Pathfinder (2e): Basics of Runes Part 1 (Fundamental and Property Runes)

hello and welcome to basics for gamers presents the basics of runes in pathfinder 2nd edition in this first part of the series we're going to cover what runes are and how they work and in part 2 we'll examine other related topics like how to upgrade a rune how to remove a rune from its item or transfer a rune from one item to another most magic weapons and armor gain their special properties through runes runes represent ancient secrets and magical science that bestow power to items that they're engraved upon and they take two forms fundamental runes and property runes fundamental runes provide the most basic and common magical effects for weapons these runes increase attack bonus and damage and for armor these runes provide a bonus to armor class and saves and property runes grant many other effects beyond the basic enchantments provided by fundamental runes for example making a pseudo of armor resistant to acid damage or setting a long sword on fire let's take a closer look at fundamental runes first there are two kinds of fundamental runes for armor and those are armor potency runes and resilient runes armor potency runes grant an item bonus to armor class and the number of the bonus also indicates the maximum number of property runes that the item can have so a suit of plus one leather armor means it is a suit of leather armor and gets a plus one item bonus to armor class in addition the potency rune makes the armor magical and it will register the spells like detect magic and redora the plus one potency rune also means this leather armor may have one property rune etched on it as well the second fundamental rune for armor is resilient resilient runes grant a bonus to all saves and come in three varieties resilient greater resilient and major resilient each of those runes increases the bonuses saves by one so resilient runes are plus one to saves greater resilient runes are plus two and major resilient runes are plus three remember when you see the name of a suit of armor the plus value in the name refers to its armor potency rune and is also the bonus it receives to armor class that plus number has nothing to do with a resilient rune and its bonus to saves instead the armor will have the word resilient for a plus one to saves the name will say greater resilient for a plus two to saves or major resilient for a plus three to all saves fundamental runes for weapons function in much the same way the first fundamental rune for weapons is weapon potency when a potency rune is added to a weapon it is shown as a plus number in the weapons name so a plus two battle axe has a plus two weapon potency rune etched on it and that plus number is both the item bonus added to attack rules as well as the number of property runes the weapon can have and remember that plus value is only added to attack rolls it does not grant a bonus to damage instead to increase the weapons damage you'll want to etch the second kind of weapon fundamental rune which is called striking striking runes can increase the number of damage dice rolled with the weapon a striking rune increases the weapon's damage to two dice a greater striking rune increases base damage to three dice and a major striking rune increases base damage to four dice so if you add a striking rune to a long sword it will deal 2d8 damage on a hit instead of 1d8 and remember this is an increase to the weapon's base damage dice so anytime the weapon dice are modified the extra damage from striking are also modified as well for example the two hand trait changes the weapons based damage dice so a plus one striking broadsword does 2d8 damage when used with one hand and 2d 12 damage when used in both hands not one d12 plus 1d8 and the damage due to striking is also increased if the effect specifically says it is for example the deadly trait states that its damage is increased if the weapon has a greater or major striking rune therefore the number of delhi dice are increased but not if the weapon has just a regular striking rune but striking runes do not increase the damage dice of damaging effects that are in addition to the base physical weapon damage like bonus damage from a sneak attack would not be increased because of a striking rune or fire damage caused by a flaming weapon that also would not be increased due to a striking rune as mentioned before there are two kinds of runes fundamental runes are the core runes that provide basic enhancements and the second type of runes are property runes simply put property runes let the armor or weapon do all kinds of other cool stuff beyond the basic things that come from fundamental runes want to give your sword the vorpal quality or wear armor that can turn you invisible then you need to add property runes when you look at a property rune stat block you will see some effects are passive and always occur when the item is in use for example armor etched with a shadow rune grants its benefit whenever the armor is worn and invested but other runes like the shifting rune require you to activate the item in this case it takes a single action to use the shifting runes special properties there are way too many property runes to go over all of them here but it's pretty simple you would just treat those property runes in a very similar way that you would any other magical item the key difference being that runes cannot be used on their own they must be attached to another item it's also important to remember that there are limits to how many runes a single item can have etched on it each weapon or suit of armor can have one potency rune and either one resilient rune if it is armor or one striking rune if it is a weapon and then can have as many property runes as the bonus provided by its potency rune so for example a plus one longsword has a plus one weapon potency rune etched on it a plus one striking longsword has a plus one weapon potency rune and a striking rune and a plus one striking flaming longsword has a plus one weapon put in surun a striking rune and a flaming rune this longsword cannot gain a second property rune until it first increases its potency rune to plus two and since the striking rune is a fundamental rune it does not count against the number of property runes the sword can have and note that an item cannot have more than one of the same type of rune so you couldn't have two plus one potency runes and instead would start with a single plus one potency rune and then upgrade it to plus two we'll talk more about upgrading runes in the next video of this series in this video we discussed the basics of runes runes are used to grant magical properties to weapons and armor there are two types of runes fundamental runes and property runes the fundamental runes for weapons are weapon potency runes that provide an item bonus to attacks and are noted in the item's name by a plus value and striking runes that increase the number of damage dice that are rolled with the weapon the fundamental runes for armor are armor potency and resilient armor potency runes provide an item bonus to armor class and are noted in the item's name as a plus value and resilient runes grant a bonus to all saves the second type of runes are property runes these add a wide variety of other magical effects to the item each magical item may have one potency rune either one striking or one resilient rune depending on if it is a weapon or armor and may have no more property runes than the plus value of its potency rune also magical items may not have multiple copies of the same kind of rune for example two resilient runes or two flaming runes in the next video this series we will expand this conversation by covering topics such as how to upgrade a rune how to remove a rune from an item and how to transfer a rune from one item to another before we close i'd like to take a moment to thank all of our patrons these videos would not be possible without their continued generosity and support 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Channel: How It's Played

Views: 26,437

Keywords: top 5, top 10, best, Pathfinder, 2nd Edition, PF2, 2e, Dungeons and Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, DND, Paizo, Game, Role-playing, RPG, games, gaming, how to, guide, basic rules, rules summary, Pathfinder rules, Pathfinder rules summary, how to play Pathfinder, critical role, critical roll, pathfinder rpg, Runes, rune, magic, magic items, fundamental runes, property runes, striking, striking runes, resilient, resilient runes, potency, potency runes, basics4gamers

Id: G3T2MUP1cLU

Length: 11min 10sec (670 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Primodog]

Awesome content as always. Any chance you could cover hazards at some point?

[u/zagdem]

Quick question : can I add runes to handwraps ?

[u/StarMizz]

Is it possible to add a property runes to items that do not have any potency runes on it?