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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gamerprinter" data-source="post: 5259935" data-attributes="member: 50895">Originally Runemaster was just an idea. If one carves a rune to place a spell, you have to carve it into something. Having a big, heavy oak staff that can be used as a weapon, yet having inscribed runes of spells on it is very much like having a big wand. I agree. The wizard's spellbook and the Witch's familiar are also both subject to getting stolen, sundered or in the case of the familiar killed. There are reprecussions to the Wizard or Witch when that happens. Its no different for the Runemaster, except in her case the spells are in a big stick. What if your familiar or spellbook is dispelled? No different, so not an especially great weakness compared to what non-sorcerer arcane spellcasters are subject to anyway. It would be impractical to try and carve a rune into something as a spell cast during combat, the fight would be over and the party TPK'd before she got the first spell off. She might be screwed for the day, if she lives after losing her runestaff, but creating a new one is just a day of work, and she'll need to replace her staff almost weekly, once she gets to 7th level or higher. Perhaps she could have a supply of non-runed staves ready for use, perhaps have her apprentices carve the basic 'empty' staff ahead of time. Regarding what she memorizes from whether its a wood tablet with a pre-carved 'alphabet' of runes, or individual stones with runes carved on them. The morning ritual of memorizing runes then casting them into staves is much more time consuming than what a wizard must do. There's probably a two to four hour casting time especially medium and higher spells. (Perhaps a feat for a mid-level Runemaster would allow for faster casting time, as in Rune adept carver or something to carve a rune in half the time, at 7th level.) So while the casting method is backwards in some senses, its also a wand that she fills up in the morning, uses in 24 hours otherwise has to recast spells into again each day. And for your final points, yes, I think casting in armor, especially in the form of activating the runestaff should be expected and shouldn't cause an attack of opportunity - I agree with you there. Is the Runemaster somewhat weak compared to Wizard? Are a few of these classes weaker compared to their base class derivatives? Yes in both cases, but then opponent spell casters and 'clan warriors' are the same so the difference is equalized, yet each have unique strengths too. What will happen when the Ceran Empire (my Etruscan/Mycenaean analog) invades the Celtic lands in the second proposed campaign with fighter legioneers, full clerics, and true wizard spellcasters because they have a written language...? Probably the same thing that happened to the Celtic lands following the Roman invasion, but that still took 400 years to accomplish in history, so that should be plenty of time to fit in a campaign or two. My setting needed certain unique aspects that illiteracy is one thing which definitely gives it unique flavor, and an attempt to adapt historic Celtic analogs into a setting, that has not necessarily been duplicated before. While I still need to tweak, reevaluate ideas and decisions I've made, I'm getting closer to meeting my goal to try and get this published before the end of the year. And while in two other projects I am working with other publishers - my Kaidan project with Rite Publishing, and secret project partnered with Johnn Four of Roleplaying Tips newsletter, and Mike Bourke of the Gamemastery blog - I'm thinking of trying my hand as a one man publishing house (Archaic Publishing, I'm thinking of calling it...) and doing this completely on my own - test my own market. Anyway, these are my ideas... thanks for the response and critique, Sylrae. I appreciate a good debate, and often tweak my directions based on a good counterpoint. This thread isn't over so keep up the comments. Next I need to start developing monsters and fey... GP</blockquote>

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