D&D 5E Warrior Mage Order

[Herosmith14]

So, I've been working on a campaign setting, and was thinking about adding an order of Warrior Mages, but I have no idea where to start. I know what the Order would consist of; Bladesingers, Eldritch Knights, Paladins, and Blade Warlocks, but my creativity is hitting a brick wall when it comes to the lore and story content.

I've been wracking my brain for a good idea for a while now, and I've got nothing, so I've come to you. What alignment do you think they should have? Should they participate heavily in world events, or should they be more self-contained? Is it a prestigious order, or easier to get into? Should they have a hierarchy with a secret agenda or no?

I leave these questions to you. Like I said, I would have a more formed idea of this order, but writer's block is annoying.

 

[neogod22]

If the order is created by Elves, I would say it could consist of Eldritch Knights, Bladesingers, and Fey Pact Bladelocks (fiend pact for Drow). Paladins are divine casters and shouldn't be in them. I could also see evokers and abjurers could be in there too.

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[cbwjm]

I think you need some idea of why they were formed. If they were formed to protect the world from a great evil then they may be quite prestigious although extended peace time could have the common folk wondering why they are so prestigious. They could be a secret order defending the world. Perhaps they know the secret location of a god's heart which if found by the god's faithful and returned to the god's avatar will unleash an age of darkness. They could even be an informal organisation who formed to study ways of blending sword and spell. This eventually led to the paths of eldritch knight and bladesinger.

 

[Quickleaf]

So, I've been working on a campaign setting, and was thinking about adding an order of Warrior Mages, but I have no idea where to start. I know what the Order would consist of; Bladesingers, Eldritch Knights, Paladins, and Blade Warlocks, but my creativity is hitting a brick wall when it comes to the lore and story content.

I've been wracking my brain for a good idea for a while now, and I've got nothing, so I've come to you. What alignment do you think they should have? Should they participate heavily in world events, or should they be more self-contained? Is it a prestigious order, or easier to get into? Should they have a hierarchy with a secret agenda or no?

I leave these questions to you. Like I said, I would have a more formed idea of this order, but writer's block is annoying.

The Watchers of the Gate (also known as "The Watchers", "Men of the Gate", or "The Long Watch") were created by the High Holy Abjurer when the Compact was sealed between the masters of the Eight Great Schools of Magic, preventing them from interfering directly in the politics of the land. However, the College of Abjuration knew that mages would always chaff against being regulated by their own. They may be mighty mages, but they were still mortals and subject to all the temptations thereof. So, in his wisdom, the High Holy Abjurer created The Watchers as a secret and silent arm of the College of Abjuration, to intervene when a mage abused their power or sought forbidden/dangerous lore. When the High Holy Abjurer's secret was revealed, however, the other mages condemned the creation of The Watchers behind their backs; some wished them to be exiled, others burnt alive as traitors, but others still sought to sway the loyalties of The Watchers. Though the order has fragmented over the years, with many offshoots, retired Men of the Gate, and fallen knights, there is a small core still active at their arboreal mountain stronghold – Tir Aurendil – and from here they continue their Long Watch about the ruins of the very gate upon which the original vows of the order were sworn. The Nameless Gate is said to hold mighty magic binding one of the archmages who would not join the Compact, master of an alleged 9th school of magic that fell to a megalomaniacal leader; this serves as their vigil and a symbolic reminder of the danger of mages who succumb to power lust.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

So, I've been working on a campaign setting, and was thinking about adding an order of Warrior Mages, but I have no idea where to start.

Start with why you want to add "an order of warrior mages" to your setting.
Just because you think a generic fantasy setting should have one? Don't bother.
You want to encourage gish-type characters and this organisation would give some of them a place in the world as possible origins or mentors?
You want them to clash with the PCs? Give them goals and lore that would bring them into conflict in the way that you would like.
You want them to be allies to the PC? Likewise, without the conflict.

Why did you want this organisation to be specifically warrior mages rather than just people supporting the order's goals?
Why are they including Paladins, but not Valour Bards, Stone Sorcerors, Dwarven spellcasters, High Elven Fighters, or assorted multiclasses?
What are their exact requirements for entry, and why do they have them?
Or do they not take in members, but instead raise children trained in one of those traditions more like a monastery?

 

[WarpedAcorn]

So, I've been working on a campaign setting, and was thinking about adding an order of Warrior Mages, but I have no idea where to start. I know what the Order would consist of; Bladesingers, Eldritch Knights, Paladins, and Blade Warlocks, but my creativity is hitting a brick wall when it comes to the lore and story content.

I've been wracking my brain for a good idea for a while now, and I've got nothing, so I've come to you. What alignment do you think they should have? Should they participate heavily in world events, or should they be more self-contained? Is it a prestigious order, or easier to get into? Should they have a hierarchy with a secret agenda or no?

I leave these questions to you. Like I said, I would have a more formed idea of this order, but writer's block is annoying.

There are a lot of real world and fictional organizations you can pull from.

For instance, do you want the Order to be an arm of a government run military? The State Alchemists in Full-Metal Alchemist is a good source of inspiration on that front, or the Cormyrian War Wizards. Do you want a more monastic group? The Fighting Monks of Shao Lin could be a "real-life" inspiration for that.


The first thing I would ask myself is, "what is the purpose of this organization?". Then, "how does this organization support itself?". Then, "what do other institutions in the world think of this organization?". Dealing with those questions should help you narrow down how you want to handle building the Order.

Personally, only allowing the Classes and Builds you mentioned, this sounds like a Military-based organization like the State Alchemists I mentioned above. I see them as a group funded by the Kingdom who enlist citizens that demonstrate magical abilities when they are young and put them in government run facilities to train them for combat in service to the Crown. In war, the Kingdom would use these War-Mages in various rolls, but the results would usually be catastrophic and devastating. Because of this these War-Mages would have a sour reputation among other Kingdoms, and likely there would be whispers within their own Kingdom of whether or not the War-Mages are monsters themselves. Their reputation would demand both fear and respect.

 

[Gadget]

While I don't subscribe to the notion that organizations in a game world should be organized strictly along class lines, that's quite a diverse group that you want to include in the order, with the only commonality being that they are all some sort of functional gish type. The stories that tend to accompany all those classes are very different. It is almost like having an order of people with red hair or something. You need to have something that binds them all together in a common purpose that makes sense other than: we use swords & (very different)magic. Maybe an order that is dedicated to fighting an other worldly (Far Realm?) invasion? Not sure.

 

[MarkB]

Maybe have a society (past or present) in your campaign for which a requirement to gain entry was some form of magical talent. And then, within that society, an organisation formed that required and respected martial prowess - whether it was an army or a city watch or a palace guard. Now, years or centuries later, times may have changed, that society may no longer even exist, but the martial order that sprang from them is still going strong, and still holding to their traditional belief that it is in the blending of spellcraft and swordsmanship that true strength is found.

 

[GMMichael]

So, I've been working on a campaign setting,

Leave a forwarding address.

and was thinking about adding an order of Warrior Mages... What alignment do you think they should have? Should they participate heavily in world events, or should they be more self-contained? Is it a prestigious order, or easier to get into? Should they have a hierarchy with a secret agenda or no?

Do they use armor and cast offensive spells? Or use weapons and cast defensive spells? Meh, doesn't matter. They should appear to be Neutral Evil, but your PCs keep finding clues that they are actually Chaotic Good.

An order of monks would be self-contained. An order of warrior-mages has an agenda. Plus, they're probably pretty old, because that sounds like A LOT of studying to become a warrior-mage. Which means: no, not easy to join. Or, easy to join, but if you have no skill, you're permanently stuck at Errand Boy status.

Secret agenda: if they have to appeal to the masses, they will have a secret agenda. If not, they can just be honest about their goal of...protecting the hidden lore of the College of Abjuration?

 

[aco175]

Why not a couple groups. Reading this I first thought jedi and sith, but the groups do not need to always be at odds with each other. The group could be an ancient order corrupted over time and split. They could have had a great importance and now their power has waned and they are mostly forgotten or thought to be just part of another group. I would expand the number of groups to include races, clerical, and mage groups.

An order dedicated to a god of spells, or mages. An order from the ancient elven kingdom, a group of specialized paladins that use sun swords and magic cloaks. These groups can be part of a kingdom, a splinter group from a kingdom or association, or even built from all walks of life and sprang similar to a guild.