#wizardweek One of the discussions earlier today sparked my interest, so without further ado, i present: The Battlemage!
When you learn the secrets of blending sword and spell, you can take this move when you level up:
Arcane Swordsman
You have a new stat called ARCANA, which looks like this:
SWORD: +1-0-+1 :SPELL
When you roll a 10+ to hack and slash, you have +1 Spell Forward. When you roll a 10+ to cast a spell, you have +1 Sword Forward.
When you are an arcane swordsman, the following count as class moves; you can take them when you level up:
Mage Armor
When you roll a 10+ to cast a spell in battle, you can treat it as a 7-9 to conjure a suit of magical armor around you until the end of the battle. The armor is 0 weight, +INT armor, and gives a +1 to defy danger against magical effects.
War Wizard
Choose a number of spells you know equal to your INT. Work with the GM to give them an additional capability suitable for battle; for example, maybe alarm stuns whatever crossed the circle for a few valuable seconds, or minor damage doesn’t break the effects of charm person.
Spellsword
You can channel a damaging spell into your weapon, treating the spell as ongoing (-1 Ongoing to cast a spell) but dealing +1d4 damage while stored. In addition, any applicable effects of the weapon (holy, wreathed in flames, etc.) influence the spell when cast; icy magic missiles, for example.
Carnage-Fueled
Battlefields after a bloody conflict always count as places of power for you to perform rituals.
I like this a lot, but I’m a little confused by Spellsword. You cast the spell into the sword, giving bonus damage with said sword, until you choose to unleash the spell, at which point the sword boosts the spell (assuming the sword has magic of its own). Am I correct in my grasping of this?
So what is Arcana used for?
Also it’s really hard to do a Sword&Spell Wizard in DW i think. I tried multiple times and failed. The d4 damage and low HP really work against you…
War Wizard should be the main move for this i think Carnage-fuled should be kept as well. Mage Armor is okay i think but i don’t know how it interacts with spell-defense etc. Could be a spell?
I would probarbly try to give the Wizard more utility in battle instead of extra fighting powers.
(also think about if this is “broken” if a fighter takes these moves because of multiclassing)
Jarrah James yes you are correct. I’ll see if I can’t clarify that more.
Tim Franzke what if Arcane Swordsman helped out with that? Like, if your hp was less than 8+Constitution, make it so. In addition, when you have +1 Sword, you deal +1d4 damage? Idk, I’m just brainstorming.
I put a combo on HP and base DMG when taking multi class moves and would do the same for any compendium class that blends flavors more toward the middle line between two classes.
I used a two step difference rule where a d4 and d10 blend influence either toward the other. A d6 and d10 go to d8 from either base for example.
Its worked for us and it feels like it accommodates the different styles.