D&D 5E A sword sage

[Garthanos]

Have you read the flavor of the actual swordsage class from 3.5? Not that it matters but you could get some inspiration there.

I've toyed with the idea of going battlesmith3/psiknight17 just to dump Str and go completely Int for all weapon attacks. I ran Hexblade3/Echoknight with full Cha focus and it was pretty cool.

4e Swordmages featured that all Int as a core feature. Some mashup between that and the Eldritch Knight/Psiknight is almost the Swordmage (Swordmage was also a blinking battlefield teleporter and after a while teleport/blink every round)

 

[NaturalZero]

4e Swordmages featured that all Int as a core feature. Some mashup between that and the Eldritch Knight/Psiknight is almost the Swordmage (Swordmage was also a blinking battlefield teleporter and after a while teleport/blink every round)

I did play the swordmage in 4 and it was much more of a spellcaster than the swordsage was. The swordsage was like an avatar martial artist punching people while throwing fire while the swordmage was a wizard that happened to use a sword. One of the big innovations that 4e introduced that was unfortunately dropped from 5e was the idea that a weapon class centered around an ability score just got to use that ability score for their features instead almost every weapon build using dex or str.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I've had in mind for a time a similar concept:

a very, very old swordmaster, who made a vow to defend his birth village until his death.
Funny thing though, he already died 3-4 times! When he dies, the villagers burry him in a nice tomb under the river and all pitch in together for the appropriate anti-necromancy, anti-decay magical protection.

Then, when the village is again in danger, the local priest resurrect him for free (you'll see) and there goes again our hero, fighting to save his hometown until he falls once again.

He's a good guy with a big heart, but a little cranky and...well...he suffers a little of the fact that the world changes a lot between each time he is awakened. He can be a little dephased each time, and tends to confuse the ''rules and standards'' of each generations and the historical fact.

On the PC sheet:
Human, Zealot barb (for the free resurrect!)
high Con, Dex and either Int or Wis.
Sage background
Sword and shield, armorless, an old straw hat

 

[Garthanos]

I did play the swordmage in 4 and it was much more of a spellcaster than the swordsage was.

Perhaps

The swordsage was like an avatar martial artist punching people while throwing fire while the swordmage was a wizard that happened to use a sword.

I made a post on here about what I felt the swordmage was... and why I felt 4e with its many unique to class abilities better encompassed that and how I felt their magic was integrated into their weapon use not something they did separate from it

D&D 4E - The True Swordmage

Swordmage For me a swordmage is not a wizard who happens to hold a sword in one hand while using the other for weaving of spells. For me a swordmage is not even a wizard who channels their power through a magic sword like one might use a staff or wand. (while that is perhaps closer) nor one who...

www.enworld.org

One of the big innovations that 4e introduced that was unfortunately dropped from 5e was the idea that a weapon class centered around an ability score just got to use that ability score for their features instead almost every weapon build using dex or str.

Ironically I felt using Strength ie one attribute for seemingly everything back in the very beginning AD&D almost entirely used a single ability score for physical combat was kind of meh ( my dad was in the martial arts so I had been taught differently and I had also seen RuneQuest at almost the same time as D&D where they did otherwise. ).

4e basically brought home the idea of that primary attribute being a simplified description of fighting style. (See melee training feat)
Str - emphasized brute unstoppable sometimes simplistic force
Dex - emphasized reaction and precision and grace of movement.
Con - instinct and enduring energy but also enables wild unpredictable nigh wasteful moves
Int - emphasizing predictive, pattern analysis and quick thinking.
Wiz - with perception and awareness you are ahead of your enemy, you are the perfect disciplined student and, zen awareness and sometimes divine guidance,
Cha - emphasizes deception and sometime divinely gifted luck, and emotional energy

 

[Ancalagon]

I should mention that this was not an attempt to duplicate an earlier edition class, but bringing a concept to life (not trying to start edition wars here haha).

I haven't spoken to the GM yet, but I think I'll ask if this can be the main weapon instead of a rapier: https://lkchensword.com/magnificent-chu-jian

 

[Ancalagon]

I've had in mind for a time a similar concept:

a very, very old swordmaster, who made a vow to defend his birth village until his death.
Funny thing though, he already died 3-4 times! When he dies, the villagers burry him in a nice tomb under the river and all pitch in together for the appropriate anti-necromancy, anti-decay magical protection.

Then, when the village is again in danger, the local priest resurrect him for free (you'll see) and there goes again our hero, fighting to save his hometown until he falls once again.

He's a good guy with a big heart, but a little cranky and...well...he suffers a little of the fact that the world changes a lot between each time he is awakened. He can be a little dephased each time, and tends to confuse the ''rules and standards'' of each generations and the historical fact.

On the PC sheet:
Human, Zealot barb (for the free resurrect!)
high Con, Dex and either Int or Wis.
Sage background
Sword and shield, armorless, an old straw hat

That's not quite what I'm going for, but I do like the idea a lot.

The tentative idea for the party is that we all came from this village/small town. Some calamity happened (orc invasion, a flood, something) and the villagers were scattered to the wind. Many years later, a few of them reunite, each having found their way to power (meaning they are level 5)

While the other PCs were kids/teens when this happened, my PC was a teacher, already in his 40s-50s (exact age not worked out). He took to the road, bitter that his knowledge had done nothing to protect the village. While working at the vault of sages in Silverymoon, he was tasked to translate an ancient text. It turned out be a githerai manual of fighting arts and mystical practices. He started studying the text in earnest, eventually fully memorizing it.

The other party members are (tentatively) a shadow monk and a hexblade, so it should be interesting

 

[TwoSix]

Hmm. Old man teacher/sage/blademaster is the sort of concept that's screaming for a high Intelligence and/or Wisdom to me. If I were the DM, I'd offer up this concession.

Trade in light, medium, and heavy armor proficiency. Gain the ability to use Intelligence for attacks with one-handed melee weapons. Gain unarmored defense as barbarian (shields allowed), using 10+Dex+Int or 10+Int+Wis, depending on what stats you feel are more important for the character.

If I wanted to play up the crafting/alchemical techniques, I might look at Infusionsmith from Kibblestasty's Alternate Artificer. Still gets Int to attack, and some craftable spells.

 

[NaturalZero]

I made a post on here about what I felt the swordmage was... and why I felt 4e with its many unique to class abilities better encompassed that and how I felt their magic was integrated into their weapon use not something they did separate from it

I probably shouldn't have used the word "wizard" since I don't mean that they were like the class. What made them good, and what 5e sorely lacks, was that they were designed as an entire class based around bespoke combat spells. Every thing they did was a spell, like any other spell-caster, but made specifically for melee.

This comes at the concept from the opposite angle as the swordsage, who still needed to rely on BAB multiattacking and the basic fundamentals of martial classes in 3.5. The swordmage was a spell-caster designed around melee and the swordsage was more like a martial or monk with ex and su abilities added on.

 

[Ancalagon]

Hmm. Old man teacher/sage/blademaster is the sort of concept that's screaming for a high Intelligence and/or Wisdom to me. If I were the DM, I'd offer up this concession.

Trade in light, medium, and heavy armor proficiency. Gain the ability to use Intelligence for attacks with one-handed melee weapons. Gain unarmored defense as barbarian (shields allowed), using 10+Dex+Int or 10+Int+Wis, depending on what stats you feel are more important for the character.

If I wanted to play up the crafting/alchemical techniques, I might look at Infusionsmith from Kibblestasty's Alternate Artificer. Still gets Int to attack, and some craftable spells.

I appreciate the suggestions, but I rather would not rely on homebrewed stuff. I want to try the class too, after all, and I'm not sure how comfortable the GM is with homebrew stuff.

One thing that is helping is that we are using a fairly generous stat array, and I am taking standard human to boost stats even more. My lowest are in strength and charisma - yes charisma is "good" for a teacher, but we've all met cranky teachers/professors who still were good at their job . So with int magically boosted to 19 (the headband of intellect was my gm's "concession" to the character concept, one I am very grateful for) and a wisdom of 14... I think I'm good

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

One of the big innovations that 4e introduced that was unfortunately dropped from 5e was the idea that a weapon class centered around an ability score just got to use that ability score for their features instead almost every weapon build using dex or str.

I can definitely see the appeal from a character optimisation point of view, particularly for a spellcaster character. However if 5e decided to rein things back a bit in a nod towards realism, I think sticking with Str as a basis for melee offence, and Dex for melee defence is a decent compromise.

I should mention that this was not an attempt to duplicate an earlier edition class, but bringing a concept to life (not trying to start edition wars here haha).

I haven't spoken to the GM yet, but I think I'll ask if this can be the main weapon instead of a rapier: https://lkchensword.com/magnificent-chu-jian

Yep. Can't see why you couldn't count that as a rapier myself.