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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jmartkdr2" data-source="post: 8199736" data-attributes="member: 7017304">It's not too hard to come up with stories for an arcane half-caster, though: the hexblade is an obvious one, the duskblade works for a lot of people, and the bladesinger is a neat variation (though it needs to be elf-ier to really sell it), you could build it around the idea of a spellcaster who uses a weapon as their spellcasting focus (rather than a wand or component pouch), and I would argue one of the biggest story gaps is a character who draws their power from a cool magic item they found (which sound like a warlock but then you get eldritch blast competing with the story of 'using your cool magic item' if the item is a weapon).Admittedly, from a purely story perspective most if not all of those could easily fit into an existing class as a subclass, which seems to be the route WotC is trying to go. But in nearly every case players come back and complain that the character doesn't feel like someone who blends and balances weapons and magic - they either alternate (which isn't the fantasy, aka why paladins aren't just fighter/clerics) or they're so good at one or the other that they don't play any different from someone who isn't mixing at all (EK and Bladesinger, but not AT.)But that means a fifth generic class. However, if it's its own class, the mechanics can be built from the ground up to support a blended playstyle, while the subclasses (which would also define their magic) can add the story, they way many classes already do. Plus, with its own class it would get its own spell list, which should push the designers to make spells that actually fit the class rather than give them a list that doesn't work because it's designed to support a totally different playstyle (a big reason why EKs don't work.)(I'd even go so far as to say the 4e Swordmage works so well by accident - because they couldn't just say "use the wizard list" they were forced to make a Swordmage spell list, which causes the list to actually work with and promote playing like a swordmage, rather than a wizard with a decent melee option or a fighter who can sometimes self-buff.)</blockquote>

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