Runes

Some magic weapons and armour gain their enhancements from potent runes etched into them.

Runes must be physically engraved on items through a special process to convey their effects. They take two forms: fundamental runes and property runes. Fundamental runes offer the most basic and essential benefits: a weapon potency rune adds a bonus to a weapon’s attack rolls, and the striking rune adds extra weapon damage dice. An armour potency rune increases the armour’s bonus to DR, and the resilient rune grants a bonus to the wearer’s defences. Property runes, by contrast, grant more varied effects - typically powers that are constant while the armour is worn or that take effect each time the weapon is used, such as a rune that grants energy resistance or one that adds fire damage to a weapon’s attacks.

The number of property runes a weapon or armour can have is equal to the value of its potency rune. A +1 weapon can have one property rune, but it could hold another if the +1 weapon potency rune were upgraded to a +2 weapon potency rune. Since the striking and resilient runes are fundamental runes, they don’t count against this limit. You must attune to a runed item to benefit from its magic.

Runed armour and weapons have the same general characteristics as the non-magical version unless noted otherwise. Each rune can be etched into a specific type of armour or weapon, as indicated in the Usage entry of the rune’s stat block. Clothing can have armour runes etched on it even though it’s not armour, but because it’s not in the light, medium, or heavy armour category, it can’t have runes requiring any of those categories.

Runic Script

Scripts are instructions for etching runes. You can usually read a script as long as you can read the language it’s written in, though you might lack the skill to craft the item.

You can buy scripts at the price listed in the Script Price table below, or you can hire an NPC to let you copy their formula for the same price. A purchased script is typically a schematic on rolled-up parchment. You can copy a a script in 1 hour.

If you have a runed item, you can try to reverse engineer its script. This takes the same amount of time as creating the item from a script would. You attempt a crafting check against the same DC it would take to craft the item. If you succeed, you craft the script at its full price. You can work for longer in order to reduce the price.

The Etching Process

Etching a rune on an item follows the same process crafting an item. You must have the script for the rune, the item you’re adding the rune to must be in your possession throughout the etching process, and you must meet any special crafting requirements of the rune. The rune has no effect until crafting is complete. You can etch only one rune at a time.

You can upgrade a rune already etched on a suit of armour to a stronger version, increasing the values of the existing rune to those of the new rune. You must have the script of the stronger rune to do so, and the price of the upgrade is the difference between the two runes’ prices.

Script Price

Rune Level	Script Price	Rune Level	Script Price
1	10 gp	11	700 gp
2	20 gp	12	1000 gp
3	30 gp	13	1500 gp
4	50 gp	14	2250 gp
5	80 gp	15	3250 gp
6	130 gp	16	5000 gp
7	180 gp	17	7500 gp
8	250 gp	18	12000 gp
9	350 gp	19	20000 gp
10	500 gp	20	35000 gp

Transferring Runes

You can transfer runes between one item and another, including a runestone. This lets you either move one rune from one item to another or swap a rune on one item with a rune on the other item. To swap, the runes must be of the same form (fundamental or property).

If an item can have two or more property runes, you decide which runes to swap and which to leave when transferring. If you attempt to transfer a rune to an item that can’t accept it, such as transferring a melee weapon rune to a ranged weapon, you automatically failure your crafting check. If you transfer a potency rune, you might end up with property runes on an item that can’t benefit from them. These property runes go dormant until transferred to an item with the necessary potency rune or until you etch the appropriate potency rune on the item bearing them.

The DC of the Crafting check to transfer a rune is determined by the item level of the rune being transferred, and the Price of the transfer is 10% of the rune’s Price, unless transferring from a runestone, which is free. If you’re swapping, use the higher level and higher Price between the two runes to determine these values. It takes 1 day to transfer a rune or swap a pair of runes, and you can continue to work over additional days to get a discount.

Fundamental Runes

Four fundamental runes produce the most essential magic of protection and destruction: armour potency and resilient runes for armour, and weapon potency and striking runes for weapons. A potency rune is what makes weapons and armour magical. An item can have only one fundamental rune of each type, though etching a stronger rune can upgrade an existing rune to the more powerful version.

Fundamental Runes

Rune	Item	Benefit
Potency	Armour	Bonus to DR and property runes
Resilient	Armour	Defence bonus
Potency	Weapon	Attack bonus and property runes
Striking	Weapon	Bonus weapon damage dice

Armour Potency

Magic wards deflect attacks, granting a bonus to armour DR.

Type	Bonus	Rune Level	Price
Standard	+1	5	1500 gp
Greater	+2	11	6000 gp
Major	+3	18	24000 gp

Resilient

Resilient runes imbue armour with additional protective magic, granting the wearer a bonus to defences.

Type	Bonus	Rune Level	Price
Standard	+1	8	3000 gp
Greater	+2	14	12000 gp
Major	+3	20	48000 gp

Weapon Potency

Magical enhancements make this weapon strike true, granting a bonus to attack rolls with this weapon. Potency runes cannot be etched upon ammunition.

Type	Bonus	Rune Level	Price
Standard	+1	2	1000 gp
Greater	+2	10	4000 gp
Major	+3	16	16000 gp

Striking

A striking rune stores destructive magic in the weapon, increasing the number of weapon damage dice. For example, a +1 striking broad sword would deal 4d4 damage instead of 2d4 damage. Striking runes cannot be etched upon ranged weapons that use ammunition.

Type	Dice Multiplier	Rune Level	Price
Standard	x2	4	2000 gp
Greater	x3	12	8000 gp
Major	x4	19	32000 gp

Property Runes

Property runes add special abilities to armour or a weapon in addition to the item’s fundamental runes. If a suit of armour or a weapon has multiple etchings of the same rune, only the highest-level one applies. You can upgrade a property rune to a higher-level type of that rune in the same way you would upgrade a fundamental rune.

Armour Property Runes

Shadow

Usage: Etched onto light or medium non-metallic armour.
Level: 3
Price: 2500 gp

Armour with this rune becomes hazy black. You have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks while wearing the armour.

Slick

Usage: Etched into armour.
Level: 3
Price: 2000 gp

This property makes armour slippery, as though it were coated with a thin film of oil. You gain advantage on Dextarity (Athletics) checks to escape and squeeze.

Glamoured

Usage: Etched onto armour.
Level: 5
Price: 500 gp

While wearing this armour, you can use a bonus action to speak the armour’s command word and cause the armour to assume the appearance of a normal set of clothing or some other kind of armour. You decide what it looks like, including color, style, and accessories, but the armour retains its normal bulk and weight. The illusory appearance lasts until you use this property again or remove the armour.

Energy Resistant

Usage: Etched onto armour.
Level: 8
Price: 6000 gp

These symbols convey protective forces from the Elemental Planes. You gain resistance to acid, cold, electricity, or fire. The crafter chooses the damage type when creating the rune. Multiple energy-resistant runes can be etched onto a suit of armour, but each must provide resistance to a different damage type.

Invisibility

Usage: Etched onto light armour.

Light seems to partially penetrate this armour.

As an action you can whisper the command word and become invisible for 1 minute, gaining the effects of a 2nd-level invisibility spell.

Invisibility	Rune Level	Price
1/Long Rest	8	700 gp
3/Long Rest	10	2000 gp

Fortification

Usage: Etched onto medium or heavy armour.
Level: 12
Price: 500 gp

A fortification rune wards against the most deadly attacks. While you’re wearing it, any critical hit against you becomes a normal hit.

Antimagic

Usage: Etched onto medium or heavy armour.
Level: 15
Price: 65000 gp

This intricate rune displaces spell energy, imposing disadvantage on attack rolls targeting you with magical effects.

Weapon Property Runes

Returning

Usage: Etched onto a thrown weapon.
Level: 3
Price: 500 gp

When you make a ranged attack with this weapon, it flies back to your hand after the attack is complete. If your hands are full when the weapon returns, it falls to the ground in your space.

Disrupting

Usage: Etched onto a melee weapon.

A disrupting weapon pulses with radiant energy, dealing an extra 1d6 radiant damage to undead. On a critical hit, the undead is also frightened until the end of your next turn.

Greater: If the target has 25 hit points or fewer after taking this damage, make an attack roll with a +5 bonus vs its Wisdom defence. On a hit, it is destroyed. On a miss, the creature becomes frightened of you until the end of your next turn.

Disrupting	Damage	Rune Level	Price
Standard	1d6	5	2000 gp
Greater	2d6	14	8000 gp

Shifting

Usage: Etched onto a melee weapon.
Level: 6
Price: 500 gp

With a moment of manipulation, you can shift this weapon into a different weapon with a similar form.

As an action, you can cause this weapon to take the shape of another melee weapon that requires the same number of hands to wield. The weapon’s runes and any precious material it’s made of apply to the weapon’s new shape. Any property runes that can’t apply to the new form are suppressed until the item takes a shape to which they can apply.

Wounding

Usage: Etched onto a piercing or slashing melee weapon.
Level: 7
Price: 2000 gp

Hit points lost to this weapon’s damage can be regained only through a short or long rest, rather than by regeneration, magic, or any other means.

Once per turn, when you hit a creature with an attack using this magic weapon, you can wound the target. At the start of each of the wounded creature’s turns, it takes 1d4 necrotic damage for each time you’ve wounded it. Following this, make an attack roll with a +5 bonus vs the creature’s Constitution defence. On a miss, the effect of all such wounds end. Alternatively, the wounded creature, or a creature within 5 feet of it, can use an action to make a DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine) check, ending the effect of such wounds on it on a success.