Fire, Frost, and Lightning Runes

I guess I didn’t feel the need to chime in, because (to me) the wording is clear. On wand or weapon, the effect would kick in on weapon attacks MADE WITH THAT WEAPON (don’t want people thinking “I have a fire rune in my greatsword, so all my unarmed attacks (kicking) would get the flame damage”) and to spells cast appropriate to the element. (Of course, you still need 1 hand free to cast the non-Psionic spells).

e.g. If you have a fine flame rune on a hand axe, you would get +1 fire damage to attacks made with that weapon and +1 damage if you cast elemental bolt (fire).

Presumably the same thing. You get +1 elemental damage to appropriate spells and to attacks to whack people with your wand (probably a bad idea).

I’ve always (and still do) interpreted it as these runes on a Wand affects only damage from spells, and these runes on a Weapon affect only damage from the weapon. The book just tries to save space by listing both in one.

Reading the “Special” part of the description Sorcery Rune seems to clarify this. See Forged in Magic (ARPG), Vol. I., p. 10:

Special: A weapon inscribed with both this Rune and an elemental Rune allows the weapon’s wielder to apply the effects of the elemental Runes to spells that deal damage, effectively making this weapon into a wand for this purpose. If spell’s damage type matches that of the elemental Rune, the normal weapon effect of the Rune is applied.. If it does not match, the wielder may still apply the effect, but doing so increases spell’s Strain by 1.

If placing those runes on a weapon meant that their damage would work on spells cast, then this “Special” rule for the Sorcery rune would be mostly redundant and unnecessary (except for that last sentence). The key is the line that says, “making this weapon into a wand“?).

Thus, even though the FiM book literally says,

Wand & Weapon: […] The damage bonus applies to any spell that causes special type damage as well all weapon attacks.
• Fine: +1 special type damage
• Exceptional: +2 special type damage
• Legendary: +3 special type damage

it seems to really mean:

Wand: […] The damage bonus applies to any spell that causes special type damage.
• Fine: +1 special type damage
• Exceptional: +2 special type damage
• Legendary: +3 special type damage
Weapon: […] The damage bonus applies to all weapon attacks.
• Fine: +1 special type damage
• Exceptional: +2 special type damage
• Legendary: +3 special type damage

Regardless of whether the final official decision is that elemental runes on weapons always affect spells or just when alongside a Sorcery rune, this seems to be worth addressing in the next ARPG FAQ/Errata.