In this update of Paths of Magic, we discuss how rune magic is being brought to the masses! If you read our first post on rune magic, you know that one of the goals of Paths of Magic is expanding the rune magic system to work with more characters. Let’s find out how.
Negation, by Kendal Gates
Rune magic works…fairly close to existing spells as-is. Many of their effects are similar (if not outright identical), but with the addition of the “runic charge” system. There’s also the issue that runic casters don’t have spell slots in the traditional sense; they instead can cast each script they have prepared a certain number of times based on their level. This means that there needed to be a conversion between existing caster’s capabilities and rune magic.
To do this, there are now three “types” of runic scribes: major, intermediate, and lesser. These are the equivalent of your “full caster”, “half caster” and “third caster” that normal spellcasters are often called. For example, the arcanist, cleric, druid, oracle, psychic, shaman, sorcerer, witch, and wizard are all “major” scribes and can cast scripts of up to 9th level. Your scribe type also determines how many runic scripts you can cast of a particular level, how many casts you have for each script you prepare, and how many runic charges you can accumulate.
Each existing class has been given a script list for that class. The archivist from Path of Iron still gets to use all 180 of the runic scripts in the game (making it arguably the most flexible runic scribe), while other classes get a subset that keeps a similar vibe to their initial spell lists. Clerics get primarily supportive scripts, while the magus is mostly offensive scripts, to name some examples.
While this makes a decent baseline, there’s a lot of class mechanics that would get lost in the transition, such as bloodline spells for sorcerers or spontaneously casting cure spells as a cleric. So, I added in rules to cover as many scenarios as possible. To start, there are some “generic” rules for classes, which are summarized as:
If a class gains additional spells known from a class feature (such as a sorcerer bloodline or witch patron), they still learn those spells. They may cast a spell learned this way by spending a casting of a runic script of the same level or higher.
If a class has a feature that grants additional spell slots for specific spells (such as a cleric’s domain slots), they still gain those spell slots at the appropriate levels, but not any other spell slots from their base class.
If a class has the ability to spontaneously convert a prepared spell into another spell (such as a druid casting summon nature’s ally) they can spontaneously cast that spell by spending a casting of a runic script of the same level or higher.
The DCs and effects of spells gained from any of these features are resolved as if the character could cast spells normally (i.e. 10 + the spell’s level + the character’s ability score they use to cast scripts).
In addition, there are some class-specific conversion rules. For example, clerics gain a creation runic charge when the spontaneously cast a cure spell, while bloodragers and sorcerers are presented with alternative feats in place of Eschew Materials (since they won’t need it as runic scribes). These broad rules work for the vast majority of case, and should help GMs convert options that don’t have an explicit conversion presented in the book.
However, while this covers the ability to cast rune magic, it doesn’t give much room to grow for those characters. They still need feats and magic items!
The number of feats for rune magic has nearly tripled, going from 13 feats to 35. This includes new metascript feats, feats for the more martially-inclined scribes (such as an equivalent to Arcane Strike), as well as some neat tricks involving specific runic designs and runic charges. The Fluctuating Sigil feat, for example, lets you take a 5-foot step whenever you cast a Manipulation script, while the Runebound Equipment feat improves any items that you’ve scribed your runes upon. There’s also now a feat for Runic Crafting, allowing a runic scribe to use rune magic to fulfill the requirements for typical arcane/divine magic item creation more easily.
Magic items have similarly grown in number. Path of Iron featured a mere two wondrous items, one weapon and some metascript rods. Now, there are multiple new armor properties, weapon properties, unique weapons/armor, rings, more wondrous items, and also the addition of a dozen rune staves. These are made with Craft Staff just like normal staves are, and can be used to cast runic scripts. They generate runic charges and can be overloaded, too, which should make them a big addition to any scribe’s arsenal.
With that, we’ve covered most of the new features of rune magic. From here out, we’ll be speeding up the release schedule of blog posts, starting next week with the creation (and updates) to the archivist for rune magic!