Runecaster Build Help

[Mjollnir075]

So, in a few weeks here I will be moving to a new city and living with a friend of mine. When we were a bit younger, we played Dnd together quite a few times with some mutual friends, but after he moved for school, we stopped playing together but kept playing with different groups. His friends down there have offered me a place in their 3.5 game, with the caveat that I play a "Healer". The Email his DM sent me said that they needed someone to be the "Heal-b#$@"

Hah.

Anyway, I convinced him (since I had to play such a crappy class) to allow me to go into Runecaster from the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, regardless of Dwarf or not.

So I ask you, if you could make a build using Runecaster, how would you do it? The game, according to my buddy, is very much based on RPing, and they have never heard of min/maxing nor would even know where to begin, so my build need not be powerful at all, just flavorful.

The simplest build I have is Archivist X/Runecaster 6 - 8/ Knight of the Raven X, who would be devoted to Odin (Norse gods being the main gods in their game, but I don't know if they use Deities and Demigods or homebrew).

Anyway, what think ye Playground? Got any good ideas?

[BowStreetRunner]

Just an FYI, Eir (a handmaiden of Frigg) is the Norse goddess associated with healing in actual Norse mythology. Balder (Deities and Demigods page 171) is the Norse god associated with healing in the D&D version of the Norse pantheon. Just thought I would mention this in case it matters to you.

[Mjollnir075]

Yeah, I'm well aware. I don't want my character to literally be a healbot, just be a divine caster that makes runes to heal the party, so I don't get asked to heal the melee guys when I should be controlling the field and summoning.

I guess I should have clarified, but I was intending to use the runes to give out healing/buffing runecarved stones to the party to use as they choose. I was figuring my character (fluff wise) to be a wanderer in search of esoteric knowledge and dark wisdom. Not necessarily evil, but less concerned with morality and more about learning dark secrets and becoming powerful. Knight of the Raven I was going to try and refluff as a knight for Odin, getting that cool raven, giving me some BAB and a Turning Pool.

[Saintheart]

RuneBLASTERS :smallbiggrin: are not a crappy class. You have lots of potential to break the game if you use RAW, especially since you're entering as Archivist and therefore can start reaching into arcane spells using the Knowledge or Magic domains. You can find some good tricks -- or links to more scary stuff -- at this thread. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202517)

In terms of build selections, I think you're looking to get as wide a spell range as possible and if possible metamagic feats -- since if you can make metamagic'd runes, it tremendously increases your range. As for BAB? Don't worry about it. Get Divine Power. Touch-activated, permanent rune, and you have the highest possible BAB in the game literally whenever you scratch your nose.

[Mjollnir075]

Would it just make more sense then to go Archivist 10/Runecaster 10? It just seemed like good jump off points after getting Maximised Rune at 6 or Permanent Runes at 8, though making them permanent is quite expensive.

Dunno. Any other ideas?

[Saintheart]

Honestly I'd jump off Runecaster at 8. The last two levels are really only slightly better CL IIRC, and your main irritant as a Runecaster is a Dispel Magic effect, since your runes take GP costs. If there's some other PrC that better enhances CL to a marked extent I'd look to that, but I'm ignorant of precisely what right now. More thoughts later on...