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There was an article by pelgrane press on building Sword-mages in their system 13th age. This inspired me to try my own hand at making such a character. The results didn't turn out how I expected, as you will see, but I do like the outcome. First off, let me speak a bit about 13th Age for people who have never heard of it before. The game runs off an extremely altered version of the d20 system called the Archmage system. This system was developed for the game by the lead designers of 3rd edition D&D and 4th edition D&D: Johnathon Tweet and Rob Heinsoo. Like D&D, it has ability scores, races, and classes. These three factors are going to drive much of what we design here today. With that out of the way, my first step was narrowing down a concept. Sword-mage is a very vague idea and gives me just that, a vague idea, to work with. As I'm pondering this, I peer over my blank character sheet and I see the box for One Unique Thing. This is a mechanic in 13th Age to encourage you to explain how your character stands out from the crowd. I decided picking a one unique thing might help me narrow down the concept for my sword-mage: what would make my sword-mage unique. After deliberating for a bit, I get the strangest idea that the sword-mage's power should come from demons. Specifically, a demonic implant. Now, there are two factions in the Dragon Empire, 13th Age's default setting, who would even consider this, in my opinion: the Diabolist and the Crusader. The former as she is a master (or servant, depending on interpretation) of demons and the later as he is a "ends justify the means" demon hunter who morals are in question, values power, and views his subordinate as pawns. I decide the former would be too obvious and go with the latter. Besides, the idea of being an experimental, living, anti-demon weapon is a cool concept.Thus, I write down my One Unique Thing as In a hasty surgery, an agent of the crusader replaced my left arm with that of a demon's. The hasty surgery part comes from my thought that this experiment would probably not be one where you ask for volunteers, but more a result of opportunity. Working out my One Unique Thing lead me to write my backstory and, by extension, concept: When I was young, my family was attacked by demons. An agent of the crusader saved my life, but was too late to save my family. I had lost my arm in the battle. Interested in the chance to experiment on a living subject, he offered to heal me. In a mix of delirium and rage, I took the offered and he gave me the demon's arm. He took me to be raised by the crusader's forces so he can keep an eye on his experiment. The arm has given me innate magic powers, but I regret my decision that day as the arm whispers to me. Even though I haven't fleshed him out mechanically, I already like the character I thought up. It sounds like he would be an interesting addition to an adventure as he has an inward crisis (being demonically possessed, technically), an outward crisis (demon clean-up duty), and a direct-tie to two of the settings big factions (Crusader as he was raised by them and the Diabolist because of his arm). In 13th Age, there is a system to represent ties to the factions of the setting called the Icon system. You distribute 3 points between relationships with the Icons of the setting. The Icons represent themselves and the factions they lead. These relationships can be positive, negative, or conflicted. At the start of every session, you roll 1d6 per point in a relationship. On a 5, you gain a benefit at a cost from your faction during the session and, on a 6, you gain a benefit from your faction during the session. I decided to create a 2 point conflicted relationship with the creator as his forces raised me, but also used me as a guinea pig. I spend my remaining relationship point on a negative relationship with the Diabolist as a demon lives within me. Instead of a long list of skills like in most d20 games, 13th Age has a background system instead: a series of freeform skills that cover a large base and are rated from 1-5. I decide this to be the next step for making my character. Starting characters have 8 points to distribute among backgrounds. Backgrounds cannot have less than 1 point or more than 5 points. They should be vague enough to be useful, but not too vague. Their intent is to inspire creativity so that players are likely to elaborate on their backstory and their approach (as an ability score, which will we get to, is also added to the check) when making checks to overcome obstacles outside of combat. Personally, I always keep to two backgrounds as I think, with 8 points to distribute, two backgrounds leads to more optimal numbers. These two optimal arrays, in my opinion, are 5, 3 and 4,4. I decide on the former as I feel being raised by the crusader has more influence than the whispering of the demon in my arm. These leads to me choosing the following backgrounds: Raised By The Crusader's Forces (5) and Whispers Of The Demon In My Arm (3). It's at this moment that I kind of want to laugh at what I wrote so far. Earlier, I said ability scores, races, and classes were going to drive most of my decision making and I haven't even touch them yet. Now, it's time to get in to them. As this was inspired by an article about how to make a sword-mage through multiclassing, I decide this must be a multiclass character despite the fact that there are ways to making a sword-mage with a single class (like the bard). The list of classes in 13th Age, to date, are Barbarian, Bard, Chaos Mage, Cleric, Commander, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Necromancer, Occultist, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Wizard. As far as spellcasters go, the best spellcaster for a sword-mage, in my opinion, is a sorcerer. Sorcerer's have a talent that allows them to use ranged spells at close range without risking an opportunity attack. This talent is called Spell-Fist. This is invaluable for a sword-mage since, otherwise, they risk being hit everything time they want to use a ranged spell while close to an enemy. With one of my classes decided, I decide that my martial class will be the Ranger. The Ranger is the only class without class features as it is meant to be build by it's class talents. To explain, all classes -- except for The Ranger -- have a special power(s) that all characters using that class receive. These are called class features. All classes also have a list of powers you must choose 3 from called Class Talents. As the Ranger is meant to be built from its class talents, it has some strong ones: particularly, Animal Companion and Double Melee/Ranged Attack. The former gives you a companion and, thus, an extra turn per round for it which is a big deal. The latter gives you a 50% chance to attack twice in a turn which is also a big deal. With my classes decided, I need to work on my ability scores. Ability scores are the classic D&D 6: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma. Like in most post-3e D&D derivatives, ability scores matter a lot in making a character. This is when I notice an issue with my idea for this character. For multiclass characters, before using what the system calls a basic attack, you decide which class is attacking. The Ranger, who I originally thought gets to choose whether to add Dexterity or Strength to its attack and damage for melee attacks, I find only gets to choose the prior for the attack roll, not the damage roll. In other words, you always add strength to damage regardless of the bonus you add to the attack roll. Further compounding this is that multiclass character have a mechanic known as the Key Modifier. As a way of making sure multiclass characters aren't better than normal characters, every class combination has two key modifiers: two ability scores that, when one or the other are called for combat checks, you use the lower score. This means you generally want to make sure both key modifiers are equal or having one higher is mostly pointless. The key modifiers for a ranger/sorcerer are Dexterity/Charisma. Even worse, Spell Fist forces all Sorcerer spells to add Constitution to damage instead of Charisma, but Charisma remains one of the key modifiers. Keeping a focus on melee would require a focus on 4 of the 6 ability scores. Thankfully, one is constitution which adds to your HP total so it would have been important anyway. I decide to drop the idea of a sword-mage and focus more on this class being a frontline arcane caster at this point. I do so as I look over the defense calculations for a ranger/sorcerer and realize they could be potentially great. In short, I realize I can make a frontline caster that is hard to hit and can take a hit. With this alteration in concept out of the way, I decide to be lazy and steal one of the stat arrays from the back of my book for my ability scores. I decide to use the 16,14,14,12,10,8 stat array. I assign them in this fashion: Str 10, Con 16, Dex 14, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 14. Every race and class combo give an option of two ability scores that can receive a +2 bonus. Multiclass characters get all the options their class provides, but your class can only provide one +2 bonus and it cannot be the same as your racial bonus (you can't add +4 to one ability score at character generation). My choices from my classes are Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, Charisma, and Constitutions. I decide to pick out a race so I can decide my racial bonus. My options are: Humans, Half-Orcs, Dark Elves, High Elves, Wood Elves, Gnomes, Half-Elves, Halflings, Dragonspawn, Aasamar, Forgeborn, and Tieflings. Dark Elves have a choice between +2 Dex or +2 Cha and have a power that allows them to inflict ongoing damage. This seems like a perfect fit and I choose it. I decide to add a +2 to my Dex and my Cha for a new array of: Str 10 (+0), Con 16(+3), Dex 16(+3), Int 12(+1), Wis 8(-0), Cha 16(+3). This stat arrays gives me an initiative of +4, 27 Total HP, and the following three defenses: Armor Class of 20 (I decided to wear Light Armor as neither class takes penalties for wearing it), Physical Defense of 15, and Mental Defense of 12. For the curious, defenses are calculated by taking the middle mod of 3 ability scores plus a flat number plus level to keep them in a certain range. Multiclass characters get the better defenses of their two classes. So, AC: 14 + Middle Mod of Con/Dex/Wis + Level, PD 11 + Middle Mod of Str/Con/Dex + Level, and MD 10 + Middle Mod of Int/Wis/Cha + Level. Some of you may notice that I should only have an Armor Class of 18, not 20. Spell Fist gives a +2 AC bonus on top of its other features. These stats also decide that both my melee and ranged attacks have a +4 to hit bonus (Dex Mod + Level). Basic melee attacks receive a +0 modifier to damage. Basic ranged attacks receive a +3 modifier to damage. Multiclass characters have their weapon damage die dropped by one step (d10->d8, etc.) if one class is not a skilled class (Barbarian, Bard, Commander, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue). As such, both my basic attacks end up with a d6 damage die. That is on the lower scale as far as damage die in 13th Age is concerned.This is fine as my new concept of the character won't be relying too heavily on basic attacks, but may use them as a fall back plan considering their bonus to hit. Like 4e, 13th Age has healing surges, in a way. They call them recoveries. You start with 8 of them unless you have a feature or talent that increases or decreases that number. They a number of dice equal to your level plus your Con mod. The size of the die is determined by your class. Multiclass characters pick the better of their two options. As such, I end up with 8 recoveries worth 1d8 + 3 at level 1. I now move on to writing down what my class gives me. As the Ranger has no class features, I just write down the Sorcerer's class features. As I do, I remember the Sorcerer has a class feature that allows it to pick Wizard spells that are one level lower than the highest level of spell casting the sorcerer has access to (When a sorcerer can access 3rd level, it can use 1st level Wizard spells). It's nice to have variety. I then move on to picking my talents. I already decided on spell fist so I take that. This leaves me with two talents left to purchase. In my opinion, if you're a ranger without an animal companion, you made a mistake. It gives you an extra attack guaranteed as well as a new target to be hit instead of you. Animal Companion, since the 13 True Ways sourcebook, has two versions: an initiate and adept version. The former costs 1 talent while the later costs 2. In the former, your animal companion can only arrive every other battle. This is the only time that a power doesn't recharge after level-ups, full heal-ups and the like: you have to use it every other battle. In the later, you can use it every battle and it gets access to daily spells. In my head, the demon in my arm is the animal companion. Either it appears behind me like a stand in Jojo or makes a giant, ephemeral fist like Nero from DMC 4, it is my "partner" in battle. As such, I feel it should be active every battle and, as I said it is the source of power, be magical. Not only that, but a 9th level Animal Companion spell allows me and my animal companion to switch bodies when I hit 0 hp. Considering my relation to my animal companion, this is rather thematic. I decide to spend my last two talents on Animal Companion Adept. Every level, you get a feat to spend. This feat is a little upgrade to one of your pre-existing abilities given to you by your race and class. While I haven't picked my spells yet, which can be upgraded with feats, I already know I want to spend my adventurer feat (they come in tiers: Adventurer (1-4), Champion(5-7), Epic(8-10) and any higher tier one can be spent to unlock a feat of a lower tier) on allowing my Animal Companion to benefit from the escalation die. The escalation die is a d6 that increases every turn of combat (as long as combat is intensifying) and starts from 0 and goes to 6. While some powers key off it's value, it's main function is a bonus to your attack rolls. Besides the fact that demons are one of the few monster types that add the escalation die to their attack rolls (normally, it's just players), making sure my animal companion can hit is important since it's main function is a guaranteed extra attack per turn. Now, it's time to pick out spells. People more used to other d20 games may wonder how I can plan to be an effective level 1 spellcaster in close quarters without martial attack support. After all, in most d20 games, spellcasters have a limited number of spells per day. This game runs off an alteration of 4e's At-will/Encounter/Daily/Utility system. As such, I can always attack as long as I have an at-will spell. Mind you, at-will spells lag behind martial damage dealing, but I can always pull back and use my longbow if I needed to. Also, Sorcerers can sacrifice a standard action to double their next spell's damage which is another option. One, mind you, that I'm better off using at range. Multiclass characters in 13th Age lag behind one level for each of the classes they use. For level 1, they included special notes on how to treat multiclass characters. The big setback is the lost of 1 spell slot. In other words, I can "equip" one less spell to my character. For the curious, I can swap out my spells with any spells available to me (any spells available to my class that are of a level I have access to and lower. Spellcasters generally have 20 spells instead of the 200 in other D20 systems) at a full heal-up. I choose Lighting Fork which is a recharge spell that gives me the chance to attack multiple targets depending on if my roll is a natural (just the value on the die) even number. Recharge spells are a unique thing to 13th Age: they are essentially daily spells where, after battle, you can pass a DC to try and keep them for further use without a full heal-up occurring. I choose Chaos Bolt as my at-will spell (I need at-least for this build to work) as it is both thematic (demons are born from Chaos in this settings) and does decent damage with the chance of a chaotic benefit (a random bonus you normally only get from gathering power). Finally, I choose Breathe Of The White as my daily spell to help me do more damage. For a daily spell, it gets a chance to recharge for further use in that battle at the start of every turn as it is a breathe weapon (this comes from one of the sorcerer's class features). It's at this moment that I realize I forgot to choose what type of Animal Companion I have. I decide on the wolf as a bonus to hitting the same targets I hit this round seems useful for a demon physically attacked to me. I also write down the companion's stats. As I am a level 1 character, it starts a level 0. This is not a result of my character being a multiclass character, but rather the result of normal animal companion rules. I don't need to choose spells as animal companions work on a more vancian system: they have access to all spells of their level or lower, but can only cast a certain number per day. Finally, a fart out a character name: Natel Veroic. It means nothing. If this means something, whoops! And there you have it! My attempt to make a sword-mage in 13th Age resulted in more of "close combat" mage. Battle Mage? Regardless, it's rather more physical than it would be otherwise. While a vanilla sorcerer can get up close and personal with the rest of them without multiclassing, this build really helps them with their defenses, gives them an extra attack and access to more spells through animal companion, and a viable martial back-up attack with their normal ranged attack. It's worth noting that rangers get more ranger talents as they level up. Normally, they get them at 5th and 8th level, but, as this is a multiclass, they will get them at 6th and 9th level instead. As such, the Ranger can invest in Double Ranged Attack to further it's ability to fall back on its normal ranged attack later on. If anyone wants to see the character for this guy, here it is! I also wrote up an alternate version that focuses more on melee and one that forgoes Adept Animal Companion for Double Ranged Attack. Covok fucked around with this message at 10:04 on Dec 25, 2014 |
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Dec 25, 2014 09:44
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 23:11 |
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