Warmage Edge - Quick Fix?

[Qc Storm]

I think we can all agree that the Warmage Edge is pretty awful. One of my players is playing one in a rather low-OP campaign (hence the warmage). However it sucks that its signature ability is so irrelevant.

Is there a little something I could add to it to make it more interesting?

[Boci]

Increase the damage, allow it to ignore a certain amount of energy resistance, maybe even give it a version of searing spell (half damage to creatures immune).

[Waddacku]

Or just let it apply to every die of damage. Which will make huge damage.

[T.G. Oskar]

The typical "quick fix" adds your class level to your Int score for purposes of Warmage Edge, allowing it to grow linearly. The problem with this is that the Warmage will do quite a bit of damage at first (the strength of the ability is based on your starting Int score, so 14-16 will net you around 2-3 points of additional damage), but not that much at latter levels (that same 2-3 points of damage will end up at around 25, with Int 20 and going all levels).

My alternative is a bit more complex, but it ends up semi-curved, allowing for better progression: 1/2 (class level x Int modifier). At first, it won't be that game-breaking (with an Intelligence modifier of 14-16 you'll deal at most 1 point of damage, far less than the original Warmage Edge) but at latter levels the damage scales in proportion to the hit points of enemies. Level 5 and higher is where you can see the difference, as the progression of the "general" fix and this one become equal (you deal around 7-8 points of damage with each spell), and afterwards the alternative overcomes the original in terms of damage. It's a bit more volatile, and it favors multiclassing a bit as it allows you to improve your damage by leaps and bounds just by increasing your Intelligence modifier once you reach certain levels, but if you're scared of too much damage at 20th level (almost exactly double than with the "general" fix with the same parameters), the first is reasonable.

Other suggestions don't really fix "quickly" the Warmage Edge ability but patch them instead, making them a more robust class feature. They're more likely to be added class features rather than modifications to Warmage Edge.

[HunterOfJello]

I think it's a good class ability as is. It's a feature that pulls the warmage out of the gutter at the beginning levels until they can hit their stride with spells that do more dice in damage.


If you really want it to be amazing, add it to every hit die.

If you want it to be memorable and helpful, change it so that whenever the warmage casts a spell, the damage dice are increased in size by the same scale of changing a medium weapon to a large weapon. This will make it seem impressive and cool, but generally just improve the benefit by +1 damage per die.

[ngilop]

Per die is the easiest fix and probably the best


The warmage suffers from deal Xd6 dmg in Y shape for 80% or os of his spells
that +2 or 3 dmg total to the spell is weak after 2nd level.

Letting the warmage deal +2 or 3 per die is decent, that means at 10th level he is dealing 10d6+20 for his fireball which while not that powerful is a lot better than delaing 10d6+2...

The warmage is supposed to eb the KING of arcane damage.. the sad part is warmage edge is just too much of a crap thing to make it do even decent damage.

[Grod_The_Giant]

For higher level play, you might allow it to increase the caster level cap on damage spells-- allow a fireball to deal 15d6, fire whole swarms of magic missiles, stuff like that.

Otherwise, adding level is a pretty decent way to do it.

[Thurbane]

Maybe make it Charisma based instead of Intelligence. Warmage doesn't exactly have a great array of skills, so pumping Int just for Warmage Edge is a bit of a waste.

Alternatively, make his casting Int based (like the Beguiler) so he can dump Cha.

[Qc Storm]

For higher level play, you might allow it to increase the caster level cap on damage spells-- allow a fireball to deal 15d6, fire whole swarms of magic missiles, stuff like that.

Otherwise, adding level is a pretty decent way to do it.

Your fix is elegant. Others have suggested adding it to every dice of damage, but it will most likely be overwhelming for our campaign. This one makes older spells more interesting, but not more powerful without reaching the required level.


Maybe make it Charisma based instead of Intelligence. Warmage doesn't exactly have a great array of skills, so pumping Int just for Warmage Edge is a bit of a waste.

Alternatively, make his casting Int based (like the Beguiler) so he can dump Cha.

Actually, I was thinking of widening the skill list. What skills would be good for a Warmage?

[Grod_The_Giant]

In my latest fix, I added Diplomacy, Knowledge (Engineering) and (Nobility and Royalty), Sense Motive, Ride, Spot, and Listen.

[Boci]

I think you'd want Knowledge (History) as well. Studied famous battles and all that.

[Grod_The_Giant]

I think you'd want Knowledge (History) as well. Studied famous battles and all that.
I agree. Luckily, so does WotC (http://dndtools.eu/classes/warmage/).

[Thurbane]

I'd say just add all Knowledge skills.

If you really want to give the class a boost, throw in Use Magic Device.

Oh, and if we're talking houserules, please, please throw Read Magic in their 0 level spells. Unless they have decent Spellcraft, they simply can't decipher scrolls they find without a magic item.