“Under the leaves of Myth Drannor I learned the ancient eladrin way of battle. Spells are my
armor, and words of ruin are bound to my blade.”
Swordmages apply the arcane arts to melee combat. The combat skills they possess are enhanced by the magic they wield. The flourish of a swordmage’s blade not only bites with steel, but also with fire, lightning, or other powerful forces.
You studied and practiced for years to master your skills. You mastered the fundamentals of arcane magic and combined this academic study with endless hours of physical training. You might be a young eladrin in search of your fortune, a stranger to the wider world outside the seclusion of your homeland; a self-trained genasi sellsword, gifted with an affinity for elemental magic; the scion of a disgraced noble human family, taught by the finest tutors in your youth but now a footloose expatriate; or a half-elf arcane champion, rigorously trained in a war magic academy to serve in the armies of your homeland.
Magical barriers of force swirl around you, protecting you from harm. The blade you carry is an extension of your being, both body and mind. It pulses with eldritch energy as you prepare to defend your allies and unleash magical fury against your foes.
Oath spells
lvl 1: Magic Missile, Shield
lvl 2: Mirror Image, Misty Step
lvl 3: Fireball, Haste
lvl 4: Fire Shield, Dimension Door
lvl 5: Mislead, Destructive Wave
Level 3:
Arcane Shielding: You can cast mage armor at-will.
Elemental Smite: When you use divine smite, or improved divine smite, you can choose to deal fire, lighting, acid, thunder, or cold damage instead of radiant.
Channel Divinty:
Aegis of Shielding: As a bonus action, you magicly mark a creature within 60' of you for 1 minute. If that creature deals damage to a creature other then yourself, and is withing 60' of you, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by 1/2.
Aegis of Assault: As a bonus action, you magically mark a creature within 60' of you for 1 minute. If that creature deals damage to a creature other then yourself, and is withing 60' of you, you can use your reaction to teleport next to that creature, and make a melee attack against it.
Aegis of Ensaring: As a bonus action, you magically mark a creature within 60' of you. If that creature attacks a creature other then yourself, and is withing 60' of you, you can use your reaction to teleport the creature next to you, and you become the target of the attack instead.
Level 7:
Aura of Enchantment: You and friendly creatures within 30 feet gain a +1 bonus to AC, weapon attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and their weapons and armor are considered to be magical.
Level 15:
Elemental Shield: If a creature within 30' of you is hit by fire, lighting, or cold damage, you can use your reaction to give them resistance to that damage.
Level 20:
Elemental Archon: At 20th level you may assume the form of the Elemental Archon. Your body begins to bristle with energy as you focus your deep inner reserves of power and bring them in harmony with the elements around you. Using your action you undergo this transformation. For 1 minute you gain the following benefits:
You gain resistance to fire, lightning, acid, thunder and cold damage.
When hit by an attack, you may use your reaction to cast a Paladin spell you know that has a casting time of 1 action
When using Divine Smite, you deal damage equal to 4d8 for a first level spell, plus an additional 2d8 for every spell slot greater than the first to a maximum of 10d8. This damage increases by 2d8 if the enemy is an Undead, Fiend, or Elemental.
Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.
Giving +1 to attack damage and AC seems...overmuch. Otherwise seems pretty neat.
Ghost_Gallus wrote:
You're missing a lot of stuff that makes it difficult to evaluate how your class would play.
Primarily, we need a paragraph detailing a hypothetical character with this class, as well as several lines that mirror descriptions of this class that'd ordinarily be found in the Paladin description. Additionally, we need a couple paragraphs actually explaining what this class option is supposed to be and how it fits into a game world. I assume this guy has a list of vows; we need those, too.
Aura of Enchantment - Would someone wielding a shield and wearing armor receive a +1 to both?
Elemental Master - Does this ability grant the power to cast Elemental Weapon at will, or does it merely strip concentration requirement and allow you to use it slightly faster than usual?
Ganymede425 wrote:
How long does the effect of an Aegis last? One minute? Until you use your reaction?
El_Karlos wrote:
I would reword Aura of Enchantment as follows:
Level 7:
Aura of Enchantment: You and friendly creatures within 10 feet are considered to be wielding +1 magic weapons and wearing +1 magic armor. Someone already wielding a magic weapon or wearing magic armor that gives a bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, or AC is not affected by that portion of this aura.
mellored wrote:
Ganymede425 wrote:
Xaspian wrote:
Xaspian wrote:
Looks really good so far, Mellored. As I mentioned over in the other thread, I really think you should give acid benefits if you're giving fire, cold, and lightning, as acid is definitely one of the big four of elemental energies (if it's not unbalancing):
- There are also a lot of arcane spells that use acid (Acid Splash, Chromatic Orb, etc.) so it's certainly not out of the question from a thematic standpoint.
- It seems out of place if the party was fighting, say, a black dragon, and the swordmage is like "Nope, my elemental abilities only cover fire, lightning and cold."
- Malec-Keth Janissary (4E Swordmage paragon path) gave choice of Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning bonus damage to your sword for it's Elemental Scourge abilitiy. Seems to fit a lot of what you're describing in your class.
On another note, instead of "Aegeas" I think you meant to write "Aegis," though they are both in fact Greek terms =)
miburo99 wrote:
Alright, here's my take on it...
Oath spells
lvl 1: Magic Missile, Shield
lvl 2: Mirror Image, Misty Step
lvl 3: Fireball, Haste
lvl 4: Fire Shield, Dimension Door
lvl 5: Mislead, Destructive Wave
** good selection, thematic.
Level 3:
Arcane Shielding: You can cast mage armor at-will.
** pratically useless since you wear armor... make it a free shield spell per short rest, or some damge absorbtion like the abjurer specialist.
Elemental Smite: When you use divine smite, or improved divine smite, you can choose to deal fire, lighting, acid, thunder, or cold damage instead of radiant.
** love it
Channel Divinty:
Aegis of Shielding: As a bonus action, you magicly mark a creature within 60' of you for 1 minute. If that creature deals damage to a creature other then yourself, and is withing 60' of you for 1 minute, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by 1/2.
** very paladin like
Aegis of Assault: As a bonus action, you magically mark a creature within 60' of you for 1 minute. If that creature deals damage to a creature other then yourself, and is withing 60' of you, you can use your reaction to teleport next to that creature, and make a melee attack against it.
** would fit vengence more, but still good
Aegis of Ensaring: As a bonus action, you magically mark a creature within 60' of you. If that creature attacks a creature other then yourself, and is withing 60' of you, you can use your reaction to teleport the creature next to you, and you become the target of the attack instead.
** now this is unique! my favorite of the 3.
** overall the whole Aegis is a nice feature, full of flavor.
Level 7:
Aura of Enchantment: You and friendly creatures within 30 feet gain a +1 bonus to AC, weapon attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, and their weapons and armor are considered to be magical.
** oki, now you need to tone that down, pick weapon, or armor. Items with +1 AC are really hard to come by (rare item, while weapon are only uncommon), i'll pick weapons...
Level 15:
Elemental Shield: If a creature within 30' of you is hit by fire, lighting, or cold damage, you can use your reaction to give them resistance to that damage.
** to little to late for a 15th level feature, crank it up!
Level 20:
Elemental Master: As a bonus action, you can cast Elemental Weapon at-will, as a level 3 spell, on a weapon you are holding. This does not take concentration, and ends if you let go of the weapon.
** that's it? 1d4 extra damge and +1 hit/ dam???
I agree with pupoochi, Elemental Master seems a bit weak. Especially since you already deal elemental damage with divine smite. Looks like most paladin oaths have a superpowered form at 20th level, might be nice to do something similar?
I think Elemental Shield is fine, although it should also add acid and thunder to the list of elements you can give resistance, and you should be able to give it to yourself as well (Actually, do you count as a creature within 30' of yourself? I guess so =P).
Also in retrospect, 3rd level has too many abilities for the Paladin archetype (all other oaths get only Channel Divinities at this level). I would drop the Mage Armor ability.
Wouldn't Eldritch Knight, as a melee class that supplements their weapon with defensive and offensive spells be a closer thematic match?
Rather than having to create and try to balance a completely new archetype?
Captain_Kobold wrote:
and this is why i made 2 
, an EK version, and a paladin one....
I really like this, and think you have done a great job with it.
I only saw a few things that I would look a little closer at, though:
First, isn't Destructive Wave on the Paladin spell list already as "Destructive Smite"? To my knowledge they are the same spell, but one of the entries was a typo. Maybe replace it with Hold Monster or Cone of Cold or something else thematic.
Second, rather than giving Mage Armor at will as a 3rd level ability, why not give a weapon bond similar to the Eldritch Knight or the Warlock? This was a pretty iconic ability for the Swordmage, and I honestly don't think a lot of people will use Mage Armor when the class comes with nice armor profenciencies.
Last, I'll mirror what a few others have said here and say that compared to the level 20 abilities of the other Paladin Oaths, Elemental Master seems a bit lackluster. What about something like:
Elemental Archon
At 20th level you may assume the form of the Elemental Archon. Your body begins to bristle with energy as you focus your deep inner reserves of power and bring them in harmony with the elements around you. Using your action you undergo this transformation.
For 1 minute you gain the following benefits:
You gain resistance to fire, lightning, acid, thunder and cold damage.
When hit by an attack, you may use your reaction to cast a Paladin spell you know that has a casting time of 1 action
When using Divine Smite, you deal damage equal to 4d8 for a first level spell, plus an additional 2d8 for every spell slot greater than the first to a maximum of 10d8. This damage increases by 2d8 if the enemy is an Undead or a Fiend. (If this is too much damage, than maybe consider having Divine Smite deal 5d8 and not consume a spell slot while the ability is active instead).
Once you use this feature you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.
Anyways, thats my take on it. I am really looking forward to trying this particular sublcass out sometime. Great work, and always a pleasure to read your ideas, Mellored.
Aelioran wrote:
miburo99 wrote:
Aelioran wrote:
I like it.
I like it. I also like Aelioran's Elemental Archon idea for the capstone. I think the point of mage armor is so that swordmages don't have to wear heavy armor.
Mechatarrasque wrote: