Just wanted to agree with the OP, I played a Swordmage for a short time but I easily fell in love with class. Honestly, I think I might reserve a character name, just on the off chance they decide to add it.
I loved to play a W4/M16 in Neverwinter nights (the computer game) so I really hope we will have fighter-mage. I don't really have a preference for one or the other has my DD3 build was made to use a 2H sword...
I would also like to see a Swordmage, they are a great way to make an arcane tank class.
I do wonder if they are sticking with sub class specific loot esp if they get 20-30 classes up and going. Seems somewhat short sighted if this game is planning for long term play.
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rufusscipio23Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited February 2013
Swordmage. Please for the love of God, Swordmage.
And ditch the subclass loot. You could make armors that apply to all levels and give a different bonus per class even.
I don't know nothing about D&D but what I reading is a wizard type tank. That goes against ever I've ever played, and it sound amazing! I would love to see something like this.
This: http://dnd4.wikia.com/wiki/Swordmage will be my main character if it is added into the game, as I fear Druid will not come into play the way I enjoyed it in 3.5.
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doctorcomicsMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Silverstars, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited February 2013
Considering the action combat in Neverwinter, the teleporting Assault Swordmage would seem to be the way to go. Tabletop it has its problems -- I played one for about six levels and had a blast -- but the idea is made for MMOs: the swordmage teleports around the battlefield attacking enemies who have attacked his friends. In game, you can do this with "teleport to ally" abilities, which would allow you to pull aggro off an ally and onto yourself, fulfilling the Swordmage's roll as Defender.
The Shielding Swordmage is super effective in tabletop play, but his class feature -- my designated foe takes damage if he attacks an ally -- is just boring in MMO play. You could make a very effective Ensnaring Swordmage, but it wouldn't be as fun as teleporting around the battlefield.
For us uninitiated what's the difference between a swordmage and a bladesinger?
Basically the same thing except for theme. Before you had to be an elf/half-elf to be a bladesinger and there had some defensive focus so you could become a wall and parry everything thrown at you in a defensive stance. Swordmages were just what it sounds like, mages with fighter (or cleric?) attack bonus with less armor penalties to magic as you level up. I'm not sure what the differences in 4e are now that they dropped the racial restriction.
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doctorcomicsMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Silverstars, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited February 2013
The difference is twofold: combat role and lore.
In combat, the Swordmage is a tank who targets a specific enemy and debuffs or otherwise neutralizes that enemy, creating room for his allies to win the fight. The Bladesinger is a striker who gets to attack multiple foes on the same round. The Swordmage is best against a single boss. The Bladesinger is best against multiple foes.
In the setting, Bladesingers are almost all from the Elven races. Their training and tradition is specifically tied to the elves. This is actually the best reason you are unlikely to see one in Neverwinter Online, where every class and race combo should be encouraged. (Yes, exceptions can exist and there are non-elf Bladesingers, but it is an elvish class in theme and this would collapse the moment they were put in the game.) Swordmages come from all races, and are actually most identified with the genasi, or "half elementals" of Faerun.
"Under the leaves of Myth Drannor I learned the ancient eladrin way of battle. Spells are my armor, and words of ruin are bound to my blade.”
sounds like swordmage is also elf influenced to a degree with Myth Drannor? I know old school elf was a class and it was a fighter/mage type.
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doctorcomicsMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Silverstars, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited February 2013
When Forgotten Realms 4e came out, designers tried to give people a blade singer class. People wanted it and the class has a huge fan following. But the blade singer was originally elf only and that didn't fit 4E, where any race could be any class. The blade singer could be made a paragon path, but that would not satisfy fans who wanted to play one at level 1.
WotC's solution was the swordmage, which was not specific to elves and could be used to represent a blade singer, as well as lots of other fighter/Mage types. In other words, every Bladesinger was a Swordmage, but not every swordmage was a Bladesinger.
Many fans were still not satisfied. If it wasn't called a Bladesinger, it wasn't one, as far as these fans were concerned. So, a couple of years later, at the end of 4e's life, they published a class called the Bladesinger. But, since they already had Sword mages, we had to make this new class differently.
I kind of just want to be able to slash things with magically enhanced swords, and throw a fireball when a sword won't go far enough~
also, can someone define spellsword magic knight, and swordmage for me? I dunno if they're the same thing or not.
I like the way spellsword sounds, just easier to say lol
also did a quick search of 4e and found the Elemental Swordsman, how many bloody names are there?
Thankfully, it seems more up my alley; with a focus on damage and buffing party members, rather than being a tank or deriving all their powers from magic.
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steppenkatMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
I know it's extremely unlikely a non-core class like the Swordmage will be available at launch, but am I the only one who thinks it could make for some really fun and interesting defender/control mechanics in an MMO? It was my favorite 4e class - teleporting itself, allies, and enemies around and dishing out elemental damage while being surprisingly hard to kill.
It's native to the Forgotten Realms setting, so it wouldn't be out of place. I could definitely see it as something players would need to pay for to make available of course, assuming Neverwinter's FTP model works as such.
It's actually an exclusive class for the FR setting (it comes in the FR Player Handbook), so it's reasonable to think that it could end up being implemented. Just not one of the first to be released, I suppose.
Characters: - Titania Silverblade, the Iron Rose of Myth Drannor (Lvl 60 GWF, Destroyer) - Gwyneth, the Cowardly Cat Burglar Drowling (Lvl 60 TR, Saboteur) - Lady Rowanne Firehair, Heartwarder of Sune (Lvl 33 DC) - Satella, Sensate (LvL 44 CW, Renegade, Non-Active)
I kind of just want to be able to slash things with magically enhanced swords, and throw a fireball when a sword won't go far enough~
also, can someone define spellsword magic knight, and swordmage for me? I dunno if they're the same thing or not.
Spellswords were introduced in Tome and Blood, as I recall. They basically channeled magic into their weapon. They had mage spells separately, but it was pretty devastating to have, say, a level 10 lightning bolt occur when you hit with a longsword. Essentially, they were mages using swords, and had to attain levels to ignore spell failure for wearing armor.
Swordmage is its own class. It's basically built around weapon use, and light (medium?) armor use. They used innate ability scores (int, etc.) for their combat rolls. They had some mid-range spells, some AoE, a good "jack of all trades" for mobile tanking. They were tanks, flat out. Swordmages in 4ED arguably had the best AC in the game at level 30 with certain ability choices. Damage was always mediocre, but not terrible.
As far as single-target, I wouldn't go that far. There were two swordmage builds, two different "aegis" abilities. I remember teleport-tanking at least 5 enemies in one encounter; basically, every time an opponent attacked someone other than you, you got to teleport next to/behind them and get a free at-will attack.
Honestly, though I would love to see a swordmage, it would be hard to implement properly. It would be a cross between a rogue (high mobility) and GWF (single weapon), but with defensive passives which made it like a guardian warrior.
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Skanvak Drakken
http://lamaisondesdrakkens.clan-box.com/index.php
I do wonder if they are sticking with sub class specific loot esp if they get 20-30 classes up and going. Seems somewhat short sighted if this game is planning for long term play.
And ditch the subclass loot. You could make armors that apply to all levels and give a different bonus per class even.
The Shielding Swordmage is super effective in tabletop play, but his class feature -- my designated foe takes damage if he attacks an ally -- is just boring in MMO play. You could make a very effective Ensnaring Swordmage, but it wouldn't be as fun as teleporting around the battlefield.
Seven Against Thay: An RP-Focused Guild for all Races and Classes
Basically the same thing except for theme. Before you had to be an elf/half-elf to be a bladesinger and there had some defensive focus so you could become a wall and parry everything thrown at you in a defensive stance. Swordmages were just what it sounds like, mages with fighter (or cleric?) attack bonus with less armor penalties to magic as you level up. I'm not sure what the differences in 4e are now that they dropped the racial restriction.
In combat, the Swordmage is a tank who targets a specific enemy and debuffs or otherwise neutralizes that enemy, creating room for his allies to win the fight. The Bladesinger is a striker who gets to attack multiple foes on the same round. The Swordmage is best against a single boss. The Bladesinger is best against multiple foes.
In the setting, Bladesingers are almost all from the Elven races. Their training and tradition is specifically tied to the elves. This is actually the best reason you are unlikely to see one in Neverwinter Online, where every class and race combo should be encouraged. (Yes, exceptions can exist and there are non-elf Bladesingers, but it is an elvish class in theme and this would collapse the moment they were put in the game.) Swordmages come from all races, and are actually most identified with the genasi, or "half elementals" of Faerun.
Seven Against Thay: An RP-Focused Guild for all Races and Classes
"Under the leaves of Myth Drannor I learned the ancient eladrin way of battle. Spells are my armor, and words of ruin are bound to my blade.”
sounds like swordmage is also elf influenced to a degree with Myth Drannor? I know old school elf was a class and it was a fighter/mage type.
WotC's solution was the swordmage, which was not specific to elves and could be used to represent a blade singer, as well as lots of other fighter/Mage types. In other words, every Bladesinger was a Swordmage, but not every swordmage was a Bladesinger.
Many fans were still not satisfied. If it wasn't called a Bladesinger, it wasn't one, as far as these fans were concerned. So, a couple of years later, at the end of 4e's life, they published a class called the Bladesinger. But, since they already had Sword mages, we had to make this new class differently.
Thats the long story.
Seven Against Thay: An RP-Focused Guild for all Races and Classes
also, can someone define spellsword magic knight, and swordmage for me? I dunno if they're the same thing or not.
I like the way spellsword sounds, just easier to say lol
also did a quick search of 4e and found the Elemental Swordsman, how many bloody names are there?
Thankfully, it seems more up my alley; with a focus on damage and buffing party members, rather than being a tank or deriving all their powers from magic.
It's actually an exclusive class for the FR setting (it comes in the FR Player Handbook), so it's reasonable to think that it could end up being implemented. Just not one of the first to be released, I suppose.
- Titania Silverblade, the Iron Rose of Myth Drannor (Lvl 60 GWF, Destroyer)
- Gwyneth, the Cowardly Cat Burglar Drowling (Lvl 60 TR, Saboteur)
- Lady Rowanne Firehair, Heartwarder of Sune (Lvl 33 DC)
- Satella, Sensate (LvL 44 CW, Renegade, Non-Active)
Check Steppenkat's Foundry Quest Reviews!
Spellswords were introduced in Tome and Blood, as I recall. They basically channeled magic into their weapon. They had mage spells separately, but it was pretty devastating to have, say, a level 10 lightning bolt occur when you hit with a longsword. Essentially, they were mages using swords, and had to attain levels to ignore spell failure for wearing armor.
Swordmage is its own class. It's basically built around weapon use, and light (medium?) armor use. They used innate ability scores (int, etc.) for their combat rolls. They had some mid-range spells, some AoE, a good "jack of all trades" for mobile tanking. They were tanks, flat out. Swordmages in 4ED arguably had the best AC in the game at level 30 with certain ability choices. Damage was always mediocre, but not terrible.
As far as single-target, I wouldn't go that far. There were two swordmage builds, two different "aegis" abilities. I remember teleport-tanking at least 5 enemies in one encounter; basically, every time an opponent attacked someone other than you, you got to teleport next to/behind them and get a free at-will attack.
Honestly, though I would love to see a swordmage, it would be hard to implement properly. It would be a cross between a rogue (high mobility) and GWF (single weapon), but with defensive passives which made it like a guardian warrior.