One thing that would really open up some builds and classes for me would be being able to tattoo weapon runes on arms as if they were handwraps of mighty blows. The flavor of the magic actually being part of your character makes it so much cooler, so much so that when I'm messing around making characters I frequently multiclass with witch to get eldritch nails.
Being able to tattoo weapon runes (and possibly armor runes applying to light armor?) Would also solve the lack of tattoo formula as well.
So I have a few discussion points. Do you think it could be implemented in a future book? If it was, what sort of issues would there be (balance wise, rules wise, economy wise?)? Would it be a popular enough thing to warrant pagespace?
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Just use automatic bonus progression rules and flavor the bonuses as tattoos if you like.
So. The first thought that I have is that you could basically handle this mechanically with just handwraps, and use the tattoos as description. I understand that this may not feel satisfying, though.
The question then comes of how runic tattoos would be different from handwraps from a rules/balance standpoint. Is it just handwraps that you can never take off?
I'm not sure I'd buy runes as something that could buff light armor, but I could see them as a third unarmored option. Again the question comes: how would they differ?
Designer
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So. The first thought that I have is that you could basically handle this mechanically with just handwraps, and use the tattoos as description. I understand that this may not feel satisfying, though.
The question then comes of how runic tattoos would be different from handwraps from a rules/balance standpoint. Is it just handwraps that you can never take off?
I'm not sure I'd buy runes as something that could buff light armor, but I could see them as a third unarmored option. Again the question comes: how would they differ?
My monk/assassin played through an entire AP where he'd get additions to his tattoos expanding the story of his triumphs, which were just reflavored handwraps of mighty blows. We permanently reduced his number of invested items by 1 when he got the first tattoos (since being able to choose not to invest the tattoos didn't make sense to us) and that was basically the only mechanical tweak we made other than the GM letting me attach talismans to my (not necessarily magical) gloves.
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The question then comes of how runic tattoos would be different from handwraps from a rules/balance standpoint. Is it just handwraps that you can never take off?
We already have something similar to this with the Eldritch Nails Witch feat.
(In another thread I suggested that weapon rune tattoos might be a way to design something like a Mindblade Magus in PF2. The tattoo runes would only apply to your summoned weapons rather than your unarmed strikes like handwraps do.)
I'm not sure I'd buy runes as something that could buff light armor, but I could see them as a third unarmored option. Again the question comes: how would they differ?
For armor runes we do have the precedent of the Living Rune feat from the Runescarred archetype.
Yeah to keep parity with Handwraps, I'd say the tattoos would still (all, put together) count as one permanently invested item. You can't really decide not to invest it, on the other hand, they can't be taken from you. That's a tradeoff.
Not to mention not being able to resell. I don't think there are many instances where it would be overpowered or anything.
But maybe I'm alone in the thread so far as to hoping for a more mechanical rule for weapon runes as tattoos. And I'm in the camp that prefers not to houserule or use alternate rules - I'm hoping to gage interest or otherwise engage in conversation about the topic (just houserule or use apb isn't really helpful, though it does work for some)
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Reselling runes doesn't really come up too much in my experience (apart from loot). When it happens, the amount of money involved in selling a rune you bought six levels ago, is just not that significant.
I'm somewhat conservative with house rules, because each one of them adds another gram of complexity. So just because a particular thing could be changed doesn't mean it needs to be changed for this particular campaign.
But not all house rules are equal. Custom treasure items are not a house rule on the same scale as ABP. Custom treasure is such a normal thing for an adventure to give that you can't really call it a house rule really. I think over half of all modules/AP volumes have at least one piece of custom loot in them.
Usually when designing a custom magic item you want to look for similar existing items to balance it against. In this case that's just so straightforward that it's just a really easy thing to do as GM.
Alternatively, tt seems to me that if a familiar can be stored in a tattoo (Familiar Tattoo) it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to store a weapon in a tattoo...
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Alternatively, tt seems to me that if a familiar can be stored in a tattoo (Familiar Tattoo) it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to store a weapon in a tattoo...
We had those in PF1. They were fun.