- For rune references in other Dragon Age titles, see Runes.
Weapon runes can be enchanted into some weapons to provide bonuses to the effects of those weapons.
Runes can be applied to (or removed from) equipment by Bodahn Feddic's son, Sandal, at the party camp in Dragon Age: Origins or Ambassador Cera at the Vigil's Keep in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. Adding and removing runes is free, and runes can be reused after removal. This makes it easy to customize equipment.
In Origins the warden can donate weapon runes of any grade except grandmaster to the Circle of Magi or templar factions. Doing so strengthens these factions for The Final Battle. To donate runes place them in the Allied Supply Crates in the party camp.
Some weapons have one or more rune slots. The number depends on the material they're made of. For example, iron weapons have no slots while most dragonbone items have three.
There are nine types of Weapon Runes. Most grant offensive bonuses, like fire damage or slowing or paralysis enemies; though some grant bonuses to physical or spell resistances.
Some runes paralyze their target and others slow them. While the effect of one of this runes is active, the same kind of effect (slowing or paralyzing) cannot be triggered again in the target, and the duration of the effect is not extended.
When a weapon that deals magic damage is enchanted with a rune that grants a bonus to the same type of magic damage the effects add up. For example, if a magical sword that deals 3 fire damage is enchanted with a rune that gives a +2 fire damage bonus, the enchanted sword deals 5 fire damage. This includes damage against a type of creatures, like undead or darkspawn.
List[]
Cold Iron[]
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Effects:
+2 damage vs. undead |
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Effects:
+4 Damage vs. Undead |
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Effects:
+6 Damage vs. Undead |
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Effects:
+8 Damage vs. Undead |
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Effects:
+10 Damage vs. Undead |
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Effects:
+12 damage vs undead |
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Effects:
+14 damage vs. undead |
Dweomer[]
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Effects:
+2% spell resistance |
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Effects:
+4% Spell Resistance |
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Effects:
+6% Spell Resistance |
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Effects:
+8% Spell Resistance |
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Effects:
+10% Spell Resistance |
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Effects:
+12% spell resistance |
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Effects:
+14% spell resistance |
Flame[]
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Effects:
+1 Fire Damage |
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Effects:
+2 fire damage |
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Effects:
+3 Fire Damage |
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Effects:
+4 Fire Damage |
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Effects:
+5 Fire Damage |
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Effects:
+6 Fire Damage |
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Effects:
+7 Fire Damage |
Frost[]
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Effects:
+1 Frost Damage |
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Effects:
+2 Frost Damage |
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Effects:
+3 Frost Damage |
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Effects:
+4 Frost Damage |
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Effects:
+5 Frost Damage |
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Effects:
+6 Frost Damage |
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Effects:
+7 Frost Damage |
Hale[]
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Effects:
+5% Physical Resistance |
This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
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Effects:
+10% Physical Resistance |
This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
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Effects:
+15% Physical Resistance |
This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
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Effects:
+20% physical resistance |
This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
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Effects:
+25 Physical Resistance |
This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
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Effects:
+30 Physical Resistance |
This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
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Effects:
+35 Physical Resistance |
This is an old Tevinter symbol for endurance. |
Lightning[]
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Effects:
+1 Electrical Damage |
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Effects:
+2 Electrical Damage |
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Effects:
+3 Electrical Damage |
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Effects:
+4 Electrical Damage |
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Effects:
+5 Electrical Damage |
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Effects:
+6 Electricity Damage |
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Effects:
+7 electricity damage |
Paralyze[]
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Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 4s |
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Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 5s |
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Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 6s |
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Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 7s |
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Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 8s |
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Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 9s |
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Effects:
5% chance of paralysis for 10s |
Slow[]
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Effects:
Low chance to reduce movement speed |
The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
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Effects:
Low chance to reduce movement speed |
The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
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Effects:
Moderate chance to reduce movement speed |
The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
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Effects:
High chance to reduce movement speed |
The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
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Effects:
Highest chance to reduce movement speed |
The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
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Effects:
Chance to reduce movement speed. |
The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth.. |
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Effects:
Chance to reduce movement speed. |
The ancient Tevinter symbol for sloth. |
Silverite[]
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Effects:
+2 damage vs. darkspawn |
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Effects:
+4 Damage vs. Darkspawn |
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Effects:
+6 Damage vs. Darkspawn |
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Effects:
+8 Damage vs. Darkspawn |
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Effects:
+10 Damage vs. Darkspawn |
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Effects:
+12 damage vs. darkspawn |
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Effects:
+14 damage vs. darkspawn |
Hybrid[]
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Effects:
+2 damage from each element |
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Effects:
5% ranged critical chance 5% melee critical chance 20% critical/backstab damage |
No word precisely captures the meaning of this rune, but it is something like "bigger". |
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Effects:
Increases Hostility |
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Effects:
Increases Attack Speed |
Bugs[]
- There is a bug with runes vs. creature type (Cold Iron, Silverite) and passive resistance (Dweomer, Hale) Masterpiece and Paragon tier weapon runes. They 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.
- This has been resolved with PC patch 1.04. Also resolved in the Ultimate Edition of the game.
- Hale, Dweomer, & Cold Iron still flagged as armor runes in Ultimate Edition patch 1.05.}}