Runesmith, Runecaster and Battlesmith

[Max Caysey]

Dear GITP community...

I was wondering if anyone have had any success creating a character with any or multiple of these classes... Runesmith, Runecaster or Battlesmith?

Basically I think they are all pretty cool fluff wise, but they seem not to be that great at combining on one character. Which is kind of why I see them as a lackluster option... I think it would be cool if the three classes could be used for both divine or arcane magic... so basically one could combine all three for either arcane or divine magic...

I'm thinking of trying maybe to play one, but have no experience with them and wanted to hear from people who had, before I start playing them and especially before altering them to be applicable for both divine or arcane magic... I'm really just looking to make either one - or a combination of them - into a viable option, which doesn't suck! Can anyone help?

So, has anyone tried, mixed or had any experience with any of these three classes? Their potential, strengths and weaknesses or possible abuse? Really any comments would be great!



Cheers!

[noob]

You can use alternate spell source to have a divine casting class count as arcane too and then have runecaster and runesmith on the same character and have something like cleric 5/runesmith 3/runecaster 10/whatever you want.
however battlesmith does not combine well by virtue of not being a spellcasting class.
The huge problem is that the runesmith makes you more vulnerable in exchange of nearly no gain until level 3 in runesmith and then what you get from the third level in runesmith is rather redundant with what you get from runecaster.
So you are better off being a runecaster all the way.
And the battlesmith is always bad except for crafting shenanigans that the gm will frown upon(such as the famous "everything is an improvised weapon so I can always benefit from the caster level boost for crafting magic items").

[Falontani]

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/BGfc7fabHYu6kajx9PnGl8lUf5jO0W_eMbORq7cq6fc-raQeuwfAhOstAEpfWALzrUYZirQKnr4w6G7EdG2DvEpPUMxyKx Of3q6rCpO9q_XheIlHdmk1DAJTU5cSPItaCfgI95DT





Lvl

Class

Base Attack Bonus

Fort Save

Ref Save

Will Save

Skills

Feats

Class Features


1

Artificer

+0

+0

+0

+2


Extraordinary Artisan, Heavy Armor Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency: Warhammer, Murky Eyed, Poor Reflexes

Artificer Knowledge, Item Creation, Artisan Bonus, Scribe Scroll



2

Artificer

+1

+0

+0

+3



Brew Potion



3

Artificer

+2

+1

+1

+3


Magical Artisan: Extraordinary Artisan

Craft Wondrous Items



4

Artificer

+3

+1

+1

+4


Legendary Artisan(B)

Craft Homunculus



5

Incarnate

+3

+3

+1

+6



Aura, Detect Opposition



6

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+3

+5

+1

+8


Weapon Focus: Warhammer

Shield Bond



7

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+4

+6

+1

+9



Secrets of the Forge



8

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+5

+6

+2

+9



Forge Lore



9

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+6

+7

+2

+10


Endurance

Chakra Bind (Arms)



10

Battlesmith

+7

+9

+2

+10



One with the Hammer, Secrets of the Forge



11

Battlesmith

+8

+10

+2

+10



Flesh of my Flesh +1



12

Battlesmith

+9

+10

+3

+10


Heavy Armor Optimization

Forged in Fire



13

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+9

+10

+3

+10



Armor Bond



14

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+10

+11

+4

+11



Chakra Bind (waist)



15

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+11

+11

+4

+11


Greater Heavy Armor Optimization




16

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+12

+12

+4

+12



Chakra Bind (Shoulders)



17

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+12

+12

+5

+12



Weapon Bond



18

Ironsoul Forgemaster

+13

+13

+5

+13


Shield Specialization

Chakra Bind (Heart)



19

Psychic Warrior

+13

+15

+5

+13


Deflective Armor(B)




20

Psychic Warrior

+14

+16

+5

+13


Focused Shield(B)





Alrighty, you can craft wondrous items, scrolls, and potions at up to CL 3, spell level 3. However. You can craft arms and armor at CL 43. So sure, you can craft minor trinkets, make some scrolls, and make a few potions, but your weapons, armors, and shield are legendary. In combat you shine blue. Basically this character’s combat ability comes from his equipment. But he’s a dwarf. Dwarves have one set of equipment, so you dont have a bunch of bane weapons, no you have one massive warhammer that you use for every circumstance. Need to make a weapon? Got your hammer. Neet to bash an orc skull in? Got your hammer. The legendary dragon Prismatic Dragon Kthk’xxzk has decided that your clan’s mountain is it’s new home? Got your hammer. You take pride in your equipment to the point of perfection. Honestly I designed this character to have the personality of Bruenor from the Legend of Drizzt. Sure he will make potions of lesser vigor, of cure critical wounds, of fly, of stoneskin, etc. But those are for himself. Sure he’ll make scrolls when he needs them, however he’ll carry the parchment and ingredients to make them on the fly rather than prepare them. I really dont know how else to describe this guy.

[Saintheart]

Check my sig for the long story on Runecasters.

The shorter story is: until level 8 in the PrC, Runecasters are essentially a vanilla cleric with one additional ability: the creation of Tippy-style traps and self-buffs in a much, much shorter time than the default mage would (and often at a much lower cost in gold and caster levels.)

At level 8, though, Runecaster becomes at the lowest end a whole new ball game or at the highest end immediately unplayable in fear of DM banstick, mainly because level 8 is when the Runecaster can make permanent runes, that is, runes that can be triggered an infinite number of times. The moment that happens, all your self-buff spells never have to be memorised again, because you inscribe runes of all of them on a group of little rocks* and tap them all every morning or indeed as the spells run out on your person. Alternatively, your handy ranged save-and-still-suck spells, e.g. a Fell Drained Magic Missile, become constant enemy-seeking turrets as you inscribe them on ioun stones and thereby will always be triggered if an enemy comes within 30 feet of you. Best of all, if your partymates want these benefits, you can make this stuff for literally anyone and they can use it the same way. It doesn't take a UMD check to use a rune, touch it and it fires. These are only some of the lower-end shenanigans you can pull off with a Runecaster at level 8, which work either by plain, intended RAW or with an absolute minimum of DM rulings.

The drawbacks, though, are the XP/GP costs for your runes as created magic items and the fact it soaks you 8 levels in a pretty pedestrian PrC when you could be doing other stuff like Church Inquisitor or Seeker of the Misty Isle. This is a PrC you really should be building towards right from the beginning; typically an Ur-Priest dip ahead of Runecaster is a great choice because of the faster spellcasting progression and the Runecaster's 10/10 divine spell progression. Though runes are in most cases much cheaper than default magic items, it'll be expensive to build permanent runes of everything (though the XP costs can be eliminated if you build a permanent rune of Distilled Joy and have a slightly open-minded DM, and the GP costs can be ameliorated by asking for donations from other partymembers or just outright selling good runes to people.)




* Because runes are no-slot magic items, i.e. subject to FRCS's rule that only one object of Medium size or smaller can hold a rune. The FRCS itself has an example of a Runecaster who has multiple runes on a necklace, including two of Raise Dead. With a somewhat open-minded DM, you could have all your runes written on a group of clothing buttons that you sew on your vest and activate by wiping across them with one hand every morning; though it's a rule of "only one object per rune", the rules never define what an object is.