I know we have remote detonation.
I dunno about you but I'd much rather have engraving strike at range considering invoke can already be done at range.
I feel like it could also be clarified for if damaging runes placed on an arrow can already be triggered to harm a struck creature. Because I don't know about you, but I think if a metal arrow head suddenly explodes into fire or is struck with powerful lightning while it's inside of someone's body, that's going to deal damage to the body it's stuck in.
In which case, preparing arrows (melee touch rune trace, 1 action each) and then shooting them and detonating the fired arrows (both the runesmith and allied archers able to shoot them possibly to spread them out) sounds like a pretty solid play style option. Especially with remote detonation there to let you set off all runes on a target with a ranged attack when it gets out of your base invoke range (in the first range increment so you're not sniping with this from too far.)
Even if the fire and lightning runes somehow wouldn't work, wouldn't the whetstone rune work then? It applies to objects and has some AOE, as would any runes with the En- Diacritic rune added. Even if you just shoot the arrow adjacent to enemies, you can then trigger it - and hitting a 5' square is significantly easier than hitting the AC of some monsters. Though remote detonation might call for a trick shot to shoot your own arrow or something if the arrow was more than 30 or 60 feet away.
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10 bucks says that they wanted to avoid another bow magus at all costs
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10 bucks says that they wanted to avoid another bow magus at all costs
Considering that Remote Detonation is better action compression than Engraving Strike, and that Runesmith is essentially a 1+ H class already, I don't think they avoided that build option, lol.
How is remote detonation better compression? Both give a strike plus one other contingent action you’d be doing (without a chance of failure) anyway.
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How is remote detonation better compression? Both give a strike plus one other contingent action you’d be doing (without a chance of failure) anyway.
I think they're saying that due to not having to move to be in range to invoke the runes, meaning it's, if the enemy moved away, as good as a stride, strike, and invoke all at once.
I guess I need a round by round, action by action description of where you think the ranged option pulls ahead and why that's the most common scenario.
If they're within 30' (assuming you have fleet or are an elf, otherwise we'll say 25'), then the melee option is stride, engraving strike, invoke. The ranged option is two action ranged trace, then remote detonation. Both are three actions, both risk not completing the loop at all that round if you miss the strike.
No doubt there are complex manuever interactions over more than one round and with different traced rune stacks where these feats aren't equivalent, but I don't think you can productively game them out very much.
And of course engraving strike at low levels is potentially going to do more damage with strength added in and push the "strike combo makes more sense than just doing a pure trace/invoke" math more than remote detonation will. It's also going to have easier off guard opportunities. Without off guard, other hit advantages, and good damage I doubt the strike plus trace/invoke options will be the go to option for optimal play.
How is remote detonation better compression? Both give a strike plus one other contingent action you’d be doing (without a chance of failure) anyway.
Invoke is more valuable than Trace.
It's hella awkward to use Remote Det because you need to change some future action for an Invoke on miss, and because most RS will want to do some normal Invokes for runes that are not on the foe.
But again, the Invoke action is a bigger "get" than Tracing one more rune, which has many other compression options. Tracing Trance even disables Invokes, further emphasizing that it's the Invoke action that's the key limiter, and thereby more appealing to improve / compress.
The cheaper disposability of Tracing one more rune is actually *why* Engraving Str looks so much more appealing and comfy than Remote Det, because if you miss the extra rune, it's no big deal. Whereas getting, or not getting, that Invoke is a TM
You are absolutely correct about ranged offering pseudo-action compression on it's own thanks to movement.
Because Trace needs a hand and provokes Reactions anyways, I think the lower damage on a 1+ H bow will not be a big concern for Runesmith, and can see a lot of RS players parking their butt w/ a bow in melee just for that sweet 1A Trace.
So long as they are wearing a free-hand gauntlet for Engraving Strike on those Tracing Trance turns, of course.
The flexibility offered by a 1A ranged weapon (when you're not loosing the melee-only options) seems super appealing with the class the way it is right now.