D&D 5E Giving the arcane gish an identity.

[Bardic Dave]

I feel like the inclusion of the Eldritch Knight (fighter) and Blade Singer (wizard) have really narrowed the design space (thematically and mechanically) for a generic arcane gish class. If those two subclasses weren’t a thing, it’d be an easier nut to crack.

Edit: the Paladin’s spell slot powered smite also takes away a potential niche for the arcane gish.

 

[Aldarc]

I feel like the inclusion of the Eldritch Knight (fighter) and Blade Singer (wizard) have really narrowed the design space (thematically and mechanically) for a generic arcane gish class. If those two subclasses weren’t a thing, it’d be an easier nut to crack.

I also think that the Paladin is an issue. Its spell-powered Smite mechanic would work brilliantly for an arcane gish.

One possibility might be an "Oath of the Arcane" or "Oath of Magic" that moved the Paladin towards being an arcane gish.

 

[Bardic Dave]

I also think that the Paladin is an issue. Its spell-powered Smite mechanic would work brilliantly for an arcane gish.

One possibility might be an "Oath of the Arcane" or "Oath of Magic" that moved the Paladin towards being an arcane gish.

i ninja’d you by about two seconds with an edit to my post. Funny timing/coincidence. Didn’t mean to steal your thunder!
Obviously, I completely agree with you.

 

[Don Durito]

I like the janissary idea a lot. Though the name being tied up with slavery does leave a bad taste. But then again, almost all medieval inspired things have some dark history the second you start digging. 'Guardian' could be an alternative? Though it's incredibly generic.

The issue here is that it means a specific thing and sounds weird out of that context.

It's not, so far as I'm aware a word that has an afterlife apart from it's meaning of slave soldier in service to the Ottoman Sultan. (Surely it's not that obscure?)

c.f. Myrmidon, a word that was used a lot in early role-playing, which did come to have an extended meaning apart from it's original meaning of Achille's followers. (Not suggesting it here, it has no connotations with magic).

Personally I'd just go with Warrior-Wizard, a term that was used in the earlier days of the hobby.

 

[cbwjm]

I don't really think the bladesinger/eldritch knight is an issue, I'm even planning on making bladesinger a subclass if my fighter/mage class, same with arcane archer. Basically, I don't think it is an issue what classes have come before when creating something new.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The issue here is that it means a specific thing and sounds weird out of that context.

It's not, so far as I'm aware a word that has an afterlife apart from it's meaning of slave soldier in service to the Ottoman Sultan. (Surely it's not that obscure?)

Indeed, Janissary is way too culturally specific, and unlike other culturally specific names (like Druid or Paladin) doesn't even have a loose pop-cultural association with the proposed themes of the proposed class so far as I know. Is it a reference to a specific work of fantasy or just a random thesaurus pull?

Now as for the "slavery" association, do keep in mind that for most of their history they were "slaves of the sultan" in the sense that Queen Elizabeth II is currently the "ruler" of 16 countries. It was a legal fiction and used to enforce their privileged social status.

 

[Xeviat]

For my games, I've been thinking about this as well. I don't want a class to just be a collection of abilities or a multiclass patch: we have the bladesinger, eldritch knight, and hexblade for that.

I love anime. In anime and wuxai, warriors are often able to do mystical or magical things with their weapons. Guilty Gear Strive just came out, an anime fighting game set in the future where magic has replaced technology, and now warriors blending weapons and elemental magic has been stuck in my head.

I've been playing with making a new class called the Channeler. It is a warrior who fights with raw elemental power. Some may shape it into spells, others may channel it into barely controlled blasts of power, while others learn to focus it into their weapons. I'm planning on borrowing a lot from the Pathfinder kineticist.

I think there's room for the story of the pyrokineticist, as well as these anime and wuxai inspired warriors.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

well, it is a concept that has not solidified yet, it is at present a wizard plus warrior, not an icon itself.

on name it would help if we had an exact concept of who they are and how they got arcane magic to half caster levels.
then we need some interesting subclasses at least conceptually.

I say we go with int for casting stat as it only has two classes that use it.

Yeah I definitely think int casting would be the best bet. That's what the class has always been based on, and currently paladin uses cha and ranger uses wis.

Aren't "arcane gishes" like this in Magic: the Gathering called Battlemages? I think that name fits fairly well, as it at least gets across the idea of an arcane spellcaster that focuses on battle.

Battlemage is a pretty solid one, and does get across what it does extremely well.

I kind of assumed there was some lore reason for not using the term battlemage (and spellsword), as it's super obvious but DnD has always refused to use it. Instead going for really obscure terms instead.

 

[Bardic Dave]

I don't really think the bladesinger/eldritch knight is an issue, I'm even planning on making bladesinger a subclass if my fighter/mage class, same with arcane archer. Basically, I don't think it is an issue what classes have come before when creating something new.

And yet it seems you’ve nonetheless decided to address this (non-)issue by moving the bladesinger out of the wizard class and into your gish class? You’ve reappropriated the design space taken up by the wizard subclass for your gish, thus partially addressing the issue.To be clear, it’s not an insurmountable problem (as you yourself have demonstrated), but it is a potentially complicating factor.

 

[Thunder Brother]

I also think that the Paladin is an issue. Its spell-powered Smite mechanic would work brilliantly for an arcane gish.

One possibility might be an "Oath of the Arcane" or "Oath of Magic" that moved the Paladin towards being an arcane gish.

Ignoring the class fluff, the Paladin really has everything you want for a Spellsword, in my opinion. If the various smite spells were changed into a proper class feature (and rebranded as "Strikes") and there were good alternatives to the more Paladin-y features such as Lay on Hands, Divine Health, etc., well that's really all you need.

I love the idea of playing a hybrid caster/fighter, as my many hours with Skyrim can attest. I wonder if part of the problem with a Spellsword is that, besides people not being able to agree on a name, it's feels like a concept that works best in a classless system.

Another problem is the lack of fluff. What makes a Spellsword tick, really? What's the obvious fantasy character to base it on? The closest archetypes I can think of are the generic anime protagonists that are so ubiquitous nowadays; the Hero, or the Gary Sue, to be less charitable.