Unearthed Arcana - RuneKnight

Hello and welcome to the DMs Corner! It's been a while since I've added to this section of the website, but when I read the new Unearthed Arcana for Fighters, Rangers, and Rogues, I had to jump on it! So let's dive into the first subclass on this article, the Rune Knight!

Fighter - Rune Knight

Rune cutters, also known as "Skiltgravr", derive their magic skillset from any race of Giants, and those in training can be found in the company of Giants of any type, being Hill, Fire, Stone, Frost, Cloud, and Storm.

Flavor wise, I love this, and it really provokes compelling backstory to make knowing these runes make sense. Or at least I do if I was either building the character or DMing for someone who wanted to be a Rune Knight!

Looking at these abilities, Rune Magic is so much fun. You know two runes when you reach level 3, and you can inscribe either an entire set of armor, a weapon, or a shield. One rune per object, and you can inscribe the amount of runes equal to the amount of runes you know. Each giant has a their own rune, and each rune having a Passive and a Activated ability, which really adds a great dynamic to your fighter that lets you fill in roles in the party that may be lacking in some areas!

The Hill Giant Rune has a Passive of granting Advantage on Saving Throws against being poisoned and resistance to poison damage. Not exciting if you're a Dwarf, but any other race and it's a good perk!

The activate ability is incredible though, granting Resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage for 1 min (Doesn't say anything about magical or not!). You have to take a short or long rest to do this again, basically get to Rage (Minus the damage increase) for a battle. Niiiiiiiice!

The Fire Giant Rune has a fun passive that grants double proficiency when using tools you're already proficient with. Talk about awesome! This means whenever you use your smithing tools, you get that glorious x2. But it says "for any check you make that uses your proficiency with a tool", which means you can start to train in the off time to be proficient with other tools, again, making you a lot more versatile off the field.

The rune you invoke does some work, but more from a range than close up. But it's a great ability regardless! When you hit a creature with an attack, you can invoke the rune and cause fiery shackles to restrain the target if they fail a Strength saving throw. AND they take 2d6 fire damage on the end of each of their turns. Restrained is fun because it makes them easier to hit, harder for them to hit others, and their speed is 0. Talk about locking someone down!

The Frost Giant Rune is pretty interesting, as it grants a constant Advantage to Animal Handling and Intimidation checks. Kind of cool (haha Frost Giant... Cool) that yields to being more versatile outside of combat, or in battle if your on a mount!

When you invoke this rune you gain a incredible bonus of +2 to your Strength score for 10 minutes. This buff CAN exceed 20, but not 30, and you can only do it once per short or long rest. This is a ton of fun because you get a damage buff for combat, and if battle ends early, you're still stupid strong for other stuff. Or maybe you need to hold the gate open so your buddies can make it through? Bet your glad to have that sweet buff!

The Stone Giant Rune packs has a lot of flavor behind it. As it's passive ability, you get Advantage on Insight checks and grants you Darkvision. If you already have dark vision, it get's bolstered by 30 ft. Pretty solid (haha Get it? Stone Giant... Solid?... I'll stop now...)!

This rune is a little weirder than the others in my opinion. When it's invoked a creature that ends its turn within 30 ft. of you must make a Wisdom save. If they fail, they are charmed by you for 1 min. Their speed becomes 0 and are considered incapacitated. This effect ends if they take damage of someone else uses their action to shake the target out of their haze. Limited to once per short of long rest. Like I said, lots of flavor, just not sure how it all ties in! haha

The Cloud Giant Rune is also pretty interesting, granting a passive Advantage on Slight of Hand and Deception checks. I never really counted Cloud Giants among the underhanded, but then again, I haven't met them all! So these ability buffs are welcome, just a little weird.

Now this rune invoke ability is down right fun when used right! Lets say you play like me and jump right into the circle of baddies, and we all start beating the snot out of each other. One swings a big 'ol greataxe at your face, you can invoke the rune as a reaction to cause that attack to target a different creature, so we can pick the attackers buddy that we've also been waling on, Rune magic shifts the weapon over and crashes into the other guy. That's WAY better than just dodging an attack in my book! And it can be done at range too, which really helpful because the rune says "You or another creature is hit with an attack within 30 ft. of you", meaning you can save your squishy-yet-lovable wizard's life in an instant. Handy!

Last but not least, we have the Storm Giant Rune, which grants a passive of Advantage on Arcana checks, and you can't be surprised as long as you're not incapacitated. The flavor for this one is that Storm Giants can see into the future, and this certainly conveys that! Very cool way to make your fighter a lot more relevant in the magic department.

If you want battlefield control like no other, then invoke this rune! For the next minute or until you're incapacitated, you can spend your reaction to grant Advantage OR Disadvantage on any creature within 60 ft. of you on Attack roles, Saving throws, or aAbility checks. Per short of long rest, but still, inside of battle and out, granting Advantage or Disadvantage is incredible.

Those are just the runes you can pick from when you hit level 3, and you get 2 to pick as soon as you hit that mark. Kind of like Prepared spells, at the end of a long rest, you have to imbue an object with a rune you know. When you gain a level, you can trade a rune out for a different one. This is just me, but some of these abilities are way more powerful than others, Storm Giant coming to mind right away, so I think if a Rune Knight found their way to my table, I'd want to put level requirements on some of these. I'd have to sit down and really pick it apart, but giving yourself or a buddy (Like your Rogue, perhaps) Advantage once a turn is crazy powerful, more so when it only casts a reaction, and if you're a Ranged Fighter with a bow, you aren't using that much, if at all!

Final thoughts of the Runes of this Unearthed Arcana class, I love it. The class is one I want to be official, with a few tweaks here and there haha. The runes are a ton of fun and creative ways to fill in party gaps. Over all, I'm excited for this class and will certainly be interested to see what happens with this subclass!

Up next: Ranger - Swarmkeeper!