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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 8537871" data-attributes="member: 6704184">So, what I've landed on for the "swordmage" or "light mobile gish" class for 5e, is either the word Athame, or a close variant meant to denote "the idea of the ritual or ceremonial blade, as a title for a person". The concept then clarifies into the following;The (eg Athamir ) is a member of a mystical or esoteric tradition or order, specifically one who takes on the role of being the "ritual dagger" in the metaphorical "hand" of the order or tradition. A divine assassin member of the class might consider themselves "the blade in the left hand of God", while a less stealthy individual might think of themselves as the sword in the right hand, standing alongside the shield, represented by someone like a Paladin or heavy Fighter.Essentially, the name speaks to the idea that they have forged themselves into a weapon that is a synthesis of martial and mystical properties.And yes, the esoteric BS nature of the above is intentional. It's very nearly the point of the class.In terms of mechanics, this is a class that operates on a similar paradigm to the Monk, but is explicitly a spellcaster, and has abilities which combine martial manuevers with arcane effects. I've changed all of the "here is a monk feature, renamed" abilities of my previous attempt into abilities that are more unique and "concept-forward" for the class identity.I'd love some feedback, though I've made this a plus thread to hopefully avoid unhelpful feedback, such as "dnd doesn't need this", or "the hexblade is a gish" or "your ideas are bad and you should feel bad", or worst of all, "we should be reducing classes not increasing them".Mechanical principles in action: The class is comprised of the following key elements:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Aegis. This is the fundemental defensive feature of the class, which is active as long as you are concious. It starts out as just an AC calculation, but comes to include all the base class defensive features, more or less.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dweomer Weapon. This is a weapon that you bond to yourself and through it bind power to yourself, it is a spellcasting focus as well as a weapon, and gains the thrown property is it is a melee weapon without that property, gains either a range of 30/60 or increases it's range by the same amount, and loses the loading property if it normally has that. When thrown, it returns to your hand. This also gains upgrades in the base class as wellas in some subclasses.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Aether. This fuels the Aether Strike, which is a scaling spell attack that can be it's own attack or add on to a weapon attack. It also fuels your spellcasting and esoteric techniques.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Manual Esoterica. This is your spellbook and martial manual of fighting techniques, in one book. You have spells known, but gain new spells like a wizard. You need your book to perform rituals (though I need to clarify that in the feature), and to learn new techniques, aegis forms, and spells. Your spellcasting is similar to a known spells version of the artificer, but with spell learning like a wizard, so half-caster round up, and gained at level 1. You gain 1 new spell every level (half of what wizards get), and get new esoteric techniques only a few levels, and only automatically get the basic aegis that others layer on top of, and any gained via subclass. Everything else you have to go find, get trained in, or invent/research.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spellcasting costs 1 aether per spell level, and most esoteric techniques are at a level 1 basis with upcasting. All upcasting is limited to the level of spelll you can currently learn, so that the Esoteric Technique Level on the class table shows both what level of spell you can learn, and how many aether you can spend on a given ability at a given level.</li> </ul></li> </ul>The entire class is built on those 4 concepts.</blockquote>

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