Sword Mage

[Elton Robb]

Like living Eighth Grade all over again?

[AndrewTall]

Like living Eighth Grade all over again?

Hmm, some people I know loved that time. As a friend said recently of one: I should be nice to 'x' someday to show there's no hard feelings - give him a tip when he waxes my car...

[ryancaveney]

Fiend summoning and command... Special Bloodline power - not in normal rules for contacting and controlling fiends?

I think this is the logical Azrai version of the elemental summoning ability possessed by some scions of Anduiras, Basaia, Masela and Reynir -- where, as Andrew says, "fiend" is best interpreted as "icky, scary, nasty thing from the Shadow World".


Ryan

[Elton Robb]

Hmm, some people I know loved that time. As a friend said recently of one: I should be nice to 'x' someday to show there's no hard feelings - give him a tip when he waxes my car...

Another place that showed your worst nightmare was the Klingon Hell.

[dalor]

The Sword Mage could be part fiend himself...

I actually made him a Teifling in my game, saying he
was the son of a fiendish Witch from Vosgaard.

To ramp it up, you could actually make him a
Half-Fiend directly...and that is why he wears a mask
and such.

Just a thought.


Anthony

--- Gheal wrote:

> Thaumaturgist won`t do any good - this PrC for
> divine spellcasters only. But if he/she/it controls
> a gate from the Shadow world to more distant planes
> and research such forbidden spell as planar binding
> - it`ll do the trick. IMO, fiends must look at him
> favorably - there`s not much summons from Aebrinus
> these days...



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[Gman]

Spawn of a spawn and a witch .... Nice - just my style of nasty npc - How do we put it to a vote?

[Elton Robb]

Well, the thread starter, me, has to start a poll.

Elton.

[Sorontar]

Just a small point. What are you each trying to design the Sword Mage for?

1. The BRCS/Atlas?
2. The BrWiki?
3. Your homegrown campaign?

The reason I point this out is that I believe one of the requirements of the BRCS is that we try and base things around the core D&D3.5 books (the PHB I and DMG I) and previous official Birthright publications. So if you are designing the Sword Mage for that, then I would make him/her/it based on the same documents. I wouldn't use races or abilities from other documents unless you modified them for Birthright and added them as well.

If you want to add the Sword Mage to the Wiki or your own campaign as a possible NPC representation, then you can base it on whatever you like. Just remember, what goes in the BRCS or Atlas will be the (semi-) official ones.

Sorontar.

[ConjurerDragon]

Gheal schrieb:
> This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
> You can view the entire thread at:
> http://www.birthright.net/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=3874
> Gheal wrote:
> Thaumaturgist won`t do any good - this PrC for divine spellcasters only. But if he/she/it controls a gate from the Shadow world to more distant planes and research such forbidden spell as planar binding - it`ll do the trick. IMO, fiends must look at him favorably - there`s not much summons from Aebrinus these days...
>
And there is a reason for that. The Shadowworld should as far as I
understand it block the way of such spells in Birthright. So how could
the Swordmage do it, without anyone else (at least anyone else known)
try the same if as evil and powerhungry?

Perhaps he?s just an acolyte of the skin and wears the mask because he
looks like an ugly demon himself? Pershaps his "summoning of fiends" are
just rumours of people who saw him without mask - like the guard
entering the room with lord vader sitting there getting dressed ;-)

[AndrewTall]

Perhaps he?s just an acolyte of the skin and wears the mask because he
looks like an ugly demon himself? Pershaps his "summoning of fiends" are
just rumours of people who saw him without mask - like the guard
entering the room with lord vader sitting there getting dressed ;-)

The great thing about a mask - as a bad guy in particular - is that it removes accidental emotion to a reasonable degree; fear, surprise, amusement, tiredness etc all must be deduced from body posture or tone of voice. Similarly a mask provides distance from the masses - and gives a distinctive intimidating look that some merciless conquerors fail to have despite years of hard effort to learn how to laugh manically and scheme for world domination.

Best of all, the swordmage can vanish in a moment if in severe trouble by simply dropping the mask and walking away - anybody could be under the floor-to-neck robe and the mask... Similarly spying on the people is made easy without magic - the swordmage could for example easily maintain a persona that would attract their enemies without risking radiating magic or suchlike.

I have to say that I always saw the swordmage as a 'big reputation' type, someone who makes themselves look really tough to cow foes into submission without necessarily being the stronger. I'd make them very good at 'fake' magic and mind games which form as much a part of their power as real magic - all the better if a foe sees the fakery and thinks the real power underneath is also fake...