D&D 5E Balancing the Rune Knight

[Gadget]

The Rune Knight might be a little fussy and need a few balance tweaks, but it doesn't have a patch on the broken subclasses from Unearthed Arcana of yesteryear like the loremaster. The subclasses on UA in the past eight or nine months or so have been much better, probably because they are generally not as ambitious as the Mystic was back in the day.

Of course, that does not mean the Rune Knight is fine tuned balance wise, UA subclasses tend to be front loaded, as balancing for multi-classing is not really taken into account, and some of the mechanics need to be smoothed out. I would probably restrict multi-classing with the RK, especially "cherry-picking," but I don't see it as too out of line or as "out there" as the original mystic was. That said, I haven't seen it played, so ymmv.

 

[NotAYakk]

Haug (Hill Rune) - this is huge and strong. Drop the duration of resistance to 1 round, and let you use it twice/short rest. Or we can change it to once/long rest.
Uvar (Storm Rune) - also looks strong.

Maybe switch those two runes to be long-rest dependent.

Giant Might is 2/long rest. Maybe drop it to 1/long rest until level 7.

Now that is just gut feel, but the "save or suck" runes, or the redirect-one-attack runes, don't feel as strong as those two. The +2 strength one is also pretty solid, but I am less scared of that than resist all non-spell attacks.

You could also move those runes to requiring level 7 before you pick them.

 

[Hurin70]

Sounds like you got your future BBEG!

That's a pretty great idea!

 

[Hurin70]

Haug (Hill Rune) - this is huge and strong. Drop the duration of resistance to 1 round, and let you use it twice/short rest. Or we can change it to once/long rest.
Uvar (Storm Rune) - also looks strong.

Maybe switch those two runes to be long-rest dependent.

Giant Might is 2/long rest. Maybe drop it to 1/long rest until level 7.

Now that is just gut feel, but the "save or suck" runes, or the redirect-one-attack runes, don't feel as strong as those two. The +2 strength one is also pretty solid, but I am less scared of that than resist all non-spell attacks.

Yes, the Hill Rune and Storm Rune seem to be the main worries of people who feel the RK is too strong. Those and just the sheer amount of goodies the RK gets.

 

[Iry]

Hill isn't a big deal unless you have a Barbarian in the party (they might feel upset about it).

The real power is Storm and Defensive Runes. There are very few abilities that give enemies disadvantage on saves, much less every round for a minute. So you can reduce Storm to 1/Long Rest (2 at 15th Level).

 

[Hurin70]

Am I right to assume that the active property of the Cloud Rune (Skye, the one that deflects an attack to another target) takes effect without a save -- i.e. there is no save involved in the use of this Rune? That seems quite good to me too. Especially since it seems (again correct me if I am wrong) it can target a melee attack, but transfer it like a ranged attack (30 feet away). So the dragon bites the party wizard, but the RK negates that damage and transfers it to one of the dragon's orc minions, killing him with no save and leaving the wizard untouched?

 

[NotAYakk]

Hill isn't a big deal unless you have a Barbarian in the party (they might feel upset about it).

1/2 weapon damage 1/short rest is pretty huge.

The real power is Storm and Defensive Runes. There are very few abilities that give enemies disadvantage on saves, much less every round for a minute. So you can reduce Storm to 1/Long Rest (2 at 15th Level).

Yes, storm is trong.

Defensive rune, as an at-will ability, is nice. It becomes quite nice if the DM tells you their attack rolls, because you won't waste it. It does require buffing INT, which is otherwise costly on a Fighter, but the yield is great -- at-will almost-shield you can cast on other people.

Am I right to assume that the active property of the Cloud Rune (Skye, the one that deflects an attack to another target) takes effect without a save -- i.e. there is no save involved in the use of this Rune? That seems quite good to me too. Especially since it seems (again correct me if I am wrong) it can target a melee attack, but transfer it like a ranged attack (30 feet away). So the dragon bites the party wizard, but the RK negates that damage and transfers it to one of the dragon's orc minions, killing him with no save and leaving the wizard untouched?

Yes. But unlike the more problematic ones, it is a one-shot per short rest.

It is strong on "bruiser" monsters, who have big attack damage attacks, so long as their are other monsters to redirect the damage to (or a player who can soak damage better, say someone with a hill rune and resist to damage). On "knight" type monsters (who have many attacks for less damage) it is less effective.

The other less problematic ones are "save or suck", but if the save is passed, better luck after a nap.

 

[Hurin70]

Thanks NotAYakk.

The Cloud Rune does still seem quite powerful to me, if we think that once per short rest means probably something like 3 times per long rest. Conditions apply, of course, and the passives of the Cloud Rune seem relatively weak, but you get to wait to see if the attack hits before deciding to use the active ability.

I think possible ways of toning it down (here I'm trying to give feedback for the subclass) would include any of the following:
--Restricting it to once per long rest.
--Allowing it to refresh on a short rest but requiring a WIS or INT save (brutes, who are the prime target for the ability, tend to have lower intelligence anyway).

 

[Iry]

1/2 weapon damage 1/short rest is pretty huge.

It doesn't disrupt the flow of the game any more than a Barbarian does. It feels great for the player, but it can't derail things the way more esoteric abilities can.

 

[jmartkdr2]

I've played a rune knight myself - it's pretty good but not any crazier than other good fighter or barbarian subclasses.

I could see slowing down the number of total rune activations (you still know 2-5, but can only use 1-4?), but I'd be more likely to keep that as a back-pocket option if the character is too good in actual play.

You could level lock Uvar, Skye, and maybe Ild (those are the higher-tier giants anyways), but I'd leave the rest. I could see why you'd want to restrict Haug, but I wouldn't want to make the weakest giant's rune hard to get. If you're sure resistance is too much, you could switch it to a bunch of temp hp (2 or 3 per fighter level?) which would be a lot less powerful but still feel pretty cool and thematic.