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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nivenus" data-source="post: 6424324" data-attributes="member: 71756">My bad. I thought I set it to public. It should be fixed now.I'll add scimitars back in. Theoretically I could say "all swords" but the 5e rules don't actually define swords per se (unlike 4e which had weapon type as well as proficiency type) so it'd require some fudging. All "melee slashing weapons" might work, but then that leaves out rapiers and shortswords and adds in battleaxes, greataxes, whips, and glaives.Hmm... I'll see if I can give it a more magical feel than. It's pretty close to the original feature as it stands in 4e but I see your point.Oh no worries; I've just been very, very busy with a lot of othAs far as 5e inspiration goes (rather than 4e or 3e, which are also in there) paladin's definitely the main model, though I also looked at the Eldritch Knight archetype, rangers (another magical warrior class), wizards (Int-based magic), and bards (the only case so far in 5e of an arcane caster with significant non-magical features). I also took a brief look over the magus class from Pathfinder, which is another take on doing an arcane warrior class, though I didn't really end up using very much from it.Pretty good. It's more similar to the 4e bladesinger (a wizard variant) than what I'm going for but it's not a bad take on its own. My approach is to make the swordmage class more like paladins or rangers in the sense that it sacrifices some spellcasting ability in exchange for martial features, but just as the Eldritch Knight is a good approach for someone who wants to add some magic to their fighter, your idea for Spellblade isn't a bad choice for those who want a wizard who could hold their own a bit more in a melee.Hmm... your take on Arcane Aegis might provide a way to make Swordmage Warding feel more magical and not just like an extra Fighting Style. I'll think on this.I went back and forth in my original design over whether or not to make swordmages more like wizards or sorcerers/bard when it came to casting. On the one hand, I agree with you that the Intelligence basis for magic sort of makes it seem like they should be versatile. On the other hand, the swordmage's entire schtick is casting magic in combat and that feels an awful lot like spontaneous casting to me. Ultimately, I chose to go with spontaneous casting and a limited number of spells known (rather than versatile casting like clerics, paladins, druids, or wizards), because it's what the duskblade class (the closest thing to a 3e swordmage) went with. Also, swordmages have never had spellbooks.A large part of that is that I don't want to make swordmages too similar to paladins, otherwise you might as well just reflavor a paladin as an arcane caster. The other reason is that I gave swordmages a lot of spells that basically fulfill a similar function.Giving swordmages d8 hit dice was largely to compensate for them having a pretty powerful 1st class feature in weapon bond. But if you think they're a bit underpowered without it I could boost them back up to d10. Or I could bring Swordmage Warding back up to +2/+3 to provide them with a little bit of extra protection.</blockquote>

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