Hi folks, for my game Dwarves use a lot of runic magic, particularly based on putting it on their arms and armor. A Dwarven Runesmith tends to be a fairly scary combatant as they have great arms and armor modified by magic. They also call upon the power of runes to straight up smite the enemies with lightning etc.
I was looking at using the Bladesinger as a chassis for this style of PC. Making a Mountain Dwarf it is pretty easy to do, you can get platemail with a feat and use Str based weapons. Sure I could make armor part of the class, but that just takes a little more balancing and its the mountain wharves that use this style of magic anyway, so I'm being lazy.The issue with this, is that it entirely negates the Bladesong feature, which is quiet core to the class. (You cannot use it while wearing decent armor).
I'm unsure how to houserule a medium/heavy armored variation of this. The +int to AC is particularly problematic to balance.
Features include:
Int to AC (problematic with a higher base AC)
Speed bonus (not appropriate)
Bonus to Acro (really not appropriate)
Concentration bonus (very appropriate)
I was thinking of doing the following swaps:
Speed Bonus = Advantage to avoid all forced movement (Seems rather Dwarven, fits with the Runesmiths roll in Warhammer style Ironbreaker units)
Bonus to Acro = Adv vs Fear (Iron Without, Iron Within is a common motto of the Runesmiths, open to suggestions though. I figure acro and fear probably come up about as often as each other in combat)
What about the Int to AC though? That's a tricky one, as they are designed to have extremely high AC during Bladesong, but not Plate + Int high?
One feature I would like to include is them not being so restricted by using 1 handed weapons, as a Runestaff and Greathammer are both rather iconic. So this advantage should maybe taken into account when deciding on what to do with the Int to AC issue, or balanced in some other way.
Any suggestions on how to balance this? Do the suggested swaps seem reasonable?
I was looking at using the Bladesinger as a chassis for this style of PC. Making a Mountain Dwarf it is pretty easy to do, you can get platemail with a feat and use Str based weapons. Sure I could make armor part of the class, but that just takes a little more balancing and its the mountain wharves that use this style of magic anyway, so I'm being lazy.The issue with this, is that it entirely negates the Bladesong feature, which is quiet core to the class. (You cannot use it while wearing decent armor).
I'm unsure how to houserule a medium/heavy armored variation of this. The +int to AC is particularly problematic to balance.
Features include:
Int to AC (problematic with a higher base AC)
Speed bonus (not appropriate)
Bonus to Acro (really not appropriate)
Concentration bonus (very appropriate)
I was thinking of doing the following swaps:
Speed Bonus = Advantage to avoid all forced movement (Seems rather Dwarven, fits with the Runesmiths roll in Warhammer style Ironbreaker units)
Bonus to Acro = Adv vs Fear (Iron Without, Iron Within is a common motto of the Runesmiths, open to suggestions though. I figure acro and fear probably come up about as often as each other in combat)
What about the Int to AC though? That's a tricky one, as they are designed to have extremely high AC during Bladesong, but not Plate + Int high?
One feature I would like to include is them not being so restricted by using 1 handed weapons, as a Runestaff and Greathammer are both rather iconic. So this advantage should maybe taken into account when deciding on what to do with the Int to AC issue, or balanced in some other way.
Any suggestions on how to balance this? Do the suggested swaps seem reasonable?
