Runecaster Mod: Craft runes and destroy your enemies!

I've tried this for a bit, and I have to say it: This is the most overpowered mod I've tried. Even the first level is very powerful, the first two get absurd already... haven't got third level runes yet(but it's my next goal, because: targeted teleport).

With just the first two you get:
Blink
A persistent knockback + damage rune(aka forcefield)
Wall summoning
Very powerful persistent fire aoe (on floor two enemies don't get through this one alive)
Powerful persistent ice aoe
Powerful persistent voltaic aoe
Healing base
Nimbleness/Dodge/EDR buff

It's extremely easy to set up a healing base you can stand on, make a chokepoint with created walls, put force runes between those so things don't get through, and fire runes at the other end of the forcefield, and spam enemies with any damage runes you feel like. (all these steps are NOT required, often starting with a force rune, then a fire rune, and nothing gets to you alive, then you can set up a healing base so spellcasters don't hurt).

With leylines it's easy to make basically unlimited supply of runes, so you don't ever need anything else to attack with, and can spam all you want/need.

 

Yup. I'm playing a game right now where my ONLY combat toolset is Runecaster and everything else is going to support that (Runecaster/Leylines/Magic Training/Blood Magic/Mana Mastery/Wild Magic/Burglary) -- and it's easy mode thus far. Only on DL5, but it's a snap with only Circle 1 and 2 runes. I have basically constant mana which means basically infinite runes, and there's nothing that the runes can't do except pick locks and disarm traps, which Burglary.

 

I did burglary/archeology/runecaster/leylines/blood magic/unarmed/mechanic (the latter two to boost throwing damage mostly, the buff you get for putting 1 point in mechanic gives +2 piercing +6 melee power, and stacks to 2, so +16 damage basically).

 

Interestingly 3rd and 4th level runes don't offer that much(besides the teleport in 3rd), 5th level runes though once again go off the power scale. Particularly with Runeword of Destruction. Large very damaging aoe with wall destruction. Instant effect, no mine. Runeword of Power is also quite nice, giving a fairly long buff with +10 melee power, +20 magic power, +100 crit +100 haywire. (Everything you do will crit for the duration).

 

You think? I thought Runeword Steel was bordering on OP, Runeword Aurafication was a great way to turn a zoo into a hundred thousand Zorkmids, Runeword Restoration was a life-saver (literally), and Runeword Prophecy was a license to dance into a zoo laughing (knowing your Runeword Teleport could get you back out, natch.

 

Ok so prophecy was good..

Wasn't overly fond of steel, light was too target restrictive, aurification ok you got gold, but it was weak compared to the rest, I didn't see restoration doing anything, maybe I used it wrong(I threw it at a tile and then stepped on the mine, nothing happened, I assumed it was a decurser). Really when it came down to it, the only ones I kept copies of in my quickbar from 3&4 was teleport and prophecy.

When I had 5th level runes the ones I kept in quickbar was force, health, flame, ice, teleport, prophecy, and destruction.

 

Seriously, not fond of steel? That damned golem tanked 100% of DL 7 for me while I sat back and laughed. Slap a Rune of Agility and/or Healing under that thing every once in a while and it just blew through everything in it's path.

 

Probably because the golem took several hits to kill something, while I could kill at least one enemy with one throw of a rune. and it blocks my lines of fire. Basically it was comparatively slow to doing the work yourself. I think I'm not very fond of pets in general in this game.

Pets slow things down, and there's enough other slowdowns anyway.

 

All of this feedback is a sign that perhaps the damage on the runes needs to be nerfed.

Or I could make the rune spells cost even more.

 

I have nothing to say about this since I don't use mods (except for the ones made into official DLC).

 

I think the problem is inherent in the concept. Compare this to alchemy, then consider the power disparity, and that people still consider alchemy a good skill.

Why post then? "I'm just posting this because I have nothing to say" is nonsensical, it's basically spam.

 

You're missing out on a lot of good stuff. YHTNTEP content was purely taken from player mods.

 

This mod is really fun and I love how much variety it produces. I wish I could help balance it somehow. imo a very relevant nerf would be to have the runes act more like the runes from promethean magic or astrology where if you throw it at a creature, the rune becomes displaced. On my local version on my laptop (since I use the steam workshop for my desktop but not my laptop) I might go in and edit some of the damage numbers too to see if I can nerf the damage, maybe scaling as well, without removing too much utility.