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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sylrae" data-source="post: 5261345" data-attributes="member: 48520">I'll say that while not perfect or playable yet, I like where this is heading.The big problemBonded ItemIt's the worst class feature of the wizard and is more of a weakness than an ability (unless Errata changed it). As I told one of my other DM buddies when I built a wizard for his game: "I'd rather be missing a class feature and have a dead level than take bonded item."It's far too dangerous to take. You can't cast spells while not holding it (you're almost bound to fail): and if you lose the wand, all of your spells are going to continue failing for a week plus however long it takes you to get a new wand. The payoff isn't good enough to compensate.Adding the penalties for not having your bonded item in your hand, to needing to use the staff in somatic components, to making it also double as your spellbook, makes it a huge weakness that in my opinion is far too easy to cripple a character with. In addition, making the spellbook into a unique item you can't have more than one of is also a big weakness. When I play a wizard I always have at least 4 copies of my spellbook. I carry one, two more float around in the party (either on my familiar or between other players), and I keep one somewhere safe, sometimes in town, paying a small fee monthly for a safety deposit box. There's nothing worse when playing a wizard than losing all your spells. Make it possible for the cautious player to not have that happen.A Better StaffEither drop the penalties for losing the staff, or make the whole bonded object mechanic optional.Have the existing bonded object benefit, of any one spell you can cast of any level, but maybe give this option as well: Allow them to prepare spells into the staff. Have the number of spell levels be level-based, say the highest level of spell you can cast +1 or something. So a 5th level runemaster can store a 3rd level spell in there on top of his prepared spells, and fire it off once, having chosen it in advance, and a magic missile. OR: He can store 4 magic missiles., or 2 2nd level spells.Maybe make it easier to switch between staves. Require attunement of some sort to connect with the staff (full round action at most). You can have multiple staves going, with spell levels stored in each staff, but you need to take time to attune yourself to a different staff to use it or prep spells from it. If you pick up a runemaster's staff that isn't yours, once the attunement is done, not only can you prep from the staff as though it were your own, you can immediately start use its spontaneous spell or prepared spells as though wielding a wand with spells you can cast.Instead of making the character *NEED* to cast while holding the runestaff, make that optional, but provide a bonus to someone who does so.Spell ListAs Sorcerer/Wizard is pretty boring.I'd suggest mixing it up, and add some spells from other full casters. Look at the spell list for druid, witch, and cleric, and see what's worth appropriating. Drop wizard/sorcerer spells that don't fit. I think there are some 'golarion specific' spells that are OGC that could be worth giving to this guy as well. Add lots and lots of spells from the Advanced Players Guide (you *KNOW* this one is a good Idea *Wink*).Give them a (Wizard Sized (ie very large)) custom list.You may not be good at designing new spells, but cobbling a list together from existing spells shouldn't be too bad. RunesI like the runes, though how you can make them, how often you can make them, and how long it takes to make them is not well detailed above.I'd suggest the runes be a temporary thing you can do x/day, or have material costs and time associated with them like craft feats. The alchemist's bomb ability may give you ideas on the sort of mechanism for class-created stuff. If you want to go a more original route, maybe make it a class ability that uses various craft skill checks and has "Carving times" associated with each rune, with longer *Carving Times* depending on how long you want the rune to last. I very much like the Idea of making the runecrafting be a skill based thing you can do as often as you want. That to me is a very cool idea.Possible avenues to Explore/Ideas that could be cool- Runes + Armor.- Runes + Weapons.- New Rune Spells.- A Feat, or a Feat Chain, granting you more versatility from your bonded object.I'm starting to like this guy.If I like him enough to use him in the end, I'll gift you with free character art for him for my name in the credits for the art and a mention in additional design or somesuch. Wouldn't pass up a free copy either, espec. if my name was in the credits. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />~Sylrae</blockquote>

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