Playtested a warmage? Any good?

[rgard]

IIRC, they also have Sleet Storm and Evard's Black Tentacles, which are also nice at battlefield control.



Ah, but the first level of Spellsword gives good BAB and two good saves, and the second level gives a bonus feat. That's why I took it, though it did hurt my spellcasting.

Brad

True, on the 2 good saves, but the Eldritch Knight gets the same good BAB, nine levels of +1 levels of arcane casting and one bonus feat. Then again, you only get one good save and a d6 for hitpoints instead of a d8. If you find a way to combine the Warmage armored casting with the % Ignore Spell failure, Spellsword is a good choice.

For my next Spellsword, I'll roll up a fighter and take the armored savant alternate class feature from Dragon 355. It cuts your ASF in half, then you substract the 10% with the first level of Spellsword. It's cleaner than mixing the two ways of reducing ASF...well at least for me it is.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Wish]

I played one as a cohort, and it was fantastic. It fits my criteria for a cohort class pretty well - it's easy to play, and its ability to deal out bonus damage makes up for the 2 level gap to a cohort.

Haven't tried one as a primary, and I don't know that I would. It has limited appeal to me. The one thing I might try to do is play a warmage/rainbow servant. That combo, if you manage to reach high levels, negates the single biggest disadvantage of the warmage by providing it with a versatile spell list.

 

[Nail]

And the Sorceror is generally considered weaker than the Wizard.

!!!

You might want to insert "by me" in your statement. "Generally" isn't accurate, as many people I know consider Sor to be superior to Wiz.

 

[CrimsonWineGlass]

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.

Yeah, in my games I tend to simply state that the casters are required to memorize half their spells. The other half can be read out of a spellbook, prayerbook, etc with a successful concentration check. I do this for one reason, who ever prepares detect object, featherfall, nondetection or a bunch of other spells that are made to save your butt in a very specific situation. By my logic, who would go through the effort of making a spell that is rarely useful except in a specific type of situation? And even then, they wouldn't become common enough that they are that frequently used.

 

[pawsplay]

One note on Warmages and spell lists: advanced learning specifically allows them to treat a spell as part of their warmage spell list. Other abilities rarely do. Thus, a warmage with a domain or some other expansion to his class list doesn't automatically know the new spells.

 

[IanB]

!!!

You might want to insert "by me" in your statement. "Generally" isn't accurate, as many people I know consider Sor to be superior to Wiz.

Hm, my understanding has also been that generally the sorcerer is considered the weaker option. I suppose someone has probably already taken that poll at some point in the archives.

 

[moritheil]

Warmages benefit massively from the Arcane Disciple feat. This allows you to add a domain's spells to your spell-list.

And necrotic cyst, and those weird sorcerer heritage feats if your DM allows Dragon material, etc, etc. Basically anything that allows them to grab utility spells.


Nail, I haven't done a comparison in a while, but as of a year or so ago, Wiz > Sorc was the consensus in my group.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

You might want to insert "by me" in your statement. "Generally" isn't accurate, as many people I know consider Sor to be superior to Wiz.

Nah, he's right with that: When I read about the sorcerer around here, he's called weaker than the wizards 9 times out of 10.

 

[Darklone]

Nah, he's right with that: When I read about the sorcerer around here, he's called weaker than the wizards 9 times out of 10.

Yupp. Even the pretty strong heritage feats don't help the sorcerer, usually nothing beats that "one level faster spellcasting" from the wizard... AND the bonus feats.

The one out of 10 threads where the sorcerer is stronger usually talk about epic levels.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I always think of the warmage as an alternate bard instead of a fighter or sorcerer. They are both semi-armored impromptu arcane casters.

DS