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A thought just occurred to me while playing a character that found a rune weapon. They are sentient weapons that have centuries, if not Millenia of experience. Why cant they teach their bonded wielder their skills.

For example, a greatest rune sword bonds with a novice adventurer and serves as an extra advisor and pair of eyes, telling them what to do in certain situations and when the bearer was asleep slowly teach its vast skillset to them. The bearer finds themselves increasing becoming knowledgeable in the skill of the sword , say 2 skill programs or 2 skills very level gained while owning it.

ie a 2nd level novice adventurer stumbles upon a rune sword and wields it for years ending his career in death a 12th level Warlord. How did their ambitions grow so high.
At each level the NPC had the sword they gained 2 skills
1st level of owner the rune sword allocates 2 skills to change HTH: Basic to Martial Arts. This ensures they can fight with skill.
2nd level it mentally compels them to exercise/train using summon inner strength to help them get fit adding Bodybuilding and Boxing making them strong and able to brawl.
At 3rd level it adds Wilderness Survival and Forced March for survival.
At 4th level it add Principles of Magic and Math: Advanced so they can begin learning spells.
At 5th level they gain Meditation and Spell crafting to enhance mystic skills greatly.
At 6th level Business/Finance and Mystic Negation.
At 7th level Magic Combat ( 2 skills) to build p.p.e reserves and learn to fight magically.
At 8th level Strategy/Tactics and Leadership in addition to Intelligence and Military Etiquette giving them a soldier and Military Commander education.
At 9th level they gain Lore /M and Megaverse so they can pick up summoning.
At 10th level it teaches Law, History and Imperial Bureaucracy for administration of newly conquered lands.
At 11th it teaches Military Fortification and Theater War: Land to reinforce those lands and plan the conquest of new lands.
The adventurer is killed at level 12 whereupon it's sword is seized as a prize of war, to begin the process all over again.

What do you think using rune weapons as teachers and fonts of knowledge as well as magical items.

I like the idea, however just a couple points if I were to introduce this to a campaign...

• It would work better if the rune weapon was rolled up as a NPC of the being entrapped in the weapon, as not all weapons may have had the same life experiences and may know different skills... imagine looking for that ultra rare rune weapon with an obscure but needed arcane skill - a decent plot hook

• Skills can only be learned while awake, unless the weapon has powers to enter and manipulate dreams

• Skills learned from a weapon take at least 5x the time it would take to learn in a school, as the weapon can only communicate through limited telepathy (WB2 pg 127), unless it has a psionic or magical power to create illusions for instruction

• All skills learned from the weapon should only be skills the weapon knows

• All skills learned from the weapon should only be learned as secondary skills

• I allow PCs to learn any secondary skill they want outside of level progression by putting time/effort and money into finding a teacher and studying, but different GMs may impose a limit to only those listed as what a xCC can learn

• The weapons cannot practice skills that require physicality and therefore cannot itself have learned anything after being imprisoned in the weapon other than skills that deal in lore or theory... if the being could even learn skills in the first place

• A skill penalty should apply to any skill learned from a weapon that requires physicality

• The weapon may or may not be able to translate what they now experience as magic into teachable spells... I'd say whatever power the weapon has manifests kind of like those of mystics... regardless of what magical knowledge the entrapped being know before, what the weapon now knows has been shaped by the crafter

• IF the weapon can teach magic (and I don't think they should... chalk it up to something unknown about how rune magic works), it should only do so to those who already have a magical OCC

All this is at GM discretion.

blade76 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 2:51 pm A thought just occurred to me while playing a character that found a rune weapon. They are sentient weapons that have centuries, if not Millenia of experience. Why cant they teach their bonded wielder their skills.

...snip

Been there in the NB game with it's Greatest Artifacts (that game's ""rune"" weapons, which has a different set of powers from the PF rune weapons(which Rifts rune weapons are a C&P of)), with the class that is formed around a char bonding with a greatest artifact weapon.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote: ↑Mon Dec 04, 2023 10:39 pm

blade76 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 03, 2023 2:51 pm A thought just occurred to me while playing a character that found a rune weapon. They are sentient weapons that have centuries, if not Millenia of experience. Why cant they teach their bonded wielder their skills.

...snip

Been there in the NB game with it's Greatest Artifacts (that game's ""rune"" weapons, which has a different set of powers from the PF rune weapons(which Rifts rune weapons are a C&P of)), with the class that is formed around a char bonding with a greatest artifact weapon.

Hi,magic 8 ball
It's fascinating to compare the concept of "Greatest Artifacts" in the NB game with other RPG systems like PF and Rifts. The idea of a character bonding with a powerful weapon to form a unique class adds depth to gameplay. It showcases the diverse approaches different games take towards magical items and character progression. Exploring these variations enriches the gaming experience and offers players new avenues for creativity and strategy.

Hi Guys,
What are some innovative new abilities that could be infused into rune weapons to enhance their power and utility in combat situations?

The simplest would be to allow Rune Weapons to also copy certain abilities of non-rune magic weapons. Like a Mystic Fury Blade giving you twice as many attacks. Or mecurial blades being hidden in a flask, etc.