PF2e-style Swappable Runes
 

After playing around with 2e, I've decided to try and implement Runes (enchantments that can be transferred between items) in my 1e campaign. My plan is to have "Runestones" of different power levels/rarities possess a special ability (flaming, hosteling, bane, etc) that, when equipped to a weapon/armor, bestows that enchantment's special ability on the item (assuming it is the right type - weapon vs armor). This means that finding a +2 flaming greatsword means the party has actually found a +2 greatsword with a Flaming Runestone equipped to it, that can be removed and added to a different weapon (so players can better upgrade things like their family heirloom longsword or the chainmail their lost wife made them, for example).

My outline is something like this:
Amethyst Runestones come with a +1 equivalent special ability (like Bane or Keen).
Emerald Runestones come with a +2 equivalent special ability (like Animated or Phantasmal).
Ruby, Sapphire, and Diamond Runestones come with a +3/4/5 equivalent special ability, respectively.

I think I've figured out how to get the Runestone to select a magic weapon/armor on the character - under Item Selection -> Custom Expression, I use
component.BaseMagicI & (component.BaseArmor | component.BaseWep)
Please correct me if there's a better way to do this, since even custom names don't change the item's name in the resulting drop-down list.

The main challenge I'm currently running into is getting the wSpecMagic gizmo to appear and display the special abilities that I'm bootstrapping to it (ipAllying, iBane, etc) as options for selection. Am I missing something, like using the wrong gizmo, or some simple eval script?

Long term, I'd like to get them to code so that only 1 Runestone can be equipped to a +1 item, 2 Runestones can be equipped to a +2 item, and so on, but first I need to get the Runestones to work at all, so one step at a time!

The existing magic weapon abilities are specific things which have scripts that are hard-coded to apply their effects to the weapons they are added to, and they must be added as a pick to the gizmo on that weapon (which you can't do from a script or from a separate pick/thing).

I think you would need to basically duplicate each existing magic weapon/armor ability as a separate runestone and copy the original thing's scripts to apply the same changes to the target weapon/armor instead of its parent.


When you get around to limiting the runestones based on the enhancement bonus, that should be relatively simple. You can have each runestone add tags to the weapon/armor, and then have a later evalrule which makes the runestone not valid if there are too many tags on its targeted weapon/armor.

Alright so I think I've got a general system set up for how to build this, but I'm running into some errors and I'm not sure how to fix it.
Below is my code and selections for the first test Runestone, which is supposed to grant the Flaming property:

Can be equipped (no slot)
Show in Activated Abilities list
Activation Name: Slotted
Custom Expression: component.BaseMagicI & (component.BaseArmor | component.BaseWep)
All picks on Hero

Runs at Pre-Levels 9000
All seems to go well from 1. selecting the magic weapon, 2. equipping the runestone, and then when I Slot it in the In-Play tab, I get the following error:
Attempt to access non-existent parent pick for a top-level container from script
- - -
Attempt to access non-existent child pick 'gCustMagic' from script
- - -

Any advice or ideas on how to fix this?

What pick stores the gWeapExpr field? Are you certain it's in a pick of Id gCustMagic, which is in the same container as the rune (and it sounds like your runes are loose magic items, which means their container is the hero).


Also, you say you've got a selection of a weapon, but then your script uses a foreach, which means it's searching lots of weapons, so I'm not sure why that's there.

I restricted the First List to All Things - should I change it to All Picks on Hero? Lines 1-3 I copied from that used by the Inheritor's Gauntlet, and the rest I pulled from the Flaming item power eval script, since they seemed to achieve the targeted functions, but I'm still struggling to understand the terminology.
Simply put, I'm trying to learn by trial and error, since the text guide hasn't helped anything 'click' for me, if that makes sense?

How does the rune function - do you want it to be applied to all longswords (if so, that's "all things"), or do you want it to select one of the two longswords your character owns (if so, that's "picks on hero").


Here's some things to copy from that are outside of a weapon, but are choosing a weapon and applying extra damage:

Class special: "Deed: Overload" (from people of the wastes)
Racial Custom Ability: "Bleed" (this is an eidolon thing from champions of corruption)
Racial Custom Ability: "Grab" (also an eidolon thing, this one from the APG)
Class Special: "Cut the Corruption" (order of the green archetype, from heroes of the wild/ultimate wilderness)


They'll give you better examples of how to apply this sort of thing in the specific context you want to apply it within.

OK, I think I've figured out a workaround inspired by ShadowChemosh's Magus: Arcane Pool ability adjustment, but the end result is displaying improperly - see below:
https://imgur.com/a/ejNcIs4

As a Wondrous -Equipment, this file is named the Diamond Runestone (Weapon), with the eventual goal of manifesting 2 drop-down lists (magical weapons on hero & +5 weapon enchantments) and a 'Slotted' Activation that triggers while equipped.

Potential issues in Wondrous -Equipment options:
Can be Equipped? Yes
Show in Activated Abilities? Yes

Eval Scripts:
First, 5000, 1
Final Phase, 10000, 2
Validation Phase, 10001, 3
Render, 11000, 4
Can you help me identify where the display issue could be coming from?

Do you have a picture of the improper display?

Yes, I forgot to include the link!
https://imgur.com/a/ejNcIs4