Crafted items with runes on them, specifically staves,

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

Full disclaimer, this came to my attention after I derped and read stitched when it was actually an etched mw rune and ended up waaaaay over-paying for it since the etched runes value is probably somewhere between 0 and 100 thousand gold coins at this point. That being said, 300k down the drain and all, I'm not that upset about it. This is just a broader issue I thought needed some discussion.

So yeah, Runes are in a wonky place in general. We have too many useless ones floating around because everyone starts thinking about their end game gear too soon to make use of most of the lower ones thanks to the speed and ease of getting to the late game. Ironically, when it comes to etched the reverse is now true. The most used shields all require a medium rune or lower, meaning the only use for mw runes are staves and some niche weapons. But the problem is the most powerful versions of said staves and niche weapons all come pre runed. As a result, what is supposed to be a top five runic item when out hunting is actually the least valuable rune of them all, including the baby runes. Ok, that's a bit hyperbolic, since you can use it as a medium rune and that has more value then some of the lower ones, but still...

Now if the goal was to move away from having to go hunt runes with these changes, I can get behind that. Hunting for specific runes is not exactly fun, though it does give level 30s something to do when they are bored. But if that's the plan then in my opinion it should have been something all at once and not piecemeal, since you end up in the position that the mw etched rune is in. Personally I would just remove the pre-rune from the high end staves, since while the runic system is not perfect as I mentioned above it does give you something to do at 30 when your friends aren't around or whatever. Finding other uses for runes, in particular the lower ones, is another valid way to go. It doesn't even have to necessarily be gear enhancements either, you can be creative here. Something like the porto-bard that gives your entire crew on a ship +10 to sail could require all of the lower runic materials to make for an easy example.

Anyhow, thanks for reading.

[-XXX-]

Etched runes can be used on spears.

TBH I don't really understand the complaint here. Yes, blueleaf bottles are the least valuable tier 3 runic material, but even if you find one during a dungeon crawl ...your character just made a 100K. How's that a bad thing?

[Babylon System is the Vampire]

Etched runes can be used on spears.

TBH I don't really understand the complaint here. Yes, blueleaf bottles are the least valuable tier 3 runic material, but even if you find one during a dungeon crawl ...your character just made a 100K. How's that a bad thing?

All the primo spears have runes on them already, and are likely too good to add another rune on top though I admit I don't know that for sure.

As to why its a bad thing, its not about the specific gold amount. The cost is tied into a combination of greed and impressive patience by shop owners. It just literally does nothing save for a random masterwork demask spear weilder or quarterstaff slapper. They don't exist, at least not in the numbers that would match the supply with a demand in comparison to the other runes. A masterwork weapon rune goes on the three most used weapons, falchion, scimitar and rapiers, a forge rune goes on a whole slew of useful armors, cloth on non metal armors and cloaks and belts, and the bejewled rune everyone wants at least 2 of, sometimes up to 4 depending on how you do your gear. I repeat, the masterworked etched goes on two very specific items for very specific builds that no one really plays.

How is that not a bad thing?

[-XXX-]

From the craftable spears, I'd say that the Stormchaser (+4, keen, +1d6 electrical, +1d6 sonic) is probably slightly worse than a keened MD spear, while the Elder Dream (+4, keen, +2d6 divine) might be a little better but can only be used by a Druid or a Ranger.
Furthermore, a masterwork etched rune can be used on a standard bearer's spear (very useful lootable item for anyone who's using summons) and 5% enchanted greensteel shields (a multiclassed wiz or sorc doesn't always have to carry a club/dagger in their offhand - they can enchant a greensteel buckler and rune it to squeeze a couple of AC ranks out of the deal).

While these might not be the best examples of optimized gear for cookie cutter builds, it's good for some items that support the more sandboxy aspects of the game to exist.


As for the shop prices of runic materials and adamantine - those tend to be a little bloated because players usually stock them up mainly to show off as their toon is likely sitting on a pile of gold already anyway. TBH I wouldn't lament over this as contacting the shop owner to negotiate the price in person can yield surprising results.

But yeah, to assemble their endgame gear most builds are likely going to need 3 bejeweled runes and probably no etched ones whatsoever.
Maybe there's design space for etched runes to have their utility expanded for them to take on amulets for example?