New Weapon: Runeguns


Homebrew and House Rules

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Runeguns are a type of weapon that discharge magical effects stored inside of a rune shell. I homebrewed this as a result of my campaign's gunslinger introducing firearms to a weapon artificer belonging to my runari race. This is a work in progress as I still need to tweak a few things and add more types of runeguns and rune shells.

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Cool Race.
Would love to play one.
Have you had any problems with them going invisible, with there glowing Runes still glowing?


your "sniper" weapon has a shorter range increment than a longbow and has a -4 on top of that. not the best long-range weapon if you ask me.


I love the concept, and the implementation is good.
I guess the concept could also be added to melee weapons, too.

Small nitpick : Page 1 - Summary "Runegun attacks revolve as [...] types of runeguns revolve as [...]". It should be resolve, right ? Revolving attacks are a DBZ technique.

@Sideromancer the runesniper has a few things going for him in comparison to the longbow :
- you can fire it while prone, which helps for getting cover.
- if you don't care about using the sniping rules to stealth back, you can use overload to autocrit your target. If my math is correct, it is more brutal than the Vital Strike line, while not requiring the feats.
- you can use flame bolt & shock bolt ammunition to bypass DR, if necessary.

While the longbow (and composite) have a longer increment, the 90ft of the runesniper is more that enough (you'll get perception issues far before the hit penalty will matter). The -4 to hit does hurt though, and unless the user has a way to mitigate that, it will be an issue.

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Dr Styx wrote:

Cool Race.

Would love to play one.
Have you had any problems with them going invisible, with there glowing Runes still glowing?

I've never played a runari with invisibility magic, but my groups tend to assume that invisibility hides light from invisible sources. The entire point of invisibility is to mask your visible presence, so it makes little sense that a harmless , helpful effect would hinder that.

EDIT: Good catch on the -4 and the "Runegun attacks revolve." Both of these are typos. You only take the -4 penalty when firing two-handed runeguns with one hand.

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Naming these things is kind of awkward.

- Calling them "runerifle" or whatever is kind of lame.
- I don't want to call them "rune rifle" or "rune pistol" or use names of firearms when they're not actually firearms.
- I could make up names, but then that wouldn't help convey what each weapon is all about.

Maybe I could name them something like "runegun hydra" or "runegun drake?"


Cyrad wrote:

Naming these things is kind of awkward.

- Calling them "runerifle" or whatever is kind of lame.
- I don't want to call them "rune rifle" or "rune pistol" or use names of firearms when they're not actually firearms.
- I could make up names, but then that wouldn't help convey what each weapon is all about.

Maybe I could name them something like "runegun hydra" or "runegun drake?"

What about adding Runic as a sort of prefix (I feel like this isn't the right word)? Like "Runic Blunderbuss" or "Runic Dragon Pistol", just a thought.


Cyrad wrote:

Naming these things is kind of awkward.

- Calling them "runerifle" or whatever is kind of lame.
- I don't want to call them "rune rifle" or "rune pistol" or use names of firearms when they're not actually firearms.
- I could make up names, but then that wouldn't help convey what each weapon is all about.

Maybe I could name them something like "runegun hydra" or "runegun drake?"

If you have other races than the runari, you could have to names for each weapon : the true (runari) name, based upon runari lore; and the colloquial name, based on the early perception of the other races of this weapon.

For example, the Runari name for each rune weapon could be based on one of the Sigils of Virtue.
As for the colloquial name, if the runegun looks like a pistol and shoots like a pistol; chances are, people are calling it a pistol.

You could use variant of the term, but people are usually practical, and if guns are well-known, then guns will probably be used as baseline for naming.


After a bit of thinking, here another possibility for naming : if you can get another name than runegun for the weapon group, you can use more-or-less generic prefixes to inform on the different variants.
For example, using runeshooter instead of runegun.

The runerifle is the baseline, and thus is called runeshooter.
The runesniper is called the long runeshooter (or longshooter)
The runedraconis is called the blast runeshooter (or blastshooter)

The light and heavy runepistols, could be called light smallshooter and heavy smallshooter.
The runedrake could be called the burstshooter, as the smaller version of the blastshooter.
And the runeblaster could be called the boltshooter, since with the longshooter, they are the only bolt-only runegun.

Something like this could work, but feels artificial.

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Based on feedback, I changed the names of the weapons. I do like the idea that runari give them different names.

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At my player's request, I added a gunblade quality and created new runeguns: the runic edge caster (scimitar), runic edge viper (dagger), runic kenshi (katana), and runic buster (greatsword).

Edit: Image of the runic edge caster

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I'm shamelessly stealing this for my homebrew world, is that ok?

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Cr500cricket wrote:
I'm shamelessly stealing this for my homebrew world, is that ok?

But why? Why would you do such a horrible thing?!

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Cyrad wrote:
Cr500cricket wrote:
I'm shamelessly stealing this for my homebrew world, is that ok?
But why? Why would you do such a horrible thing?!

I'm a cold-hearted monster, that's why.

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Runeslinger (Gunslinger Archetype)
With an innate connection to runic magic, Runeslingers wield the wonderous weapons known as runeguns. Their practice with these weapons allows them to wield these weapons and even coax runeguns beyond their normal limits.
Class skills: Runeslingers gain Use magic device as a class skill
Weapon and Armour proficiency: Runeslingers are proficient with Runeguns as well as normal Gunslinger profiencies
This modifies the Gunslinger weapon and armour proficiencies.
Runic Gunsmith: A Runeslinger treats Runeguns as Firearms for all deeds, feats, and class abilities and begins play with a battered Runegun (Runic Hydra, Runic Dragon or Runic Pistol) that can only be activated by her and is not considered masterwork. It can be fixed for 1/3 of the normal cost of the runegun and a successful Spellcraft or UMD check.
Grit: A Runeslinger’s grit pool is dependent on her Charisma instead of her Wisdom.
Deeds:
Runic deadeye: At 1st level when a Runeslinger uses the deadeye deed with a Runegun that does not have the touch quality an additional grit point must be spent for the first increment. If deadeye is used with a ‘touch’ Runegun, deadeye instead removes one range increment penalty per grit point spent. This alters deadeye.
Practiced activation: At 1st level as long as a Runeslinger has at least 1 grit point she gains ½ her level to UMD checks made to activate runeguns and can spend 1 grit point to activate one at DC 20 as a standard action or DC 25 as a move action, further reduced by rapid reload. This replaces quick clear.
Overloaded shot: At 7th level can spend 1 grit point to give any runegun the overload quality for one round. This replaces deadshot.
Runic defenses (Su): Protective runes cover a Runeslinger giving her a +1 deflection bonus to AC at 2nd level increasing by +1 for every 4 levels. This replaces nimble.
Gun training: A Runeslinger can choose a Runegun or a Firearm for Gun training. If a Runegun is chosen, then the Runegun’s attunement modifier always applies to Charisma on top of the normal benefits.

The Exchange

How do the Runeguns function differently from just having a magic firearm that deals elemental damage? And it seems like a cheap way to get elemental damage incorporated into a weapon without it being magical.

The Exchange

I have a question: if I want to apply a different elemental damage type to a runegun's ammo, wouldn't that stress the barrel of the gun and ammo when firing?

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Cr500cricket wrote:

Runeslinger (Gunslinger Archetype)

With an innate connection to runic magic, Runeslingers wield the wonderous weapons known as runeguns. Their practice with these weapons allows them to wield these weapons and even coax runeguns beyond their normal limits.
Class skills: Runeslingers gain Use magic device as a class skill
Weapon and Armour proficiency: Runeslingers are proficient with Runeguns as well as normal Gunslinger profiencies
This modifies the Gunslinger weapon and armour proficiencies.
Runic Gunsmith: A Runeslinger treats Runeguns as Firearms for all deeds, feats, and class abilities and begins play with a battered Runegun (Runic Hydra, Runic Dragon or Runic Pistol) that can only be activated by her and is not considered masterwork. It can be fixed for 1/3 of the normal cost of the runegun and a successful Spellcraft or UMD check.
Grit: A Runeslinger’s grit pool is dependent on her Charisma instead of her Wisdom.
Deeds:
Runic deadeye: At 1st level when a Runeslinger uses the deadeye deed with a Runegun that does not have the touch quality an additional grit point must be spent for the first increment. If deadeye is used with a ‘touch’ Runegun, deadeye instead removes one range increment penalty per grit point spent. This alters deadeye.
Practiced activation: At 1st level as long as a Runeslinger has at least 1 grit point she gains ½ her level to UMD checks made to activate runeguns and can spend 1 grit point to activate one at DC 20 as a standard action or DC 25 as a move action, further reduced by rapid reload. This replaces quick clear.
Overloaded shot: At 7th level can spend 1 grit point to give any runegun the overload quality for one round. This replaces deadshot.
Runic defenses (Su): Protective runes cover a Runeslinger giving her a +1 deflection bonus to AC at 2nd level increasing by +1 for every 4 levels. This replaces nimble.
Gun training: A Runeslinger can choose a Runegun or a...

That's such a cool idea for an archetype that I wrote one inspired by yours!

RUNESLINGER

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Theliah Strongarm, I'm not sure what you're referring to. I don't know of a way to have a firearm deal 100% energy damage. Flaming, corrosive, etc stack on top of a runegun's damage regardless of the rune shell. However, it only applies to the primary target for shells that have an area effect.


Good to see some free homebrewed rune-based stuff out there. ;)

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