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I finally got some free time with a friend to do the proper playtests of the necromancer and runesmith classes.
This playtest so far has only been for level one, using the fearsome plaguestone adventure and has focused on moderate and higher encounters.
I will not detail each encounter, nor each characteristic, I will only present the most important decisions we made regarding class options and our general impression of how it was to play.
As usual, I will make a post for each level, since the experience can change drastically from one level to another.
And OK, let's go to the party composition:
I had build my runesmith with Engraving Strike and a shield with spikes in order to test the efficiency of Strike + Trace if hits, the Rise a Shield with runesmith action economy and simply trace+trace+invoke.
About runesmith with shield:
It doesn't work well once that trace and invoke actions aren't attacks Rise a Shield just put an unwanted pressure in runesmith action economy and if you do not rise a shield so Shield Block doesn't work. This thing needs to be removed or improved with a Rise a Shield + Trace in the same-action but this doesn't fix the other problem that is you still need a free-hand to Trace what means that your weapon needs to be your shield.
About Engraving Strike:
I was surprised of how Engraving Strike wasn't bad as I (and many others) think in whiteroom. In practice it isn't so hard do hit and trace and even if you miss you still can trace again and invoke in the next round. This may delay the DPR but when Engraving Strike hits it's the opposite and the effect is pretty powerful.
That said play with runesmith was strange because the overkill. Due how strong is Engraving Strike/trace+trace+invoke if you focus in the weaklings you probably will end doing way more damage than needed. What makes the runesmith gameplay to be focused into the strongest or those with highest HP otherwise you will simply will wast most of your damage. But this also means that you need to move more than other classes usually does. This directly affects your action economy efficiency. So unless you are playing vs a single strong creature, usually play with runesmith will be more tactically more difficult and even frustrating than you expect.
Another point that I notice is how terrible AoO/RS are vs runesmith. If you move to get closer to an enemy that has AoO/RS you rapidally will see that you need to runaway or will have to deal with damage every round just because you are tracing a rune. This obviously disable the Engraving Strike too. So your alternative is to keep the distance and trace with 2-actions + invoke, but this weaken your action economy to a point where you become worse than even more weakest spellcaster. You will need all your actions without move just to damage your enemy at range with just a single rune. I can't say that AoO/RS completely disable the runesmith but get close.
All that said I was think that play with runesmith would be more fun but in practice was pretty tediously and frustrating. Basically I just think 'I need to put all my runes in the strongest target and then invoke then to explode it'. Even with many times this not being easier as you think and probably due this sometimes you simple end your turn just preparing the things because you just don't want to Invoke before put all your runes into the targets and this also may be that your target could be killed or strongly damage between the rounds and all your efforts ends in a overkill what is pretty frustrating.
A bit fix about my impression. I completely forgot that Fortifing Knock exists allowing to rise a shield and Trace. Yet this being a level 2 feat doesn't help any lvl 1 shield build anyway. Also it's limited to Trace your shield (and is unclear if you can Trace runes in attached weapons, probably not).
Now we tested some level 2 encounters of plaguestone adventure. Basically some fights vs alchemical modified plants, animals, some orcs and a bloody slime.
As level 2 feat we honestly didn't find anything interesting enought. Rune-singer once per minute limit made we avoid it, Fortifying Knock only works with shield runes, Runic Tatoo only works with runes applied to the body (we consider to get it to get an extra Invoke for Esvadir but the damage runes are already so strong that this will just make the Invoke even more overkill) and the others feats not even looks interesting enought to we to consider them.
So we simply choose to get a Sentinel Dedication and use a heavy armor diminishing the risk of the take down before Invoke the runes (this sum with the necromancer providing temp HP helped a lot).
The gameplay improved a lot now that most enemies had 30HP or more the number os Invoke overkill diminished a lot and the runesmith showed that it is currently the most stronger single target DPR. We made it focus only in enemies with highest HP due this making it responsible for the most victories of the party.
An interesting note was that he also super-efficient vs orc ferocity once it was able to do another damage without failure after hit these enemies with a weapon. Engraving Strike still worked pretty well in this level so worth to be used every turn basically.
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I will say that, for making Runesmith actually function as a martial character rather than a caster, there are a few things that can be allowed to make it feel good. Mostly, they're changes that could be argued as being the intent of the existing rules though.
For melee:
Engraving strike and fortifying knock, assume they ignore the normal requirement of a free hand for tracing a rune, and remove the manipulate action for it. The feats themselves don't include a requirement of a free hand in them, after all, and don't have a manipulate keyword on them, while other feats like transpose etching do have Manipulate called out explicitly on them.
Again, I know that rules as written, an action compression feat should inherit those off of the trace rune action unless explicitly stated otherwise, but if you assume that the intent was to allow a sword and board or two-handed hammer fighter to use these, then it cleans up things pretty nicely. Being in melee with enemies who can take reaction strikes, you can still trace twice by raising your shield and attacking with engraving strike, and have a third action left to invoke if desired, all without taking reaction strikes.
Add in Runic Reprisal, and it comes together very well by level 6.
Even better would be if you made Engraving strike a 1 / turn free action with the activation condition of "you successfully strike a target" to get the trace. That would let you stack it on other melee feats from a dedication feat's extra options, including support for heavier hitting two-handed weapons replacing the shield... But that could be too good, potentially.
For Ranged:
If you assume that being shot by an arrow and having it hit you makes you the "rune bearer" for any runes that were applied to the arrow head, a runic archer build actually opens up. You still don't have anywhere near as many feats that support it as you have with sword and board, but that just means archer dedication is an easy option to add in. It's clear that there's intended to be some reason to go with a bow or crossbow, given that you have a 1st level feat to let you invoke at greater range with an arrow, and the fire and lightning damage runes do fit on objects -or- creatures and target the rune bearer. Plus the whetstone rune can go on piercing weapons, like arrows and bolts.
Melee application of a rune to slap it onto an arrow with only one action, good until the end of your next turn. Tracing Trance could allow you to prepare two and fire them both off, using double or triple shot feats off of archer dedication. Then next turn remote detonation to make them explode from significantly higher than 30 feet away. Short bow with far shot could give 120 feet or something for instance.
Overloaded Ammunition still isn't a great pick since it's only 2/day of a not super well scaling smaller fireball, but it's more proof that a ranged fighter runesmith was intended as an option, despite the lack of an equivalent of engraving strike for ranged weapons. All that is part of why I think the above ruling of an arrow sticking into someone letting you count them as a rune bearer could be rules as intended. Especially with distant invocation not coming with any ways to improve range to trace your runes as part of it. And Henge Gate then just becomes "set up with 2 actions to not need actions to apply runes to your ammo for a while" instead of making an entirely new mechanic for applying runes through ranged weapons at level 14.