Playtested a warmage? Any good?

[cignus_pfaccari]

I played a nice paladin/warmage (spellsword/Magical Legionnaire*/almost got to Archmage) in an Al-Qadim game a while back. Great fun, too; it does a lot of damage and has a lot of variety in combat. Out of combat, not so much, but the DM was quite happy to add some skills to the list. We had a sha'ir and a shugenja to provide versatility, too.

The other thing we did was swap out spells; for example, I really enjoyed Fire Brand, and wanted to be able to toss my triple-wide version (CL of 15' radius bursts!), so we swapped that in for another equivalent-ish spell.

Brad

* - Combination of Arcane Devotee and War Wizard PrCs from Magic of Faerun; it seemed less cheesy than doing one level of the first. I was going for Archmage towards the end of the game, which is actually possible at very high level.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

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.

I do have to say, it was terribly simple to play one. You don't have to worry much about what spells to take, as your list is chosen for you, and you don't have to memorize spells every day, so that tedious bit of bookkeeping is removed. (I am VERY bad at that!)

It certainly shouldn't be the primary spellcaster for a balanced group, but it's a great addition to firepower, and great fun.

Brad

 

[lukelightning]

...you don't have to memorize spells every day, so that tedious bit of bookkeeping is removed....

That's one of the big weaknesses of the "preparer" classes (wizard, cleric, druid).

"You know what spell would be great in this situation? Wall of Stone. Too bad I didn't prepare it today."

 

[Nail]

oh, well: "ALWAYS prepare Wall of Stone!".

Someone shoulda told "V" that........

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

That's one of the big weaknesses of the "preparer" classes (wizard, cleric, druid).

"You know what spell would be great in this situation? Wall of Stone. Too bad I didn't prepare it today."

Or flip sides...

You know what would be great in this situation? Anything other than a Fireball!
Did you say Fireball?
No -!
Too late - sudden maximize, sudden empower.

 

[SteveC]

The warmage is an absolutely awesome class to play, provided you want to do what the class excels it: blow things up. And, let's be honest, who doesn't want to do that every now and then?

As others have mentioned, a warmage is not a spell caster in a utility sense: there are many things he simply can't do. However, I found that it is surprising how infrequently you actually miss those things, since there's surprisingly little that can't be blown up or beat down as a solution to a problem in D&D.

With that said, I would be very hesitant to have a warmage as the only caster in a group. Having a cleric or druid along with you will make things a lot easier. Either that or a whole lot of eternal wands.

--Steve

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I just retired my Warmage8/Fighter2/Eldritch Knight 3

I took the role of a heavily armorered (wore full plate) archer, with the archer feats also going towards helping me land ranged touch spells in combat. The idea was to use Accuracy (double range increment of weapon), True Strike, and Smiting Spell (deliver a touch spell through a weapon) to make a super-sniper.

I found that at higher levels I had totally ditched my bow and spend every round blasting with spells. The warmage has prescious few touch spells to use Smiting Spell with, and very few adventures I was on allowed me to shoot more than 1 or 2 range increments anyway.

He was a pretty fun character but ultimately the use of Heavy Armor and good Bow skills at the expense of spending feats on raising spell DCs and overcoming SR doomed him to mediocrity.

So...he sold his soul to the elemental god of earth (acid orb was his favorite spell) and now ONLY can cast acid spells as a sorcerer6/elemental savant 9. Now, however, his acid spells are a LOT more likely to bypass saves and SR.

DS

 

[Wik]

We ran with a War Mage in a roman-based game a few years back. He was pretty neat, with the player doing his best to make use of every spell on his spell list (funny story... the player - my brother - says he doesn't like playing caster classes. However, in the last four campaigns we've played in, half have been casters, and his next character is a wild mage.)

My big beef with the class is how easily it can overcome energy resistances - against "boss" fights, the war mage would start off with 1st-level energy spells to figure out what the critter was immune against, before opening up with whatever spell seemed the best.

As for the "useless outside of combat" bit... maybe. But really, no moreso than the fighter or, say, barbarian. Really, the war mage fares a bit better, because he'll have more skill points and a higher charisma. It's a fun class to play.

 

[NilesB]

Warmage is the weakest Base class with spellcasting up to ninth level, by a fair margin. They're an acceptable class because spellcasting is awesome, but they basically only know one magical effect: Hurt stuff.

They also work poorly as fighter fighter/mage types as Hurting Stuff with spells synergizes less well with Hurting stuff with a Sword than Making people (like yourself for instance) better at hurting stuff with a Sword, Becoming hard to hurt, messing with the enemies ability to hurt stuff, moving around, solving out of combat problems, or any of the many other things spellcasting is good for, if you're not a Warmage that is.

 

[Wik]

Warmage is the weakest Base class with spellcasting up to ninth level, by a fair margin. They're an acceptable class because spellcasting is awesome, but they basically only know one magical effect: Hurt stuff.

They also work poorly as fighter fighter/mage types as Hurting Stuff with spells synergizes less well with Hurting stuff with a Sword than Making people (like yourself for instance) better at hurting stuff with a Sword, Becoming hard to hurt, messing with the enemies ability to hurt stuff, moving around, solving out of combat problems, or any of the many other things spellcasting is good for, if you're not a Warmage that is.

Again, though - how is that any different from a fighter? Both characters have the same goal - damaging enemies. They just take different routes to accomplish that goal.

I think anyone making the argument "The warmage is useless outside of combat" should consider that a large number of D&D classes (Fighter, Barbarian, Hexblade, Warblade, Knight, Duskblade...) are just as weak outside of combat, if not moreso.

While war mages are fairly narrow in what they can do, it's not necessarily as narrow as some players suggest. After all, they do gain access (through advanced learning) to other Evocation spells... and with all the wotc products out there, I'm sure there are a few that could expand upon the war mage's versatility just a little bit.

I just think that saying "war mage is weak because it can't do what a wizard can do" is a flawed argument. True, a wizard can cast any spell a warmage can cast... if he memorizes it. And even then, the warmage will be doing more damage with the same spell, and can cast it more times per day.

In all, I think a warmage is a GREAT intro class for anyone who wants to play an arcane caster for the first time.