Level Up (A5E) Finding the Elusive Swordmage

[TheHand]

So my wife's favorite class of any edition was 4th edition's Swordmage, namely with its themes of hopping around the battlefield dragging foes around, and drawing enemies' ire away from companions.

Since switching to 5th Ed, there have been some options that get us partway there but end up falling short. (And I know there's some decent homebrews out there, but she's not a fan of using fully homebrewed classes).

With LevelUp I think we're nearly there! She's got a Pact of the Blade Warlock as the base class. The "Spellbound" archetype isn't too bad as it has some neat maneuvering tricks, but with the recent Gazetteer Annual dropping, the Dread Knight opens up some new possibilities, particularly since it can get us access to @Steampunkette's Arcane Knight Combat Maneuvers(!!) which are very Swordmagey.

However, the Dread Knight is themed to turn Warlocks into 'anti-paladins', so having the medium/heavy armor proficiencies and the scary version of find steed ("Dread Rider") don't quite fit the image of a character more like X-Men's Nightcrawler. So, I open up the question to anyone interested who has access to the Gazette #8: using the Dread Knight as a template, how might one reflavor some of it's features to better fit? (I think in particular, "Mind of the Master", "Dread Rider", and "Recall the Damned" might be things I'd want to swap out for comparable powers...)

(... OR maybe one of you clever creators might tease something else that's cooking up for a future issue!)

Cheers!

 

[Steampunkette]

Blackguard: Warlock Archetype

Blackguard Eldritch entities and occult powers often grant their mystic gifts to those who are physically weak but have deep cunning, insidious insight, or careful manipulations. Priests fall to darkness, mages slip into madness, but sometimes… Sometimes a warrior becomes bathed in their power. G...

docs.google.com

I created a Blackguard Warlock Archetype as a corollary to the Eldritch Blackguard combat tradition. They get to use Charisma to determine their AC, but don't get a Curse-Centric option pairing at level 1.

It didn't get selected because the Dread Knight is already a thing. So here you go!

 

[TheHand]

This is really cool! Was the "Eldritch Blackguard" combat tradition another Maneuver set or did that morph into Arcane Knight?

 

[Steampunkette]

This is really cool! Was the "Eldritch Blackguard" combat tradition another Maneuver set or did that morph into Arcane Knight?

The reason I gave you the Blackguard is that it would be easy to fluff it up a bit to have a Swordmage by swapping out the combat traditions and doing a little editing of names and theme.

But yeah. It should work just fine for what you need! Lightly armored but not entirely squishy. Able to use cool maneuvers and big flaming attacks at a whim...

And with the Arcane Knight, some teleportation. Though don't sleep on the Eldritch Blackguard tradition, either. It's another one that would work well for a Swordmage with a bit of refluffing!

 

[TheHand]

Much appreciated! I may take a note from the Dread Knight and use the warlock spell points for exertion, that way there's not an extra resource to track. I'll have to check out your Eldritch Blackguard tradition too!

 

[WanderingMystic]

You can also find an alternative take here.
Battlemagics
From Purple Martin another writer who also writes for Gate Path Gazette.

 

[WanderingMystic]

@Steampunkette will you we putting this archetype in your future book. It is very well done and we always need more options for gith characters.

 

[Steampunkette]

@Steampunkette will you we putting this archetype in your future book. It is very well done and we always need more options for gith characters.

Almost certainly.

Possibly with the spell point for exertion conceit, as well. But I wouldn't be able to release that book until at least December of this year due to my GPG license agreement with EN Publishing.

 

[Corinnguard]

Are the Arcane-related subclasses (Eldritch Knight, Arcane Archer, Arcane Trickster, etc.) proficient or could become proficient in the Arcane Knight combat tradition?

 

[Steampunkette]

Are the Arcane-related subclasses (Eldritch Knight, Arcane Archer, Arcane Trickster, etc.) proficient or could become proficient in the Arcane Knight combat tradition?

Up to the Narrator.

Each Mythical Martial tradition comes with the caveat that a Narrator has to decide whether someone starts proficient with it automatically. But also provides an organization that can teach you to use it, and a magical item that allows you to learn. And, of course, the Narrator can always add in their own setting-specific ways to become proficient.

So there's multiple ways to access it, but it's going to depend on your narrator.