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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 5143205" data-attributes="member: 11821">Swordmages are, at this point, my favorite class.  I can see why they're pretty hard to grasp, though, because they do stuff way differently than you might expect.Take your inital thought of a Warrior-Mage.  Then realize that everything the Swordmage does is through spells - they throw hexes on their opponents, summon up the elements, and protect themselves with shields of force.  If you ever saw the Mageblade from Arcana Unearthed/Evolved, it's a pretty similar concept.  In fact, I think it's the best warrior-mage seen in D&D to-date.How do they play?  Well, a little off the beaten path, honestly.  They're part Defender and part Controller.Their marking mechanic is their Aegis, which is pretty much the meanest thing you can do to a monster without an attack roll or a saving throw.  Unique among Defenders, this mark lasts for the entire encounter, works at long range, and doesn't require that the Swordmage engage their foe.  In fact, it's often best if they don't - an ideal Swordmage strategy is to run up, mark the biggest, baddest threat, and then teleport off to harass artillery hanging out in back.Their mark still has the nice "-2 to attack anyone but me" rider, along with some other pretty sweet effects.  My personal favorite is the Aegis of Shielding, which will mostly negate a monster's damage on one of your allies - it's pretty much the purest Defender mark out there.  The Aegis of Assault, OTOH, is similar to the Fighter's mark, with the added perk that you can teleport next to the enemy (usually into flanking) and smack them.  Ensnaring swordmages can bring the enemy to them, but frankly I think it's the poorest choice of the three.At any rate, by marking an enemy and running away from them, the swordmage sets up a series of choices for their mark, none of which is good.  Run after the swordmage and get OA'd?  Attack a nearby enemy at -2 and probably do no damage at all?  Try and attack the swordmage with the insanely high AC?  Marks are all about damned-if-you-do choice trees, and theirs is insanely sweet.What they're bad at is crowd control.  They can't hold a line for anything.  They are probably not the best choice for the only Defender in a party.What you can expect from most swordmages:(1) Flexible and very powerful defense against a single target(2) Insane personal mobility with a ton of teleportation(3) Very high AC, often the highest in the party(4) Good Solo and Elite lockdown, without even an attack roll(5) Ranged attacks, to a limited extent, usually within 5.What you can't expect from Swordmages:(1) Strong crowd control, except in the very basic sense of dealing small amounts of damage to a group of monsters.  You're not going to reasonably defend against more than one enemy per round.(2) High damage, particularly for Shielding swordmages.  It's very possible you'll deal the least in the entire party.(3) Mobility control, except kinda-sorta for the Ensnaring Aegis.  You can't stop a monster from moving, usually - the best you can do is bring them to you.I hope this helps!EDIT: Also, I'm not seeing the Realms connection.  I know it was presented in the FRPG, but it's very setting-neutral.  I'm not running the Realms, but have one anyway.-O</blockquote>

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