Runes

Permanent magic items are made by etching runes into a Masterwork item, powered by essence.

Rune Material Costs

Besides the required essence, crafting or upgrading a rune takes special inks, binders, catalysts, etching supplies and other magical materials: Minor 50 silver, Lesser 200 silver, Greater 800 silver, Major 2,400 silver.

Rune Capacity

• An item must be Masterwork before it can hold permanent runes; a Masterwork item has 1 point of rune capacity.
• Each Potency rune raises capacity by 1, so an item's total capacity is 1 + its Potency value.
• Each effect rune uses 1 point of capacity unless its entry says otherwise, and an item can't hold more than its current maximum.
• Higher-tier effect runes may also need a minimum Potency, as listed in the rune's entry.

Rune Tiers and Potency

Permanent magic items advance through four stages:

An item must meet an effect rune's minimum Potency before that rune can be added. Potency benefits:

• Weapons and ammunition: a bonus to attack and damage rolls equal to the Potency value.
• Armor: a bonus to Soak and MD equal to the Potency value.
• Shields: a bonus to the shield bonus and Hardness equal to the Potency value.
• Wondrous and other items that don't use attack rolls, damage, Soak, MD or a shield bonus get no default number. Instead their effect runes scale by Potency tier, and Potency still raises rune capacity and effective level.

Potency bonuses stack with Masterwork bonuses unless a rule says otherwise. The Potency rune's own crafting cost is TBD (the GM sets it).

Effect Runes and Versions

Effect runes come in four tiers: Minor (needs only a Masterwork item), Lesser (Potency 1), Greater (Potency 2) and Major (Potency 3). Each lists the items it can go on (weapons, armor, shields, worn items, held items, universal items). Weapon runes can go on anything used to make attacks, including a shield used for shield bashes.

The tiers of one rune are versions of a single effect rune, not separate runes: a higher-tier version replaces the lower one instead of being added beside it, includes the lower version's benefits unless it says otherwise, and still uses only 1 point of capacity unless its entry says otherwise.

Upgrading a Rune

You can upgrade an existing rune to a higher-tier version of the same rune if you meet all the new version's requirements, including its minimum Potency and essence quality. An upgrade always needs essence of the new tier. Because the old rune is reused, the raw material cost and setup time are halved, and you gain 1 level of Advantage on the crafting challenge.

Final Item Level

A magic item's level is the highest of its base item level, its Potency rune and its effect runes.

Every effect rune is written out in full in the Effect Runes compendium.