Metalborn Paths in the Cosmere RPG
This fall will see the Mistborn setting added to the Cosmere RPG - the first new setting beyond the original release of the Stormlight setting. With this new setting will come a new campaign, expansions to Heroic Paths, and Metalborn paths.
Just like in the Stormlight setting, Mistborn RPG players will get to choose what mix of Heroic and Invested Paths they want for their character. The big difference here is that they’ll have a lot more choices when it comes to customization of their builds: you can choose to master one metallic art as a Ferring or Misting, take on two as a Twinborn, or master them all as a Feruchemist or Mistborn.
The natural choice for many players who have read the books may be to go full Mistborn or Feruchemist to have access to any metal they wish, but just because you have access to all of the powers doesn’t mean you’ll be the most powerful metalborn on Scadrial.
We can look to Raboniel for wisdom here:
Raboniel, Marie Seeberger
“The Radiants each have two Surges,” Venli said. “The Fused each have one. So are the Radiants more powerful?”
“Powerful? Is it better to have more abilities, or to have one ability handled expertly? We of the Fused know our Surge with an intimacy a Radiant will never know.
- Chapter 31, Rhythm of War
Brotherwise managed to capture the essence of the lesson Raboneil was Venli in this scene quite well. You’re limited to the number of talents you can take as a Cosmere RPG player. In order to take advantage of multiple metals to their fullest ability, your campaign will need to go the distance.
Those who take on the role of a single or dual metal wield path might find that they hit spikes of power and generally mastery over their chosen metal faster than those who will seek to gather them all.
Full Metal
But what should you expect from the Metalborn paths? How many talents are we talking, and what are the power spikes that make an optimal build? We don’t have all of the details yet, but in several of the teased shots of the Mistborn Handbook we’ve gotten quick glances at the details.
Let’s take a look at each of the major path previews and see what we can learn. Check out the screenshots below as we discuss each in turn.
I won’t go too in depth on the specific talents since they may not be the final versions. Instead, we’ll take a look at the general scope of the tree in the context of character advancement, noting prerequisite and other unique aspects of each tree.
Twinborn
This tree will you see you taking on your choice of a single Allomantic and Feruchemical. With tons of combinations of mixed metals, I think this will be a popular path among the min / maxer TTRPG players at the table.
There are an impressive 11 talents in this tree beyond the Key Talent; Twinborn Heritage. Some of these talents require skill ranks of 3+ and even 4+ which means that you won’t be maxing out this tree until at least level 11 when you step in to tier 3.
Notable on the tree is Alloyed Resonance which has a unique prerequisite that Twinborn players should be aware of: your two powers must use different metals.
Ferrings
This tree will see you taking only a single Feruchemical power. An interesting facet of this tree is how few talents there actually are, and how high some of the prerequisites are. With only 5 talents beyond the Key Talent; Ferring Heritage, you’d think you could max out the talents quickly.
You’d be wrong.
Only a single talent has only the key talent as a prerequisite. One has a 2+ skill rank in Feruchemy, one is 3+ and two are +4. The result feels like a slow burn of power over the course of a campaign, with a potential spike when you transition from Tier 2 to 3, then again at Tier 3 to 4.
Mistings
Similar to Ferrings, Mistings will see you choosing a single Allomantic power and sports only 5 talents before the tree is maxed out.
Unlike Ferrings, the final talent in the tree requires 5 skill ranks in Allomancy and the completion of a specific goal. Becoming an Allomantic Savant seems like it could be interesting, though at this stage I’m not 100% what in-game implications that has. No rush on completing that goal. You can only take 5 skill ranks once you’ve reached Tier 4 at level 16.
Feruchemist
There are 6 talents under the Feruchemist Path. Two have requirements you can take in the early tiers, two will require you to be level 6+ and two will require you to be level 11+.
A common theme amongst all the Metalborn paths is the ability to expand your access to metals and make using your metals, in this case storing your metals, a bit easier.
Mistborn
Of all of the Metalborn paths on display, you can accomplish the most with the Mistborn tree at lower tiers; Only one of the six talents require a +4 skill rank.
The talents use a lot of key phrases we’ll need the full ruleset to fully understand: “Depleted” and “Burn” are both used frequently as as proper nouns, signaling that these are keywords with rulesets. I can surmise what these mean from the lore, but what specific gameplay mechanics are at play will help identify the value of these talents relative to the others on the tree.
Time will tell.
Burn Metal Burn
These aren’t the only talents Metalborn will have to balance when building their characters. Each Metal has its own series of talents. Unlike, the Metalborn paths, we haven’t seen too many of these talents, but we have gotten our hands on an early look at one of the metal trees:
Tin Allomancy Talents, assumed not final
So this gives us another 6 talents for Metalborn to contend with.
To recap, this means that Metalborn player characters will need to balance their talents in Heroic Paths, Metalborn Paths, and Metals. This will give you a slow burn (wink) of power that escalates at as you transition between tiers.
To compare this to Knights Radiant, let’s do a one for one talent count comparison and calculate the number of talents required to completely max out your tree. Note that I am assuming Feruchemy-based metal trees use similar talent counts as Allomancy. The table of contents showed a total of 17 metals (16 traditional + 1 god metal) for both Allomancy and Feruchemy. I’m unsure if all of those metals will be available to each, or if like Bondsmiths, they’re just listed for the lore. I am going to assume its 16 for now.
| Path | Talent Count |
|---|---|
| Radiant | 24 |
| Twinborn | 23 |
| Ferrings / Misting | 11 |
| Feruchemist / Mistborn | 107 |
So let’s talk about Mistborn and Feruchemists.
Limited Power
So let’s be real: you’re not getting 107 talents. Unless there is some other mechanics at play, a Mistborn / Feruchemist player character will never hit a max talent allocation for all of their metals and paths.
This makes sense.
Kelsier sends Vin to go and learn from the Mistings in their party, noting how they have a much deeper skill in an individual metal. This mirrors Raboniel’s view of the difference between the Fused and Radiants. Brotherwise nailed it.
During the Cosmere RPG Panel at Nexus 2025, one of the stories the team shared about Mistborn playtesting was how many players gravitated towards the single or dual Metalborn paths, since it offered quicker access to power.
Another consideration here is balancing your Metalborn paths with Heroic paths - some of the talents found in the standard Heroic are critical to combat and conversations - players will need a well rounded character to succeed in any setting of the Cosmere RPG.
More to come
The release of the Mistborn setting in the Cosmere RPG is right around the corner, and I can’t wait to make more maps, resources, and guides available to all of you! Be sure to sign up for my newsletter and subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep up with the latest.
