There was some recent discussion about what classes might be wanted in 5E and swordmage was brought up, this was just my exploration of how one might be designed, what do people think about it? is it ballanced? is the language clear about what it means?.
SWORDMAGE
HIT POINTS
Hit Dice 1d8 1d10 per swordmage level
HP at 1st level 8 10+constitution mod
HP after 1st level 1d8 (or 5) 1d10(or 6) plus constitution mod per swordmage level past first
PROFICIENCIES
Armor Light Armor, Medium Armor, Shields
Weapons Simple Weapons, Rapier, Scimitar, Shortsword
Tools None
Saving Throws Dexterity, Inteligence
Skills Pick two from: Athletics, Arcarna, History, Nature, Perception, Survival.
EQUIPMENT
- a) A Rapier or b) Any two Simple Weapons
- a) A Chain shirt or b) Scale mail
- a) A Simple Weapon and a Shield or b) a Shortbow and a Quiver of 20 arrows
- a) A Dungeoneer's pack or b) an Explorer's pack
| Level | Core Features | Blademaster Subclass Features | Rune Knight Subclass Features | Arcane Sniper Subclass Features |
|---|
| 1st level | Elemental Blade,
Trained Monster Hunter | | | |
| 2nd | Gain Spellcasting (half caster),
Spellstrike,
Maneuvers (2) | | | |
| 3rd | Choice of Subclass,
Extradimensional Stride | Additional Maneuvers (2+1),
Expanded Spell list | Heavy Armor Proficiency,
Full Martial Wpn Proficiency,
Hit die size increase | Ranged Spellstrike,
Ranged Martial Wpn Prfncy |
| 4th | ASI | | | |
| 5th | Extra Attack | Expanded Subclass Spells | - | - |
| 6th | Extra Maneuvers | (3+2) Total: 5 | (2+1) Total: 3 | (2+1) Total: 3 |
| 7th | Subclass Features | - | Guarding Rift | Peircing Shot |
| 8th | ASI,
Magic Blade
Affinity Resistance | | | |
| 9th | - | Expanded Spell list | - | - |
| 10th | Rift Hitchhiker | | | |
| 11th | - | | | |
| 12th | ASI | | | |
| 13th | Extra Maneuvers | (5+2) Total: 7
Expanded Spell list | (3+1) Total: 4 | (3+1) Total: 4 |
| 14th | Affinity Resistance
Expanded Elements | | | |
| 15th | Subclass Features | - | Tempered Senses | Swaying Shot |
| 16th | ASI | | | |
| 17th | - | Expanded Spell list | - | - |
| 18th | Twinned Element | | | |
| 19th | ASI | | | |
| 20th | Subclass Capstone | Persistant Spell | Affinity Immunity | Ricochet Projectile |
Elemental Blade: All of your weapon attacks deal
nonmagical damage of one of the following types: Fire, Cold, Lightning, Thunder, Acid or Poison, You can use your Bonus action to swap between any of these damage types on your turn.
Trained Monster Hunter: You have advantage on Survival (WIS) checks to track Aberrations or Elementals as well as advantage on INT checks to recall information about them.
Spellcasting: Is a Known spells halfcaster (Uses the same progression as the Ranger for spells known), Uses INT as their spellcasting modifier, A Swordmage may use any weapon that they are proficient with as an Arcane Focus and to perform the Somantic components of a spell, When you cast a spell using your weapon as an Arcane Focus you may pick any one of the energy types dealt by the spell to attune your Elemental Blade ability to, You always know the spells Chromatic Orb, Detect Evil and Good and Protection from Evil and Good and they do not count against your number of spells known, The Swordmage spell list is below.
Bane
Chromatic Orb
Charm Person
Detect Evil and Good
Dissonant Whispers
Ensnaring Strike
Faerie Fire
Guiding Bolt
Inflict Wounds
Magic Missile
Protection from Evil and Good
Ray of Sickness
Armor of Agathys
Arms of Hadar
Hail of Thorns | Shatter
Blur
Ray of Enfeeblement
Crown of Madness
Enthrall
Hold Person
Levitate
Melf's Acid Arrow
Misty Step
Moonbeam
Phantasmal Force | Bestow Curse
Counterspell
Dispel Magic
Fear
Fireball
Hunger of Hadar
Lightning Bolt
Magic Circle
Vampiric Touch
| Banishment
Blight
Conjour Minor Elementals
Dimension Door
Evard's Black Tentacles
Phantasmal Killer
| Cone of Cold
Conjour Elemental
Dispel Evil and Good
Flame Strike
Mislead
Planar Binding
Teleportation Circle
|
Spellstrike: Once per turn
using your bonus action you can imbue any spell that directly targets a creature to deal damage or an effect into a melee weapon by expending a spell slot of an apropriate level, Until the begining of your next turn every time you make a
melee weapon attack with the imbued weapon the effects of the spell take place against only the creature you attacked instead of the weapon damage, Each hit is treated as a separate casting of the spell but for the purpose of maintaining concentration all castings made in the same attack action are maintained off the same Concentration, If the to-hit conditions of the spell is a ranged spell attack replace the ranged spell attack with your weapon strike.
Maneuvers: The Swordmage knows a number of special actions they can take when they make the attack action on their turn, They may only use one Maneuver on any attack action.
| You move 20ft in a straight line in any direction free of obstructions making a melee attack against any creatures in any adjacent squares to the ones that you start in, pass through or end up in. | When making a Spellstrike that has a different to-hit condition than making a ranged spell attack you can substitute your weapon strike in place of the regular to-hit conditions of the spell. |
| When you successfully make a standard weapon attack against a creature after your attack you can teleport the creature up to 5ft, plus an additional extra 5ft equal to your INT modifier (minimum 1). | Whenever you successfully make a weapon attack against any creature until the end of your turn it automatically deals half the damage you inflicted as well as any effects of the attack to all creatures in a 5ft radius around it. |
| Instead of attacking you take the Dodge action and end your turn, You get to make a weapon attack that automatically hits against any creature that makes an attack against you until the start of your next turn after they make their attack, you may use your reaction once a round to deal your attack first before they deal theirs, If the creature is out of your weapon range you teleport to the closest unoccupied square to your current location that you can reach them with your equiped weapon to attack before teleporting back to your original location and resuming the Dodge action. | When you sucessfully hit a creature with your weapon and deal damage you can make it vunerable to one of the damage types you just dealt to it for 3 rounds, you can only make each individual creature vunerable to one type of damage in this way, you can effect a total number of creatures up to to your INT modifier (minimum 1) at the same time with this ability. |
| You can teleport to make a melee weapon attack against a number of creatures up to to your INT modifier (minimum 1) within a 15ft radius to your position of where you activated your attack action, you do not return to your original location after you make your final attack. | You take your standard attack action and end your turn, once before the start of your next turn if you are targeted by a spell you can choose to automatically succeed on the saving throw, additionally if the spell is one compatible with the conditions of Spellstrike you can use your reaction to absorb the spell and begin your next turn with it imbued into your weapon. |
| When you successfully make a weapon attack against a single creature with your attack action you can inflict half damage and the effects to every creature within a 5ft radius, you can then pick one of those affected creatures and make a new attack roll against them to do the same, repeat until you either fail an attack roll or there are no other creatures within 5ft who have not already been targeted by an attack roll. | Make a melee weapon attack with a melee weapon against every creature within attack range of your position. |
Subclasses: The specific abilities of the subclasses are detailed later below in the post.
Extradimensional Stride: Once per turn when you take the move action up to 10ft of the distance you are moving can be by teleportation, However you cannot teleport to a location that you cannot see, Your movement speed increases by 5ft.
Magic Blade: Your Elemental Blade attacks now count as magic damage.
Affinity Resistance: You gain resistance to any energy type your Elemental Blade is currently attuned to.
Rift Hitchhiker: If any creature teleports within 10ft of the Swordmage they can use their reaction to travel up to 100ft with them to the same location in an adjacent square or when the Swordmage teleports they can bring an additional creature than the spell or ability states with them, If the creature is unwilling they can make a CON saving throw to resist being transported.
Affinity Resistance: You gain resistance to any energy type your Elemental Blade is currently attuned to.
Expanded Elements: Force, Psychic, Divine and Necrotic damage types are added to the types of damage you can change to when you use your Bonus Action to swap the damage type of your Elemental Blade feature.
Twinned Element: Your Elemental Blade feature can be attuned to two different energy types at once.
BLADEMASTER
Additional Maneuvers: You gain an extra maneuver apon getting this feature and an addtional maneuver every subsequent time you gain one.
Expanded Spell List: The following spells are added to your known spells, They do not count against your number of known spells
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|
| Cantrips | Ray of Frost, Sacred Flame, Shocking Grasp, Vicious Mockery |
| 1st | Tasha's Hideous Laughter, Thunderwave |
| 2nd | Blindness/Deafness, Scorching Ray |
| 3rd | Slow, Hypnotic Pattern |
| 4th | Confusion, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere |
| 5th | Destructive Wave, Hold Monster |
Persistant Spell: When you imbue a spell into your weapon with Spellstrike it remains active for an extra round longer before it ends.
RUNE KNIGHT
Heavy Armor Proficincy: You become proficient with Heavy Armor.
Martial Weapon Proficincy: You become proficient in all Martial Weapons.
Hit Die Size Increase: Your Hit Die increases from a d8 to a d10.
Guarding Rift: Once per round when you take damage you can use your reaction to halve the damage taken and teleport up to 20ft away.
Tempered Senses: You have advantage on saving throws against effects inflicted through sight or hearing.
Affinity Immunity: You gain immunity to any energy type your Elemental Blade is currently attuned to.
ARCANE SNIPER
Ranged Spellstrike: You can use Spellstrike when you make an attack with a ranged or thrown weapon,
you may only fire one projectile.
Ranged Martial Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency with all Weapons that are in the Ranged Martial Weapon category or have the Thrown property.
Peircing Shot: Your ranged weapon attacks deal damage to and pass through a number of creatures equal to your INT modifier (minimum 1)(for a +2 modifier your attack would pass through two creatures and stop on hitting the third).
Swaying Shot: You can use your bonus action to make an attack against a creature that is adjacent to the trajectory of your ranged weapon attack, The attack counts as one of the strikes for Peircing Shot.
Ricochet Projectile: When a weapon projectile you fired hits an environmental obstacle you can change the direction the shot is travelling in from the point of impact, You can do this once per projectile, you cannot use this to hit the same creature multiple times with the same shot.
Moved/Removed features in
strikethough, Locations features moved to or added in
blue.
