Hey there, folks! I'm knee deep in Kickstarter and Patreon right now, but when I see something exciting, I'm liable to share it and take on more work.
In a nutshell, despite the fact that Paizo's storefront won't update to a newer, less horrid front cover, Ultimate Runesmithing is an absolute smash hit, to the extent that this little base class could become the next tinker in terms of it having a dozen expansions released over the next few years.
I come to you, then. What themes would you like to see added to the rune chassis? Because it's going to happen, and if the lack of a weak tail is any indication, it'll happen quite often.
An equipment rune version of Legion of Stuff, or, Summoning for Runesmiths: Put runes on random objects to animate them to life.
Simple objects: Restricting them due to size, material and mobility. At first, animate a wooden chair that kicks itself around, then a stone table that rolls on itself and finally a metal banquet table that floats. The complexity of commands can also be restricted by level. And, only one object animated per rune.
Combining: create monsters made of objects, like a table for a body and chairs as legs and arms, increasing their combat efficiency. At higher levels it could look like a garbage monster.
Arms and Armor: if only to keep people from just animating weapons and armors all the time (the material restriction puts a kibosh on this, at early levels), a rune to animate a set of weapon and armor and create a ghost like warrior (this reminds me of Alphonse Elric, from Full Metal Alchemist).
Maneuvers: I know only one rune can be inscribed upon an equipment, but since this is a new category (Stuff? Objects? Not-gear?), you could allow for some exceptions and add runes that grant buffs to the objects, like combat maneuvers. This kinda invades the Tinker territory.
Why not just one rune for all this? To allow for specialization!
How about a feat that grants an object familiar that follows you around, but has way less benefits than a regular familiar? People just love pets, and this is an interesting way to have a magically animated stuffed toy following a Runesmith character around. The prerequisites could be knowing a X number of not-gear runes.
Trap-style runes? Throw them onto the floor/wall/ceiling fordeadlyentertaining effects.
Alright, now this here has me a bit confused. I had built projections so that the base function was more-or-less a proximity mine. What would I need to do to get your vision to work?
An equipment rune version of Legion of Stuff, or, Summoning for Runesmiths: Put runes on random objects to animate them to life.
Simple objects: Restricting them due to size, material and mobility. At first, animate a wooden chair that kicks itself around, then a stone table that rolls on itself and finally a metal banquet table that floats. The complexity of commands can also be restricted by level. And, only one object animated per rune.
Combining: create monsters made of objects, like a table for a body and chairs as legs and arms, increasing their combat efficiency. At higher levels it could look like a garbage monster.
Arms and Armor: if only to keep people from just animating weapons and armors all the time (the material restriction puts a kibosh on this, at early levels), a rune to animate a set of weapon and armor and create a ghost like warrior (this reminds me of Alphonse Elric, from Full Metal Alchemist).
Maneuvers: I know only one rune can be inscribed upon an equipment, but since this is a new category (Stuff? Objects? Not-gear?), you could allow for some exceptions and add runes that grant buffs to the objects, like combat maneuvers. This kinda invades the Tinker territory.
Why not just one rune for all this? To allow for specialization!
How about a feat that grants an object familiar that follows you around, but has way less benefits than a regular familiar? People just love pets, and this is an interesting way to have a magically animated stuffed toy following a Runesmith character around. The prerequisites could be knowing a X number of not-gear runes.
So, basically, a Beauty and the Beast castle-themed campaigner-style archetype :P
Full Disclosure: I don't actually have the base product. I've just been thinking about it. XD So don't put too much weight on my opinion.
Frankly, I think I need to hammer at the idea some more, and find something that's both thematically awesome and mechanically unique to a reasonable degree. My vision has something like tossing a marked stone back at pursuers and creating a pit... but that's more-or-less literally just Create Pit. Your stuff's generally more unique than THAT. XD
Generally, yes. Runesmithing comes in two flavors
1: Temporary item enchantments
2: Area projections onto a surface. Some are zones of an effect. Others are traps. Still others get weirder. But they're all area effects.
You should fish around on the Patreon too, Brad.
I feel like there's an avenue for some sympathetic/voodoo-style magic to explore. Landing between a Kineticist's forced-damage and Oracle curses, scratch a rune onto yourself or your buddy for a passive-penalty (or penalty-and-bonus) and channel effects through it. The first thing that comes to mind is something like scratching a rune on a cornea, inflicting on the dazzled condition, and then activate it to emanate light, grant darkvision, see-in-darkness... or offensively, inflicting blindness and some such.
You should fish around on the Patreon too, Brad.
I feel like there's an avenue for some sympathetic/voodoo-style magic to explore. Landing between a Kineticist's forced-damage and Oracle curses, scratch a rune onto yourself or your buddy for a passive-penalty (or penalty-and-bonus) and channel effects through it. The first thing that comes to mind is something like scratching a rune on a cornea, inflicting on the dazzled condition, and then activate it to emanate light, grant darkvision, see-in-darkness... or offensively, inflicting blindness and some such.
Ooh, fleshscribe.
Exactly. A lot of options for fluffing it too, as I think about it. My best take so far goes something like Martial artists hone their bodies through years of training to open up their chakra. Me? I prefer the knife.
Also, +1 to Ragi's idea - that would get me excited about giving the old animated-object schtick a try. Maybe a ratfolk in a hat with the Archmage's Sigil, powering a legion of brooms to carry water for him...
The fastest way to open anything up is with a good blade.
So, basically, a Beauty and the Beast castle-themed campaigner-style archetype :P
Also, +1 to Ragi's idea - that would get me excited about giving the old animated-object schtick a try. Maybe a ratfolk in a hat with the Archmage's Sigil, powering a legion of brooms to carry water for him...
I didn't expect so many Disney references to come forth from that suggestion, but now that's all I can think about.
I never watched Beauty and the Beast, but from the images the furniture and cutlery look like they can also speak - that could be added to the rune at the grandmaster level. Send your teapot to spy on the enemy and report back to you...
I tend to suggest some sort of summoning to everything - it's very popular in online games, so no reason to think it won't work as well in here. And if it has an uncommon flavor to it, the better.
I'll be accused of ripping off of Hearthstone with the timing of this :P
Alrighty, so I'll try to turn some of this into content this month. Going to need a buffer as Patreon/Kickstarter becomes my life!
Good news, everyone! I've completed the text for an archetype that gives up projection runes for animated object familiars. I made sure it's compatible with campaigner, just because birthday boy Preston would flip his gourd playing an arcane trickster stuffamancer with an enchanted castle following behind him.
Quick question, though. Shall I reprint all the animated object construction point abilities for reference?
Eh, this thing's only 1100 words and a table. It'll fit just fine. I might cook up a new rune to fill in the gap, but this little guy already feels like a complete concept.