Build:Exalted Rune Sage
Exalted Rune Sage is a Character Build in Outward, created by Wizzzurdry.
Summary
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Exalted Rune Sage A very powerful late-game build meant to push the game to its limits. 
Breakthroughs Required Faction 
Equipment Weapon Off-Hand Head Body Boots Backpack 
Unsuspected Strength 
Fechtbuch 
Order and Discipline 
Chaos and Creativity 
Speed and Efficiency 
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Quickslots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 
Full Build Details
So... the most important part of this build, right from the get-go, is acquiring Exalted without Life Drain. This requires you to be wearing a Slayer's Set, Weaver's Backpack, holding a Djinn's Lamp in your hand, and have a sleeping buff with Miasmic Tolerance when you're about to approach the altar at the very end of the The Holy Mission of Elatt questline. Doing this correctly will result in 2x damage output, 30% reduced mana/stamina costs, and 10% to all resistances. But there is one caveat! You cannot let your character exceed 10 days of progress after loading from the main menu. If you travel between regions, spend seven days aiding in New Sirocco's construction, or receive any Defeat Scenarios, you might exceed that 10 day threshold, resulting in Life Drain. So be careful.
In the pic above, you can see my melee damage exceeds 200 with a dark varnish. It could've been a little bit higher if my character was tired or very tired, and/or had a 20% physical buff from food (estimating about 230-250 maximum?). I also would've had 89% fire resistance if I didn't choose Sigil of Cold in the Philosopher tree.
Playstyle
- Your Runic Trap is very powerful, especially when combined with Runic Detonation. You have a 2-3 second window after the trap is stepped on to follow it up with a detonation. The detonation does more damage, but does very high impact damage which can be used to chain your melee attacks. The idea is you'll run around weak enemies and lay your trap right at their feet, and for stronger enemies, you'll try to have them walk into it so that you might time a detonation. A lot of enemies will die instantly from the trap alone.
- Even though you're not specialized in lightning, the Runic Lantern's projectile is pretty good against some enemies.
Checklist of things you don't want to mess up
- Make sure you get the Decay boon from the Immaculate in Chersonese before joining the Holy Mission.
- Follow the The Holy Mission of Elatt quest guides - you definitely want all of those passives.
- Choose Spiritual Communion as the quest reward for Doubts and Secrets.
- Make absolutely sure you have everything required to be at 100% status effect resistance before finishing the final quest in the Holy Mission.
- For Philosopher, make sure to take Fire Affinity. Ice Sigil is nice, but I feel there's no real use for it with this build.
- For Rune Sage, make sure to take Runic Prefix.
- For Hex Mage, you'll most likely want Rupture instead of Blood Sigil; see Alternatives below.
- After becoming Exalted, make sure you never exceed 10 days of progress after loading your character. If you're unsure how much time has passed and you're worried, just exit to main menu and reload. Better safe than sorry! For clarity on this, you only have to resist Life Drain once. After that, it's simply keeping an eye on the time.
- Make sure that when you get to new Sirocco, you place a Chapel down with the Lotus of Light upgrade. It's also advised to have the Enchanting Guild with the Expanded Library to enchant your lexicon.
Alternatives
Instead of using the Golden Iron Knuckles, you can use:
- a Steel Sabre or Cerulean Sabre enchanted with Rainbow Hex to be combined with Rupture, but you must be very careful with this as Rupture has a delayed release. The Fechtbuch enchantment on your lexicon will make the physical damage more pleasant to work with. I had 81 physical damage unbuffed, 89 with discipline + 40 Lightning from Divine Light. Obviously not as strong as the knuckles (though stronger than the one-handed Runic Blade), but respectable if you want Rupture to be a part of your arsenal. I haven't tried Rupture with exalted, but I think it would hit in the 600-800 range total.
- a Scepter of the Cruel Priest, which has 55 decay damage by default. It synergizes well with the enchanted Tenebrous Set (35% decay bonus). When I used a Dark Varnish and the Decay boon, I had 225 decay damage. Be mindful of the 0.9 attack speed, though.
- the Runic Blade spells, which are a definite go-to as one will be automatically enchanted with lightning damage and the other with decay.