What do you envision for a magically enhanced warrior?

[Lord Twig]

ShadowRun has the concept of the Physical Adept. Basically a mage that enhances their own body and abilities so that they can compete on an even level with characters that have implanted cybernetics. I always thought that it was a pretty cool idea.

 

[Immortal Sun]

Not so much an argument or asserting “one true wayism” as just putting forth my personal counterpoint to that particular assertion. I mean, I’ve already listed a whole bunch of other different magical warrior types.

Pot, kettle. The thread asked for opinions I gave mine. You argued with me.

I didn't tell anyone else they were playing wrong. You did, to me.

The fact that you've listed a lot of what you think qualifies as magical warriors doesn't mean anything to me.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Pot, kettle. The thread asked for opinions I gave mine. You argued with me.

I didn't tell anyone else they were playing wrong. You did, to me.

The fact that you've listed a lot of what you think qualifies as magical warriors doesn't mean anything to me.

Hmmm...my post in question was:

I think a guy who can channel mystic energy to improve his odds of hitting, or his weapon’s damage output, or both is pretty doggone magical. It’s not the ONLY way, clearly, but it is perfectly valid.

(Emphasis mine.)

I’m sorry you took it that way, but the bolded phrases indicate I’m expressing a non-exclusionary, non-accusatory opinion of that kind of mechanic. In no way does it say you are thinking about/doing it wrong.

There’s LOTS of people on ENWorld who share your perspective on that mechanic. I’m not one of them, and I’m not alone, either. Whichever is predominant, I have not a clue (not that it matters). I disagreed with you; there was no intent on my part to argue.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Anyway, I don’t think we’ve mentioned there’s a LOT of mystic martial types who channel mystic energy through their weapons.

The Soulknife did it with Psionic energy, but the D&D Spellsword & Kensai prestige classes and others did this as well. So did the Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved Mage Blade, as I recall. And arguably the Paladin’s smite is a divine take on this. And I could be misremembering things, but some of the Monk prestige classes, class variants and such granted the ability to do so with unarmed strikes.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Personally, I prefer gishes who alternate between swinging a sword and casting spells, rather than casting spells that make them better at swinging swords. In my opinion, magic needs to reach a certain level of commonality before it starts specializing into different ways of augmenting mundane tasks, and I'd generally prefer to not play in those settings. I want magic to be impressive when it happens, and that means rare, which means you don't get those sorts of specialists.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The more subtle abilities can be fun, too. Ones who can see the ethereal...and strike those who reside therein? Ghost-killing is magic.

I once played a PC in a modern fantasy game who was a (mundane) deadeye shot and could move at full speed through even the most crowded space, even those that seemed impossibly tight, without touching any obstacles or betraying his passage beyond his footsteps. Magic made him both elusive prey AND relentless hunter.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

To me, lag doesn’t matter if they’re the caster. If he had to cast a ritual that decided his powers for the day, that would still be magical.

I dig the ritual concept. My main idea in my own swordmage thread is based on using a warlock style chassis to provide a ritualist swordmage. They'd get less powerful "boom" spells, but be an encounter based full caster so that they can have weapon based cantrips. The flavor of their class features and spells would largely be that they are primarily a ritualist who has trained to combine their martial prowess seemlessly with ritualistic magic, energy channeling, and redirection of enemy magic.

Like, maybe an Aegis option would give Absorb Elements as a class feature, and when you absorb energy using it, you gain benefits beyond what the spell specifies, like increased speed, ac, etc, depending on the type of energy absorbed?

Definately new Rites as you level, like warlock invocations, that provide similar things. HOnestly, it would almost work as a variant warlock, but I think it might be less work to build from scratch using the warlock chassis.

The more subtle abilities can be fun, too. Ones who can see the ethereal...and strike those who reside therein? Ghost-killing is magic.

I once played a PC in a modern fantasy game who was a (mundane) deadeye shot and could move at full speed through even the most crowded space, even those that seemed impossibly tight, without touching any obstacles or betraying his passage beyond his footsteps. Magic made him both elusive prey AND relentless hunter.

I like stuff like that, too. I think a ritualist base, with options to inscribe sigils upon your body for always on abilities, would work well for that.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Totemic warriors are an often overlooked mystic martial PC type. A warrior who becomes more than human as they channel the strength of a bear, the toughness of a boar, the speed of a rabbit, eyesight of a falcon, the armor of a turtle or some such by calling on the spirits of animals- singular or a panoply- is a fun thing to run.

Especially if channeling that totemic spirit has perceptible manifestations. Whether there’s a lycanthropic metamorphosis or just a vague sensation at the edges of perception- a whiff of musk, a slightly more aquiline visage, or what have you- it adds a nice touch. Makes the channeling more relatable to all the players.

 

[TwoSix]

Totemic warriors are an often overlooked mystic martial PC type. A warrior who becomes more than human as they channel the strength of a bear, the toughness of a boar, the speed of a rabbit, eyesight of a falcon, the armor of a turtle or some such by calling on the spirits of animals- singular or a panoply- is a fun thing to run.