Editing Blackstaff's Tome of Wizardry (section)

==School of Runecraft==
[[Rune]] magic has appeared in D&D more than once - just check out the [[Runemaster]], [[Runecaster]] and the [[Runepriest]]. The Runecrafter differs from all of those in that it focuses on inscribing enchanted runes into their flesh as magical tattoos, scars or brands, giving them a number of unique innate magical abilities depending on which runes they choose to adorn themselves with.

This is hands-down the most complex subclass in the splatbook, because it revolves around the aforementioned runes, which each provide both a permanent passive effect on the Runecrafter and a unique ability when actively invoked.

At 2nd level, the Runecrafter gains the features '''The Basics of Runecraft''' (free proficiency with mason's tools and calligrapher's supplies) and '''Runic Tattoos'''; the Runecrafter chooses 3 runes, which are tattooed onto them. This means these runes are '''permanent'''; you can swap a rune out at levels 6, 10, and 14, but otherwise, you're stuck with them, so pick carefully! Tattooed runes grant the Runecrafter their associated permanent bonus, and can be "activated" as a Reaction to trigger their Activated bonus for 1 minute. A Runecrafter can Activate their runes only Intelligence modifier times per day.

At 6th level, the Runecrafter gains '''Runic Inscription'''. This gives them a 4th Runic Tattoo, and lets them create a Runic Marker once per day by spending 10 minutes to place it on a physical object or surface. The Runecrafter can activate the Runic Marker as an Action or Bonus Action, causing it to grant the chosen Rune's Active Bonus to all creatures within a 20ft sphere for 1 hour.

10th level's '''Runic Mastery''' lives up to its name; the Runecrafter gains a 5th Runic Tattoo, can activate them +1 time per day, and can share the benefits of an activated Runic Tattoo with a creature within 30 feet. Also, if they have activated a runic tattoo with an associated damage type, the Runecrafter can empower a single damaging spell or attack to deal bonus damage of that associated damage type equal to the Runecrafter's Wizard level to 1 target of the triggering attack - doing this requires spending one of the Runecrafter's daily "runic tattoo activations", however.

Finally, at 14th level, '''Runic Absorption''' gives the Runecrafter a 6th Runic Tattoo as well as a new special kind of rune tattoo; the Rune of Absorption. When the Runecrafter is targeted exclusively by a spell (so no area of effect spells!), they can spend one of their runic tattoo activations as a Reaction to try and absorb that spell. This will only work if the spell's level is equal to or less than 1/3r of the Runecrafter's Wizard level (rounding down). If this power works, the Rune of Absorption captures the spell, negating its effects and storing its energy within the rune; the Runecrafter can use an action to convert this stored energy into spell slots on a 1-for-1 level basis (so, if you absorb a 3rd level spell, you can convert it into a 3rd level spell slot, a 2nd and a 1st level spell slot, or 3 1st level spell slots). If you don't convert this energy, it dissipates harmlessly when you take a long rest.