Runesmith (Races of Stone): Permanent Rune

[Shin Okada]

One of my friend is playing a Runesmith and wondering how should he use this ability. There are mainly 2 questions.

1) Timing

Should a Runesmith inscribe permanent rune when he level-up to a 5th-level Runesmith? Or can he delay to use that right and then inscribe a rune later? He is now a Dwarf Wizard 5/Fighter 1/ Runesmith 4. He wants to inscribe a level-7 spell. So If he must use this ability when gaining Runesmith 5, he must continue to gain levels of wizard until 10th-level and then take the last level of Runesmith. If he can wait to inscribe the rune, he can take the last level of Runesmith in the next.

2) XP cost of Limited Wish.

The description of this ability says, when inscribing a rune "If the spell has an XP cost, he must spend XP as if he had cast the spell normally." Then what should be the correct rule for inscribing Limited Wish? Our take is,

Spend 300 XP when scribing the rune. Then, this initial XP cost for casting Limited With is free when he uses the rune (because it is a spell-like ability), but he must pay additional XP cost when he wishes to copy a spell with more XP cost than 300XP.

Do you think this is a reasonable (or correct) interpretation?

 

[Ranes]

When he takes the 5th level of runesmith he gains the ability to inscribe a permanent rune. He is not compelled to do so immediately, so I see no reason for him to delay taking that last level of the class.

As for the limited wish part, I think you've got it right, as far as inscribing the rune goes. After that I'm not sure. I can understand your interpretation to a point but, if SLAs don't have an XP cost, why should he have to pay any XP for duplicating a spell that would normally have an XP cost of greater than 300? Is there a precedent for this?

Your interpretation strikes me as reasonable but I can't find the rule to support it.

 

[Silveras]

The wording is very poor. As written, an argument can be made for the XP cost to be paid once, as you scribe the rune, and that is all.

However, it seems to me the intent of the rule is this:
The rune costs the XP as indicated in the ability description to scribe.
Every time the spell in the rune in used, the user must pay any XP cost in the spell description. In the case of Limited Wish, this is a minimum of 300 XP + any additional XP for a duplicated spell effect that also has an XP cost.