Runemaster is one of the 18 different Retorts available for customizing and empowering Wizards in Master of Magic.
The Runemaster specializes in 
Arcane spells, which he can Research 25% faster than normal. The Casting Cost of these spells is also reduced by 25%. Finally, all "Dispelling"-type spells cast by the Runemaster are twice as likely to succeed.
This Retort costs 1 pick, and requires at least 2 Spellbooks in each of 3 different Realms.
Description
A Runemaster is a wizard who specializes in Arcane magic. This type of magic does not originate from any of the magical Realms, but rather is a construct of the wizards, sages and scholars of Arcanus and Myrror, who have over time deciphered the secrets of how magic itself works, and were able to create new spells that did not exist previously and are not tied to any realm. Arcane spells tend to be highly utilitarian, reflecting a study of magic itself rather than any of its individual aspects.
The Runemaster, having learned the mechanisms behind this type of magic, has a much easier time learning the actual spells in this school, and spends much less effort than other wizards in casting these spells. Furthermore, intimate knowledge of how magic itself works allows the Runemaster to be very adept at dispelling other wizards' spells. These specialties, however, come at the expense of de-specializing in other types of magic. The Runemaster is truly a master of no other art but his own.
Effects
Runemaster is one of the advanced Retorts available in Master of Magic. Any Wizard possessing this Retort receives three special benefits that will positively affect him/her for the duration of the game.
Arcane Research Boost
Whenever the Runemaster is researching any Arcane spell, he generates 25% more 
Research Points than he normally would. Under normal circumstances, any wizard can transforms 
Power into Research Point at a ratio of 1:1, and so does the Runemaster, unless he is researching an Arcane spell, in which case the ratio is 1:1.25. For each 1 that goes in, 1.25 is generated. This only happens while the Arcane project is in progress.
This effectively means that a Runemaster will research an Arcane spell 20% faster than any other wizard would under the same circumstances. This allows the Runemaster to quickly learn many or all Arcane spells, which will form the basis of his strategy.
Most important to mention is that the Spell of Mastery is an Arcane spell as well - and shaving 20% off the research time for this extremely expensive spell can be very important. The Runemaster will likely aim for a Spell of Mastery victory thanks to this point.
Arcane Casting Cost Reduction
Furthermore, the Runemaster enjoys a 25% reduction in the Casting Cost of all Arcane spells.
This has several important ramifications, given the variety of Arcane spells available in the game.
- It is much less costly to dispel enemy spells using
Dispel Magic, Disjunction, etc. - It is much less costly to acquire Heroes and even Champions, thanks to the Summon Hero and Summon Champion spells.
- It is much less costly to deck these Heroes out with powerful, custom-made Magical Items, thanks to the Enchant Item and Create Artifact spells.
- Once the Spell of Mastery is acquired, it will take much less time to finish casting it - thus giving your rivals less time to react before they lose the game.
Although the selection of Arcane spells is somewhat limited, the significant cost reduction lends itself to some potentially powerful strategies.
Runemaster and Artificer
- Main article: Hero Strategy
- The Artificer Retort allows the wizard to cast the Create Artifact spell right from game-start, and also provides an additional 50% reduction to the creation cost of any Magical Item. Since Create Artifact is an Arcane spell, its cost will also be affected by Runemaster, as described above. It is extremely important to note that the Runemaster and Artificer bonuses are additive to each other. Therefore, a wizard possessing both Retorts will have a total of 75% reduction of the cost of any item they create.
- This creates an opportunity for an interesting exploit. Since an item costs 25% of its normal cost, but can be smashed for 50% reimbursement on its normal cost, it means that an item can be created and immediately smashed to gain actual profit, equal to 25% of its total value.
- For example, an Artificer Runemaster can create an item with a value of 6,450 (the highest value possible for a single item created via spell), which would only cost this wizard 25% of that value, or 1,612. The final value of the item is still 6450, which means that the item can be smashed for 3,225 - a clean profit of 1,613! The only loss involved is the time it took to create this item.
- This can be done with any value of item, but obviously the profit increases as the item's value increases. Artificer Runemasters will likely spend much of their time accumulating Mana this way, starting small, gradually increasing the item values involved, and quickly ending up with vast amounts of Mana.
Easier Dispelling
Finally, any dispelling attempt made by the Runemaster against another wizard's spells is twice as strong, thus almost doubles the chance to succeed. That means, in the dispel formula, it is assumed that the caster uses double as much mana for his dispelling attempt. This applies to the Arcane spells Dispel Magic, Disenchant Area and Disjunction.
Dispel Chance = ( 2*Dispel Mana ) / ( 2*Dispel Mana + I*Enchantment Mana ) * 100%
The mentioned Arcane spells also have stronger 
Sorcery versions which end with "True" (e.g. Disenchant True). These spells already assume 3 times as much mana in the formula, thus Runemaster is doubling it to 6 times as much!
Dispel Chance = ( 6*Dispel Mana ) / ( 6*Dispel Mana + I*Enchantment Mana ) * 100%
In the formulas above, "I" is either 1, 2 or 3. It's 1, if the opposing wizard isn't an Archmage and hasn't got a mastery in the realm of its enchantment (e.g. Sorcery Mastery for Flight). It's 2 if exactly one property applies to the opposing wizard, and 3 if both apply. "Dispel Mana" and "Enchantment Mana" assume the full spell costs without any Casting Cost Reductions.
For example if casting a Dispel Magic spell with a total Casting Cost of 30 Mana, attempting to dispel an enchantment with a Casting Cost of 30, a non-Runemaster wizard would have a chance of success of 50%, whereas the Runemaster has a chance of success of 66.67%.
Cost and Prerequisites
When creating a new Wizard, the Runemaster Retort consumes 1 pick.
In order to pick the Runemaster Retort, a wizard requires at least 2 Spellbooks in each of three different magical Realms. It doesn't matter which realms are picked, or whether the wizard has more than 2 Spellbooks in any of them, or even whether the wizard has books in four different Realms instead of three, as long as the basic requirement is met (2 books in each of three realms).
For example, the following combinations would qualify a wizard for the Runemaster retort:
- 3 Life, 3 Chaos and 4 Nature Spellbooks.
- 2 Life, 3 Chaos, 2 Nature and 1 Sorcery Spellbooks.
The following combination does not qualify:
- 5, 4 and 1 Spellbooks.
Strategy
The Runemaster has several possible avenues that may lead to victory, all of which utilize the advantage in Arcane spellcasting.
Spell of Mastery Rush
The most straight-forward strategy would be a rush towards the Spell of Mastery. The Runemaster can reach this spell rather quickly, by researching all of the spells available to him as soon as possible, and then enjoying the 25% Research boost to acquire the Spell of Mastery in short order. At that point, the 25% Casting Cost reduction will greatly speed up the casting of this spell, meaning that rival wizards have less time to react. The Runemaster will of course want to set up some defensive measures for the war that will erupt once the casting begins. Also note that in order to reach the Spell of Mastery in short order, it may be best to select no more than 6 Spellbooks (enough to satisfy the requirements for the Runemaster Retort), so that there would be very few spells to research in order to get to the Spell of Mastery.
Other Retorts that can assist with the above strategy include:
- Sage Master, which grants even faster Spell Research.
- Mana Focusing, which grants better Mana generation to pay for the Spell of Mastery.
- Archmage, which helps increase Spell Casting Skill, again making the actual casting of the Spell of Mastery go faster than normal.
- Alchemy, which helps generate Mana from Gold, or vice-versa when necessary.
- Artificer, which (as explained previously) can generate massive amounts of Mana for you.
With 6 picks spent on Spellbooks, and 1 pick on Runemaster, this leaves 4 picks. Each of the Retorts above costs only 1 pick, so you may pick four of them (Archmage wouldn't work, as it would require you to buy two extra Spellbooks first). A Sage Master Mana Focuser Alchemist Artificer Runemaster with 6 Spellbooks can reach and cast the Spell of Mastery with great ease!
Conversely, consider taking the Myrran retort. If you're lucky, instead of giving you better speed, it will give you better protection - by ensuring that other wizards can't easily get to you before you can finish researching and casting the Spell of Mastery.
Hero Master
With the reduced cost of the Summon Hero and particularly the Summon Champion spells, the Runemaster can easily acquire several powerful Heroes. The reduced cost of Magical Item creation means that it will be easier to custom-fit them with powerful items as well. With this strategy, you can create an army of Heroes that would be extremely difficult to defeat.
For this strategy, consider the Artificer retort and the Famous retort. These will reduce item prices and Hero Upkeep Costs, respectively.Warlord may also assist here, as it will improve all your Heroes considerably.
Alternatively, consider the Myrran and Node Master Retorts: Once you've got some powerful Heroes on your side, they should be able to easily conquer a few Myrran Nodes, boosting your Power output substantially.
Known Bugs
Runemaster shows inconsistent behaviour when calculating the dispel chances for the spells Disjunction and Disjunction True. Computer wizards using Disjunction profit from doubled mana in the dispel formula. On the other hand, human wizards do not.