![]() The battlemage is the heavy-armored battle wizard. The four subclasses presented are designed to reflect the ways I feel a weapon-bonding arcane fighter would choose to focus their abilities. Instead of getting smite the swordmage can infuse their weapon with arcane power for extended periods, and channel the strength of full-powered spells through weapon strikes. Instead of the ability to sense divine beings and undead, the swordmage can sense the presence of magic. While designing it, I tried to keep it similar to the paladin while also being different. But it’s also something a bit new, and borrows some mechanics from the magus class of Pathfinder (which is that system’s own “gish”). ![]() The class takes a lot from 4th edition’s swordmage class, including the name (clearly), the strong weapon bond, and two of the archetypes receive abilities directly based on swordmage abilities in 4e. So here’s my own attempt at an arcane 1/2 caster. If I were sucked into the Forgotten Realms I’d either want to be one of those…. It is easily my favorite character concept. ![]() And I really really like swordmages/spellswords/battlemages/whatever the hell you wanna call them. Most of these I feel don’t quite hit the mark, and alter the way 1/2 casters work too much to be really proper. Some add cantrips, simply because the cantrips from Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide are so flavorful and built to be used by the existing “gish” classes. There are various attempts at the archetype some add additional resources (like how sorcery points or ki points work) to allow them to perform various abilities. “Half caster,” by the way, is a term used to describe the two classes in 5e (paladin and ranger) that have access up to 5th level spells and get no cantrips, but do receive fighting styles and extra attack. So an arcane 1/2 caster is a common homebrew you see floating around the Internet. But I, and many others, want to see something different. And if you wanted to do that then all power to you. ![]() Sure, you could just refluff a paladin into an arcane caster if you worked with your DM: smite does force damage now, you don’t have an oath anymore but just get spells based on the mechanical choice you made, etc. And that’s an important distinction for most players. They aren’t wielding arcane magic as a proper swordmage would. The problem is that the paladin is a divine caster they received their powers from a god or a divine oath. The paladin, which gets access to a fighting style and good survivability while simultaneously putting out cool magic effects and being able to cast useful spells. A swordmage should float right in the middle properly both martial and arcane in equal amounts and able to blend the two together seamlessly.ĥth edition does have a class that feels this way already. ![]() Arcane tricksters are too roguish and carry too much baggage with their base class, and like eldritch knights just aren’t magical enough. Blade pact warlocks get some magic and swordplay as well, but the class is still too focused on eldritch blast to feel like a proper swordmage and, like the bladesinger, isn’t very resilient. The bladesinger is a wizard that learns how to use a sword, but it still suffers from low damage die and feels overly arcane. There are attempts at it the eldritch knight is a fighter that gets access to a few spells and cantrips, but it still feels overly martial. What sucks is that, currently, 5th edition doesn’t quite represent this much-loved archetype. More common terms which you might see in video games and other fantasy works include battlemage, spellsword, spellblade, and warmage. The term gish comes from the D&D race of the githyanki, and gish is their word for such an individual. That is, it’s a fighter that also does magic stuff. What’s a gish, you might be asking? It’s a fan term used to describe D&D characters who wield both magic and martial prowess in equal tandem. The “gish” has been a very loved character concept for decades in Dungeons and Dragons. ![]()
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