Transferring Runes via Crafting

[NemoNoName]

Do you need to satisfy Rune crafting requirements if all you are doing is transferring the rune from one weapon/armour to another?

Specifically the case I have is a 2nd level party found a +1 weapon none of them uses. Wizard has Crafting skill at Trained, so the question popped up, can they transfer the rune or not to one of the party weapons?

The Wizard has neither Magical Crafting nor Crafting on Expert yet.

Rules are a bit unclear if the requirements apply to transferring or only to creating Runes from scratch.

[thenobledrake]

Contrasting the paragraph "The Etching Process" and the paragraph "Transferring Runes", one lays out all of the requirements needing to be met and the other uses significantly different language.

So to me it seems clear that transferring runes doesn't require meeting the requirements that etching the rune would require. And that makes sense because the rune is already "made", it just needs to be attached - and you don't have to be artist to apply a decal.

[NemoNoName]

Personally I'm also bending towards that interpretation, but wanted to double check in case I missed something.

[BellyBeard]

Both creating the rune and transferring it use the Craft activity. The transfer description modifies the DC, price, and time it takes, but it does not modify the level requirements, and does not call out needing to meet special requirements like etching does. I would say the wizard can do it personally as long as he meets the level requirements, but I think it is unclear.

[TomParker]

I had the same question, but my reading was as the others—transferring requires only the Craft skill and not the related crafting skill feat.

[Ravingdork]

You can transfer runes!?

That would make them one of the best financial investments you could make.

[WHW]

Yes. And that's why you can absolutely start the game with your grandmothers sword and not cry in frustration when you find a better +1 Flaming Greatsword.
In fact, if you are good at scouting and predicting what lies ahead, you probably should have a bunch of situational runes to apply to your sword as needed. If you think you are going to fight a lot of Fire-Weak creatures, it only takes a single day to make your pimped out sword suddenly Flaming, as long as you had a rune in your possesion.
You can store unused runes on a Runestone.They cost 3gp.

[Ravingdork]

Where do the rules detail this?

[WHW]

Page 580, transferring runes. It also has a note where you can find a Runestone.
TLDR, you can use Craft skill to switch runes from one object to another, and it takes only a day instead of standard 4 days of Craft-work.

So if you find a Flaming Greatsword +1, you can give it to your Crafter and within a couple of days, you will have Granny's Flaming Sword +1.

[Ravingdork]

Thanks!

How does that work conceptually though? I mean, you're etching runes into the items. What do you do, scrap them off, wearing down your weapon and armor, then re-etch them into another item? How exactly does that transfer the magic without having to pay the full crafting cost?

Sounds to me like you're just destroying one rune, and recreating it from scratch on another item.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Ravingdork wrote:

Thanks!

How does that work conceptually though? I mean, you're etching runes into the items. What do you do, scrap them off, wearing down your weapon and armor, then re-etch them into another item? How exactly does that transfer the magic without having to pay the full crafting cost?

Sounds to me like you're just destroying one rune, and recreating it from scratch on another item.

Shush, man, shush! You'll blow the whole deal for everybody!

[WHW]

I imagine that the actually expensive, time-consuming part is the magical spark within the runes, not the physical vessel of runes themselves. So you are probably using some sort of process to quickly jump one rune from one "vessel" to another.

Basically, the hardware (physically carved runes) are irrelevant if you don't transfer the software (the magic part of the runes).

[Ravingdork]

So I'm buying magical spark from the Rune merchant rather than actual runes?

That's so...odd.

Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:

Shush, man, shush! You'll blow the whole deal for everybody!

lol.

[WHW]

Well you are buying both, but then you can go to rune-jacker and ask him to transfer the magical rune/software into your other thing. He then etches some basic runes for your magical sparks to "jump into", and because the actually hard part is figuring out how to make the magical sparks, it takes him a day instead of a week.

You can have fancy runes all you want, but without that certain magical energy, they wont glow and turn your sword on fire. You are transfering that potentiality from one rune to another. Does that help to make it sound less weird?

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Note that you can also swap two runes (of the same type) between items for the cost/time of transferring the higher-level rune only, IIRC.

[graystone]

Ravingdork wrote:

Thanks!

How does that work conceptually though?

Final Fantasy Materia. "Materia can be used when slotted into a weapon or a piece of armor. Once slotted into an equipment piece the wearer can call upon the Materia's powers." "Materia is crystallized Mako. Metaphysically, Materia calls upon the wisdom of the Lifestream to manipulate nature manifesting as the phenomenon of magic for most Materia, although other Materia enhance the user's abilities."

For me, you just have to use craft to transfer Materia from one weapon to another or to a Runestone.