D&D 5E Was the Rune Knight (in Tasha's) "over-nerfed"?

[Ancalagon]

Hello

So it is quite common for Unearthed Arcana sub-classes to be a bit too good, and nerfed a bit when published in an "official" book. And the Rune Knight was too good - the combo of the hill giant rune giving your damage resistance, and the +1d6 dmg to all attacks was just... a little bit much. So a nerf was clearly necessary.

I did like the mechanics and the "flavor" of the subclass a lot. So I hoped it would be published officially. I wondered how it would be nerfed however. Would it be OP (probably not), just right or over-nerfed?

Now that I see the official version I'm a bit... torn. Level-gating the hill giant rune makes sense, but it's a long weight for that subclass feature to kick in. And limiting the extra damage of giant's might to 1d6 per turn, with a slow increase to 1d8 and then 1d10.... it's a bit harsh.

It's clearly still a playable subclass! But... did they go too far?

EDIT: After running a few sessions as a DM with a player who had a level 6 RK - no they did not go too far, the subclass is super good.

edit part deux: I ran a RK in part of SKT (level 7-10) and again, definitely did not overnerf.

 

[Mistwell]

I never read the original and my immediate impression of this version is it's pretty powerful. It competes well to be the most powerful subclass of fighter.

 

[Ancalagon]

I never read the original and my immediate impression of this version is it's pretty powerful. It competes well to be the most powerful subclass of fighter.

Don't forget to consider the bonus-action costs - you need a bonus action to activate the hill giant rune, another for the giant form... it's a bit slow to get going.

One thing I love is that it allows you to make a "magical" fighter without the "formality" of magical education the EK has.

 

[Charlaquin]

Seems fair to me. It’s a very powerful subclass, even after the changes.

 

[Stalker0]

When I first read through tashas, this subclass immediately caught my eye. It seems very powerful, and steals a little thunder from the barbarian.

 

[Don Durito]

Don't forget to consider the bonus-action costs - you need a bonus action to activate the hill giant rune, another for the giant form... it's a bit slow to get going.

One thing I love is that it allows you to make a "magical" fighter without the "formality" of magical education the EK has.

This is the big issue. (Bonus actions remain one the worst design elements of the game.) When I found the UA version I found this aspect of it very awkward in play. It's really unsatisying to be trying to use them both. Especially as there's a good chance you have some kind of feat that wants to use your bonus action. It's actually somewhat annoying that Giant's Might is a central feature rather than a rune as it means should you want the resistance you end up with two different features you effectively need to choose between. But that's the nature of subclasses - they tend to bake in features whether you want them or not, instead of giving you a range of choices. This one is better than most in that it least it gives you a choice of runes.

To me the biggest bonus about this class is that it gives you ways to be genuinely effective in the social sphere.

 

[Charlaquin]

When I first read through tashas, this subclass immediately caught my eye. It seems very powerful, and steals a little thunder from the barbarian.

I still wish it had been a barbarian subclass.

 

[Don Durito]

I just noticed that they changed the saving throw calculation from Int to Con, but they didn't bother to change the advantage on Arcana checks that the Storm rune grants to something that's would actually be useful for the class.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I just noticed that they changed the saving throw calculation from Int to Con, but they didn't bother to change the advantage on Arcana checks that the Storm rune grants to something that's would actually be useful for the class.

Most of the skill affecting runes fall into the category of "not necessarily very useful". You can get boosts to charisma skills, wisdom skills, tools...

What's useful and to what degree is very much dependant on what tertiary attribute you pick.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It's a lot like the changes to booming blade. When they give you a huge 7 course meal (when everyone else is still getting 3 course), and then take part of it away to bring it down to 3 course, it feels like they are making it bad. It's not bad. It's just not as awesome as it was. And if you never got the 7 course meal in the first place but always got the 3 course, then you'd think it's good and not think you got cheated in any way because you never experienced just how too good it was. People are weird like that.