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

[mellored]

Artificer Armorer Guardian 3 -> blade singer 6 -> artificer 7. In light armor.

12+Dex+Int +1 magic to AC, with some temporary hit points will make you plenty tanky. (Takes a few levels to get it).
"Mark" any creature you hit, possibly 3 people including a booming blade.
Shield, sanctuary, web, misty step, and blur all work great, and even a cure wound for emergency. You can even fireball in the right situation.
Easily hit +10 in concentration saves too with Con + Int + Proficiency.

At 6/6, you can run up, hit someone with booming blade, use boots of the winding path to teleport away, walk up to a second target and make them.

Your not going to do much damage, but neither will the enemy.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

I very strongly agree with @Voadam but for different reasons. 5e trivialized the ability to be a gish & the result is casters who have overly restrained casting. If swordmage deserves to be a thing it needs to find a niche that's not "totally a full caster but built for front lines" because then casters need to be restrained in ways that keep a "swordmage"from being 6e's munchkin favorite.

For start, lets not have it weapon attacking with its Int modifier....

 

[Frozen_Heart]

That said if you want a half caster I agree the Paladin Chassis makes the most sense, and I think I posted an example of this earlier (if not here than on another thread).

I'd argue artificer would be a better chassis. Paladin is extremely hostile to reflavouring compared to most classes, and no matter the subclass, it will always have this radiant divine theme. Even oathbreaker can't get away from that.

Artificers meanwhile are already flavoured to be arcane, and their subclasses have an extremely large chunk of their power budget.

Could design one which has its weapon as the subclass focus, and its main mechanic is channelling a selection of magic 'strikes' through that weapons attacks. Similar to the arcane archer, but with lessons learnt from that subclass being tragic.

You'd probably want to find an alternative to smith tools as two subclasses use that already. Maybe something weird like glassblowers tools, to make a glass facsimile of the weapon you summon.

 

[ECMO3]

I'd argue artificer would be a better chassis. Paladin is extremely hostile to reflavouring compared to most classes, and no matter the subclass, it will always have this radiant divine theme. Even oathbreaker can't get away from that.

Artificers meanwhile are already flavoured to be arcane, and their subclasses have an extremely large chunk of their power budget.

Could design one which has its weapon as the subclass focus, and its main mechanic is channelling a selection of magic 'strikes' through that weapons attacks. Similar to the arcane archer, but with lessons learnt from that subclass being tragic.

You'd probably want to find an alternative to smith tools as two subclasses use that already. Maybe something weird like glassblowers tools, to make a glass facsimile of the weapon you summon.

I was talking about the mechanics, not the flavor. You would have to do away with the Oath completely and as I noted Divine Smite is Arcane Smite.

The Mechanics for Paladin (or at least the ones I would keep) play into the Swordmage very well. Artificer is good too, but with things like infusions it will be difficult to "detool" them I think. It is easier to "undivine" the Paladin chassis, especially when it is predicated on no subclasses.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I don't want them casting spells. I have no use whatsoever for a swordmage with things like mirror image or blur. The type of swordmage I want would work better with some other type of resource management and special abilities.

Then probably call it soemthing that doesn’t have “mage” in the name?

 

[CreamCloud0]

Then probably call it soemthing that doesn’t have “mage” in the name?

They probably don’t want them casting mirror image or blur because if they’re casting a spell then that means their magic is not properly integrated into their fighting style, it’s ‘fighting with melee and magic’ rather than ‘fighting with an arcane-martial style’, we already have a ton of builds that can buff themselves and swing a weapon so we don’t want the swordmage to be more of the same of what we’ve already got.

 

[Staffan]

Then probably call it soemthing that doesn’t have “mage” in the name?

They probably don’t want them casting mirror image or blur because if they’re casting a spell then that means their magic is not properly integrated into their fighting style, it’s ‘fighting with melee and magic’ rather than ‘fighting with an arcane-martial style’, we already have a ton of builds that can buff themselves and swing a weapon so we don’t want the swordmage to be more of the same of what we’ve already got.

Right. I want Thor. I want the elemental shaman or (to a lesser degree) death knight from WoW. Benders would also be an appropriate model, albeit using weapons instead of unarmed combat (and with less of the non-combat usage). I want to do magic stuff to my opponents by hitting them with a weapon. I have no use for another class that sometimes hits people with a weapon and sometimes casts the same kind of spells as any ol' wizard does. We already have half a dozen of those.

I could live with something using spellcasting mechanics, as long as they have their own spell list with appropriate spells and don't have to share with other classes, with maybe a few exceptions (I could very well see misty step for a swordmage, for example). I do think that using spellcasting as a mechanic risks inviting multiclassing shenanigans in the same way the paladin does, so it would not be my first choice.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I was talking about the mechanics, not the flavor. You would have to do away with the Oath completely and as I noted Divine Smite is Arcane Smite.

The Mechanics for Paladin (or at least the ones I would keep) play into the Swordmage very well. Artificer is good too, but with things like infusions it will be difficult to "detool" them I think. It is easier to "undivine" the Paladin chassis, especially when it is predicated on no subclasses.

I think it’d be easy to keep the infusions. Just add more weapon, armor, maybe tattoo, and stuff to do some of the non-spell abilities you want.

Why wouldn’t a swordmage be enchanting their gear?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

They probably don’t want them casting mirror image or blur because if they’re casting a spell then that means their magic is not properly integrated into their fighting style, it’s ‘fighting with melee and magic’ rather than ‘fighting with an arcane-martial style’, we already have a ton of builds that can buff themselves and swing a weapon so we don’t want the swordmage to be more of the same of what we’ve already got.

But it can do both.

It would be silly to make every magical ability it has require attacking with a weapon, so it’s obviously going to have some non weapon based magic. I could see focusing it’s combat spells on bonus action spells and spells that work with an attack, but no spells at all just seems like a strange hill to fight on.

 

[Staffan]

But it can do both.

It would be silly to make every magical ability it has require attacking with a weapon, so it’s obviously going to have some non weapon based magic. I could see focusing it’s combat spells on bonus action spells and spells that work with an attack, but no spells at all just seems like a strange hill to fight on.

I don't want a wizard with a sword. I want a character that's a melee combatant, but who fights with magic. Their abilities (be they spells or something else) should all be melee or short range (30 ft or so), or be based on either moving the swordmage to their opponent or the other way around. I absolutely don't want them having the same spell list as a wizard. I don't want a swordmage casting a fireball, but I could see an ability that lets them either leap or teleport a fairly long distance and creating an AOE effect where they land.

The closest 5e has conceptually to what I'd want to see is the Arcane Archer. That's kind of what I'm after, except with more power budget into the magic and less into the martial.