We are formerly Geeks New England. If you came here looking for their Swordmage, you've found it!
Spellsword. Battlemage. Magus. There are a lot of different names to describe characters who wield martial weapons and arcane spells in tandem. This class concept is a personal favorite of mine, and though 5e has a lot of options to bring players close to the concept (like the eldritch knight or bladesinger), neither is the true arcane half-caster that most people wish existed.
My class, which I've named the Swordmage in honor of the 4e class, takes a few cues from that edition, including the strong weapon bond and the third level abilities that two of the archetypes receive. But it's also something a bit new, and borrows some mechanics from Pathfinder's magus class. While designing it I tried to keep it similar to the paladin, which many already feel is a fantastic example of a half-caster and a sort of divine sister class to what a swordmage would be. But I also tried to make it different. Instead of the ability to sense divine beings and undead, the swordmage can sense the presence of magic. 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.
The four subclasses presented are designed to reflect the ways I feel a weapon-bonding arcane fighter would choose to focus their abilities.
The battlemage is the heavy-armored battle wizard. They are designed to take punishment and simultaneously dish it out with spell-and-swordplay, and can help their allies by making an enemy more inclined to attack them.
The eldritch archer can do many of the things that other swordmages can do but at a longer range. Arcane Archer may be an official fighter subclass in Xanathar's Guide to Everything, but I find it to be a disappointing take on the idea of a magical archer.
The shieldbearer is inspired partially by various shield-wielding heroes in popular media. Shieldbearers can bond to shields as well as standard weapons, allowing them to turn what is normally a purely defensive item into an offensive one.
The spellsword is more a lightly armored skirmisher, and focused on attacking enemies with arcanely-powered sword strikes. They are better able to unload spells into a target with their weapon and can teleport short distances to take advantage of an opponent's openings.
Please, as I always ask, critique and comment. It's taken a lot of time to design this class, with a lot of input and opinions from around the Internet.
This work is part of the collections of the Arcane Athenæum. Check out our other works below.
The Artificer class
The Dragon Shaman class
The Ranger (Revised) class
The Sorcerer (Revised) class
The Barbarian: Path of the Wild Soul subclass
The Druid: New Druidic subclasses
The Monk: Way of the Mystic Force subclass
The Paladin: Oath of Freedom subclass
The Savage and the Striker: Dual Wielding subclasses
The Sorcerer: Frozen Heart and Phoenix Sorcery subclasses
The Warlock: Great Wyrm subclass
The Wizard: Blue Magic and Sangromancy subclasses
The Sharkfolk player race
The Treant player race
Crafting Magic Items: A Guide to Artifice
The Draconomicon for 5e
The Explorer's Guide to the Wilderness
Recent Changes:
Version 5.0 18Apr2021
Overall
- A new subclass has been added! The shieldbearer, inspired in part by characters such as Captain America and The Rising of the Shield Hero. In theory, the shieldbearer plays as a semi offensive/semi-defensive front-line striker. Compared to the battlemage, the shieldbearer is less focused on defending allies and acting as a protective tank. Instead, it focuses on buffing its own defenses and utilizing a shield in unique ways. The spells and features you get access to can also help turn an enemy's defenses into a benefit for yourself, and at higher levels you can use your bonded shield to cast wall-like spells (or, due to a fun accident in terminology, bypass some entirely).
- Reworded a number of features to make their use and certain situations a bit more clear.
- Created a new Optional Class Features section at the end of the main class description, and before the subclasses. This is done to help keep the class as a whole in line with all other classes; if your DM doesn't want to use any of the optional features in Tasha's Cauldron of Anything, then by all rights I don't believe the swordmage should be able to use those kinds of features either. Thus the new fighting styles they have access to are kept separated for that reason.
- The battlemage and eldritch archer have had their subclass spells altered a bit, to better fit their intended combat/party roles and distinguish them from other subclasses.
- A few new spells have been added to the class' spell list, including spells from Tasha's.
Battlemage
- In the War Mage feature, changed the line that prevented you from making a bonus action attack if you made a weapon attack in the same turn, to now only prevent the bonus action attack if you used a Spell Strike. The reason for this is simple; the feature lets you make a weapon attack if you cast a spell with your action, but it is also meant to reward you for successfully concentrating on a spell while in the midst of battle. Not letting you make weapon attacks and still gain the benefit would be pointless, since besides casting a spell there aren't many other things you can do with your action besides attack.
Spellsword
- Modified the Arcane Counter ability a bit; now you can use it immediately when an enemy attacks an ally, interrupting their attack and giving the enemy disadvantage on its attack against your friend. This makes it a more reliable and defensive ability, not just offensive. As part of this change, the feature was given an Int-mod limit so it cannot be used an unlimited number of times.
- The Recursive Strike feature has been reworked a bit. Rather than letting you Spell Strike with one attack (as normal) and then letting you make a bonus action attack only if that attack missed, now you can essentially take the normal Attack action (letting you, as a 7th level Swordmage, make two attacks) when you Spell Strike. You can then apply the Spell Strike to ONE of any of these successful attacks. Then, any other attacks you make with that action are just normal attacks. This allows for a bit more freedom, and lets the subclass feel a bit more like the swingy-focused, magic-enhanced attacker that it is. Note that you should declare whether you will release your Spell Strike after a successful hit before you move on to make another attack. If you end up running out of attacks in that one action without releasing your Spell Strike, the magic will fade and the spell slot is lost. So if you have two attacks you can make, and you don't release the spell on the first hit, and then the second hit misses, you've missed your chance to use your Spell Strike. If you had the ability to make another attack with another action, such as if you multi-classed into fighter and burn an Action Surge, you would have to spend a new spell slot to Spell Strike again.
- The Enhanced Counter feature has been improved to allow you to attempt a Spell Strike with the reaction attack that you make when you use your Arcane Counter feature. This change, along with the change to Recursive Strike, is meant to better balance this subclass against the other subclasses and establish it as the quintessential "good at Spell Strikes" subclass.
Version 4.1 27Aug2020
Overall
- Shield proficiency has been added to the class's armor proficiency. After some thought, I reasoned that there's no reason why the class as a whole shouldn't be able to use shields; either you're going to be bonding with a weapon that doesn't allow for shield use anyway (bows, two-handed weapons), you'll be utilizing a combat or character concept that doesn't use one, or you'll use one but the class fantasy is maintained regardless (nothing wrong with a spellsword using a buckler and a rapier, for example; actually that's quite flavorful as an arcane swashbuckler). As a result, Battlemage loses its particular shield proficiency.
Version 4.0 13Nov2019
Overall
- Arcane Infusion has been reworked. After years- wait a minute *checks calendar* yup; years of people bringing it up, we've moved the 10th level feature (which let you make your infusion an element besides force) to the base arcane infusion feature. Now, your infusion is force as a base, but you can change it to any other damage type (except bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing) so long as you know a spell that can deal that damage type. This represents you having the knowledge to wield that element. Yes, this also makes Chromatic Orb a particularly good spell if you want to be able to change your infusion on the fly. But it's not necessary; force is arguably the "strongest" damage type in the game already.
- As a result of the above change, there is a new 10th level feature; when you successfully hit a target with your Spell Strike feature (regardless of whether or not they pass any hypothetical save), the next attack made against that target before the end of your next turn has advantage. Help yourself or your allies hit better.
- Arcane Infusion has also been changed to no longer vanish on your weapon leaving your hand; the infusion now remains unless the weapon has "been away from you" for longer than a minute, similar to how the Pact of the Blade Warlock's weapons work.
- With inspiration from the new UA that was released on Nov 4, we've added a new fighting style. Arcane Warrior allows you to pick two wizard cantrips, either giving you some utility, a magical ranged attack, or maybe something like booming blade or lightning lure. This is actually a really cool and flavorful way to give half-casters cantrips that I like a lot; it's literally part of your fighting style.
- Additionally, speaking of that UA, a note has been added opening up the option to pick from the expanded fighting styles and spell versatility enhancements for the Swordmage assuming your DM allows you to use that UA. Naturally if you're party's bard isn't allowed to take their spell versatility, you can't either.
Battlemage
- Hardened Mind has been changed to 1/2 your Intelligence modifier (rounded up) rather than full Intelligence. Because you have natural proficiency with Con saves, full Intelligence mod had the potential to get exceptionally powerful. Especially when the War Caster feat is considered which is a very common feat for any gish to take. It also now specifies that you do get this bonus when making a concentration check to maintain your Arcane Aegis.
Version 3.4 23May2019
Overall
- The class's starting equipment has been modified a bit again, granting either an additional extra martial weapon or two simple weapons. The reason for this change is combat balance; despite the class fantasy of having one bonded weapon which acts as the fulcrum of the swordmage's powers, realistically a player will want to have a fallback weapon just in case it is needed. Granted, due to the way the bonded weapon works, having your weapon removed from you is extremely unlikely, but this does offer some flexibility in what you want to bring to a battle if you can plan ahead of time.
Version 3.3 14May2019
Overall
- The class’s saving throws have been changed from Dexterity and Intelligence to Constitution and Intelligence, as Constitution applies more broadly to all of the subclasses. With Dexterity, Battlemage tended to find itself with a saving throw that wasn’t necessarily appropriate for it. But all subclasses benefit from Constitution proficiency, and it works well for a martial fighter (which the Swordmage half-is).
- The starting equipment has been altered to provide more options. A Swordmage intending to be a ranged fighter could take some kind of ranged weapon, but RAW they were given no ammunition to use with it. With this change, the class defaults to a longbow, the “intended” weapon for an eldritch archer, much in the same way Rangers default to longbows, but I would imagine any reasonable DM would let you swap for a crossbow or something if you’d prefer.
- Animal Handling and Survival have both been removed from the class’s list of potential skills, as they weren’t quite appropriate for the class fantasy as an arcane fighter.
- The Spell Strike feature has received a change to its wording. It now specifies that spells which have an AoE only effect the target, and if your Intelligence is somehow too low to have a positive modifier, you get a minimum of 1 use of spell strike regardless. No change otherwise.
- The addition of a skill has been removed from the Multiclassing proficiencies, as only certain classes provided a skill when you multiclass into it (Bards, Rangers, and Rogues). These three classes tend to be the ones with the most skills, and the ones which focus most on being skill-focused, which the Swordmage is not intended to be. And so you do not gain any skill proficiencies when you multiclasss into Swordmage now.
Battlemage
- War Mage has been altered. Instead of being identical to the Eldritch Knight’s Improved War Magic feature, you can now make a weapon attack as a bonus action if you cast a spell as an action OR are concentrating on a spell, the channeled magic increasing your martial capabilities in a similar way to how War Magic wizards become harder to hit while they are concentrating. Note that, for balance reasons, you cannot use this bonus action attack in the same turn that you make a weapon attack; so you can't use your action to Extra Attack and then bonus action strike, or to make a Spell Strike and then bonus action attack. We'll revisit this if we find that it's overly limiting.
Version 3.2 18Apr2019
Overall
- Magic Sense got changed last version, but that was actually not using the proper language for what we were hoping to accomplish with the feature. It's been rebalanced a bit; with this change you can't sense magic items behind total cover, such as a doorway or a barrier. But, you can sense objects hidden on a person, like in a pocket or hidden in an article of clothing. And some other rules explaining what else can block the sense. The intention is that you're using this to either get a quick sense at how many magic items a person may have on their person, or give a cursory glance over an item that you are looking at and gain some useful information about it (like, is it even magical in the first place). The feature was not meant to give you a large radius of super-magic sense that would let you pick up whether there's an item in another floor of someone's home, for instance.
Version 3.1 14Apr2019
Overall
- We've made some balance changes to the class as a whole, and altered the design intention of the subclass-specific bonus spells.
- Magic Sense has been reworked. Instead of being a free, double-ranged Detect Magic, magic sense now allows you to sense the presence of magic items within a 60 foot range. If you do sense an item in this way, you can also tell what rarity the item is, from common all the way up to artifact. This ties into the Swordmage's fluff of being an arcane martial class which bonds with and utilizes the magics held within weapons. Your magic sense allows you to sense the presence of these weapons, and how powerful they are.
- Arcane Infusion has been changed a bit as well, as far as its damage output goes. Still lasts 10 minutes, but now instead of the damage being equal to the spell slot used (which resulted in a range of 1-5 damage) it is 1 + the spell slot used, up to a max of 4. This results in infusion damage from 2-4. This makes even lower-level slots more useful, as even using a 1st level slot gives you 2 extra damage on each hit instead of just one. It caps at 4 damage instead of 5 because we found that 5 extra damage an attack, combined with spell strikes, got a bit too powerful for our tastes. We may revisit that in the future, but for now this means using a 4th or 5th level slot gives you no benefit over using a 3rd level slot for infusion. This does also mean you get to play with your higher level spell slots a bit more, rather than feeling like you need to spend your highest ones on infusion damage.
- The class's spell list has been played with a bit. Lost spells include comprehend languages and illusory script (which we felt were utility-based ritual spells that had less of a place with a martial-focused class like the Swordmage). Spells like longstrider and far step were also removed from the spell list, as they were changed to be subclass-unique bonus spells. A few other spells were added to the spell list, such as detect magic now that magic sense works differently. Rather than listed every change, you can check out the spell list for yourself and see if a spell you had been using has been lost or not.
Battlemage
- The bonus spells granted by this subclass have been changed. Now, Battlemages learn protection from evil and good, warding bond, enemies abound, Otiluke's resilient sphere, and circle of power. This mixture of spells better enhances the battlemage's role as a tank and protector of its allies.
Eldritch Archer
- The bonus spells granted by this subclass have been changed. Now, Eldritch Archers learn zephyr strike, cordon of arrows, wind wall, elemental bane, and swift quiver. This mixture of spells better enhances the eldritch archer's role as a long-range archer and caster. Zephyr Strike allows for great positioning, while wind wall is a spell which takes advantage of the subclass's phasing shot feature to allow them to attack behind a unique form of cover.
- The subclass's capstone feature Eldritch Accuracy has been reworded, hopefully to make it a bit more clear how it works. It's not a complicated feature; I just want to ensure no one will get confused about how much of a bonus you get to hit or can I have extra damage and the bonus to hit at the same time? (The answer is no, btw; it's one or the other). Your Arcane Infusion feature can either deal extra damage OR grant a bonus to hit rolls made with your bonded weapon. And both values are the same; for example, if you used a 2nd-level spell slot for your Arcane Infusion, the infusion's extra damage would be +3 OR you get a +3 bonus to hit; you choose when you apply the infusion and can swap between these two effects with another bonus action on your turn.
Spellsword
- The bonus spells granted by this subclass have been changed. Now, Spellswords learn longstrider, blur, haste, freedom of movement, and far step. Each of these spells better enhances the spellsword's role as a quick skirmisher who likes to dart in and out of combat, deal damage, and move away again. Do note that a spellsword can still learn zephyr strike from their class's spell list, which is also a fantastic spell for them, and combos really well with longstrider.
For a full changelog, click here.