Kacirkov's Runes V0.2
Runes in official dnd felt a bit too boring to me as if they are never influenced by their surroundings, by who made them, or by their purpose. In this little homebrew thing, I’ll try to make them more customizable and more influenced by you the player.
Rune Making
To make a rune, you first need a rune inscriber. Rune inscribers can make a rune on any item that is 5ft cubic or of a lower size, you are unable to make runes for ammunition, magic scrolls, or potions. You can only make 1 complete rune on an item. Rune inscribers have different types of quality, which influences how many runes you can make before it breaks. Making a rune will take 1d4 hours no matter If it is a failure or a success.
| quality | uses for non-magical items | uses for magical items |
|---|---|---|
| damaged | 2 | 1 |
| normal | 4 | 2 |
| excellent | 6 | 3 |
Rune Making, Ability checks
When making a rune you will make an ability check, you can either make a premade check or convince the dm that you will make a different ability check as long as the dm agrees on it. You do not make a check for every rune type. (Check difficulty is made by the dm, If you fail, you lose the specified amount of uses and there's a 50% change the item would be damaged.)
| Ability checks | description |
|---|---|
| STR | You force your tool into the item |
| DEX | You make swift moves using your inscriber |
| INT | You slowly but carefully craft your rune |
Rune Making, Trigger Rune
Now the time has come to make your first rune type, the trigger rune determines what activates the other runes. You can choose only 1 of these runes. (You can make your own triggers as long as the dm agrees.)
| Successful hit |
| Failed hit |
| Item being thrown |
| Command (V or S, 3/day) |
| Killing an enemy |
| Owner getting hit |
| Owner being healed |
| Owner dying |
Rune Making, Effect Rune
The second rune type, the effect is what the rune does when activated. Normally you can choose only 1 of them, but on a nat 20 you can choose 2 instead. Check difficulty is determined by the owners ability score modifiers +10, the ability is same as the enemies check.
- Shockwave-(Must make a str save or get pushed 30ft away from the item.)
- Slow-(-15ft of movement for 1 turn.)
- Explosion-(Must make a dex save or get 2d8 force damage, on a success they get half the damage.)
- Shackles-(Forms magical shackles around the specified creature, must make a str check to break free.)
- Endure-(+1ac for 1 turn)
- Break-(-1ac for 1 turn)
- Heal-(gives 2d6 of health to the specified creature)
Runes That Cannot Be Customized Any Further
- Return-(The item will fly towards its owner no matter how far away the item is. The item cannot return back, If the item is in a different plane.)
- Wall of force-(Forms a 5ft wide, 5ft tall, and 25ft long wall of force for 10 rounds. The wall is made where the item was, if there's no space, the wall will push everything 5ft away to make itself.)
- Glow-(The item starts glowing in the area of 35ft.)
- Terrify-(Any creature that can see you or the item, must make a wis save or get frightened condition for 5 turns. If you fuse the rune with the blood of a certain creature, any member of the same creature type will have the frightened condition for 10 turns on a failed save instead.)
- Alarm-(The item will make a loud noise, any entity that can hear the sound must make a wis save or lose concentration for 1 turn)
Rune Making, Shape Rune
The last rune type is size and shape, it determines the area of effect. You can only choose 1 rune.
| Line 40ft |
| Cross 35ft |
| Cone 30ft |
| Half-Sphere 20ft |
| Sphere 10ft |
| Self |
Upgrading Runes
To upgrade a rune, you will need a rune inscriber, each rune type can be upgraded only once. You can upgrade different aspects of the rune. (You'll still need to make an ability check, failure works same as when failing to make rune, but without the risk of damaging the item.)
Upgrading Trigger Runes
The only trigger rune you can upgrade is the command rune. You can only upgrade how many times per day you can do the command.
| Inscriber quality | Additional uses per day |
|---|---|
| Damaged | 2 |
| Normal | 4 |
| Excellent | 6 |
Upgrading Effect Runes
You can upgrade an effect rune in a number of ways, by increasing the check difficulty, effect time, and dice amount.
| Inscriber quality | Check difficulty increase |
|---|---|
| Damaged | +1 |
| Normal | +2 |
| Excellent | +3 |
| --- | Effect time increase |
| Damaged | +3 turns |
| Normal | +6 turns |
| Excellent | +9 turns |
| --- | Dice amount increase |
| Damaged | +1 die |
| Normal | +2 dice |
| Excellent | +3 dice |
Upgrading Shape Runes
The only aspect you can change with the 3rd rune type is their size.
| Inscriber quality | Expanded size |
|---|---|
| Damaged | 5ft |
| Normal | 10ft |
| Excellent | 15ft |
Rune Making On Body Parts
You can make 1 rune on each of your limbs, if you have a tail then the same applies. (After making an ability check, you must make a CON save based on how high you rolled.)
If you fail, you take damage based on the table below +the ability mod. you used before, half of the damage lowers your maximum hp.
| Inscriber quality | Damage |
|---|---|
| Damaged | 2d8 |
| Normal | 4d8 |
| Excellent | 6d8 |