The way the rune knight is flavored makes me kinda uncomfortable TBH. Mechanically it's cool, though. I'm very fond of everything else.
— Kikka 🔜 PAX Unplugged (@KikkaVO) November 20, 2019
Can you unpack that at all?
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 20, 2019
It’s a heavily Norse coded subclass that has like… actual Nordic runes as their power, but they took those powers from the creatures that are some of the main antagonistic forces in a lot of Norse mythology? It’s like… if good paladins of Ilmater got their power from demonsLike not exactly but that's the best parallel I can think of offhand.
— Kikka 🔜 PAX Unplugged (@KikkaVO) November 20, 2019
And considering that Norse runes were also their writing system, it’s sort of adds another level of weirdness to it to have them presented in the way they are in the subclass, IMHO Like, I get that giants are cool and stuff, and people have that whole conceptual link between giants and those old Germanic mythology and cultures, but the execution in this case sort of has a very Halloween costume / pop culture understanding of the history and mythology.
— Kikka 🔜 PAX Unplugged (@KikkaVO) November 20, 2019
But that’s just my initial impression, from my own perspective.
I’m German and Norwegian by heritage and have spent some time doing research to try to connect with some sense of ancestral …identity? idk how to word that precisely. Ah, I getcha.
I can say at least as a top-level look at the Rune Knight's concept, in D&D runes as giant magic isn't a new thing, and goes back at least to the 2e Forgotten Realms sourcebook "Giantcraft."
I'll pass your thoughts along as we move forward into feedback. 🙂
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 20, 2019
There's also a list of some giant runes in Storm King's Thunder, along with depictions of the runes themselves. The images of the runes don't pull from real world tradition. pic.twitter.com/2FuGTViWe9
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 20, 2019
Those are all actual Germanic language words listed there… plus “Kong” for king… Right, I was referring to the images of the runes specifically. The names are most definitely for real words.
— Dan Dillon 👥 (@Dan_Dillon_1) November 20, 2019