The Runesmith (3.5)

[The Oakenshield]

The Runesmith

Runesmiths are expert magical craftsmen, binding magic to their wills in the form of runes. They are capable warriors, and often serve as sages to adventuring parties, which they join for an opportunity to plumb the depths of dungeons and recover magic items. They excel in the protection of their comrades form hostile magic. Experienced runemsiths can cast a very limited array of spells.

Base Attack Bonus: Average
Good Saves: Fortitude, Will
Hit Dice: d10
Proficiencies: simple weapons, warhammers, mauls, light, medium and heavy armour as well as shields (except tower shields).
Class skills: Appraise, Concentration, Craft (all skills, taken individually), Decipher Script, Knowledge (all skills, taken individually), Profession, Spellcraft.
Skill points: 4+Int/level, x4 at first.
Alignement: any non-chaotic.

Class features:
1st-Master Craftsman
2nd-Detect Magic
3rd-Bonus Feat (Craft), Runic Magic
4th-Bonus Feat (Combat)
5th-Dispel Magic (3/day)
6th-Bonus Feat (Craft)
7th-
8th-Bonus Feat (Combat)
9th-Bonus Feat (Craft)
10th-Greater Dispel Magic (3/day)
11th-Antimagic Field (2/day)
12th-Bonus Feat (Craft), Bonus Feat (Combat)
13th-
14th-
15th-Bonus Feat (Craft)
16th-Bonus Feat (Combat)
17th-
18th-Bonus Feat (Craft)
19th-
20th-Antimagic Field (5/day)

Spellcasting:
Runesmiths are Wisdom based divine casters. They know all the spells on thei list and cast spells per day as a bard.
Spell List:

1st: Alarm, Bless, Endure Elements, Erase, Identify, Magic Weapon, Mending, Obscure Object, Protection from Evil/Chaos, Read Magic, True Strike, Shield of Faith.

2nd: Align Weapon, Arcane Lock, Bear's Endurance, Bull's Strength, Chill Metal, Heat Metal, Heroism, Locate Object, See Invisibility, Knock, Make Whole, Owl's Wisdom, Shatter, Silence, Soften Earth and Stone.

3rd: Arcane Sight, Clairaudience/Clairvoyance, Glyph of Warding, Keen Edge, Magic Circle, Magic Vestment, Greater Magic Weapon, Protection from Energy, Shrink Item.

4th: Break Enchantment, Detect Scrying, Death Ward, Dimensional Anchor, Divination, Dismissal, Nondetection, Rary's Telepathic Bond, Rusting Grasp, Spell Immunity.

5th: Dispel Evil/Chaos, Spell Resistance, Symbol of Pain, Symbol of Sleep, True Seeing

6th:Banishment, Bear's Endurance (Mass), Bull's Strength (Mass), Find the Path, Forbiddance, Glyph of Warding (greater), Owl's Wisdom (Mass), Symbol of Fear, Word of Recall

Master Craftsman: a runesmith uses his Wis bonus on craft checks instead of his Intelligence bonus. He counts his runesmith levels as caster levels for the purpses of crafting items, and is assumed to know and be able to cast all spells for the purposes of item creation that are not from the Illusion or Necromancy schools.

Detect Magic (Su): as the spell. Usable times per day equal to the Runesmith's Wis modifier.

Runic Magic: all items created by a runesmith and all spells cast by a runemsith are completely immune to dispelling, disjunction, antimagic fields, etc. In addition, runesmiths ignore verbal component to spells.

Bonus Feat (craft): choose from any item creation feat in the PH.

Bonus Feat (combat): choose any fighter bonus feat.

Greater Dispel Magic (Su): as the spell.

Antimagic Field (Su): as the spell.





So, Playground, what are your opinions?

[Dead_Jester]

Not to be mean, but although the concept behind this class is decent, but execution could be better.

First of all, this class is very, very weak, and almost useless when fighting anything but unoptimized casters. An unoptimized sorcerer does this classe's job better than it does, and with more flexibility.

If u want to make this playable, it needs a serious power boost. First of all, the class chassis probably needs a rework, as now this is something between a tank and a skillmonkey without any skillmonkey-ish skills. As such, if the skill points are kept a 6, this class needs more class skills.

The spell casting needs to be significant (at the bard or duskblade level minimum), the spell list needs more flexibility (how about divination spells and some more buffs?).

Most of all, there needs to be some unique abilities to this class, something that makes people want to play it. Feats are ok, but they're boring, and shouldn't be used as the main class feature. You could keep them, but add some more abilities in the levels without any, preferably some abilities that both add to the power and flexibility of the class (maybe something that lets them create temporary magic items or store spells without a gp or xp cost, and that scales with levels).

Furthermore, class abilities should for the most part remain relevant for a long time, an not be eclipsed by a new ability that is simply an improved version. If you want to do that, just make the first one scale.

Finally, just let your creativity go wild. Most of us here in the Playground think you should aim your classes at about tier 3 or 2 for power level, so don't be afraid to add more stuff.

EDIT : Oh and btw, the name Runesmith has probably been used dozens of time, so I would recommend changing it to avoid confusion.

[The Oakenshield]

Thanks for the extensive reply.

Are there any other opinions, suggestions, etc...?

[BelGareth]

I agree with most of the remarks made already, now here are mine:
You should format it a little better, look at other peoples and copy there format, we want to see the save progression and bab progression. Just writing IS fine but an actual table with all laid out looks better and is easier for reference.

Class seems a little over the place, HD10 some spell casting that stops at 4th....

Make a decision, is it a spellcaster, fighter, or mix? Then stick with the standard for that archtype.
I'm assuming your going for a fighter/spell casting type, so base your spell progression off the bard, or even the pathfinder inquisitor (I know this is 3.5 but it's got good spell progression)

BAB average is fine, and falls in line with 6 spell level classes

Fort and Will are fine, especially as this is a wisdom based class. Which brings me to why? From the look of it, it should be Int not Wisdom, Wisdom spell casting is reserved for Divine spells, is this a divine spell caster?
Int would also give the class some synergy with the master craftsman and crafting in general which is what the class does?

Skills should be bought down to 4 + int (if you change it), if you keep it with wisdom add more skills, I would add diplomacy, intimidate, sense motive, umd.

Weapon proficiencies are confusing, why are Warhammers and Mauls the exception? Maybe some more fluff would help with answering some of my questions. I would keep it to simple weapons.

alignment restriction to non chaotic? Why I don't see why chaotic PC's cannot be a rune smith....maybe some more fluff is needed again.

Your first level ability Disruption is not explained.

Feats and spells as Su abilities is generally not a good way to go, the class needs specific abilities that are unique to it. Try to think of what you want the class to do and make the abilities from there. A tip I use, write some fluff for it and design the class from that, mechanics can always be added to something you imagine, I do the same thing for characters I play.

Spells are interesting, I see your trying to emulate the paladin/ranger spell, then you need to rewrite the spell list. Those spells for those classes are in addition to, these seem to be a focus, I would either make it a 6th spell level user or full casting with a limited list, like warmage. Just keep the spells to creation.

I think this class is having some identity issues, it's called a runesmith, but you threw alot of anti magic abilities and spells. That's more of the realm of a abjurer. runemsith denotes more crafting and spells as runes.

Maybe have the class be able to craft runes on people/places (spells) that trigger or can be triggered by the person. It would be more inline with runes and great fluff. Give the spell list transmutation spells and allow him to scribe runes on his party members and activate them as a free action. Or standard action that gets upgraded to move then swift?
Another ability might be crafting runes on places, like a fireball on a door frame, when someone triggers it it goes off at your caster level.

This is a more rune smith feel. I dunno, I think you should narrow down the focus of the class and decide on what it's going to do before moving ahead.

Hope this helps.

[The Oakenshield]

It is a runesmith in the Warhammer sense of the word, ie: craftsmen who fight along side their comrades and defend them from hostile magic.

[The Oakenshield]

I added a little fluff, gave him 4+ skills, better spell casting and a larger list.