Introduction
Runesmiths do not cast spells. They set magical runes on creatures, gear, and useful parts of the battlefield, then invoke one or two marks when the moment is worth spending them. The practical question is not "which rune has the flashiest invocation?" It is "which rune remains helpful while it waits, reaches a target I can realistically mark, and becomes decisive when I invoke it?"
This guide sorts the Impossible Magic Runesmith repertoire by tabletop job. It covers the initial runes, fifth-level diacritics, later repertoire bands, and the feat choices that change delivery. For the class chassis, equipment, and turn structure, start with the Runesmith class guide. For level-by-level feat selection, use the Runesmith feat guide.
Disclaimer
This is a selection guide for the Runesmith options in Impossible Magic. It paraphrases rules and does not reproduce rune, diacritic, feat, or invocation text. Use the book and applicable official errata for exact targets, traits, durations, saves, and numbers. The ratings assume ordinary tactical PF2e Remastered play, with a mix of fights, travel, and scenes where a party can work together.
The Runesmith Decision
Every rune has three questions attached to it.
| Question | What you are checking | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Who can bear it? | Ally, enemy, weapon, shield, armor, object, or location | A strong effect that never finds a legal or convenient bearer is not a strong pick for that character. |
| What does it do before invocation? | Persistent support, pressure, protection, utility, or a threat that changes movement | Etched runes should help even when you save the invocation for later. |
| What does invoking it buy now? | Damage, defense, repositioning, control, team support, or investigation | An invocation consumes the rune, so it needs a concrete change to the encounter. |
Etching and tracing answer different needs. An etched rune is a lasting inscription from the small number the class can maintain. It is the part of your kit that should still look sensible before initiative. A traced rune is a short-lived tactical mark. It fades at the end of your next turn if you do not invoke it, which makes it an answer to a board state rather than a replacement for daily preparation.
Invoke Rune can trigger up to two different runes within its range. The invoked runes fade, and repeated copies of the same rune do not stack. That creates a simple rule of thumb: use a lasting rune when the fight benefits from the mark now; use a traced rune when a good two-rune exchange is already visible.
Hot Take: The best Runesmith repertoire is a set of dependable marks with a few sharp answers, not a museum of invocations you hope to use once per campaign.
Ratings are about selection order, not whether a rune is legal or fun. A campaign full of constructs, long-distance travel, social investigation, or dangerous terrain can make a conditional option much stronger.
First Repertoire: Pick Jobs, Not Names
At 1st level, the class gives you the vocabulary for the entire engine: pressure an enemy, support a bearer, defend an ally, make equipment matter, or prepare an investigation tool. Learn a few distinct jobs first. Taking several runes that all need the same enemy position usually makes your repertoire less flexible.
Pressure And Control Runes
| Rune | Role | Good bearer or scene | Selection advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atryl ● | Damage pressure | A foe your party expects to hit repeatedly | A clean early damage lane when the target will remain relevant. |
| Lyskel ● | Mobility and position pressure | A crowded melee or an enemy near a bad square | Position changes can be worth more than a small damage rider. |
| Ranshu ● | Defense disruption | A priority enemy facing several allies | Excellent when the party can exploit the opening before the target escapes. |
| Thullax ● | Control through an enemy's options | Foes that need to move, attack, or hold a line | Take it when the party benefits from forcing awkward decisions. |
| Viturix ● | Forced-choice combat pressure | A durable foe or a fight with a clear center | Better when you know what the enemy will care about next turn. |
| Wundrum ● | Area or terrain-minded disruption | Chokepoints and maps with usable objects | A map-dependent answer that rewards paying attention to the room. |
Pressure runes are the easiest category to overvalue from the page alone. Ask whether you can place the mark without giving up the Stride, Strike, shield, or reaction that keeps you in the fight. A melee Runesmith often wants one mark that rides on the target they already intend to face and one that punishes a different kind of position.
Weapon, Shield, And Armor Runes
| Rune | Role | Best fit | Selection advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apkallu ● | Weapon-focused pressure | A martial Runesmith with a favored weapon | Start here if your weapon is a regular rune bearer. |
| Camonica ● | Equipment support | A character who wants gear to carry part of the plan | Useful when the item will be present in every important scene. |
| Dweomercat ● | Defensive equipment play | Shield sentinel or line holder | A natural candidate when Shield Block is part of your routine. |
| Kharun ● | Armor or bearer protection | A frontline ally who receives lasting preparation | Stronger when one person is reliably exposed to danger. |
| Rivethun ● | Protective team support | A party with a known vulnerable member | Pick it for a real party problem, not because protection sounds universally good. |
These runes reward a character who knows their gear lane. Read the weapon rune guide, weapons guide, and shields and Shield Block guide alongside this page. A fundamental weapon rune still improves your ordinary Strikes; a class rune should add a tactical job rather than excuse weak equipment.
Team Support, Utility, And Exploration Runes
| Rune | Role | Good scene | Selection advice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annelid ● | Ally support | A party with a clear lead attacker or defender | Better on a repeatable partner than on whoever happens to be adjacent. |
| Ezkuru ● | Coordination or communication | Investigation, travel, and coordinated play | It rises in value when the campaign gives the party time to use it. |
| Maitake ● | Utility and adaptable support | Varied adventuring days | A broad choice when your party needs help outside a single combat lane. |
| Naza ● | Detection or information work | Hazards, secrets, and magical mysteries | Great in the right campaign; do not take it as a dungeon damage substitute. |
| Trine ● | Team positioning or shared payoff | A coordinated party | The more your group talks through turns, the more this category improves. |
| Ulgatus ● | Restriction and utility pressure | A target with a meaningful action or item problem | It is strongest when you can name the limitation that matters. |
The first repertoire also includes Gilan, Hecaton, Ommel, Penumbral, Qualm, and Siven. Treat these as your reason to keep one or two slots open for the campaign's actual friction: a specific terrain problem, a target type, a social or exploration obstacle, or a party tactic that recurs. Their exact bearers and invocation details decide whether they belong in your default package.
A Free Character Builder for Pathfinder 2e Is Coming
Get notified the day it is live, and grab our current character-building guides while you wait.
No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
When To Invoke
The class does not reward invoking on cooldown. Invocation is strongest when the fading marks buy a result that would otherwise cost more actions, expose a weak target, save an ally from a dangerous turn, or end a positioning problem before it becomes expensive.
Invoke Immediately When
- A freshly traced rune and an already etched rune create a two-target exchange the enemy cannot comfortably ignore.
- The marked enemy is about to leave range, become hard to reach, or spend its next turn on a dangerous action.
- The invocation protects an ally before the damage, control, or failed save happens.
- Your party has announced a focused plan and will exploit the change before the next round.
Hold The Rune When
- The lasting benefit still helps and the invocation only adds a little flourish.
- You have only one relevant rune and no urgent reason to spend it.
- The second target is a technical match but not a meaningful target.
- The encounter is still forming and the foe has not shown what position, defense, or action matters.
For an action-budget refresher, use the three-action economy guide and reactions guide. Runesmith turns become much better when the group treats a trace, an invocation, a Strike, and a raised shield as competing uses of the same three actions.
Fifth-Level Diacritics
Diacritics are modifiers for compatible runes, not a second list of standalone powers. The right way to select one is backward: name the base rune you invoke often, name the usual bearer, and then ask whether the diacritic improves that actual situation. A clever modifier without a regular base rune is a future retraining conversation.
| Diacritic | Broad job | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| Av, Succession ● | Extends a sequence or follow-through | Repeated turns that build on a prior mark. |
| En, Expansion ● | Broadens the affected space or targets | Group fights where a wider result changes the board. |
| Fob, Doubling ● | Increases a paired or repeated payoff | A familiar two-rune invocation package. |
| Kit, Mercy ● | Adds a protective or forgiving angle | Ally-facing packages and tense rescues. |
| Per, Continuum ● | Helps a mark keep contributing | Etched runes you expect to matter over several rounds. |
| Sun, Preservation ● | Protects a bearer, object, or useful state | Shield, armor, or mission-object scenes. |
| Ti, Fundaments ● | Reinforces a base practical job | A default rune that needs reliability. |
| Ur, Intensity ● | Raises the stakes of an invocation | A rune whose moment is already worth spending. |
Do not choose En merely because bigger areas look exciting. It earns a blue rating when encounters reliably put several worthwhile creatures or squares in play. Likewise, Ur is valuable only when the underlying rune creates a result worth intensifying. Per and Ti are often less dramatic but easier to use every adventuring day.
Ninth-Level Runes
The ninth-level band adds more specialized answers. The core repertoire should already cover your daily fight pattern; these picks can answer a campaign feature, a party role, or a new tactical lane.
| Rune | Broad role | Pick it when |
|---|---|---|
| Astillu, Submersion ● | Water, terrain, or environmental disruption | Water and environment rules appear often. |
| Cruonign, Leeching ● | Attrition and resource pressure | The party can keep a priority target engaged. |
| Feikris, Gravity ● | Position control | Forced placement changes the fight for your group. |
| Germantria, Partnership ● | Ally coordination | You have a dependable partner and communicate turns. |
| Ichelsu, Observation ● | Detection and information | Mystery, scouting, and hidden details get table time. |
| Jurroz, Dragon Fury ● | Aggressive pressure | Your party needs a clear offense-oriented option. |
| Kojastri, Insulation ● | Defense against a recurring threat | The campaign repeatedly presents the kind of danger it answers. |
| Oraloq, Inarticulateness ● | Speech, communication, or casting-adjacent disruption | Enemies depend on the affected channel. |
| Piteregrin, Transposition ● | Repositioning | A swap or relocation can rescue allies or break a formation. |
| Trolistri, Forlorn Sorrow ● | Emotional or morale pressure | The target and save profile support the plan. |
| Ulgatus, Restraint ● | Restriction | One enemy action, item, or movement choice matters a great deal. |
| Yudici, Remonstrance ● | Punishment and response pressure | You can identify the behavior worth discouraging. |
Feikris, Germantria, and Piteregrin are the standouts for groups that play on a map and call targets. Position and partnership effects turn a party's existing competence into more actions and safer squares. Ichelsu, Astillu, and Oraloq deserve more respect in an investigative or terrain-heavy campaign than a generic combat ranking gives them.
Thirteenth-Level Choices
The second diacritic band is where specialization matters most. By this point, your character should know whether their most common bearer is their own gear, one tough ally, a shifting enemy target, or a network of marks spread across the map.
| Diacritic | Broad job | Good pairing question |
|---|---|---|
| Cr, Breaching | Overcomes an obstacle or defense | Does the campaign keep presenting this barrier? |
| Dorl, Division | Splits a result or pressure | Will multiple targets stay meaningful? |
| Ge, Mending | Repairs or restores a useful state | Is an object, ally, or rune package frequently damaged? |
| Keh, Retention | Keeps a benefit relevant for longer | Is your base rune already a repeated contributor? |
| Lu, Renewal | Refreshes a useful tactical resource | Does the party gain a real second use from it? |
| Nek, Sidestepping | Redirects or evades a problem | Do you regularly face position-sensitive threats? |
| Rho, Repulsion | Pushes away or creates space | Does the group benefit from breaking contact? |
| Ve, Proximity | Rewards closeness or local coordination | Can your usual bearers safely stay together? |
The thirteenth-level rune band adds Bheda, Rend, Dissolution, Fallow, Fetter, Gesh, Appetite, Homing, Ithys, Simulacrum, Kharza, Crown, Morcanta, Trance, Onca, Gravity, Ruj, Refuge, Sarth, Fissure, Talar, Bond, and Yar, Rapture. These are high-level tools with stronger identities: offense, removal, restriction, imitation, movement, sanctuary, terrain shaping, connection, and emotional pressure. Read the individual entry before committing; at this level the exact target and trait line can matter more than a broad category label.
Seventeenth-Level Runes
At 17th level, repertoire additions should solve problems your established kit cannot. The final named runes are Alrora, Cataclysm, Ausk, Return, Chor, Ascension, Iod, Revelation, Mork, Memory, Peregrination, Reth, Ruin, Vur, Betrayal, and Zeyl, Fate.
| If your party needs... | Start by reading... | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A fight-changing offensive answer | Alrora, Reth, or Vur | These occupy the destructive and hostile-turn end of the repertoire. |
| Recovery, rescue, or a second chance | Ausk or Chor | Their names point toward return and elevation rather than ordinary damage. |
| Revelation or information | Iod or Mork | High-level mysteries often reward a tool outside the damage loop. |
| Travel or fate-facing utility | Peregrination or Zeyl | Campaign structure decides their value more than encounter math does. |
High-level runes are not permission to abandon the basics. A party still needs a clear bearer, range, timing, and plan for the next enemy turn. Choose the late rune that answers a genuine recurring problem, then keep the reliable earlier marks that make your normal rounds work.
Rune Packages By Build
Packages are starting conversations, not copied loadouts. Swap a named rune when its bearer, target, or campaign job is wrong for your table.
Shield Sentinel
Start with a defensive equipment rune such as Dweomercat plus one pressure rune such as Ranshu or Lyskel. Your etched rune belongs on the shield or protected bearer that will be present in every fight. Trace only when the second mark turns a blocked corridor, an exposed ally, or a priority enemy into an immediate invocation.
This build benefits from the shields and Shield Block guide, sturdy equipment, and feat choices such as Fortifying Knock or Runic Reprisal from the Runesmith feat guide. The goal is not to turtle. The shield earns its actions by keeping your rune engine active at the center of the map.
Melee Engraver
Use a weapon-facing mark such as Apkallu or Camonica with a control mark such as Ranshu, Thullax, or Feikris when it becomes available. The important feat is often Engraving Strike, because it makes the attack and trace share a turn. Your invocation should set up the allies who follow your hit, rather than competing with the one Strike you need to land.
Keep weapon fundamentals current. See the weapon rune guide before treating a class rune as a replacement for accuracy, damage dice, or defensive gear.
Back-Line Coordinator
Favor team and position work: Trine, Annelid, Germantria, Piteregrin, or information tools that match the campaign. A Performance or familiar delivery lane can be better than trying to imitate a frontliner. Rune-Singer, Glyph Familiar, and Enhanced Glyph Familiar become more attractive when they create safe, repeatable access to the targets your package needs.
Read the companions and familiars guide for the familiar side of the decision. A familiar is a utility and positioning partner, not a way to bypass every range and action constraint.
Exploration And Investigation Specialist
Keep one default combat mark, then reserve repertoire attention for Naza, Ezkuru, Ichelsu, and later options that suit the story's obstacles. This character should ask the GM's campaign early questions: Are hazards frequent? Does communication matter? Are there magical sites, secrets, or long travel legs? If the answer is yes, a rune with a narrow combat profile can still be one of the best choices in the book.
Feats, Gear, and Allies
Runes gain value when their delivery matches the rest of the character.
| Need | Useful support | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Put a rune on a melee target without losing tempo | Engraving Strike | A successful melee Strike can carry the tracing job. |
| Survive hostile magic while preserving your turn | Rune Ward | A reaction helps protect a marked Runesmith. |
| Deliver from a different position | Rune-Singer, Remote Detonation, or familiar feats | The right lane changes who can safely receive a mark. |
| Use a shield as an engine part | Fortifying Knock and Runic Reprisal | Defense and rune delivery can share a tactical plan. |
| Expand a spread-out encounter plan | Distant Invocation and Unbounded Invocations | Range and target capacity matter after the map opens up. |
The Runesmith feat guide ranks these choices in detail. The weapons guide, shields and Shield Block guide, and three-action economy guide cover the other half of the build. Runesmith is one of the classes where a useful item, a predictable ally, and a clear action plan make a more reliable difference than an extra clever option name.
Common Rune Mistakes
Treating Runes Like A Spell List
The class has magical effects, but it does not work through spell slots or a cast-every-round rotation. A rune needs a bearer and a tactical job. When choosing a new one, describe the situation in which you will etch, trace, and invoke it.
Etching Only For The Perfect Invocation
An etched rune can contribute while it waits. If you would be unhappy with the mark unless you get a rare double invocation, it may be a poor daily choice. Use tracing for the flashy response that only matters in one fight.
Forgetting The Fading Clock
A traced rune is temporary. Trace it when you expect to invoke it before the end of your next turn, or when the immediate ongoing effect is itself worth the action. Do not spend the first round sketching a plan for a third-round payoff.
Taking A Diacritic Without A Home
Diacritics modify compatible base runes. Write the base rune next to the diacritic on your character sheet. If you cannot name the bearer and scene, select a more dependable rune or retrain later.
Building For A Bearer You Rarely Have
A weapon rune belongs to a real weapon plan. A shield rune belongs to a real shield user. A party-support rune belongs with an ally who will actually be in the encounter. Check those facts before treating any option as a default pick at your own table.
Final Advice
Start with two reliable jobs: one mark that makes your normal party position better and one mark that answers the enemy position you dislike most. Add a traced rune when the board offers a two-rune swing. Add diacritics only after a base rune has earned them through actual play.
For the rest of the character, return to the Runesmith class guide for class fundamentals and the Runesmith feat guide for delivery, range, shield, weapon, and familiar choices. That is the Runesmith's real advantage: you do not need a different trick for every problem when the same few marks can make the party's good decisions land harder.
