Weapon runes (Dragon Age II)

Weapon Runes can be applied to certain weapons to provide permanent bonuses to that weapon's effects. Runes can be applied to (or removed from) equipment by Bodahn Feddic's son, Sandal at the party's Camp (DA:O) or Ambassador Cera at Vigil's Keep (DA:A). 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.

Each weapon has a certain number of rune slots, depending on the material from which it is made. For example, iron weapons have no slots while Dragonbone items offer 3. There are nine types of weapon runes, each of which provides a different effect, such as increased damage. Runes come in one of 5 tiers of power, from Novice to Grandmaster. Two additional tiers are available in the Awakening expansion, Masterpiece and Paragon.

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 time of the effect is not extended).

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

Pseudo-Armor Runes Bug
Vs. creature type (Cold Iron, Silverite) and passive resistance (Dweomer, Hale) Masterpiece and Paragon tier weapon runes are erroneously flagged as Armor Runes in Dragon Age: 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.

Rune Listing
Rune of Lightning

Rune of Fire

Rune of Impact

Rune of Frost

Rune of Nature

Rune of Striking

Rune of Spirit

Rune of Devastation

Primeval Lyrium Rune