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Hi Guys,
I was inspired by the 'Entirely new class' thread to try and think about what types of class could be created for second edition, without merely recreating older classes from 1e. Since we know there will be some amount of new classes coming out, I tried to think about what aspects of the new edition could lend themselves well to being fleshed out into a class-- the answer may surprise you!
Runes . Inspired by the 1e Occultist and the World of Warcraft Death Knight, a class specializing in a runic arsenal could open up a new design space within Second Edition without requiring entirely new systems to be developed to accommodate it.
From this-- the Rune Smith is born!
Some quick notes on the inspiration:
--Occultist -- The occultist focuses on the world around him, grounded in the powers that flow throughout his environment. He studies the magic that infuses everything, from psychic resonances left in everyday items to powerful incantations that fuel the mightiest spells. The occultist channels his psychic might through implements—items that allow him to focus his power and produce incredible effects.
--Death Knight -- Death knights are melee fighters that wield dark magic and rune-forged weapons. Death knights utilize enchanted rune weapons that enhance their abilities and are powerful foes on the battlefield.
At a glance: What would make a Rune Smith unique?
-- Instead of traditional spells, the Rune Smith would have a number of special runes that can be placed on weapons or armor. These runes could have the Lesser/Greater qualities that are seen in many different tiers of magical and alchemical items. These runes could either offer a minor boost to their weapon constantly, or offer a more powerful boost once (expending the magic, and requiring the Rune Smith to refocus and draw power back into the rune).
It is easy enough to have the Rune Smith be the only one to use such runes, and the draw could be to add unique rune effects to weapons and armor, or get access to traditional runes either cheaper or earlier. As a bonus, they could have a class ability that makes it free to transfer runes, or similar things.
Rune Callings: A Rune Smith dedicates themselves to a certain Calling, preferring to focus on perfecting one type of Runic creation:
-- These Callings could focus on being a consistent martial combatant, creating Runes that offer better spell-like effects, or making the Rune Smith significantly tankier and more defensive. As I currently imagine the class, they could be a capable martial chassis that can be specialized to move towards marital excellence, spell combat, or defensive mastery.
Why could this class succeed?
-- Quite simply, I think that the Rune system is very interesting, and could benefit GREATLY from having a class that champions the system. The lore behind the class can offer some cool in-game moments when using Focus to draw power back into spent runes, or providing a constant effect to weapons and armor. The class would draw inspiration from Pathfinder 1st Edition content, but not be a carbon copy of previous classes.
Let me know what you think!
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You had me at "stuff enhancer". I'm not the right kind of sleep-deprived to respond in full, but I think that this is a really, really cool idea. The Occultist in PF1 had some of my favourite ideas and, while I hope that it manages to make the transition properly, a class really specialising in combat-smithing without being tied to the Occultist or Magus would be really nice.
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The only thing to keep in mind here is that the Gold Economy of a given PC, or even a Party as a whole could be severely disrupted by something like this.
If someone needs not spend money on Weapons, Armor, or even "Wondrous Items" then that can leave a lot of Coin on the table to drastically improve the overall balance of powerful equipment the Party has access to.
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The only thing to keep in mind here is that the Gold Economy of a given PC, or even a Party as a whole could be severely disrupted by something like this.
If someone needs not spend money on Weapons, Armor, or even "Wondrous Items" then that can leave a lot of Coin on the table to drastically improve the overall balance of powerful equipment the Party has access to.
You raise a really good point, and I concede that the only way the class could work is if it doesn't screw with the gold economy. Thankfully if we look at alchemist we have some inspiration as to how we could provide materials for a crafter.
The Rune Smith could provide free talismans each day (for early level benefit, more on that later), but upon purchasing/crafting runes (keeping gold economy in mind), they could 'refine' or improve the Rune.
Some examples of an improvement could be:
[For a +1 potency rune]
* At level 3, you can add a weapon trait to the weapon (you're +1 rune gives your weapon the Disarm/Trip/Shove trait, allowing you to use it to disarm, and gain the potency bonus to the attack)
[For a Striking rune]
* When adding a Striking rune, you can change the type of damage for the additional dice (slashing to Acid, Fire, etc)
[For unique Runes Smith abilities]
* Having a unique armor rune(that you create free daily, or something similar) that gives you the benefit of the shield Block reaction. This would be expended and need to be refocused to use again. In this example, the rune wouldn't increase your AC, but just offer a single burst of DR in combat.
I could keep going with ideas but I think I want to structure it a bit more. I think that talismans or unique runes (effective class abilities) would be the best way to start the class, and instead of getting free runes, make the class enhance the runes or tweak how they work!
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Making (and encouraging players to make) creative use of weapon traits is an extremely elegant way of making weapons cooler without messing with the gold economy. Damage types too, though I'd also like to see some unique-to-class enhancements that improve upon the traits a weapon already has, or that invent all-new ways for weapons to be interesting.
I'd also very much encourage passing this cool stuff out to the party as a form of pre-buffing, thereby allowing balanced interaction with all sorts of classes from a single character. This could be a fun niche to fill, I think. Of course, they'd need to provide unique benefits in-situation as well, so as to avoid the "stay at home" issue that dedicated crafters may be prone to.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I am writing up (and doing a LOT of formatting) a first pass at the class. I want to create enough feats to give an idea for how the class would feel, but I don't want to spend too long trying to fully finish the first release of the class before getting specific feedback. I will work in your suggestions! Looking forward to more of your feedback.