Something for true warriors..

[impy]

You can easily check it with cheat code, but just you know what to expect from runemage:
20 might runes - strength of destruction talent goes up to 90-150.
- standard damage goes up by +40 = 80-95 (game mistakenly only shows +20)

20 mind runes - strength of revive talent goes up to 240hp per runemage
- health of runemage goes up by 200 = from 450 to 650

20 magic runes - strength of illusion talent goes up to 1000hp summon/mage
- 30% probability of casting sheep on standard attack

Destruction talent looks nice, it is irresistible astral damage, but due to low basic runemage attack (30) it does not do that much damage unless buffed up. It is a far cry from dragons doing 300+damage.
650hp does not make it a strong level unit, but let's not forget it is a ranged unit like cyclop. The best perks come with saved magic runes. illusion talent is rechargable every 3turn - brilliant!, casting sheep is awesome.
Eventhough runemage is a human unit, it does not seem to be affected by royal griffin skill or Portrait of the knight - bug?
Saving so many runes weakens your overall army performance, question is whether it is worth it or not in regular game play. Answer is given by runemage leadership req - 2000, which is too much for middlegame. For endgame with important skills already maxed out, having f.e. 12 runemages summoning 12000hp meatshields (then cast target on it) every 3rounds is different cup of tea.
Let's say it is nice to see some fresh unit which is not another violet, yellow, pink dragon with slightly different statistics.

[onepiece]

Originally Posted by impy

Eventhough runemage is a human unit, it does not seem to be affected by royal griffin skill or Portrait of the knight - bug?

It's affected by portrait of the knight (just checked it). Don't know about royal griffin skill (gotta check it later)