There are several dedications and classes that allow you to pick up free consumables, alleviating the need for trips to town for refills. Adventuring gear can often be found in dungeons and treasure hoards. Food and water can be found in the wilderness. Runes, however, always necessitate downtime, unless you can count on finding the magic items you need in the wild or for sale in a shop. Etching a new rune takes 4 days of downtime + additional to decrease the cost, and even transferring a rune to or from a runestone takes 1 day + additional to reduce cost- which, if your group is anything like mine, is tough to fit in to a campaign fraught with high stakes and danger.
Enter the Pragmatic Runesmith! Chiefly concerned with keeping the adventure flowing by allowing players to use the runes they find more easily, they also gain abilities later to allow them to etch new runes on the go and even spice up their battles with runic flair. This dedication is intended to be in the vein of Talisman Dabbler, Poisoner and Scrounger.
My main goal with this question is to assess whether the effects are appropriate for archetype feats, and if so whether the levels they become accessible are in line with other archetype or class feats. Thanks for reading my wall of text!
Pragmatic Runesmith Archetype
Accustomed to long days on the road, you have dedicated yourself to finding ways to make the long and vital process of etching runes quicker and easier to fit into a busy adventurer’s schedule.
6- Pragmatic Runesmith Dedication
(prerequisite: Magical Crafting skill feat)
You have learned the ins and outs of etching runes efficiently, as well as how to create runestones quickly and easily. You gain the following benefits:
- You know the formulas for fundamental runes of your level and below. Additionally, you memorize the formulas for all runes you know, and do not need a formula book to contain them.
- You become Trained in Rune Lore. You can use Rune Lore to recall knowledge when identifying magical runes instead of the usual Arcana, Religion, Occultism, or Nature roll to identify magic.
- You have a set of etching tools you can use to make improvised runestones. You can create up to one improvised runestone each day during your daily preparations for no cost, functioning like a normal runestone. This runestone will lose its function if you create another improvised runestone, unless it is inscribed with a rune, in which case it becomes permanent. Permanent runestones created this way are only usable by you, and are worthless to anyone else. You must still pay the gold cost of etching or transferring runes onto your improvised runestones as normal.
- Finally, you can transfer runes between items quickly. Instead of taking one day for the initial crafting check, you require only 2 hours to transfer a rune. Subsequently you can reduce the cost of the transfer in one-hour increments instead of one-day increments.
8- Find the Time
You are skillful at finding moments throughout your day to work on runes you are etching. You can etch runes into one of your improvised runestones without spending downtime days, instead using your daily preparation time and whatever spare time you have throughout your adventures, such as while keeping watch or riding in a wagon.
You may only use this feat to etch runes into your improvised runestones. Etching a rune in this way takes a number of adventuring days equal to the rune’s level. During each day that you work on the rune, you cannot create a new improvised runestone. You must pay the crafting costs of etching the rune as normal, and may not spend extra days of crafting to reduce the cost.
10- Temporary Runes
You have learned to quickly scrawl temporary runes. During your daily preparations, you may use your etching tools to inscribe one temporary rune of a level up to half your level that you know the formula for on a weapon or set of armor. The rune has no effect until the person wielding the weapon or armor uses a free action with the envision trait to activate it, upon which the rune will affect the weapon, armor, and/or wielder as normal for one minute. After the minute has passed, or if the rune has not been activated before your next daily preparation, the rune burns away and disappears with a dim purple flame. You may not inscribe a temporary rune on the same day you use Find the Time to work on a rune, and the temporary rune must follow all the usual rules for which runes can affect an item.
14- Rune Eater
You have learned to siphon energy from runes to supplement your life force. You gain the Siphon Runes action below.
Siphon Runes
1 action, envision.
Requirements: you are wearing or wielding a piece of equipment that is benefiting from etched runes
You absorb energy from all the runes on a piece of equipment you are wearing or wielding. You heal for a number of d6 depending on the equipment, plus your level.
- Weapon- potency value+damage dice+number of property runes
(ex. +2 greater striking ghost touch scimitar, heal 2+3+1 = 6d6+lvl) - Armor- potency value +resilience bonus +number of property runes.
(ex. +1 explorer’s clothes of readiness, heal 1+1 = 2d6+lvl)
After you are healed, the runes become dormant and must recharge. They have no effect on the equipment they are etched into, and any requirements they have are waived. They remain inactive for eight hours, after which they regain their effects as normal. If you siphon a temporary rune from the Temporary Runes feat, it is completely consumed and disappears.
14- Twice as Bright
You have learned how to manifest the magic from runes on your equipment. You gain the Ignite Runes action below.
Ignite Runes
1 action, envision.
Requirements: you are wearing or wielding a piece of equipment that is benefiting from etched runes.
You cause all the runes on a piece of equipment you are wearing or wielding to ignite, flaring with potent magical energy.
- If you ignite a weapon, it gains a bonus to damage equal to the number of damage dice plus one for each property rune plus its potency bonus. If the weapon has a rune that adds damage of a certain type, the extra damage is one of those types of your choice. Otherwise it is fire damage.
(ex. +2 greater striking ghost touch scimitar, 2+3+1 = 6 added fire damage) - If you ignite a piece of armor, it grants a status bonus to AC and saving throws equal to the number of property runes etched into it.
(ex. +1 explorer’s clothes of readiness, +1 AC and saving throws)
The effects last for one minute. Afterwards, the runes become dormant and must recharge. They have no effect on the equipment they are etched into, and any requirements they have are waived. They remain inactive for one hour, after which they regain their effects as normal. If you ignite a temporary rune from the Temporary Runes feat, it is completely consumed and disappears after the duration.
