Class Acts: Runepriest

Runepriest support with an "asian" twist? Okay I am hooked. In addition to a few pages with some sidebars of flavor on how runepriests could fit in Kara-Tur, we also get a new runic artistry, prayers, paragon path, and a pair of feats.

The flavor parts are interesting, touching on the Path of Enlightenment (which was apparently written on cliffs with red lightning), and depicting rune magic as more commonplace in Kara-Tur, with "homes adorned with sutra scrolls of varying sizes, that burn with red lightning when focused on or read". There is also a sidebar on calligraphy, which along with the code of honor syncs well with the whole oriental thing they got going on. Great if you are running such a campaign, but you could still use stuff like the sutra scrolls--changing them to runestones or what-have-you--and lightning in other games.

Each of the existing runic artistry gets a few paragraphs for re-flavoring their place in Kara-Tur. Defiant words are pretty common, wield longspears or halberds, and they tend to serve in a standing army or serve as temple guards. Wrathful hammers use testubos (aka greatclubs), lacquer their armor in red, and tend to stick to the Plains of Horses and hilly regions. They also spend most of their time hunting demons, giving them a solid adventuring concept.

Serene blade is the new artistry. These guys embody the runepriest devotion to the sigils granted by the Celestial Emporer, wield longswords, and typically wander the land teaching literacy and the Path of Enlightenment. In game mechanics picking this class feature gives you proficiency with military heavy blades, lets you add your Wisdom to AC when wearing light armor (allowing you to stick to the red robes that they like so much), and gives you scaling temp hps based on your Wisdom once per round aftering getting hit. 

New Prayers

• Words of Bravery (level 3): You hit each creature adjacent to you, you and an ally can make a save, and you either allow an ally push an affected target or dish out a bonus on the save.
• Words of Compassion (level 6 daily): You or an ally regains hit points and gets a bonus to saves for a turn. Level 6, daily, and a standard action? Er...shrug.
• Words of the Reflected Karma (level 9): A friendly-fire blast that targets a NAD (and Will at that), with an effect that causes the target to take lightning damage when it attacks. Veeery nice.
• Protective Scroll (level 10 encounter): You burn a healing surge to scribe a sutra scroll, that can be used as a minor action to heal another creature and grant a huge bonus to defenses for a turn. These things last until you take an extended rest, meaning you can pretty much use it every encounter to basically give yourself a minor-action heal WITH something extra. Also, anyone can use it.
• Words of Fiery Fidelity (level 13): Single target, hits Fort, deals fire damage, heals adjacent allies, deals ongoing damage as an effect (that also heals allies whenever the target takes ongoing damage). Oh, and depending on your rune state the ongoing damage and healing is either double, or the range of allies that it affects is increased. 
• Words of Ancestral Bravery (level 15): Single target, hits Will, deals radiant damage with prone on a hit, half damage on a miss. As an effect if allies end their turn next to you they got a lot of temp hps and a bonus on saves for a turn.

Enlightened Word Paragon Path 

Only non-evil runepriests need apply. 

• Cloud Step (level 11): A new rune state that lets adjacent allies shift as a free action if they hit an enemy. You can also end it in order to fly.
• Shared Enlightenment Action (level 11): You can burn an action point to have an attack originate from a nearby ally, using your stats and giving them temp hps for their troubles.
• Celestial Lightning (level 11 again): A ranged, friendly-fire area-effect that targets Fort, deals radiant and lightning damage. It has to be centered on an ally, but in addition to not giving a fuck the ally also deals lightning and radiant damage for a turn (in addition to whatever they would normally do, making it very unlikely that resistances will factor in). In addition, depending on your rune state the ally either a bonus to damage or their healing surges.
• Touch of Hope (level 12 daily): You or an ally that you can touch make a save against every effect on her, regains hit points, and can stand up if prone.
• Radiant Cloud Step (level 16): When flying by dismissing your cloud step rune state, you are also insubstantial and phasing.
• Words of Celestial Heaven (level 20): A solid melee attack that deals lightning and radiant damage, stuns with a save end, and causes the target to make an attack against an ally after saving against the stun. Hit or miss you also deal bonus lightning and radiant damage for the rest of the encounter.

New Feats 

• Heavenly Halberdier: You can use glaives and halberds, in addition to sliding targets of your at-will runepriest prayers.
• Scribe Sutra: You can use Warding rituals as well as Brew Potion, Gentle Repose, and Magic Circle. In addition, making scrolls takes half the time.