5e Sword Mage (PEACH)

[DracoKnight]

Disclaimer: This sword mage is not based on any previous incarnation of D&D's sword mage.

So, this (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B66RprYE6_HHM1RvSkRPbEp0VWs/view?usp=sharing) is the class I decided to homebrew for JNA's Homebrew contest :D

[JNAProductions]

Why Charisma?

Alright, Arcane Strike, is basically just smite. Why bonus damage against fey, fiends, and undead? And why is the maximum higher than a Paladin smite?

Why Evasion?

Improved Arcane Strike is, again, Improved Smite.

Soul of the Arcane is crazy good.

Perfect Arcane Strike is Improved Smite 2, Electric boogaloo.

Warrior's recovery is ridiculous. You're basically tripling their spells per day. That's just insane, even as a capstone.

Overall... It's kinda overpowered. It's like a Paladin+, though it's less team oriented. And being a bit better than some PHB classes wouldn't be too bad, except it's better than the Paladin, probably the best class in the PHB.

As for the various subclasses... Snore. They're not bad, they're just boring.

[DracoKnight]

Why Charisma?

No particular reason. I personally really like Charisma casters. I appreciate the studious flavor of the wizard, or the wise meditations of the cleric; but there's something to be said about imposing your will on the multiverse by your own force of personality.


Alright, Arcane Strike, is basically just smite. Why bonus damage against fey, fiends, and undead? And why is the maximum higher than a Paladin smite?

Yes, it is basically Smite. Ah, oops. My brain must've been on autopilot; it was supposed to be fey and abberrations. And the 6d8 was my finger hitting the wrong key :P


Why Evasion?

This is a class feature that I honestly feel more DEX based classes should get.


Improved Arcane Strike is, again, Improved Smite.

Yes.


Soul of the Arcane is crazy good.

Monks get the same, with less resource cost.


Perfect Arcane Strike is Improved Smite 2, Electric boogaloo.

Yes.


Warrior's recovery is ridiculous. You're basically tripling their spells per day. That's just insane, even as a capstone.

Okays. How would you fix it? Maybe 1st and 2nd level spells back on short rest?


Overall... It's kinda overpowered. It's like a Paladin+, though it's less team oriented. And being a bit better than some PHB classes wouldn't be too bad, except it's better than the Paladin, probably the best class in the PHB.

Okays. Are there any ways you would bring the power down a tad?


As for the various subclasses... Snore. They're not bad, they're just boring.

How would you spice them up?

[DracoKnight]

I've update the OP, correcting the mistakes that JNA caught.

[DracoKnight]

Are there any other critiques, or ways to make the subclasses more interesting?

[ZenBear]

This is seriously overpowered. You've essentially made a Monk/Paladin/Eldritch Knight gestalt with some extra goodies on top.

Right off the bat you have Barbarian Unarmored Defense which is quite strong.

Your cantrips come before your spells, which is unprecedented and superior to the Paladin which never gets cantrips.

You use the Sorc spell list without limitation, superior to the EK.

You get smite, which is one of the most powerful abilities in the game.

You take weapon bond from EK, not a powerful thing and fitting for a Sword Mage.

Extra Attack at 5, like all weapon based classes.

Weapon Arcanum is a powerful ability that fits the class and should be kept but needs to be accounted for in balance.

Evasion is another incredibly useful ability, definitive of Rogues and Monks, and you're throwing it on top of a Paladin/EK chassis.

War Magic, ripped from EK. Still fits, but not accounted for in balance.

Improved Smite, keeping pace with the Paladin here while outstripping them in every other way.

Soul of the Arcane has no right to be on this character. The Mary Sue levels are reaching critical.

Perfect Arcane Strike... there is no defending this. You intentionally made an overpowered class.

Warrior's Recovery. Half casters don't get spell recovery.

Just off of the base chassis this class is absurdly OP. At 20 you can have 22 AC before magic items with unarmored/shield, you attack twice per action for (with let's say a longsword) 3d8+5 average of 18.5 per attack including AoOs, 37 per attack action, before smites. You have proficiency in all saving throws (you didn't specify at what level this comes online), you take no damage on successful Dex saves and half on failed, and you have 15 spells slots for smiting or casting.

Then we get to the subclasses. First off, there is no fluff to this class, which makes everything incredibly boring. Naming the subclass after the Fighting Style is lazy.

Duelist granting improved critical to a smiting class is devastatingly powerful, especially since your base smite dice hits 2d8 before burning spell slots.

Misty Step 5 times per long rest without burning spell slots is OP as hell. You obviously took inspiration for the EK's Arcane Charge and just jacked it up over 9000.

ChaDef is quite strong as well, especially since you already get proficiency in Con saves from SotA.

GWF style is already very strong on Paladins because of smite, your adding an extra d8 with PerfectAS makes it even better.

Savage Strike is actually weak considering you specify "weapon dice" and not all dice including smite, though you should be aware critical hits only allow you to roll an extra "die" not "dice" in the sense that a greataxe rolls an extra d12 and a greatsword rolls an extra d6, not 2d6.

Brutal Strike is so OP I can't possibly imagine you thought it wasn't. Bonus action attack with bonus 2d8 and smite opportunity...

Determined Strike. The OP train keeps a-rollin.

Blades of the Mage... so let's say you have the feat and are wielding two longswords... 3d8+5 from the sword/smite, plus 3d8 from Booming Blade, plus 4d8 if they move... and then you do it again as a bonus action... so 12d8+10 average 64 with an extra 8d8 average 36 if they move. I can't even...

Rend. You no longer have to roll your damage. Attack Action now becomes 9d8+15 with 2 5th level smites and 1 4th level smite adding 14d8 coming to a grand total of 199 damage if you don't crit. Seriously?

Blades of Fury. 6d8+10 main hand weapon, 5th level spell burned so 15d8+25 off hand, 7 attacks means 7 smites that's 1 5th 3 4th 3 3rd level smites adding to 53d8 which you don't have to roll because Rend so you come to a grand total of 627 damage in a single Attack Action.

...


What the actual f***? :smallannoyed:

[DracoKnight]

This is seriously overpowered. You've essentially made a Monk/Paladin/Eldritch Knight gestalt with some extra goodies on top.

Which is why I've asked for help balancing it.


Right off the bat you have Barbarian Unarmored Defense which is quite strong.

Yes, but it fit more for the class in my mind.


Your cantrips come before your spells, which is unprecedented and superior to the Paladin which never gets cantrips.

Maybe unprecedented, but you only ever get 3. Yes, the paladin never gets cantrips, but I did not think that this was a huge deal.


You use the Sorc spell list without limitation, superior to the EK.

Unlike the EK, however, the Sorcerer spell list is inferior to the Wizard spell list.


You get smite, which is one of the most powerful abilities in the game.

I'm working out how to tone it down.I want to let them keep this ability, but I'm working on dropping the max.


You take weapon bond from EK, not a powerful thing and fitting for a Sword Mage.

Extra Attack at 5, like all weapon based classes.

Weapon Arcanum is a powerful ability that fits the class and should be kept but needs to be accounted for in balance.

See, this is helpful. Telling people what they did well.


Evasion is another incredibly useful ability, definitive of Rogues and Monks, and you're throwing it on top of a Paladin/EK chassis.

War Magic, ripped from EK. Still fits, but not accounted for in balance.

Evasion is incredibly useful. And Rogues/Monks are not the only people who get it. Rangers can also get it. Yes, it needs to be accounted for in balance. War Magic, I'm actually thinking about cutting out.


Improved Smite, keeping pace with the Paladin here while outstripping them in every other way.

Yeah, I was thinking about moving this to 18th level, and making the class capstone the Perfect Arcane Strike ability.


Soul of the Arcane has no right to be on this character. The Mary Sue levels are reaching critical.

Honestly, it's not an OP ability at this level (same level Monk gets it). And screw off. You don't have to be sarcastic. I would appreciate actual help. Suggestions, not condescension.


Perfect Arcane Strike... there is no defending this. You intentionally made an overpowered class.

Not intentionally, actually. The entire class was made in an hour, and admittedly it shows, while I was trying to ignore a professor's droning. I didn't think that it was OP at the time, but I'm working on rebalancing it now.


Warrior's Recovery. Half casters don't get spell recovery.

No, they haven't yet. But I couldn't think of a suitable capstone.


Just off of the base chassis this class is absurdly OP. At 20 you can have 22 AC before magic items with unarmored/shield, you attack twice per action for (with let's say a longsword) 3d8+5 average of 18.5 per attack including AoOs, 37 per attack action, before smites. You have proficiency in all saving throws (you didn't specify at what level this comes online), you take no damage on successful Dex saves and half on failed, and you have 15 spells slots for smiting or casting.

While SoA doesn't say what level you get it at in the description, it does say it on the table. Level 14, just like the Monk.


Then we get to the subclasses. First off, there is no fluff to this class, which makes everything incredibly boring. Naming the subclass after the Fighting Style is lazy.

Again, I made this in an hour. I'm still working on fleshing sh*t out. I'm also not particularly good at writing fluff. Some people just aren't. I apologize for boring you out of your mind.


Duelist granting improved critical to a smiting class is devastatingly powerful, especially since your base smite dice hits 2d8 before burning spell slots.


Misty Step 5 times per long rest without burning spell slots is OP as hell. You obviously took inspiration for the EK's Arcane Charge and just jacked it up over 9000.

ChaDef is quite strong as well, especially since you already get proficiency in Con saves from SotA.

Maybe IC is too OP, idk, I'll work it out in playtest.

I actually had forgotten about the EK's Arcane Charge. And Misty Step 5 times at 10th level is a lot less overpowered than the Shadow Monk's 6th level ability.


GWF style is already very strong on Paladins because of smite, your adding an extra d8 with PerfectAS makes it even better.

Savage Strike is actually weak considering you specify "weapon dice" and not all dice including smite, though you should be aware critical hits only allow you to roll an extra "die" not "dice" in the sense that a greataxe rolls an extra d12 and a greatsword rolls an extra d6, not 2d6.

Brutal Strike is so OP I can't possibly imagine you thought it wasn't. Bonus action attack with bonus 2d8 and smite opportunity...

Determined Strike. The OP train keeps a-rollin.

Savage strike was worded the way it was to include both of the d6 from mauls and greatswords, and not intended to cancel out rerolling smite dice.

Brutal strike is less powerful than the Barbarian's Frenzy, which doesn't have a clause about attacks landed (it accrues exhaustion) BUT you also don't have to take the Attack action to use it.

This is an ability that came out in the UA, and it's something I playtested, it's not OP.


Blades of the Mage... so let's say you have the feat and are wielding two longswords... 3d8+5 from the sword/smite, plus 3d8 from Booming Blade, plus 4d8 if they move... and then you do it again as a bonus action... so 12d8+10 average 64 with an extra 8d8 average 36 if they move. I can't even...

The intent is that it would take the place of your Extra Attack, I see now that it's not worded this way. I will fix that.


Rend. You no longer have to roll your damage. Attack Action now becomes 9d8+15 with 2 5th level smites and 1 4th level smite adding 14d8 coming to a grand total of 199 damage if you don't crit. Seriously?

Okay, obviously I went too far when trying to fix how badly broken two-weapon fighting is, and broke it the other way :P


Blades of Fury. 6d8+10 main hand weapon, 5th level spell burned so 15d8+25 off hand, 7 attacks means 7 smites that's 1 5th 3 4th 3 3rd level smites adding to 53d8 which you don't have to roll because Rend so you come to a grand total of 627 damage in a single Attack Action.

From the most recent version, I've taken this out. Cuz I ran the numbers last night and asked myself: "What was I on?" :P


...


What the actual f***? :smallannoyed:

^ See this? This ain't helpful, Son.

[ZenBear]

I do apologize for my tone. I assumed you had put more thought and time in to this than you did. I see too often people create absurd Mary Sues and insist vehemently that it's perfectly balanced. Those people annoy me.

That being said, it is not the compliments on what you may have done right that are the most useful, it is the critiques of what you did wrong that help you fix things. Tone aside, my points still stand and should be taken seriously.

The lack of fluff is an issue because I don't know what this class's identity is. All you have is a big wad of mechanics with no connective tissue. If you can tell me what it is you want this class to be I and others can give more specific suggestions.

[DracoKnight]

I do apologize for my tone. I assumed you had put more thought and time in to this than you did. I see too often people create absurd Mary Sues and insist vehemently that it's perfectly balanced. Those people annoy me.

I also, apologize for my tone in return. I came off as more abrasive than I meant to.


That being said, it is not the compliments on what you may have done right that are the most useful, it is the critiques of what you did wrong that help you fix things. Tone aside, my points still stand and should be taken seriously.

Yes, and all of your points are honestly valid. I value your feedback immensely.


The lack of fluff is an issue because I don't know what this class's identity is. All you have is a big wad of mechanics with no connective tissue. If you can tell me what it is you want this class to be I and others can give more specific suggestions.

Yes, it is a problem, and I'm working on the fluff, or trying to :P