Channel Ancient Power With the Rune Carver Background and Rune Shaper Feat!

Tags author-DeAngelo-Murillo giants player

Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants brings you into the larger-than-life worlds of giants with new creatures and locations, in-depth lore on their creation and beliefs, and options to channel the primordial power of giants with your character!

Two of these options are the rune carver background and Rune Shaper feat. These new features allow your character to decipher and use runes of power—the ancient language of the giants—to harness the magic handed down by Annam, the All-Father.

Let's check out what the new rune carver background and Rune Shaper feat have in store and how to use them to create unique new characters!

What Is a Rune Carver?

Long ago, Annam, the All-Father of the giants, forged the Material Plane out of the fragments of the First World. As his descendants, the first giants, set foot upon the realm, he gave them runes of power. These runes allowed those that knew them to harness the power of fundamental forces of the world; the storm rune could give its wielder access to the dangerous might of storms, the cloud rune could lift its wielder into the skies, and so forth. 

These runes were sacred to the giants, and they kept them secret from outsiders. But, over the millennia, some of these runes were discovered and transcribed into the dwarvish script, which made the language easier to learn.

Now, these runes are sought after by historians, researchers, and those hungry for power. Rune carvers are a subset of such adventurers who have dedicated their lives to studying runes. They might have learned what they know from structured lessons taught by academic professors at esteemed learning institutions. Or, they might have been taught by the elders of their druidic tribes, who have long known the power that the giant's language holds.

However rune carvers learned what they know, they have dedicated their lives to studying runecraft and expanding the collection of runes they have at their disposal. 

Rune Carver Features

A rune carver browses through ancient tomes

Art by Craig J Spearing

Exploring the realm far and wide for relics of a forgotten age is no easy task. Whether rune carvers have spent their past daring to go into places no others have gone before or poring over ancient engravings in a dusty library, there are certain skills and equipment they would have gained to aid them in their adventures:

Skill Proficiencies

Rune carvers gain proficiency in History and Perception:

History. Due to the countless hours spent reading and listening to the legends of the past ages, a rune carver will have a sizeable knowledge base to pull from when History checks are in order.

Perception. Spotting a rune after centuries of exposure to the elements can be difficult. This is why rune carvers train their every sense to ensure that they can locate the barest hint of a potential lead. You never know. Incredible power could lie just beneath a cluster of vines or be buried right beneath your feet.

Languages and Equipment

As a rune carver, you gain proficiency in the language of giants, which stands to reason because you've devoted your life to studying runecraft.

Speaking of runecraft, if your goal is to unearth and learn all you can from the first giants, you'll need the right tools for the job. When you choose the rune carver background, you'll start your adventures with a set of artisan's tools (your choice), among other items. Your artisan's tools help to clear runes of debris left over by time or even to carve new runes as needed.

Rune Styles

Because runecraft is essentially a language unto its own, the styles of carving from one region or culture can vastly differ from others. Perhaps one rune carver whittles pieces of wood into small figurines to mark with runes because their tribe resides in a forest where wood is the most plentiful resource. Another rune carver might have grown up in a scholarly environment, where they learned to craft runes out of wax, ink, or even metal.

No matter how your character creates runes, their ability to channel the innate power in them will undoubtedly help set them apart.

Rune Shaper Feat

A rune carver uses their Rune Shaper feature to conjure power from a giant's rune

As an experienced rune carver, you gain various benefits from studying the magic of Giant runes, represented by the Rune Shaper feat.

Comprehend Languages. One of the benefits of the Rune Shaper feat is gaining access to the comprehend languages spell, which represents your ability to decipher even the most cryptic scripts and ancient languages. You can cast this spell without expending a spell slot once per rest and can also cast it using a spell slot if being able to understand one cryptic message per day isn't enough.

Rune Magic. The other benefit of this feat is the ability to inscribe magical runes onto items you touch. After a long rest, you can inscribe each rune you know onto a nonmagical item. You then learn the associated 1st-level spells on the Rune Spells table that relate to the runes you have inscribed.

The number of runes you know is equal to half your proficiency bonus (rounded down), and you can choose either Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma to be your spellcasting ability modifier when you select this feat.

While the rune-inscribed item is in your possession, you can invoke the rune to cast its associated spell without expending a spell slot or using material components once per long rest. You can also cast the spell normally if you have the spell slots to do so.

The runes and their associated spells are as follows:

Rune Spells
Rune Spell
Cloud Fog cloud
Death Inflict wounds
Dragon Chromatic orb
Enemy Disguise self
Fire Burning hands
Friend Speak with animals
Frost Armor of Agathys
Hill Goodberry
Journey Longstrider
King Command
Mountain Entangle
Stone Sanctuary
Storm Thunderwave

Rune Shaper Feat Prerequisites

If you want to pick up the Rune Shaper feat and didn't happen to take the rune carver background at character creation, fear not! As long as your class has a spellcasting feature, you can pick up the feat instead of taking an Ability Score Improvement when your class receives one.

Art by Nikki Dawes

Building a Rune Carver Character

A rune shaper goliath channels energy through their storm rune

Art by Nikki Dawes

Rune carvers come from many walks of life and follow various different adventuring paths. Maybe your rune carver picked up their roguish skills by sneaking into libraries they weren't allowed access to. Perhaps they grew up in a druidic tribe that passed down knowledge of runes from their ancestors. Or, maybe your insatiable curiosity for runes enhanced your ability to bend the innate magic of the universe to your will.

When it comes to choosing a class for your rune carver, you might want to take into account the implications of the Rune Shaper feat.

What Builds Work Best With Rune Shaper?

Melee Martials

Rune Shaper allows access to several powerful spells for martial characters, most of whom don't usually get access to spells of any kind.

  • Armor of Agathys is excellent for any character who gets up close and personal with their foes.
  • Burning hands can net massive damage if you line your enemies up right, and you're not afraid to get within the 15-foot cone distance.
  • Thunderwave can provide some explosive damage if you find yourself surrounded.
  • Entangle is an incredibly potent spell for martial characters that can make use of the advantage on attacks the restrained condition provides.

While your lack of spell slots means you could only cast each spell once per day, these spells can enhance your abilities enough to make this a worthwhile feat nonetheless. 

When it comes to picking your martial character, both Rune Knight fighters and Path of the Giant barbarians have ties to giants, making it all the more fitting that your character can channel the power of their ancient language.

Utility Casters

Picking up useful 1st-level spells is something that just about any caster class will be more than happy with. Depending on your caster's current strengths, you could grab:

  • Chromatic orb is a stand out 1st-level damage spell that is useful in avoiding damage resistances. You'll be able to cast the spell once per day without material components by invoking the Dragon rune, but ensure you have a 50 gp diamond on hand if you want to cast it with your spell slots.
  • Command is a multitool spell that can lock down enemies, make them waste their actions, or even help avoid fights altogether.
  • Goodberry not only provides sustenance for your entire party but can also be super helpful if your healer goes down.

When it comes to choosing your caster rune carver, Order of Scribes wizards could be fitting because they are the most scholarly out of an already scholarly bunch. If you want to stay within the academic field but don't want to play a wizard, you could also go with a Knowledge Domain cleric or even an artificer who uses runes in their tinkering!

Which Rune Will You Carve First?

Now that we have explored the incredible possibilities of the rune carver background and the Rune Shaper feat from Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants, you can go off and create your very own character that uses runecraft to enhance their abilities! The only question that remains is, which rune will you choose to draw power from first? 

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DeAngelo Murillo (That_DeAngelo) is a fourth-generation Mexican-American who helps bring more representation to the geeky community through storytelling, journalism, interviewing creatives, and more on his Twitch channel. In his free time, he enjoys harassing his peers into participating in TTRPG charity events with him and also dies quite often in video games.

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