The makerstrike example was just meant to explain why I don't think the combo we makes needs to tie into deep magic to have deep magic specific effects when we make it
On the difference between our item regarding deep magic, so the way I see it you can remove deep magic from Skarrenbakraz and it changes nothing beyond removing a power source. Fundamental nothing changes. Now remove deep magic from Zharrgal, most of it's functions are unchanged, but the ability to empower runes you make with deep magic is gone entirely, that effect cannot exist absent deep magic. This is what Runelords Gift aims to achieve, to temporarily provide the runes around us with a source of deep magic, on top of the other effects. Remove the deep magic and MSnerra Fortitude and Thungni all still work but that extra effect is gone like with Zharrgal.
For the power level thing it's partly a radius thing, range in a line is significantly weaker than an effect over the same radius and you're talking about the radius being significantly larger than the range in a line; partly level of destructive effect, it has to be meaningfully different from just being a lightning flavoured wrath and ruin. So either it's hitting everything everything in the radius or it's hitting a lot harder than W&R. Combine that with the magic absorption and anti missile effects and you've created an I win this battle button unless your opponent brought a similarly god tier artifact with them. To me, a mid tier T5 can do like one of those things, either it says F everyone who gets within a mid distance of Snorri and no you can't shoot missiles or magic in to stop him or it says F you for thinking you get to shoot missiles or use magic in a large chunk of this battlefield oh and Snorri gets lightning flavoured W&R within that area.
You're mistaken on
what I'm arguing for in terms of power level. I'm saying that I envision Skarrenbakraz creating a defensive thunderstorm anti-missle barrier around Snorri and a section of whatever Throng he marches with, much like any other banner just more powerful, and then being able to fling great big lightning bolts beyond that radius as probably part of a lightning flavored Wrath and Ruin or just an effect of the cloak. Not that the radius exceeds the range in a line.
I don't know how much magic absorption its going to have, I don't think it has much anti-magic anything attached to it, and it's not really supposed to. No idea where you got that impression. It might empower Snorri from the Throng-storm, that'd be nice, but I more just expect it to synergize and buff the storm due to Kholek's brain and the Sky King's Feather being used in the Lightning and Fury runes. I'm mainly imagining it doing the second "F You" thing that you describe without the magic negation.
- Combo, Makerstrike +:[Master Rune of Conduction (Elder Magma Dragon's Blood), Rune of Smednir (Pure Gromril), Rune of Thungni (Adamant)] [The weapon sends blows that sunder armour and, if charged for long enough, can melt even Gromril, the user can strike the earth and either call forth a small crack in the earth that spews lava or send out a wave of mystic flame that burns their foes. The tool follows the bearer's will, guides their blows so that imperfections are removed entirely and their work endures for as long as possible. Runes struck with this hammer draw from the ambient magic of the world in its totality, lasting far longer and recharging more quickly than standard.]
- Chaosbane
- Trollbane
- Touched by the Earth: It drinks deeply and greedily from the power that Barak Azamar releases. When used in conjunction with the armour, the weapon's abilities are greatly empowered, where the tool strikes with such heat and ferocity that no Forge is needed to heat the metal and tempers the item exactly as the wielder wishes.
So Zharrgal basically inherited BA's "Things made with this draw on the Deep Magic" feature. And I can see what you mean there, though as I said the effects a deep magic connection might have on Skarrenbakraz I believe would be that such a connection would help empower Zharrgal further (and thus any runes we make with it) and might use the deep magic to help protect the dwarves, on top of its native magic. And I'm satisfied with those two things.
The details of what is being done are different. But I don't hold "use the deep magic to boost runes of Runesmiths in the throng" as more important than "use the deep magic to protect dwarves in the throng" as an example. I see those two things as basically equal, but Snerra already covers boosting runes of runesmiths in her own way. I don't really see how it being more fundamental for Zharrgal or Runelord's Gift functions elevates Runelord's Gift above Skarrenbakraz; the results are of similar importance and here's the thing.
Zharrgal still makes craft better and last longer and its not just getting that from the Deep Magic (the deep magic instead improves that feature, builds upon it), Runelord's Gift would still empower rune casting/dispels without the deep magic due to their inherent magic. Deep Magic adds a secondary, useful function to these "Make runes use deep magic", which builds on their inherent magic. Skarrenbakraz would I think use Deep Magic to add a secondary, useful function along the lines of "Empower the defense", in line with what it's inherent magic is supposed to do much like how it would for Zharrgal and Runelord's Gift. I see these as of equivalent worth, even if they're doing different things with the deep magic.
(Apologies for the late reply, it grew late last night and I had to log off)
The intent behind the accuracy rune wasn't to turn enemy arrows around 180 degrees and make them hit their own shooters, but rather to focus the cloak's own attacks and the attacks of Snorri's pals. At its most basic level the rune would work as a counterpart to master grungni, guiding the shots of Snorri's allies (and I think it's a fair assumption he'll have a slew of dwarfs with crossbows on his side, when he's fighting an enemy army). Accuracy would also contribute to control and direct the release of energy from your supercharged lightning rune. It seems to me this would be a simple and reliable way to achieve your goal of adding elements of precision and co-ordination to the rune sentence, instead of hoping those effects will spring from interplay between fury and lightning together with the big brain. I view this as a harmonious set of runes, because they synergise both with regards to their physical effects (control over winds real and metaphysical, control over lightning) and with regards to how they achieve those effects (imposition of order on a system where there was none). Taken together, the runes would speak of mastery over the weather, using it to hinder enemies or help allies at the wielder's desire.
More generally, I think there's something to be said for making a banner that controls storms to both destructive and constructive ends, rather than aiming for maximum murderpower above all other concerns. Ever since Snorri had that first vision of the gromril meteor that ended with him hacking away at it with a pickaxe, there's always been an undercurrent to his interactions with capital-P Primordial forces where he asks himself: how can I tame this? How can I understand it, refine it, make it safe? We see this with his armour, which he doesn't just use to make himself unbreakable but also to elevate himself as a craftsman, and in time, perhaps, to find out what deep magic really is. His hammer has a similar thing going on where its destructive power seems almost incidental, at times, to what he usually uses it for. The primordial fire burns, and that is useful, but he appreciates it more for forging.
Making a cloak like this slot directly into soul cake's suggested "forge allegory" is beyond me, but the broader idea can still be useful. I think Snorri would be inclined to view a primordial storm not just as a giant battering ram but as something that can be usefully harnessed and domesticated, just like the guys in ravnsvake viewed their raging floodwaters as something that could be harnessed and domesticated and, in the long view, all dwarfs view nature as something that can be harnessed and domesticated. Rather than making a frenzied bannerstorm that kills when Snorri lets it off the hook, why not make one that can guide the hands of his friends as well as strike down his enemies? The winds can blow gentle or they can blow savage as their master commands. Ever shall the good men and women of kraka drakk find a wind to steer their quarrels and a breeze to cool their brows, etc.
Largely because I don't think Accuracy is necessary, or would actually combo that well. I went about designing Skarrenbakraz the way it is by trying to dissect a storm and pick out the specific kind of storm and specific concepts/facets of that storm. So I went for a thunderstorm, and the furious power of such a storm. Accuracy is not a concept I really associate with storms in any measure, and so the first two runes would have to carry the entirety of the Storm concept for Accuracy to then act on and I'm not sure they can do so since a storm is complex enough in my mind to require a combo to properly capture. The Master Rune of Grungni provides the basis, lightning adjusts the form, Fury specifies and empowers the first and second runes. The Brain adds coordination, as does the Feather, both reagents that come from primordial beings that temper and control these great storms. Barak Azamar becomes the heart of power and Zharrgal becomes the channel for these two sources of energy, the Earth and the Sky if you want to get metaphorical.
I also don't want to make a Forge Allegory Set with this Cloak. If I'm going to make a Forge Allegory I'd want to make a super powerful Anvil for it, I have some vague ideas in that direction but they'd require further research. But back to the topic above, I don't believe we have to make the Set a forge allegory, in order to use the power of the Set and the Primordial World to improve our crafting; because that's what Zharrgal does as a channel.
E: Or to put it another way, I don't think we have to put a metaphorical order or harness on the Storm when we have a tool that does that, and I'm wanting to use ingredients that add coordination and control.
E2: This is not me saying that using the power of a Primordial World Set as fuel in crafting is better than a Forge Allegory Set bonus designed for crafting. A Forge Allegory would bring other features beyond fuel and power to be channeled, which is part of why even after Skarrenbakraz I do want to make a super anvil at some point.
