Runecaster Mod: Craft runes and destroy your enemies!

On an update spree you are, I see.

Not that a bad thing though it is, for the idea splendid appears to be.

 

Trivia of the day:

Yoda-speak is in fact meant to use Japanese word order in tribute to Akira Kurosawa, whose The Hidden Fortress inspired Star Wars. Yoda is a common Japanese surname.

That said, actual Japanese word order would be pretty hard to parse, so it tends to only be a feeble approximation. (e.g. "You an update spree on are, I see. A bad thing it is not, though, the idea splendid appears to be for.")

 

Damnedest thing, I was coming here to comment on hitting myself with certain runes - but you've already fixed it. *shakefist*

 

I know, Velorien. Japanese culture and language are stealthily used in movies with people not even noticing quite often. And Japanese word order is a pain sometimes, really (depending on your first language; mine has sentence structure that is closer to Japanese than it is to English).

Thank you for your explanation, nevertheless.

 

I figured even if you knew, other people might find it cool. What's your first language?

(sorry if this is derailing the thread too much)

 

I'm now taking suggestions on ideas for the creation of new runewords.

If you wish to submit an idea, please include the following information

Rune Word Title
Rune Word Level
Rune Word Sprite and/or description
Rune Word Recipe
Short description of how the rune word should function


Keep in mind that all rune words are thrown projectiles. The Runeword level is determined by the highest level rune component in the recipe, a recipe with a fifth circle rune as one of its components will be a 5th level Rune Word. If I like your idea, I will incorporate your suggestions into a new Rune Word on the next update.

for your convenience i have a list of the rune pieces sorted by level

1st circle
Strength
Movement
Life
Self
2nd circle
Matter
Energy
Fire
Water
3rd circle
Spirit
Harvest
Rigidity
Transformation
4th circle
Heavens
Wisdom
Destiny
Purity
5th circle
Ambition
Gods
Chaos
Harmony

 

There seems to be a bit of an issue at low levels with needing far more of the Runes of Movement than any other type. So maybe something like this?

Runeword of Mutation
Level 1
Strength+Life
Standing on this rune fills you with life. Glorious, unpredictable life. 4 transmutative +.25 Magic power. (Modeled after Runeword of Force, but without knockback, and slightly more damage to compensate.)

 

Can you just attach a copy to your post? Google docs isn't letting me download this.​

 

Entropy Mine has something like a 75.4719% chance of doing nothing whatsoever when triggered. That's kind of weak sauce. I'd up the percentages of each effect to like 3%, that way it only has a 42.6195% chance of doing nothing when triggered.

 

I've updated the mod on Dredmorpedia. I've also added some useful links between the item section and the craft section.

amount isn't the chance, percent is.

There's only a 6% chance of nothing happening.

 

Umm...SQUIRREL!!!

 

J-Factor, I love the new features you added to dredmorpedia. especially the craft recipe outputs. Now I can see exactly how many recipes are used with each runeword (and the uselessness of rune of harvest). I also spotted a bug in one of the runeword spells. Great work!

 

OK, so I played my first hardcore Runecaster.

Runecaster
Wand Crafting
Poisoneer (for the on-throw proc of poison)
Dual Wield (purely for entertainment)
Bushido (survival purposes)
Throwing (Rebalanced version with extra damage; why the hell not?)
Blood Magic


My experience: I wouldn't ever take Wand Crafting again. Runecasting takes up your ENTIRE backpack, so just don't bother trying to collect anything else for any reason. Taking Throwing alongside Runecaster is actually a pretty good idea for one simple reason: Toss Monster does a hell of a lot more when you can immediately slap a Rune of Force down where that monster was and have your flank protected. Blood Magic is, as always, extraordinarily useful when it comes to keeping up on the rather large mana costs of Runecrafter.

Don't ever try to use Runecrafting as your main offense. It can't keep up. But as a supplement to a Roguish offense, it kicks ass (Rune of Swiftness + Rune of Health = Supreme Rogue Tanking). The entire second circle of Runes basically says "Dominate Target Monster Zoo". I died before I could toss more than Runes of Teleportation from the third circle, but that alone saved my life at least twice.

When I play Runecaster again, I'm going to take Ley Line Walker for Thaumaturgic Tap -- this beast eats through your mana like it's cherry pie and then says "Please, Sir, may I have some more?". I probably wouldn't ever combine this with any other actual caster skills, though, because you won't have any mana left to use them.

Time to start build number two: The ROCK STAR

Runecaster
Blood Magic
Ley Line Walker
Bushido
Unarmed Combat
Practical Geomancy
Throwing

Dual Shields + Geomancy's armor + Bushido's HP gain should keep me alive; Blood Magic + Line Walking + Runecaster should leave me with lots of fun options outside of kicking heads in; Throwing for the added damage, Monster Toss, and the almighty Hey, A Rock! This will be fun.

[EDIT]BWAAAHAHAHAHAAaa -- I didn't think of this! The +5 from Practical Geomancy's first level adds damage to THROWN ATTACKS. These two skills were meant to be paired together![/EDIT]

 

Wait, so your rebalance works with mods? I was hesitant to even look at it at first, since well, I don't want the delicious lifeblood that is mods to be gone entirely, but now I think that this is not the case...?

 

Nope, my rebalance is completely mod-friendly. It changes the game at the pre-modloader stage, so any mods you choose just get laid over the top.

[EDIT]Took my new character up to 3rd level runes. Gotta say, that steel golem is really, really strong. Like really strong. Like, it was one-hitting everything it came across when I first got it. I'd consider moving it up to 4th level.[/EDIT]

Now, then: some ideas! I'll start with 4 new level 3 runes.
*****************************************
(all Rune Word descriptions referenced here: http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/runes.html)

Rune Word Title: Flow Control
Rune Word Level: 3
Rune Word Sprite and/or description: "disorder"
Rune Word Recipe: Rune of Self, Rune of Water, Rune of Harvest
Short description of how the rune word should function: When you step on the symbol, you receive 30 mana. (Assuming all rune letters were created by multi-casting, but without reference to Savvy bonuses, that's the precise amount of Mana it takes to create all three rune letters used to make this spell, so in theory it's not really a mana gain as much as it's a "store mana away for later".)

[EDIT]
Rune Word Title: Puissance
Rune Word Level: 3
Rune Word Sprite and/or description: "dragonewt"
Rune Word Recipe: Rune of Rigidity, Rune of Strength, Rune of Harvest
Short description of how the rune word should function: Standing on the rune gives you +100 critical for 1 turn (as per the Agility symbol), but also gives you a -50 critical buff that lasts for 12 turns. Net effect: standing on the symbol makes you a crit machine, but having an enemy walk over it (and then off of it) cripples their crittiness.

Rune Word Title: Blossom
Rune Word Level: 3
Rune Word Sprite and/or description: "plant"
Rune Word Recipe: Rune of Life, Rune of Matter, Rune of Harvest
Short description of how the rune word should function: Where the rune lands, everything in a template100 radius is afflicted with Shathka's Roots (sic), and every empty square has a 15% chance to spawn a random mushroom. (Two separate template effects, one triggers a targetemptyfloor spawn effect, the other triggers the Roots spell.)

Rune Word Title: Kinetic Reflection
Rune Word Level: 3
Rune Word Sprite and/or description: "hunger"
Rune Word Recipe: Rune of Self, Rune of Rigidity, Rune of Energy
Short description of how the rune word should function: When standing on the rune, you get a buff that procs a Knock effect and a decent chunk of damage whenever you take a hit. (This works well with the generally thrown-weapon nature of the entire skill tree, so I think it deserves a spot at 3rd level. Especially if the damage is even moderately decent.)
*****************************************************************************[/EDIT]

 

Essence... have you looked at the sprite for Rune of Harvest lately?

 

I just caught that. I'll come up with something new when I edit in some other ideas after breakfast.

 

Just got 4th circle runes. HOLY CRAP! Rune of Restoration is crazy, and while Rune of Light is kind of narrow in it's focus, the resist buffs are extraordinary. I'm afraid it might be a broken killer app for powerleveling, though -- steal something from Brax, pop a Rune of Light, stand on it, and tank Dread Collectors with relative ease for 20+ turns.

Rune of Death is a one-hit-kill against literally anything that isn't undead. Named Muscle Diggle about to uppercut you into oblivion? No problem -- one hit, dead. Lord Dremor's custom pet Fahque Elemental about to blast your face off? Rune of Death. The answer to any non-undead problem is Rune of Death. I'm amazed that this is only 4th circle. It scares me to think what might be waiting for me in 2 more levels.

Oh, and did I mention Rune of Prophecy? It deals massive PBAoE damage every other turn for a long time, but more importantly is paralyzes the shit out of everything around you every time it hits. If an enemy resists one, don't worry, there's another coming in 2 turns. Not like you needed to worry about Monster Zoos anyway, what with Rune of Stone and Rune of Decay pulling off an even faster-better version of the Golemancy zoo-clearing trick, but if you want a change of pace, pop a Rune of Prophecy and then a Rune of Teleport to get right into the middle of the action and watch everything fall like wheat before a scythe. (Note: I haven't actually tried that, but it seems utterly feasible. YMMV.)

This skill may need a little bit of toning down at the upper levels, is what I'm saying. Just a little.

 

This almost works. Monsters can (and will) body-block Runes of Teleport, so you need another source of teleportation (read: maxxed Ley Line Walker) if you don't have a clear shot to "the middle of the action." You'll also want to cast the teleport when the Rune of Prophecy self-buff has an odd number of turns remaining on its countdown, so that you don't eat a round of attacks before the PBAoE fires again.

 

I think im going to change rune of prophecy so that it targets an individual unit, and makes that unit highly resistant to aetherial damage, so it can be used on enemies and summons alike.