D&D 5E How would you do the sword mage in 5e?

[doctorbadwolf]

There are mark punishment effects? There are marks that don't require begging the DM to enable you first?

You may have misread that. I didn’t say anything about existing 5e mechanics.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

You may have misread that. I didn’t say anything about existing 5e mechanics.

Fair enough. I was responding in the context of previous posts, asserting that all of this was perfectly achievable with existing 5e RAW.

 

[NotAYakk]

This may be heresy, but having Aegis apply to an ally instead of an enemy (protecting them) feels a bit more 4e.

Like, you put your Aegis (shield) on an ally, and when that ally is attacked you can teleport to their aid. Or interpose. Or snare the attacker.

Using that, the level of the Aegis spell might be the number of targets you protect (or ... every 2 levels is +1 target).

 

[W'rkncacnter]

This may be heresy, but having Aegis apply to an ally instead of an enemy (protecting them) feels a bit more 4e.

considering that the 4e swordmage aegis was literally applied onto enemies and not allies...yeah, i'd say that is heresy. not a bad idea, necessarily. but definitely heresy to say it's more 4e then...what 4e literally did.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Fair enough. I was responding in the context of previous posts, asserting that all of this was perfectly achievable with existing 5e RAW.

Yeah I skipped part of the thread I think.

I was replying simply to the idea that such a mechanic wouldn’t work in 5e.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

This may be heresy, but having Aegis apply to an ally instead of an enemy (protecting them) feels a bit more 4e.

Like, you put your Aegis (shield) on an ally, and when that ally is attacked you can teleport to their aid. Or interpose. Or snare the attacker.

Using that, the level of the Aegis spell might be the number of targets you protect (or ... every 2 levels is +1 target).

I could see it, though I guess I'd prefer for that to be one option rather than the locked-in dealio. And, given your note of the various possible benefits, it might be better to make this an actual class feature (akin to the Hexblade Warlock's curse) which then gets extra benefits tacked on once subclasses come online.

Then you could have one subclass that specializes in protecting an ally ("Starting at 3rd level, your Swordmage Aegis now targets allies, and gains the following effects..."), while another might specialize in punishing enemies, and a third might specialize in battlefield control effects. From there, subclasses might branch out, doing more unusual things with aegises (aegides?)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Man…I get the desire to have a good defender in 5e, but I think that tying an entire class down to a specific role like that is counter to the best of 5e design.

The Swordmage should have options to be a defender, but should also be able to play as a mobile skirmishing death dealer, or a control and utility oriented versatile warrior.

Anyway a more 5e way to do a defender is with auras that just slow down enemies and deal damage to them if they attack your allies. Base all Aegis auras on the idea of passive damage dealing, with different triggers that encourage different play styles.

Then base the archetype on…archetypes of arcane warriors.

 

[cbwjm]

This may be heresy, but having Aegis apply to an ally instead of an enemy (protecting them) feels a bit more 4e.

Like, you put your Aegis (shield) on an ally, and when that ally is attacked you can teleport to their aid. Or interpose. Or snare the attacker.

Using that, the level of the Aegis spell might be the number of targets you protect (or ... every 2 levels is +1 target).

I think this is better than targeting an enemy, especially since an aegis is meant to protect someone, applying it to an enemy seems weird. My memory has also drifted enough that I thought this was how it originally worked.

 

[CleverNickName]

How would I make a "sword mage" in 5E? Well, I've built two of them: the first was an Oath of Ancients Paladin, and the second was a Hexblade Warlock (Pact of the Blade).

They were both a lot of fun, and I'd recommend them to anyone who wants to play the stereotypical Armored Spellcaster With A Sword character.

 

[Voadam]

This may be heresy, but having Aegis apply to an ally instead of an enemy (protecting them) feels a bit more 4e.

Like, you put your Aegis (shield) on an ally, and when that ally is attacked you can teleport to their aid. Or interpose. Or snare the attacker.

Using that, the level of the Aegis spell might be the number of targets you protect (or ... every 2 levels is +1 target).

I think this is better than targeting an enemy, especially since an aegis is meant to protect someone, applying it to an enemy seems weird. My memory has also drifted enough that I thought this was how it originally worked.

I vaguely remember we houseruled the swordmage teleport attack to be an easy to apply and track aura instead of individual enemy mark tracking after essentials came out and did that for other defenders.

I am a big fan of the essentials aura defender mechanic compared to the individual enemy marking.