big hammer for when you really, really want to put that round peg in a square hole. Even if it's just once.

Can you make an explosive rune a single letter, and write a page full of them?

Silver Crusade

The standard way is to write hundreds and hundreds of explosive runes, make a bundle of them, lob them at the baddy, botch a greater dispel on the lot of them, whole thing goes off simultaneously. Congratulations, you killed the Tarrasque...at least for a while.

Personally I prefer the method of always keeping tons of explosive runes on small bits of paper in your stuff. If they search you, they'll look at one of the runes, BOOM, instant distraction/hilarious death scene.

Use it to (very painfully) escape imprisonment when you don't have access to your other tools/spells. Stick them in library books for a goof. Drop a buttload of them into an enemy camp like a leaflet bomb. Tie them to arrows and send them a long distance love letter. There's all sorts of fun stuff you can do with runes.


A note on the failure to dispel bit. You need to have someone other than the caster of the runes make the dispel check. As A caster always succeeds to dispel his own spells.

I Believe Anzyr's method involves either a Simulacrum of a Nalfeshnee or a summon monster Nalfeshnee. As is Greater dispel magic is an SLA it can intentionally cast at a lower CL so even a 20 on the dispel check will fail to dispel the runes.


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The primary method as mentioned above is to have minion with a readied action to cast greater dispel magic area version on the runes or that acts on your initiative, either due to being a summon or having the benefit of the battlemind link spell. The minion must be one that is guaranteed to fail the dispel check, which isn't hard if you push your caster level up with Orange Prism Ioun Stone/Death Knell/Bead of Karma/etc.

Edit: As Firewarrior44 noted above, this needs to be a minion because you always succeed at dispelling your own spells. Also, even the Nalfeshnee uses Greater Dispel Magic at it's CL of 12th, at most it can hit a Dispel Check of 32, which is insufficient to dispel your Explosive Runes since it must 11+ your CL (which with Orange Ioun Stone and Bead of Karma is a minimum of a 36).

To ensure successful delivery of the Explosive Rune bomb, make sure you keep in something prior to use. Remember being inside a bag blocks line of effect, which will prevent opponents from blowing you up with Greater Dispel Magic. To guarantee delviery, use Time Stop), place the Explosive Rune bomb directly in front of the target to qualify for "close enough to read" and deny the target a saving throw. Move away (using spells if necessary) before time resumes, watch the readied action go off, enjoy as the target takes copious amounts of no save force damage.

Explosive Runes does allow for SR, but SR is honestly speaking a joke and even if your SR penetration isn't "Yes", thanks to the sheer number of runes your guaranteed many many d6's. In order to avoid globe of invulnerability, make sure some Explosive Runes are Heightened. In order to avoid Spell Immunity, make sure some Explosive Runes are actually Limited Wish/Wish/Miracle duplicating Explosive Runes. In order to just really really screw someone in particular, make some of the Explosive Runes Dazing. Maximize other Explosive Runes to taste.

At lower levels, Book of Harms allows you to maximize Explosive Runes during downtime and they can then be delivered to the target via Earth Elementals. Have the Earth Elementals move next to the target and then read the Explosive Rune to deal amazing damage at low levels.


Isonaroc wrote:
The standard way is to write hundreds and hundreds of explosive runes, make a bundle of them, lob them at the baddy, botch a greater dispel on the lot of them, whole thing goes off simultaneously. Congratulations, you killed the Tarrasque...at least for a while.

How do you botch a dispel? You can't cast greater dispel any lower than 11th CL. I'm not sure how you'd fail the checks on purpose by RAW. I mean maybe some % of them is enough, but that's pretty expensive.

Quote:
Personally I prefer the method of always keeping tons of explosive runes on small bits of paper in your stuff.

Sounds like a good way to get your character instantly obliterated when any NPC casts greater dispel on you if they're at or below your level... and they didn't have to make them, so nix the expensive part!

The last ones you listed all sound like what you're supposed to use runes for. Wouldn't be too concerned about those.


Crimeo wrote:
Isonaroc wrote:
The standard way is to write hundreds and hundreds of explosive runes, make a bundle of them, lob them at the baddy, botch a greater dispel on the lot of them, whole thing goes off simultaneously. Congratulations, you killed the Tarrasque...at least for a while.

How do you botch a dispel? You can't cast greater dispel any lower than 11th CL. I'm not sure how you'd fail the checks on purpose by RAW. I mean maybe some % of them is enough, but that's pretty expensive.

Please read my post. It contains answers to questions like these:

I wrote:
Also, even the Nalfeshnee uses Greater Dispel Magic at it's CL of 12th, at most it can hit a Dispel Check of 32, which is insufficient to dispel your Explosive Runes since it must 11+ your CL (which with Orange Ioun Stone and Bead of Karma is a minimum of a 36).
Crimeo wrote:

Sounds like a good way to get your character instantly obliterated when any NPC casts greater dispel on you if they're at or below your level... and they didn't have to make them, so nix the expensive part!

The last ones you listed all sound like what you're supposed to use runes for. Wouldn't be too concerned about those.

Once again, please read my post as it addresses why what you are saying would not work.

I wrote:
Remember being inside a bag blocks line of effect, which will prevent opponents from blowing you up with Greater Dispel Magic.


You want to abuse them? As a player, or as a GM?

As a player...use the standard boring tricks you hear here.

As a GM? Realize that there is no limit on how many you can have- just a limit of time and spells per day. And as a GM, you can skip those by having multiple casters working in the background, constantly.

So how to abuse them? Flyer bombs. As in, having something fly over and drop hundreds, if not thousands of these things. And do it in a crowded area. You just caused a massive act of terrorism. And you just turned every set of eyes aged 7 to 70 in the area into a trigger- even if you keep your eyes closed, some poor fool next to you might not do so. And how can you avoid people if your eyes are closed?

This could end up being a cool opening where you are willing to throw out many, if not all of the character sheets. But for those that survive? They have a fairly good backstory- they are given a VERY strong reason to murder the people behind this. They are a survivor of the King's Day disaster (or whatever moniker you give the event).

And imagine trying to clean that place up? The entire district might end up abandoned since there are infohazard landmines in there.


Situational. There was one time where my Wizard made great use of it, though. When someone was trailing him or the party, he might "accidentally" drop a folded piece of paper... with an Explosive Rune cast on it (inside the fold). The tail picked up the paper and *boom*.

But abusing it? Not against the same person. I could also imagine that if there was a group of people you needed or wanted to kill, you could rain down a bunch of "flyers" on them and tell them to read it, as it was an invitation and declaration of intent. Explosions everywhere all at once.


I was responding to Isonaroc, no need to get all testy.

Quote:
which with Orange Ioun Stone and Bead of Karma is a minimum of a 36

So you're spending 76,000gp and you're level 20? Erm no, if you have that much disposable income for this and are a 20th level caster, there are about 50 other things you could do to accomplish your goals, who cares? This is not unbalancing in such circumstances, and the campaign is already over for most people.

If we look at levels where we might actually be concerned about the relative power level of this vs. all other options, it falls apart as being all that great. Level 15 dude, for example, without a king's ransom to blow, has a DC of 25, and can cast 18 runes a day if he has NOTHING going on. ~8 of those probably will actually get dispelled and get through SR, then target makes reflex save let's say for half of them (75% total damage). So for every day of downtime you allow him, the packet will do about 32d6, 112 average damage.

And to set it off requires a couple of rounds and steps, during which time you could have cast various 7th / 8th level spells and such to do not much less damage.

If GM doesn't want it to get higher than that, don't give an opportunity to sit around for a week of downtime making runes Or just let it work, and if he makes a habit out of it, one day there's an unfortunate greater dispel magic trap lying around... Or words gets around about this startling tactic, and people who know you're coming prepare underpowered dispels on purpose.

*Shrug* what's the big deal.


Crimeo wrote:
So you're spending 76,000gp and you're level 20? Erm no, if you have that much disposable income for this and are a 20th level caster, there are about 50 other things you could do to accomplish your goals, who cares? This is not unbalancing in such circumstances, and the campaign is already over for most people.

Bead of Karma alone is enough. It only costs 20,000 GP. Orange Prism Ioun stone only costs 30,000 GP. At most this combination is only 50,000 GP. Not sure where you got 76,000 gp? Both of these items are something every caster should purchase so they are expected things for a 20th level caster to have.

Crimeo wrote:
If GM doesn't want it to get higher than that, don't give an opportunity to sit around for a week of downtime making runes.

Greater Create Demiplane gives a free day to make these in comparison to the outside world.

Crimeo wrote:
Or just let it work, and if he makes a habit out of it, one day there's an unfortunate greater dispel magic trap lying around...

Again, this will not work unless they are for some reason being waved around. Carrying them inside something renders them immune to greater dispel magic as it blocks line of effect.


Would line of effect matter if they were caught in an Area Dispel? Or would they count as magic items and be unaffected?


I generally wouldn't consider finding exactly-what-you-need broken discount items (prayer beads with exact right missing bead) as a standard reliable cost (I want a Mercedes with exactly a missing left headlight and a flat tire for discount please. WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE ONE?"), but okay.

Quote:
Again, this will not work unless they are for some reason being waved around. Carrying them inside something renders them immune to greater dispel magic as it blocks line of effect.

If you want to argue that you need full on line of sight, then fine, but that's also going to make it nearly impossible for you to detonate them yourself, since they're going to block lines from one another in any sort of compact packet. How exactly are you spreading out 40, 50, 100 objects evenly so they all have clear lines? In the heat of battle?

Keeping in mind you can't use timestop, since again, if you have 9th level spells already, who cares about this? There are so many other equally or more effective things you could be doing anyway by then.


The benefit of explosive runes is that it's free and permanent. If you have a spare spell slot at the end of the day, you have another set of explosive runes. The size is minimal, the cost is negligible, the damage type is rare (and hits ghosts), and either together or individually they're free power. It's just that simple.

And the area dispel is a burst, burst doesn't even go around corners, let alone bypass walls.


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Tech Support Edit: I understand you worked really hard to type all of that out. However, since CripDyke's RPGSS reviews and Samnell's Civil War thread, (both posts surpassed 5,000 words), we have received an immense uptick in requests to spoiler tag such posts for cleaner presentation.
We are now automatically compressing lengthy diatribes, essays, posts that exceed 2,000 characters. Unlike normal spoiler tags, these compressions can be nested.
If you have any questions, please PM me.
Yours,
T.S.

Spoiler:
EXPLOSIVE RUNES!!!


Crimeo wrote:

I generally wouldn't consider finding exactly-what-you-need broken discount items (prayer beads with exact right missing bead) as a standard reliable cost (I want a Mercedes with exactly a missing left headlight and a flat tire for discount please. WHAT YOU DON'T HAVE ONE?"), but okay.

Quote:
Again, this will not work unless they are for some reason being waved around. Carrying them inside something renders them immune to greater dispel magic as it blocks line of effect.

If you want to argue that you need full on line of sight, then fine, but that's also going to make it nearly impossible for you to detonate them yourself, since they're going to block lines from one another in any sort of compact packet. How exactly are you spreading out 40, 50, 100 objects evenly so they all have clear lines? In the heat of battle?

Keeping in mind you can't use timestop, since again, if you have 9th level spells already, who cares about this? There are so many other equally or more effective things you could be doing anyway by then.

If they are in a stack, each edge is exposed and can have a line of effect draw to it. Obviously, this is not the case when they are contained in something as trying to draw line of effect to them will fail.


Quote:
If they are in a stack, each edge is exposed and can have a line of effect draw to it.

This is not necessarily true. It's not "which ones are exposed to air?" They must have direct lines from a point source. One sheet of paper can easily shadow every other one if you do it wrong. Again, how are you delivering them, precisely?


In a stack. For example, I can draw a line to the edge of each piece of printer paper in my printer no matter how I turn them. While in a stack paper can never cover itself from line of effect.


Quote:
I can draw a line to the edge of each piece of printer paper in my printer no matter how I turn them.

That is not true. Here is an example image:

http://i.imgur.com/Lxe0Atq.png

It does not always work. There could also be all manner of terrain issues going on, etc. Please just tell me your exact reliable delivery mechanism. How are you carrying them up, how are you removing them from the bag, and how are you positioning them in an effective location, then from where/when are you casting the dispel?


Crimeo wrote:
Quote:
I can draw a line to the edge of each piece of printer paper in my printer no matter how I turn them.

That is not true. Here is an example image:

http://i.imgur.com/Lxe0Atq.png

It does not always work. There could also be all manner of terrain issues going on, etc. Please just tell me your exact reliable delivery mechanism. How are you carrying them up, how are you removing them from the bag, and how are you positioning them in an effective location, then from where/when are you casting the dispel?

Your image is flawed due to the fact that you can make the burst go from the top or anywhere else within 100 + 10 ft. per caster level and 20ft. radius...


I do not understand your sentence. Rephrase please? "Go from the top"? I didn't draw any grids or anything in my image so I'm not sure how you're determining up/down/valid starting point/ or whatever else, or just quite what you mean.


Move the position of the cone so that the starting point is above the sheets thus drawing a line of effect to the edge of sheets on the top. Like so:

^
|||

Instead of:

||| >


Anzyr wrote:
Move the position of the cone so that the starting point is above the sheets thus drawing a line of effect to the edge of sheet on the top.

I do not disagree that there are SOME rotations that allow the line of effect to hit every sheet. I was only saying that your statement that "It will hit every sheet no matter how I turn it" was untrue. Which is is. This rotation would only dispel one. Your suggested rotation would attempt to dispel all of them. How you turn it matters.

That is why it is critical for you to explain your precise method of deployment that will reliably orient them in the necessary way to have line of effect hit all, while avoiding the orientations that don't work.


Crimeo wrote:
Anzyr wrote:
Move the position of the cone so that the starting point is above the sheets thus drawing a line of effect to the edge of sheet on the top.

I do not disagree that there are SOME rotations that allow the line of effect to hit every sheet. I was only saying that your statement that "It will hit every sheet no matter how I turn it" was untrue. Which is is. This rotation would only dispel one. Your suggested rotation would attempt to dispel all of them.

That is why it is critical for you to explain your precise method of deployment that will reliably orient them in the necessary way to have line of effect hit all, while avoiding the orientations that don't work.

You are mistaken. Your chosen rotation of the papers will not make Greater Dispel Magic's area dispel hit only one paper, unless you choose to cast in such a way as to only hit one paper. In my example, the position of the paper's has not changed, only where the Greater Dispel burst radius is located, thus my statement "No matter how you turn the stack of papers" is still true. I will not be getting into something as basic as "Choose a radius that will hit all the papers instead of one that won't."


Crimeo wrote:


That is why it is critical for you to explain your precise method of deployment that will reliably orient them in the necessary way to have line of effect hit all, while avoiding the orientations that don't work.

Actually for regular people it isn't critical. Papers in area of burst > great it works


You're only allowed to center a burst at a grid square corner. You cannot make it begin just any old place wherever you feel like.

And in a great number of circumstances, there will only be one or two viable grid corners that would allow you to trigger anything within range.

Especially depending on your method of deployment since if you have some summons or whatever running around, jostling position around the battlefield could easily significantly reduce your options.

Quote:
Actually for regular people it isn't critical. Papers in area of burst > great it works

Hell no, some guy is abusing the heck out of a spell, he gets the book thrown at him. Tit for tat.


...seriously, stop trying to do math. I've been over this with you, you don't actually know what you're doing. Let's take the example of, say, a book (decent choice when you know you're making explosive rune stacks). Cut off the front cover, put it back cover down. Now any burst not on the same side as the spine or directly above will hit the entire top/bottom/fore edge. And since Greater Dispel Magic has a huge range (and explosive runes do not) it's not much of a stretch to say you can always aim the dispel to hit the top/bottom/fore edge.

And if you can explain to me under what circumstances summons would matter, I'd love to hear it. They don't stop the burst, you don't care if they die, and in case you've missed this this is all set off by a readied action (so the "bomb" isn't being moved at all before it gets set off).


Crimeo wrote:


Hell no, some guy is abusing the heck out of a spell, he gets the book thrown at him. Tit for tat.

Did I miss the section on burst vs stacks of paper


Readied action in response to what...? Nobody has actually described any procedure as far as I can see.

Readied action in response to removing papers? placing them on the ground? Congrats, you just got blown up too... if not, then what?

Or http://i.imgur.com/Nk35FrE.jpg

You're up on the higher elevation there off to the right somewhere. What is your attack procedure? that allows you to drop a stack of papers next to these guys and still have any line of sight to any of them from a minion near your original position? If he was readying based on dropped papers, and now cannot see him because you had to drop them over a ledge out of his sight and out of sight of any lower ground within 5 feet, he just wasted a readied action, and the enemies pick up your runes, put them in a bag.

Or they know you do this, and they have their OWN contingent actions... etc. etc.


Crimeo wrote:

Readied action in response to what...? Nobody has actually described any procedure as far as I can see.

Readied action in response to removing papers? placing them on the ground? Congrats, you just got blown up too... if not, then what?

Or http://i.imgur.com/Nk35FrE.jpg

You're up on the higher elevation there off to the right somewhere. What is your attack procedure? that allows you to drop a stack of papers next to these guys and still have any line of sight to any of them from a minion near your original position? If he was readying based on dropped papers, and now cannot see him because you had to drop them over a ledge out of his sight and out of sight of any lower ground within 5 feet, he just wasted a readied action, and the enemies pick up your runes, put them in a bag.

Or they know you do this, and they have their OWN contingent actions... etc. etc.

Meet Anzyr, the person you were arguing with:
Anzyr wrote:

The primary method as mentioned above is to have minion with a readied action to cast greater dispel magic area version on the runes or that acts on your initiative, either due to being a summon or having the benefit of the battlemind link spell. The minion must be one that is guaranteed to fail the dispel check, which isn't hard if you push your caster level up with Orange Prism Ioun Stone/Death Knell/Bead of Karma/etc.

Edit: As Firewarrior44 noted above, this needs to be a minion because you always succeed at dispelling your own spells. Also, even the Nalfeshnee uses Greater Dispel Magic at it's CL of 12th, at most it can hit a Dispel Check of 32, which is insufficient to dispel your Explosive Runes since it must 11+ your CL (which with Orange Ioun Stone and Bead of Karma is a minimum of a 36).

To ensure successful delivery of the Explosive Rune bomb, make sure you keep in something prior to use. Remember being inside a bag blocks line of effect, which will prevent opponents from blowing you up with Greater Dispel Magic. To guarantee delviery, use Time Stop), place the Explosive Rune bomb directly in front of the target to qualify for "close enough to read" and deny the target a saving throw. Move away (using spells if necessary) before time resumes, watch the readied action go off, enjoy as the target takes copious amounts of no save force damage.

Explosive Runes does allow for SR, but SR is honestly speaking a joke and even if your SR penetration isn't "Yes", thanks to the sheer number of runes your guaranteed many many d6's. In order to avoid globe of invulnerability, make sure some Explosive Runes are Heightened. In order to avoid Spell Immunity, make sure some Explosive Runes are actually Limited Wish/Wish/Miracle duplicating Explosive Runes. In order to just really really screw someone in particular, make some of the Explosive Runes Dazing. Maximize other Explosive Runes to taste.

At lower levels, Book of Harms allows you to maximize Explosive Runes during downtime and they can then be delivered to the target via Earth Elementals. Have the Earth Elementals move next to the target and then read the Explosive Rune to deal amazing damage at low levels.

Bolding mine. Also, it's hard not to fix the typos. Again, you aim to hit the edge of a stack of paper. If the enemy is behind cover, presumably you instruct the minion ahead of time whether to aim to the right or the left and point the side of the stack accordingly. Area dispel has a radius of 20 feet. You can aim it well over someone's head and still hit the ground.


1) You have not answered "readied action in response to what?"

2) I said WITHOUT time stop. "You can't use time stop, because if we are talking about dudes with 9th level spells, this is not unbalanced anyway versus all the stuff people with 9th level spells can do"

3) "You can aim it well over someone's head and still hit the ground." Maybe. Unless somebody's minion / a familiar's assigned job was to have a readied action to throw a blanket on any written materials appearing in the critical area. Or various contingencies, etc. after you've pulled this trick once.

4) Or it can reach the ground, but all of your enemies are levitating/flying/air walking, which they should probably be tending to do anyway at level like 15-20.

5) Throw more minor spread out dudes at you in larger numbers if you love to throw all your resources into big multiday prep AoE attacks. Go ahead and blow one up.

6) Improved cover, Shallow trenches with wooden trestles, arrow loops, etc.

I just don't see it as being that great. It's not that hard to stop you from manufacturing 500 of them to begin with, it can be countered a bunch of ways, there's a very decent chance of blowing yourself up if you aren't clever enough, and by the time you can really do this well and get around most of this, you already have a dozen other ways to be just as powerful anyway. Oh also, the GM can simply use this against you by NPCs... if it really is so great and nothing works against it and you've used it 3 times now, everybody in the kingdom has now heard of this, and imitation is the highest form of flattery.


One cannot abuse something as marvelous as Explosive Runes.

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