Runepriest Info ?

[Daparlo]

I am interested in trying to play a runepriest and I am having some difficulty finding info. Are there any sites or whatever to find more besides the PH3? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Rampant]

Well there's the compendium, but other than that you're pretty much out of luck, the runepriest is one of the most under supported classes in 4e. Coming out in phb3 shortly before essentials came along and effed everything up means it got jack supporting material, and it wasn't a popular class to begin with.

 

[Nikosandros]

Yes, it's true and it's a shame. While not easy to play, it is a very interesting class and the dearth of support is depressing.

 

[Blue]

There was a Runepriest Class Acts in Dragon 404, which added some powers and Serene Blade as a new Runic Artistry. I've been playing a Longtooth Shifter Runepriest in one of my games for over a year now and it's a fun but complicated class. But not a lot of support for it.

It consistently gives out buffs, often more than one. For instance, I might heal (and give out a buff in burst 5), attack that gives out a buff or debuff, and have a runestate which gives a buff. And that's not including anything from a sustained daily. I made up little buff cards to give out to my group to help everyone keep track of what was currently up, since much of the complexity is on them as well.

All that said, it's been an enjoyable class. Your powers aren't quite as exciting as other leaders, but your runestate adds an extra level of buffing to keep it balanced. And you either need to got for lots of rune feats or none. But I'm having a blast with it.

 

[Ferghis]

All that said, it's been an enjoyable class.

I find classes in 4e quite balanced, and even criticized classes like the runepriest look fun. So take the remainder of my post with a grain of salt.

And you either need to got for lots of rune feats or none.

The common criticism, which I agree with, is that the latter former is a trap. Runic feats encourage an "in for a penny, in for a pound" attitude. That's to say that if you take a couple, you might as well take them all, because they all improve each other. Unfortunately, there are a couple of decent runic feats, but most of them compare poorly to other feats, even when "augmented" by other runic feats. So, instead of having a bunch of really useful feats, you end up taking two somewhat useful feats and a bunch of useless ones to make the first two better. It's a trap that leads to poor character-building.

 

[Blue]

The common criticism, which I agree with, is that the latter former is a trap. Runic feats encourage an "in for a penny, in for a pound" attitude. That's to say that if you take a couple, you might as well take them all, because they all improve each other. Unfortunately, there are a couple of decent runic feats, but most of them compare poorly to other feats, even when "augmented" by other runic feats. So, instead of having a bunch of really useful feats, you end up taking two somewhat useful feats and a bunch of useless ones to make the first two better. It's a trap that leads to poor character-building.

I happen to agree - I took none and we've played up to 10th. But there are a few past heroic that are useful even with low investment.

I say, I wish I took a race with more feat support (longtooth shifter). I've got lots of useful, general feats, but very few that speak directly to being a runepriest or a shifter.

 

[Ferghis]

I say, I wish I took a race with more feat support (longtooth shifter). I've got lots of useful, general feats, but very few that speak directly to being a runepriest or a shifter.

I know I'm straying from the topic here, but my feeling was that their racial power kinda made up for the lack of support: it's truly fantastic to regenerate, especially if you manage to keep your defenses high (and therefore have a round or two of being missed to regenerate during combat).

 

[Joshua Randall]

The folks over at Wizards' forum Character Optimization put together a Runepriest wiki. Might be worth a look.

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[Blue]

I know I'm straying from the topic here, but my feeling was that their racial power kinda made up for the lack of support: it's truly fantastic to regenerate, especially if you manage to keep your defenses high (and therefore have a round or two of being missed to regenerate during combat).

Oh, I'm happy with the mechanical balance of the shifter - I was sayign that between the lack of non-runefeat feats for the runepriest, and not a particularly long list for the shifter, almost all my feats are general, not building my class or racial identity.

To circle this back to the runepriest, while my defenses are middle-of-the-road, the combonation of Serene Runepriest for temp HP and regen while blooded makes a more robust character then originally expected. It's nice that once I get down to the bloodied zone I've got regen 2 plus have temp HP once per round to help keep me up.

 

[Klaus]

I'm happy every time I hear that someone is playing a Serene Blade runepriest!