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While I won't be posting an idea for every single ancestry like I did for a certain other class, we did get a Runesmith preview that goes over every new feat and (presumably) every new rune, although you may wish to cross-reference the playtest version and keep in mind that it seems like invoking runes now only triggers two at a time, not unlimited.
What Runesmith characters are you thinking about playing, or at least keeping around in your back pocket until a suitable game comes along?
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First off, we have the most obvious and natural choice for a Runesmith that was the first thing to come to everyone's mind: a kobold magical trapsmith. You've already got intelligence and Crafting, so it's pretty natural. The big thing that makes this work is the new Smithing Weapons feat that allows you to skip artisan's tools, leaving you with only the two bulk of the snare kits. You're still leaving a hand free, but hey, it's a cool thematic choice. I do wish Runesmith had some sort of runic trap option (okay, there's Runic Reprisal to trap your shield, but we don't have the hands and/or toolkit bulk to use that). We'll settle for the next best thing- MARSSYL, RUNE OF IMPACT to shove our enemies into snares, and Lyskel, Rune of Frost to give an enemy clumsy 1 when they move. Invisible Ink lets us hide our runes, so it's a nice addition. Seek the Hidden Glyphs would be good, but we can't fit artisan tools alongside our snare kit, so it's not really worth taking unless we can find a way to combine them.
In the playtest, I played a Bloodborne oneshot as Cerise, an old elven character of mine inspired by Ruby Quest. Adding "Bloodborne" to her theme pushed her to add more of a linguistics bent to her. She had a tattoo of ICHELSU, RUNE OF OBSERVATION for thematic reasons and used a custom hook weapon. We'll go ahead and reflavor a pick as her signature hand-held hook and leave a hand free for adventuring stuff. We've got Tilus, Rune of Vocabulary, a Society skill boost rune with a language ability- which is perfect for her Bloodborne build's Linguist archetype. Elf gives us flexible daily lore skills and languages, pairing nicely.
I've had a concept for the Bastion of Blasphemies AP for a while: death warden dwarf runesmith with the Rivethun invoker archetype. I'll have to check on what should be revised when I can review my copy of Impossible Magic.
The Once-Posessed background from the Bastion of Blasphemies Player's Guide made me thing of one. A human archaeology professor at Lepidstadt who once specialized in ancient Thassilon before it stopped being archaeology and started being current events, after he spent several years posessed by an Invidiak/Envy Demon his obsession with Thassilonian Rune Magic was reinvigorated, centering on the Cutting Eye, rune of Envy and how it might relate to the sin of the demon. Never having a talent for spellcasting, his focus on Runes eventually developed into a magic all its own, and his adjacent study of Demons and fiends more generally has attracted the attention of Florin Kindler.
I also think there's some fun overlap with the Tattoed Historian archetype from the Triumph of the Tusk AP, especially since the archetype encourages reflavoring it for other cultural roots. A Hold-Scarred Orc who writes the history of their people on their enemies, or a Pirate covered with nautical tattoos that seethe with runic power.
When I run a playtest character in my game, I try to have the character reappear later updated to the final published version. Summoner Cirieo Thessaddin was playtested in Fangs of War, and reappeared in the next module Assault on Longshadow. Inventor Arkus was playtested in Assault on Longshadow and reappeared in the next module Siege of Stone. The next module Prisoners of the Blight featured a playtest of kineticist Collin but the campaign ended before he could return. My players have made two kineticist PCs since then. A Fistful of Flowers featured two playtest characters: animist Sunshine and exemplar Nightshade, and both visited the Magaambya Academy as exchange students when I added Pathfinder Quest (Series 2) #18: Student Exchange to my Strength of Thousands campaign.
My playtest runesmith was Nantambu Chime-Ringer Virgil Tibbs in the 2nd module Spoken in the Song Wind. The Chime-Ringers are the local police force of Nantambu. I actually had a Chime-Ringer show up in last week's game session, but I used Chime-Ringer Cariol Horne rather than Virgil Tibbs, because I am leaving Virgil aside until the upgrade to the published version. Alas, by the time the Impossible Magic PDF is available in late August, the party will be far away in Mzali in the 4th module Secrets of the Temple-City. They won't be back in Nantambu until the 5th module Doorway to the Red Star. Virgil's return will require a long wait. Doorway to the Red Star has the PCs serving as teachers at the Magaambya for a semester before embarking on an expedition to the Red Star AKA Akiton, Paizo's Barsoom-like version of Mars. The party will investigate some student pranks that inspired a theft, so Virgil Tibbs can get involved.
Sixth-level human Virgil was built as a melee combatant with expert Athletics. If he lacked time to trace and invoke a rune, he would attack with a +1 striking shield boss, because he needed a hand free for Tracing Runes and carried a shield for Holtrik, Rune of Dwarven Ramparts. The new Smithing Weapons feat (thank you, QuidEst, for providing a link to a preview) will let him put a hammer or knife in his non-shield hand and give up the shield boss. I could have him take Engraving Maneuver because a warhammer has Shove, a kukri has Trip, and a Sai has disarm. Too bad no hammer or knife has two of the three traits, so he will have to swap weapons occasionally. The other changes in Virgil would be bumping him up to 7th level and removing a lot of houserules I had invented to make him playable after the playtest. The playtest runesmith class was too slow for street combat.
Thinking back to all my playtest characters, I realized that though I have created stat blocks for about two dozen NPCs, I have not used any of the classes that were playtested in my games. I have had summoners and kineticists attending the Magaambya Academy, and an animist just enrolled as a new student, but they are fellow students with names and backstories but no stats. I stick with more familiar classes such as champions, druids, rogues, sorcerers, and wizards for full builds. The only exception was statting out their dorm-mate Ignaci Canterells for a field trip as a thaumaturge, but that is because the module said he was a thaumaturge.
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At 9th level you get the gravity rune to provide status maneuver bonus and Titan Wrestler benefits, use with the 6th level feat to free trace a rune after a successful maneuver. At melee range your routine is trip/grapple (free trace on success), trace, invoke. If you fail your maneuver you can invoke a traced rune to make up the difference.
Melee defender: put Holtrik (shield) and Massyl (impact) on a melee ally, and when they’re hard pressed invoke with Vital Compound Invocation to (1) heal, (2) raise their shield for them, and (3) possibly give knockback to their next strike.
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HP damage endurance: etch the leeching rune on your weapon and an ally’s, etch the partnership rune on them, take the healing invocation feat. Both of you generate THP on a hit, you share their damage, you can invoke (partnership or otherwise) for extra feat healing.
Also works with the runesmith as a ranged backliner, take the strike and trace on someone in your ammo path feat, run shield runes on n your partner instead of leeching on yourself.
Q: How can a melee spellcaster survive?
A: Partner with a 9th level runesmith.
I've made some tables showing all of the weapons that work with the Smithing Weapons feat.
I thought I'd post the link here for the convenience of other people who are exploring this class.
It's a Google Doc so it might not display properly in all browsers. It should look fine in an app designed for Google Docs. :)
A few observations:
• The highest damage options are the Maul, Greatpick, and Ogre Hook. None of those are reach weapons. (Although you could add that with Jotun's Battle Stance if you are Jotunborn.)
• The Long Hammer and Kusarigama are the only two reach options.
• The Chakram, Light Hammer, and Starknife are the highest damage thrown weapons with the Chakram being the only Smithing Weapon that is purely ranged.
• The highest damage finesse weapons are the Flyssa, Kukri, Bladed Hoop, Piranha Kiss, and Lion Scythe with the Flyssa being the only common option.
• With a Bayonet attached to a crossbow or firearm you could wield that ranged weapon and the melee Bayonet simultaneously while still being able to trace runes using that Bayonet. (So with a hand crossbow and bayonet combo, you could trace runes and use Remote Activation with the same hand.)
• There are four combination weapons that, I think, could only be used to trace if they were in 'melee mode.' The Hammer Gun and Gnome Amalgam Musket are the heavy hitters here.
You can etch the elemental damaging runes on objects, so you can put them on some random stones or whatever tied to your belt.
Then take the Transpose Etching feat at level 4, which lets you move an etched (or traced, but why) rune to a new target within 30' feat.
This solves your early ranged blasting action economy issues if you're willing to devote etched runes to this: 1a transpose one etched blasting rune, 1a transpose a different one, 1a invoke both. You didn't have to move closer or do 2a traces.
The downside is that this eats up etch slots you could have used for party buffs or utility, which I would often say are a better use of your resources.
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Reiterating a concept I came up with during the playtest:
A goblin graffiti artist who enjoys tagging hard to reach or high spaces with her crude, loud and colorful runes, rationalizing that since runes are pictures as much as they are letters they don't steal the words out of your head the way regular reading does. She also makes good use of the Rune Singer feat line, reflecting the traditional goblin love of songs. Though that doesn't stop her from slinging paint at her foes as she sings. Making a mess is part of the fun after all! >:)
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I'm thinking about the Rune-Singer feat line, and also about how broad Performance can be, like, as a skill. How about a gnome with a special interest in poetry, whose runes are traced and invoked in spoken verse rather than song. Maybe a wellspring gnome, whose magic is linked to some old Azlanti runes? (Using Performance instead of Crafting for runes and regarding it like how some fluent English speakers know grammar rules on, like, a vibes basis? "Why did you add a Holtrik to this array? That's not how I was taught." "Oh, it feels like it needs one there!" "What.")
This is partly an excuse to come up with a bunch of different poetic traditions (draconic abecedarii, Rahadoum mathwani, Absalomian sonnets, etc) for a fantasy setting, but I think it'd make a fun character anyway.
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Speaking of different cultural traditions, the flavor's focus on the Written Word prompts a lot of ideas drawing from different real-world writing traditions (after all, writing was only independantly invented three or four times in human history).
A Po Li scribe using Tien characters, someone with the Mummy archetype carving Osiriani Hieroglyphs, a central Arcadian character with quasi-Maya glyphs.
Let alone making up fantasy writing systems! I don't believe I've ever seen a chart outlining what scripts are used by what languages. Is there a particular twisted gothic writing system for Diabolic? Is Draconic script derived from a Rune Dragon's scales? Is Shadowtongue scribed in the interplay of light and dark on the page?
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There are so many different ways to build with this class, that it's taking me a long time for me to explore them. :)
I thought I'd mention the Earthbreaker as a nice Smithing Weapon choice since I hadn't noticed it when I made my previous list of interesting options.
It provides some nice flexibility since it works with both the strong offensive mode of a two-hand d10 weapon, but also can be used as a one-hand d6 weapon with a shield in the other hand for a more defensive posture.
And as a bludgeoning weapon with versatile piercing, it can hold both the Marssyl and Esvadir runes so you could switch the damage type to take advantage of either.
I don't consider halflings for characters often, but my Runesmith engineer post feels like it fits. Probably Gutsy Halfling with the luck line of feats. For class feats, probably things that expand what you can do with runes and crafting as much as possible, so things like Seek the Hidden Glyphs or Rune Ward.
Checking through the various ancestry crafting-related feats, I did see a few actually get distinct styles of crafting.
A goblin Runesmith who combines Junk Tinker with Runesmith's Magical Crafting and eventually Assured Runic Crafter to make "junk" runes. (It's not actually a useful combo; you're only saving 1% of the item's cost.)
An anadi Runesmith with Web Weaver who weaves runes. You'll need expert Crafting to make the feat do much under the new crafting rules, but that's fine.
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Hey folks! I haven’t put much time into the Runesmith yet, but one of my group has asked for help building Alexander Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist as one.
This would amount to a strength based, melee focused, Runesmith who primarily uses Spiked Gauntlet’s as their weapon of choice, but with a heavy flair towards the artistic.
I’m thinking they most likely want to add the wrestler archetype here as well, since we play with FA.
As far as particular runes or rune combos go, I’m a little out of the loop.
Are there any particular ones they should focus on? Any rune combos they should know about?
Thanks in advance folks!
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I'm not familiar with the series or character, but if you're using a spiked gauntlet for runes you want to etch on whetstones at level 1 (passively add bleed to your strikes, invoke for a d8 per "rank" slashing blast against someone adjacent).
At level 5 you can enhance this with the En-diacritic, which will invoke it in a 15' emanation around you (not friendly fire!).
At level 9 there are two good ones you want. The gravity rune etched on armor gives you a permanent +1-3 status bonus to all manuevers and the effects of titan wrestler on big opponents, invoking it pulls everyone within 15' to come 5' closer on a failed save. The other good one is the rune of leaching: passively etching it gives your punches void damage and generates THP, invoking it creates a 30' cone AOE attack and heals you if anyone is hurt.
I don't know if any of the rest particularly match your desired playstyle or the character. I like the forlorn sorry rune, it makes any enemy approaching you suffer difficult terrain if they get closer than 20'. You can invoke for save or slow 1/2 for 1 round. There's also the rune of observation, which in addition to letting you see invisibile stuff gives all-around vision and prevents you from being flanked, invoke to reduce invsibility/concealment near you for 2 rounds.
Finally Germatria, the rune of partnership is one of the most powerful because it allows infinitely healing. Passive is that you share HP damage suffered by whoever you put it on, invoke it to heal you both (starts at 20 HP each, scales up to 45 HP each).
If you were using a trip/disarm/shove weapon instead of gauntlets I'd suggest the 6th level Engraving Manuever feat, which for 1a gives you one of those manuevers and then if it hits a free trace action. But gauntlets aren't compatible.
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a young woman from a dully Andoran village who thanks to magical shenanigans has been transported into one of the towns surrounding Nex's Fleshforges, where the magical run-off has essentially turned everyone into sorcerers. This young woman has always dreamed of learning magic and while she is taken in by an outlaw Witch and her Celestial familiar, she has much to learn. casting aside the old tropes from the stories and plays she watches and giving up the notion of being a chosen one, she chooses herself and learns magic by studying the natural world and discovering the naturally occuring runes.
I'm getting into a Fists of the Ruby Phoenix game shortly. I've already put together a Dwarven Rune-Singer build with an emphasis on shielding. We're using Free Archtype so I'm picking up Guardian and then Exemplar for Mirrored Aegis. Gonna be a constant source of +2 AC for nearby allies while singing harm onto my enemies. I will be the rock upon which my team can rely.
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Question, does using an action with the holy or unholy tag lean you into those camps?
I was just reading the runes and saw the those two, and wondered about a Runesmith who was essentially able to invoke holy and unholy power without taking a side.
Sort of? You can use holy and unholy options without be sanctified yourself (e.g. Holy Light and Chilling Darkness). However, casting unholy spells is almost always anathema to holy clerics and champions (and vice versa), so it is... not something you want to get into a habit of doing.
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I was thinking as an entirely unsanctified Runesmith, no archetypes to grant sanctification, and thus lacking anathema against them. Such as a Runesmith from Rahadoum who has been studying how to invoke Divine power WITHOUT working with a deity or deity adjacent being. an ultimate middle finger to Divine power.
the very ability to invoke this power does not get him favorably looked upon in Rahadoum, suspicious that he is working with a deity, and thus he has left home on adventure.
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Question, does using an action with the holy or unholy tag lean you into those camps?
I was just reading the runes and saw the those two, and wondered about a Runesmith who was essentially able to invoke holy and unholy power without taking a side.
Pharasma's probably going to weigh use of holy/unholy tools as a factor in where your soul goes, but if you're using both I don't know. The holy rune isn't generally applicable the same way the unholy one is - that persistent fire is better extra damage than the 1st [correction, 5th] level diacritic for flat damage boost. I am tempted to use it, and that's how they get you.
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There are no first level diacritics anymore. the lowest level diacritics are level 5.
The ones I'm referencing a level 13, Inth- (unholy) and Sar-(holy)
Inth- upon invocation does deal 2d6 persistant fire
Sar- upon invocation leaves the target drained one
(both in addition to whatever the base rune did) when the runes are on the target, if the target is the opposite, they are enfeebled 2, and the base rune (and it's damage) gains the holy/unholy trait.
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I meant first tier of them at 5th level. I think of the diacritics as 1st and 2nd groups rather than 5th and 13th levels for some reason.
I'd missed that Sar- inflicts drained 1 on invocation even if used on a Holy creature. "No one is without sin."
Inth- does 2d4 growing up to 8d4 persistent fire, or average 5-20 persistent. That's better than the flat 2+ half level from Ur- as you put on a few levels after you get Inth-.
I think I prefer Clashing Compound Invocation feat to the guaranteed Drained 1 of Sar-, although you can of course do both and apply them to different enemies.
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A PC can already completely cast both Chilling Darkness and Holy Light. Even in the same round with Quickened casting.
So, yes, one is Unholy and thus "Effects with the unholy trait are tied to powerful magical forces of cruelty and sin. They often have stronger effects on holy creatures."
While the other is Holy, so "Effects with the holy trait are tied to powerful magical forces of benevolence and virtue. They often have stronger effects on unholy creatures. "
But here, they are just tools.
Now, a creature having the Holy or Unholy tag is something else entirely.
You don't even need to be a Divine caster. Or to Trick Item scrolls to use these.
A Primal Witch with the Greater Lesson for Shadows can cast both.
Though I feel doing this just to mock Deities is already giving them too much attention / power.
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something else I'm picking up (as I'm thinking of homebrewing a rune)... Runic magic is not clear on when you determine the Tradition of the rune. so if you are trained in all four of the skills could you trace a rune on one person as Divine, another as Primal, and on another as Arcane?
You determine the tradition (if it has the magical trait, which can be replaced with a tradition) when you trace/etch it.
Wait, I do actually love the idea of a Runesmith as an everyman craftsman who got dragged into using their very utilitarian skill for violence. I adore those sorts of accidental hero characters that can be hard to justify in a game where the rules center on being an awesome adventurer -- it's one of the reasons Unexpected Sharpshooter is among my favorite archetypes, which I'm now realizing you could combine with precisely this model of the Runesmith for the ultimate "How does this work? BLAM!" character.
Wait a second… Halfling, Titan Slinger, Marssyl rune of impact, Remote Detonation, and Pattern Flight… Aw yeah. It's all coming together.