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Runecrafting Spoiler

Runecrafting uses "Runes" which are passed as parameters to the "project" function. Runes come in two varieties, primary and secondary. The primary rune selects the "target" and the secondary selects the "GF_" type.

Failure chance depends on DEX, mana, and which runes are used. Player level effects mana used. So you should never invest more skill points in runecrafting, as it has zero effect on anything beyond wether or not you can cast runespells in the first place, which you get at skill level one.

Runecrafting will never get you *ID*. Inventory space and available mana are a runecrafters primary limitations.

The Primary runes determine what effect the spell has. You may select one only.

The secondary runes effect what area, items, or monsters are effected. You may select more than one.

Mana used is boosted by multiplier * (level/5), while damage is also boosted.

Calculating the damage inflicted by runespells

The damage of a runespell, and the radius of Sphere and Armageddon effects, is determined from the mana you assign to the runespell, as follows: Let M be the assigned mana amount; then the spell damage is XdY, where Y=37*sqrt(M+3)/10 and X=Y/3 (both the square-root and the divisions are rounded down to the nearest integer). The radius is Y/8, rounded down to the nearest integer.

For convenience, here are some pre-computed thresholds:

Amounts between the ones listed uses the values for the lower value; for instance, a 5-mana runespell has the same damage and radius as a 1-mana manaspell.

List your favorite Runespells

JohnGilmore:The cannonical useful muchkinish runecraft spell is:

Sphere+knowledge+0 mana

This spell projects a raduis 1 sphere of GF_ID, identifying everything on the ground under you or next to you for zero mana. You do have to carry the two runes, or carve the spell into a runestone, but carrying one item is cheap for an instant recharge zero cost area identify spell.

• paplaukes: Does it still work? I just found Sphere + Knowledge and 1st thing I tried was this Knowledge+Sphere+0 mana trick. Doesn't seem to work, no matter if 0 or 10 or full mana, memorized or direct cast.

  • ShoOb: yes, still works, keep in mind that it does not Id stuff in your pack, so just keep it on the ground

JohnGilmore:Any spell with the "power surge" rune can be used to damage a monster that you can "see" - even if there's walls between it and you, like telepathy-detected monsters for instance. I've never personally used this, but I hear it's great for Morgoth and other powerfull uniques that summon like mad.

ZizzoTheInfinite: I added a table of runespell mana thresholds from the notes I cooked up for my own Runecrafter character.

• JohnGilmore: Thank you. I figured somebody already had a handy precalculated table. But doesn't the secondary runes' "multiplier" have an effect as well? I'm pretty sure that it adds to mana used, as well as to damage.

  • ZizzoTheInfinite: [sound F/X: source diving] As far as I can tell, the multiplier (or more precisely, the sum M of the mulipliers of all the secondary runes used in the runespell) is used in the following places:

    • The failure chance of the runespell is increased by M*5 percent. This is applied before adjustments for DEX are applied.
    • The mana cost of the runespell is increased from the assigned mana amount by M*S/5, where S is your skill level in Runecraft. This is applied after the 25% cost reduction for runespells inscribed on a Runestone.
    • If the mana cost as computed above is greater than your current mana, the runespell's power is recomputed using your current mana minus the M*S/5 penalty from above.
  And do you also know if the "view" (I.E. Powersurge) rune had any effect by itself, or is it absolutely required that you combine it with some other rune to get any effect?

  • ZizzoTheInfinite: [Power Surge] works fine on its own; in fact, if I'm not mistaken, it overrides and ignores all other secondary runes in the same runespell.

  I've always used runecraft as an add-on, and never as a primary attack method. How does it compare to manathrust?

  • ZizzoTheInfinite: Well, it's been a while since I've run a Runecrafter in standard ToME; my plan then was to use Manathrust (via Eru) for heavy damage to single targets and runespells for crowd control. The main problem, as I recall, was that the failure rates started getting annoyingly high as you increased the mana levels, and increasing Runecraft skill doesn't help (in fact, it's counterproductive, as described above).

KitaKita: Forgive me if I am mistaken, but doesn't this make Runecrafting inherently weaker, but more adaptable, than Thaumaturgy?

• Derakon: It's certainly more expensive; the highest-level Thaumaturgist spells cost about 100 mana and typically do around 10d100 damage. Thaumaturgists can get some abilities that Runecrafters don't - most particularly, wall creation. They also don't need to carry any gear with them to cast spells and can cast when blinded (I don't know specifically if Runecrafters can cast when blind, but I'd assume not). The only thing that Runecrafters have over Thaumaturgists, really, is the assurance that they will be able to cast specific spells.

Atarlost: Thaumaturges get runecraft at 0.700 so can get runecraft for two skill points. Runecraft would do two things for them: ID for far fewer skill points than via knowledge, and the sea of runes spell (blast protection dumping lots of mana). If you can get the runes the latter is probably worth the investment for any mage.

ShoOb: Mine of course are the knowlege+sphere, and protection+sphere (seems like a 0% fail), both with 0 mana.

Broken?

Draeath: The other Runecraft wiki pages all claim Runecraft is broken. Is it still broken in 2.3.4? If it is, can I get any more info besides "it's broke"?

NeilStevens: My understanding is that Runecraft is broken in that gaining levels of Runecraft is detrimental, and to my knowledge it's still broken. Having never played one though, I've never studied the issue.