Dwarven Rune Armor/Rune Weapons [Archive] - Wizards Community

Dwarven Rune Armor/Rune Weapons [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Soulmage
08-01-06, 10:12 PM Thought I'd share this in case anybody found it interesting. Basically its a way for dwarves to craft magic arms and armor without having to be spellcasters.

Dwarven Rune Magic
By: Soulmage
V. 2.0

Learning & Crafting Runes

Learning Runes
A dwarf character starts with knowledge of one rune of power known to his clan. The player may choose whether this is an armor rune, or a weapon rune, but must roll for the specific rune randomly on the appropriate table. After rolling, the player may choose to exchange his result for a roll of 7 if he desires.

Roll 2d6 on one of the following tables:

Armor Runes
2 Rune of Might
3 Rune of Leadership
4 Rune of Soulguarding
5 Rune of Stone
6 Rune of Iron
7 Rune of Steel
8 Rune of Mithril
9 Rune of Swiftness
10 Rune of Warding
11 Rune of Rulership
12 Rune of Adamantite

Weapon Runes
2 Rune of Vengeance
3 Rune of Storms
4 Rune of Force
5 Rune of Silver
6 Rune of Spellbreaking
7 Rune of Fire
8 Rune of Penetration
9 Rune of Shattering
10 Rune of Impact
11 Rune of Soul Stealing
12 Rune of Battle

In addition, a character that can craft runes may learn to craft a rune for himself from an item that bears a rune of power. To learn the rune, the character must make a successful Craft (armor or weapon as appropriate) with a DC equal to the craft DC of the rune to be learned. Whether this check succeeds or fails, the rune on the item looses its potency, and will no longer function nor can it be used for another attempt to learn the rune.

If the character watched a runic item being crafted, he receives a +4 bonus to his craft check when attempting to learn the rune inscribed on the item.

Crafting Runes
A character may only benefit from a rune of power if he or she crafted the rune. Crafting a rune is a process that takes one month and has the following costs:

Materials - Rune DC x 500 gp
Experience - Rune DC x 20 xp

To craft a rune, the character must make a Craft (armor or weapon) check that equals or beats the DC of the rune to be crafted. If successful, the rune has been completed properly and the character may now benefit from its power. If the check is failed, half of the materials were ruined in the attempt, but the character may spend another month to attempt to craft the rune again by paying half the cost of the rune. If the check was failed by 10 or more, the smith has not only wasted all the materials used to craft the rune, but also destroyed the item the rune was to be inscribed on. A player may take 10 when attempting to craft a rune.

Restrictions on Runes
Armor runes may be inscribed on any medium or heavy armor comprised primarily of metal. Chain shirts and chainmail may have runes of power, but the runes must be woven into the fabric of the mail at the time the armor is made, and cannot be added later. Armor runes may not be inscribed on shields.

Weapon runes can generally be inscribed on any metallic weapon with a blade or a hammer head. However, some runes have restrictions on which weapons they can be used on. These restrictions are listed in the description of each rune below.

A single weapon or suit of armor may be inscribed with up to three lesser runes of power. A master rune of power uses 2 slots. In addition, some runes are designated as “unforgiven runes.” A character with an item bearing an unforgiven rune may not carry any other runic items.

Runes of power may not be inscribed on minor or major artifacts.

Unlike most magic items, Runes of Power are “always on” effects that cannot be deactivated. Thus a weapon inscribed with a rune that inflicts fire damage will always inflict fire damage, regardless of whether the wielder wishes it or not. This can be problematic if the character is attempting to subdue, or is fighting a creature healed by fire damage. Thus, the decision to inscribe a rune of power on any item should be carefully considered.

The Common Runes of Power

Armor Runes

Rune of Adamantite
DC: 30
Effects:
Grants the wearer unbeatable DR equal to their Charisma modifier.
Restrictions:
Armor
Master Rune

Rune of Iron
DC: 23
Effects:
The wearer is immune to mind affecting spells and powers.
Restrictions:
Armor

Rune of Leadership
DC: 28
Effects:
The wearer gains a +4 bonus to their Charisma score.
Restrictions:
Armor
Master Rune

Rune of Might
DC: 28
Effects:
The wearer gains a +4 bonus to their Constitution score.
Restrictions:
Armor
Master Rune

Rune of Mithril
DC: 23
Effects:
Armor gains Max Dex +1 and has its ACP reduced by the wearer’s Charisma modifier.
Restrictions:
Armor

Rune of Rulership
DC: 28
Effects:
The wielder gains +4 to their Wisdom score.
Restrictions:
Armor
Master Rune

Rune of Soulguarding
DC: 25
Effects:
The wearer is immune to level or stat drain from necromancy spells or undead creatures.
Restrictions:
Armor

Rune of Steel
DC: 22
Effects:
The armor gains a +2 increase to its armor bonus to AC, and a +5 bonus to its hardness.
Restrictions:
Armor

Rune of Stone
DC: 24
Effects:
The wearer may choose to re-roll all failed Fortitude saves. He must accept the result of the second roll.
Restrictions:
Armor

Rune of Swiftness
DC: 24
Effects:
So long as this armor is being worn, its wearer automatically receives an initiative score of 20+ modifiers and may act normally during any surprise rounds.
Restrictions:
Armor

Rune of Warding
DC: 25
Effects:
The wearer gains +2 to saving throws vs. spells and spell-like abilities.
Restrictions:
Armor

Weapon Runes

Rune of Vengance
DC: 28
Effects:
Whenever the wielder scores a critical hit against a creature that has orc, elf, or giant heritage, the target is instantly struck dead. On any other hit, the weapon inflicts maximum normal damage. Bonus dice from other sources such as magical weapon properties or sneak attack are rolled separately.

In addition, the weapon glows if any of the listed creatures are within 60’ (barriers notwithstanding). Consult the following table to determine the color of the glow:
Orcs – Red
Elves – Green
Giants - Blue
Restrictions:
Weapon

Rune of Battle
DC: 30
Effects:
The wielder gains an additional ranged or melee attack at their highest base attack bonus each round.
Restrictions:
Weapon
Master Rune

Rune of Fire
DC: 22
Effects:
On a hit, the weapon inflicts fire damage equal to its normal damage dice. Thus a battle axe (1d8) inscribed with a rune of fire inflicts 1d8 fire damage on each hit in addition to normal damage.
Restrictions:
Weapon

Rune of Force
DC: 25
Effects:
Your weapon ignores miss chances for incorporeal creatures and inflicts +2d6 force damage.
Restrictions:
Weapon

Rune of Silver
DC: 24
Effects:
The wielder may score critical hits against undead creatures as if they were normal, living creatures.
Restrictions:
Weapon

Rune of Penetration
DC: 23
Effects:
Attacks with the crossbow are resolved as touch attacks.
Restrictions:
Weapon: Crossbow only

Rune of Shattering
DC: 24
Effects:
The wielder may score critical hits against constructs as if they were normal, living creatures.
Restrictions:
Weapon: Hammer type only

Rune of Soul Stealing
DC: 28
Effects:
On any melee hit, the wielder heals damage equal to the weapon die roll.
Restrictions:
Melee weapon
Unforgiven Rune

Rune of Spell Breaking
DC: 23
Effects:
On any round in which this weapon strikes a foe, the target is also struck with a targeted dispel magic. (1d20+10 caster level check).
Restrictions:
Weapon

Rune of Storms
DC: 28
Effects:
Whenever this weapon is used in combat, storm clouds gather 1 round after combat begins and lighting leaps from cloud to cloud accompanied by rumbling of thunder. Once per day, the possessor of a weapon bearing this rune is able to call down lightning bolts from this storm. This effect is identical to the effects of a Call Lightning Storm spell cast under stormy conditions. The caster level for this effect is 1+ twice the wielder’s charisma modifier, if any.
Restrictions:
Weapon
Master Rune

Rune of Impact
DC: 25
Effects:
On any critical hit creature struck is stunned for 1 round.
Restrictions:
Weapon

Other Runes of Power

Rune of War
DC: 23
Effects:
The weapon may be thrown normally without penalty, even if not normally intended for this purpose. In addition, it teleports back to the wielder’s hand after striking the target or another solid object. Finally, it gains a range increment of 30 feet or +10 feet to its normal range increment, whichever is higher.
Restrictions:
Weapon: Hammer type

Gives a bit of a boost to dwarves, but to be honest, in our local game almost nobody ever plays dwarves because they all play humans for the extra feat, so its not so bad.

If you want to make it available for other races, you could just create a Dwarven Rune Lore feat that allows them to learn and craft dwarven runes.

Bonuses are deliberately left untyped so that these effects can stack with normal feats and magic items and are not simply a replacement for them.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it. Any suggestions?
Jerks
08-03-06, 02:51 PM Cool abilities, but it's triggering my over-powered alarm. Even dwarves should have to pay for this. Having them buy feats for each rune (or school of runes) would be a good way to do it. There should also be an XP cost for crafting these things. Finally, having it all untyped is just asking for abuse. Typing the bonuses still allows them to be powerful, because the characters can invest their gp in other abilities.
Soulmage
08-07-06, 03:43 PM If you re-read, you'll see that there's a hefty gold and xp cost for crafting runes. The only thing that dwarves are really getting for free is the ability to craft them. I.e. a "Craft magic arms and armor" type feat.

I originally had it set up as a feat based system like you suggest, but decided that a) nobody really had enough feats to spare for something like this, not even fighter unless they went up to 13+ which as we all know rarely happens and b) it would be better leaving the runes in the hands of the DM to place as treasure.
Thiez
08-07-06, 09:04 PM Rune of Vengance
DC: 28
Effects:
Whenever the wielder scores a critical hit against a creature that has orc, elf, or giant heritage, the target is instantly struck dead. On any other hit, the weapon inflicts maximum normal damage. Bonus dice from other sources such as magical weapon properties or sneak attack are rolled separately.

No save?

Maybe 10 + 1/2 dwarf's HD + Str/Cha modifier?

The Soul Stealing is nice in combination with Vicious...
Jerks
08-08-06, 03:27 AM Sorry, missed the part about the xp requirement. However, even with that I don't think that dwarves need an across the board power-up. They are one of the most powerful races in the PHB mechanically.

A craft runes feat that perhaps has a dwarven racial requirement might be a good way to do it (thus only dwarves that want to do this have the ability).

In the system you have designed the dwarven rune(s) you can create are determined randomly. I would suggest dropping this bit. It's fine for making quick NPCs, but players like to have more control over the creation of their characters. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any class or racial abilities that are randomly determined.

You might also think about designing a prestige class for those dwarves that really want to get the most our of their runes.

All in all I love the flavor of it, but I still think it's a mistake to give out untyped bonuses. Neverunderestimate the power of stacking.
Oneiros
08-08-06, 11:11 AM I'm a big fan of the idea that dwarves have a special type of rune magic, but I'm going to second just about everything Jerks said:

● A Craft Rune feat, with the only requirement being Dwarf (and maybe an Int or Wis 13, and/or 5 ranks in an appropriate Craft skill), makes more sense. Dwarves have enough bonuses already.

● Allow the character to choose which rune he knows; in addition, instead of requiring the destruction of a rune worth thousands of gold pieces to just learn it, why not make it similar to the Spell Research rules, substituting the appropriate Craft skill for the research.

● The bonus types really, really need to be named. Allowing the Rune of Might to stack with an Amulet of Health, for example, a dwarf with that Rune could have a 30 Con! (And for really cheap - half the cost of a similar +10 Epic item; see below)

-----

That said - while I really like the runes being tied to the Craft skill, the pricing has some potentially game breaking effects, especially at higher levels. The Rune of Steel, for example, has a market value of 11,000gp for +2. This is much more costly than armor of +3 or less, and would probably never be used at this point. However, adding a Rune of Steel to armor which already has been enchanted to +3 already will save the character 5,000gp.

These types of savings are even higher for weapons, especially when going beyond +5 equivalants. The Rune of Force, for example, costs 12,500gp. It's essentially the Ghost Touch property plus the equivalant of two energy properties (even better, since nothing has DR vs. Force) - so it's a very good +3 equivalant. Right there it's cheaper than a regular +3 equivalant weapon by 5,500gp. Add it to a weapon that's already +3, and you save over forty thousand gold pieces compared to a weapon enchanted the conventional way.

Don't even get me started on Rune of Vengence, which is 3 different banes + a vorpal-like effect against those banes for only 14,000gp. Give me a dwarven character with the Improved Critical, Power Critical and Power Attack feats, and I'll take on the whole orcish nation with just my +1 Rune of Vengence battle-axe (wielded two-handed, of course, since my 1.5 power attack will be doubled.) And the axe only cost me 16,000gp. Wow.

So, as you can see, any Runes which could be considered armor or weapon plus equivalants should scale, the same way normally enchanted weapons do, especially if you can add runes to already magic weapons.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Soulmage 08-01-06, 10:12 PM	Thought I'd share this in case anybody found it interesting. Basically its a way for dwarves to craft magic arms and armor without having to be spellcasters. Dwarven Rune Magic By: Soulmage V. 2.0 Learning & Crafting Runes Learning Runes A dwarf character starts with knowledge of one rune of power known to his clan. The player may choose whether this is an armor rune, or a weapon rune, but must roll for the specific rune randomly on the appropriate table. After rolling, the player may choose to exchange his result for a roll of 7 if he desires. Roll 2d6 on one of the following tables: Armor Runes 2 Rune of Might 3 Rune of Leadership 4 Rune of Soulguarding 5 Rune of Stone 6 Rune of Iron 7 Rune of Steel 8 Rune of Mithril 9 Rune of Swiftness 10 Rune of Warding 11 Rune of Rulership 12 Rune of Adamantite Weapon Runes 2 Rune of Vengeance 3 Rune of Storms 4 Rune of Force 5 Rune of Silver 6 Rune of Spellbreaking 7 Rune of Fire 8 Rune of Penetration 9 Rune of Shattering 10 Rune of Impact 11 Rune of Soul Stealing 12 Rune of Battle In addition, a character that can craft runes may learn to craft a rune for himself from an item that bears a rune of power. To learn the rune, the character must make a successful Craft (armor or weapon as appropriate) with a DC equal to the craft DC of the rune to be learned. Whether this check succeeds or fails, the rune on the item looses its potency, and will no longer function nor can it be used for another attempt to learn the rune. If the character watched a runic item being crafted, he receives a +4 bonus to his craft check when attempting to learn the rune inscribed on the item. Crafting Runes A character may only benefit from a rune of power if he or she crafted the rune. Crafting a rune is a process that takes one month and has the following costs: Materials - Rune DC x 500 gp Experience - Rune DC x 20 xp To craft a rune, the character must make a Craft (armor or weapon) check that equals or beats the DC of the rune to be crafted. If successful, the rune has been completed properly and the character may now benefit from its power. If the check is failed, half of the materials were ruined in the attempt, but the character may spend another month to attempt to craft the rune again by paying half the cost of the rune. If the check was failed by 10 or more, the smith has not only wasted all the materials used to craft the rune, but also destroyed the item the rune was to be inscribed on. A player may take 10 when attempting to craft a rune. Restrictions on Runes Armor runes may be inscribed on any medium or heavy armor comprised primarily of metal. Chain shirts and chainmail may have runes of power, but the runes must be woven into the fabric of the mail at the time the armor is made, and cannot be added later. Armor runes may not be inscribed on shields. Weapon runes can generally be inscribed on any metallic weapon with a blade or a hammer head. However, some runes have restrictions on which weapons they can be used on. These restrictions are listed in the description of each rune below. A single weapon or suit of armor may be inscribed with up to three lesser runes of power. A master rune of power uses 2 slots. In addition, some runes are designated as “unforgiven runes.” A character with an item bearing an unforgiven rune may not carry any other runic items. Runes of power may not be inscribed on minor or major artifacts. Unlike most magic items, Runes of Power are “always on” effects that cannot be deactivated. Thus a weapon inscribed with a rune that inflicts fire damage will always inflict fire damage, regardless of whether the wielder wishes it or not. This can be problematic if the character is attempting to subdue, or is fighting a creature healed by fire damage. Thus, the decision to inscribe a rune of power on any item should be carefully considered. The Common Runes of Power Armor Runes Rune of Adamantite DC: 30 Effects: Grants the wearer unbeatable DR equal to their Charisma modifier. Restrictions: Armor Master Rune Rune of Iron DC: 23 Effects: The wearer is immune to mind affecting spells and powers. Restrictions: Armor Rune of Leadership DC: 28 Effects: The wearer gains a +4 bonus to their Charisma score. Restrictions: Armor Master Rune Rune of Might DC: 28 Effects: The wearer gains a +4 bonus to their Constitution score. Restrictions: Armor Master Rune Rune of Mithril DC: 23 Effects: Armor gains Max Dex +1 and has its ACP reduced by the wearer’s Charisma modifier. Restrictions: Armor Rune of Rulership DC: 28 Effects: The wielder gains +4 to their Wisdom score. Restrictions: Armor Master Rune Rune of Soulguarding DC: 25 Effects: The wearer is immune to level or stat drain from necromancy spells or undead creatures. Restrictions: Armor Rune of Steel DC: 22 Effects: The armor gains a +2 increase to its armor bonus to AC, and a +5 bonus to its hardness. Restrictions: Armor Rune of Stone DC: 24 Effects: The wearer may choose to re-roll all failed Fortitude saves. He must accept the result of the second roll. Restrictions: Armor Rune of Swiftness DC: 24 Effects: So long as this armor is being worn, its wearer automatically receives an initiative score of 20+ modifiers and may act normally during any surprise rounds. Restrictions: Armor Rune of Warding DC: 25 Effects: The wearer gains +2 to saving throws vs. spells and spell-like abilities. Restrictions: Armor Weapon Runes Rune of Vengance DC: 28 Effects: Whenever the wielder scores a critical hit against a creature that has orc, elf, or giant heritage, the target is instantly struck dead. On any other hit, the weapon inflicts maximum normal damage. Bonus dice from other sources such as magical weapon properties or sneak attack are rolled separately. In addition, the weapon glows if any of the listed creatures are within 60’ (barriers notwithstanding). Consult the following table to determine the color of the glow: Orcs – Red Elves – Green Giants - Blue Restrictions: Weapon Rune of Battle DC: 30 Effects: The wielder gains an additional ranged or melee attack at their highest base attack bonus each round. Restrictions: Weapon Master Rune Rune of Fire DC: 22 Effects: On a hit, the weapon inflicts fire damage equal to its normal damage dice. Thus a battle axe (1d8) inscribed with a rune of fire inflicts 1d8 fire damage on each hit in addition to normal damage. Restrictions: Weapon Rune of Force DC: 25 Effects: Your weapon ignores miss chances for incorporeal creatures and inflicts +2d6 force damage. Restrictions: Weapon Rune of Silver DC: 24 Effects: The wielder may score critical hits against undead creatures as if they were normal, living creatures. Restrictions: Weapon Rune of Penetration DC: 23 Effects: Attacks with the crossbow are resolved as touch attacks. Restrictions: Weapon: Crossbow only Rune of Shattering DC: 24 Effects: The wielder may score critical hits against constructs as if they were normal, living creatures. Restrictions: Weapon: Hammer type only Rune of Soul Stealing DC: 28 Effects: On any melee hit, the wielder heals damage equal to the weapon die roll. Restrictions: Melee weapon Unforgiven Rune Rune of Spell Breaking DC: 23 Effects: On any round in which this weapon strikes a foe, the target is also struck with a targeted dispel magic. (1d20+10 caster level check). Restrictions: Weapon Rune of Storms DC: 28 Effects: Whenever this weapon is used in combat, storm clouds gather 1 round after combat begins and lighting leaps from cloud to cloud accompanied by rumbling of thunder. Once per day, the possessor of a weapon bearing this rune is able to call down lightning bolts from this storm. This effect is identical to the effects of a Call Lightning Storm spell cast under stormy conditions. The caster level for this effect is 1+ twice the wielder’s charisma modifier, if any. Restrictions: Weapon Master Rune Rune of Impact DC: 25 Effects: On any critical hit creature struck is stunned for 1 round. Restrictions: Weapon Other Runes of Power Rune of War DC: 23 Effects: The weapon may be thrown normally without penalty, even if not normally intended for this purpose. In addition, it teleports back to the wielder’s hand after striking the target or another solid object. Finally, it gains a range increment of 30 feet or +10 feet to its normal range increment, whichever is higher. Restrictions: Weapon: Hammer type Gives a bit of a boost to dwarves, but to be honest, in our local game almost nobody ever plays dwarves because they all play humans for the extra feat, so its not so bad. If you want to make it available for other races, you could just create a Dwarven Rune Lore feat that allows them to learn and craft dwarven runes. Bonuses are deliberately left untyped so that these effects can stack with normal feats and magic items and are not simply a replacement for them. Anyway, hope you enjoy it. Any suggestions?
Jerks 08-03-06, 02:51 PM	Cool abilities, but it's triggering my over-powered alarm. Even dwarves should have to pay for this. Having them buy feats for each rune (or school of runes) would be a good way to do it. There should also be an XP cost for crafting these things. Finally, having it all untyped is just asking for abuse. Typing the bonuses still allows them to be powerful, because the characters can invest their gp in other abilities.
Soulmage 08-07-06, 03:43 PM	If you re-read, you'll see that there's a hefty gold and xp cost for crafting runes. The only thing that dwarves are really getting for free is the ability to craft them. I.e. a "Craft magic arms and armor" type feat. I originally had it set up as a feat based system like you suggest, but decided that a) nobody really had enough feats to spare for something like this, not even fighter unless they went up to 13+ which as we all know rarely happens and b) it would be better leaving the runes in the hands of the DM to place as treasure.
Thiez 08-07-06, 09:04 PM	Rune of Vengance DC: 28 Effects: Whenever the wielder scores a critical hit against a creature that has orc, elf, or giant heritage, the target is instantly struck dead. On any other hit, the weapon inflicts maximum normal damage. Bonus dice from other sources such as magical weapon properties or sneak attack are rolled separately. No save? Maybe 10 + 1/2 dwarf's HD + Str/Cha modifier? The Soul Stealing is nice in combination with Vicious...
Jerks 08-08-06, 03:27 AM	Sorry, missed the part about the xp requirement. However, even with that I don't think that dwarves need an across the board power-up. They are one of the most powerful races in the PHB mechanically. A craft runes feat that perhaps has a dwarven racial requirement might be a good way to do it (thus only dwarves that want to do this have the ability). In the system you have designed the dwarven rune(s) you can create are determined randomly. I would suggest dropping this bit. It's fine for making quick NPCs, but players like to have more control over the creation of their characters. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any class or racial abilities that are randomly determined. You might also think about designing a prestige class for those dwarves that really want to get the most our of their runes. All in all I love the flavor of it, but I still think it's a mistake to give out untyped bonuses. Neverunderestimate the power of stacking.
Oneiros 08-08-06, 11:11 AM	I'm a big fan of the idea that dwarves have a special type of rune magic, but I'm going to second just about everything Jerks said: ● A Craft Rune feat, with the only requirement being Dwarf (and maybe an Int or Wis 13, and/or 5 ranks in an appropriate Craft skill), makes more sense. Dwarves have enough bonuses already. ● Allow the character to choose which rune he knows; in addition, instead of requiring the destruction of a rune worth thousands of gold pieces to just learn it, why not make it similar to the Spell Research rules, substituting the appropriate Craft skill for the research. ● The bonus types really, really need to be named. Allowing the Rune of Might to stack with an Amulet of Health, for example, a dwarf with that Rune could have a 30 Con! (And for really cheap - half the cost of a similar +10 Epic item; see below) ----- That said - while I really like the runes being tied to the Craft skill, the pricing has some potentially game breaking effects, especially at higher levels. The Rune of Steel, for example, has a market value of 11,000gp for +2. This is much more costly than armor of +3 or less, and would probably never be used at this point. However, adding a Rune of Steel to armor which already has been enchanted to +3 already will save the character 5,000gp. These types of savings are even higher for weapons, especially when going beyond +5 equivalants. The Rune of Force, for example, costs 12,500gp. It's essentially the Ghost Touch property plus the equivalant of two energy properties (even better, since nothing has DR vs. Force) - so it's a very good +3 equivalant. Right there it's cheaper than a regular +3 equivalant weapon by 5,500gp. Add it to a weapon that's already +3, and you save over forty thousand gold pieces compared to a weapon enchanted the conventional way. Don't even get me started on Rune of Vengence, which is 3 different banes + a vorpal-like effect against those banes for only 14,000gp. Give me a dwarven character with the Improved Critical, Power Critical and Power Attack feats, and I'll take on the whole orcish nation with just my +1 Rune of Vengence battle-axe (wielded two-handed, of course, since my 1.5 power attack will be doubled.) And the axe only cost me 16,000gp. Wow. So, as you can see, any Runes which could be considered armor or weapon plus equivalants should scale, the same way normally enchanted weapons do, especially if you can add runes to already magic weapons.