Wulf Ratbane
Adventurer
Thanks for the review, Nail.
Since I've now had two reviews in a row that balked a bit at the "expense" of the Rune feats, I thought I'd offer my commentary.
First off, before I began I knew there were two ways to go with these: powerful and costly, or wimpy and "free." I opted for powerful and costly as opposed to rules-weak runes whose effect would be mostly cosmetic.
In terms of balancing costs, in general, I prefer skill points, feats, and other "level-ups" to such things as XP costs, and certainly to GP costs. Player-resource costs (skills, feats, etc.) are easier to manage than DM-resource costs (xp, gp, roleplaying restrictions). It is very easy for DM's to make a mistake with xp, gp, or rp restrictions. I very much wanted to provide options that players could take without a lot of DM oversight and not a lot of room for DM error.
In terms of power vs. cost, you'll note that many of the Runes match up 1-to-1 with many fighter feats: cleaving, sundering, improved critical. But you'll note that they don't carry the commensurate pre-reqs of those fighter feats-- it's the weapon and the rune doing the work, not the strength or skill of the wielder. As a consequence you could be Cleaving or doing Improved Critical at 1st level!
(As a side note, it's unlikely that our 1st-level character would have the skill or gp to craft this rune on their own, but could certainly recognize and activate the rune if they found one.)
The second design consideration I had was that I wanted these runes to be available, for the most part, to the most wise and charismatic among dwarves. Powerful runes aren't something that rank-and-file dwarves should have a great command over. The weapons of legend should be reserved for heroes of legend.
My third consideration was that I specifically wanted to offer runes as an option for dwarven divine channelling. I have never really seen dwarven clerics as mighty undead hunters, and this seemed like an excellent place for them to spend those turning attempts.
At their very lowest level, the essence of the Runes is the ability to do something (a) sooner than you could as a fighter, bypassing some pre-requisitites or (b) something cool that you couldn't ordinarily do at all (rune of courage, protection, vengeance) which, at the dramatically appropriate time, could be memorable and game changing: The orcs see the mighty Fell-hammer drop their chieftain, and they flee in panic...
Despite this, I admit that Runes aren't a great option for rank-and-file dwarves. Low charisma and no divine channelling will probably mean you'll get to use the rune once per day for a single round. Not great.
Moving up slightly are high-charisma dwarves who will get a few rounds of effect out of their rune, once per day. Still, perhaps, not worth a feat. You'd have to pick this Rune very carefully.
Next up you have clerics and paladins, high-wisdom, high-charisma dwarves who will get several rounds of effect out of each rune and, with divine channelling, can activate them multiple times per day. If you consider the Rune of Sharpness, for example, this is a great option: For a few rounds a day, multiple times per day, you gain access to Improved Critical-- and, because you know this Rune, you can add it to other weapons besides your axe and gain the benefit regardless of the weapon you are using!
At the very top of the heap is the Rune-priest prestige class, who gets bonus Rune feats every other level, as well as a bonus to his Craft skill when adding Runes. Given time he'll have Runes on everything he owns. He scales fast and he's a force to contend with.
In conclusion I guess I'll just say that you have to leverage the Runes against the kind of character you're playing-- just like any other feat. Just as I wouldn't expect rogues to get much out of a list of Item Creation feats, I don't expect every dwarf to rush to the Rune feats. For certain dwarves, I think they're quite powerful-- and as you noted, if I have erred on the "weaker" side of balance, I'm satisfied.
Wulf
Since I've now had two reviews in a row that balked a bit at the "expense" of the Rune feats, I thought I'd offer my commentary.
First off, before I began I knew there were two ways to go with these: powerful and costly, or wimpy and "free." I opted for powerful and costly as opposed to rules-weak runes whose effect would be mostly cosmetic.
In terms of balancing costs, in general, I prefer skill points, feats, and other "level-ups" to such things as XP costs, and certainly to GP costs. Player-resource costs (skills, feats, etc.) are easier to manage than DM-resource costs (xp, gp, roleplaying restrictions). It is very easy for DM's to make a mistake with xp, gp, or rp restrictions. I very much wanted to provide options that players could take without a lot of DM oversight and not a lot of room for DM error.
In terms of power vs. cost, you'll note that many of the Runes match up 1-to-1 with many fighter feats: cleaving, sundering, improved critical. But you'll note that they don't carry the commensurate pre-reqs of those fighter feats-- it's the weapon and the rune doing the work, not the strength or skill of the wielder. As a consequence you could be Cleaving or doing Improved Critical at 1st level!
(As a side note, it's unlikely that our 1st-level character would have the skill or gp to craft this rune on their own, but could certainly recognize and activate the rune if they found one.)
The second design consideration I had was that I wanted these runes to be available, for the most part, to the most wise and charismatic among dwarves. Powerful runes aren't something that rank-and-file dwarves should have a great command over. The weapons of legend should be reserved for heroes of legend.
My third consideration was that I specifically wanted to offer runes as an option for dwarven divine channelling. I have never really seen dwarven clerics as mighty undead hunters, and this seemed like an excellent place for them to spend those turning attempts.
At their very lowest level, the essence of the Runes is the ability to do something (a) sooner than you could as a fighter, bypassing some pre-requisitites or (b) something cool that you couldn't ordinarily do at all (rune of courage, protection, vengeance) which, at the dramatically appropriate time, could be memorable and game changing: The orcs see the mighty Fell-hammer drop their chieftain, and they flee in panic...
Despite this, I admit that Runes aren't a great option for rank-and-file dwarves. Low charisma and no divine channelling will probably mean you'll get to use the rune once per day for a single round. Not great.
Moving up slightly are high-charisma dwarves who will get a few rounds of effect out of their rune, once per day. Still, perhaps, not worth a feat. You'd have to pick this Rune very carefully.
Next up you have clerics and paladins, high-wisdom, high-charisma dwarves who will get several rounds of effect out of each rune and, with divine channelling, can activate them multiple times per day. If you consider the Rune of Sharpness, for example, this is a great option: For a few rounds a day, multiple times per day, you gain access to Improved Critical-- and, because you know this Rune, you can add it to other weapons besides your axe and gain the benefit regardless of the weapon you are using!
At the very top of the heap is the Rune-priest prestige class, who gets bonus Rune feats every other level, as well as a bonus to his Craft skill when adding Runes. Given time he'll have Runes on everything he owns. He scales fast and he's a force to contend with.
In conclusion I guess I'll just say that you have to leverage the Runes against the kind of character you're playing-- just like any other feat. Just as I wouldn't expect rogues to get much out of a list of Item Creation feats, I don't expect every dwarf to rush to the Rune feats. For certain dwarves, I think they're quite powerful-- and as you noted, if I have erred on the "weaker" side of balance, I'm satisfied.
Wulf
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But I'd certainly pay it for a 64 page book that has been getting mostly rave reviews.
