FWIW: lightning lure is one of the SCAG cantrips. Also, aren't all four of those cantrips (the others being green-flame blade, booming blade, and sword burst) based on 4e swordmage powers?
Great catch! And yes, they are!
How is the name: hexblade, duskblade or swordmage?
I’d go Swordmage or Spellblade, I don’t like most other names for the concept.
So why not use Wizard/Bladesinger as your class?
because even with the SCAG cantrips, it’s still 90% wizard. The Bladesinger is fun, but it doesn’t have access to some of the things needed to make a solid gish that is singularly focused on magical melee combat with a weapon.
Hexblade is pretty much the closest thing, right out of the box. It does damage and has access to utility, but doesn't really fully fill the swordmage's "I have 15 magical weapon powers that all do different things while teleporting every round" role as much as simply dealing some decent damage with eldritch smite while replicating some of the utility of wizard spells.
I miss the swordmage and, more so, the battlemind. There were some pretty fun tactical builds and tricks that don't really exist in 5e, per se. I like how you can get easy access to more utility stuff now, but I miss playing a super hardy badass that can create a telekinetic vortex or toss anything I hit 20' on every single melee attack with a right build.
Hexblade, especially with Tome Pact for extra cantrips IMO, is really close. Mage Armor works for me as an AC solution, though it’s not perfect, and the X Hex Invocations help with having more options. As well, Warlock has fun spells like Armor of Agythis and Thunder Step, which help.
I'd go with something like an High Elf, Eladrin or Variant Human (to gain take weapon master as a feat).
Str/Int build, take all SCAG cantrips + bladeward and true strike
Abjuration Wizard (for the aegis) or Conjuration (for the transposition)
Spend all spells on warding spells
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells?fi...ncentration=&filter-ritual=&filter-sub-class= or
teleportation spells
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells?fi...ncentration=&filter-ritual=&filter-sub-class=
Spend feats on Tough/Light Armor or take a multi in fighter.
i think I’d want to MC rogue on that build, rather than fighter. Swashbuckler rounds out the melee juice, combined with the higher speed of a Bladesinger. Arcane Trickster loses less in spell power, gets extra cantrips. A BS based gish is best off being hard to pin down, IMO, rather than worrying about armor.
One thing that a Swordmage needs is a class feature to boost unarmored or lightly armored AC, and d8 or higher hit dice.
BattleMaster superiority dice. While not magical in nature, when paired with something magical such as booming blade they can help you get a desired effect. For example you can Booming Blade + Pushing attack.
Light Clerics eventually get the ability to impose disadvantage on an attack targeting your allies.
Protection Fighting Style.
Spiritual Guardians (even though its a cast on the initial turn you can attack every turn after)
id love to just add some magical maneuvers to the Battlemaster, tbh.
I would say paladin with a level dip into hexblade actually gets closer. Maybe add some sorcerer or fighter on there as well. Smite Spells the "15 different magical powers". Hexblade gives you booming blade and allows you to get straight for charisma as a main stat (much like the real swordmage used a single stat of int for his attacks).
There's various ways to get misty step for you. Thunderstep can be a very thematic spell. With quicken spell you can even use it and booming blade on the same turn.
the smite spells really are closer to Swordmage powers than most anything else. The problem for me with Hexadin is that I want invocation when I have a warlock. I want Relentless Hex, Armor of Shadows, Devil’s Sight, Maddening Hex, etc, so I want to take more levels of Warlock; but I also want Auras, Smite Spells, and Improved Divine Smite.
Basically, both classes are so damn good and fun, I don’t wanna MC them...
As long as you have divine smite and one of the melee cantrips and put most levels into full casters then you have a viable character. So you can probably get most of the abilities you are after. The bigger issue will be ASI's as you are going to be fairly mad to multiclass into all the classes
You can do it with two classes, it’s just gonna lose you some of the spells.
I may may try to build a spellcasting Monk that gets most of the gish/Swordmage spells based on 4 elements, with reasonable ki cost and working better in general with playing a monk.
I'd support the creation of a true arcane half caster if you could explain how it is a different class from a wizard/fighter multi class with custom subclasses. Like unique class abilities or tying them into the world like the other classes.
frog has been championing this one quite well, but is focused on mechanics while you are singularly concerned with story.
The Swordmage is someone who has trained from the start as a magical warrior. Not a warrior who has learned some tricks, or a Mage who knows his way around a blade, but a focused path that is focused on using magic and martial prowess seemlessly together. Not only are their attacks magical, but their defenses, and they use magic to control the battlefield in various ways. An elite warrior from an exclusive school. A member of a secret or just exclusive order. For the Swordmage, the sword and the Weave are one, and their intellect is as much their weapon as either.
Given my way, it would include fighting styles, ranged and melee weapons spells, unarmored defense or a class feature shield equivalent if you are wearing light or no armor, and Mage Armor as an always prepared spell, and at least the full on classic Swordmage one would have ritual casting and a spell-book. 3 skill class
That at is just as coherent a story foundation as a ranger or paladin, and just as prevalent in fantasy games and media.
I feel like you could create this pretty well with an eldritch knight just by ignoring or changing the spell school limitations, couldn't you? There aren't any major balance considerations; the designers have already said those school limitations are for flavor, and for the most part a 3rd-level spell is a 3rd-level spell.
That would get you closer, once you look at Xanathars, SCAG, and probably the EE players resource spells. To me
Maybe two levels of high elf wizard (bladesinger) and the remainder as fighter (eldritch knight)?
It gets most of the way. I want Amror of Agythis on it, and spells like the Smite Spells, and the two core classes work a bit at cross purposes, IMO.
Could this general issue be (soft) solved by the introduction of higher-level spells that affect and/or can be used alongside melee attacks (much like the SCAG cantrips and paladin smite spells)?
It would help, certainly!
Currently I think the best way to make a swordmage in 5e, to capture the feel of the 4e class is as an eldritch knight/abjurer. The problem is that it takes a while to really get the feel of the swordmage. Eldritch knight gets weapon bond and, eventually, war magic. Abjurer gets arcane ward and at 6th level can use it to protect others.
Multiclassing can do a lot but sometimes you need a dedicated class to really get the feel of previous editions from when you first start playing your character.
Agreed. I’m fine with waiting to third, even 6th, for the concept to really come fully online, as long as it doesn’t feel like playing a different concept before then, but waiting till after 10 is, for me, the same as the concept just not existing in the game.
