Swordmage: Class creep too fast?

[Kitirat]

Looking over the sowrdmage, it is a very effective replacement for both a fighter and a mage (for lots of AoE). is it too much more powerful too fast? I mean, why would anyone ever play a fighter over a swordmage? Challenges are awesome, batter or equal AC but in leather armor, attack damage and AC all from the same stat. A better at-will than cleave in all ways (burst 1 attack!)

Interested to see what people think. I'm guessing some feel it is too much "class creep" in power too fast.

 

[keterys]

It's been covered elsewhere, but their at-will is not better (nor worse) than cleave because cleave can hit targets that greenflame cannot and does not deal resistable (fire) damage.

Fighters are more sticky than swordmages and work better for group denial, while the swordmage (like the paladin) is often more effective against a single target.

The swordmage does have a lot of other benefits, but it's not a slam dunk by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[fba827]

Our group has had one in play for two sessions so far, fighting along side the group's fighter in melee (group also has a wizard, warlock, and warlord). Sure, he has fancier descriptions for his actions, but he really hasn't been able to do anything that "outshines" (nor is gumped by) the tricks that others can do.

 

[Mort_Q]

I mean, why would anyone ever play a fighter over a swordmage?

'cause I hate the flavour of a swordmage? 'cause I like fighters?

 

[Protagonist]

well let's simply compare all the paragon and epic tier powers of fighter and swordmage...hey, you know what? we barely know anything about swordmage powers yet.

 

[garyh]

Yeah, with less than 10% of the swordmage public knowledge, I can't see how anyone could make an informed decision here.

 

[Cadfan]

I voted that its even. Obviously I can't be certain without seeing more of the class, but from what I can tell its not broken. The fighter seems completely competitive at this point in time.

 

[FadedC]

My only issue with the sword mage is the mark and run tactic that they favor (for aegis of shielding). I think they need to be given a paladin like restriction where they need to stay near their targets instead of running as far away as possible.

Other then that, their at wills are better then a fighters, but that's hardly surprising because almost every class has better at wills then a fighter. I wasn't that impressed with any of their other powers.

 

[Jhaelen]

Apart from misinterpretions and false conjecture I've not yet seen anything indicating the Swordmage will be more powerful than any of the PHB classes. Ditto for the Artificer.

 

[Stalker0]

I think it will boil down to the powers. Class powers aren't the only thing going for it.

In general, I like the paladin's mark better than the fighter's, and he has more healing, but fighter powers allow you to hit multiple targets, gain temp hp, etc which makes up a lot.