- This is a Fighter subclass
that is able to wield
the magic of runes to
enhance their defense,
empower their attacks, and
also gain other abilities,
including being more effective
in social situations, that sort of thing.
And of course because these runes
are originally associated with Giants,
this is also a Fighter who can get big.
- [Interviewer] Yes.
(laughter)
- This sort of concept of
harnessing the magic of Giants
was something we explored
a while ago in a subclass
for the Sorcerer, it was
called the Giant Soul.
When we looked at the play test feedback
to that subclass, we saw
people really liked the concept
of a subclass tied to Giants,
but there was some
squeakiness in the system
in associating it with the Sorcerer.
So we took it back as we often do
with something where it's like,
there are indications we
should do more work on this,
but you know, maybe we need
to take a new direction.
I was looking at it and
had this a-ha moment
of I think really where this
belongs is in the Fighter.
The Fighter already has
the perfect infrastructure
for being a warrior, whether
in melee or at range.
The Fighter is the consummate warrior.
And rather than this Giant
associated character mostly
being a spell caster with
some martial prowess,
we felt it made more sense for this to be
a warrior with some
supernatural abilities.
And then as we pondered
it, it all fell into place,
because it's also just
such a fun aesthetic.
Because what this
Fighter does is they etch
these giant runes on their sword,
or whatever weapon it is they wield,
on their armor, on their shield,
and then they gain
different magical abilities
because of the rune that
they have inscribed.
So this subclass includes
inside it a whole list of runes,
each one associated with
one of the different,
sort of canonical giant types in D and D.
And these runes, as
long as you are wearing
or carrying an item that
bears one of those runes,
they give you an ongoing benefit.
So in a way, you're almost,
it's like you're almost
getting an item that's
sort of like a magic item.
Each of the runes then also has
an ability that you can invoke.
It's sort of a limited use
ability that might let you
deal more damage, you
know, that sort of thing.
There's even one that lets
you cause an attack that
hit somebody, hit somebody
else, regardless of like,
you could cause a melee attack,
the injury of that attack, to actually
affect somebody 30 feet away.
So again, there's some
neat affects here, having,
and they're all themed to the Giant types.
So, the cloud rune, it's all themed around
the deceptiveness of Cloud Giants.
Similarly, the frost rune is
all about emulating sort of the
mighty presence of a Frost
Giant, this kind of thing.
The rune associated with Hill Giants
is all about extreme physical resilience.
And so the Fighter gets to decide
which of these runes to inscribe each day.
And so you have this sort of neat kit
of different special abilities
available to you,
represented by these runes.
And then as you go up in
level, you gain the ability
to inscribe more of these runes each day,
you gain the ability to invoke
them more times each day,
you also gain the capability to use
sort of this runic magic
to defend your allies.
And also we've made sure to
make it so that the runes
work whether you are a ranged Fighter
or a melee Fighter or a hybrid Fighter.
I love the Fighter's versatility.
I love that the class, sort of at base,
allows you to make classic
warriors of almost any type.
I mean it, it is an
amazingly versatile class.
Similar in some ways to the Wizard
in being just being so versatile.
You know, it's basically the Wizard
can represent so many different types
of spell casters that you might imagine,
and just in a similar way, the Fighter
can represent so many
different types of warriors.
They're not limited to just
like, you know, a guy in armor.
It could be, you know,
again, instead a character
who is a two-weapon Fighter, you know,
a person who's pro at hurling things,
the Master Archer, all
of these are Fighters.
And so whatever path
you take as a Fighter,
you can marry that path
with the Rune Knight
and make what you do even better
through the application
of these magic runes.
- [Interviewer] This sounds like
an incredibly versatile Fighter.
- Yes, this Fighter has a
versatility that approaches
the versatility of the Battle Master.
It doesn't quite reach it,
I mean the Battle Master
was designed to in some ways be
one of the most versatile, if not,
the most versatile subclass
in the entire game,
and it's a very well liked subclass.
This subclass sort of
goes in that direction
of giving you a kit of options
that you get to play with.
And also if you just want
to, you know, use rune magic
to get bigger, well that's
also an option here.
- [Interviewer] You of course
know I want to do that.
(laughter)
I got to play the proto
Rune Knight as Torvin,
who wasn't the brightest boy in your game.
(laughter)
- Yes, yeah, when you
were in Sorcerer form,
and in fact DMing for you,
playing that character,
helped clarify for me that
the Sorcerer was not the
optimal place for the subclass.
And one of the reasons why I say that
is to realize the concept,
we actually had to spend
sort of a lot of the
subclass's feature budget
on just bringing it up to par,
when it came to being somebody in melee.
And that's always something
we have to keep an eye on
when we try to embed martial
prowess inside a class
that is otherwise sort
of a pure spell caster.
It works sometimes
depending on the concept.
Particularly if it's okay
for the martial bit to
be sort of a glass canon, because again,
the spell caster tends to
already be a glass canon.
But if the whole concept is
actually amazing resilience,
then you end up, you know, having to pile
feature upon feature of like,
just to make it so you can survive,
so you can, you know, if you decide
you're a melee combatant, you can go in
and not drop dead after a round.
There are so many characters
you can imagine here.
You know, from a character who maybe even
grew up among Giants, or
you know, you can imagine
a dwarf who grew up in the mountains,
where the dwarf's ancestors
might've fought Giants,
but actually studied their runes
and have learned how to harness
the magic of those runes.
You can imagine a Fighter
who might even have
a scholarly bent, and who
learned the runes, you know,
studying in one of the
world's great academies.
The character could also be very heroic,
but could also be sort
of grim and menacing,
because that ability to
suddenly become large,
again, it can have two very
different moods in play
because that character
could be super imposing,
but it also could be a very
protective presence, depending
on the character's personality
and how they're played.
