Humble beginnings…
#Swordmage
Swordmage Conjuring Style
You can conjure and dismiss a magical sword at will. It has the close tag. Choose a conjuring style from the list below:
Damoclean Style – Your summoned blade is huge! It has the reach, messy and forceful tags.
Hades Style – Your summoned blade is fire made manifest! It has the piercing 2 and precise tag.
If you chose the Damoclean Conjuring Style, you get the following move:
Sword Rain
When you invoke the power of the Falling Blade titanic swords fall from above, skewering your foes with impunity. Roll+STR. On a hit you litter the battlefield with sharp blades and deal damage to everything within near range. On a 7-9 allies in your vicinity are also put in danger from the falling blades.
If you chose the Promethean Conjuring Style you get the following move:
Hades Assault
You can become flame incarnate, capable of dashing at tremendous speeds, fast enough even to take flight for a short amount of time. When you dash while invoking the fires of the Nether choose a destination at near or far range and roll+DEX. On a hit you deal your damage to everyone in your path and arrive at your destination. On a 7-9 you also choose 1:
– You open yourself to an attack from anyone in your path.
– The Nether demands a tribute. You take -1 for as long as you deny it its request.
– You leave a destructive trail of fire that spreads beyond your control.
Arcane Shielding
So long as you have a free hand you take +INT armor. When you weave a shielding spell defy dangerous magic you roll+INT.
A base class or compendium class?
Base class
The attack moves seem very playstyle-sensitive. Some groups won’t know who’s in range and who isn’t, particularly for Hades Assault where the attack’s area is defined by a path.
What I’d be most interested in is class moves that define how the class plays out of battle, too. What makes the swordmage an interesting guy, rather than just an interesting combatant.
Shreyas Sampat _Technically_ these moves are just hardcoded spells without a “cast a spell” move.
Out Of Combat are of course important, but I wanted to get some feedback on the Combat moves first.
Shreyas Sampat Curiously though, what kind of “out of combat” moves define a Swordmage?
Basically, this was supposed to be a “substitute” class for the fighter, which only has a “hulk smash” move for out of combat situations. Except for the racial moves maybe, but that’s only the halfling and the dwarf.
Tim Franzke
Sword Rain should have the “allies in danger” clause as a 7-9. Makes it less confusing.
Good point. Fixed
Kasper Brohus Allerslev I dunno for sure, but as a character who has a special ability to conjure a(n effectively) magical weapon, I could see some special ways to interact with magical objects, for example.
Some of that will come from the way you choose the stats for core class moves – you have three stats called out by Arcane Shielding and the Conjuring Styles, so that implies three different ways to focus your character – but I think there is room for a unique way for the character to interact with the world.