Spellsword
NWN requirements
- Base Class: Wizard.
- General spell school (no specialization)
General information
Spellswords, also known as spellblades, are arcane warriors; students of both blade and magic that combine their arts to retain the massive array of abilities of the mage and the prowess of a martial fighter. For either code, ritual, choice or dogma, their discipline forces them to forego the use of creation and summoning spells, as they must rely on their own merit and skill to survive. Given the time and dedication that the martial studies take, they must also forego the use of a whole school of magic, but while they are not studying the fine details of the arcane, they are honing their finesse with blade and staff.
Despite their name, spellswords are not limited in any way to the use of swords.
Mechanical information
The spellsword is a wizard path. A character can become a spellsword at character creation, turning the wizard levels into spellsword levels, as long as they have no school specialization. There is a way to become a spellsword after creation as well, though the method, and price if any, remains secret.
Spellsword Abilities
- Wizard Hit Die upgraded to d6
- They gain Martial Weapon proficiency
- They gain +3 CL against dispels
- They gain +1 melee Damage per INT modifier, capped to wizard level/2
- They gain +1 Discipline each 3 wizard levels
- If they aren't holding anything in their offhand (shield, bow, two-hander, etc), they gain +1 (Dodge) AC per int modifier, capped by wizard level/6+1 to a maximum of 7 at 30
If their majority of levels is Wizard, they gain increased AB and a new APR progression. The bonus to mage armor doesn't need the majority of levels.
| Level | AB | Level | APR | Level | Mage Armor AC | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | +1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | +4 | ||
| 7 | +2 | ||||||
| 11 | +3 | 8 | 2 | 8 | +8 | ||
| 15 | +4 | 15 | 3 | ||||
| 19 | +5 | 15 | +12 | ||||
| 23 | +6 | 22 | 4 | ||||
| 27 | +7 |
Imbuing
Spellswords have the unique trait of being able to "charge" spells into their weapons and armor, with different conditions and different effects.
Armors can be imbued using defensive spells, "storing" the spell in the armor, which will be activated and triggered the moment the spellsword is struck and will function as the spell normally would.
Weapons can be imbued using damage spells, granting additional damage and additional effects which are dependent to the energy imbued. At level 21, spellswords are able to imbue their weapons with two properties.
| Energy Type | On-hit Effect (Save) | Spell Level | Bonus Damage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magic | 10% chance to dispel target | Levels 1 to 3 | 1d4 (1 for Magic) | |
| Acid | 5hp/round damage to the target for 3 rounds (Fort) | |||
| Cold | 1 APR to target for 3 rounds (Fort) | Levels 4 to 6 | 1d8 (1d4 for Magic) | |
| Electric | Nearby targets are struck by 5 electric damage (Reflex) | |||
| Fire | Target loses 3 armor AC for 3 rounds (Fort) | Levels 7 to 9 | 1d12 (1d8 for Magic) | |
| Negative | Vampiric Regeneration +15 (Fort) | |||
| Sonic | Silences the target for 1 round (Fort) |
For example, imbuing a weapon with a Horrid Wilting (Level 8, Magic Damage), will grant the weapon the dispel on-hit and 1d8 of magic damage.
Restrictions
Spellswords lose access to:
- One spell school of their choice
- All summoning spells and abilities (the only exception being the wizard familiar)
- All epic spells, including command spells like -scry, except Epic Mage Armour
Notes
- Most of these changes do not appear in the character sheet, but they will be reflected in the combat log.
- The bonuses (AC, AB, disc) are soft, counting toward their respective caps and not counting for feat/class requirements.
- The Attacks Per Round will replace the natural attack progression and will not stack in any way with the monk progression.
- Their summoning restriction is absolute. All spells and abilities means all of them, even abilities that are not strictly summoning, like the druid's animal companion, the shadowdancer's shadow, or Mordenkainen's Sword spell. They are prevented from using these spells even from scrolls and other sources. Domination and charm abilities, however, work normally.
- They cannot choose Conjuration as their forbidden school.
- Using the -twohand command counts as having the offhand occupied for the purposes of the bonus AC.
- The Mage Armor bonus AC is still distributed evenly between Dodge, Deflection, Armor and Natural. Only Dodge AC stacks with other Dodge AC sources.