[D&D 4e] Arcane Archer: Swordmage Ranged Conversion (PEACH)

**Nuptup** · 2024-04-10, 10:49 PM (ISO 8601)

Arcane Archer Concept
This is my attempt at converting the Swordmage to be a Ranged defender that relies on keeping their distance and punishing enemies from afar.

Spoiler: Class Block

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Role: Defender. You are a ranged combatant who uses spells to fight better.
Power Source: Arcane. You study ancient magical traditions and practice marksmanship, developing arcane powers that work well with your precision attacks.
Key Abilities: Intelligence, Strength, Constitution
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather.
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, simple ranged, military ranged.
Implement: Any ranged weapon
Bonus to Defense: +2 Will.
Hit Points at 1st Level : 15+ Constitution Score.
Hit Points per Level Gained : 6
Healing Surges per Day : 8+ Constitution Modifier.
Trained Skills : Arcana. From the class skills list below, choose 3 more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills : Arcana (Int), Athletics (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Endurance (Con), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Intimidate (Cha).
Class features: Weaponbond, Arcane Aegis, Arcane Warding.

ARCANE ARCHER CLASS FEATURES

Arcane Archers are smart, strong bastions of defense whose art is embodied by their weapons. All arcane archers have the class features described below.

Weaponbond
By spending 1 hour of meditation with a chosen ranged weapon, you forge a special bond with the weapon. As a standard action, you can call your bonded weapon to your hand from up to 10 squares away.
You can forge a bond with a different ranged weapon using the same meditation process (for instance, if you acquire a new weapon that has magical abilities). If you forge a bond with a different weapon, the old bond dissipates.
If your bonded weapon is broken or damaged, you can spend 1 hour of meditation to recreate the weapon from a fragment. (This process automatically destroys any other fragments of the weapon in existence, so you can't use it to create multiple copies of a broken weapon.)

Arcane Aegis
You can place a magical warding upon a foe, allowing you to respond to the foe's attacks against your allies with a counterassault or a timely protection. Choose one Aegis and gain its benefit. Each Aegis has a range of Close Burst 10 instead of Close Burst 2.

Aegis of Assault: If your marked target makes an attack that doesn't include you as a target, it takes a –2 penalty to attack rolls. If that attack hits and the marked target is within 10 squares of you, you can use an immediate reaction to teleport to a square within 3 squares of the target and make a ranged basic attack against it. If no unoccupied space exists within 3 squares of the target, you can't use this immediate reaction.

Aegis of Ensnarement: If a target marked by this power is within 10 squares of you when it hits with an attack that does not include you as a target, you can use an immediate reaction after the target's entire attack is resolved to teleport the target to any space within Close Burst 3. In addition, the target grants combat advantage to all creatures until the end of your next turn. If no unoccupied space exists within Close Blast 3, you can't use this immediate reaction, and the target doesn't grant combat advantage as a result of this effect.

Aegis of Shielding: This option is unchanged.

Arcane Warding
While you are conscious and wielding a ranged weapon, you maintain a field of magical force around you.
This field provides a +1 bonus to AC, or a +3 bonus if you are wielding only a ranged weapon in one or both hands and have your other hand free (not carrying a shield, an off-hand weapon, or anything else).

IMPLEMENTS
Your ranged weapon adds its enhancement bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls and any extra damage granted by a property (if applicable) when used as an implement. You do not gain your weapon proficiency bonus to the attack roll when using your blade as an implement.

Critical Changes
This list is not complete and will be adjusted as needed.

Any Swordmage attack power that has a Range of Melee Weapon is changed to have a range or Ranged Weapon.
- Examples include Greenflame Blade which Changes from a melee weapon range to a ranged weapon range.
- The reason for this is obvious, allowing you to USE your ranged weapon.
Any Swordmage attack power that has a Range of Close Blast X is changed to have a range of Burst X-2 within 10.
- Examples include Flame Cyclone which Changes from a Close Blast 3 into a Burst 1 within 10..
  - Exceptions to this rules include powers with a range of Close Blast 2, which become a 2x2x2 Cube within 10 that you select. Close Blast 1 powers (if they exist) become a single square within 10.
- The reason for this is to turn the original Mid-Range area powers into bombardment projectiles that you can lob down range.
Any Swordmage attack power that has a Range of Close Burst X is changed to have a range of Close Blast X+2.
- Examples include Sword Burst which changes from a Close Burst 1 into a Close Blast 3.
- The reason for this is to turn the original point-blank area powers into "Shotgun" style powers that are directionally oriented.

This is DEFINITELY a work in progress, and I'd love some feedback on this. I think it would be a cool project since the Swordmage is already based around marking then running away from that target. So, I figured why not lean into it, and this is what I've got so far.

**sandmote** · 2024-04-17, 08:52 PM (ISO 8601)

Given some of the initial response to 4e, I would label this idea as an Arcane Archer, because that's a term from 3.5e. Otherwise the core idea does kind of feel like its stepping a bit on ranged Controller's toes. AFAIK the Seeker is the only Controller that's designed to have Defender as a possible secondary role, so I think there's definitely design space for such a class/subclass, but I figure its worth pointing out the design overlap.

Originally Posted by Nuptup

This field provides a +1 bonus to AC, or a +3 bonus if you are wielding a ranged weapon in one hand and have your other hand free (not carrying a shield, an off-hand weapon, a two-handed weapon, or anything else).

I would also specifically give the +3 bonus if the PC is carrying a two handed ranged weapon like a bow or larger firearm.

Originally Posted by Nuptup

Any Swordmage attack power that has a Range of Close Blast X is changed to have a range of Burst X-2 within 10.

Without having double-checked if such powers exist, I'd specify what happens when X is 2 or less.

With design notes out of the way, this seems like a really cool concept, and being able to specifically mark targets from a distance seems like a fascinating change to typical party dynamics. On one hand you've got a specific, (intended to be) easy to apply debuff to enemies, and on the other you're probably the defender who is the absolute worst at getting enemies to change their behavior to try to avoid the penalty from being marked, because you're marking them from so far away they might not be able to avoid the penalty by attacking you.

I don't know about the effective balance, but I do think this theme leans into having an Arcane power source much better than "sword magic" that's different from "superhuman martial ability" and could be absolutely nuts if your DM already doesn't factor being marked into a monster's decision making. So a +1 for theme and a +1 for encouraging good DMing from me.

**Nuptup** · 2024-04-17, 09:06 PM (ISO 8601)