Hello! Thanks for trying and enjoying the Spellsword. This intent of this article is to both explain the changes made in the new update and also dive into the design decisions that drove them.
Version 5.0 was driven by the following goals:
- Refine the presentation of the class. Make it feel more like a 5e published class wherever possible.
- Make class balance adjustments.
- Address design weaknesses in the class that made players less likely to treat spellcasting and melee attacking as equal parts of a whole.
- Reduce complexity or perception of complexity in the class wherever possible.
- Introduce quality-of-life fixes.
- Address core experience bugs.
I'll talk though the changed features in sequential order, starting at level 1.
Level 1
1. Eldrtich Inspiration and Arcane Armor (renamed to Spell-Forged Armor) were moved from lvl 2 to lvl 1. Weapon Bond was combined with Spell-Forged Armor into a new feature called Arcane Armory. Bonded weapons now apply part of your INT attack bonus to weapon attacks.
This was done so that players get access to their foundational, attribute-influencing features right away and can choose attributes accordingly. Many players have no idea what features you get past level 1, so this helps mitigate that.
Eldrtich Inspiration really just means that you gain eldritch points at level 1 (you start with 3) and can use Arcane Fervor right away to build stacks for edlrtich point discounts. Spell-Forged Armor, as before, lets you apply your INT bonus to medium and light armor, which impacts how much someone might want to invest in DEX.
Weapon Bond weapons now look at your INT modifier and if it is greater than your STR or DEX modifier, you apply the difference between those modifiers as a bonus to your attack rolls, up to a maximum of 2. So if you have 20 INT and 16 STR, you'll gain +2 to melee attacks with your bonded weapon and make attack rolls as if you had 20 STR.
The goal here is to incentivize Spellswords to build into both STR/DEX and INT, but to reduce some of the multiple ability dependency (MAD) that plagued the class. Some players preferred to just pump up STR and ignore INT beyond a certain point. That is still viable, but not quite as optimal anymore. More on this below.
2. Close Cantrips was moved to level 2.
This was done primarily because a few features moved to level 1. And because Close Cantrips got a significant buff. More on this below.
3. Weapon Bond now costs 1 eldritch point per weapon enhanced and may be cast as many times per day as you'd like. You can now also bind off-hand weapons individually.
The eldritch point cost was added to offset the fact that bonded weapons now add part of INT to attack rolls, and that you can now keep binding weapons all day (up to a maximum of 2 active at one time). It's more powerful and flexible than before, so the cost is justified. It also helps make the eldritch points you now gain at level 1 more immediately purposeful.
Being able to bind off-hand weapons is a quality-of-life feature. You previously could only bind a single weapon in your main hand, or both main and off hand weapons at the same time.
Level 2
1. Close Cantrips moved from level 1 to 2. Non-melee cantrips buffed to leave behind Volatile Sigil on each hit with Close Cantrips active.
Close Cantrip's whole deal from the start was to proclaim loudly that Spellswords love cantrips and cantrips are a key part of your damage rotation. The problem was that Booming Blade and, to a lesser-extent, Green-Flame Blade, are STR/DEX-based cantrip attacks and thus players could easily focus on STR/DEX by using them exclusively while ignoring the other INT-based cantrips. To address this, I wanted to increase the desirability of using the non-melee cantrips.
Volatile Sigil's activation condition is that the player (or the enemy with the active sigil) must separate by more than 5ft. At that point, the sigil detonates and causes 1d6 force damage that scales with player level at the same level that cantrips do, maxing out at 4d6. The idea here is that this requirement fits the theme of the Spellsword as a hit-n-run attacker, while also being an arguably easier condition to activate than Booming Blade, which requires that the enemy willingly move 5ft after you hit them. Damage wise, it doesn't have as high a ceiling as Booming Blade's full damage potential, but it comes quite close.
Math for those interested:
Level 5 Spellsword (STR 18) with a Booming Blade longsword
- Booming Blade base damage = 4.5 (1d8 average weapon damage) + 4 (STR bonus) + 4.5 (1d8 avg thunder damage) = 13.
- Booming Blade base + detonation damage = 13 + 9 (2d8 avg movement thunder damage) = 22.
Level 5 Spellsword (INT 18) using just Shocking Grasp
- Shocking Grasp base damage = 9 (2d8 avg. spell damage) + 4 (Close Cantrips INT bonus) = 13.
Level 5 Spellsword (INT 18) using Shocking Grasp + Volatile Sigil
- Shocking Grasp base + Volatile Sigil = 13 + 7 (2d6 avg. sigil eruption damage) = 20
You can see how plain Shocking Grasp was never competitive with Booming Blade, but now with Volatile Sigil it's very competitive. And, because it's entirely within the player's control to create that 5ft distance, I'd argue that the reliability of triggering its extra damage means that it'll be the better choice overall. These are just some ways I can think of for players to actively create 5ft of space:
- Use anything that lets you evade attacks of opportunity, like Zephyr Strike, the Mobile Feat, Ashardalon's Stride, Disengage, going Invisible, etc.
- Do things that deny enemy reactions and allow you to move away safely. Shocking Grasp happens to have that effect...
- Teleportation abilities, including Spellsword features like Ethereal Pirouette, Blade Dash, etc.
- Pushing enemies away.
2. Close Cantrips no longer gives cantrips advantage on their secondary effects (like Frostbite's chance to give a target disadvantage on their next attack).
This is mostly because the feature is generally strong and gets stronger with Volatile Sigil, so I wanted to pull back a bit where I could.
3. Arcane Strike remains at this level.
It's a foundational ability, after all. Arcane Strike lets you imbue your weapon with a cantrip and then deliver an attack that does both weapon damage and cantrip damage at the same time. Players new to the class should find it an exciting way to spend eldritch points.
Reminder that you build stacks of Arcane Fervor by alternating melee weapon attacks (including thrown attacks) and spells. For example, cantrip + melee + spell + throw attack will build the maximum 4 stacks. When you are at max stacks, all features that cost eldritch points will have the point cost reduced by 1. Abilities like Arcane Strike, which cost 1 eldritch point, get reduced to 0 and can be used for free.
This is why paying attention to Arcane Fervor stacks and building them is key to the Spellsword. It massively increases the sustainability of your Eldritch Inspirations (basically, any ability that consumes eldritch points).
4. You now get Fighting Style at this level!
It always felt wrong that you the Spellsword was a melee half-caster and couldn't access Fighting Styles. With the overall changes to the class and the push/pull on its overall power level, I felt comfortable that adding this in wouldn't be unbalanced.
Level 3
1. Symbiotic Channeling: Melee renamed to Blink Tactics and significantly changed. Martial Flow State removed.
When I first created Symbiotic Channeling, the idea was to lean into the notion that performing weapon actions or casting spells would temporarily unlock abilities and buffs based on the theme of melee enhancing spells and spells enhancing melee. As the class developed over time, I felt that aspects of them were introducing too much complexity while also being unnecessary. The old Symbiotic Channeling: Melee gave you both Martial Flow State (which adds STR/DEX to cantrip damage) and Ethereal Pirouette (a short-range bonus action teleport that can debuff enemies) whenever you used a weapon action (such as Cleave).
To simplify things, Martial Flow State was removed entirely, leaving just Ethereal Pirouette. Easier to understand, and less timers/temporary statuses for the player to track in-game. Blink Tactics is also engaged whenever you cast a spell, rather than when using weapon actions.
2. Ethereal Pirouette was bugged and a little too powerful.
When teleporting next to a target, if the target failed a save, it would receive a -2 penalty to attacks rolls and spellswords would get a +2 bonus to attacks rolls against it until the next hit or end of the next turn. For a feature that you will have up extremely frequently, this felt to strong. This has now been brought down to +1/-1.
There was also a bug that caused your attack roll bonus to apply to all enemies rather than just the targets you teleported next to. On top of that, you were incorrectly getting Advantage against targets that failed their save. All in all, this was making this bread-and-butter ability way too powerful.
3. All teleportation spells/abilities now have a chance to apply the +1/-1 effect to adjacent enemies.
The idea of a Spellsword surprising enemies across the battlefield is a fun and important part of its identity, so the fact that it previously only happened with Ethereal Pirouette was limiting. Now things like Misty Step, Blade Dash, and the Shadow Adept subclass' shadow teleport abilities all have the same effect.
Level 5
1. Symbiotic Channeling: Spells removed entirely, including Synergistic Strikes. Sigil Stalker is given instead, which grants you Eldrtich Mark and a few free casts of it per day since it's now a spell.
Similar to Martial Flow State, Synergistic Strikes (which add your INT bonus to weapon attack damage) felt unnecessary at this point in the class' lifetime, and was just one more thing to keep track of in your status list.
Eldtich Mark, however, is vital to a Vangaurd's identity and needed to remain at this level. You mark a target with a bonus action and then hit it with a close-range spell or attack, causing a small AOE of force damage. The mark then moves to another target, and detonating it causes even more damage this time. This pattern of dashing across the battlefield to chase your mark is a huge part of the class.
While I liked the idea of Eldritch Mark being made temporarily available via a weapon action or spell, it didn't really make sense being unlocked in this way because it was a feature you typically activated once in a fight, rather than one you'd activate on multiple turns. That, and the fact that similar features like Hunter's Mark and Hex are presented as spells meant that this would fit into 5E's design ethos etter by being turned into a spell as well.
2. Eldrtich Mark behaves as a spell now and follows 5E 2024 design cues. Plus lots of bug fixes.
Like the 2024 Ranger's Hunter's Mark, Spellswords can cast Eldrtich Mark several times for free per day (starting at 3 times), increasing with class level. It also now has a duration based on the spell slot you use to cast it that determines how long it sticks around. So you can keep reapplying the spell within that scaling duration without consuming a spell slot (1 hour at level 1, all the way up to all day at level 5).
Under the hood, Eldrtich Mark has a lot of moving parts. Lots of issues were fixed that would previously cause unintended things, like the mark striking multiple targets while traveling and causing unintended damage. The UI makes it much clearer now, too, when your mark is unable to transfer to another target due to a line of sight blocker. You'll get a Reapply Eldrtich Mark ability that has a glowing outline and some description text letting you know that you can use it as a free action on that turn.
3. Bound Weapon Enhancement now lets you enhance weapons in your off-hand.
This is just a quality-of-life adjustment. Also, if your Arcane Fervor stacks are full, you can now use this feature without draining any eldritch points.
Level 11
1. Improved Symbiotic Channeling has been replaced with Arcane Flourish, which works similarly to before with a few key differences.
Arcane Flourish activates whenever you use a weapon action, temporarily creating a blue flame on your weapon and unlocking a single ability called Channeled Throw that itself has two sub abilities. The unified theme is that both abilities interact with Eldritch Mark and both are fueled by the flame.
Channeled Throw: Weapon is identical to the old Hasted Throw in function. It's a throw attack with your bonded weapon that can detonate Eldrtich Mark and also lets you teleport to the next target your mark travels to.
Channeled Throw: Spell is similar to the old Eldrtich Ember, but has a few changes. First, it's always available and doesn't require that you use Arcane Strike to unlock it. Second, the damage has been increased do 1d8 + Int modifier, instead of just doing your Int modifier in damage. It no longer makes a hit target have Disadvantage on its next spell save. As before, you swing your weapon and launch a flame at a target. After hitting the enemy, the flame flies back to your weapon and drags the target back to you if it fails a check. Normal targets move up to 10m towards you. Targets marked by Eldrtich Mark will fly up to 30ft towards you. If you are within those ranges, the enemies will always land within 5ft of you.
So one ability is about teleporting to your enemies, while the other is about bringing them to you. Channelled Throw: Spell gives you the opportunity to strategically detonate Eldritch Mark at a location of your choosing (such as in a crowd of enemies), and Channeled Throw: Weapon is the main way you can detonate Eldrtich Mark at range. Both of these are new to Spellswords at level 11. Beyond that, Channeled Throw is a bonus action, which means you can now squeeze in 3 attacks in a single turn. One is a spell and the other is a melee weapon attack, meaning that it also gives you flexibility in advancing your Arcane Fervor stacks.
Level 14
1. Eldritch Combat has been replaced with Spellsword Mastery, which buffs Eldrtich Mark, Arcane Strike and Ethereal Pirouette.
This change was made for two reasons. One, I felt that Eldrtich Combat was kind of boring and felt a bit thematically disconnected from the rest of the class. Secondly, I wanted this feature to feel like a mini-capstone for the Spellsword, as level 14 seems to be a realistic level to hit during a full playthrough if you unlock leveling past 12.
You now have advantage on attacks against targets with an active Eldrtich Mark upon them. This felt like a nice buff that would enhance your ability to maintain the hit-n-run gameplay.
Arcane Strike, when Close Cantrips is active, now applies Volatile Sigil. This is a significant bump to damage and is a logical unification with the feature you get at level 2. For big damage, try using it with a Booming Blade attack to maximize damage (Weapon damage + Cantrip Damage + Volatile Sigil + Booming Blade damage). Nasty!
Finally, Ethereal Pirouette gets a 25% increase in teleportation range, bumping it up to 20ft. Just a bit more flexibility in your main battlefield navigation feature.
Other Bug Fixes / Quality of Life Fixes
1. All toggleable passives, such as Close Cantrips and Arcane Strike, are no longer considered temporary abilities.
This previously meant that they appeared on the temporary/recast portion of the hotbar for convenience, but they were often missed by players. Now they will all appear automatically in the passives section. Most importantly, they will now show up on your Character Sheet, so you can always drag them to any portion of your hotbar to customize things to your liking.
2. Dexterity now properly applies its modifier bonuses to thrown attacks with finesse weapons.
This is a huge fix, as base game had a big bug that meant that Dex throwing builds were never viable due to your DEX never being applied to thrown attack rolls. While I wasn't able to find a way to fix it for all players, I did implement a fix for Spellswords specifically. The game will still apply your STR bonus to attack rolls, but now you'll see a DEX bonus that covers the difference between your DEX and STR bonuses, ensuring you get numerical attack rolls as intended in 5e.
3. Feature descriptions generally have been cleaned up for easier reading and have built-in links to other tooltips. Errors in descriptions have also been cleaned up.
4. Shivero's VFX mod is no longer used/required for this class. This was mostly to reduce dependencies (which will make releasing a console version of this mod easier if I get around to it).
5. Arcane Strike previously did not work if you threw a bonded weapon that lacked the thrown property.
6. Imbuing your weapon with Shocking Grasp used to make Armor of Agathys think you had been hit by an attack, but has ben fixed.
7. Hail of Thorns previously wouldn't work if you didn't have a ranged weapon equipped. It also had busted spell slot scaling, and incorrectly reported the damage you'd do with scaled versions of the spell.
8. Starting with 5.0 onward, I'm deprecating some low-use optional files to make future maintenance easier. The following have been cut: Spellsword Class Compressed and all Deity Selection files. You can continue to download the old versions if you'd like, but they will not work with 5.0 and later.
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