I am planning on rolling a dwarf mage for RP, and I am considering the different angles that I could approach a character like that from. Having them be an all-purpose arcanist seems a bit boring to me, so I have been looking at the different types of mages that exist in universe and the different schools of magic.
One such path that I have discovered is the Inscriber: A spell caster who channels their magic through runes to either cast spells or to enhance objects. I like this idea, as I feel the idea of using runes would be rather fitting for a dwarf mage.
However, most of this information comes from the Warcraft RPG books which are considered dubious at best when it comes to canon roleplay. I am also a bit wary of coming off as a special snowflake. So what are the communities thoughts about this topic? I have also considered making my dwarf a diviner which may be a bit more tame.
This seems pretty sound when it comes to adhering to the canon. There’s spellcasters in wow that seemingly rely on the use of magical scrolls (Tortollans), so this is little potatoes in comparison I feel.
Runecasters, such as the Vrykul in Stormheim, are a well-established thing in WoW, and enhancing objects is a prominent practice largely in the form of Enchanting. While the RPG has been selectively canonized over time in bits and pieces, you could most certainly RP your character concept without even adhering to it at all if you’d like.
In terms of what you’re posing, a mage who casts spells based off of runic magic is well within the realms of possibility without treading into the grey areas of lore (as much as I love exploring those areas). There will always be people who will criticize you for playing something that steps out of bounds of the character creation screen, but honestly, if they knock you for this idea then they’re not worth listening to.
I always kinda thought that was less “Using runes” and more invoking the knowledge used to cast the spells. There’s a few abilities and such that involve runes though, so it’s not that big of as stretch anyway.
Rune magic exists in several shapes and sizes and is certainly plausible (and neat!) to explore for an RP character. You have runes on the ground that you draw (tortollans, Farondis, arcane mages), death knights use runes as both a combat mechanic and a weapon-enhancer, and plenty of rune tattoo examples (demon hunters, dragons) that are supposed to enhance magical ability.
Delving into the RPG isn’t even necessary for runic magic as there are plenty of examples. But I don’t think there’s any harm in looking into RPG stuff for ideas, either. It may not be canon, but a lot of it could easily apply.
There’s no issue to it as long as it’s used in a way that fits your story. Don’t assume that anyone you deal with though has had any contact with a set of books that have been long out of print.
Most cultures have some form of runic magic to work with, as others have said. Magic in WoW is largely invoked by language and symbols. If they don’t have scroll based magic like Tortollans they probably have things like magic tattoos and such.
My troll here uses inscription in the form of war paint and carving wooden fetishes with various symbols to invoke different loa, as an example.
Beyond that Warcraft has a very, very soft magic system in general. There’s really not many general fantasy magic tropes the setting doesn’t use in some form. I can’t imagine many roleplayers would get mad at you for a slightly exotic method of casting.
First of all “Inscriber” is a stupid name. You are a scribe.
Inscriber is literally what they call it in the RPG books so that is what I was going by. But personally, I think I might just call them a rune-caster in their TRP.
He’s using the class name from the Wow D20 books which features Inscriber as a Mage subclass, the same way the Warlock is handled. It’s a subclass which has some of the class features of the Tauren Runemaster being esssentially a Mage/Runemaster hybrid.