D&D General what on gygax's grey oerth is rune priest?

[Mind of tempest]

it came up in one of the other threads as a mentioned in passing what is a rune priest aside from likely being dwarven?

 

[Kilimanjaro]

It was a base class in 4th Edition.

 

[Mecheon]

In 4E it functioned as a Divine Leader, so it fills a similar niche to cleric. Uses runes rather than worshipping the divine, the general idea being more of a 'seeking lost knowledge' type of caster so also fits the wizard-ish side of things. The runes in question were symbols left by the divines, so by understanding them you'd get powers

Basically just a variant cleric these days.

 

[Mind of tempest]

It was a base class in 4th Edition.

going to need more to work from?

In 4E it functioned as a Divine Leader, so it fills a similar niche to cleric. Uses runes rather than worshipping the divine, the general idea being more of a 'seeking lost knowledge' type of caster so also fits the wizard-ish side of things. The runes in question were symbols left by the divines, so by understanding them you'd get powers

Basically just a variant cleric these days.

that sounds less like a divine thing and more like some sort of dwarf wizard artificer thing.

 

[Kilimanjaro]

Runepriest

Runepriest is a divine leader class in 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons.[PH3:98] A 1st-level runepriest begins with hit points equal to 12 plus the runepriest's Constitution score, healing surges per day equal to 7 plus the runepriest's Constitution modifier, and a +2 bonus to Will defense. A...

dnd4.fandom.com

 

[cbwjm]

going to need more to work from?

that sounds less like a divine thing and more like some sort of dwarf wizard artificer thing.

Like you, i often felt like runes had more to do with arcane magic, but runes in DnD have often been the province of the Divine, there were divine prestige classes in 3e dealing with runes, dwarves would have fit well in the class. If not the Divine then they were linked with giants.

 

[Shardstone]

Runes are divine IRL because they come from Odin.

 

[Kilimanjaro]

There was a rune caster class in 2nd edition that was also a divine class. I think runes are considered divine while sigils and glyphs are arcane. It does seem arbitrary.

 

[Staffan]

Like you, i often felt like runes had more to do with arcane magic, but runes in DnD have often been the province of the Divine, there were divine prestige classes in 3e dealing with runes, dwarves would have fit well in the class. If not the Divine then they were linked with giants.

It probably goes something like this: runes are a thing associated with dwarves. Dwarves in old-school D&D do not deal with wizard/arcane magic, but do have clerics. Therefore, runes have to be a cleric thing.

 

[Staffan]

Runes are divine IRL because they come from Odin.

That's... debatable. Odin was hanged from a tree in a quest to learn/find runes – they were secret knowledge (that is, something arcane) that Odin had to go quest for. But hanging from the world tree was Odin sacrificing himself to himself, which is really weird. So... I guess?

Wounded I hung on a wind-swept gallows
For nine long nights,
Pierced by a spear, pledged to Odhinn,
Offered, myself to myself
The wisest know not from whence spring
The roots of that ancient rood

They gave me no bread,
They gave me no mead,
I looked down;
with a loud cry
I took up runes;
from that tree I fell.

Nine lays of power
I learned from the famous Bolthor, Bestla' s father:
He poured me a draught of precious mead,
Mixed with magic Odrerir.

Waxed and throve well;
Word from word gave words to me,
Deed from deed gave deeds to me,

Runes you will find, and readable staves,
Very strong staves,
Very stout staves,
Staves that Bolthor stained,
Made by mighty powers,
Graven by the prophetic god,