Here are some released Swordmage powers gleamed from ENWorld:
At-Will Powers:Aegis of Shielding
Swordmage Feature
You create an arcane link between you and a foe, allowing you to instantly
respond to its attacks with a counterassault.
At-Will ✦ Arcane, Teleportation
Minor Action Close burst 2
Target: One creature in burst
Effect: You mark the target. The target remains marked until you use
this power against another target. If you mark other creatures using
other powers, the target is still marked. A creature can be subject to
only one mark at a time. A new mark supersedes a mark that was
already in place.
If your marked target makes an attack that doesn’t include you
as a target, it takes a ---2 penalty to attack rolls. If that attack hits and the attacker is within 10 squares of you, you can use an immediate
interrupt to reduce the damage dealt by that attack to any one
creature by 9 points.Booming Blade
Swordmage Attack 1
A field of sound punishes your enemy, and it becomes louder if your enemy
tries to escape.
At-Will ✦ Arcane, Thunder, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 5 damage, and if the target is adjacent to you at the start
of its turn and moves away, it takes 1d6 + 4 thunder damage.Sword Burst
Swordmage Attack 1
A sweep of your sword blasts those around you with force.
At-Will ✦ Arcane, Force, Implement
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: Each enemy in burst
Attack: +6 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + 4 force damage.Encounter Powers:
Chilling Blow
Swordmage Attack 1
Your blade rips into your foe and cold pulses from the wound, enveloping
your enemy’s body in a crust of frost.
Encounter ✦ Arcane, Cold, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: +9 vs. AC
Hit: 1d8 + 5 cold damage, and the target takes 4 cold damage each
time it attacks until the start of your next turn.Corrosive Ruin
Swordmage Attack 3
You spin your blade in a tight circle in front of you, assailing foes with a
spray of flesh-melting acid.
Encounter ✦ Acid, Arcane, Weapon
Standard Action Close blast 3
Target: Each creature in blast
Attack: +9 vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1d8 + 5 acid damage.Dimensional Warp
Swordmage Utility 2
You reach out with arcane power, and two of your nearby allies suddenly
wink out and reappear in each other’s places.
Encounter ✦ Arcane, Teleportation
Minor Action Close burst 3
Targets: You and one ally in burst or two allies in burst
Effect: Each target teleports into the other’s space. Both targets
must occupy the same size space, or the power fails.Daily Powers:
Frost Backlash
Swordmage Attack 1
As your enemy swings for the kill, your warding suddenly turns to ice and
lashes out at your foe with the fury of winter.
Daily ✦ Arcane, Cold, Weapon
Immediate Interrupt Melee weapon
Trigger: An adjacent creature hits you
Target: The creature that hit you
Attack: +9 vs. Reflex
Hit: 3d8 + 5 cold damage.
Miss: Half damage.Lingering Lightning
Swordmage Attack 5
Tendrils of bluish white lightning course from your blade to electrocute
your enemies.
Daily ✦ Arcane, Lightning, Weapon
Standard Action Ranged 5
Target: One, two, or three creatures
Attack: +9 vs. Reflex, one attack per target
Hit: 1d8 + 5 damage, and ongoing 5 lightning damage (save ends).
Miss: Half damage, and no ongoing damage
Full thread here.
Discuss!
Pretty cool. I'd have to see the rest of the powers, but on first glance, I'd play one.
Thanks for the preview/link/head's up.
Pretty cool. I'd have to see the rest of the powers, but on first glance, I'd play one.
Thanks for the preview/link/head's up.
Quite welcome. Two other tidbits from the thread:
Swordmages have a Warding that provides +Int bonus to AC. If knocked unconscious the Warding fades and has to be renewed with a Short Rest.
All Swordmage attacks so far SEEM to use Int as their stat.
All considered, seems a pretty solid Defender roled class. I like it! :)
Pretty cool. I'd have to see the rest of the powers, but on first glance, I'd play one.
Thanks for the preview/link/head's up.
I must say, I quite like their marking mechanic. It very activly protects others from the target's attacks, but in a very different way from the warrior.
The warrior controls the battlefield, preventing enimies from closing in to attack his companions, which the sword mage puts up a nice damage debuff onto the monster. Very intresting, especially the line about how it works with other powers that mark enimies.
**sword mage goodies**
I think its funny how we were jsut discussing this guy yesterday. This is all kinds of awesome. I wish we had another controller and leader type now though.
Powers look cool enough.
But the Swordmage seems very powerful compared to the Fighter.
The general meme I've gotten from people is that a Fighter is a Defender who is Striker-ish. A Paladin is a Defender who is Leader-ish. And a Swordmage is a Defender who is Controller-ish. Without the full class writeup, we really don't know a lot of basic things (for example, armor proficiencies?) or even what more than handful of powers are.
Hopefully though, WotC can avoid ratcheting up the power too much. Power creep is best to be avoided. ;)
Powers look cool enough.
But the Swordmage seems very powerful compared to the Fighter.
The general meme I've gotten from people is that a Fighter is a Defender who is Striker-ish. A Paladin is a Defender who is Leader-ish. And a Swordmage is a Defender who is Controller-ish. Without the full class writeup, we really don't know a lot of basic things (for example, armor proficiencies?) or even what more than handful of powers are.
Hopefully though, WotC can avoid ratcheting up the power too much. Power creep is best to be avoided. ;)
Yeah, I do not really want to hear for months how broken the class is.
On the int bonus to ac, it looks like in light armor they get 2x bonus to ac while they have their magic 'shield' up, nice!
Powers look cool enough.
But the Swordmage seems very powerful compared to the Fighter.
there seems to be a trade off in how the Swordmage does damage as opposed to the Fighter. The fighter has encounter and daily powers which do heavy damage to a single target, while the Swordmage has several area of effect attacks that don't do as much damage but hits several targets.
As Dave pointed out, that fits with the idea of the Fighter a defender with a skirmisher flavor, while the swordmage is a defender with a controller flavor.
A lot of people are complaining already about the 2*[Int mod] to AC bit over at EnWorld. I did some number crunching, assuming the same enhancement bonus across the board. At heroic and paragon tiers things were pretty even, but at epic the swordmage managed to eke ahead by a single point. Basically? He is ever so slightly better in the AC department.
Things to consider, however, are damage output, armor properties (dwarven, for example, is a free healing surge in every respect but is only applicable on chain and up. Battleforged armor likewise boosts your healing surge, but only works on plate. Angelsteel is only good for chain, and soulforged is only good on plate. All of those are excellent defender-style armors. You probably wont ever see a swordmage with those things.
Finally, this is just the iceberg of magic items. Wait til Adventurer's Vault and Martial Power comes out and see whats in there. Who knows? There could be feats or paragon paths that let you really blow the swordmage out of the water, assuming beating your friend's AC is your aim.
However, this makes sense from the standpoint that he is a defender, after all. AC should be his forte. Without doubling the Int bonus, he would fall drastically behind, and the gap would get much larger every couple of levels (by 30th-level, he would have a AC of 42-43 compared to everyone else's AC of 49 or so). This assumes that he upgrades to hide armor and takes Armor Specialization to get out 2 more points.
One drawback is that if you get knocked out, you take a big hit to your AC for (at least) the rest of the encounter. This can cause you go from having a somewhat above on par AC to below the line. How far depends on your level (the higher level the worse it gets).
How often will you get knocked out? I guess that really depends on your hit points. Constitution is a key point for them, but it'll depend in the end on your initial hit points, hit points per level, and healing surges per day.
Anyway, I agree that they seem more controller-ish. They get some nifty AoE attacks, sure, but they dont do as much damage. This is one reason that I could see people sticking with the original defenders. Each has a differing play style. Aegis of shielding seems pretty nifty, but you got to be careful with it: if you do that, then you cant trigger frost backlash since they are both immediate actions.
Yeah, I saw those posts too, Antioch, and thought overblown. This place seems much more relaxed about niggling rule issues like that, which is one reason I like it here (on the flipside, this place seems worse for random anti-4E people wandering by and letting us know exactly how they feel about the game, so its a mixed bag).
As for the shield thing, we're only assuming it is +Int again, I think. It could be a flat bonus, or some other formula as well, since this was all derived from a pregenned character, with all the math already added in.
Cheers! :)
From what I got its basically a way to keep rolling your Int mod to your AC no matter what, meaning that its a way to get your Dex and Int mod instead of just one, or I guess just double-stack your Int. Someone took apart the character's AC (20) once the character's level, armor, and stats were finally posted.
Base 10
+1 level
+3 Int
+3 aegis of shielding
+3 +1 surge leather
Total: 20
So, it makes sense. Does it make the class utterly "zOMGs!?" broken? I dont think so. Yeah, he's a bit ahead in the AC department, but not by much. It doesnt look like he'll be dishing out loads of damage to single targets, and I have a feeling his hit points and Fort Defense will be slightly behind the curve as well: he gets a little, but he gives a little.
The end result? I find myself wanting to play all three, still. Like you said, the fighter seems more striker-ish, the paladin more leader-ish, and this guy more controller-ish. Thats not a bad thing. The ranger and rogue have the same role AND power source, but both appeal to me in different ways. I dont think this is gonna be any different.
However, time will tell how well the swordmage matches up once more source books brimming with gear and powers come out.
No, I agree, I think it is a way for a Swordmage to always apply their Int to their AC. But we don't know for sure ... it might be something like +3 in Heroic/+something else in Paragon. I don't think the pregen explicitly said it gave +Int, but maybe I'm wrong (as an aside, have you seen any copies of the sheet? I'd be interested in checking it out myself!)
I'm HOPING that someone will put up a scan, somewhere. :-(
I'm HOPING that someone will put up a scan, somewhere. :-(
Lol, same here. When did Origins end exactly? Maybe people are still decompressing ...
I'm HOPING that someone will put up a scan, somewhere. :-(Lol, same here. When did Origins end exactly? Maybe people are still decompressing ...
This is what I found....
Rules of Writing
By James Wyatt
Writing my Eberron trilogy, The Draconic Prophecies, has been an interesting process, in part because my work on the trilogy has pretty well coincided with my work as one of the lead designers for the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons -- which (in case you hadn't heard) went on sale the same day as Dragon Forge: June 6. I started writing Storm Dragon in June 2006, by which time we'd finished the first draft of the 4th Edition rules, but I still had a long way to go. When I sat down to write about a Siberys heir of House Lyrandar, my mind was still pretty firmly in 3rd Edition rules, and I created statistics for him using those rules. Here's a fleshed-out version of what those stats looked like.
Gaven (of House Lyrandar) CR 14
hp 79 (14 HD)
Male half-elf duskblade 12/heir of Siberys 2
N Medium humanoid (elf)
Init +0; Senses low-light vision; Listen +1, Spot +1
Languages Common, Elven, Draconic, Undercommon
AC 15, touch 10, flat-footed 15
Fort +12, Ref +7, Will +12
Speed 30 ft. (6 squares)
Melee greatsword +17 (2d6+4)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +13; Grp +17
Atk Options arcane channeling, spell power +3 (+3 to penetrate SR of target he has injured)
Special Actions quick cast 2/day
Duskblade Spells Known (CL 13th):
4th (2/day) -- fire shield
3rd (6/day) -- crown of might, crown of protection, energy surge, protection from energy
2nd (9/day) -- deflect, seeking ray, sure strike, swift fly
1st (10/day) -- Bigby's tripping hand, burning hands, shocking grasp, swift expeditious retreat, true strike
0 (6/day) -- acid splash, disrupt undead, ray of frost, touch of fatigue
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 13th):
1/day -- storm of vengeance (CL 15th)
5/day total -- dancing lights, detect magic, flare, ghost sound, read magic
Abilities Str 18, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 8
SQ armored mage (medium, heavy shield), spell power +3
Feats Combat Casting [B], Cleave, Combat Expertise, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (greatsword)
Skills Climb +21, Concentration +9, Jump +21, Knowledge (arcana) +10, Spellcraft +11, Swim +13
Possessions chain shirt, greatsword
What's important in these rules, from the novelist's perspective, is not the numbers, but just having some idea of what Gaven can do. He's a duskblade -- a guy with a sword and medium armor who also casts arcane spells. He has the Siberys Mark of Storm, which lets him use storm of vengeance as a spell-like ability once per day. If you've read Storm Dragon, you've seen him use fire shield (quite a lot) and use his arcane channeling ability to put a shocking grasp spell into his greatsword. He also uses the power of his dragonmark, most notably in the fight against displacer beasts near the beginning of the book. I don't think he ever used ghost sound or most of the other spells on his list.
As Gaven progresses through the action of Storm Dragon, his powers expand and change. He walks the Sky Caves of Thieren Kor and gains a much deeper understanding of the Prophecy, which awakens new power in him -- the power of the Storm Dragon. I never designed rules for that transformation, and in fact I let it become an excuse not to cling to the rules. Gaven channels the power of the storm in a way that has nothing to do with the storm of vengeance spell-like ability, and he does it more than once per day. He pilots a Lyrandar airship, which technically he shouldn't be able to do. Clearly, he's special.
By the time I finished writing Dragon Forge, 4th Edition was a lot farther along -- in fact, I turned over the first draft of the novel and a mostly finished Monster Manual in the same week. As you read this book, you'll see 4th Edition very clearly in some ways, including characters of three races that have new prominence in the new edition: dragonborn, tiefling, and eladrin. You won't, however, see rules changes coming through in the story. Gaven's capabilities don't change, and I never did a 4th Edition stat block for Gaven . . . until now.
The truth is, there's a world of difference between playing D&D and writing a novel set in a D&D world. The rules of the game certainly inform the writing, but they can't limit it. The rules are there to maintain balance in the game, to keep characters on par with each other and with the monsters they're fighting. A novel serves an entirely different purpose, where fairness and parity aren't at stake. What matters is telling a good story with some exciting action.
In working up Gaven's stats in 4th Edition terms, I find myself playing much more fast and loose with the rules. You can call it artistic license, but partly it's the different design philosophy of the new edition -- I'm treating Gaven more like a monster than a character who has to follow the rules to the letter. Partly, too, it's because we haven't designed the duskblade class yet or finished the rules for Eberron's dragonmarks, so I'm doing some design as I go.
For simplicity's sake, I'm going to make Gaven a fighter with multiclass wizard feats, so his powers are a mixture of fighter powers, wizard powers, and dragonmark powers coming from his Heir of Siberys paragon path. Let's see what he looks like.
Gaven (of House Lyrandar) Level 21
Half-elf fighter/Heir of Siberys/Storm Dragon
At-Will Attack Powers
Reaping Strike (Fighter 1, Player's Handbook 77)
Cleave (Fighter 1, Player's Handbook 77)
Encounter Attack Powers
Thunderwave (Wizard 1, Player's Handbook 159)
Reckless Strike (Fighter 7, Player's Handbook 80)
Storm of Blows (Fighter 13, Player's Handbook 82)
Swordshock (Swordmage 17, Forgotten Realms Player's Guide)
Lightning Blast (Heir of Siberys 11, based on lightning bolt [Wizard 7, Player's Handbook 162])
Daily Attack Powers
Victorious Surge (Fighter 9, Player's Handbook 81)
Dragon's Fangs (Fighter 15, Player's Handbook 82)
Reaving Strike (Fighter 19, Player's Handbook 84)
Storm of Vengeance (Heir of Siberys 20, based on astral storm [Cleric 29, Player's Handbook 72])
Utility Powers
Boundless Endurance (Daily; Fighter 2, Player's Handbook 78)
Unbreakable (Encounter; Fighter 6, Player's Handbook 80)
Into the Fray (Encounter; Fighter 10, Player's Handbook 81)
Fire Shield (Encounter; Wizard 16, new)
Storm Flight (Heir of Siberys 12, based on fly [Wizard 16, Player's Handbook 165])
Str 22 (+16) Dex 16 (+13) Wis 14 (+12)
Con 20 (+15) Int 16 (+13) Cha 14 (+12)
It turns out I really don't care about Gaven's numbers anymore, although I set a level for him and ability scores that are considerably higher than they were before. I set his level higher for two reasons. First, because the 4th Edition scale is different than the previous edition's (30 levels instead of 20), and putting Gaven at low epic level puts him on a par with the monsters we've already seen him fighting -- a powerful mind flayer and a Huge dragon, for example. The second reason is that I'm sure Storm Dragon must be an epic destiny, though I have no idea at this point what it's giving him in rules terms. The higher level translates to higher ability scores, which actually feels more like the Gaven I've been writing -- a 22 Strength squares better with his reputation for great physical strength.
What I do care about is Gaven's powers -- again, getting an idea of what he's capable of doing. He's a greatsword-wielding fighter with a dash of arcane power. His fighter powers are a lot of brutal attacks, pushing foes around, hitting hard, and drawing on his body's enormous physical reserves. I cheated a bit and gave him a swordmage power from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (which is due to hit stores in September 2008), because sheathing his sword in lightning is something Gaven does all the time. Similarly, I pretended that there's a wizard utility spell called fire shield, since Gaven uses that all the time as well. Otherwise, I chose wizard powers that fit with his overall theme, and invented powers for his dragonmarked paragon path that were in line with the things we've seen him do.
This isn't an exact replica of the character you'll see as you read Dragon Forge. It does, I hope, underscore a point I've been making about converting characters from 3rd Edition to 4th: Your character isn't the numbers on the character sheet. A character is a person in your mind: all the personality and motivation and the general concept of what that person can do. A character in a novel is the same thing -- the guy on the pages who talks and fights and loves and grows.
The character sheet is a way of representing that character's capabilities within the rules of the game. When the rules change, the character sheet changes as well. But the character doesn't have to. If Gaven changes, it's because of his growth and development through the course of this trilogy, not because the rules change. His changing statistics might have some effect on the way I think about what he does in the books, but what's most important to me as I write about him is who he is -- not his ability scores, not his feats or powers, but the person I imagine him to be.
|
Hmm, let me clarify my statement.
I fear that the Swordmage, due to b able to affect many creatures at once might be more effective in encounters than the Fighter.
Keep in mind that 4th encounters are designed with groups of enemies in mind.
Will the this trade-off between slightly less damage to more creatures that can be affected not weaken the Fighter as a Class?
Especially if you build a defending fighter with a shield and one-handed weapon?
But as we do not know all of the Swordmage yet, I will not cry havoc yet.
We will see how it turns out.
Keep in mind that 4th encounters are designed with groups of enemies in mind.
Well they can be, if a DM wants to only throw single Big Bad Guys at his pcs the math still works, it would just get a little boring.
But for a real world example I just look at the (damage) wizard and the warlock in my game. It is true that the wizard is better at cleaning out the minions but the warlock still really shines after the first few rounds of a fight where the wizard is just magic missileing over and over (and running away) while the warlock is still laying down some heavy smack and getting more and more targets cursed. And they have only faced 1 solo monster, most are 'standard' 4+ enemy encounters. Add in the danger of using aoe when your party is mixed in with the monsters and AOE != better all the time.