Runeguard

Runepriest Variant
A Runeguard can be chosen as a Variant of the Runepriest during character creation. By doing so, you lose the Rune of Mending class feature in exchange for the Battle Rune class feature. This changes your role in a party from Leader to Defender as well as modifying your starting stats and 1st level class feature effects as seen below.

Class Features

As a Runeguard you gain the following class features:

Role:
Defender, you use powerful runes to defend your comrades on the battlefield.
Power Source:
Divine and Martial, you trust in the power held within runic sigils while also perfecting your combat prowess.
Key Abilities:
Strength, Constitution, Wisdom
Armor Proficiencies:
Cloth, Leather, Hide, Chainmail, Scale, Shield (Light), Shield (Heavy)
Weapon Proficiencies:
Simple Melee, Simple Ranged
Bonus to Defenses:
+2 to Will
Hit Points at 1st Level:
15 + your Constitution Score
Hit Points per Level Gained:
6
Healing Surges per Day:
9 + Constitution Modifier
Trained Skills:
Religion. From the class skills list below, choose 3 more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills:
Arcana (Int), Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Religion (Int), Thievery (Dex)
Class Features:
Battle Rune, Rune Master, Runic Artistry.

Battle Rune

Runeguards carry with them a Rune of Battle, often tattood onto themselves or etched onto their equipment similar to a holy symbol. Through constant exposure to the rune’s power, the Runeguard becomes more resiliant as a result. The Runeguard gains the following changes compared to a Runepriest, which are already applied to the values above:

  • Role set to Defender
  • Added Martial Power Source
  • +3 Hit Points at 1st Level
  • +1 Hit Point per Level Gained
  • +2 Healing Surges per Day
  • Proficiency with Shield (Heavy)

As a free action that you take when an enemy leaves your Rune State of Destruction aura, have them make a saving throw. On a failure, they are subject to your Runic Barrier until the start of your next turn.

 

 

Rune Master

Powers with the runic keyword have two possible added benefits, labeled Rune of Destruction and Rune of Protection. When a character uses a runic power, he or she chooses one of the two runes, and the power gains the corresponding benefit. When a character chooses a rune in this way, he or she enters the rune state associated with the chosen rune. A character’s rune state ends when he or she enters a different rune state or falls unconscious.
While a Runeguard has an active Rune State, the Rune State projects an aura 1 from them. Each Rune State has the ability to apply your Runic Barrier to enemies as described in the following sections.
For the purpose of other Marks and Defender Auras, treat any creature affected by your Rune State as if your Runic Barrier was a Defender Aura.

Rune of Destruction

While in the Rune State of Destruction, enemies inside the aura are subject to your Runic Barrier and allies receive a +1 bonus to attack rolls against them.

Rune of Protection

While in the Rune State of Protection, allies inside the aura gain resist 2 to all damage or increase any existing resistance by 2. The resistance increases to 4 at 11th level and 6 at 21st level. Any enemy that attacks your ally that is inside the aura is subject to your Runic Barrier until the start of your next turn.
Runic Barrier
Any enemy affected by your Runic Barrier takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls when it makes an attack that does not include among its targets either you or an ally of yours who has a defender aura active. Marked enemies are not subject to this aura.

Runic Artistry

Runeguards with the Runic Artistry class feature choose one of the following rune magic traditions and gain the corresponding benefits:

Defiant Word

The Runeguard gains implement proficiency with tomes. While conscious and wielding only a tome, a passage of protective runes leap from the page and encircle you.
This passage provides a +2 shield bonus to AC and Reflex while you have your other hand free (not carrying a shield, an off-hand weapon, a two-handed weapon, or anything else).
A tome wielded in this way counts as a simple melee weapon with a +3 proficiency bonus, dealing 1d6 damage and belonging to the mace weapon group.
Defiant Rune
As an Immediate Interrupt that you take when an enemy attacks your ally while subject to your Runic Barrier, have the enemy make a saving throw. On a failure, the enemy is weakened until the start of your next turn.

Serene Blade

The Runeguard gains weapon proficiency with one-handed and two-handed military heavy blades.
While not wearing heavy armor, the Runeguard can add his or her Wisdom modifier instead of his or her Dexterity or Intelligence modifier to AC.
Serene Respite
As an Immediate Reaction that you take when an enemy hits your ally while subject to your Runic Barrier, grant the ally temporary hit points equal to 5 + your Wisdom modifier. Increase the temporary hit points gained by 5 at level 11, and again at level 21. If the ally is knocked unconscious by the triggering attack, you can heal them for 1 hp instead.

Wrathful Hammer

The Runeguard gains weapon proficiency with military hammers and military maces.
Wrathful Rune
As an Opportunity Action that you take when an enemy attacks your ally while subject to your Runic Barrier, deal 3 + your Constitution modifier damage to the enemy. Increase the damage dealt by 3 at level 11, and again at level 21.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~Design Notes~~~~~~~~~~

* I increased its defenses to be on par with the fighter by giving the class heavy shields.
* I wanted to retain the existing subclass names for power/feat bonuses, as well as keeping the rune states for destruction and protection as these are integral to the class identity.
* I specifically wanted to remove the healing power in favor of giving the class a defender aura which is baked into their rune of destruction rune state, while also having a completely new defender functionality inside rune of protection rune state by directly protecting allies regardless of enemy positioning. No other defender has this and I think its cool.
* I gave each subclass a different method of punishing enemies who disobey their aura that is thematic to that subclass, which allows a player to play different styles of defender within the same class identity.
* I tried to rebalance the individual subclasses since the overwhelming majority of people unanimously agree that Serene Blade is the stand-out most powerful. With this new defender variant, I aimed to remedy this by giving it (in my opinion) the weakest of the defender punishments.
* I also did not like that the Serene Blade and Wrathful Hammer subclasses both gave weapon proficiencies, but the Defiant Word subclass did not. So, to fix this, and to add a bit of variety to how the class can visually look, and to add a fun archetype to the game as a whole, I gave Defiant Word Tome Implement proficiency and also allow them to treat a Tome as a Mace with shortsword stats. Lastly, to fit the whole vibe of “Runic book guardian”, they have a modified swordmage warding that applies only when they wield their tome and nothing else.
* Lastly, just in general, I did not shy away from making changes that would increase the effectiveness of the class overall, since runepriest has been known to be a weak option due to lack of support after release. For that reason, I felt free to give it the beefed up defenses and subclasses, as well as making it a Divine and Martial class right away to allow them to take Martial feats without the obligatory Fighter multiclass. I might have over-tuned them, but my goal for them was to create a paladin-esq front-line tanky support character that mostly is a defender while still retaining some leadership qualities through power choices.
If you have any feedback, please share it. I’m fully aware that this almost certainly won’t completely keep up with fully optimized defenders that have good feat and power support, and it may actually step on the dedicated leader’s toes a little bit, but I have to start somewhere, and this was the first step. I think it would likely fit into a group well with a leader who is more enabling or controlling as their secondary, such as a warlord or bard respectively, where their direct leadership through buffing or healing is a bit less emphasized, making this fill the gap just a little bit, similar to how paladins do.

Anyway, enough rambling out of me. I’m eager to hear your thoughts on the matter!