Anyway, can someone really explain WHY swordmages would be "better" than any class?
What is it?
-They have many different options, but a defender doesn't
need many different options. They're nice to have, but efficiency in what they have to do is better. The fact that they can target different defenses means almost nothing, since the target number is lower, but the attack bonus is too. There is usually a small advantage, but nothing unbalancing. Otherwise people should run around yelling that Rogue's piercing strike is horribly broken.
-The swordmage has defender Ac. True, but it's conditional Ac. They must wear light armor, which has considerably less "chunky" magic enhancement; they must have one hand free. They
must use heavy blades. See below why this can be bad.
-They don't suffer from MAD. Not true. You can argue that swordmages only need Int and either con or str... let's see where this brings us. You can build a fighter with only Str and Con, and it will be fine... but not as effective as it could be. Same for swordsmage. As every defender, they need con. They can forget strenght if they go with intelligent swordmaster, BUT. The have to use heavy blades; which are great, cause there are many great feats for them...
except... they need
dexterity, which is normally a dump stat for swordmages. And the will practically never use any other weapon type, so swordmages are unlikely to have great advantages from weapons they wield. The best swordmage pp is, probably, Wandering Swordmage, which needs badly...
wisom; another semi-dump stat. And, please, let's not forget defenses.
-Striker dmg. Heh. It's true that genasi get some very nifty damage bonus feats... on
basic attacks. How is this better than fighters getting a bonus=wis to hit for opportunity attacks and
stopping the movement if they hit?
-controller...control. Swordmage At-will have better control than the wizard's? No. I'll make just an example. Thunderblast's push is=wis. Than can mean 4 squares push at 1st lvl... and if you're really focused, 9-10 at 30. As a close blast. That you can enhance insanely with feats. An at-will. Plus debuffing powers, minion-killing, auto-minion killing...no. really. And how is it better (though robably as good as) fighter's combat challenge? I mean, coupled with combat superiority, you mark an enemy and if he does
anything but attack you, you slap him in the face and yell SHUT UP SUCKER.
Is there something else... I ranted way too much, sorry.
Anyway....tome, the true epitome of the defender is a dwarf/warforged fighter/iron vanguard with maxed constitution and using hammers... if you want to see what I mean take a look at
this. And that's an
easy build.
Where is this unbalance?