I really enjoyed my genasi swordmage in 4E and for a largely 5E game with a few homebrew components I'm trying to recreate as many of the character beats as possible. I'm looking to fulfill the role of defender in the party, with the occasional opportunity for combat control tricks. We don't really use marking, so the Aegis of Shielding piece has been particularly challenging.
One of the homebrew pieces is that we each get a special talent or quirk and I chose Weapon Bond, as per the Eldritch Knight class feature. This talent will evolve over the course of the campaign, and I'm hoping it will lead to me teleporting to my weapon rather than the other way around, with chucked weapon at a baddie attacking an ally -> teleport to it and run interference addressing the lack of the Aegis. Also, casters can use their casting stat for martial attacks, so that's Intelligent Blademaster taken care of. Lastly, there's homebrew races being used so don't worry about that aspect, I'm solely looking for suggestions on the class side of things.
Here's the options I've come up with. I'd prefer not to multiclass in the hopes of finally getting to play with some high-tier character options, but maybe for the right sorceradin I'd make an exception.
Eldritch Knight: Probably my best bet, especially with Intelligent Blademaster baked in. Not as many spell options, but I feel that what I'm describing above leans more heavily into the martial side of things. Because I'm already starting off with Weapon Bond that feature would be morphed in some way TBD (possibly speeding up when I could access teleportation tricks).
Wizard: The Schools of Abjuration (Projected Ward) and Conjuration (Benign Transposition) both have features relevant to a swordmage, but I feel the loss of weapon and armor proficiencies is too much. Might work with Fighter 2-3 and the remainder in Wizard.
Stone Sorcerer (UA): Stone Aegis is clearly a love letter to swordmages, but I worry in the long run I'd miss the extra attacks and ASIs that fighters get. Metamagic doesn't seem to be as useful for this build, but there's the option to burn sorcery points into more spell slots for extra smites. Earth Master's Aegis comes waaaay late, would have softened the blow if it expanded to two allies around 12.
Thoughts about these or other classes I haven't considered are very welcomed. Thanks for reading!
One of the homebrew pieces is that we each get a special talent or quirk and I chose Weapon Bond, as per the Eldritch Knight class feature. This talent will evolve over the course of the campaign, and I'm hoping it will lead to me teleporting to my weapon rather than the other way around, with chucked weapon at a baddie attacking an ally -> teleport to it and run interference addressing the lack of the Aegis. Also, casters can use their casting stat for martial attacks, so that's Intelligent Blademaster taken care of. Lastly, there's homebrew races being used so don't worry about that aspect, I'm solely looking for suggestions on the class side of things.
Here's the options I've come up with. I'd prefer not to multiclass in the hopes of finally getting to play with some high-tier character options, but maybe for the right sorceradin I'd make an exception.
Eldritch Knight: Probably my best bet, especially with Intelligent Blademaster baked in. Not as many spell options, but I feel that what I'm describing above leans more heavily into the martial side of things. Because I'm already starting off with Weapon Bond that feature would be morphed in some way TBD (possibly speeding up when I could access teleportation tricks).
Wizard: The Schools of Abjuration (Projected Ward) and Conjuration (Benign Transposition) both have features relevant to a swordmage, but I feel the loss of weapon and armor proficiencies is too much. Might work with Fighter 2-3 and the remainder in Wizard.
Stone Sorcerer (UA): Stone Aegis is clearly a love letter to swordmages, but I worry in the long run I'd miss the extra attacks and ASIs that fighters get. Metamagic doesn't seem to be as useful for this build, but there's the option to burn sorcery points into more spell slots for extra smites. Earth Master's Aegis comes waaaay late, would have softened the blow if it expanded to two allies around 12.
Thoughts about these or other classes I haven't considered are very welcomed. Thanks for reading!
