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Instead of etching a rune into a weapon, you can tattoo on your arm. Applying a Rune as a Tattoo is the same, except that it cost an extra 10 GP per level of Tattoo. For example a level 8 Tattoo of Frost, would cost the base 500 for the Rune + 80 to get it Tattoo.
Your body is considered low-grade material. At level 7 you are considered standard-grade, and at level 14 high-grade.
While you are wield a weapon or weapons that are compatible with the Rune, apply the Rune to the weapon. For instance, if you had a Tattoo of Returning, it would apply to a thrown dagger, but not a crossbow. If you make an unarmed attack, the rune can apply as if you had the equivalent Handwraps of Mighty Blows on.
In addition to Ink, Tattoo's can also take the form of Gems that will attach themselves to your skin. Usually on the back of the hand, though some people will place one in the middle of their forehead.
While I do hate martial's continued reliance on magic weapons to deal damage, I think this chafes against the rest of the rules system.
Will you let the tattoos work for unarmed strikes and natural attacks? Eliminating the need for handwraps or natural attack enhancers. Part of the point of weapons with runes is that you can be disarmed of your best weapon, or not have the weapon best suited for a task in hand (like needing a bow to shoot someone and you have a melee focus).
Maybe this doesn't break anything, and thematically I certainly like it better. But I fear it may be too good for martials. And now that spell casters aren't almighty gods anymore, I'm not sure it's balanced.
Also, if you have multiple one handed weapons you can just use the doubling rings to get the runes from your main weapon to apply to whatever is in your off-hand.
While I do hate martial's continued reliance on magic weapons to deal damage, I think this chafes against the rest of the rules system.
Will you let the tattoos work for unarmed strikes and natural attacks? Eliminating the need for handwraps or natural attack enhancers.
Eliminate the need for handwraps yes.
I tried to word it so it did not change anything else. Just reduce the magic item load. So whatever you could do with handwraps, nothing more.
Part of the point of weapons with runes is that you can be disarmed of your best weapon, or not have the weapon best suited for a task in hand (like needing a bow to shoot someone and you have a melee focus).
A character who wants to be good at multiple weapons get's penalized twice.
Once with feats (if you have Power Attack then you don't have Point Blank Shot).And once with item costs.
(And Possibly a third time with stats).
This reduces the item cost. You still pay for the flexibility.
And I don't see disarm as very big in this game. If it is, I could add "if you are disarmed, you take a penalty...." or some such.
Maybe this doesn't break anything, and thematically I certainly like it better. But I fear it may be too good for martials. And now that spell casters aren't almighty gods anymore, I'm not sure it's balanced.
Also, if you have multiple one handed weapons you can just use the doubling rings to get the runes from your main weapon to apply to whatever is in your off-hand.This is more expensive than a ring of doubling. But the price can be adjusted if needed.
I don’t think this is too good. Disarming is very hard in this edition and switch hitting isn’t very good to begin with, so buffing that doesn’t seem problematic
The one major issue I see is that it makes exploiting material and damage type weaknesses much easier than PF2 as a system seems to intend. Versatile as a weapon property ends up slightly devalued as a result too.
Without a change like this the “I have a weapon for every occasion” battlemaster is basically impossible, but Pathfinder 2 has worked hard to make that kind of character very hard to play, so for some people that’s obviously a feature and not a bug.
This seems like an issue that’s already solved with Doubling Rings and the Shifting Weapon Rune. I could see a Runescarred Archetype Feat that gives 1 bonus weapon rune similar to how ‘Living Rune’ works; but short of that i’m not sure i agree with Multi-Weapon users being ‘penalized’ with the support already allowing such builds.
The one major issue I see is that it makes exploiting material and damage type weaknesses much easier than PF2 as a system seems to intend. Versatile as a weapon property ends up slightly devalued as a result too.
It's still cheaper, less bulky, and less actions to buy a single greatsword+runes than a greataxe+maul+tattoo.
ithout a change like this the “I have a weapon for every occasion” battlemaster is basically impossible, but Pathfinder 2 has worked hard to make that kind of character very hard to play, so for some people that’s obviously a feature and not a bug.
I agree that it is impossible. Which is why I am trying to raise it to balanced option.
I'm wondering if this enough, actually.
This seems like an issue that’s already solved with Doubling Rings and the Shifting Weapon Rune. I could see a Runescarred Archetype Feat that gives 1 bonus weapon rune similar to how ‘Living Rune’ works; but short of that i’m not sure i agree with Multi-Weapon users being ‘penalized’ with the support already allowing such builds.
Ok, I completely missed the Shifting Rune. That does cover a lot of what I was trying to do.
Though I still like the image of a Rune Tattoo, and the idea of moving the item bonus to something more innate.
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Shifting room basically gives you all the versatility you could want in a weapon, except special materials.
But I do admit that as someone who dislikes that the "power is in the weapon and not that character" I do kind of like this approach of tattoos.
I'm still concerned about whether its balanced. Hopefully Paizo will consider something like this (officially) in the future.
Instead of etching a rune into a weapon, you can tattoo on your arm. Applying a Rune as a Tattoo is the same, except that it cost an extra 10 GP per level of Tattoo. For example a level 8 Tattoo of Frost, would cost the base 500 for the Rune + 80 to get it Tattoo.
Your body is considered low-grade material. At level 7 you are considered standard-grade, and at level 14 high-grade.
While you are wield a weapon or weapons that are compatible with the Rune, apply the Rune to the weapon. For instance, if you had a Tattoo of Returning, it would apply to a thrown dagger, but not a crossbow. If you make an unarmed attack, the rune can apply as if you had the equivalent Handwraps of Mighty Blows on.
In addition to Ink, Tattoo's can also take the form of Gems that will attach themselves to your skin. Usually on the back of the hand, though some people will place one in the middle of their forehead.
I really like where your head is at but I think you are underestimating how valuable weapon versatility can be. I think you would be better off having this kind of item priced at roughly double the cost of a single magic weapon (or maybe of value of an item of a given level +2 or some other kind of adjustment that I'll get into later) lest the ranger and barbarian always feel obliged to carry 4 or 5 different weapons just to feel "optimal".
I--for one--really like this kind of "golf bag weapon master" sort of concept but I can understand why Paizo wouldn't want that to be the meta. People like the idea of characters being tied to their personal weapon and they would like to indulge in that kind of character experience without feeling like they are missing out.
Here is how I would alter your concept for my game (and would implement as an official rule given my druthers):
1. I would price the base tattoo at 60 gp as a level 3 item that you can then choose to add potency/striking runes to. For comparison, a doubling ring is also a level 3 item that costs 50 gp). That should be the cost of the base version anyways (the version that accepts basic striking and potency runes) and the "greater" and "major" versions of this item should step up later on; I'd set prices/level at 1000gp/lv. 10 for the greater version (allowing +2 potency/great striking) and 10,000gp/lv. 16 for the major version (allowing +3 potency/major striking). For comparison, this essentially means you need to buy each potency rune twice plus a little extra but in exchange, you get to add your best potency/striking runes to all your weapons.
2. I would remove the tattoo's ability to grant property runes (like "flaming" or "returning") and only let the tattoos overwrite fundamental runes on held weapons. This is essentially further pushes players gently towards specializing without making the "golfbag" playstyle unattainable, especially if you are interested mostly low level runes like returning. This also removes some interactions where your tattoo and wielded item might have different property runes and peeps might find the rulings for that kind of thing hard to remember.
3. Held special material weapons must still be of an appropriate quality to gain benefits of your tattoo for more or less the same reasons as 2 (rewarding specialization/clearing up interactions).
This kind of pricing regime makes wielding "every" weapon cost more or less the same as buying two separate weapons with all the upgrades you might want which I feel is about right since buying 1 ranged weapon and 1 melee weapon is probably going to cover most things to begin with.
I actually really love the flavor of magic tattoos, and it actually jives super well with things like varisian magic tattoos and the like, but I do have to wonder:
Since we are already in house rule territory, why not just use the game mastery guide rules for making item bonuses innate, at least for weapons? Imo, it actually strikes up a really nice balance if you still make the players buy/etch properties onto ther weapons, and only give them the striking/potency runes for free, as specialists will have one really tricked out weapon while the golf bag guy will have a few pretty solid weapons for any occaision.
The only real potential issue is that it gives martials "free stuff" while the pure casters don't, but you can solve this by tossing extra spellcasting aides like scrolls, staves, etc at the levels where the martials would be having to pay for better weapons, and warrior mages who already want to use weapons are just as fine off without any extras like the martials, because they also want the free weapons
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This thread predates the release of the GMG, but yeah, it neatly solves the issue.
Which just means it's time to make even more cool magic tattoos as items!
Heh, thats what I get for assuming the paizo recommended threads for me are all current!
Take your Tattoo idea, but make the user 'Invest' the tattoo in their morning preparations. They invest it in a specific chosen weapon. It can be invested as long as the item could accept the rune. For the price of a doubling ring you can attune your weapon tattoos with an extra weapon chosen during morning preparations. (if you don't make a change during morning preparation, your last chosen weapon remains your attuned weapon) The tattoo version of doubling rings, only affects tattoo weapon runes, and can't be used as a flesh version of a doubling ring.
Tattoo's would have the benefit that they can be switched what weapon they effect each morning. They would have the beneficial/detrimental effect that they only impact the tattoo wearer's use of the weapon.
Granted, this by only the first rune doesn't replicate, getting the effects of the rune on any weapon wielded. That would require a weapons tattoo rune + the doubling tattoo. Potentially, you might be able to offer additional doubling tattoos that would increase the number of weapons you could choose to be affected by the weapon tattoo runes you have inscribed.
[You will also need to look at if it is possible to transfer the runes over to a runestone or weapon from a live, or dead opponent with a tattoo. Perhaps the Tattoo itself is what hosts the Rune, so you might be able to transfer a Rune to or from a Tattoo, but the tattoo itself is something on the individual, and has a level, affecting its cost, and how strong a rune it can hold.]