What are things or cool things you wanna see in a gish swordsman / sword and spell type class or play style?
>classfucking gayI like spellblades as villains, not as playable charactersalthough they can be fun if they're very glass cannon-ish
>>94840547>SpellbladeI want to be a strength-based caster, who throws anime/legend of zelda sword waves that cut enemies at range, through sheer vacuum force of my inhuman strength.I want my swinging the Berserk Dragonslayer around to be described as "you're too angry for square cube law"
>>94840738see, OP.This is really cool, but obviously wouldn't fucking work in a game with multiple players.
>>94840794I don't see why not. Casters get to tear the fabric of reality with their asscheeks, I can't do the impossible, see the invisible, row row fight da powah?
>>94840547Blackmoor Scholaress, the proto-D&D Ur-Gish who had full pace Magic User but traded direct damage spells for armor and sword use. I don't get why it's so hard for people to parse specializing each area of competence for only what the other can't do.
>>94840831>Casters get to tear the fabric of reality with their asscheeksstop playing shitty garbage games that allow that
>>94840831but a spellblade is a casterso you'd get to do "tear the fabric of reality with your asscheeks" plus whatever a swordman can do (which probably isn't anything cool, since you seem to be playing a trash system).
>>94840865Nah, I don't want to cast spells. I want to punch something so hard that the laws of physics can't handle it.
>>94840852>convince your group to let go of their 14 splat books and online appsThe "Have you tried not playing D&D?" is getting more and more annoying frankly. Yes. I fucking have tried not playing D&D, it's just that the fucking flea circus wasn't in town to game with me that weekend.
>>94840913self inflicted issue
>>94840894>>94840913If you want to keep playing 5e, then use the 5e solution: just play a caster, reflavor your spells as weapon attacks.Every cool thing in 5e is a spell anyway
>>94840738If you're a D&D 5e player, I'd suggest homebrewing the desired functionality into Supremacy Dice or Ki Points balanced against Pact Magic rather than crowbarring spellcasting into the martial framework. It may still demand a new base class to properly support, but simply dropping the pretense of realism in higher-level features doesn't have much issue.>>94840794I don't see an issue as long as the other players get comparable breadth and depth.>>94840852It's a pithy way of explaining what's pretty much the fundamental principle of sufficiently high powered magic. It's only garbage when you insist that the non-casting characters can't similarly outscale their realistic beginnings.>>94840865Collage of Blades Bard, Hexblade+Pact of the Blade Warlock, Bladedancer Wizard... 5e's pretty casual about competent swording on primary spellcasters.>>94840965The ability score in use is not a sound matter of reflavoring, and there's plenty of cases where the weapon's involvement is important.
>>94840965>reflavorAbsolute shit tier.Bladesinger gets to have a mini rage when using their blade song and Eldritch Knight is an even more bitch tier version of that with nothing unique or overly useful to show for it.I propose a complete redesign. Take the chopped up corpose of Arcane Archer and throw it and Eldritch Knight into the blender. You make a whole series of spells unique to the Eldritch Knight where its weapons are the casting foci based on armor/shields/bows with a few generic spells that work with most weapons.Now you have an Eldritch Knight that is unique and useful while still retaining the Fighter identity and Bladesinger continues to be gay as fuck.
>>94840547I want to be able to cast spells and attack on the same turn. Something like the Bladesinger's Extra Attack that allows them to replace one attack per turn with a spell. Eldritch Knight's War Magic sucks because you give up multiple Extra Attacks just to cast a single low-level spell.I also want to be able to channel spells through my weapons. I want to deliver a Fireball spell with a loosed arrow, or a Plane Shift spell with a sword strike. Kind of like a paladin's Smite spells, but as a class feature that can be applied to any spell.
>>94841080>Absolute shit tier.that's what you get for playing 5e
>>94841080You could probably have the gear-focus spells double as an action economy unfucking for Ranger, particularly if you're working off the Fighter baseline of exceptional attack volume.>>94841105The options for this in 3.X is rather comprehensive, with "Fireball by arrow" being how the Arcane Archer PRC there works. Which impressively retardedly offered no casting progression despite relying on it to operate.
>>94841105Magus Spell combat from Pathfinder would be more what you're looking for. Does exactly what you described.
>>94841076>The ability score in use is not a sound matter of reflavoring, and there's plenty of cases where the weapon's involvement is important.ability scores in d&d don't even make any sense anyway>>94841080>Absolute shit tier.Because 5e is an absolute shit tier game
>>94840547I like the Final Fantasy Swordmages types, they have regular elemental and energy spells like Fire I, II, III, IV but they can enchant/empower their weapon with those spells to deal the spell's effect. So you could cast Fire III and deal the damage of Fire III and stab/shoot someone. Or Dispel and now your weapon dispels a target.I've also been a big fan of summoning weapons, someone who can conjure floating weapons to fight along side you is really neat. Both of these can exist on the same character I think?
>>94847724I also think the origins of their powers can be fun to play with too. You could say you studied and trained to get these powers like your standard mage or you could say you had to make a deal or complete some task for these powers like a Witch or my favorite- magic weapons! You get these magical weapon focused powers after pulling a sword from its stone.All of these can be really fun and can make for interesting characters, narratives, and stories.
>>94840547off-brand Witcher
>>94847724>So you could cast Fire III and deal the damage of Fire III and stab/shoot someone. Or Dispel and now your weapon dispels a target.>I've also been a big fan of summoning weapons, someone who can conjure floating weapons to fight along side you is really neat. Both of these can exist on the same character I think?Dude, you are me.That's my D&D 3.5e Cleric right now.
>>94847870That's really cool, for me I have a 5e Sorcerer who can do that sorta thing. It works pretty well imo.
>>94847926Divine Soul Sorcerer for Spiritual Weapon, quickening melee cantrips, and the like, right?Funnily enough, my 3.5e Cleric uses Spiritual Weapon for the summoned flying sword too.In 5e 2024 Valor Bards get the Bladesinger Extra Attack right?That sounds like a fun way to do something like that too.
>>94847953I'm actually using a homebrew subclass for it, but Divine Soul Sorcerer can pull it off pretty okay. They just don't have the weapon profs and the Melee Cantrips don't quite hit the same feel for me.
>>94847953>In 5e 2024 Valor BardsThey do this sorta thing quite well at higher levels. Their 10th level Magical Secrets opens up a lot of options for spells they can nab to get a great Gish feel. Plus they can use their weapon as a focus for all of their spells>Magic That Empowers Weapons: Booming Blade, Green-Flame Blade, True Strike, Conjure Minor Elementals, Elemental Weapon>Magic That Conjures Weapons/Can be Flavored as Such: Sword Burst, Cloud of Daggers, Spiritual Weapon, Blade of Disaster, Spirit Guardians, Magic Missile, Spray of Cards, Blade Barrier, Insect Plague, Crown of Stars...probably more.
>>94840547I want proper integration of swordsmanship and magic. Not just "I have a spell in one hand and a sword in the other. I stab, then I zap. Sometimes I put the spell on the sword, and then when I stab you, you get zapped at the same time."
>>94847601>ability scores in d&d don't even make any sense anywayThey don't have to make sense to matter.
>>94848231Spellstrike is what you're looking for. Pathfinder's Magus does this.
>>94848231>>94841127>>94841177>>94847870>>94847953There's options for that.Hell, even something as simple as >https://dndtools.net/spells/players-handbook-ii--80/blade-of-blood--2991/Qualifies I think.
>>94848347The literacy of pathfinder fans, on display.
>>94848489Well what exactly are you looking for- for 'Proper Integration of Swordsmanship and Magic"
>>94848231What more could you really do without severely breaking the action economy? Specific spells you use with a sword instead of charging the sword with a generic spell?
