Spellsword (Fighter Subclass)

[A Fat Dragon]

So, this is a subclass that I felt inspired to make. Might be a bit overpowered, I’m not too sure, but here it is - critique and comments welcome!



DND 5e: Spellsword
Fighter Subclass

Spellswords are a rare type of warrior, the arts of their ways combining raw magic with a mastery of the sword. Fighters who become Spellswords are powerful fighters, able to adapt to their situation, and utilize pure, unrefined magic to devastate those who stand in their way.


(Lvl 3) - Elemental Augmentation: When you choose this subclass at level 3, you gain the power to augment your weapon with elemental energies. Beginning at level three, you can perform a one-hour ritual to imbue one melee weapon with the power to channel pure elemental energy. You may only have one weapon imbued at a time, and It requires a bonus action to then activate an augmentation, change your augmentation, or to turn it off. Each augment has a special secondary effect, and only one secondary effect can be activated on your turn.

You learn two augmentations at level 3. You learn an additional augmentation of your choice at levels 7 and 15.

The save DC for an augmentation is equal to 8 + Prof Mod + Int Mod.


(Lvl 7) - Savant of Lore: Your training in the arts of raw magic and the martial prowess has led to you being able to recognize magic more easily. You can cast both Identify, and Detect Magic as rituals.


(Lvl 10) - Reflexive Defense: Your mastery in the elements has led to you being able to protect yourself against the elements more naturally. While you have a weapon augmented, you gain resistance to the damage type of your current augmentation.


(Lvl 15) - Adaptive Combatant: Your prowess in magic has given you a heightened, almost magical ability to react. You can add your Intelligence modifier to your Initiative, and you do not take the extra damage from critical attacks.


(Lvl 18) - Savant of Elements: Your power over raw magic has grown so great, that you are able to imbue your Weapons with energies beyond what you have trained. As a bonus action, you can choose to activate any augmentation, and all damage it deals is increased to a d6, rather than a d4. This effect lasts for a minute, after which it will end. You can do this three times between rests.


Augmentations:
* Fire: When you attack an opponent while augmented with Fire, you deal an extra 1d4 fire damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you may choose for your opponent to take 1d4 fire damage for every attack you have.

* Cold: When you attack an opponent while augmented with Cold, you deal an extra 1d4 cold damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you may have one enemy you hit make a Constitution saving throw against your Augmentation DC, and if they fail, their move speed is reduced by 10.

* Lightning: When you attack an opponent while augmented with Lightning, you deal an extra 1d4 lightning damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose for two different opponents within 10 feet of the target to each take 1d4 lightning damage.

* Acid: When you attack an opponent while augmented with Acid, you deal an extra 1d4 acid damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you kill an opponent while augmented with Acid, you can choose for them to explode into a burst of acid, forcing all creatures that you choose within 10 feet of the target to make a Dexterity saving throw, or each take 1d4 acid damage for every attack you have.

* Poison: When you attack an opponent with Poison, you deal an extra 1d4 poison damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose for one enemy you hit to make a Constitution save against your Augmentation Save DC, or suffer the Poison condition until the beginning of your next turn. If the succeed, they are immune to the effect for 1 hour.

* Thunder: When you attack an opponent with Thunder, you deal an extra 1d4 thunder damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose to have one enemy you hit make a Constitution save against your Augmentation save DC, or be Deafened until the beginning of your next turn.

* Radiant: When you attack an opponent with Radiant, you deal an extra 1d4 radiant damage with attacks.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose to have one enemy you hit make a Constitution save against your Augmentation save DC, or be Blinded until the beginning of your next turn.

* Necrotic: If you attack an opponent with Necrotic, you deal an extra 1d4 necrotic damage with attacks.
- Secondary Effect: If you make an attack on your turn, you can choose to instead have it be a five-foot wide beam that stretches up to 20 feet, dealing all of its damage as Necrotic. Instead of rolling attack, all enemies in the area of the beam must make a Dexterity saving throw, or take damage.

* Force: If you attack an opponent with Force on your turn, you deal an extra 1d4 force damage with each of your attacks.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose to have one enemy you hit make a Strength save against your Augmentation save DC, or be knocked prone.

[nickl_2000]

So my first feeling is that this class is mis-named. I would go with something like elemental adapt or elemental swordsman. You have only 2 spells in the base class.


So, this is a subclass that I felt inspired to make. Might be a bit overpowered, I’m not too sure, but here it is - critique and comments welcome!

(Lvl 3) - Elemental Augmentation: When you choose this subclass at level 3, you gain the power to augment your weapon with elemental energies. As an Action, you can imbue one Melee Weapon you touch with raw magic, and choose to activate one of your known augmentations. It requires a Bonus Action to switch your augment, and you must use an Action to infuse a new weapon. Each augmentation has a special secondary effect. Only one secondary effect can be activated on your turn.
You learn two augmentations at level 3. You learn an additional augmentation of your choice at levels 7 and 15.


I may be sleep deprived since I was playing late with my group last night, but this is confusing. You choose a weapon and can imbue it with raw magic as an action, then you can change the imbuement as a bonus action. Personally, I would do it differently. I would have the PC do a 1 hour ritual to prepare the weapon (similar to the bladelock). They can prepare a weapon for each type of augmentation that they have available to them (so they would need multiple weapons, and the weapon takes on an aspect of the augmentation).

Then as a bonus action they can activate the augmentation for 1 minute, which can be done X amount of times per long rest (probably Wis modifier amount of times, min 1). I would clarify the secondary effect that say "the secondary effect can only be activated once per turn"



The save DC for an augmentation is equal to 8 + Prof Mod + Wis Mod.


So, I don't think that wisdom fits with the rest of this class. Wisdom fits with the idea of an elemental warrior (in the sense that you are using the Druidic element). However, it isn't fitting the Savant of Lore ability.




(Lvl 7) - Savant of Lore: When you reach level 7, your training in the arts of raw magic and the blade has led you to more easily recognize magic. You can cast both Identify, and Detect Magic as rituals.


As I said above, I don't think one fits well. I would do something else from the Druid spell list.

Alternately you can add a special effect to the imbuements that let you cast a spell from the Druid list once per day. I personally like this idea and will put possible choices down on the imbuement section. Then have the level of the spell increase as you get higher in level. At 7 you can cast spells at a level 2. At 15 cast at level 3, at 18 cast at level 4.




(Lvl 10) - Reflexive Defense: Your mastery in raw magic has grown to the point where you can utilize your augmentations to defend yourself. At 10th level, you can give yourself Resistance to one damage type as a reaction, but your current augmentation ends as a result, and you must use your action next turn to reapply it.


This may be worth simplifying. While you are holding an activated imbued weapon in your hand you gain resistance to that damage type (this limits it's effectiveness somewhat, but it may be more in line since resistance it pretty powerful).




(Lvl 15) - Adaptive Combatant: Your skill in adapting to situations has led you to being able to fight more efficiently. Beginning at level 15, you can add your Wisdom modifier to your Initiative, and you don’t take the extra damage from critical hits.


The ability of Wis to initiative seems fine and immunity to critical hits is probably okay at this level too. However, the fluff seems off and need a more fitting reason. What about the connection with the elements allows you to shrug off critical hits and makes you react to combat faster?




(Lvl 18) - Masterful Augmentations: Your power over raw magic has grown so great, that you are able to imbue your Weapons with energies beyond what you have trained. Beginning at level 18, activating your Augmentation only requires a Bonus Action, and once between rests you can choose to activate any Augmentation without using a bonus action.


Going along with my suggestion earlier, I would change this to "If you roll initiate with no uses of activate imbuement, you gain one use of activate imbuement. Call it something like "Absorbing the elements"



* Fire: When you attack an opponent while augmented with Fire, you deal an extra 1d4 fire damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you may choose for your opponent to take 1d4 fire damage for every attack you have.

The secondary effect here seems like the same thing as the primary. Other possibilities could be
-Your weapon glows with light providing 30 feet normal vision and 30 more feet dim light
-Your weapon creates a area of warmth around you. Protecting you from all negative effects of cold in the environment up to -20 degrees

Possible Spells: Faerie Fire, Flaming Sphere, Heat Metal, Pyrotechnics




* Cold: When you attack an opponent while augmented with Cold, you deal an extra 1d4 cold damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you may have one enemy you hit make a Constitution saving throw against your Augmentation DC, and if they fail, their move speed is reduced by 10.

Call this water instead of cold for a more elemental feel.

Possible Spells: Create or Destroy Water. Purify food or drink, Ice Knife, Healing Word




* Lightning: When you attack an opponent while augmented with Lightning, you deal an extra 1d4 lightning damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose for two different opponents within 10 feet of the target to each take 1d4 lightning damage.


Possible Spells: Zephyr Strike, Witch Bolt




* Acid: When you attack an opponent while augmented with Acid, you deal an extra 1d4 acid damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you kill an opponent while augmented with Acid, you can choose for them to explode into a burst of acid, forcing all creatures that you choose within 10 feet of the target to make a Dexterity saving throw, or each take 1d4 acid damage for every attack you have.





* Poison: When you attack an opponent with Poison, you deal an extra 1d4 poison damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose for one enemy you hit to make a Constitution save against your Augmentation Save DC, or suffer the Poison condition until the beginning of your next turn.

The poisoned condition is a pretty brutal condition. I would at a rider to it that once someone has passed the save against the poison, they are immune to it for 1 hour.

Possible Spells: Purify Food or Drink, Detect Poison or Disease, Protection from Poison



* Thunder: When you attack an opponent with Thunder, you deal an extra 1d4 thunder damage with each attack.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose to have one enemy you hit make a Constitution save against your Augmentation save DC, or be Deafened until the beginning of your next turn.

I would do the rider on this that it can only happen until the make the save and then they are immune to it for an hour.

Possible Spells: Thunderwave, Shatter




* Radiant: When you attack an opponent with Radiant, you deal an extra 1d4 radiant damage with attacks.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose to have one enemy you hit make a Constitution save against your Augmentation save DC, or be Blinded until the beginning of your next turn.

* Necrotic: If you attack an opponent with Necrotic, you deal an extra 1d4 necrotic damage with attacks.
- Secondary Effect: If you make an attack on your turn, you can choose to instead have it be a five-foot wide beam that stretches up to 20 feet, dealing all of its damage as Necrotic. Instead of rolling attack, all enemies in the area of the beam must make a Dexterity saving throw, or take damage.

* Force: If you attack an opponent with Force on your turn, you deal an extra 1d4 force damage with each of your attacks.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, you can choose to have one enemy you hit make a Strength save against your Augmentation save DC, or be knocked prone.
[/QUOTE]

I would drop these in favor of a more elemental druidic type. Like earth, air, and nature.

* Earth: When you attack an opponent with Earth, you deal an extra 1d4 bludgeoning damage with attacks.
- Secondary Effect: You gair a 15 foot burrowing speed.
Possible Spells: Earthbind, Earth Tremor,

* Air: When you attack an opponent with Radiant, you deal an extra 1d4 radiant damage with attacks.
- Secondary Effect: You can harness the forces of air to make you move faster, increasing you walking, climbing or flying speeds by 10 ft.
Possible Spells: Gust of Wind, Fog Cloud, Dust Devil, Skywrite

* Nature: When you attack an opponent with Nature, you deal an extra 1d4 piercing damage with attacks.
- Secondary Effect: If you land an attack that turn, the opponent needs to make a Dexterity save or vines will come out of the ground, wrapping themselves around the opponent grappling them. The opponent can repeat this save at the beginning of their turn to break free. This can only effect creatures of size large or smaller who are touching the ground.
Possible Spells: Spike Growth, Goodberry, Entangle, Snare






Okay, so I hope this helps and didn't completely re-write your intent. Take what you like, use it, discard what you don't. No worries either way :)

[A Fat Dragon]

Thank you for taking the time to respond! While I do like the idea of a more nature-based one, I initially went with Wisdom to try and make a more monastic subclass. However, after thinking it over, Intelligence does make the most sense in the end for the main “casting” stat. I also took a lot of your advice, and changed quite a bit, and the subclass is a lot more balanced/clean now. A lot of the changes are small, but they do make a big difference to the feel of the entire idea.

[JNAProductions]

This... This is BORING!

It's probably not OP. A little on the high end, with just adding free damage on every attack, but... What does it do besides fight?

You get ONE feature relating to that. Casting Identify and Detect Magic as rituals.

And, moreover, even IN a fight, it's mostly passive. Use a bonus action to activate your extra damage, and the rest? Passives.

So, my main question will be this: What do you WANT TO ACHIEVE with this? What new things do you want to bring to the table?

[A Fat Dragon]

While this isn’t anything really unique, I am content with what I have. Yes, it is boring, and it doesn’t bring anything exactly “new” to the table, but I am happy in that I was able to create the “feel” that I wanted for the subclass.

However, that being said, it might be better to remove Adaptive Combatant in leu of a non-combat ability. Suggestions would be welcome, and I thank you for opening my eyes to this problem that I didn’t see before. I may have looked to Champion and Samurai too much for inspiration on this, hence the simplicity of it.

[JNAProductions]

Maybe something as simple as adding some utility cantrips? Shape Water, Mold Earth, stuff like that.

[A Fat Dragon]

That could be a fun trait to add, and I think I might do that.