Watch This Before You Play Rune Knight | Tasha's Cauldron of Everything Fighter Subclass
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
- The Rune Knight Subclass from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is analysed and graded. This is a Rune Knight Subclass Guide for Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition, or DnD 5e for short.
Rune Knights enhance their martial prowess using the supernatural power of runes, an ancient practice that originated with giants. Rune cutters can be found among any family of giants, and you likely learned your methods first or second hand from such a mystical artisan. Whether you found the giant’s work carved into a hill or cave, learned of the runes from a sage, or met the giant in person, you studied the giant’s craft and learned how to apply magic runes to empower your equipment.
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0:00 intro
0:00 background
3:06 races
4:05 runes
10:30 abilities
14:00 ranking - Hry
I'm pretty sure elves CAN be charmed, they just have advantage on their saving throws. (Their immunity is against sleep effects, magical or mundane.)
Not a mistake but the synergy with this class and the new unarmed fighting style can’t be underestimated. Being huge fixes a lot of the issues with grappling so just being effectively a 30ft tall Incredible Hulk just Loki’ing any enemy smaller than Huge is definitely possible.
I would definitely play this class, having runes that help you customize your Fighter makes it very appealing. I hope WoTC add more runes, with a little work it could be the first constitution based caster in the game.
It’s literally slap more tank on your tank. It’s hilariously powerful. Imagine using level 18 giant’s might and just man handling a dragon or beast.
I would love seeing runes from the other giant types especially a troll rune.
@@battledummie5656 Yea maybe it like heals u a little amount every turn and last a minute. Maybe make it another 7th lv one cause that might be too strong at 3rd lv (Idk). Definitely like the idea of adding more runes tho.
Really appreciate how you have the video timeline organized
Another comprehensive video! I'm so torn between rune knight and psi warrior, both are super cool fighter subclasses.
Very well explained! Keep up the great content!
Lovely review, thank you!
Two interesting uses of this subclass, in my opinion are:
1. Get as much reach as possible. That means getting possibly a bugbear and polearm master feat! The upgrade in size to Large and later Huge combined with the reach will allow you to control a huge area of the battlefield. Just polearm master is probably enough, honestly, if you don't enjoy the flavor of the Bugbear. Building defensively, possibly with Sentinel, will allow you to be a strong defender for your casters, simply because you're so hard to pass through!
2. Synergy with Tavern Brawler feat and Unarmed fighting style! This is the Rune Knight i will be making. Giant's Might allows you to have advantage to Grapple the target, Tavern Brawler allows you to grapple as a BA and Unarmed Fighting Style not only frees up your hands while keeping your damage competitive, also allows you to deal damage to a grappled target for free. Something inside of me feels really satisfied when picturing a Huge Dwarf grappling puny enemies and flicking them.
Both these setups alongside Runes of Fire and Stone will provide you with solid control of the field, possibly being a very effective tank.
Rune Knight sure isn't the best damage dealer archetype but to me it seems like it is going to be super annoying for the enemies to get through it in order to reach the casters.
I made a rune knight stout halfling. so far one of the most fun chars ive ever played. the con bonus really helps and the fact that I have bonus stuff at being large AND small really makes RP fun.
@@noncanalepricnipale yup! Its really awesome. My halfling fighter gets big and usually says something along the lines of “whos small now!” I was being chased.. and with 25 movement speed it means i cant really get away. So i ran and ran (for like 8 turns taking dodge action and moving i never got hit. It was amazing) and he chased me onto the bridge, so i grew large. Got a adv on str checks and yeeted him off the bridge
Genasi i think its pronounced jen-ah-see as in genie
Your correct. I’ve only seen it printed before the video but I check the pronunciation on dndbeyond and I have been saying wrong for all these years!
This sub class seems incredibly fun to play from the start to the finish of a campaign! The abilities and the origin of the Rune Knight’s features are interesting and cool.
I will play one of these today. Thank you for the video :)
A lot of people combine it with the goliath or dragur for maximum height. I hope you have fun
@@RichMerry I went with hobgoblin. But maybe in the future I will try Goliath.
One thing to be noted about Rune Knight is it can apply the most single target incapacitation attempts in a turn as far as I am aware. This is fantastic for doing things like eating up legendary resistances to end a fight instantly, or to shut down multiple high priority targets. The thing about the runes is they generally just win action economy in the turn 1 of combat sense. Stone rune is a reaction that can be used before you even get to your turn in initiative to attempt to incapacitate. At the point in which you get 2 casts of fire rune, those can both be used on the same turn provided you hit with at least 2 multiattacks (and can be applied with ANY weapon attack, not just melee). Bonus action's best use is variable, but one way to use it is to cast storm rune to give enemies disadvanatage to saving throws on any effect has already afficted them, making it more likely to maintain a stun lock. Given they run on your Con modifier, you don't have to commit to any stat that you wouldn't otherwise use to improve the DC on these runes.
Also, you have action surge. The best way to make use of action surge imo is to multiclass into Costal Druid of Land for 5 levels. This gives you access to fantastic spells to improve both your survivability and your stun lock ability. This includes web, entangle, earthbind, misty step, hold person, conjure animals, and mirror image, to name a few, as well as goodberry and healing word to help your friends. This build gives you access to the ability to turn one in combat do: stone rune, double fire rune, any spell that would incapacitate, then another stone rune as a reaction, all on the first run of initiative. That is 5 different saving throws you force an enemy to make, all of which take an enemy out of the fight, and it is possible to make most of those saving throws have fantastic DCs only by getting Con. Obviously this is more than would be necessary for most fights, and it does expend all your resources quickly, but it is the most "burst single target CC" you can get on a single character in the game. It destroys bosses that aren't immune to said conditions simply by means of making them incapable of doing things. All of this is recovered on short rests too, the spell slots even as long as they are 1st or 2nd level.
Given, to get the full power of this build, you need a high level. But, I still think its worth mentioning just how turn efficient rune knight can be, even if the resources run out quickly. It makes for a really cool alternate tanking style, where you tank by making the enemies incapable of attacking in the first place.
Thank you for the video!! I'm playing a lizardfolk rune knight at the moment, but just reading all the info was too much, so much easier to process in audio/ video format ^.^
Hey I just found your channel because of your life cleric video
I really enjoy your content
You are doing the best guides if found out there
And you have the perfect voice to do so
Pleas keep it up
Hoping for more subclasses guides from you
That's very nice of you to say. I hope that the guides help your D&D games.
@@RichMerry they do I am relativlie new I do have one lvl 6 character but only because I joined a campine of my friends to be on there lvl
I feel like all of the giant casts with level 3 runes are very upset that their runes are considered lesser than a HILL GIANT!
Also runic shield can and will cause someone to get crit.
It can and will also cause someone to not get crit as well if you think about it. Just imagine that Ancient Red Dragon chomping down on your buddy, it rolls a Nat 20, and you just go 'Nope! Rune Shield!' Then they roll a nat 1... *sad trombone noise*
@@barra193 or hypotheticaly some random low level crossbow wielding mook roll 2 nat 20s wich were irrelevant due to it being a surprise attack in the first combat encounter in the first session of the game and then have their crossbow roll a 8 on it's first dice with +1 from dex, one shoting your level 1 warlock with 9 hp, then only to roll a 1 on the d8 that they got from the crit, just to rub it in... ya' know... Hypothetically it could happen...
@@samfish2550 But u get runic shield at lv 7.
This subclass and warlock on the same party: okey we finished a fight let's rest a little grabs a snack.
playing a rune knight with the new giant feats, its awesome
You can check out the subclasses I've designed over on the patreon. You can download the Mentor Fighter for free, The Monolith Warlock and the Herbalist Ranger: www.patreon.com/RichMerry
I'm currently designing my own Dungeons & Dragons compatible subclass book, check out the behind the scenes video: czcams.com/video/AMvQNtJZM9w/video.html
Check out some of my other subclass reviews in this playlist czcams.com/play/PLcJxbxz7P6i3sM5I2igJJTH1D7RivAto4.html
If you have any caster in your party capable of casting enlarge or pick Duergar as race, you can grow to huge at lvl3 and gargantuan at lvl 18
Time to have a boxing match with some hill giants!
same with Goliath
A cool race to make your RUne Knight would be a Dragonborn imo, with some slight buffs (can highly recommend the Warrior's Codex Reforged for this)
I am so using this with a Kobold
While I do like this subclass, what I really hated was that the rune aspect was kinda underrepresented. It's more "giant Warrior" than "rune knight", and while I get lorewise why this happened, honestly, I'd prefer both of these themes separated.
I'd prefer more abillities focused on the runes themselves probably giving each more uses (depending on the rune) and SPECIALLY more types of runes, not only those based on the types of giants.
Example of abillities I was sure a rune Knight would have: 1. inscribing a rune on the ground that causes a explosion when stepped on. 2. Inscribing runes on two surfaces and making the energy transfer between: you hit one, and a part of the damage transfers to the other. 3. A rune to make things heavier and enemies slower. 4. A runes that make normal magic unusable in a given area 5. Runes that implants a command on someone 6. Runes that create golems.
Maybe I'll look for some homebrew. Or make some.
I had the same feeling and thoughts about it, coming from a generally new player that has only played a Bard and a Cleric. Since I played Champion in PF 2E, I really understood: It still is a Fighter, can't alter all to much to keep the core class intact :/
Once you look at how great it keeps a Fighter a fighter with unique utility, both offensive and defensive, you are gonna love it.
I do atleast and LOVE this subclass. Can't wait for when Curse of Strahd starts to start playing :D
Fun fact rules as written the rune shield will stack with disadvantage.
The Frost Rune is great for a grappler build.
You literally put me to sleep sir. Thank you I was tired...
My firbolg just hit rune knight. He is already 7ft tall. He will be massive by the end if it
Yo I'm playing a Firbolg Rune Knight too, it is really cool mixing their racial abilities with the rune abilities.
No wonder I didn’t know about this class. Didn’t realize it was new. I’m Duegaring this thing, of course! Let’s get it.
Duergar stacking into a Godzilla sized beast and fist fighting a dragon sounds like an amazing set piece for your campaign.
@@RichMerry yea it’s gonna be dragon heavy. The DM is even allowing the 3rd party dragon rider class, but I’m not going for it. I almost went for a rune Knight aarakocra, so I could hang with all the large flyers! But the Duegar will be more fun. I’m hoping to rip trees out the ground! 😂 Tavern brawler to the rescue!
What I hoped for was to see if the possibility of adding the Rune Knight into my Spellblade build would be beneficial; I'm 50/50 on it. My attempt is to RP the magical sword Crystalis (based on the old NES video game of the same name) and the Rune Knight`s runes DO possibly allow for it, but I'd have to work it in with 3 more subclasses for it to work properly:
1. Eldritch Knight fighter
2. Hexblade warlock
3. Evocation wizard
The list may very well continue since I'm still in the R&D of it in order to make sure all of the bugs are worked out.
I actually made a rune knight centaur that’s based on the lynels from botw.
So, I picked up the magic initiate feat to get access to the enlarge spell along with things like guidance which allows me to effectively become huge or gargantuan for a minute a day.
How sway?
The Enlarge spell is level 2? And guidance and enlarge aren't on the same spell lists
You could go duregar (sunlight sensitive dwarf) to get Enlarge
I wanna make a gnome, halfling, or a goblin that by level 18 becomes huge! That'd be so funny/fun!
🤣 that’s a great idea!
Fire and cloud/stone rune at 3
Fire, Storm, and Hill runes at 7 switching out cloud/stone
...I think I'm liking that switching out thing...
Going to want cloud and stone and not frost I think.
Good video, but you spelled Genasi wrong and the part with the frost giant had weird formatting, particularly with the image that was only partially moving. The stone rune had a similar issue as well. But still a good video overall! well done!
Oh no, the autocorrect got me on the Genasi! Your right about that. The frost giant was supposed to be him peaking out from behind the text because I couldn’t fit him on the screen. I guess the joke didn’t land. Sometimes it’s hard to show all the text and squeeze an image in, I didn’t want to have static text on the screen for a long time in case it got boring. Thanks for the feedback.
@@RichMerry, it's fine, It would have landed better if the text didn't suddenly vanish for a second when the image appeared. The frost giant had the same issue, but other than that the video was great. And I still enjoyed it, its not like the video was bad, just those little instances stuck out. but again, great video, and make sure that when it plays the text doesn't vanish before it pops out.
my bugbear lancer would like to know the location of another +5 reach
At this point it’s the same problem as Dhalsim in street fighter. Just wait until your DM finds out about blocking, spacing and footsies.
The new ravenloft books has a dark gift called living shadow that gives a +10 reach an amount of times per proficiency bonus per long rest
hmm, I'm thinking Firbolg or Goliath, Superior Technique-Lunge, Lance and Rapier, and then take Martial Adept at lvl 4 for Parry and Riposte
Going to go Rune Knight 17 and Totem of the Bear Barbarian 3 most likely, for some fun damage reduction and nasty damage output.
You don’t want that level 18 ability?
I mean u basically can become a Barbarian with giants might (advantage on str stuff and more dmg) and the rune that makes u resistant to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing when u use it (magical or non magical just like Barbarian) and u r always resistant to poison and have advantage on saves against poison (which is something Barbarian’s don’t get). Yea it’s not as many resistances as the bear but a lot of it will go to waste since u already get most of what u want already (resistance doesn’t stack remember and neither does advantage)
U really want to make a good multiclass and get more bang for your buck go 2 lvs into Artificer (only uses up 2 lvs so u can get the final ability for rune knight). U can get infusions that up your armor or buff up your dmg with weapons and u can get absorb elements (which can add to the amount of resistances u have if u use your reaction which makes u even more bearbarian like). Also spells r really nice in general even if your only getting up to cantrips and lv 1 spells. U can get stuff like feather fall, disguise self, absorb elements, mage hand, message, guidance (just for examples). Basically this will give u more dmg and make u more of a tank like the bearbarian but also gives u more utility. So it gives u what u want and even more stuff overall.
Subscribed today sorry I thought I already had but I hadn't.
That’s very nice of you to subscribe. While I have your attention I would love to know what subclass video you like the most.
Eventually I'm going to be in a campaign that has the transformations in the grim hollow book so I'll be playing a winged tiefling Hexblade warlock (primarily) and I'll get the fiend transformation and I'll be taking 3 lv's of fighter for rune knight so I can get the deceptive nature for the fiend down (cloud rune) and gain access to infernal chains (fire rune) so that once I reach the 3rd rank of the fiend transformation I can get access to a boon that grants me a weapon of my choice that can be from the simple or martial list that does slashing damage and it will turn the damage type to fire so I'm going to be going with greatsword and the boon gives the blade an extra 2d6 fire damage so I'll basically have a flametongue greatsword as a boon so my battle plan would be to hit an enemy once to get them in chains hit them again action surge to hit them 2 more times while I benefit from the enemy being restrained and if anything tries to hit me I'll have them hit their chained friend with cloud rune and if I were to kill someone I suck out their soul and have them be a hexblade's spectre
Made a rune knight juggernaut warforged fighter. Has max strength and due to being what it is can carry over 1000 pounds. Also has a maul and near max con.
I’m playing the same thing but prioritizing Constitution and Weapon of Choice is a Pike.
I played this class last week on an one shot
A goblin dex fighter with clud and fire runes
First thing we done was hold Person on an orc boss and let him burn to death 😁
A little later the cloud rune safes our cleric from 3 apes
And than the not little anymore goblin has to fight a dire wolf and a bed dragon!!
Nearly alone... But it worked rly well 😁
Would be cool to see a fairy rune knight. be as big as a thumb, then suddenly large/ huge sized. LMAO!
3:45 Gensai...?
I hate to be THAT GUY, but it's Genasi. (jen-aw-see). BTW.
yea, your not the first person to correct me lol. Well, you learn from your mistakes.
@@RichMerry
Well, at least you simply learned from your mistakes, instead of throwing a fit like a child when anyone said anything. Lol. Good on ya. it was an excellent video besides. keep up the good work!
Can they be places on a tortle’s shell?
Thats a DM ruling, but I would allow it in my games. The shell counts as unarmored defence but that is a technicality. Never let the D&D rules get in the way of having a fun game.
This class totally breaks the grappling rules.
Take grappler feat, use giants might, then have a wizard cast enlarge on you. You can now grapple dragons, terrasques, or even Tiamat. Lol
"Your reach increases by 5 feet"
Now imagine playing this as a Bugbear while using a lance. That's a reach of 15 feet.
have you considered a Fairy Rune Knight? enlarge/reduce + giant's might tho, mfn Ant-Man
level 18 Rune Knight, level 2 favored foe fiend Ranger, Fairy race Enlarge/Reduce stacked with Runic Juggernaut. Bring it, Balor
"Gensai"
Hear me out, a stick inscribed with a stone rune and you now have THE STICK OF TRUTH
give a ruin inscribe flat pebble to the bard and now they have THE PICK OF DESTINY!
@@RichMerry yessss! Omg you responded 😭
An orc or Goliath rune knight could get the tavern brawler feat, go big, grab a medium creature, and go clubbing.
Puns are always welcome on this channel.
A goliath and a gnome rune knight duo and the gnome is furious when the goliath grows taller too.
Kobold rune knight who really really wants to be dragon sized.
Gensai = Genasi*
xXxARTHASxXx
I'm very sorry but Genasi*
I know I know lol. Your not the first person to correct my mistake. I made the same one in my genie warlock video as well. You learn something new every day.
@@RichMerry Yeah, sorta figured, and I'm sorry for nitpicking. It just got past my shields and I had to be that guy at the moment.
I’m once again disappointed. While it has a strong start, it just pitters off as you grow. I’m most disappointed in the giants might ability. Low B or high C rank.
Great video though!
The power creep of 1d6 on each attack was ridiculous, completely making most previous fighter subclasses pitiful in comparison for dpr. Not sure I see much weakness other slightly lackluster level 10 1d8 boost. But level 15 is very powerful literally doubling your rune utility. Curious which fighters you see as superior in terms of combined utility, survivability, and dpr.
@@Tyrgoth99 Built properly, an Eldritch Knight, for sure. Rune Knight is solid but when you total up the skill bumps, it’s great as a martial rogue type character. Possibly best use card in my mind is a Shadar-Kai with Elven Accuracy running the Storm Rune to have stupid amounts of advantage. Also a Rune Knight Armorer, to become a Large-size Thunderpunch Machine. Although if I were making an armorer and multiclassing, I think I’d be combining with Bladesinger for high number of attacks using Booming Blade and absolutely absurd AC
It has significant defense and support abilities paired with only being 2 attribute dependent. The runes are great starting with the storm rune being the strongest of the bunch. If your party-mates have a bunch of save or suck spells or there’s a monk attempting stunning strike the Storm Rune’s ability to force the save at disadvantage every turn (giving up your reaction) or maybe the rogue can’t get sneak attack this round you can give him advantage instead. The stone and fire runes can take over single enemy encounters.
I love the flavor of the subclass, but the once per turn damage seems too weak. I would've brought UA's d6 down to a d4 and maybe bring it up to 2d4 at level 18. The tradeoff of increased damage is getting swarmed more easily, which fighters already struggle with.
Given the giants' reputation of being immensely strong, I'd replace the level 10 feature with something similar to the goliath's Powerful Build. Not too notable in combat, but makes the character seem stronger.
@@Rexir2 I mean u basically do get powerful build at lv 10. I mean all powerful build does is consider u a size larger then what u r and increase your carrying capacity/ max lift. At lv 10 u grow 3d4 inches and if that is enough to bring u above to large then u r now considered a large creature since u actually r one. I mean depending on what U made your height overall and how well u roll but it’s unlikely that’s to be the case. I mean if that’s what u we’re looking for then it’s your fault for making your character so short. Not to mention with giants might u become large anyways (and at lv 18 u become huge).
I hate this subclass with a passion.
It's incredibly broken if you're DM doesn't change the game to nerf it.
Here's an idea:
Either steal a large creatures weapon or just pay a blacksmith to make you a weapon sized for a large creature.
Before fighting drop it on the ground.
Then once you're enlarged pick it up and start striking people with your giant double dice weapon with your rune knight damage bonus.
Watch it before playing RK my ass, give me one reason i should watch that before playing RK, like, seriously, you just read classes abilities and then give it a rating... Not to mention itd be faster to read it yourself, but then you wouldnt know its A tier.