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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NinjaPaladin" data-source="post: 6170256" data-attributes="member: 6747691">Agreed in theory, although in 13th Age, having weapon damage scale up means that 2F and 2M is much closer to 4 at any given time. However, in the interest of fun for the player, I lean toward builds that are either 3F and 2M (existing Ranger with both Cleric and Sorcerer spell slots), or 2F and 3M (existing Sorcerer with Spell Fist, an elven race with the sword-using feat, and Good Dex/Con for a high AC).But that's getting fiddly. Fundamentally, yes, you want something that can be ALMOST as good as some type of Sorcerer/Wizard in places where you want magic, and ALMOST as good as some type of Striker (specifically NOT saying a tank, although ability to not die immediately when fighting is nice) in places where you want melee damage.I'd be on the fence about a "Ranger ex Archmage" talent, given again that, much like Kobolds get to avoid Miss damage, but nobody else does, nobody else gets Blur, and if the designers thought it'd be balanced to let the Ranger have it, they'd have just made a single Ranger talent like the Bard's Spelljack. Shield is effectively "Add Halfling Racial Power to Whatever You Already Have" on top of that. But again, that's just me.Also bear in mind -- the comparison that you're making is with Animal Companion, which uses TWO talent slots.Also also, I've run a game where one player had an animal companion, and while it was indeed useful, the lower to-hit bonus, lack of use of the escalation die, and low damage meant that it was good for crowd control, but not exactly a game changer. I think it's as useful as Double Melee Attack and Two-Weapon Mastery (to compare two talents to a talent that costs you two talents to get), but it's not overpowered.As this is all hypothetical, I doubt we'll convince each other fully one way or the other, and I'm by no means certain you're wrong. I've just gone too far in the past toward making custom classes to make my players happy and accidentally made a class that was far cooler than either the fighter or the wizard, so I'm leery. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Personally, I've made something that FEELS like a decent swordmage with the as-written bard. Battle Skald, Loremaster, and Spelljack (Wizard) give me some fun flexible attacks, as well as magical heavy-hitting when need be (Acid Arrow if I intended to stay back, Shield if I intended to wade into the fray, Battle Chant and either Soundburst or Befuddle as Bard spells). I don't even need to sing!</blockquote>

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