
Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
Chapter 5: Treasure Trove / Armor & Armaments / Runes

Fundamental Runes

Source GM Core pg. 225
Five fundamental runes produce the most essential magic of protection and destruction: armor potency and resilient runes for armor (page 226), the reinforcing rune for shields, and weapon potency and striking runes for weapons (page 232). A potency rune is what makes a weapon a runic weapon (page 240) or armor magic armor (page 229).

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.

Rune Transfer Examples

You could transfer a flaming rune from a +1 striking flaming greatsword to a +2 striking longsword, resulting in a +2 striking flaming longsword and a +1 striking greatsword. You could swap the weapon potency runes from a +1 longsword and a +2 greatsword, resulting in a +2 longsword and a +1 greatsword. However, you couldn't swap a +1 weapon potency rune from one weapon with a flaming property rune from another weapon, as the two runes don't have the same form.

When transferring a rune to an item that can hold multiple property runes, you can decide whether you transfer a single rune or swap runes between the items. For example, a +2 weapon can hold two property runes. If you transferred a flaming rune from a +1 striking flaming rapier to a +2 striking frost warhammer, you would decide whether you wanted to end up with a +1 striking rapier and a +2 striking flaming frost warhammer or a +1 striking frost rapier and a +2 striking flaming warhammer.

Upgrading Runes

You’ll often want to upgrade the fundamental runes of magic armor, a magic shield, or a magic weapon you already have. This requires upgrading each rune separately, using the upgrading process described on page 223. These tables summarize the Price of each step, with a number in parentheses indicating the item’s level for the Craft activity. This follows the typical progression for an adventurer when upgrading their armor and weapons. The tables here don’t include progressions that aren’t as likely to come up, like turning a +1 weapon directly into a +1 greater striking weapon. You can upgrade reinforcing runes on shields and property runes that have multiple types as normal, but they aren’t listed on the table because their progression is more straightforward.

Specific Armor and Weapons

Unlike armor and weapons enhanced with runes, specific armor and weapons (such as moonlit chain or a bloodletting kukri) are created for a specific purpose and can work quite differently from other items of their type. Specific magic armor and weapons can’t gain property runes, but you can add or improve their fundamental runes.