New Class: The Spellblade

[neceros]

Hey guys,

Anyone who's taken a look inside Tome of Secrets, by Adamant Entertainment knows of the awesomeness of the book. However, the classes section leaves some to be desired for me. I went ahead and remade the spellblade as I saw fit.

Here it is: http://www.neceros.com/files/Spellblade Revised.rtf

The rtf has tables and is formatted nicely, so I don't want to post it here and have to redo all that formatting. It's a quick download, though!

Please critique.

 

[Walt C]

Howdy! Thanks for purchasing the Tome of Secrets!

Interesting take

I just wanted to make a couple of points.

For those who bought the dead tree version at GenCon, there was an editing goof on the spellblade. The BAB should have been the cleric progression, as it is in neceros' version.

Secondly, I'd debated giving the spellblade armor and shield buffs, but ultimately I felt that it made him overpowered. The spellblade does have access to the mage armor spell.

I'd be interested in hearing how your version works in play!

 

[neceros]

Howdy! Thanks for purchasing the Tome of Secrets!

Interesting take

I just wanted to make a couple of points.

For those who bought the dead tree version at GenCon, there was an editing goof on the spellblade. The BAB should have been the cleric progression, as it is in neceros' version.

Secondly, I'd debated giving the spellblade armor and shield buffs, but ultimately I felt that it made him overpowered. The spellblade does have access to the mage armor spell.

I'd be interested in hearing how your version works in play!

Hey Walt!

Thanks for posting. Indeed I do l like the book a lot. My players are pushing me to allow a couple "Million Magic Items" rolls.

I wanted to ask which armor and shield you mean? The Arcane Shield class ability, or the respective spells, mage armor and shield?

One of my players is dying to play this class -- he's a mage blade/spellblade/eldritch knight nut. I'll come back and tell ya how it went!

 

[MerrikCale]

Personally, I like idea of a gish class that doesn't cast spells really or at least in a limited fashion. The runeblade for example seems like an interesting class. A warrior that instead of armor uses a mage armor ability and can enpower his weapon with various and increasingly more powerful enchantments

 

[SPECTRE666]

Duskblade, Swordmage, Soulknife hybrid. Works for me. Thanks.

 

[ruemere]

[...]
Please critique.

Disclaimer: I have just skimmed the class details. Please take my comments with a grain of salt.

1. Class hitdice and BAB do not follow standards for good (example: Fighters) nor medium (example: Clerics) progression.
There seems to be no reason to arbitrarily cripple BAB and subsequently significantly weaken this melee class.
With Fighter's hitdie (HD) and weakened BAB, the class appears to be pretty artificial tank (artificial tanks - pardon my MMORPG terminology - cRPG/MMORPG character meant only for taking damage and holding mob's aggro).

Advice: Either change BAB and HD to medium and add attack/damage buffs castable as swift action (example: Divine Favor with casting time changed to Swift action - remember, this class is unlikely to use Quicken spell feat) or change BAB/HD to those of a straight Fighter and add attack/damage buffs with standard casting times.

2. Arcane shield serves little purpose apart from flavor as the class needs no free hands to use spells and magic shields are easier to enchant properly. Yes, it's a force effect so it may come handy against incporeal touch opponents, but it's still not enough for a major class feature.

3. To balance the class properly, compare your class vs combo:
- Fighter 1, Wizard 5, Eldritch Knight 10: 11 fighter levels, 14 spellcaster levels, 8 feats, 4 bonus combat feats, Scribe Scroll, BAB 13


Regards,
Ruemere