Swordmage Class

[senna]

However, given that the class has had significant changes in every edition, it stands to reason that more changes are likely in 4E. Who knows what they might be. A number of people have called for rangers to be non-spellcasters, so it might happen.

But the same people asked for a non-spelcaster paladin, which dosn´t mean that it´s not powered by divine means, the ranger could be the same, without spells, but with powers that come from a divine source. Besides, in the martial power source articles, only fighters and rogues were mentioned, witch may indicate that the ranger isn´t martial powered.
For what is worth, i think that the ranger and the druid should be in the PH2 with a nature power source.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I always felt that 3e could have done with a fighter class which had a short arcane spell list in the same way that the paladin and ranger did (in fact I thought that the ranger would have been better as an arcane casting class rather than a druidic casting class, since in its earliest incarnations (Strategic Review and AD&D) it had greater arcane casting ability than divine casting ability.

I actually used a ranger variant in my last campaign (called it the 'spy') who was a ranger but with the spell list swapped for the Assassin spell list as arcane spells. That made for a nice combination.

 

[Plane Sailing]

For example, the favored soul: it's a divine spontaneous caster. OK, neat. But what is it for people who don't play D&D, who don't know what the words "divine" and "spontaneous" mean in this context? A guy who performs miracles in his god's name? Isn't that already covered by the cleric?

I agree, concept must be closely tied with mechanics to pass my 'errrrr?' test.

Long before Favoured Soul I introduced a spontaneous divine caster into my campaign. Essentially it was exactly like a sorcerer, but drew spells from the divine list instead and had one domain. The class was called 'Prophet', and each of his known spells were his 'faiths'. One prophet might have faith to call for healing, another prophet might not have the faith for that but had faith in calling down fire from the heavens or whatever. The prophets stood outside the normal temple heirarchies, acting as independent 'voices of the gods', and so filled a neat niche in my campaign world as well as being fun to play.

Cheers

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Long before Favoured Soul I introduced a spontaneous divine caster into my campaign. Essentially it was exactly like a sorcerer, but drew spells from the divine list instead and had one domain. The class was called 'Prophet', and each of his known spells were his 'faiths'. One prophet might have faith to call for healing, another prophet might not have the faith for that but had faith in calling down fire from the heavens or whatever. The prophets stood outside the normal temple heirarchies, acting as independent 'voices of the gods', and so filled a neat niche in my campaign world as well as being fun to play.

Cheers

Huh.

That's about ten times better as an implementation than Favoured Soul, imho. Consider it stolen.

 

[Klaus]

Expanding:

For argument's sake:
Martial:
Leader - Warlord
Controller - Knight
Defender - Fighter
Striker - Rogue

Divine:
Leader - Cleric
Controller - Druid
Defender - Paladin
Striker - Ranger

Arcane:
Leader - Bard
Controller - Wizard
Defender - Swordmage
Striker - Sorcerer

Psionic:
Leader - Wilder
Controller - Telepath
Defender - Psychic Warrior
Striker - Monk

 

[Nikosandros]

I think that one designer stated that the knight powers were split between the fighter and the paladin, so it would look like that there is no knight class in 4e.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Not sure if anyone's seen this yet, but thought I'd post it just in case.

Rich Baker's Blog

I've noticed that some people over at ENWorld picked up on the class name "swordmage" that was mentioned in my playtest report a couple of days ago. I'm amazed at how much you folks can divine from such a thin reference. Some of the later posts in the thread were uncannily accurate predictions. I hope to say some more about it soon, because I used a swordmage as the protagonist in my upcoming novel "Swordmage." I'd like to tell you how I saw the character and his capabilities working, at least as told through the lens of fiction as opposed to game rules. I'm checking now with my boss to see if I can.

 

[Glyfair]

Not sure if anyone's seen this yet, but thought I'd post it just in case.

Rich Baker's Blog

Yeah, I quoted it towards the top of the page.

 

[Rechan]

Not sure if anyone's seen this yet, but thought I'd post it just in case.

Rich Baker's Blog

ANyone want to guess which posts were the ones he's referring to?

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Yeah, I quoted it towards the top of the page.

Whoops, sorry Glyfair.