Playtested a warmage? Any good?

[Crosshair]

I'm wondering if a warmage is worth even taking for a class. Any opinionated comments and concerns are welcome. I'm wondering if they're balanced, and/or would be useful. New 1st/2nd level campaign. I was thinking of going warmage/fighter->Spellsword but warmage already gets the armored mage ability and it really drops your spellcasting ability to go for spellsword (+1 to spellcasting class every odd level...)

 

[Crothian]

They are fun in combat but cxan be a little hard to use out side of combat. I had a lot of fun playing one a few years back. I think they are a fine class.

 

[Nail]

Our Warmage (now at 6th level) has been a reasonable contributor to the party, especially once he had access to 2nd level spells. If your campaign is starting at 1st level, be prepared to do relatively little until level 4.

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

Got one in my group - one note monkey. Sudden Empower, Sudden Maximize one shot. But that's the way he's played. Nothing wrong with the class but it fits a very narrow player demographic.

 

[Henry]

Only Warmage I've seen in play was a multiclassed Paladin/Warmage; he was extremely useful, especially where wands and other spell trigger items were concerned, because he left room for the Wizard of the party to do other, area-control effects, rather than spending time blowing stuff up.

 

[Nail]

Got one in my group - one note monkey. Sudden Empower, Sudden Maximize one shot. But that's the way he's played. Nothing wrong with the class but it fits a very narrow player demographic.

That's true.

Our warmage has -ahem- "difficulty" playing outside of combat, as his skill set and spell list is so small.

 

[Nail]

... because he left room for the Wizard of the party to do other, area-control effects, rather than spending time blowing stuff up.

As an aside: Our warmage is the only "wizard-type" in the group, which means no one is doing battlefield control affects. This turns out to be a real negative; without battlefield control spells, the party takes quite a bit more damage, and there are probably more deaths because of that lack.

 

[Drowbane]

Warmage is a great class as long as you don't try thinking of it as a "mage".

To me, the Warmage is more of a "fighter" who uses the most broken weapon in the game.

 

[Drowbane]

Warmage is a poor substitution for a Blaster-Psion.

Warmage Edge: add Int mod to spell damage (4-10 depending on level and how maxed out the PC's Int is)
Every energy power the Psion has (fire or cold used): add +1 dmg per die.

Doesn't take long for the Psion to outshine the Warmage damage wise. Not to mention the Psion can actually do better damage *and* have some utility powers known.

Warmage does have the advantage in being able to use multiple Metamagic Feats on a single spell though. Metapsi Feats require the expenditure of Psi-Focus, thus you can only use one per power.

Of course, in a game where Psi isn't allowed... sure the Warmage can dish it out

 

[MarkB]

The Warmage makes a good character for a newbie player, because it doesn't require making a great deal of choices to play, build or advance. However, the narrowness of the class will soon start to grate for any experienced player, and they simply can't completely fulfill the "primary spellcaster" role.