Apologies for not being more inclusive unlike the "we" of my Necromancer post, but I didn't pick up much from forum chats and there's only a day for others to contribute. (Though please do!)
Specific Abilites
-Probably the most important is a way to handle Trace w/ one-handed weapon & shield or a two-handed weapon. The current martial abilities favor free-hand + shield w/ boss/spikes. Too odd.
-Better abilities tied to knowing the name of you enemy.
-Using an enemy's blood to trace a rune, or dipping a rune-scribed object into blood (ichor, etc.)
-Wards: Etching/Tracing on doorways, portals, empty squares; both barriers and/or walls/circles
Also to protect unattended objects
-Interactions w/ Runestone in some way or form, from a minor perk using them normally to holding one for extra effect. (Maybe to increase range?) There should be something.
-Rune effects similar to what Rune Giants do! A must IMO, even if at highest levels/lower effects.
-Way to max out one's personal runes or make better use of runes than others, i.e. being able to mirror one's best rune onto a secondary weapon. Or more abilities to swap rune types like the one in the playtest for changing energy type.
-More options to Invoke, especially if tied to Strikes
Ex. A Reaction like Reactive Strike vs. enemies with your Runes on them, Invoke w/ crit.
Or a feat w/ Strike and if you hit the Invoke effects enemies in a cone or adjacent to target. Kind of a like Whirlwind or Pulverizing Wake for Runesmiths.
-Some sort of polearm love, mainly thinking of Shelyn here. I.E. being able to Trace w/ it at Reach and w/ no free hand, no Reactions.
-Invoke as a Sustain action, keeping the Rune active longer (yes, at the cost to base damage)
-Health & Curse Runes, much like their main use in history
-Runic Stance: Where one draws a Rune underneath themself as a martial or defensive boost at the cost of mobility. Alternately, could resemble Shield Block for non-martial Runesmiths (or both, and resemble the current shield feats, but it'd free up the hand for Trace.)
-Ability to Invoke Rune as a Reaction when ally throws it/hits opponent w/ weapon w/ Rune.
-Timed Runes
-Ability to lay out Runes to camp, i.e. a ring of stones that share an Etched Rune that triggers
Specific Runes
-Spell Storing (Etched), maybe even ability for Runesmith to emulate a spell. (That 20th level feat comes on way too late, understandably, but w/o only Etch, maybe with usage limits, Runes w/ spells should be manageable earlier.)
-Luring (maybe even w/ broader Exploration effect for hunting/Survival)
-Trap/cage; maybe w/ multiple stones around them?
-Adaptable protection
-Rune on ground to teleport back to with linked Rune
-Similar Rune more for in-combat where you can link two squares (one at a time when adjacent)
-Lodestone, encumbering enemy
-Emulate Fundamental Runes, as worthy of a secondary weapon, so not at peak of curve
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I'm going to add onto the specific runes bit real quick:
A rune with ongoing damage that scales better than the thunder rune's passive DoT. The scaling on Ranshu's DoT is silly unless it's actually intended for using an etched rune being transposed before running and letting someone just fry for the entire day. Since traced runes only last until the end of the runesmith's next turn, and the damage is on the target creature's turn if they fail to move... in actual play it's "target takes a single instance of 1d4 (+1/odd level past 1) if they don't use any method to move on their turn. It's very little damage (6.5 average at level 10) for a delay on invoking it... that isn't even guaranteed unless a creature is grappled or otherwise immobilized. And it can't stack with itself, so no using tracing trance to apply 4 copies and seeing the enemy take 4d4+16 (26 average damage at level 10) before you invoke for the full burst. I'd like one that instead triggered every time a creature DID move, or one that caused retaliatory damage when they make a strike, even as a reaction. Things that encourage an enemy to do less on their turn or take more damage themselves.
A rune that inflicts vulnerability to element instead of reducing resistance alone with its passive effect. The passive effect of Atryl doesn't come up as often as it should, since if a creature isn't resistant to fire, it does nothing... and if it's immune to fire, it does nothing. The only thing it helps with is when a creature resists fire some. The amount is actually pretty fair, mostly ignoring any resistance you'll see at level 1, and ignoring 15 points of resistance at level 20 when most resistances that aren't immunity are 15-22. But if it was "add vulnerability" of "remove resistance", it would come up on all creatures that didn't have immunity. I wouldn't even mind if the initial value of 6 was reduced to 3 in that case, so that at level 20 it would be +12 damage for fire attacks on any creature with the rune on them.
More runes for buffing allies. Temp HP runes, runes that can be expended to give a re-rolled saving throw with the bearer's reaction... though those could fall under adaptable protections, I guess. Also, a rune that could be invoked to quicken an ally on their next turn with a passive of increasing move speed. Maybe a rune with a passive that grants +1 to attacks against off-guard enemies, and when invoked causes all enemies to count as off-guard against the bearer until the end of their next turn.
For something that could be a rune or other things:
Some option to extend durations of traced runes in combat outside of the etched runes: Maybe a Diacritic rune that causes a traced rune it connects to have its duration bumped up to a minute. Maybe a feat to change it for all runes you trace to last 1 minute or until invoked (possibly only when traced from a space prepared similar to define the canvas and henge gate.) Or maybe even just in general. See my earlier mention of the ongoing damage passive only having the ability to trigger a single time for any rune you trace, while etched runes end up with unlimited duration DoT cheese to kill anything not resistant to lightning. Maybe in exchange for having some ability to have traced runes last long enough to matter if you don't invoke them, we could have etched runes lose their passive effects when not within say... 200 feet of the runesmith to reduce cheese. I don't know.
Ways to let the runesmith be more interactive with the environment if you want to play them more as a mage than a magical martial:
The wards and stance options above are a good start on that. But say you can put runes on the ground that count whoever is standing in their space as the runebearer. An option to connect multiple runes to cause any creatures in the area of effect they outline all count as runebearers to all those runes. Things that allow prep time before a battle to let you make dangerous traps you can lure enemies into, or fortified positions for your party to fight from with strong advantages until the enemies close the distance.
I'd like a "create a spell" mechanic.
Break down every single aspect of spells, such as...
* area of effect
* damage type
* damage amount
* damage die
* duration
* defense
* bonus/penalty to saves
* bonus/penalty to AC
* bonus/penalty to skills
* heightening
* component
* etc
... into "rune syllables", and let the Runesmith writes and speaks out custom words with those runes.
Of course, stronger runes/effects would require a higher level, the Runesmith would have a limit of runes per word that grows, all the good stuff.
HUGE endeavor, but HUGE payoff with what players could come up with :p
I'd like a "create a spell" mechanic.
Break down every single aspect of spells, such as...
* area of effect
* damage type
* damage amount
* damage die
* duration
* defense
* bonus/penalty to saves
* bonus/penalty to AC
* bonus/penalty to skills
* heightening
* component
* etc... into "rune syllables", and let the Runesmith writes and speaks out custom words with those runes.
Of course, stronger runes/effects would require a higher level, the Runesmith would have a limit of runes per word that grows, all the good stuff.
HUGE endeavor, but HUGE payoff with what players could come up with :p
You're suggesting basing runes on the words of power alternate rules from Pf1e (like I suggested on another thread earlier). So we technically already do have a base to work from if we wanted to do that.
https://aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=1016
Here's a link to some of the 1e ruleset.
Well, that's the thing: it's P1E, not P2E... and it wasn't expanded as intended, since Ultimate Magic had to be trimmed down.
The Runesmith is the perfect class, with the perfect time to reintroduce that rule and properly make it viable.
Well, that's the thing: it's P1E, not P2E... and it wasn't expanded as intended, since Ultimate Magic had to be trimmed down.
The Runesmith is the perfect class, with the perfect time to reintroduce that rule and properly make it viable.
Oh, I agree fully. It's just a completely different direction than they built the class so far for the playtest, so no matter how much I wish they'd go this route, I seriously doubt they will.
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Oh, I agree fully. It's just a completely different direction than they built the class so far for the playtest, so no matter how much I wish they'd go this route, I seriously doubt they will.Well, that's the thing: it's P1E, not P2E... and it wasn't expanded as intended, since Ultimate Magic had to be trimmed down.
The Runesmith is the perfect class, with the perfect time to reintroduce that rule and properly make it viable.
That's a huge endeavor indeed... that would work in a later book AFTER the Runesmith was published though :)