Rune Scribe Warlock

[Afgncaap5]

tl;dr - Any thoughts on optimizing (or just having some fun with) a Warlock taking the Rune Scribe prestige class?

ht;wr - So, my 5th level Warlock is a hermit and has been taking on the role of the sole remaining member of a group called the Chroniclers of the Unseen Wall, a mysterious structure that exists "somewhere", and that only has limited information about its capabilities based on hearsay, scraps of old documents, and other missing lore. The "discovery" I made with the hermit background was a stone tablet that changes periodically, as if the tablet is always showing a segment of some other wall which happens to match the notes of the Unseen Wall. Others in the hermitage believe it to be accurately showing the wall, like it's a window sliding along the edge of it. My DM and I decided to treat this like a Fey Lord patron.

We're a roleplay heavy group (at least, most of us...) and so I've not been playing it as "a warlock" so much as I've been playing the character as "that weird guy who causes commotions at town meetings, and can apparently see in the dark, talk to animals, and read any language he sees," always attributing these weird talents knowledge gained from the Unseen Wall.

So, then I learned about the Rune Scribe prestige class, and while the class itself doesn't seem very powerful to me... well, it looks like, story-wise, it's almost custom fit to my character's story. So, for a Warlock with the Fey Lord patron and the Pact of the Tome (and the ability to cast Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy, and Druidcraft since it seemed to fit the "lots of weird, inexplicable skills" and "something not quite right about him..." way I'm playing it), any thoughts on good ways to go about taking this class? Anyone else have experience with it, or general advice about the best way to do it?

[Coyote81]

I see very little talk about this prestige class because basically once they added prestige onto, everyone treated it as taboo. I personally find it very intriguing and my current character is about to take on his first level of Rune Scribe next time we level.

As for optimizing here's my take on it.

Rune Weapon Enchants in general:
-Fire is very nice for an average damage increase
-Earth is used with a low damage weapon (preferable 1d4) gives you a 25% of prone someone with no save, very nice
-Wind is great for ranged weapons
-Ice is rather bland, but it's other abilities are great
-Warlock spells slots are ideal for using when enchanting weapons since you get them back.

Depending on how your DM handles it (Mine gave me a rune of his choice, not mine, which is fine, I'm going with the flow since I can see benefits inn all of them) here are some tricks I found with each rune.

Fire:
-It's pretty straight forward, some fire manipulations and increase average damage on fire spells and attacks. I did like the attack that autohits for 1d10+1d10 per spell slot as an effective way of always dealing damage with my Barbarian for maintaining rage.

Earth:
-The weapon bonus is the best imo, prone'ing things without saves is kind of amazing. I find it particularly good on a Sling. You also get a ranged prone with a save, plus meld into stone on short rest is nice.

Wind:
-The ranged attack on this rune is limited by sight only, well my totem barbian with eagle eyes can see a mile. That should be fun. The flight and feather fall mechanics speak for themselves.

Ice:
-I don't see any reason you can't Scribe the Icy Mantle onto your whole part before a fight you've setup to prevent the first blud/slash/pierce damage. This just seems amazing. Plus you get a major spell in Sleet Storm once per short rest, just wow.



As for my current character, I'm playing a Barbarian Shaman, and Rune Scribe seems a perfect way to represent the old magic. (As a bonus I can use almost any of the abilities while raging, just not the spells)

[pwykersotz]

I have to ask...what does ht;wr mean?

[Afgncaap5]

As for my current character, I'm playing a Barbarian Shaman, and Rune Scribe seems a perfect way to represent the old magic. (As a bonus I can use almost any of the abilities while raging, just not the spells)

I think that kind of thing is what I love about it, and what I loved about prestige classes in 3.5 before power creep sorta turned them into a weird metagame thing for me. They're really good at representing magic that's just "other", or special training that really fits well in stories. You make some good points in your notes... I think I'll wind up starting with Wind. I feel conflicted, though; I don't want to ignore Warlock for five levels, but some of those abilities just look really nice.


I have to ask...what does ht;wr mean?

Have time;will read, or had time;would read, I think. Basically the opposite of tl;dr. (Though I suppose a more technical opposite would be like... short enough;I'll read? se;ir? I think I like ht;wr more.)