RUNES
Most magic weapons and armor gain their enhancements from potent eldritch runes etched into them. These runes allow for in-depth customization of items.
Click here to see full rules for runesProperty runes add special abilities to armor or a weapon in addition to the item’s fundamental runes. If a suit of armor 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.
Name | Level | Price | |
---|---|---|---|
Shadow | 3 | 55 gp | |
Slick | 3 | 45 gp | |
Glamered | 5 | 140 gp | |
Ready | 6 | 200 gp | |
Energy-Resistant | 8 | 420 gp | |
Invisibility | 8 | 500 gp | |
Sinister Knight | 8 | 500 gp | |
Slick (Greater) | 8 | 450 gp | |
Shadow (Greater) | 9 | 650 gp | |
Invisibility (Greater) | 10 | 1,000 gp | |
Ready (Greater) | 11 | 1,200 gp | |
Energy-Resistant (Greater) | 12 | 1,650 gp | |
Fortification | 12 | 2,000 gp | |
Rock-Braced | 13 | 3,000 gp | |
Winged | 13 | 2,500 gp | |
Antimagic | 15 | 6,500 gp | |
Slick (Major) | 16 | 9,000 gp | |
Ethereal | 17 | 13,500 gp | |
Shadow (Major) | 17 | 14,000 gp | |
Fortification (Greater) | 18 | 24,000 gp | |
Winged (Greater) | 19 | 35,000 gp |
Four fundamental runes produce the most essential magic of protection and destruction: armor potency and resilient runes for armor, and weapon potency and striking runes for weapons. A potency rune is what makes a weapon a magic weapon (page 599) or armor magic armor (page 556).
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 (as described in each rune’s entry). As you level up, you typically alternate between increasing an item’s potency rune and its striking or resilient rune when you can afford to.
Name | Level | Price | |
---|---|---|---|
Armor Potency (+1) | 5 | 160 gp | |
Resilient | 8 | 340 gp | |
Armor Potency (+2) | 11 | 1,060 gp | |
Resilient (Greater) | 14 | 3,440 gp | |
Armor Potency (+3) | 18 | 20,560 gp | |
Resilient (Major) | 20 | 49,440 gp |
Property runes add special abilities to armor or a weapon in addition to the item’s fundamental runes. If a suit of armor 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.
Name | Level | Price | |
---|---|---|---|
Kin-Warding | 3 | 52 gp | |
Returning | 3 | 55 gp | |
Ghost Touch | 4 | 75 gp | |
Disrupting | 5 | 150 gp | |
Fearsome | 5 | 160 gp | |
Pacifying | 5 | 150 gp | |
Shifting | 6 | 225 gp | |
Wounding | 7 | 340 gp | |
Bloodbane | 8 | 475 gp | |
Corrosive | 8 | 500 gp | |
Flaming | 8 | 500 gp | |
Frost | 8 | 500 gp | |
Shock | 8 | 500 gp | |
Thundering | 8 | 500 gp | |
Grievous | 9 | 700 gp | |
Serrating | 10 | 1,000 gp | |
Anarchic | 11 | 1,400 gp | |
Axiomatic | 11 | 1,400 gp | |
Holy | 11 | 1,400 gp | |
Unholy | 11 | 1,400 gp | |
Fearsome (Greater) | 12 | 2,000 gp | |
Bloodbane (Greater) | 13 | 2,800 gp | |
Dancing | 13 | 2,700 gp | |
Keen | 13 | 3,000 gp | |
Spell-Storing | 13 | 2,700 gp | |
Disrupting (Greater) | 14 | 4,300 gp | |
Ancestral Echoing | 15 | 9,500 gp | |
Corrosive (Greater) | 15 | 6,500 gp | |
Flaming (Greater) | 15 | 6,500 gp | |
Frost (Greater) | 15 | 6,500 gp | |
Shock (Greater) | 15 | 6,500 gp | |
Thundering (Greater) | 15 | 6,500 gp | |
Speed | 16 | 10,000 gp | |
Vorpal | 17 | 15,000 gp |
Four fundamental runes produce the most essential magic of protection and destruction: armor potency and resilient runes for armor, and weapon potency and striking runes for weapons. A potency rune is what makes a weapon a magic weapon (page 599) or armor magic armor (page 556).
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 (as described in each rune’s entry). As you level up, you typically alternate between increasing an item’s potency rune and its striking or resilient rune when you can afford to.
Name | Level | Price | |
---|---|---|---|
Weapon Potency (+1) | 2 | 35 gp | |
Striking | 4 | 65 gp | |
Weapon Potency (+2) | 10 | 935 gp | |
Striking (Greater) | 12 | 1,065 gp | |
Weapon Potency (+3) | 16 | 8,935 gp | |
Striking (Major) | 19 | 31,065 gp |