Charismatic Blademaster?

[DracoSuave]

That's a good point. I really should reread my posts before sending, I guess .

What I meat to say was:

Intelligent Blademaster imbalances the class by making Strength a much less worthwhile stat. Unless I was setting my character up for the paragon and epic weapon feats, I would probably ignore Strength altogether for either build.

Depends tho. A Fire-based Swordmage can't ignore strength no matter which Aegis he takes because his basic attacks are not what his strength is bolstering, but rather the secondary effects of his powers, and no feat mitigates that. The prot-spec Swami doesn't make a lot of basic attacks anyways in comparison, and won't get as much value from IBM

But yeah, back to the original poster's feat suggestion.

There's a Paladin in a game in which I play that has Str 14, Cha 20. He's Human, so he wanted to be able to use his extra human at-will at least semi-effectively. Also, he's got great Divine Challenge damage and OK OAs (+7, 1d8+3). So he can effectively hold down more monsters due to the multiple incentives he has for staying next to him and attacking.

This is possible because Paladins don't have a class feature that has the words 'basic melee attack' in it. Their class feature is geared around their Charisma stat, and it's only the standard OAs they have to deal with. Swordmages, on the other hand, have a build that includes the basic attack as part of its effect, and that is why it is a different matter for a swordmage to get a basic-attack bolstering feat.

So it's not impossible for a Paladin to have good Strength and Charisma as is. I think a feat would only cheapen the class overall and cause characters to pump only Charisma. Much like how Swordmages do not have much reason to raise Strength.

I hope these ramblings somehow clarify my previous ramblings .

-Some- swordmages don't. A Lightning Swami only cares about Strength if he goes Assault without the feat, none of his actual powers revolve around it. He also only cares about Constitution for a singular at-will that can take it or leave it, but this reduced attribute requirement hurts him in the benefit he gets from weapon feats dept. Cold Swamis care -heavily- about Constitution, and Fire Swamis care -heavily- about Strength, because of where the chips lie with their -powers-.

The only times a Swordmage cares about basic attacks is:
A) Aegis of Assault
B) OAs
C) Charging.

Swamis who spec to charging take the powers that replace the basic attack on charges -anyways-, which means they'll be taking AoA regardless, and are already ignoring Strength on their charges. Swamis also aren't OA-based as much as Fighters, so that's not as important -either.-

The presence of the feat doesn't change how a Swami's powers work once you actually get to the power list, and -that-, more than the Aegis, is what -defines- how your Swordmage actually plays and works.

The equivalent for a Paladin, by the way, is allowing them to substitute Str for Cha in Divine Challenge.