So, I'm currently building a
Runic Demolisher (pardon the link, Giant is down and you may need to click cancel a few times). Unfortunately, I've never built anything like this before and I'm not sure if what I'm doing is at all viable and I'm hoping some of you might be able to give me some advice on my build and where I can take this character.
So, I guess I'll start with basic campaign information. The game is going to be set in Eberron, most any book (other than UA) seems available, we'll be starting at level 1, and this is an evil campaign with political and Ocean's 11 style elements. We'll also be getting Favored in House for free.
My character is going to be a dragon marked from house Cannith. So that means he's a human and one of his starting feats is a least dragon mark (and I'll, hopefully, be picking up the lesser and greater variants). I'm also going to pick up Keen Intellect, so I can dump wis. In combat, I think I'm going to stick to putting my exploding runes on crossbow bolts, with some possible support from alchemical items. Out of combat I'd like to use traps and more exploding runes to prepare entrances and exits before we pull a heist. To that end, I have a high int and dex and I'm putting points into Craft(Alchemy), Craft(Poison), Craft(Trapmaking), Knowledge(Architecture & Engineering), Intimidate, Hide, Move Silently, search, and UMD.
The big things I'm worried about are whether or not I'll be able to keep up in combat at mid to upper levels, and if the craft skills are actually useful/viable. Mundane crafting doesn't seem to get a lot of support, and I'm somewhat worried about the resources I'll be burning trying to use it and if there's a better way to go about setting things up. I know there are some feats that reduce crafting time/cost, but they all require a crafting feat as a prereq and all of those seem to require proper casting.
Any advice on what feats to take, how to make crafting useful (and if I should just drop it for something else), or just general suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thank you for your trouble.
The Runic Demolisher's main feature is it's Explosive runes. These runes start at 1d6 damage and go up by 1d6 every two levels. They explode in a 10ft radius and are created by parring a trigger and element. The triggers are Pressure (either on press or on release), Visual (either on read or the round after viewing), Timed, and Martial (which can be used for grenades or ammo). The elements are Fire, Acid, Cold, Electric, Sonic, and force. Each element comes with a different rider effect and force runes do d4s of damage. Runes can be created as a standard action, but you can have a good number ready at any given time; there is no limit to the number you can create in a day. However, you can only have 1/2 your class level runes explode in one round.
At lv 4, Runic Demolishers get access to arcane runes. These let you replace an element with a spell. You learn 2 spells at each level and access a new level every 4 levels. You are limited by total number of spell levels per day, not spell slots. The spells are drawn from the sorc/wiz list, but there are some restrictions on what spells can actually be chosen. Suggestions for good spells would also be appreciated.
There are also Unique runes, which usually modify normal and arcane runes, but they can be pretty diverse, so I'm not going to try and summarize them.
Runic demolishers are only proficient with Simple weapons and light armor. They also have d6 hd and 4 skill points.
