2H Swordmage Warding

[Herschel]

Maintain:
1 : to keep in an existing state (as of repair, efficiency, or validity) : preserve from failure or decline <maintain machinery>
2 : to sustain against opposition or danger : uphold and defend <maintain a position>
3 : to continue or persevere in : carry on, keep up <couldn't maintain his composure>
4 a : to support or provide for <has a family to maintain> b : sustain <enough

Pretty obvious.

 

[Mirtek]

Pretty obvious.

Sorry, I still don't get what you're trying to say. At which point is there a problem with the maintaining? It's an automatic no-action that is never interrupted as long as you wield a blade. You have your longsword in one hand and maintain your field. You put your second hand on the longsword to strike with +1 damage while still maintaining your field. You let your second hand go and are still maintaining your field.

Also the maintaining is not a requirement but an automatic consequence. It's something that automatically happens, not something that you have to do (as written you can't forego your warding once you wield a blade it's just there). You can sheath your sword, no longer maintaning the warding and if you once again draw your sword during the next encounter the warding comes back.

Swordmages who want to use a Fullblade or a Glaive (for reach) just have to live with having either a lower defense or no weapon/implement available.

At the moment they don't have the weapon/implement avaible they also automatically have the lower defense

 

[Herschel]

Sorry, I still don't get what you're trying to say. At which point is there a problem with the maintaining? It's an automatic no-action that is never interrupted as long as you wield a blade. You have your longsword in one hand and maintain your field. You put your second hand on the longsword to strike with +1 damage while still maintaining your field. You let your second hand go and are still maintaining your field

But you're not maintaining the free hand in order to sustain the improved field.

 

[Mirtek]

But you're not maintaining the free hand in order to sustain the improved field.

That's why the shield drops from the "+3 while maintaining a free hand" state into the "+1 while not maintaining a free hand" state. The point is using annother free action to once again let go with the second hand once your attack is done.

No one is denying that it's temporarily reduced to +1, the point is that it will jump back to +3 immediately afterwards

 

[abeattie]

But you're not maintaining the free hand in order to sustain the improved field.

That's where it actually DOES matter that maintain is in a wholly different paragraph than the sentence describing whether the bonus is +1 or +3.

"While you are conscious and wielding either a light blade or a heavy blade, you maintain a field of magical force around you.
This field provides a +1 bonus to AC, or a +3 bonus if you are wielding a blade in one hand and have your other hand free (not carrying a shield, an off-hand weapon, a two-handed weapon, or anything else)."

First Sentence: Conditional and conditional, you , verb (maintain) , object. (new paragraph)

Here the verb (maintain) serves as the target for the two conditions. If you're not wielding a blade, or conscious, then you're not maintaining the field -- thus no field. If those conditions are met, the field is maintained.

You are certainly free to decide that holding a full blade one handed cannot be "wielding" in your world -- in which case the dropping a hand trick with a two hander fails -- however, by every useful definition a versatile weapon can be "wielded" with one hand.

The second paragraph -- a division in paragraphs is employed to change topics or to mark a clear break from the subject of the pervious sentence -- discusses the bonus of the warding.

So, where's the connection between maintenance and the AC bonus?

 

[eamon]

Additionally, after the last errata, there's no more requirement to have a short rest or whatnot to active the warding - it's always active while you wield a weapon and are conscious. So, whatever the interpretation of maintain and switching between +1/+3 warding, the effect is simply active if you're conscious and wielding a blade. You don't even need to worry about not "maintain"-ing for a while since as soon as you're wielding a sword, it's active.

In short it's definitely possible to swap a versatile weapon between one-handed and two-handed style and benefit from the +1 damage in your turn at the cost of -2AC during that turn. It's unlikely that cost will matter much (generally only vs. some immediate interrupt/reaction power, or very maybe an OA), but, on the other hand, +1 damage isn't much either.

Does anyone have experience with swordmage PCs that actually do this?