Spontaneous Runesmith

[Agnostic Paladin]

Anyone have any advice on how Runesmith might work with spontaneous spells? The class requirements don't restrict this to prepared casting classes, and there are of course several ways to get a wizard casting some spells spontaneously; but the entire rune magic ability is written assuming spell preparation.

[Nickname Jr.]

I don't actually play per se, so the following suggestion is going to be the equivalent of rulebreaking / rulemaking homebrew B.S., but......

Runes are like the language of the universe, right?   They're code symbols left over from creation or whatever, and they activate physics and cause a response from reality itself like a command word from the gods hardwired right into the cosmos.    So...... the kind of witches who'd enjoy the most "natural" success with runes would be the ones most attuned with the cosmos, the ones whose intentions are most in line with the Old Ones who first crafted the runes.  So I'd expect druid types to excell at this, or those with a similar connection that allows them to become one with Nature, accepted by it.  Commune with Nature, etc.   Or powerful mages who manipulate physics before breakfast.  So the more deeply entwined with the natural order you are, the more deserving you'd be to cast runes the way the gods would have---spontaneously.  As if you'd become a force of nature, an extension of its will.    I'm picturing something like how Kratos has that firy berserker mode ("Fury"???) he can shift into at the press of a button.   Only this would be like Fey Mode that would bump your character up into a more purified version of yourself for a limited time to make you worthy of having this power flow through you spontaneously, as if you'd taken on a more supernatural template.  (Like a bonfire starts with a spark, this greater state of worthiness would be Ignited by whatever spark of worthiness you started out with yourself).    There might be a Santa Claus aspect to this, like you have to first deserve to use the spontaneous runecasting upgrade or it won't function for you, as if the Runic language is somehow alive, filled with a residue of sentience dating back to when it was penned by the gods, so these magics screen you to detect whether you've been naughty or nice, meaning that it checks your soul in real time whenever you attempt to "log on" in order to see if your mission is worthy and your intent is proper, ensuring that no one hacks in and abuses the universe's code language.  And as G.I. Joe would say, figuring out how to get around restrictions like this is half the battle (or half of the fun) for powermad characters. 

[Captnq]

Holy Crap.

In all other ways, spells prepared in rune form are treated identically to spells prepared in the normal method.

Okay, so how this works. You are a sorcerer. You take runesmith. You are able to cast spells in your normal fashion, which makes you a spontaneous spell caster. You are also now able to cast spells as "prepared in the NORMAL method. As per the rest of the class, that means they are indeed assuming your spells are prepared spells. So, now, you are both a prepared spell caster and a spontaneous spell caster in the same class.

So now you take ultimate magus and you don't need to add the +1 to arcane spontaneous spell caster and +1 arcane prepared spellcaster to different classes. Bada-bing Bada-Boom, you are casting spells as a 22nd level sorcerer with Caster Level 26 at 20th level. Or something like that.

[Jackinthegreen]

You might want to edit your title since you're talking about the Runesmith in Races of Stone, not the Runecaster in Player's Guide to Faerun.

Also, you might want to look at http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237338#post12951623

[Agnostic Paladin]

Thanks Jack. I've been typing not quite what I mean too much this week.

I'll just stick with Wizard I guess. Now I just need to decide what I want to specialize him in; and if I'm willing to give up Necromancy to be a Focused Specialist or not.