Spell Runes

[overgoat]

I know this has been mentioned several times in the past, but I think most people ignore the spell runes right now. It is just not worth the rune/infusion slot for a mediocre spell. My thought is to replace or add to the current spells with more of the powerful spells in the game. Maybe spells like like Blood Grasp or Fireflash.

It also seems like the balance in the game is currently skewed a bit towards the anti-magic side. Buffing runes with more powerful spells might skew it back some.

[lukep]

I haven't really tried the attack runes much, they look fairly powerful, but I'm not sure if it's worth an inscription slot right now.

As for magic/antimagic, I think it's fairly well balanced as it is. AM gives you a strong advantage against the ~1/3 of the enemies that are mages, while magic is good against the 95% of enemies that do not have antimagic.

[supermini]

Alchemist golems use a lot of runes. I've also used runes on necromancers to help with the early game blasting, I used them on magic using skeletons because after 3-4 runes you run out of ideas, depending on your generic trees.

If you want to improve them, I'd turn the lightning one into lightning daze, acid wave into acid blind, increase the damage on heat beam, and since I think frozen rune can already freeze, that would be that. It would give you a choice between escape/heal/shield and cc, which isn't bad.

Bear in mind that any increase in the power of runes will cause players to suffer first, as armored skeleton warriors pack those in abundance.

[donkatsu]

I feel like changing lightning to lightning daze and acid to acid blind would not be enough of an improvement. First, those check spellpower versus the enemy's physical save, which pretty much limits its usefulness to magic classes. I guess thematically that's okay because runes *are* spells, but gameplay-wise that means they're still boring and weak for the majority of classes. Second, sun infusions are already weak with their 100% chance to apply blind, so acid blind's 25% chance wouldn't change much. Nor would lightning daze's 25% chance. Yeah, attack runes are instant and sun infusions are not, but sun infusion blind lasts longer and comes with a handful of fringe benefits as well.

I'd consider taking it if it was a 100% chance to apply the effect, and used the highest of my phys/spell/mind power, or it ran off of its own power like sun infusions, and that power was high enough to compete with enemy saves. Enemies using them on me is not a problem because you already have to deal with blind and daze all the time, from sun infusions and Rush respectively.

[skein]

The elemental runes need to give a small bump in damage type as well as their activation. If they start giving +10% to their element type they are suddenly worth it.

Besides that we need some new rune types. I would love to see a passwall or earthrune. An extract gem rune would be fun as well.

[Useless]

It's not a direct fix but I always thought it'd be neat to somehow be able to put attack runes and infusions onto a weapon. Like a more offensive version of Stone Alchemy.

[SageAcrin]

I like the damage boost idea, but I feel like that's not the right direction.

People use Runes and Infusions for defensive purposes, not offensive-that's the problem with the damage runes. People have ways to deal damage already.

Additionally, any buffs to these, you have to remember, are going to be on enemies-and damage boosts to these runes, which are already fairly competent in enemy hands, can be lethal.

Here's an interesting thought: Let's have them grant passive Damage Affinity while you have them. You know, the ability to heal from damage when hit by it.

Here's the idea I'm thinking:

Heat Ray: Grants one or two of (Fire, Light, Arcane, randomly picked) Affinity. Amount can scale with (whatever scaling the Rune uses), general range, 10-20% Affinity(Should probably not go above 20%). Arcane would be notably rarer than the other two options.
Frost Spear or whatever it is: Grants one or two of (Cold, Darkness, Temporal), same range. Temporal notably rarer.
Lightning: (Lightning, Nature, Mind). Since this elemental set is weaker, these should either have more affinity, or come in sets of 2-3, so that you can get ones that block all three for this. I suggest the latter.
Acid Wave: (Physical, Acid). If Physical shows up on one, it should have 1/2 the normal affinity rate. So, 5-10%.
Rune of the Rift: Fixed 10% Temporal affinity.

They're still niche, but they have the notable upside of giving powerful niche defenses, so that you can use them to fill a defensive hole. They are the only passive effect rune/infusion, and they produce an offensive bonus as well as a niche defensive bonus. And they're definitely good enough so that rune slots are no longer a total joke for the undead.

And enemies that have them don't instantly start frying you horribly. That's important.

So, how about this?

[bricks]

Doing damage so you can do more damage still seems odd. It also doesn't create significant incentive to not take Antimagic, which I think should be a design goal. I don't think we need spell runes. The only real purpose they serve is to make certain enemies more threatening. Even with a damage increase, every class still has methods to deal damage, and very few have talents or equipment that readily synergize with these effects. They feel like a remnant from the early development of ToME.

(A thought - a rune that summons a friendly elemental would be really cool, especially if the rune roll determined the type of elemental.)

[HousePet]

Not keen on passives from inscriptions.

How about having them grant a defensive buff when used?

eg. Heat Beam rune: Covers you in a haze of heat for a few turns. Improves defense, does fire damage to attackers, increases cold and freeze resistance. Can also be used when frozen to unfreeze yourself (instead of firing the beam).

[laru]

Bear in mind that any increase in the power of runes will cause players to suffer first, as armored skeleton warriors pack those in abundance.

This!

Basically, the suggestions in this thread are all about making the game harder. Which I'm not so sure is a good idea, there are already nightmare and insane modes available.

No matter how good you make the attack runes, I can't see anybody in their sane mind picking them over shielding/teleport/controlled phase door - not to mention all the handy infusions, which also compete for the same slots to everybody except the undead. Every character class gets plenty of offensive skills, but healing, shielding & escape options are always scarce and worth their value in.. something else than gold, in this game. Whereas, all the enemies that get attack runes will put them to good use - they don't get to choose otherwise.

[donkatsu]

There are plenty of ways to make attack runes actually useful to players without making them excessively deadly on NPCs. Simply increasing their damage is not one of these ways, however.

[NEHZ]

Without any form of defensive buff I would never take an attack rune, unless it can two-shot most bosses.
The defensive bonusses sugested above certainly make it more interesting. Having it shake off certain effects makes it look a bit like the infusions, except with an attack on it rather than a resist all bonus. I probably still wouldn't take the damage afinity runes, unless to compensate for -resistance% on clothing.

[jotwebe]

Maaaybe they could give out boosts to specific immunities, to continue the shield/healing theme.

Vision Rune: blindness
Acid Wave: disarm, pin, knockback - nice for melee types
Fire Beam: fear, bleeding, silence - several niche types
Frost Spear: confusion
Lightning: stun/freeze

And yeah, invisibility could use a de-nerf.

[azrael]

I like brick's idea about the elementals

[wobbly]

No matter how good you make the attack runes, I can't see anybody in their sane mind picking them over shielding/teleport/controlled phase door - not to mention all the handy infusions, which also compete for the same slots to everybody except the undead.

Maybe not on the player, but they may on the golem, provided the AI doesn't shoot them in the back.