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Drakefall
2009-12-07, 06:16 PM
As the title, hopefully, conveys I'll be playing in a 4e game set in Eberron soon and I need a little help with my swordmage's background.

Alain d'Cannith is minor noble of house Cannith. He's got a dragonmark and everything. He's a pretty good guy: stands up for his friends, usually prefers to talk rather than fight and takes a personal role in watching for corruption within his beloved house, etc. The fine details of his personality aren't to important for the question I suppose.

Mechanically he's a level 4 human shielding swordmage.

Now, the problem I'm having is that I don't really know what it is that he would actually do. What does such a person do for house Cannith? Currently I'm just thinking of making him an odd job journeyman for the house: negotiations, investigations, bodyguard detail, etc. Always of doing something for the house.

Still though, I'd like to know a bit more about house Cannith beyond what I can garner from the 4e Ebberon Phb and wikipedia and what exactly his position within the house entails. Responsibilities, likely duties, etc.

So, any advice or ideas? Links to useful repositories of wondrous lore?

Thanks in advance.

FoE
2009-12-07, 09:27 PM
Your character doesn't quite match up with House Cannith, whih is more or less the "artificer's house." Swordplay isn't that useful when designing constructs.

That said, in a dangerous world like Eberron, there's always need for someone to handle a weapon. My suggestion? He's not much good in the laboratory, but his skill at magic and fighting make him an ideal candidate for hunting down the odd lost magic item, artifact or lost tome of knowledge. In other words, an in-house adventurer.

RebelRogue
2009-12-07, 09:38 PM
As noted, you don't fit the Cannith stereotype too well, but hey, you've still got that dragonmark which marks you as important (according to the draconic prophecy) and means you can demand some respect in the House. Maybe you can upplay the alchemical abilities your mark grants you, or you may tie some of the mystic disciplines you know as a swordmage to aspects of artifice - they are both arcane in nature after all.

Colmarr
2009-12-07, 10:07 PM
He's not much good in the laboratory, but his skill at magic and fighting make him an ideal candidate for hunting down the odd lost magic item, artifact or lost tome of knowledge. In other words, an in-house adventurer.

This.

Either that, or he's a trained bodyguard for someone else in House Cannith (or even a particularly lucrative client - there's no profit in allowed clients to get killed before they pay their fees).

Nerd-o-rama
2009-12-07, 10:43 PM
He's probably the guy who gets sent out after Important Artifacts that the House wants to pillage unearth in the wilder places of the world; not with a lot of construction skill but with enough academic and practical combat knowledge to be a capable graverobber archaeologist.

kieza
2009-12-08, 02:51 AM
I'll chime in with the idea of a courier; after all, Cannith may occasionally have small packages to move, but they can't exactly hand them over to Orien. So, they have a few people to carry valuable packages around who are good enough fighters to protect them, and who can also grasp the basics of artifice in order to instruct the customer in the use of their new purchases. Think of a tech-support guy who makes house calls with replacement parts.

Drakefall
2009-12-08, 05:50 AM
Your character doesn't quite match up with House Cannith, whih is more or less the "artificer's house." Swordplay isn't that useful when designing constructs.

Alas, my party already has an artificer (who oddly enough looks set to be my subordinate) and a defender was required so yes he is a bit of an oddball in the house. I do plan to multiclass to artificer though, either initially or eventually.

All your advice seems to match up with my initial idea of an odd-job journeyman of sorts. I'm pretty surprised to see I was on the right path.

Now I just have to wait for more info from the dm to find out exactly what odd-job he'll be on at the moment of the campaign.

Aron Times
2009-12-08, 10:36 AM
Note that the Mark of Making makes its bearer an artificer of sorts, since it allows him to enchant magic items. Now that I thought about it, most Cannith artificers wouldn't be members of the actual class; they would be NPCs with the necessary item creation rituals and alchemical formulae.

Yakk
2009-12-08, 12:24 PM
Grab the Wizard multiclass that grants ritual casting. Do the substitude-ritual-casting-for-alchemy.

The character is a bookish alchemist who just happens to be a grandmaster swordsman. Everyone has to have a hobby.

You are Human, so you also have the 'feat room' to build a hybrid Wizard | Swordmage (which is surprisingly effective). You lose a handful of HP, and 2 feats (for leather and swordmage warding).

Feats: Dragonmark of Making, Hybrid Talent: Swordmage Ward, Leather Armor, Enlarge Spell.

At-Will Powers: Sword Burst, Magic Missle, swordmage melee power

Pick one of "Transposing Lunge", "Incindiary Sword" and "Sword of Sigils" for your Swordmage encounter power, then grab a wizard encounter power.

Grab a wizard 1 daily. Flaming Sphere, the auto-magic-missile power, etc.

Grab Dimensional Swap for your level 2 utility.

The character will be sufficiently effective in combat. And you can multiclass artificer later on for more fun.