D&D 5E Rune Knights: how do you begin a fight?

[Paul Farquhar]

surely that is a free action?

Not if it requires an Intelligence(History) check.

 

[Bolares]

Not if it requires an Intelligence(History) check.

"Your momma is so old I needed a history check to badmouth her!" something like that?

 

[NaturalZero]

Thank you

Is giant might really that good if you aren't doing strength "moves" (like shoving)? + 1d6 dmg/round is ... nice, but it's not much.

Between 2 campaigns, I've never had an encounter where it wasn't active. If you play in a game with more combats, you might have to choose to fight without it sometimes but I've never been at a table that averaged more than 2 or 3 combats each day. Once your prof bonus is 3 or 4, its pretty much a free per-encounter power.

I've also used grappling more than any other character because I was large (Huge when i played a duergar!) and had advantage on Athletics. The DM made the mistake of throwing a halfling wizard at us, so i grappled her and flew around with wings boots + haste.

 

[jgsugden]

Some of the joy of playing a new class is figuring out this stuff. Play around with it for a bit before asking others what they think and you won't miss out on that fun.

Also - holy crap giants would be so much more dangerous if they had rune magic :O

When we saw this subclass in UA, as well as the Giant Soul Sorcerer, I created Runed Giants. I took your stock giants and added Rune Magic on top of their existing abilities (as well as a boost to their HP, etc...) to give them more of a feel of ancient supernatural 'world origin storyline' type beings. I am shocked we do not have something official like this from WotC by now. They're halfway between the giant and a primordial. If you're playing a high level game, they provide a real nice option for a high level foe of meaning other than Demon, Devil, and Dragon.

 

[sulimo0310]

Thank you

Is giant might really that good if you aren't doing strength "moves" (like shoving)? + 1d6 dmg/round is ... nice, but it's not much.

IMHO, you shouldn't sleep on the DEFENSIVE benefits for your party of giant might. Sure extra damage, yadda yadda yadda. But a size increase means you threaten more squares, making it more difficult for enemies to pass you in Melee and reach your party. You also physically take up more space, making it much easier to block hallways and other natural choke points. Obviously this, like all the other powers, is situational based on the battle and terrain you are in. There is no "one right answer" of which ability to use first. This versatility of this subclass is it's strength, but the trade off is that it requires tactical awareness to be at its best. You have so many choices, and none of them are bad. Which one is BEST is always a judgement call with a changing answer based on the situation.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

Yes, as many have stated it various depending on the specific fight. I personally and running an altered version of the class where we nerfed storm rune from being blatantly overpowered to just "spend a reaction to grant advantage or disadvantage to ONE d20 die roll" and removed the level restriction. We also changed the 7th level ability to be "Grant one ally an instance of one of your runes that grants them the passive benefits until they activate it and gain the active effects, at which point the rune fades. You can use this prof mod times per day and only have one extra active at a time"

So massive caveats aside, I also took Hill rune, and Cloud Rune.

I tend to start most fights with either the Hill Rune or Giant's Might depending on if we are fighting a swarm of enemies or one big one (or foes that deal energy damage). It comes down to each fight to be honest. One of my favorite moments was getting big and grappling two werewolves at once to hold them in the magical blender known as "cloud of daggers" cast by one of the other party members.

 

[Ancalagon]

Some of the joy of playing a new class is figuring out this stuff. Play around with it for a bit before asking others what they think and you won't miss out on that fun.

When we saw this subclass in UA, as well as the Giant Soul Sorcerer, I created Runed Giants. I took your stock giants and added Rune Magic on top of their existing abilities (as well as a boost to their HP, etc...) to give them more of a feel of ancient supernatural 'world origin storyline' type beings. I am shocked we do not have something official like this from WotC by now. They're halfway between the giant and a primordial. If you're playing a high level game, they provide a real nice option for a high level foe of meaning other than Demon, Devil, and Dragon.

Indeed. If you did nothing to the giants but give them their rune, it still would be very significant. Hill giants become extremely tough for example. Cloud giants are lethal "oh you just crit-smited me for 80 damage? shame you just beheaded your mage friend..."

(frost giant not so much)