Dragon Age Rune Overview

Runes are items with magical properties that can be used to enchant weapons in Dragon Age: Origins. Runes to enchant armor and the ability for the Warden to craft their own runes were introduced in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening.

There are two different types of runes: Weapon Runes and Armor Runes. Weapon Runes are available in Origins and Awakening, while Armor Runes are only available in the Awakening expansion.

Runes can be applied to or removed from equipment by Bodahn Feddic's son, Sandal at the Party Camp in Origins, by Ambassador Cera at Vigil's Keep in Awakening or by a Rune Anvil in Golems of Amgarrak.

Runes are applied to weapons or armor to add a bonus to that item. There is no cost associated with adding or removing runes, and runes can be reused after removal. This makes it easy to tailor equipment to meet particular challenges. Runes come in five tiers of power in Origins, from Novice to Grandmaster, or seven tiers of power in Awakening, from Novice to Paragon.

Runecrafting

Runecrafting is a new skill introduced in Awakening that gives Wardens the knowledge to make their own weapon and armor runes.

Weapon Runes can be applied to certain weapons to provide permanent bonuses to that weapon's effects. There are nine types of Weapon Runes, each of which provides a different effect. Generally these are offensive effects, such as fire damage, slow, or paralysis, though weapons can also offer bonuses to physical or spell resistances.

Runes fire independently. Thus, multiple Runes of Paralysis will increase the paralysis chance. While an effect like Paralysis or Slow is active, the same kind of effect cannot be triggered again and the duration of the effect is not extended.

Items increasing elemental damage will increase elemental damage from runes as well.

Each weapon has a certain number of rune slots, depending on the [url=/wiki/Materials#metals]material from which it is made. For example, iron weapons have no slots while most [url=/wiki/Dragonbone]dragonbone items offer three.


• Note: Some weapons are missing their rune slots - Ageless is a well known example. There are serveral workarounds for adding the missing rune slots. See the Ageless article and the item tier bug for details.


• Note: Origins Weapon Runes of any grade except Grandmaster can also be used to enhance the Circle of Magi or templar factions before The Final Battle by placing them in the Allied Supply Crates in Party Camp.

Bug! If you acquired Cailan's Armor Set and Maric's Blade from Return to Ostagar DLC, another Cailan's Helm might appear as a rune in one of Maric's Blade's runes. If you remove it, it will become another Cailan's helm with lesser stats than the original helm.

Armor Runes were introduced in Awakening and can be applied to certain chest armor to provide bonuses to that armor. There are five types of Armor Runes, each of which provides a different effect. Generally these are defensive effects, such as extra armor, elemental resistances, and chance to avoid missile attacks, although there are some that increase base attributes (constitution and willpower).

These runes are :


• Stout – increases Constitution
  
• Barrier – increases Armor
  
• Reservoir – increases Willpower
  
• Tempest – increases Missile Evasion
  
• Immunity – increases Elemental Resistances (Fire, Ice and Lightning)
  
• Evasion - increases chance to dodge attacks by 5%
  
• Endurance - reduces fatigue by 5%
  
• Amplification - increases Fire, Cold, Electricity, Nature and Spirit damage by 5%
  
• Diligence - eliminates extra damage from flank attacks

Some chest armor come with slots for runes. Not all armors provide rune slots. Tier 6 armor offers two rune slots while those of tier 7 or higher offer three.

Weapon Runes with effects vs. creature type (Cold Iron, Silverite) and passive resistance (Dweomer, Hale) from Masterpiece and Paragon tiers are erroneously flagged as armor runes in Awakening. Cold Iron and Silverite do not trigger either with melee or ranged weapons when inserted into armor slots. However, both Dweomer and Hale grant the resistance bonuses normally.