What runes is this compatible with? Is it only runes that can be applied to your body, or can you inscribe any rune you know on your body and have it apply as if it was put on the appropriate thing?
Like can I inscribe the rune of whetstones as a tattoo and have it apply to the weapon I'm carrying (if P or S) or can I only inscribe only runes that can go on a creature?
Since when you can get this feat the only runes you can know that go on a creature are:
- Fire (lowers your fire resistance, invoke to burn yourself)
- Illumination (which is probably not something you want *constantly*, it would make it hard to sleep at the very least)
- Thunder (you are constantly struck by lightning, invoke to be struck by more lightning)
- Homecoming (which will make you faster, but invoking it teleports you to a square adjacent to yourself which is *extremely* narrow.)
This could be written to be clearer, for sure.
I was wondering this myself, really feels like it needs clarification or would make more sense if we had more runes to test
I agree, I love the feat but what do you actually put there, the "I'm glowing now" Rune?
It almost certainly works on unarmed strikes, at least. But it feels like it should empower weapons or tools as well.
I agree, I love the feat but what do you actually put there, the "I'm glowing now" Rune?
The best candidate is definitely Ichelsu (see the unseen + all around vision is hard to beat) or Trolistri (it's essentially a 20ft diff terrain aura).
Both are level 9 though, so either you pick the feat at level 2 and it's basically dead weight until then, or you pick it at lvl 10.
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I imagine the two unarmed strike targeting runes qualify. Runic tattoo says "on your body" but "body" is not a target of any runes. The closest we get is "creature" (a synonym for body) and "unarmed strike" (a part of everyone's body).
Do use the whetstones rune on an unarmed strike you would need to have a natural weapon from your ancestry that deals slashing or piercing damage, wouldn't you? Like claws, say.
At least I assume the Usage requires a Piercing/Slashing unarmed strike or Piercing/Slashing weapon, rather than a Piercing/Slashing weapon or any unarmed strike.
Glad I wasn't missing something - cool Feat, but currently useless!
I'm still not sure if the intent of the feat is "you can put runes that don't go on creatures on your body and transfer them to your equipment." So you don't need to etch a shield rune, you just transfer your runic knuckle tats to any shield you picked up.
Or if you only really want to retrain to it once you get the level 9 rune that gives you all-round vision.
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This feat is mega useful with Words fly free.
You put Atryl on yourself, go to a crowd of enemies, say WFF and have all enemies in 15ft cone have this Atryl. Then invoke all of them in one action.
I just have a question: is diacrytic rune part of base rune? So, can I make a tattoo of En-Atryl this way? And if so, will all enemies have En-Atryl of them after WFF?
Yes, that's definitely an intended combo. The "only affect each target once" rule still applies, while the effective size AoE would be *much* larger thanks to the multiple circles, it could still only hit each foe once (and likely will hurt yourself and allies).
You might want to use the Sun- diacritic instead for the auto-mass-retrace onto all those WFF hit foes for 2x the boom.
Note that Etching a diacritic is still a rune that counts to your limit, and each rune can only have one diacritic modifying it.
I imagine the two unarmed strike targeting runes qualify. Runic tattoo says "on your body" but "body" is not a target of any runes. The closest we get is "creature" (a synonym for body) and "unarmed strike" (a part of everyone's body).
Good catch.
I also note there's no particular requirement that the rune you tattoo works when applied to your body. Probably should have that language and is meant to, but at the moment you can slap anything on there. I don't know why you would, but in case a wonky combination does come up that should probably be hemmed out.
Possibly even to the point of saying "you can use this with any rune that can apply to a creature, apply any armor rune to your skin as if it were armor, and weapon runes to your unarmed strikes if they meet the requirements of the rune".
Or start there and narrow it down to the intended application range. Maybe be even start with the narrowest (runes that apply to a creature) and have later feats that add on possible rune types for tattoos, with each tattoo feat letting you place on another tattoo. Shield runes and object runes seem hardest, but I can imagine possibilities.
For shields, maybe a feat that allows you to place a shield rune on your palm or whatever and get benefits of, say, the Shield Cantrip (except without the 10 minute restriction probably). Or something that similarly gives you the benefits of a raised shield without occupying a hand (which I guess would address a few problems). I can imagine the effect I want, but I had too long of a night to properly word it. Visually I am imagining the Illumians from the 3.5 Races of Destiny sourcebook.