You have spent your whole life focusing on magic. You can cast spells faster than most and with greater effect. You however have a hard time dealing with heavy weapons and armor, but your spells more than make up for it.
Gen Dice:
- Vitality: (Initial) 1d8 (Secondary) 1d6
- Soul: (Initial) 1d20 (Secondary) 1d8
- Power: (Initial) 1d6 (Secondary) 1d4
Weapon & Armor Types:
- Cannot use heavy weapons, most proficient in Rods & Staffs
- Can only wear light armor
The Runic Mage Profession is all about learning and mastering magic as well as any skills and abilities that improve their ability to use magic. They also tend to focus on rune stone creation and elemental creation. It is not a profession that focuses on combat or making money. If you wish to play the all powerful wizard, this is the profession for you.
Back to top1) Effects on Weapon Usage
Runic Mages always deal 25% less melee damage in battle, except for when using staffs or rods. Therefore staffs and rods would be the ideal weapon for a runic mage, besides of course his or her magic. They can't use heavy weapons like great swords and battle axes.
Back to top2) Effects on Armor Usage
Runic Mages are unable to wear heavy or medium armor. They must stick with light armor.
Back to top3) Profession Level Progression
Runic Mages are masters of the arcane arts. They can manipulate and control rune stones and magic better than non runic mages. Their skills are magic skills and their rune stone spells.
All characters get the following by leveling up regardless of profession:
- Each level up you get your secondary gen dice rolls for Vitality, Soul, and Power.
- Each level up you get 1d4 stat points
- Each level up you get 1d6 trait points
- You can acquire 1 skill of choice in or out of profession.
- At level 1 you have an initial 1d6 trait points that you can assign as desired
- Your profession will also provide bonuses when you level up
- You can start with 1 spell, and gain a new spell on every odd number level whether you are a runic mage or not.
Runic Mages gain the following through leveling up every other level:
| Level | Bonuses |
|---|---|
| 2 | +1d4 to Intellect; +1 to Wisdom; 2 skills, 1 ability, 1 spell |
| 4 | +1d4 to Intellect and Wisdom; +1d4 trait points; +1 skill and ability; 1d4 spells |
| 6 | +1d4 Soul; +1d6 to Intellect traits; +1d4 to Wisdom Traits; +2 skills and 1 ability; 1d4 spells |
| 8 | +1d8 trait points; +1d4 Vitality; +1d4 skills; +1 ability; +1 spell |
| 10 | +1d10 Stat Points; +1d6 trait points; +1d4 skills; +1d4 abilities; +1d4 spells: +1d4 Power |
| 12 | +1 to all Intellect traits; +2 skills; +1 ability; +2 spells |
| 14 | +1 to all Wisdom traits; +1 skill; +2 abilities; +1 spell |
| 16 | +1 to all Speed or Charisma traits (your choice); +1d4 skills; +1 ability; +1d4 spells |
| 18 | +1d8 Intellect; +1d6 Wisdom; +1d6 trait points; +1d4 skills; +1 ability; +2 spells |
| 20 | +1 to all Intellect traits; 1d4 abilities; +1d4 spells |
4) Skills
Runic Mages specialize in casting spells and empowering their magical connection to their runic element.
4.1) Runic Mage Skill Progression
4.2) Runic Mage Skills
| Skill | Stat Cost | Range & Area | Duration | Check Roll | Effects | Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battle Mage | N/A | self | instant | Normal Arcana +1 | You can absorb 10% of the spell damage and use it to restore your Soul. |
N/A |
| Casting Strike | 4 Soul | 1 ally | 1d6 rounds | Normal Arcana | Cast an offensive spell on the weapon of your ally. Whenever your ally makes a critical hit with that weapon, the spell will cast. |
Spell Slinger |
| Divination | 2 Soul | self | 1 hour | Easy Insight | +2 to Insight when using tools of divination. |
N/A |
| Elemental Awakening | 10 Soul | self | 1 day | depends on level | Allows you to create and awaken an elemental representative of your element.
|
Soul Empowerment |
| Enchanting | 6 Soul | 1 ally | 1 day | Hard Arcana | Enchant your ally with your runic element. Your ally will get a +1 to arcana and a +1d4 to runic power. Your ally will also gain your elemental bonuses to defense and offense, but none of the weaknesses. |
Casting Strike |
| Hexing | 4 Soul | 1 item in hand | instant | Normal Arcana | With this skill you can apply any curse that you have learned to an item, cursing said item. |
Learn Curse |
| Learn Curse | 2 Soul | self | instant | Easy Arcana | With this skill you can learn one curse of a cursed object. You must first experience the curse. |
N/A |
| Magic Absorb | 20% of damage as Soul | self | instant | Normal Focus | You can absorb the damage of the spell that would affect your vitality to be released with Magic Redirect skill. You must release the spell damage before the end of battle or it will fade away. The absorbed damage will not affect your Vitality, instead 20% of it will go against your Soul for each round that you hold on to it. |
Battle Mage |
| Magic Break | Spent Soul | 1 target | instant | Normal Arcana | With this skill you throw Soul at any ongoing magic, be it an enchantment, lock, or door, with the intent to break it. Every 2 Soul decreases the spell's energy by 1. Once it is reduced to 0 it is broken. |
Magic Sense |
| Magic Counter | cost of spell | self | instant | Normal React | You can counter attack a target that has attacked you, whether it be by melee, range, or spell, with an attack spell of your own. You must be able to cast that spell instantly. |
Battle Mage |
| Magic Mirror | 10 Soul | self | instant | Impossible Arcana | Reflects 1d% percentage of the spell back at the spell caster. |
Soul Empowerment |
| Magic Redirect | N/A | target of spell | instant | Normal Focus | You can add all of the absorbed spell damage you gained using Magic Absorb into your one target offensive spell. |
Magic Absorb |
| Magic Sense | N/A | a room or 100x100 square foot area | instant | Easy Arcana | Allows you to sense magic and its element. You can sense the magic in a room or 100x100 square foot area. |
N/A |
| Magical Thought | 8 Soul | self | instant | Impossible Insight | With this skill you can wish for an effect to happen when spell casting. You must voice your wish and the GM could apply different penalties depending upon your wish. |
Soul Empowerment |
| Magical Vampirism | N/A | self | instant | Normal Arcana | With this skill 10% of the spell damage you cause can be used to restore your Vitality. |
Battle Mage |
| Mana Armor | 8 Soul | self | 1d6 rounds | Impossible Arcana | This skill coats you with arcana. Your Magical armor is increased by your Arcana while your physical armor is increased by 1. You also gain a +1 to armor defense, +2 if it is a magical attack. |
Mana Shield |
| Mana Shield | 6 Soul | self | 1d6 rounds | Hard Arcana | You create a shield of pure arcana. It has a block value that is your Arcana + 1d4. You can use normal blocking skills with it. |
Mana Weapon |
| Mana Weapon | 4 Soul | self | 1d6 rounds | Normal Arcana | You create a weapon of pure arcana as either a sword or staff. It has an attack range of 1. Its attack value is your runic power + 1d4. You can use any bashing or slashing attack skills with it. You apply your elemental affects to attack when attacking with it. You will also add your offensive power when attacking with it. It has no block or parry value. |
Battle Mage |
| Occult Aid | 4 Soul | self | 1 day | Hard Insight | A spirit guide will assist you by giving you a +1d4 to all of your checks. However at the end of the day you have to make an easy spiritual balance check. If you fail you will be possessed while you sleep and will not know what you did during the night. |
Occult Guidance |
| Occult Empowerment | 5 Soul | self | 1 day | Hard Insight | Spirit guides empower your spells increasing your runic power by 1d20. However you must roll a 1d20 with all of your spell castings and if you roll a 1 it will do the opposite effect. |
Occult Aid |
| Occult Guidance | 3 Soul | self | instant | Normal Insight | Able to use tarot cards to gain answers and predictions. You will use the card whether you fail the skill or succeed, however only a success will grant accurate answers. Still, you must be careful because even when accurate you never know what kind of entity is answering you. |
Divination |
| Piercing Spell | 4 Soul | self | instant | Normal Arcana | The spell becomes piercing, ensuring an extra point of spell damage gets past the target's defenses so that the target will experience at least 2 damage to vitality instead of 1. |
Spell Slinger |
| Remove Curse | 6 Soul | 1 item in touching range | instant | Hard Arcana | You can remove 1 curse from a cursed item. |
Hexing |
| Soul Empowerment | N/A | self | 1d6 rounds | Hard Arcana | Increase Soul by 1d20. |
Magic Break |
| Spell Aid | 2 Soul | 1 ally | instant | Normal React | If an ally is casting a spell, you can aide that ally in their spell casting. Doing so you increase their Arcana by 1d4 and Runic Power by your Arcana for that cast. |
Battle Mage |
| Spell Bomb | 8 Soul | self | instant | Impossible Arcana | Makes the spell affect a 3x3 area. Any target in the area will get hit by the same spell and receive the same spell damage. |
Splitting Magic |
| Spell Slinger | 2 Soul | self | instant | Easy Arcana | Turns your spell into a fast spell, increasing hit chance by 2. |
N/A |
| Splitting Magic | 4 Soul | self | instant | Hard Arcana | Changes the single target spell causing it to split to affect 2 targets next to each other. Spell damage is halved among them. |
Piercing Spell |
5) Runic Mage Abilities
These are abilities that are unique to the runic mage profession. Only runic mages can obtain and use these abilities:
| Ability | Effects | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Child of Magic | You are able to extend the duration of your spells that last longer than instant. You simply spend 1/2 of the Soul cost for each additional round you wish the spell to continue. |
Must have at least 4 spells |
| Create Talisman | This ability allows you to create talismans. Talismans can be created for the following:
|
Witch Runes |
| Elemental Blood | Soul regenerates by Arcana per hour or per every other round. |
Child of Magic |
| Elemental Dominance | Treat all other elements except the element you are weak against as being weak against you. |
Rune Stone Theory |
| Elemental Lord | Treat the element you are weak against as if you are strong against it. |
Elemental Dominance |
| Empathy Casting | This ability allows for your emotions to fuel your magic damage or healing potential. If you attack an enemy with a magic spell, and are filled with anger, your character's Runic Power will be increased by 1d12 for that attack. Same thing if you use a healing spell with this ability if your character is filled with a feeling of urgency to help that other character. If your character has opposite feelings, such as happiness when using magic against an enemy and this ability, the spell simply won't do any damage. |
Empathy talent, Rule of Karma |
| Magic Channeling | You can increase your spell damage or healing power by an extra runic power each time you double the required casting speed. If the casting speed is 2 and you channel casting the spell for a casting speed of 4, you can add a second runic power to the spell. If you channel that spell to a casting speed of 6 you get to add yet another runic power to it. You can only channel a spell up to 4 times. |
N/A |
| Magic Grace | Causes spells that affect everyone in an area to not harm allies or benefit enemies. |
Elemental Blood |
| Magic Ink | Allows you to create spell scrolls. The spells written on these scrolls are single use items where the writing fades away after use. You can write a spell scroll for any spell that you have to use or give to you ally to use. They can be used as support actions, do not take any stats to cast, and can be used by anyone regardless of element. The casting speed is the amount of rounds it will take for the spell from the scroll to cast. No runic power or critical magic is used with spells cast from scrolls. |
N/A |
| Magic Mastery | Increase Arcana by 1 and runic power by 1d6. |
Magic Proficiency |
| Magic Proficiency | Increase your hit chance with spells by 1, and your crit chance with spells by 2. |
N/A |
| Magic Theory | Increase Runic Power by +2. |
N/A |
| Magical Components | Allows for improving effects of ingredients by adding spell crafting components to them. |
Potion Craft |
| Magical Training | Magic Spells cost half as much Soul to cast. |
N/A |
| Potion Craft | Allows for use of potions in spell casting. The effects of the potion are added to the spell. |
Sorcery |
| Pre Cast | With this ability you can begin casting a spell right before the battle begins. What this does is allows you to go ahead and subtract your runic speed from the casting speed of the spell before the beginning of combat. If this means you can cast the spell right away then you will cast it right at the start of your turn and thusly be free to cast another spell during your turn. Otherwise this will speed up the casting of longer to cast spells. |
Spell Necessity |
| Quick Cast | This runic mage ability decreases the casting speed of your spell by 1. If it decreases to less than 1 it becomes a free cast allowing you to cast another spell, however you cannot use quick cast on the following spell. |
Magic Channeling |
| Rule of Karma | Your spells are affected by morality alignment. If they are of an opposing alignment to you, your spells will deal 25% more damage by heal 25% less. |
N/A |
| Rune Stone Theory | Allows you to create rune stones of a spell family once you have the spells of that family. |
N/A |
| Sorcery | Allows for use of alchemical ingredients for spell casting. |
N/A |
| Spell Crafting | Allows you to create spells using the spell crafting system. |
Spell Modification, must have modified 3 spells |
| Spell Modification | Allows you to modify spells using the spell crafting system. |
Magic Theory |
| Spell Necessity | This ability allows you to use vitality to cover Soul if you do not have enough soul to cast the spell. |
Quick Cast |
| Staggering Spell | Critical hits with spells daze targets for 1d6 rounds. |
Magic Mastery |
| Witch Runes | This ability allows you to use ylem imbued ink to write magical runes. Each rune must be learned but provides a powerful effect to whatever the rune is written on. Runes included in ability description. | Magic Ink |