Talk:Swordmage (Apath)

The swordmage is a theoretical wizard who uses weapons for everyday survival. Disdaining practical magic, he compliments his fighting skills with minor spellcasting abilities and a deep understanding of arcane magic. He saves his magical talent to cast powerful spells in a deliberate, planned manner.

Class Information

Role: The swordmage is a warrior, able to stand in the forefront in combat and using a mix of arcane and martial skills in battle. But the true strength of the swordmage likes in his knowledge of scrolls and magic items. When the plan calls for the scrollmage's magic, he takes out the right scroll and saves the day.

Age: The swordmage is an educated class and uses the oldest starting age bracket.

Alignment: Any.

Hit dice: d10

Starting Wealth: 3d6 × 10 gp (average 105 gp.) In addition, each character begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.

Class Skills

Craft (Int), Fly (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (Any) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Use Magic Device (Cha).

Skill points per level: 2 + Int bonus

Class features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Swordmages are proficient with all simple and martial melee weapons, but not with any armor or shields.

Spells

A swordmage casts arcane spells drawn from the magus spell list, but only up to the 4th level of spells. A swordmage has no access to magus spells of level 5 or higher. See magic theorist below for exceptions to this. A swordmage must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time. The swordmage only begins with the ability to cast cantrips, but is a spellcaster from level 1 and has a caster level equal to his swordmage level.

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the swordmage must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a swordmage's spell is 10 + the spell level + the swordmage's Intelligence modifier.

A swordmage can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Swordmage. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells). When Table: Swordmage indicates that the swordmage gets 0 spells per day of a given spell level, he gains only the bonus spells he would be entitled to based on his Intelligence score for that spell level.

A swordmage may know any number of spells. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his spellbook. While studying, the swordmage decides which spells to prepare.

Spellbooks: A swordmage must study his spellbook each day to prepare his spells. He cannot prepare any spell not recorded in his spellbook. At 1st level a swordmage gains a spellbook containing all level zero magus spells. At 4th level the swordmage adds three 1st-level spells of his choice to his spellbook. The swordmage also selects a number of additional 1st-level magus spells equal to his Intelligence modifier to add to the spellbook at this time. At each new swordmage level after the fourth, he gains one spell of any spell level that he can cast (based on his new swordmage level) for his spellbook.

At any time, a swordmage can also add spells of level 1 or greater found in other spellbooks to his own. A swordmage can learn spells from a wizard’s spellbook, just as a wizard can from a swordmage’s spellbook. The spells learned must be on the magus spell list. A swordmage cannot learn spells from an alchemist's formula book.

A swordmage can also use others' spellbooks to make magic items based on spells he has not recorded in his own spellbook, see spellbook mastery below.

Cantrips

Swordmages can prepare a number of cantrips, or 0-level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Swordmage under “Spells per Day.” These spells are cast like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again. A swordmage has a caster level equal to his swordmage level.

Magic Theorist

A swordmage has a deep understanding of the theories of magic. All spells from the magus and sorcerer/wizard spell list are assumed to be on the swordmage's spell list for the purpose of using spell trigger and spell completion items.

Swordmage Force Fields

Swordmages can projects powerful force fields as armor and are experts at using Bracers of armor and similar force magic devices. The armor created by swordmages is clearly visible as a field of light, mist, a light distortion, or in some elemental form. Regardless of its appearance, it is a force effect. It does not stack with other force effects, or with regular armor or shields. The force armor can be turned on or off as a standard action, and the protection stays up as long as the swordmage is conscious. It can be reactivated at will. This replaces lighten armor.

Swordmage Armor (Su): Force Armor (Apath) It provides an armor bonus of +7, and swordmages ignore the arcane spell failure chance.

Swordmage Block (Su): While under swordmage armor, the swordmage adds a +2 shield bonus to armor class. This is force armor, and improves by +1 for at level 6 and every 4 levels afterwards (+2 at levels up to 5, +3 at levels 6-9, +4 at levels 10-13 and so on). The swordmage must have one hand free, he cannot carry a shield or two weapons when using this ability, not can he use a weapon in two hands. He may momentarily use the off hand for things like somatic components or drawing and throwing a weapon in the same round. This ability counts as a shield to abilities that require a shield.

Scribe Scroll

The swordmage gains Scribe Scroll as a bonus feat at 2nd level.

Spellbook Mastery

At third level, a swordmage can use a sorcerer/wizard spell from a spellbook he owns as a prerequisite for creating a magic item. This need not be his own spell book or a spell he knows or is capable of casting. As long as the spell in question has been deciphered (using Spellcraft or read magic), the swordmage can use the spellbook to satisfy prerequisites for creating magic items.

Note that this and Scribe Scroll gives the swordmage a sort of ritual magic; by scribing a scroll of a high-level spell, he can make that spell available for a single use.

At 9th level the swordmage can use a spellbook and points from his magic pool to cast sorcerer/wizard spells. Doing this takes one minute (or longer if the spell's casting time is longer) and costs a number of points from the arcane pool equal to the spell's level. The level of the spell can be no higher than half the swordmage's class level. At 16th level the minimum casting time for a spell cast like this is reduced to one round. The swordmage must have the spellbook he is using in hand to cast spells like this.

Bonus Feats

At 3rd level a swordmage can learn fighter-only feats and gains a bonus feat, either a combat feat or an item creation feat. He must meet the prerequisites of the feat as normal. Every eight levels thereafter a swordmage can choose another bonus feat.

Somatic Weapon (Ex)

At 4th level, a swordmage can use melee weapons as part of the somatic components of his spells. He no longer needs a free hand to cast spells with somatic conditions as long as he is wielding a melee weapon.

Arcane Pool (Su)

At 5th level, a swordmage gains the magus’s arcane pool ability, except that the swordmage can expend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to grant any weapon he is holding a +1 enhancement bonus for 1 minute, plus an additional +1 enhancement bonus every four levels beyond 1st, to a maximum of +4 at 17th level.

Swordmage Specials

At 7th level, a swordmage’s expertise manifests in the form of special bonus feats. Once a swordmage selects a swordmage special, it cannot be changed. He can choose from the following initial list of combat feats, even if he does not have the normal prerequisites: Charge Through, Combat Patrol, Divert Harm, Kirin Style, Spring Attack, and Whirlwind Attack. At 15th level, he selects another swordmage special and adds Awesome Blow, Dreadful Carnage, and Impaling Critical to the list.

Spellstrike (Su)

At 8th level, a swordmage gains the magus’s spellstrike ability.

Swordmage Shift (Su)

At 12th level, a swordmage can spend 1 point from his arcane pool as a swift action to move up to his speed. This is a normal movement and is subject to attacks of opportunity.

Quick Casting (Su)

At 13th level, a swordmage can spend points from his arcane pool to cast any magus spell he has prepared as if he had used the Quicken Spell metamagic feat. This expends a number of points from his arcane pool equal to the level of the spell and does not increase the spell slot required to cast the spell.

Swordmage Jaunt (Su)

At 17th level, the swordmage can spend 1 point from his arcane pool to teleport with a range equal to his speed, but he must have line of sight and line of effect to the target spot.

True Swordmage (Su)

At 20th level, whenever a swordmage uses weapon somatics, he does not need to make a concentration check to cast spells defensively. In addition, when using spellbook mastery to cast a sorcerer/wizard spell from a scroll of another spellcaster’s spellbook, the number of points he needs to expend to cast the spell is equal to half the level of the spell (rounded up).

Table: Swordmage

Class Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Special	Spells per Day
						0	1	2	3	4
1st	+1	+2	+0	+2	Cantrips, magic theorist, swordmage armor, swordmage block 2	2	—	—	—	—
2nd	+2	+3	+0	+3	Scribe scroll, spellbook mastery	3	—	—	—	—
3rd	+3	+3	+1	+3	Bonus feat	3	—	—	—	—
4th	+4	+4	+1	+4	Somatic weapon	3	0	—	—	—
5th	+5	+4	+1	+4	Arcane pool	3	1	—	—	—
6th	+6/+1	+5	+2	+5	Swordmage block 3	4	1	—	—	—
7th	+7/+2	+5	+2	+5	Spellsword special	4	1	0	—	—
8th	+8/+3	+6	+2	+6	Spellstrike	4	1	1	—	—
9th	+9/+4	+6	+3	+6	Spellbook mastery (1 minute)	4	2	1	—	—
10th	+10/+5	+7	+3	+7	Swordmage block 4	4	2	1	0	—
11th	+11/+6/+1	+7	+3	+7	Bonus feat	4	2	1	1	—
12th	+12/+7/+2	+8	+4	+8	Spellsword shift	4	2	2	1	—
13th	+13/+8/+3	+8	+4	+8	Quick casting	4	3	2	1	0
14th	+14/+9/+4	+9	+4	+9	Swordmage block 5	4	3	2	1	1
15th	+15/+10/+5	+9	+5	+9	Spellsword special	4	3	2	2	1
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+5	+10	Spellbook mastery (round)	4	3	3	2	1
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	+10	+5	+10	Spellsword jaunt	4	4	3	2	1
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+6	+11	Swordmage block 6	4	4	3	2	2
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+6	+11	Bonus feat	4	4	3	3	2
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+6	+12	Master spellsword	4	4	4	3	3