Runemaster

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Description
Runemasters use their magic to buff and heal buildings, buff themselves or create Guardian structures. It can also be used to fire stones at enemies and summon Earth Elementals.

Stats and Skills
The attribute changes you get by choosing this class:

The abilities you get by choosing this class:

Overall
Runemasters have spells which can potentially make them a powerful and dangerous threat. They can manipulate buildings, fire boulders, make themselves immune to arrows and summon Rune Items, Guardians and Earth Elementals. With some great spells under the Runemaster's belt, it can be hard to see how it has gone so wrong. The reality of the situation is that the Runemaster is barely any use even to the race(s) it was designed for. This is because 90% of Rune Magic is vastly overcosted, whilst around 50% is either inferior to other spells or so unbelievably useless, even new players won't ever use them. That isn't to say the Runemaster is the worst class in the game, but it certainly is very far from even the middling classes.

Races
Race choices for the Runemaster are amongst the most difficult to pick in the game. There is only really one reason why the Runemaster should be picked, and that is because the hero class combo has access to another spell sphere the player would invest most of their points in.

The Orcs can benefit from the ability to heal their buildings, but the Elementalist is a much nicer choice simply due to having access to other spell spheres.

The Dwarves gain little from Rune Magic. They can already construct buildings quickly and even summon Earth Elementals with retinue Runelords. They also don't have access to mana acceleration so Earth Elementals can only be summoned rarely. If the Dwarves had infinite resources, the Runemaster could be a good choice, but otherwise the buildings will construct so fast that there will be significant resource shortages. That's the major problem with a Dwarf Runemaster. It does nothing to aid with the Dwarves' problem, which is their economy (particularly Wealth). If Quarrying was replaced with Wealth, the Runemaster would be a viable choice for the Dwarves.

Counters

 * Runemasters may be a bit tougher than normal wizards, but their spells are vastly inferior and can be taken advantage of easily by almost anything in the entire game. Orcs are a particularly good counter to Runemasters, as they can resist Crushing damage and smash Guardians easily with their own Crushing damage.