6:31 "For 10 minutes, you gain a +2 bonus to all ability checks, as well as saving throws that use Strength or Constitution." I read that part wrong. It is +2 bonus to ability checks and saving throws that use Strength or Constitution. The +2 to ability checks does not apply to any ability checks not using Strength or Constitution.
@@cp1cupcake Yeah. The comma really makes it seem like they are separate things, when the intention is likely that the belong to the same category within the feature.
suggestion for word change. instead of calling it "minor effect", it is better to call it the "passive effect". then the invoked effekt becomes "active effect"
I was just about to query your reading of that. So its a bonus to ability checks that use Strength or Constitution, and to saving throws that also use Strength or Constitution. Correct?
@@VaughanCockell Correct. A less confusing sentence might have been "For 10 minutes, you gain a +2 bonus to all Strength or Constitution based ability checks and saving throws."
Would love to play a halfling Rune Knight. I like halflings in general and this could make all the short jokes and cracks about eating all the party's food worth it. I can just hear the story being told now, "So then our halfling wrestled the dragon to the ground, and-" "Wait, what?"
I love the idea of making a Yuan-Ti Rune Knight that has perverted the runes to make him/her closer to an Anathema. So the more powerful s/he gets the more Anathema snake like the fighter looks. I think that could be super fun.
One interesting tidbit on Giant's Might - Enlarge/Reduce specifies that your weight increases or decreases as your size changes, but Giant's Might and Runic Juggernaut do not. This does unexpected things to the Rune Knight's density. I have seen some math out there that a halfling Rune Knight, with Reduce cast on them first, and then growing to Huge size with Runic Juggernaut, is technically less dense than air... but that gets into the ugly mixing of real world physics with D&D rules and magic. Honestly I just like the mental image of of a gigantic halfling Rune Knight slowly floating into things, like a Macy's Thanksgiving Parade balloon in a strong wind.
With that logic, you could cast Reduce on your party's Gnome to make them tiny and weigh 5 pounds (average weight is 40, reduced to 1/8) and then the gnome hulks out to reach Large/Huge size and then you have a 5 pound Huge creature your barbarian can throw.
Watch [film theory]'s video on antman it explains that because of density alot of the small stuff that gets embiggen'd becomes lighter than air [per square inch] so the train and large ant would have floated away into space if physics were actually involved
Stone option spends a reaction at the end of another creatures turns to cause incapacitation, charmed, and speed of 0 on a failed save. Since it’s at the end of a turn, this can potentially be used right after an enemy caster casts their big concentration spell. If they fail the save, incapacitation ends that spell, potentially before it even has a chance to do anything.
In his tier lists where he also mentioned his number 1 subclass for each class, he put Echo Knight as the best Fight subclass, and mentioned that it would probably have been Battle Master otherwise. Obviously this was before Tasha's, but apparently there are at least 2 other subclasses for Fighter he ranks higher than Eldritch Knight, which also surprised me. Now it's surprising to hear this might knock Echo Knight of its pedestal as the best Fighter subclass. *EDIT* Turns out it competes with Echo Knight, but knocking it off of its pedestal would be an exaggeration. I suppose it's because EK doesn't mesh too well with the Fighter chassis, and casting spells comes at the cost of using your weapon attacks, unlike those higher ranked subclasses who can continue to do what Fighters do best while enhancing it with their unique features.
What I really like about this subclass is giving flavourful magical abilities to fighters without it being spellcasting. Totally MC this with barbarian!
I’m currently multiclassing with Path of the Storm barbarian and he’s narratively a warrior chosen by a cult of storm giants to represent their strength in battle.
Yeah, this one is great. I always wanted to wrestle a Tarrasque. Just throw an enlarge on top of the level 18 feature, and let me at it. What a moment that would be.
I think having many different reactions for a fighter is a good thing. Fighters reaction attack is almost worthless without several specific feats invested. Being able to spend reactions to transfer damage, incapacitate specific creatures, and force confirmed hits to reroll against other creatures is awesome. Especially since the bonus damage you get is limited to once per YOUR turn.
A Rune Knight should be built with grappling in mind. With so many options for using your reaction you won't be able to rely on opportunity attacks to restrict enemy movement.
Completely agree on this. Large size let’s you grapple larger enemies without risk that they’ll auto succeed to break out. Advantage on strength checks and the ability to use your reaction to give disadvantage to enemies on those checks ensures you can keep the main bad guy pinned as your allies deal with the minions. Plus resistance to damage means let’s you ignore attacks and focus on keeping the big bad out of the fight. One handed weapons or unarmed are likely preferred in order to keep at least one hand free.
@@Solarraven7777 The rule that creatures larger than you will automatically succeed in escaping a grapple was never implemented and the part of the Grappler feat based on that rule was removed in the errata. Otherwise yeah, I agree with your strategy of finding the biggest baddie in the fight and locking them down.
I feel like the design team hit it out of the park with the Rune Knight. The flavor is unique and interesting, the power level is pushing the boundaries of Fighter subclasses without outright overshadowing them all, sticking with the class to higher levels has worthwhile payouts, and the playstyle provides lots of decision points to avoid every combat just being "I attack and end my turn." The only tweaks I would have liked to see were Giant's Might giving a small bonus to every hit you make (even if it was just something smaller like a flat +2 that never goes up, it just seems more flavorful that all your hits would get stronger, and would encourage sticking with Fighter for more attacks), eventual access to all 6 runes (which could also probably be better balanced against one another, poor frost giants), and an option to let your allies use your rune items (infusion style). It also bugs me a little that the Hill Giant rune is one of the best ones given all the lore around Hill Giants is that hey are the worst true giants at pretty much everything, but given that they don't really have any unique strengths other than being able to eat almost anything, I can see why they went this route. I guess they could have taken inspiration from the Mouth of Grolantor and instead have it give advantage on all attacks for a round, but that would have really stepped on the Samurai's toes.
I agree I really felt that Giants might should have just dealt an extra 1d6 damage to every attack. 1 attack a round is nothing for fighters and you do t get any benefit when using action surge or making an opportunity attack which doesn't really make all that sense.
I don't feel like the designers hit it out of the park at all - in fact, I think this subclass is perhaps the biggest mistake they have ever made period. It is so ridiculously overloaded, it is the best martial subclass in the game by such a long shot that nothing else comes even close to competing. That is far, far, far from good design. A fighter that gets essentially a better rage, invalidating the entire barbarian class, including the barbarians extra damage on all attacks, advantage on all strength saves, resistance to normal damage, and then on top of that a bunch of magic-like abilities and they could even multiclass and still use magic while pseudoraging? We have one in our campaign. Level 5, a Rune Knight attacks for 6d6+8 damage every turn, whilst wearing plate armour, whilst having advantage on all strength checks and having several magical abilities, and using action surge he deals 12d6+16 damage... Level 5. A Rune Knight is essentially a fighter/barbarian gestalt character in a non-gestalt game. I honestly can't believe it made it to print like this. I will have no choice but to ban it in my own games, just like bladesinger.
@@theWebWizrd It gets resistance to damage once per rest. The resistance uses your bonus action same way to get advantage in strength checks. In my opinion barbarians are not a great class past level 5. A lot of the new martial subclasses serve to lessen the gap between martials and casters at higher levels.
This makes for the ultimate grappler build. Playing an 8ft loxodon, who can either attack with unarmed strikes or use every attack as a grapple and then free action let them go for 10/20ft (1d6/2d6) of fall damage while big. Now they’re likely prone (might be ruled an acrobatics check to stay standing) and that just sets up for the grapple pin with one of 3 viable limbs. Alternative, go aracocra and become the “Roc” for more high flying moves. Requires taking the chef feat.
It is worth noting that this is super bonus action hungry once you reach level 7. Bonus action to become large. Bonus action to become resistant to physical attacks Bonus action to enter the prophetic state where you cause advantage/disadvantage on enemies. As already mentioned in the video you are also very reaction hungry. This means fewer attacks of opportunity. Taken together this means Sentinel and Polearm master decrease in value. These would normally be great with large size, but after level 7, you probably don't have the reactions and bonus actions to use them effectively. Even heavy weapon master decrease a bit you are less likely to get the extra attack it can provide. Not saying this subclass isn't great, just saying it has drawbacks, drawbacks that might lead you to build your fighter differently than what you are used to.
Our group normally rolls with a bonus background feat at level 1, so this doesn't exactly map, but after a 1-13 campaign while I *did* feel the option crunch at times, I liked the options PWM gave me. Our recent campaign fairly closely followed the standard adventuring day (6-8 fights a day, 2 short rests) and until you get into higher levels 3/day of Defensive Runes and Giant's Might means getting into into fights where I don't have or don't want to spend resources and a bonus action GWM Glaive attack + AoO when someone enters reach means I rarely end a turn not using a reaction/bonus action. If you're in a slower paced game (1-3 battles a day) where you can afford to burn all your runes/giant might every battle I'd probably go with... well, a spell-caster, but a Great Sword looks more appealing to me then. That said, I chose a race with a possible bonus action (Simic Hybrid limbs) and all my options meant I used its ability maybe 4 times the entire campaign. It *was* useful for ferrying the 90lb weaklings in the group when we encountered: a +13 athletics check is far better for climbing a wall then a -1, especially in a game where we didn't have great access to magic flight. My ASI list for that game: 1: PAM 4: +1 str Brawny (replaced with the new expertise feat) 6: +2 str (up to 20) 8: GWM 12: +2 CON
@@killdozerification indeed, my group usually plays the slower game you describe. So that might color my opinion a fair bit. But cool to hear from the perspective of someone who plays a different style.
@@peterrasmussen4428 I'm lucky enough to have multiple DM's in my friend group, so I have firsthand experience with slower games. Our Druid/Bard/Artificer/Sorcerer/Warlock party wiped out a CR24 at level 14. It's rough for BBEGs when fighting a full party of fresh spellcasters. :P
I've just taken a Rune Knight through a full Decent into Avernus campaign (1 session left) and the class is simply a blast. All the way through 13 I've pulled my weight, and short rest resistance is such a useful ability for a front-liner. Being large without depending on a wizard was awesome. Just flipping infernal war-machines left and right, making Godzilla Noises. In the final act (I got the angel wings- perks of being the only STR character) I was able to leverage Giant Might and an action sure to knock *6* huge demons out of the air 500ft above the ground... then used sentinel to send the last one plummeting when it came after me. +15 Athletics with Advantage for a minute is No Joke. A 14 foot tall four-armed simic hybrid with angel wings just punting demons out of the sky. It was honestly the best experience I've ever had playing a high-level martial in 5e. I played a PAM/GWM character, and the amount of options (while they mostly amounted to hit this, redirect that, don't get hit as hard) I had with my bonus action and reaction meant that I essentially exhausted every single Action/Bonus/Reaction every turn meaningfully, which I'm not used to on a martial. It's nice to be able to do more then 'I rage. Now I spin to win' every turn. I didn't realize that the tool expertise applied to tools other then Smithing! I have a DM friend who really fleshed out crafting so its nice to be able to play a character that's decent at tool use that's not an Artificer. Is there anyway else to gain expertise besides Artificer/Rune Knight?
I think the coolest thing about this subclass is the amount of super strong passive effects they can get... If you wanna make fighter thief character, advantage on sleight of hand, deception and thieves tools can be very cool.. I do think thatr giant's might was obviously made to work with every attack.. And the way it scales shows this. Having lvl 10 feature increase the damage die would still be rather weak when applyng to each attack, but tleast kinda cool as it'd also scale with your number of attacks... Having the die increase by 1 on 1 attack per turn is beyond disapointing.. It's like they couldn't come up wth a way to make it cool after they made the benefit only apply to 1 attack... I think the lvl 10 feature is one of the weakest subclass features in the game tbh.
One thing that I really love about this subclass (which has also made it my favourite Fighter subclass) is that the various rune options have very interesting interactions with multiclassing as well. While a standard, generic, pure fighter might not use deception or arcana or other of the main skills that the runes boost, when being part of a character that does (a fighter that's also a face or a fighter/wizard, fighter/cleric, fighter/druid multiclass). Also the storm rune allows a melee caster build to give disadvantage to important saves on enemies every turn, while the increased size increases the radius of things like spirit guardians/shroud etc. There's lots of little interactions on this subclass that, imo, makes it the best fighter subclass when it comes to creating a multitude of different builds with it.
Interested in what you think of a "power bomb" build. Grapple your target, then jump and "let go". Rules state that you can lift a creature up to "Your height*1.5", if you started out as a Goblin, you'll be 16ft high at Large size (Taller if you have a wizard friend to enlarge you). Assuming you dash on your turn, that means you can lift up a creature 20ft in the air, plus your jump height (6ft at Str16). A creature will take 3d6 fall damage from that height. Maximum damage compared to a greatsword? Perhaps not, but when you add in multiclassing, Wizard to buff yourself with Jump and Elarge spells, or Rogue to dash as a bonus action, not to mention that you can grapple 2 creatures at once (or 4 if your DM allows Simic Hybrid), you're starting to stack up some serious damage. Bare in mind this also uses Athletics (which you will have adv on, +2 if your frost rune is active), vs their anti-grapple skill, not their AC. At level 9 a buffed fighter could: Grapple 2 creatures (Extra Attack), Dash twice (Rogue Bonus+Action Surge), jumping to a height of 24 feet, and raising their targets above their heads and slam them onto the ground for 7d6 damage each. And if your DM is really nice, let you maintain the grapple. DISCLAIMER: This is purely built off RAW and not RAI, the implications for exploiting the grapple and falling damage features should not be taken as immutable.
@@imnotanumber43 Great plan too! Falls apart sadly if you fight anything larger than large, but then again most creatures are that size at that level anyway
@@jessie-buns839 isn't satyr or one of the flying races the best for this build? satyr because it's already so strong but also because it has both extra jumping distance AND speed
fighter3/barbarian6. the beast barbarian gets a jump ability that lets you add an athletics roll to your jump, if you have a 20 str, expertise on athletics and roll your best thats a 33, be a n 8ft tall goliath and become large with the rune knight feature (assuming it works like the enlarge/reduce spell) you can grow to 16ft tall, have enlarge reduce cast on you to then grow to 32ft tall. as a 9th lvl character you can make a high jump and get 41 ft off the ground and being able to reach something 89 ft up. you can have someone grappled and throw them from there this also doesnt factor that you weigh 21,760 lbs and can just land on someone. if you get to higher levels and increase your str more you can reach over 100ft in the air and be at least 50ft off the ground
One small item - I think the fire rune is more comparable to the Paladin Oath of the Ancient's Channel Divinity feature. Ensnaring Strike's greatest benefit is that it imposes an action cost to even attempt the save. Even if a creature then saves, it still cost their action economy.
Great stature does indeed help mechanically, at least in my grapple to drop build. Every foot of height gets closer to the next 10ft cut off for another d6 of damage, which is why it’s important to note the tallest options (8ft tall player races) actually get out sized by the small player races with 4ft heights like the grunge because they’re capable of a base height of 5ft, meaning they are 20ft tall when large, and 40ft tall when huge, and if hit with the wizards enlarge spell they’re a towering 80ft. The loxodon under the same conditions only reaches 72ft, though arguably the trunk can make up any slack.
If you’re curious about the historical alphabet the idea of these runes is based on, see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Futhark Unfortunately, none of the D&D runes have an exact match in the Futhark, but you could use “ice” for frost, “sun” for fire, “hail” for cloud, etc.
Great video! I would still like a video telling us why the Twilight Cleric is *so good*. We got one telling us it’s too good, but most DMs will allow official subclasses.
"Potentially" the undisputed best fighter sub-class. Finally an interesting fighter sub class with a cool ability source, utility and a hulk smash theme instead of very basic combat moves.
I'd say that the Battlemaster and Eldritch Knight are both still arguably better, so I wouldn't really call it power creep to finally have a subclass that competes with 2 of the 3 options from the PHB. Honestly, nothing in Tasha's screams OP at all, except maybe 2 of the Cleric domains, but Cleric has always been very powerful, with some of the domains being arguably too powerful since the PHB, so that's nothing new. None of the new feats are exceptionally powerful when compared to things like Sharpshooter/Great Weapon Master, Crossbow/Polearm Master, Observant, Alert, War Caster, etc. Neither are any of the new subclasses exceptionally powerful compared to what is in the PHB, except maybe for the Sorcerer and Monk, but that's because they simply had poor subclasses to begin with. Tasha's offers a lot of flavor, but considering that most optimized builds still aren't even dipping into Tasha's, except maybe for the custom lineage, which is simply finally an option on par with the variant human from the PHB, I'd say the book seems quite balanced with the core content.
Lvl 18 Rune knight duergar with sentinel/polearm master can solo the Tarrasque and other non-ranged monsters without taking much damage, with 25 foot melee range
One of my recommendations during the play test was to add something to the fire giant rune that embodied their flavor as slavers, and mentioned summoning chains. I AM AGHAST! THEY TOOK MY ADVICE!!!!
I mean, having this subclass, plus the unarmed fighting style and the eldritch claw tattoo to get magical attacks and I think you can make an amazing wrestler character!
10:25 correction, it is not monster manual rules. it is dungeon master guide page 278 top left corner. my comment on the rule and the "rule" is explicitly in the context of helping you reach a more appropriate damage number for monsters. therefore it should not be usable by player characters.
Personally, I'd still rather play an echo night. The rune night is a strong and respectable subclass. Still, a nearly limitless teleport allows for so much movement and positioning. It allows you to make GWM attacks from range, it allows you to escape melee without triggering opportunity attacks, it allows an at will teleport outside of combat to a distance of 60 ft starting at level 3! It's bananas! Honnestly whatever your favorite is, I suppose I'm just glad there are at least a few excellent choices for marshalls, let's go bonk bros!!!
Made a lizardfolk rune knight using the unarmed fighting style. Basically in any situation, they are always armed, always armored and can be difficult to pin down. I get to play him tomorrow and couldn't be more excited.
I'm playing an Archer Rune Knight currently. Took a one level dip in genie warlock. The Genie's wrath is a great bonus on top of Giant's Might but it's really about being able to cast Hex. More damage on each attack but that disadvantage to the ability I choose, which will be the correspondent to the Rune I cast, is really nasty to break out of
Tip for Wizards: cast Enlarge/Reduce on the Rune Knight when you fight an adult dragon to make their size huge, and watch the, wrestle each other. Thank me later.
One caution about Huge and Grapple. If you have Grappled an opponent, no matter reach issues, you are in range. It’s been clarified that the foe can attacked the appendage used to make the grapple. Reach is inconsequential when determining range during a grapple.
For the cloud rune I'm guessing it works like the shield spell. The DM will declare the attack hit and you would have to invoke at that point so you don't know whether it crit or how much damage it did until after the effect takes place. Oh and minor correction: the capstone is at 18th level not 17th.
Another big advantage about size large and higher is that it's much harder to restrain you. Many spells have the caveat of being disadvantaged against large and larger targets. Love the feel of a rune knight relying on inscriptions of power, in some ways reminding me of what an eldritch knight could have been without all the wizard showmanship.
If you check the rules for rerolls on d20 rolls, they specify that you can only reroll 1 die. IE a halfling with disadvantage who rolls snake eyes on an attack is an auto miss because they can only reroll 1 of the d20s. So with Runic Shield, you force them to reroll 1d20.
I just realised that frost rune has good application if you hand the item with this rune to a friend like a caster that isn't proficient in con saves/war caster. But that is the only use.
I have a concept build using Rune Knight Fighter to 7th, and Artificer Armorer to 11th. Not sure what else to do with those last 2 levels. Utilizes Sharpshooter/Archery Fighting Style in tandem with the Lightning Launcher. The ultimate goal: Enlarge yourself *and* Giant's Might to become a huge mechanical suit of armor, with a very potent and accurate ranged attack, though more resisted as lightning damage, as well as a shield. Maybe pick up a Sun Blade as your melee option, which with a +2 would offset not using Intelligence as your main attack stat with it, so if you have to fight up close you have a laser sword. Helm would be infused with the awareness infusion, weapon would be aa +2 weap (thus meaning sharpshooter bonus is effectively just a -1 to the base difficulty), and the chestpiece infusion can be swapped out between Armor of Resistance and the protection effect, along with a shield (which you can wield using the lightning launcher to no detriment) that can similarly be boosted in AC. Go Artificer 5, grab 3 levels of Fighter for Rune Knight, then work up to Artificer 11. Once you have that... Think about it. Huge sized mech with a beam cannon, laser sword, and shield; capable of flight and very very durable with a wide variety of customizability and options depending on how a fight progresses, involving both runes and infusions and spell storing items to have utility. Even can be swapped around to be a potent melee combatant if nessicary. I call this character build... *The Gundam.*
Not gonna lie, the concept of Large Weapons really is a question that never asked about in full detail Some people think Enlarge/Reduce and Giant's Might make the Player's weapon be treated as a Oversized weapon, some people dont We dont have a exact answer about this
Great stature would “mechanically” affect how high you can reach for climbing. It’s an average of about 7 inches... very small effect but it may matter if you choose a taller race. The giants might feature doesn’t give the same “doubling in all dimensions” description as the enlarge reduce spell, but this boost may allow a player to climb over various walls and even over buildings without worrying about a source of flight. Combined with jumping rules this could be a sizable distance. It’s interesting to think that taking 10ft of fall damage at 1d6 would cause a 40ft+ tall creature to fall prone...
Adding sentinel and pole arm master to this build give you a lot of battlefield control especially if you are the only front line character in your party.
OK so for that part where it says you can put it on weapons or armor it should give different bonuses for what you do decide to put it on, like with fire rune on a weapon it does fire damage until you use the ruin effect. mind you you still keepo the original minor effect but this will be a bonus.
I'm thinking of a rune knight spore druid build for extra melee damage and tankiness while being able to cast some nice spells and support for the party as needed: Cloud rune, Fire rune, Hill Giant rune, + Symbiotic Entity for extra 1d6/attack wielding a great sword+ Halo of Spores damage+temp hitpoints. So 2d6 for grt swrd, 1d6 for symbiotic ent, 2d6 fire, possible 2d10 halo of spores damg at 14th lvl, 1d6 on one attack w/ giant's might, 2 attacks/rnd, action surge, some rage type resistance, 20 extra temp hp at druid lvl 5, forced rerolls, damg transfer, + some spell options like fire shield to punish enemies when they do hit me. Yes, please!
I feel like it's pretty fair -when compared with the good fighter subclasses -initially anyways... The runes are quite powerful but then your subclass basically shuts off until a short rest after 2-4 rune uses [aside from the minor skill stuff and limited long rest things]. -That is until level 15 where you have 10 rune uses per short rest -and a proficiency of 5 for your 2 long rest resources. Meanwhile, battle master only has 6 superiority dice per short rest at this point [+1 on initiative w/ 0] -and they are a lot less powerful than the runes. -And the arcane archer is just crying in the corner.
The cloud rune doesn't specify friendly or enemy targets so if the party barbarian makes a raging crit against something weak like a skeleton with 1 remaining hitpoint you could transfer the full blow to the enemy necromancer standing behind the rest of the skeletons.
Going to play this in a Baldurs Gate Campaign, really excited of what I can do. Played an Immortal Mystic with Ogre Form up to Level 5 but changed the character, since Mystic got discontinued and I didn't want to be that guy that can do everything and makes his fellow players feel useless. Since Baldurs Gate only goes to level 13, I'm combining it with Polearm Master and Sentinel, and eventually are gonna multiclass into wizard to get Find Familiar, Enlarge/Reduce and Haste and go for huge! :-). Any Advice, when to go wizard? I thought about taking wizard levels from Level 6 to 8, then go for fighter levels to 10 and then go wizard all the way from there? Would give me Haste at level 12 instead of 3rd Attack at level 11 but I think this might be better.
Now, with the Rune Knight, is the first time I REALLY got excited to play a fighter. Fighters always seemed kinda generic to me, now I can't wait to play one.
The first time I heard of the Eldritch Knight, I was actually imagining something with abilities like the rune knight in terms of how magic abilities worked, rather than being a one third caster.
I don’t make adventurers. Our party is a couple of rune knight artificer multi classes that run an equipment rental agency for adventurers. Capitalism, that’s the rune knight’s true power.
An interesting interpretation on Rune Shield regarding Advantage/Disadvantage: The attack roll selected is the higher/lower of the two. Rerolling the D20 makes them reroll that one. Lets say I have advantage and I roll a 20 and a 15 and I reroll my 20 and get a 1, so my advantage rolls are 1 and 15. This interpretation doesn't take away advantage or disadvantage either.
I believe that's also the case for Barbarians. I think it's because the distinction between magical/non-magical physical damage against players can be a bit difficult to determine. Not typically noted in monster stat blocks whether their attacks are magical, for example would a dragon's claws be considered magical or not?
Time for my professional wrestler heel character to come out. Suplexes, drop kicks, and sleeper holds. Leg drops, cross body blocks, and body slams. Let's goooo. Also stone rune will be roleplayed as mesmerizing people with dancing pecs and flexing.
A lot of these runes can improve a build with even just a 3 level dip. -Death cleric's Touch of Death channel divinity can become a pretty strong power strike [add 5+2x cleric level to a melee attack, -twice per short rest at level 6 -now ignoring necrotic resistance]. You could pair that channel divinity with inflict wounds and the Cloud rune to wreck a big bad you can't reach. -And for any cleric there's bane/bestow curse/sanctuary with disadvantaged save from storm giant reaction. And you gain +1d8 necrotic to 1 weapon attack on your turn. -Forge cleric would also be thematic and get you +1 to anyone's weapon/armor -and another +1 to your heavy armor ac at level 6 -throw on shield of faith while your at it and then use runic shield to force a reroll if they should manage to hit. -War cleric could be interesting with channel divinity guided strike and the cloud rune-inflict wounds trick. -with a Divine soul sorcerer could use the same cleric spell strategy and use sorcerer ones. -Also with the fire rune you could attack action -and try to restrain with a fire rune -then quicken a dex save spell like immolation, lightning bolt or enervation [w/ enervation they also can't escape the spells range while restrained]. -And Frost rune would make your concentration saves even better. -Hexblade is always good and would be thematic. Could be Cha/Con focused and use storm giant reaction to make your limited slots more likely to stick. You could also crit fish using the restrained advantage from fire runes (+ hexblade curse crit range) and then dump an eldritch smite. Hill rune's resistances for survivability. - barbarians (particularly bonus action light ones) benefit from bumping con and it would be great to have hill giant's short rest pseudo rage for less important encounters. Fire rune's restrained would give advantage so you wouldn't need to use reckless attack. -Assassin [or most any rogues really] would be great with many of these runes. Fire giant restrained for attack advantage + free expertise with thieves tools, poisoner's kit, forgery tools, disguise kit; cloud rune's deception/slight of hand advantage; hill rune + uncanny dodge for serious damage mitigation & poison resistance and saves; giant's might advantage + frost rune bonus + athletics expertise for shoving/grappling/athletic feats; storm rune for no surprises and on demand advantage/disadvantage reaction -even initiative or stealth/perception if it's already active. -It helps if you're ranged so that uncanny dodge/opportunity attacks aren't dominating your reactions. -Also fighter's extra attack helps in case your first attack misses, and if surprise is in play it's an auto crit on a hit.
I have a gladiator rune knight that is distrustful of magic and offended if anyone claims that he uses magic. For role play, Giant Might is flavored as battle focus, which makes the battle area seem smaller.
Great vid as always Chris. Agreed that this is the best fighter subclass though I wouldn't say by a mile. I'd still say battlemasters and samurais are close behind. But yeah rune knights are way ahead of eks, champions, arcane archers and the psi-warrior.
Dealing 1d6 extra damage on every single attack + resistance to nonmagical damage already makes them easily the strongest fighter subclass. Then you add the million other things they get.
@@theWebWizrd yup. Just saying its not the best for all the archetypes so there's still value for a few subclasses. Grappler? Sure. One-shot booming blader? Sure. Tank+minor control? Sure. Multi-hit alpha striker/nova? Nope. Battlemasters, samurais and the echo knight are still ahead.
@@theWebWizrd the extra damage is only 1 attack per round, and the delay to setting up damage resistance because of bonus action bloat need to be considered, but it’s still the best fighter in the game, save maybe the echo knight. Just think it’s important to keep the perspective that the abilities aren’t quite rage, despite almost adding up to its equivalent when all set up.
@@mojorn8837 I didn't notice that they did nerf the 1d6 additional damage from the UA. Thanks for pointing that out. It says a lot that even without an additional 1d6 damage every round I still stand behind the notion that it is far and beyond the strongest martial class in the game.
I really wan't to make an Earth Genasi Wrestler (grappler) build as a Rune Knight. Yet, I also don't want to be a weak junk character. Any suggestions how to make such a build & how to actually play it. I think Unarmed fighting is the way go for starters, but it seems to become way too weak in later levels
It may be somewhat weak with respect to damage, but the value of being able to grapple enemies is in preventing them attacking other players and moving them about the battlefield. Case in point, I've used a fighter (Eldritch Knight) to throw themselves and a grappled creature from a height. They had feather fall to support this, but a Rune knight could similarly grapple/move/shove creatures. I'd say go for it, sounds like a fun build!
6:31 "For 10 minutes, you gain a +2 bonus to all ability checks, as well as saving throws that use Strength or Constitution." I read that part wrong. It is +2 bonus to ability checks and saving throws that use Strength or Constitution. The +2 to ability checks does not apply to any ability checks not using Strength or Constitution.
Its poor wording. I can see it either way.
@@cp1cupcake Yeah. The comma really makes it seem like they are separate things, when the intention is likely that the belong to the same category within the feature.
suggestion for word change. instead of calling it "minor effect", it is better to call it the "passive effect". then the invoked effekt becomes "active effect"
I was just about to query your reading of that. So its a bonus to ability checks that use Strength or Constitution, and to saving throws that also use Strength or Constitution. Correct?
@@VaughanCockell Correct. A less confusing sentence might have been "For 10 minutes, you gain a +2 bonus to all Strength or Constitution based ability checks and saving throws."
Time for Gargantuan Faerie Rune Knights that can fit through 1-inch spaces 😀
Will this be the 5e resurrection of 3.5's infamous "Assplomancer" build?
@@deltavictor8369 Ant Man rides again.
hahahaha! EPIC!
Was gonna post this lol
Genius ahahahaha
I’ll always be a god wizard at heart, but damn this is a cool fighter subclass.
Would love to play a halfling Rune Knight. I like halflings in general and this could make all the short jokes and cracks about eating all the party's food worth it. I can just hear the story being told now, "So then our halfling wrestled the dragon to the ground, and-"
"Wait, what?"
I love the idea of making a Yuan-Ti Rune Knight that has perverted the runes to make him/her closer to an Anathema. So the more powerful s/he gets the more Anathema snake like the fighter looks. I think that could be super fun.
One interesting tidbit on Giant's Might - Enlarge/Reduce specifies that your weight increases or decreases as your size changes, but Giant's Might and Runic Juggernaut do not. This does unexpected things to the Rune Knight's density.
I have seen some math out there that a halfling Rune Knight, with Reduce cast on them first, and then growing to Huge size with Runic Juggernaut, is technically less dense than air... but that gets into the ugly mixing of real world physics with D&D rules and magic. Honestly I just like the mental image of of a gigantic halfling Rune Knight slowly floating into things, like a Macy's Thanksgiving Parade balloon in a strong wind.
This potentially sets up wild Ant-Man style fights.
With that logic, you could cast Reduce on your party's Gnome to make them tiny and weigh 5 pounds (average weight is 40, reduced to 1/8) and then the gnome hulks out to reach Large/Huge size and then you have a 5 pound Huge creature your barbarian can throw.
Watch [film theory]'s video on antman
it explains that because of density alot of the small stuff that gets embiggen'd becomes lighter than air [per square inch] so the train and large ant would have floated away into space if physics were actually involved
@@Spoopball that's a perfectly cromulent interpretation
So like attack on titan?
Stone option spends a reaction at the end of another creatures turns to cause incapacitation, charmed, and speed of 0 on a failed save.
Since it’s at the end of a turn, this can potentially be used right after an enemy caster casts their big concentration spell. If they fail the save, incapacitation ends that spell, potentially before it even has a chance to do anything.
0:25 Him saying that despite Rune Knight not having access to spellcasting means a lot!
great profile pic! she is a great singer
@@Human-NPC Mhm her husband too!
In his tier lists where he also mentioned his number 1 subclass for each class, he put Echo Knight as the best Fight subclass, and mentioned that it would probably have been Battle Master otherwise. Obviously this was before Tasha's, but apparently there are at least 2 other subclasses for Fighter he ranks higher than Eldritch Knight, which also surprised me. Now it's surprising to hear this might knock Echo Knight of its pedestal as the best Fighter subclass. *EDIT* Turns out it competes with Echo Knight, but knocking it off of its pedestal would be an exaggeration.
I suppose it's because EK doesn't mesh too well with the Fighter chassis, and casting spells comes at the cost of using your weapon attacks, unlike those higher ranked subclasses who can continue to do what Fighters do best while enhancing it with their unique features.
What I really like about this subclass is giving flavourful magical abilities to fighters without it being spellcasting. Totally MC this with barbarian!
I didn't even think of that, WOW that sounds awesome!
I’m currently multiclassing with Path of the Storm barbarian and he’s narratively a warrior chosen by a cult of storm giants to represent their strength in battle.
Yeah, this one is great. I always wanted to wrestle a Tarrasque. Just throw an enlarge on top of the level 18 feature, and let me at it. What a moment that would be.
Party of Rune Knights versus Terrasque with Wizard Levels.
Let them fight.
@@aprinnyonbreak1290 They'll need sacrifices for the cloud rune. Call animals maybe?
I think having many different reactions for a fighter is a good thing. Fighters reaction attack is almost worthless without several specific feats invested.
Being able to spend reactions to transfer damage, incapacitate specific creatures, and force confirmed hits to reroll against other creatures is awesome.
Especially since the bonus damage you get is limited to once per YOUR turn.
You didn't mention it, but if you're willing to eat 2 runes, the storm rune can make the fire rune hell on earth.
A Rune Knight should be built with grappling in mind. With so many options for using your reaction you won't be able to rely on opportunity attacks to restrict enemy movement.
Completely agree on this. Large size let’s you grapple larger enemies without risk that they’ll auto succeed to break out. Advantage on strength checks and the ability to use your reaction to give disadvantage to enemies on those checks ensures you can keep the main bad guy pinned as your allies deal with the minions. Plus resistance to damage means let’s you ignore attacks and focus on keeping the big bad out of the fight.
One handed weapons or unarmed are likely preferred in order to keep at least one hand free.
@@Solarraven7777 The rule that creatures larger than you will automatically succeed in escaping a grapple was never implemented and the part of the Grappler feat based on that rule was removed in the errata.
Otherwise yeah, I agree with your strategy of finding the biggest baddie in the fight and locking them down.
Duergar to get Enlarge, unarmed Fighting Style, amd tavern brawler feat
I feel like the design team hit it out of the park with the Rune Knight. The flavor is unique and interesting, the power level is pushing the boundaries of Fighter subclasses without outright overshadowing them all, sticking with the class to higher levels has worthwhile payouts, and the playstyle provides lots of decision points to avoid every combat just being "I attack and end my turn."
The only tweaks I would have liked to see were Giant's Might giving a small bonus to every hit you make (even if it was just something smaller like a flat +2 that never goes up, it just seems more flavorful that all your hits would get stronger, and would encourage sticking with Fighter for more attacks), eventual access to all 6 runes (which could also probably be better balanced against one another, poor frost giants), and an option to let your allies use your rune items (infusion style).
It also bugs me a little that the Hill Giant rune is one of the best ones given all the lore around Hill Giants is that hey are the worst true giants at pretty much everything, but given that they don't really have any unique strengths other than being able to eat almost anything, I can see why they went this route. I guess they could have taken inspiration from the Mouth of Grolantor and instead have it give advantage on all attacks for a round, but that would have really stepped on the Samurai's toes.
I agree I really felt that Giants might should have just dealt an extra 1d6 damage to every attack.
1 attack a round is nothing for fighters and you do t get any benefit when using action surge or making an opportunity attack which doesn't really make all that sense.
I don't feel like the designers hit it out of the park at all - in fact, I think this subclass is perhaps the biggest mistake they have ever made period. It is so ridiculously overloaded, it is the best martial subclass in the game by such a long shot that nothing else comes even close to competing. That is far, far, far from good design. A fighter that gets essentially a better rage, invalidating the entire barbarian class, including the barbarians extra damage on all attacks, advantage on all strength saves, resistance to normal damage, and then on top of that a bunch of magic-like abilities and they could even multiclass and still use magic while pseudoraging?
We have one in our campaign. Level 5, a Rune Knight attacks for 6d6+8 damage every turn, whilst wearing plate armour, whilst having advantage on all strength checks and having several magical abilities, and using action surge he deals 12d6+16 damage... Level 5.
A Rune Knight is essentially a fighter/barbarian gestalt character in a non-gestalt game. I honestly can't believe it made it to print like this. I will have no choice but to ban it in my own games, just like bladesinger.
@@theWebWizrd How is he doing 6d6 damage a round. Giants might only allows 1d6 damage on one attack per round.
@@theWebWizrd I think you’re miss reading rules to have those numbers. Also, how is blade singer broken? What are you smoking?
@@theWebWizrd It gets resistance to damage once per rest. The resistance uses your bonus action same way to get advantage in strength checks.
In my opinion barbarians are not a great class past level 5.
A lot of the new martial subclasses serve to lessen the gap between martials and casters at higher levels.
This makes for the ultimate grappler build. Playing an 8ft loxodon, who can either attack with unarmed strikes or use every attack as a grapple and then free action let them go for 10/20ft (1d6/2d6) of fall damage while big. Now they’re likely prone (might be ruled an acrobatics check to stay standing) and that just sets up for the grapple pin with one of 3 viable limbs. Alternative, go aracocra and become the “Roc” for more high flying moves. Requires taking the chef feat.
It is worth noting that this is super bonus action hungry once you reach level 7.
Bonus action to become large.
Bonus action to become resistant to physical attacks
Bonus action to enter the prophetic state where you cause advantage/disadvantage on enemies.
As already mentioned in the video you are also very reaction hungry. This means fewer attacks of opportunity.
Taken together this means Sentinel and Polearm master decrease in value. These would normally be great with large size, but after level 7, you probably don't have the reactions and bonus actions to use them effectively. Even heavy weapon master decrease a bit you are less likely to get the extra attack it can provide.
Not saying this subclass isn't great, just saying it has drawbacks, drawbacks that might lead you to build your fighter differently than what you are used to.
Our group normally rolls with a bonus background feat at level 1, so this doesn't exactly map, but after a 1-13 campaign while I *did* feel the option crunch at times, I liked the options PWM gave me. Our recent campaign fairly closely followed the standard adventuring day (6-8 fights a day, 2 short rests) and until you get into higher levels 3/day of Defensive Runes and Giant's Might means getting into into fights where I don't have or don't want to spend resources and a bonus action GWM Glaive attack + AoO when someone enters reach means I rarely end a turn not using a reaction/bonus action. If you're in a slower paced game (1-3 battles a day) where you can afford to burn all your runes/giant might every battle I'd probably go with... well, a spell-caster, but a Great Sword looks more appealing to me then.
That said, I chose a race with a possible bonus action (Simic Hybrid limbs) and all my options meant I used its ability maybe 4 times the entire campaign. It *was* useful for ferrying the 90lb weaklings in the group when we encountered: a +13 athletics check is far better for climbing a wall then a -1, especially in a game where we didn't have great access to magic flight.
My ASI list for that game:
1: PAM
4: +1 str Brawny (replaced with the new expertise feat)
6: +2 str (up to 20)
8: GWM
12: +2 CON
@@killdozerification indeed, my group usually plays the slower game you describe. So that might color my opinion a fair bit.
But cool to hear from the perspective of someone who plays a different style.
@@peterrasmussen4428 I'm lucky enough to have multiple DM's in my friend group, so I have firsthand experience with slower games.
Our Druid/Bard/Artificer/Sorcerer/Warlock party wiped out a CR24 at level 14.
It's rough for BBEGs when fighting a full party of fresh spellcasters. :P
This would be an interesting sub class for the 'armored pugilist' build option I will say.
One of my fellow PCs is exactly this! A kobold rune knight who wants to become a dragon
The rune knight is cool. I liked it back when it was still designed as a prestige class. I’m kind of ready for prestige classes now tbh.
I've just taken a Rune Knight through a full Decent into Avernus campaign (1 session left) and the class is simply a blast. All the way through 13 I've pulled my weight, and short rest resistance is such a useful ability for a front-liner.
Being large without depending on a wizard was awesome. Just flipping infernal war-machines left and right, making Godzilla Noises. In the final act (I got the angel wings- perks of being the only STR character) I was able to leverage Giant Might and an action sure to knock *6* huge demons out of the air 500ft above the ground... then used sentinel to send the last one plummeting when it came after me. +15 Athletics with Advantage for a minute is No Joke. A 14 foot tall four-armed simic hybrid with angel wings just punting demons out of the sky. It was honestly the best experience I've ever had playing a high-level martial in 5e.
I played a PAM/GWM character, and the amount of options (while they mostly amounted to hit this, redirect that, don't get hit as hard) I had with my bonus action and reaction meant that I essentially exhausted every single Action/Bonus/Reaction every turn meaningfully, which I'm not used to on a martial. It's nice to be able to do more then 'I rage. Now I spin to win' every turn.
I didn't realize that the tool expertise applied to tools other then Smithing! I have a DM friend who really fleshed out crafting so its nice to be able to play a character that's decent at tool use that's not an Artificer. Is there anyway else to gain expertise besides Artificer/Rune Knight?
I think the coolest thing about this subclass is the amount of super strong passive effects they can get... If you wanna make fighter thief character, advantage on sleight of hand, deception and thieves tools can be very cool..
I do think thatr giant's might was obviously made to work with every attack.. And the way it scales shows this. Having lvl 10 feature increase the damage die would still be rather weak when applyng to each attack, but tleast kinda cool as it'd also scale with your number of attacks... Having the die increase by 1 on 1 attack per turn is beyond disapointing.. It's like they couldn't come up wth a way to make it cool after they made the benefit only apply to 1 attack... I think the lvl 10 feature is one of the weakest subclass features in the game tbh.
One thing that I really love about this subclass (which has also made it my favourite Fighter subclass) is that the various rune options have very interesting interactions with multiclassing as well.
While a standard, generic, pure fighter might not use deception or arcana or other of the main skills that the runes boost, when being part of a character that does (a fighter that's also a face or a fighter/wizard, fighter/cleric, fighter/druid multiclass). Also the storm rune allows a melee caster build to give disadvantage to important saves on enemies every turn, while the increased size increases the radius of things like spirit guardians/shroud etc.
There's lots of little interactions on this subclass that, imo, makes it the best fighter subclass when it comes to creating a multitude of different builds with it.
Interested in what you think of a "power bomb" build. Grapple your target, then jump and "let go". Rules state that you can lift a creature up to "Your height*1.5", if you started out as a Goblin, you'll be 16ft high at Large size (Taller if you have a wizard friend to enlarge you). Assuming you dash on your turn, that means you can lift up a creature 20ft in the air, plus your jump height (6ft at Str16). A creature will take 3d6 fall damage from that height.
Maximum damage compared to a greatsword? Perhaps not, but when you add in multiclassing, Wizard to buff yourself with Jump and Elarge spells, or Rogue to dash as a bonus action, not to mention that you can grapple 2 creatures at once (or 4 if your DM allows Simic Hybrid), you're starting to stack up some serious damage. Bare in mind this also uses Athletics (which you will have adv on, +2 if your frost rune is active), vs their anti-grapple skill, not their AC.
At level 9 a buffed fighter could: Grapple 2 creatures (Extra Attack), Dash twice (Rogue Bonus+Action Surge), jumping to a height of 24 feet, and raising their targets above their heads and slam them onto the ground for 7d6 damage each.
And if your DM is really nice, let you maintain the grapple.
DISCLAIMER: This is purely built off RAW and not RAI, the implications for exploiting the grapple and falling damage features should not be taken as immutable.
This but with the Psi Knight's Telekinetic Leap. A Tabaxi with mobile could grapple, action surge dash, and drop someone 200+ feet at level 7
@@imnotanumber43 Great plan too! Falls apart sadly if you fight anything larger than large, but then again most creatures are that size at that level anyway
@@jessie-buns839 isn't satyr or one of the flying races the best for this build?
satyr because it's already so strong but also because it has both extra jumping distance AND speed
fighter3/barbarian6. the beast barbarian gets a jump ability that lets you add an athletics roll to your jump, if you have a 20 str, expertise on athletics and roll your best thats a 33, be a n 8ft tall goliath and become large with the rune knight feature (assuming it works like the enlarge/reduce spell) you can grow to 16ft tall, have enlarge reduce cast on you to then grow to 32ft tall. as a 9th lvl character you can make a high jump and get 41 ft off the ground and being able to reach something 89 ft up. you can have someone grappled and throw them from there this also doesnt factor that you weigh 21,760 lbs and can just land on someone. if you get to higher levels and increase your str more you can reach over 100ft in the air and be at least 50ft off the ground
One small item - I think the fire rune is more comparable to the Paladin Oath of the Ancient's Channel Divinity feature. Ensnaring Strike's greatest benefit is that it imposes an action cost to even attempt the save. Even if a creature then saves, it still cost their action economy.
Great stature does indeed help mechanically, at least in my grapple to drop build. Every foot of height gets closer to the next 10ft cut off for another d6 of damage, which is why it’s important to note the tallest options (8ft tall player races) actually get out sized by the small player races with 4ft heights like the grunge because they’re capable of a base height of 5ft, meaning they are 20ft tall when large, and 40ft tall when huge, and if hit with the wizards enlarge spell they’re a towering 80ft. The loxodon under the same conditions only reaches 72ft, though arguably the trunk can make up any slack.
If you’re curious about the historical alphabet the idea of these runes is based on, see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Futhark
Unfortunately, none of the D&D runes have an exact match in the Futhark, but you could use “ice” for frost, “sun” for fire, “hail” for cloud, etc.
I run a Rune Knight, and cloud rune is so amazing for saving allies from a Nat20 every day.
Yay! New TM! These make my Mondays more worthwhile
Hey Chris. Just wanna say thanks for like all the hard work you have been putting in for like the last 20 years. You are so important to this game.
Great video! I would still like a video telling us why the Twilight Cleric is *so good*. We got one telling us it’s too good, but most DMs will allow official subclasses.
Been playing this since Tasha's came out with a Goliath. Super fun and I cant tweak or change anything about him. He is just consistently amazing.
"So I was thinking about playing a rune knight"
Spellcaster that loves to use Enlarge: *smiles with malicious intent*
I nearly chose this as a class for a new campaign. But Abberant Mind was calling!
*Cheers* Fellow Rune Knights
I am currently playing the Rune Knight. It is awesome. 🤣
"Potentially" the undisputed best fighter sub-class. Finally an interesting fighter sub class with a cool ability source, utility and a hulk smash theme instead of very basic combat moves.
The power creep is real.
Power creep my ass. Thats a power sprint!
I'd say that the Battlemaster and Eldritch Knight are both still arguably better, so I wouldn't really call it power creep to finally have a subclass that competes with 2 of the 3 options from the PHB.
Honestly, nothing in Tasha's screams OP at all, except maybe 2 of the Cleric domains, but Cleric has always been very powerful, with some of the domains being arguably too powerful since the PHB, so that's nothing new. None of the new feats are exceptionally powerful when compared to things like Sharpshooter/Great Weapon Master, Crossbow/Polearm Master, Observant, Alert, War Caster, etc. Neither are any of the new subclasses exceptionally powerful compared to what is in the PHB, except maybe for the Sorcerer and Monk, but that's because they simply had poor subclasses to begin with.
Tasha's offers a lot of flavor, but considering that most optimized builds still aren't even dipping into Tasha's, except maybe for the custom lineage, which is simply finally an option on par with the variant human from the PHB, I'd say the book seems quite balanced with the core content.
Lvl 18 Rune knight duergar with sentinel/polearm master can solo the Tarrasque and other non-ranged monsters without taking much damage, with 25 foot melee range
25 foot melee range?
I love this. I'm thinking about mixing it with Ancestral Barbarian.
Overpowered as hell!
Would love to see a rune night build wether that be multi-class or not but whatever you think would be most optimal
One of my recommendations during the play test was to add something to the fire giant rune that embodied their flavor as slavers, and mentioned summoning chains.
I AM AGHAST! THEY TOOK MY ADVICE!!!!
I mean, having this subclass, plus the unarmed fighting style and the eldritch claw tattoo to get magical attacks and I think you can make an amazing wrestler character!
10:25 correction, it is not monster manual rules. it is dungeon master guide page 278 top left corner.
my comment on the rule
and the "rule" is explicitly in the context of helping you reach a more appropriate damage number for monsters. therefore it should not be usable by player characters.
Good point, specifically rules for creating monsters. By RAW there is no rule that says a PC does more damage with an oversized weapon in any case.
Personally, I'd still rather play an echo night. The rune night is a strong and respectable subclass. Still, a nearly limitless teleport allows for so much movement and positioning. It allows you to make GWM attacks from range, it allows you to escape melee without triggering opportunity attacks, it allows an at will teleport outside of combat to a distance of 60 ft starting at level 3! It's bananas! Honnestly whatever your favorite is, I suppose I'm just glad there are at least a few excellent choices for marshalls, let's go bonk bros!!!
Totally multiclassing this with an elemental shaman homebrew class I picked up.
This seems like a real neat Fighter
Made a lizardfolk rune knight using the unarmed fighting style. Basically in any situation, they are always armed, always armored and can be difficult to pin down. I get to play him tomorrow and couldn't be more excited.
Great stuff
I'm playing an Archer Rune Knight currently. Took a one level dip in genie warlock. The Genie's wrath is a great bonus on top of Giant's Might but it's really about being able to cast Hex. More damage on each attack but that disadvantage to the ability I choose, which will be the correspondent to the Rune I cast, is really nasty to break out of
Feels like a rune knight with calligrapher's tools is a cool and thematic idea
Tip for Wizards: cast Enlarge/Reduce on the Rune Knight when you fight an adult dragon to make their size huge, and watch the, wrestle each other. Thank me later.
One caution about Huge and Grapple. If you have Grappled an opponent, no matter reach issues, you are in range. It’s been clarified that the foe can attacked the appendage used to make the grapple. Reach is inconsequential when determining range during a grapple.
TMT videos make Monday mornings more tolerable.
For the cloud rune I'm guessing it works like the shield spell. The DM will declare the attack hit and you would have to invoke at that point so you don't know whether it crit or how much damage it did until after the effect takes place.
Oh and minor correction: the capstone is at 18th level not 17th.
Another big advantage about size large and higher is that it's much harder to restrain you. Many spells have the caveat of being disadvantaged against large and larger targets. Love the feel of a rune knight relying on inscriptions of power, in some ways reminding me of what an eldritch knight could have been without all the wizard showmanship.
I believe that potion of giant size, set the Precedence for increased damage dice with increased character size.
Duergar enlarge is such a funny combo
I feel like the 10th level fighter subclass features are universally the least exciting. Arcane archer doesn't even get one!
If you check the rules for rerolls on d20 rolls, they specify that you can only reroll 1 die. IE a halfling with disadvantage who rolls snake eyes on an attack is an auto miss because they can only reroll 1 of the d20s.
So with Runic Shield, you force them to reroll 1d20.
I just realised that frost rune has good application if you hand the item with this rune to a friend like a caster that isn't proficient in con saves/war caster. But that is the only use.
I have a concept build using Rune Knight Fighter to 7th, and Artificer Armorer to 11th. Not sure what else to do with those last 2 levels. Utilizes Sharpshooter/Archery Fighting Style in tandem with the Lightning Launcher. The ultimate goal: Enlarge yourself *and* Giant's Might to become a huge mechanical suit of armor, with a very potent and accurate ranged attack, though more resisted as lightning damage, as well as a shield. Maybe pick up a Sun Blade as your melee option, which with a +2 would offset not using Intelligence as your main attack stat with it, so if you have to fight up close you have a laser sword. Helm would be infused with the awareness infusion, weapon would be aa +2 weap (thus meaning sharpshooter bonus is effectively just a -1 to the base difficulty), and the chestpiece infusion can be swapped out between Armor of Resistance and the protection effect, along with a shield (which you can wield using the lightning launcher to no detriment) that can similarly be boosted in AC.
Go Artificer 5, grab 3 levels of Fighter for Rune Knight, then work up to Artificer 11. Once you have that... Think about it.
Huge sized mech with a beam cannon, laser sword, and shield; capable of flight and very very durable with a wide variety of customizability and options depending on how a fight progresses, involving both runes and infusions and spell storing items to have utility. Even can be swapped around to be a potent melee combatant if nessicary.
I call this character build... *The Gundam.*
i swear i've been trying to fit warlock or at least invocations in a build like this for a long time
are you going to pick warforged?
They killed the coolest use of enlarge/reduce...buy it is still an awesome trick.
Not gonna lie, the concept of Large Weapons really is a question that never asked about in full detail
Some people think Enlarge/Reduce and Giant's Might make the Player's weapon be treated as a Oversized weapon, some people dont
We dont have a exact answer about this
The Rune Knight's ability to Get Big is a key part of my "1-round tarrasque kill no magic items" build
I’m playing a twilight domain Cleric in my current campaign but damn I can’t wait to roll a rune knight and take my revenge on Marley.
Great stature would “mechanically” affect how high you can reach for climbing. It’s an average of about 7 inches... very small effect but it may matter if you choose a taller race.
The giants might feature doesn’t give the same “doubling in all dimensions” description as the enlarge reduce spell, but this boost may allow a player to climb over various walls and even over buildings without worrying about a source of flight. Combined with jumping rules this could be a sizable distance.
It’s interesting to think that taking 10ft of fall damage at 1d6 would cause a 40ft+ tall creature to fall prone...
I think the large weapon damage boost is needed with all the things your giving up by not playing a spell casters
Adding sentinel and pole arm master to this build give you a lot of battlefield control especially if you are the only front line character in your party.
Mine is a Goliath Rune Knight with polearm master and great weapon master. Currently using fire, storm and Hill runes at lvl 9.
OK so for that part where it says you can put it on weapons or armor it should give different bonuses for what you do decide to put it on, like with fire rune on a weapon it does fire damage until you use the ruin effect. mind you you still keepo the original minor effect but this will be a bonus.
I'm thinking of a rune knight spore druid build for extra melee damage and tankiness while being able to cast some nice spells and support for the party as needed: Cloud rune, Fire rune, Hill Giant rune, + Symbiotic Entity for extra 1d6/attack wielding a great sword+ Halo of Spores damage+temp hitpoints.
So 2d6 for grt swrd, 1d6 for symbiotic ent, 2d6 fire, possible 2d10 halo of spores damg at 14th lvl, 1d6 on one attack w/ giant's might, 2 attacks/rnd, action surge, some rage type resistance, 20 extra temp hp at druid lvl 5, forced rerolls, damg transfer, + some spell options like fire shield to punish enemies when they do hit me.
Yes, please!
Great, great flavor from this subclass!! But I'm a little worried its a bit too much, especially if we can compare it to the echo knight.
I feel like it's pretty fair -when compared with the good fighter subclasses -initially anyways... The runes are quite powerful but then your subclass basically shuts off until a short rest after 2-4 rune uses [aside from the minor skill stuff and limited long rest things]. -That is until level 15 where you have 10 rune uses per short rest -and a proficiency of 5 for your 2 long rest resources. Meanwhile, battle master only has 6 superiority dice per short rest at this point [+1 on initiative w/ 0] -and they are a lot less powerful than the runes. -And the arcane archer is just crying in the corner.
The cloud rune doesn't specify friendly or enemy targets so if the party barbarian makes a raging crit against something weak like a skeleton with 1 remaining hitpoint you could transfer the full blow to the enemy necromancer standing behind the rest of the skeletons.
What would be the better multi-class level dips for the Fighter Rune Knight?
I would love a rune wizard subclass. :)
Going to play this in a Baldurs Gate Campaign, really excited of what I can do. Played an Immortal Mystic with Ogre Form up to Level 5 but changed the character, since Mystic got discontinued and I didn't want to be that guy that can do everything and makes his fellow players feel useless. Since Baldurs Gate only goes to level 13, I'm combining it with Polearm Master and Sentinel, and eventually are gonna multiclass into wizard to get Find Familiar, Enlarge/Reduce and Haste and go for huge! :-). Any Advice, when to go wizard? I thought about taking wizard levels from Level 6 to 8, then go for fighter levels to 10 and then go wizard all the way from there? Would give me Haste at level 12 instead of 3rd Attack at level 11 but I think this might be better.
Do remember Enlarge/Reduce and Haste are both concentration, so you can't have both at the same time. If you want to be Huge, no Haste.
I wonder if people catch on that the Rune Knight's runes basically work like the Mystic's Disciplines.
nah even better you get all boni dont even have to choose one. though you dont get like 5 spell likes per rune
Now, with the Rune Knight, is the first time I REALLY got excited to play a fighter. Fighters always seemed kinda generic to me, now I can't wait to play one.
The first time I heard of the Eldritch Knight, I was actually imagining something with abilities like the rune knight in terms of how magic abilities worked, rather than being a one third caster.
my party currently has one of these in the form of a squirrel-kin 4th level fighter gained from a Deck of Many Things
Rune Knight is the closest thing to Rage while still being able to cast spells.
I've done a ruin knight/Artillerist build Heavy repeating crossbow + Force balista rocks
I don’t make adventurers. Our party is a couple of rune knight artificer multi classes that run an equipment rental agency for adventurers. Capitalism, that’s the rune knight’s true power.
Thought of a cool Rune Knight concept
The character learns runic magic from an Oni
An interesting interpretation on Rune Shield regarding Advantage/Disadvantage: The attack roll selected is the higher/lower of the two. Rerolling the D20 makes them reroll that one. Lets say I have advantage and I roll a 20 and a 15 and I reroll my 20 and get a 1, so my advantage rolls are 1 and 15. This interpretation doesn't take away advantage or disadvantage either.
A chaotic evil Rune Knight is a Ruin Knight...
Giants might and stone rune each taking a bonus action takes a while to set up...
How does that cloud rune work? Does the attacker teleport to the target? Is the target magically hit by nothing? Do the targets switch places?
Did you notice that the verbiage "non-magical" is missing from the DR against Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage?
I believe that's also the case for Barbarians. I think it's because the distinction between magical/non-magical physical damage against players can be a bit difficult to determine. Not typically noted in monster stat blocks whether their attacks are magical, for example would a dragon's claws be considered magical or not?
I kinda felt this would of worked better as a barbarian subclass initially since they're the strength class.
Gargantuan faeries are canon now!
Can the rune knight share their runes ? Or if my weapon gets stolen can another character benefit from the runed items ?
Time for my professional wrestler heel character to come out. Suplexes, drop kicks, and sleeper holds. Leg drops, cross body blocks, and body slams. Let's goooo.
Also stone rune will be roleplayed as mesmerizing people with dancing pecs and flexing.
Yes finally I can turn my warforged to a giant mech with a power claw and chainsward
You mentioned multi class at level 7, what do you guys think might be interesting multi class options
A lot of these runes can improve a build with even just a 3 level dip.
-Death cleric's Touch of Death channel divinity can become a pretty strong power strike [add 5+2x cleric level to a melee attack, -twice per short rest at level 6 -now ignoring necrotic resistance]. You could pair that channel divinity with inflict wounds and the Cloud rune to wreck a big bad you can't reach. -And for any cleric there's bane/bestow curse/sanctuary with disadvantaged save from storm giant reaction. And you gain +1d8 necrotic to 1 weapon attack on your turn.
-Forge cleric would also be thematic and get you +1 to anyone's weapon/armor -and another +1 to your heavy armor ac at level 6 -throw on shield of faith while your at it and then use runic shield to force a reroll if they should manage to hit.
-War cleric could be interesting with channel divinity guided strike and the cloud rune-inflict wounds trick.
-with a Divine soul sorcerer could use the same cleric spell strategy and use sorcerer ones. -Also with the fire rune you could attack action -and try to restrain with a fire rune -then quicken a dex save spell like immolation, lightning bolt or enervation [w/ enervation they also can't escape the spells range while restrained]. -And Frost rune would make your concentration saves even better.
-Hexblade is always good and would be thematic. Could be Cha/Con focused and use storm giant reaction to make your limited slots more likely to stick. You could also crit fish using the restrained advantage from fire runes (+ hexblade curse crit range) and then dump an eldritch smite. Hill rune's resistances for survivability.
- barbarians (particularly bonus action light ones) benefit from bumping con and it would be great to have hill giant's short rest pseudo rage for less important encounters. Fire rune's restrained would give advantage so you wouldn't need to use reckless attack.
-Assassin [or most any rogues really] would be great with many of these runes. Fire giant restrained for attack advantage + free expertise with thieves tools, poisoner's kit, forgery tools, disguise kit; cloud rune's deception/slight of hand advantage; hill rune + uncanny dodge for serious damage mitigation & poison resistance and saves; giant's might advantage + frost rune bonus + athletics expertise for shoving/grappling/athletic feats; storm rune for no surprises and on demand advantage/disadvantage reaction -even initiative or stealth/perception if it's already active. -It helps if you're ranged so that uncanny dodge/opportunity attacks aren't dominating your reactions. -Also fighter's extra attack helps in case your first attack misses, and if surprise is in play it's an auto crit on a hit.
I have a gladiator rune knight that is distrustful of magic and offended if anyone claims that he uses magic. For role play, Giant Might is flavored as battle focus, which makes the battle area seem smaller.
What is this Monster manual rule for large sized weapons he speaks of?
Rune Knight x Bladesinger = never failing concentration checks
Great vid as always Chris. Agreed that this is the best fighter subclass though I wouldn't say by a mile. I'd still say battlemasters and samurais are close behind. But yeah rune knights are way ahead of eks, champions, arcane archers and the psi-warrior.
Dealing 1d6 extra damage on every single attack + resistance to nonmagical damage already makes them easily the strongest fighter subclass. Then you add the million other things they get.
@@theWebWizrd yup. Just saying its not the best for all the archetypes so there's still value for a few subclasses. Grappler? Sure. One-shot booming blader? Sure. Tank+minor control? Sure. Multi-hit alpha striker/nova? Nope. Battlemasters, samurais and the echo knight are still ahead.
@@theWebWizrd the extra damage is only 1 attack per round, and the delay to setting up damage resistance because of bonus action bloat need to be considered, but it’s still the best fighter in the game, save maybe the echo knight. Just think it’s important to keep the perspective that the abilities aren’t quite rage, despite almost adding up to its equivalent when all set up.
@@mojorn8837 I didn't notice that they did nerf the 1d6 additional damage from the UA. Thanks for pointing that out. It says a lot that even without an additional 1d6 damage every round I still stand behind the notion that it is far and beyond the strongest martial class in the game.
I really wan't to make an Earth Genasi Wrestler (grappler) build as a Rune Knight. Yet, I also don't want to be a weak junk character.
Any suggestions how to make such a build & how to actually play it. I think Unarmed fighting is the way go for starters, but it seems to become way too weak in later levels
It may be somewhat weak with respect to damage, but the value of being able to grapple enemies is in preventing them attacking other players and moving them about the battlefield. Case in point, I've used a fighter (Eldritch Knight) to throw themselves and a grappled creature from a height. They had feather fall to support this, but a Rune knight could similarly grapple/move/shove creatures. I'd say go for it, sounds like a fun build!