D&D 5E How would you do the sword mage in 5e?
Tales and Chronicles
Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
I'd gather all the non-spell magic features from the artificer's infusion (repelling shield, radiant weapon etc), the Rune knight's runes, the 4E Monk's non-spell discipline (fang of the fire snake, water whip etc) and the Arcane Archer's magic shots and give them as possible ''arcane maneuvers'' for a class.
Make them usable with all weapons instead of their normal uses. Like the artificer's infusions, I'd give charges for each item the character has a rune on, recharging on a long rest.
Give them a Int-to-hit and a +3 AC when unarmored, take the Psimari and Quandrix discarded UA features as part of the main class chassis, with a Ward much like the Ancestral Spirit Barbarian's.
And you are pretty much set.
As archetypes take the 3 aegis from 4e.
Make them usable with all weapons instead of their normal uses. Like the artificer's infusions, I'd give charges for each item the character has a rune on, recharging on a long rest.
Give them a Int-to-hit and a +3 AC when unarmored, take the Psimari and Quandrix discarded UA features as part of the main class chassis, with a Ward much like the Ancestral Spirit Barbarian's.
And you are pretty much set.
As archetypes take the 3 aegis from 4e.
overgeeked
B/X Known World
You can get a 4E swordmage fairly easily in 5E. Start with hexblade warlock, swap CHA for INT, and swap the 6th-level specter ability for the fey-pact teleport. Maybe take magic initiate or a wizard dip for shield. All the major elements are there.
Corinnguard
Hero
Gate Pass Gazette #10 from A5e has a set of combat maneuvers from the new Arcane Knight Combat Tradition. I could see 5e's Eldritch Knight making use of this Combat Tradition.
Tales and Chronicles
Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
Indeed.
And to be frank, take a basic warrior chassis, give them a pool somewhat close to a monk's and give them a choice of some of the disciplines from the Mystic UA and you can do a pretty good class in less than 20 minute.
Corinnguard
Hero
Level Up (A5E) - Psychic Warrior Combat Tradition Steampunkette created the Awakened Mind Combat Tradition back in March of this year. This combat tradition is perfect for the Fighter's Psy Knight and Psychic Warrior subclasses.
GnomeWorks
Adventurer
Here's my take on the concept.
It hasn't undergone any real testing, though. Also the spellcasting mechanics for the caster subclass are going to look funny, because I have a homebrewed casting system.
It hasn't undergone any real testing, though. Also the spellcasting mechanics for the caster subclass are going to look funny, because I have a homebrewed casting system.
FrogReaver
As long as i get to be the frog
I think if I were to try and make a sword mage I'd give a pool of a few magical at will effects that he could perform while attacking. Let him know more than he can use at a given time. As he levels he gets to know more and combo more together. Also give him a limited resource that he can use to empower his chosen effects to be strong. Throw in extra attack at level 5. A class feature to fix AC for no armor/light armor.
If we care there's a few ways we could branch out subclasses. Particular magical effects get tied to a subclass along with thematic abilities. Alternatively subclass could center more around how the sword mage defends allies.
For me the bigger problem is that 'swordmage' is certainly a very broad fighter style class than a narrow thematic class and broad style combat focused classes are much harder to do subclasses well for.
If we care there's a few ways we could branch out subclasses. Particular magical effects get tied to a subclass along with thematic abilities. Alternatively subclass could center more around how the sword mage defends allies.
For me the bigger problem is that 'swordmage' is certainly a very broad fighter style class than a narrow thematic class and broad style combat focused classes are much harder to do subclasses well for.
The "purest" way to do this would be to make a new half caster class that uses Int. You can realistically create the same concept using either Eldritch Knight or Bladesinger, depending on which side of the "half caster" divide you fall. In theory 1D&D would be the ideal time to incorperate this, since you could let both the EK and BS die off, but we already know that won't happen.
jgsugden
Legend
The way I'd build a Swordmage that emulates the feel of a 4E Swordmage in a 5E/OD&D rule set:
- From level 1 you'd get to add 1d4 elemental damage to all of your attacks. This would grow in die size at 6, 11, and 17 like the monk.
- You'd get access to cantrips, but a small number and all melee combat focused.
- You'd be a half caster, but your spell list would focus on movement, buffs and debuffs, not on damage spells or 'save or screw spells' (you can have bane, but not fireball).
- You'd get the ability to mix swordplay and sorcerery - by allowing you to cast any spell that targets only you as a bonus action if you use a slot one level higher.
- When you cast a concentration spell that targets you, and only you, you'd be able to elect to not concentrate on it and still have it take effect. If you do so, the duration would be a maximum of 3 rounds instead of the normal concnetration.
- You'd get limited Fighting Style Options at 2, Extra Attack at 5, and a subclass feature series based upon the Aegis options of 4E. For example, the Aegis of Assault would give you the ability to use a bonus action to target an enemy with your Aegis (marking them). While marked, the lower level ability would give you the Warlock Relentless Hex invocation ability, the higher level ability would allow you to teleport the target to you instead if they fail a saving throw, and the highest level ability would allow you to banish them by dispelling the Aegis and them failing a saving throw.
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