Level Up (A5E) Finding the Elusive Swordmage

[Timespike]

I understood your point earlier just fine, I just don't agree with the approach.

I prefer specific to generic.

Also, as I said above, I have no objection to someone else taking that approach (and even if I did object, that would be no impediment to them taking it) but that is not what I am going to do.

 

[Timespike]

A bit more context: while Andrew Engelbrite did have access to my O5E multiclass feats when he was working on the synergy feat concept, he went in a little bit of a different direction than I do; his feats actually lend themselves to a more generic approach than mine do. I use feats to plug features from one class directly into features from the other a lot of the time.

For example, the first feat from the herald/sorcerer chain in the first Thematic Toolkit allows you to draw on your Lay on Hands pool and heal hp when you cast a buffing spell, you can use your sorcery points to fuel Lay on Hands (but not the reverse), and the third feat in the same chain has a custom sorcerer evolving manifestation that can also be triggered by Divine Smite. I get very class-specific with my designs.

 

[arms]

I like that all your designs are class specific

 

[WanderingMystic]

The financial angle is just one of many in play here. There's also a time element, for one thing. And while you can indeed raise money from crowdfunding platforms, nobody has yet figured out a way to raise hours.

There's other stuff to consider, too; for example, we've been discussing a possible 6th volume off and on for months now and don't yet have a decision about what to do with it (with the two main options being releasing it as a standalone or saving the content for a collected product), and there are some other miscellaneous odds and ends.

I recommend using either a Time Turner or a TARDIS to solve your time problem, judicial use of haste might also work.

 

[Pedantic]

Multiclass synergy feat chainss are word-heavy, which means space-heavy, and they seem to be pretty polarizing with some folks loving them and others never using them, so I would make sure there was a lot of other material in there as well so I could sell to as large a segment of the A5E customer base as possible.

I think they're incredibly cool, but I worry about weird they are in character builds, especially since the third feat doesn't come online until level 12. You have an awkward period where you're extending out from the level 5 power boost (notably made worse if you're multiclassing between two fighting type classes and lose out on the extra attack) and then a sudden spike of power at level 7/8 followed by a long lull before it feels like your character concept is completely realized at 12.

I know that's just kind of the price of business doing this with feats in 5e, but it makes me yearn for 3e's BAB and every three level feats again, these feel like a natural progression of the "Devoted Tracker" or "Daring Outlaw" line of multiclass feats from the end of the line, and in combination with 5e's multiclass spellcaster take, a pretty interesting alternative to prestige classes.

 

[Timespike]

Yeah, I try to get around the weirdness a little with feats that boost things like Extra Attack based on some combination of the class levels involved, but there's only so much you can do.

 

[Pedantic]

I've found the most useful thing to do is just give my players +2 to their primary accuracy stat at levels 4 and 8, assuming a point buy that gets them to a starting 16, which at least allows them to feel comfortable taking feats (notably including synergy feats) at those levels.

 

[Tessarael]

I think they're incredibly cool, but I worry about weird they are in character builds, especially since the third feat doesn't come online until level 12. You have an awkward period where you're extending out from the level 5 power boost (notably made worse if you're multiclassing between two fighting type classes and lose out on the extra attack) and then a sudden spike of power at level 7/8 followed by a long lull before it feels like your character concept is completely realized at 12.

I know that's just kind of the price of business doing this with feats in 5e, but it makes me yearn for 3e's BAB and every three level feats again, these feel like a natural progression of the "Devoted Tracker" or "Daring Outlaw" line of multiclass feats from the end of the line, and in combination with 5e's multiclass spellcaster take, a pretty interesting alternative to prestige classes.

I think there are a number of multi-classed builds where your ideal level split will be 3/17, and you also want to get the synergy feats. If that is the case, the situation is worse. At character class level 7 (split 3/4) you get your first synergy feat; at level 11 (split 3/8) you get your second; and at level 15 (split 3/12) you get the third synergy feat. If that's the case, you don't get your multi-class synergy feat capstone until level 15 - that's quite later.

Now if you don't do that, if you go for say a level 4/16 split to get your synergy feats by level 12, then you miss out on 9th level spells, or other major power boosts at class level 17 for some classes.

The good news with the synergy feats is that they encourage at least taking 3 levels in each class. It may reduce the motivation to level dip, though I think that has been achieved in LUA5E with more consistent class level-power progression and fewer fallow levels.

 

[Tessarael]

Worth mentioning that in A5E a Stronghold gives +1 to an ability score at Grade 3, and +2 to an ability score at Grade 6 also increasing the maximum of that ability score by 2. So this may free up +2 to an ability score to be used as a feat instead, depending on your preferences.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Worth mentioning that in A5E a Stronghold gives +1 to an ability score at Grade 3, and +2 to an ability score at Grade 6 also increasing the maximum of that ability score by 2. So this may free up +2 to an ability score to be used as a feat instead, depending on your preferences.

an addendum to this: there is no stronghold for dexterity (at least not in the AG) for...some reason.