The Arcane Athenæum

The “gish” has been a very loved character concept for decades in Dungeons and Dragons.  What’s a gish, you might be asking?  It’s a fan term used to describe D&D characters who wield both magic and martial prowess in equal tandem.   That is, it’s a fighter that also does magic stuff.  Or a wizard that also does weapon stuff.  Both, really.  The term gish comes from the D&D race of the githyanki, and gish is their word for such an individual.  More common terms which you might see in video games and other fantasy works include battlemage, spellsword, spellblade, and warmage.

What sucks is that, currently, 5th edition doesn’t quite represent this much-loved archetype.  There are attempts at it; the eldritch knight is a fighter that gets access to a few spells and cantrips, but it still feels overly martial.  The bladesinger is a wizard that learns how to use a sword, but it still suffers from low damage die and feels overly arcane.  Blade pact warlocks get some magic and swordplay as well, but the class is still too focused on eldritch blast to feel like a proper swordmage and, like the bladesinger, isn’t very resilient.  Arcane tricksters are too roguish and carry too much baggage with their base class, and like eldritch knights just aren’t magical enough.  A swordmage should float right in the middle; properly both martial and arcane in equal amounts and able to blend the two together seamlessly.

5th edition does have a class that feels this way already.  The paladin, which gets access to a fighting style and good survivability while simultaneously putting out cool magic effects and being able to cast useful spells.  The problem is that the paladin is a divine caster; they received their powers from a god or a divine oath.  They aren’t wielding arcane magic as a proper swordmage would.  And that’s an important distinction for most players.  Sure, you could just refluff a paladin into an arcane caster if you worked with your DM: smite does force damage now, you don’t have an oath anymore but just get spells based on the mechanical choice you made, etc.  And if you wanted to do that then all power to you.  But I, and many others, want to see something different.

So an arcane 1/2 caster is a common homebrew you see floating around the Internet.  “Half caster,” by the way, is a term used to describe the two classes in 5e (paladin and ranger) that have access up to 5th level spells and get no cantrips, but do receive fighting styles and extra attack.  There are various attempts at the archetype; some add additional resources (like how sorcery points or ki points work) to allow them to perform various abilities.  Some add cantrips, simply because the cantrips from Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide are so flavorful and built to be used by the existing “gish” classes.  Most of these I feel don’t quite hit the mark, and alter the way 1/2 casters work too much to be really proper.  And I really really like swordmages/spellswords/battlemages/whatever the hell you wanna call them.  It is easily my favorite character concept.  If I were sucked into the Forgotten Realms I’d either want to be one of those…. or an artificer because science.

So here’s my own attempt at an arcane 1/2 caster.

The class takes a lot from 4th edition’s swordmage class, including the name (clearly), the strong weapon bond, and two of the archetypes receive abilities directly based on swordmage abilities in 4e.  But it’s also something a bit new, and borrows some mechanics from the magus class of Pathfinder (which is that system’s own “gish”).  While designing it, I tried to keep it similar to the paladin while also being different.  Instead of the ability to sense divine beings and undead, the swordmage can sense the presence of magic.  Instead of getting smite the swordmage can infuse their weapon with arcane power for extended periods, and channel the strength of full-powered spells through weapon strikes.

The four subclasses presented are designed to reflect the ways I feel a weapon-bonding arcane fighter would choose to focus their abilities.

The battlemage is the heavy-armored battle wizard.  They are designed to take punishment and simultaneously dish it out with spell-and-swordplay, and can help their allies by making an enemy more inclined to attack them.

The eldritch archer can do many of the things that other swordmages can do but at a longer range.  Arcane Archer may be an official fighter subclass in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, but I find it to be a disappointing take on the idea of a magical archer.

The shieldbearer is inspired partially by various shield-wielding heroes in popular media.  Shieldbearers can bond to shields as well as standard weapons, allowing them to turn what is normally a purely defensive item into an offensive one.

The spellsword is more a lightly armored skirmisher, and focused on attacking enemies with arcanely-powered sword strikes.  They are better able to unload spells into a target with their weapon and can teleport short distances to take advantage of an opponent’s openings.

Anything I release through Geeks New England for D&D will be available completely for free, though you can donate to any project I upload at the “pay what you want” price on DMsGuild if you’d like.

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Changelog

Version 5.0 18Apr2021

Overall

• A new subclass has been added!  The shieldbearer, inspired in part by characters such as Captain America and The Rising of the Shield Hero.  In theory, the shieldbearer plays as a semi offensive/semi-defensive front-line striker.  Compared to the battlemage, the shieldbearer is less focused on defending allies and acting as a protective tank.  Instead, it focuses on buffing its own defenses and utilizing a shield in unique ways.  The spells and features you get access to can also help turn an enemy’s defenses into a benefit for yourself, and at higher levels you can use your bonded shield to cast wall-like spells (or, due to a fun accident in terminology, bypass some entirely).
• Reworded a number of features to make their use and certain situations a bit more clear.
• Created a new Optional Class Features section at the end of the main class description, and before the subclasses.  This is done to help keep the class as a whole in line with all other classes; if your DM doesn’t want to use any of the optional features in Tasha’s Cauldron of Anything, then by all rights I don’t believe the swordmage should be able to use those kinds of features either.  Thus the new fighting styles they have access to are kept separated for that reason.
• The battlemage and eldritch archer have had their subclass spells altered a bit, to better fit their intended combat/party roles and distinguish them from other subclasses.  
• A few new spells have been added to the class’ spell list, including spells from Tasha’s.

Battlemage

• In the War Mage feature, changed the line that prevented you from making a bonus action attack if you made a weapon attack in the same turn, to now only prevent the bonus action attack if you used a Spell Strike.  The reason for this is simple; the feature lets you make a weapon attack if you cast a spell with your action, but it is also meant to reward you for successfully concentrating on a spell while in the midst of battle.  Not letting you make weapon attacks and still gain the benefit would be pointless, since besides casting a spell there aren’t many other things you can do with your action besides attack.  

Spellsword

• Modified the Arcane Counter ability a bit; now you can use it immediately when an enemy attacks an ally, interrupting their attack and giving the enemy disadvantage on its attack against your friend.  This makes it a more reliable and defensive ability, not just offensive.  As part of this change, the feature was given an Int-mod limit so it cannot be used an unlimited number of times.
• The Recursive Strike feature has been reworked a bit.  Rather than letting you Spell Strike with one attack (as normal) and then letting you make a bonus action attack only if that attack missed, now you can essentially take the normal Attack action (letting you, as a 7th level Swordmage, make two attacks) when you Spell Strike.  You can then apply the Spell Strike to ONE of any of these successful attacks.  Then, any other attacks you make with that action are just normal attacks.  This allows for a bit more freedom, and lets the subclass feel a bit more like the swingy-focused, magic-enhanced attacker that it is.  Note that you should declare whether you will release your Spell Strike after a successful hit before you move on to make another attack.  If you end up running out of attacks in that one action without releasing your Spell Strike, the magic will fade and the spell slot is lost. So if you have two attacks you can make, and you don’t release the spell on the first hit, and then the second hit misses, you’ve missed your chance to use your Spell Strike.  If you had the ability to make another attack with another action, such as if you multi-classed into fighter and burn an Action Surge, you would have to spend a new spell slot to Spell Strike again.
• The Enhanced Counter feature has been improved to allow you to attempt a Spell Strike with the reaction attack that you make when you use your Arcane Counter feature.  This change, along with the change to Recursive Strike, is meant to better balance this subclass against the other subclasses and establish it as the quintessential “good at Spell Strikes” subclass.

Version 4.1 27Aug2020

Overall

• Shield proficiency has been added to the class’s armor proficiency. After some thought, I reasoned that there’s no reason why the class as a whole shouldn’t be able to use shields; either you’re going to be bonding with a weapon that doesn’t allow for shield use anyway (bows, two-handed weapons), you’ll be utilizing a combat or character concept that doesn’t use one, or you’ll use one but the class fantasy is maintained regardless (nothing wrong with a spellsword using a buckler and a rapier, for example; actually that’s quite flavorful as an arcane swashbuckler).  As a result, Battlemage loses it’s particular shield proficiency.

Version 4.0 13Nov2019

Overall

• Arcane Infusion has been reworked.  After years- wait a minute *checks calendar* yup; years of people bringing it up, we’ve moved the 10th level feature (which let you make your infusion an element besides force) to the base arcane infusion feature.  Now, your infusion is force as a base, but you can change it to any other damage type (except bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing) so long as you know a spell that can deal that damage type.  This represents you having the knowledge to wield that element.  Yes, this also makes Chromatic Orb a particularly good spell if you want to be able to change your infusion on the fly.  But it’s not necessary; force is arguably the “strongest” damage type in the game already.
• As a result of the above change, there is a new 10th level feature; when you successfully hit a target with your Spell Strike feature (regardless of whether or not they pass any hypothetical save), the next attack made against that target before the end of your next turn has advantage.  Help yourself or your allies hit better.
• Arcane Infusion has also been changed to no longer vanish on your weapon leaving your hand; the infusion now remains unless the weapon has “been away from you” for longer than a minute, similar to how the Pact of the Blade Warlock’s weapons work.
• With inspiration from the new UA that was released on Nov 4, we’ve added a new fighting style.  Arcane Warrior allows you to pick two wizard cantrips, either giving you some utility, a magical ranged attack, or maybe something like booming blade or lightning lure.  This is actually a really cool and flavorful way to give half-casters cantrips that I like a lot; it’s literally part of your fighting style.
• Additionally, speaking of that UA, a note has been added opening up the option to pick from the expanded fighting styles and spell versatility enhancements for the Swordmage assuming your DM allows you to use that UA.  Naturally if you’re party’s bard isn’t allowed to take their spell versatility, you can’t either.

Battlemage

• Hardened Mind has been changed to 1/2 your Intelligence modifier (rounded up) rather than full Intelligence.  Because you have natural proficiency with Con saves, full Intelligence mod had the potential to get exceptionally powerful.  Especially when the War Caster feat is considered which is a very common feat for any gish to take.  It also now specifies that you do get this bonus when making a concentration check to maintain your Arcane Aegis.

Version 3.4 23May2019

Overall

• The class’s starting equipment has been modified a bit again, granting either an additional extra martial weapon or two simple weapons. The reason for this change is combat balance; despite the class fantasy of having one bonded weapon which acts as the fulcrum of the swordmage’s powers, realistically a player will want to have a fallback weapon just in case it is needed. Granted, due to the way the bonded weapon works, having your weapon removed from you is extremely unlikely, but this does offer some flexibility in what you want to bring to a battle if you can plan ahead of time.

Version 3.3 14May2019

Overall

• The class’s saving throws have been changed from Dexterity and Intelligence to Constitution and Intelligence, as Constitution applies more broadly to all of the subclasses.  With Dexterity, Battlemage tended to find itself with a saving throw that wasn’t necessarily appropriate for it.  But all subclasses benefit from Constitution proficiency, and it works well for a martial fighter (which the Swordmage half-is).
• The starting equipment has been altered to provide more options.  A Swordmage intending to be a ranged fighter could take some kind of ranged weapon, but RAW they were given no ammunition to use with it.  With this change, the class defaults to a longbow, the “intended” weapon for an eldritch archer, much in the same way Rangers default to longbows, but I would imagine any reasonable DM would let you swap for a crossbow or something if you’d prefer.
• Animal Handling and Survival have both been removed from the class’s list of potential skills, as they weren’t quite appropriate for the class fantasy as an arcane fighter.
• The Spell Strike feature has received a change to its wording.  It now specifies that spells which have an AoE only effect the target, and if you’re Intelligence is somehow too low to have a positive modifier, you get a minimum of 1 use of spell strike regardless.  No change otherwise.
• The addition of a skill has been removed from the Multiclassing proficiencies, as only certain classes provided a skill when you multiclass into it (Bards, Rangers, and Rogues).  These three classes tend to be the ones with the most skills, and the ones which focus most on being skill-focused, which the Swordmage is not intended to be.  And so you do not gain any skill proficiencies when you multiclasss into Swordmage now.

Battlemage

• War Mage has been altered.  Instead of being identical to the Eldritch Knight’s Improved War Magic feature, you can now make a weapon attack as a bonus action if you cast a spell as an action OR are concentrating on a spell, the channeled magic increasing your martial capabilities in a similar way to how War Magic wizards become harder to hit while they are concentrating.  Note that, for balance reasons, you cannot use this bonus action attack in the same turn that you use this feature; so you can’t use your action to Extra Attack and then bonus action strike, or to make a Spell Strike and then bonus action attack.  We’ll revisit this if we find that it’s overly limiting.

Version 3.2 18Apr2019

Overall

• Magic Sense got changed last version, but that was actually not using the proper language for what we were hoping to accomplish with the feature.  It’s been rebalanced a bit; with this change you can’t sense magic items behind total cover, such as a doorway or a barrier.  But, you can sense objects hidden on a person, like in a pocket or hidden in an article of clothing.  And some other rules explaining what else can block the sense.  The intention is that you’re using this to either get a quick sense at how many magic items a person may have on their person, or give a cursory glance over an item that you are looking at and gain some useful information about it (like, is it even magical in the first place).  The feature was not meant to give you a large radius of super-magic sense that would let you pick up whether there’s an item in another floor of someone’s home, for instance.

Version 3.1 14Apr2019

Overall

• We’ve made some balance changes to the class as a whole, and altered the design intention of the subclass-specific bonus spells.
• Magic Sense has been reworked.  Instead of being a free, double-ranged Detect Magic, magic sense now allows you to sense the presence of magic items within a 60 foot range.  If you do sense an item in this way, you can also tell what rarity the item is, from common all the way up to artifact.  This ties into the Swordmage’s fluff of being an arcane martial class which bonds with and utilizes the magics held within weapons.  Your magic sense allows you to sense the presence of these weapons, and how powerful they are.
• Arcane Infusion has been changed a bit as well, as far as its damage output goes.  Still lasts 10 minutes, but now instead of the damage being equal to the spell slot used (which resulted in a range of 1-5 damage) it is 1 + the spell slot used, up to a max of 4.  This results in a infusion damage from 2-4.  This makes even lower-level slots more useful, as even using a 1st level slot gives you 2 extra damage on each hit instead of just one.  It caps at 4 damage instead of 5 because we found that 5 extra damage an attack, combined with spell strikes, got a bit too powerful for our tastes.  We may revisit that in the future, but for now this means using a 4th or 5th level slot gives you no benefit over using a 3rd level slot for infusion.  This does also mean you get to play with your higher level spell slots a bit more, rather than feeling like you need to spend your highest ones on infusion damage.
• The class’s spell list has been played with a bit.  Lost spells include comprehend languages and illusory script (which we felt were utility-based ritual spells that had less of a place with a martial-focused class like the Swordmage).  Spells like longstrider and far step were also removed from the spell list, as they were changed to be subclass-unique bonus spells.  A few other spells were added to the spell list, such as detect magic now that magic sense works differently.  Rather than listed every change, you can check out the spell list for yourself and see if a spell you had been using has been lost or not.

Battlemage

• The bonus spells granted by this subclass have been changed.  Now, Battlemages learn protection from evil and good, warding bond, enemies abound, Otiluke’s resilient sphere, and circle of power.  This mixture of spells better enhances the battlemage’s role as a tank and protector of its allies.

Eldritch Archer

• The bonus spells granted by this subclass have been changed.  Now, Eldritch Archers learn zephyr strike, cordon of arrows, wind wall, elemental bane, and swift quiver.  This mixture of spells better enhances the eldritch archer’s role as a long-range archer and caster.  Zephyr Strike allows for great positioning, while wind wall is a spell which takes advantage of the subclass’s phasing shot feature to allow them to attack behind a unique form of cover.
• The subclass’s capstone feature Eldritch Accuracy has been reworded, hopefully to make it a bit more clear how it works.  It’s not a complicated feature; I just want to ensure no one will get confused about how much of a bonus you get to hit or can I have extra damage and the bonus to hit at the same time? (The answer is no, btw; it’s one or the other).  Your Arcane Infusion feature can either deal extra damage OR grant a bonus to hit rolls made with your bonded weapon.  And both values are the same; for example, if you used a 2nd-level spell slot for your Arcane Infusion, the infusion’s extra damage would be +3 OR you get a +3 bonus to hit; you choose when you apply the infusion and can swap between these two effects with another bonus action on your turn.

Spellsword

• The bonus spells granted by this subclass have been changed.  Now, Spellswords learn longstrider, blur, haste, freedom of movement, and far step.  Each of these spells better enhances the spellsword’s role as a quick skirmisher who likes to dart in and out of combat, deal damage, and move away again.  Do not that a spellsword can still learn zephyr strike from their class’s spell list, which is also a fantastic spell for them, and combos really well with longstrider.

Version 3.0 29Nov2018

Overall

• The overall document has been updated, including a new title page to conform to the Arcane Athenæum’s new style.
• Added guiding bolt and conjure volley to the spell list.
• Removed the spells expeditious retreat and freedom of movement from the spell list.  This was due to the decision to make them bonus spells for the spellsword subclass, as they were originally added to the spell list for that subclass anyway.
• All three subclasses have received a set of bonus spells as part of their features.  When you look at existing half-casters in 5e, you have the paladin (where each oath gets bonus spells) and the new ranger subclasses from Xanathar’s, which also get bonus spells.  Following this logic, half-casters should get bonus spells as part of their features, hence the change.  The chosen spells are designed with the intended playstyle of the subclass in mind; battlemages get spells which help them protect and defend their allies, eldritch archers get a lot of ranger-like spells which give them more options with things like ammunition and quivers, and spellswords get spells which let them move around quickly and more easily, cementing their role as skirmishers.

Eldritch Archer

• The Arcane Ammunition feature has been altered, so that the ammunition created does not count as magical.  This was done for three reasons.  1) It was too easy to gain “free” magical damage at such a low level, which generally shouldn’t get so quick to come by.  2) Swordmages can make their attacks magical already with their Arcane Infusion feature, which at least costs a resource to use.  This also makes Arcane Infusion slightly more important/valuable, as it was designed to be, as you’ll need to use it to get that magic damage.  3) Most of the new bonus spells that eldritch archers get require that they be used with ammunition that isn’t magical.  This change thus allows one to use an Arcane Ammunition for the casting of that spell.  Note that the ability to conjure a piece of ammunition is still, itself, magical, so you cannot create a piece of ammunition in an anti-magic field (and one that passed into an anti-magic field would be destroyed).  Magic still creates the ammunition and keeps it around; it just doesn’t impart “magical” damage.
• The Arcane Beacon feature has been improved.  Now, it can be used on arcane ammunition as well as other pieces of ammunition.  The overall wording of the feature has also been changed to be cleaner and, hopefully, work a bit better.

Version 2.1 07Jun2018

Overall

• Equipment options mistakenly listed “studded leather armor” instead of “leather armor.”  No class, at least to my knowledge, should start with studded leather.

Version 2.0 23May2018

Special thanks to Peter Sherwood for helping me develop these most recent changes to improve the class.  version 2.0 because this does fundamentally change a lot of the subclasses, and alters some features at higher levels.

Overall

• Changed the name of the “Weapon Bond” feature to “Swordmage Bond.”  Though it is very similar to the Eldritch Knight’s “Weapon Bond,” there are some key differences which I believe necessitates altering the name, since it’s not the exact same feature.  This does mean that an EK/Swordmage multiclass can bond to three weapons as the features are different, but I’m comfortable with that; only the weapon chosen for the Swordmage Bond gets to use the Swordmage’s features.
• Added the “Protection Fighting Style” to the “Fighting Style” options, since Battlemages now get shield proficiency.  Yes, there is a single level (2) where you’ll have the Protection style but no proficiency with a shield.  Not quite as clean as it could be, but hopefully no one is sitting at 2nd level for very long (I always advocate starting new campaigns at 3rd level anyway).
• Changed the time a weapon can be infused *back* to 10 minutes.  1 hour provided too much freedom to infuse and then be able to use that single infusion for multiple combats, which messed with the resource usage.  Reducing this to 10 minutes means the Swordmage can’t just “infuse and forget”.  For most this likely won’t be much of a change, since most people aren’t having multiple combats an hour, and you can still sheath your weapon and keep it infused during a situation where you will be facing multiple enemies in a short time frame (it’s still “being carried” afterall).
• Magic Ward now requires you to be wielding your bonded weapon to benefit from it.  Again, an ability that probably won’t actually cause too many changes, but prevents some weird situations.
• The “Empowered Infusion” feature has been changed to “Empowered Spell Strike.”  After some deliberation, it was decided that the potential +10 damage at these higher levels was so good as to be *too* good, and projections showed that it was just doing too much damage.  Instead, the class now gets to improve its Spell Strikes by rerolling the spell’s dice, similar to the Sorcerer’s Empowered Spell metamagic.  This is one change I’ll be keeping a close eye on for feedback.
• Added a number of spells to the class’s spell list; sleep, magic missile, witch bolt (this is actually kinda okayish now for an Eldritch Archer), fairie fire, hold person, Nystul’s magic aura, vampiric touch, and blight.  These are all flavorful, and provide some more useful options for spell strike.  *Bestow curse*, however, has been removed as the flavor of the class didn’t quite match with its effects (but honestly, if your DM decides they like that spell there, I’m not going to show up at your house and tell you that you aren’t allowed to use it).

Battlemage

The Battlemage is meant to be a tanky spellcaster first and foremost; heavy armor and the Swordmage’s martial training allows them to wade into combat in a way that your average wizard can’t, and they are meant to be the most spell-focused subclass.  This change attempts to push that last part harder.

• Changed the “Heavy Armor Proficiency” feature to the “Studied Soldier” feature.  This still provides the same bonus of heavy armor and shield proficency, but in addition allows a Battlemage to pick from the Swordmage spell list OR the Wizard spell list when gaining a new spell or re-learning a spell.  Inspired by the Divine Soul Sorcerer as precedent.  In practice, I believe every Swordmage spell *is* a Wizard spell, but this increases the Battlemage’s options for more utility and allows me to keep the Swordmage spell list relatively short.  Battlemages get much fewer spells than Wizards and don’t have a spellbook, so the ability to choose from a much larger pool of spells is limited by the fact that the Battlemage only gets so many to begin with.    They also only get up to 5th level, so many of the really really powerful Wizard spells remain out of reach.  I believe this keeps the feature perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

Eldritch Archer

The original Eldritch Archer concept was a long-rage spell sniper, but the way its features worked with each other were quite boring (“Yay I’m level 15 now!  I get to… cast spells from even farther off the battlemap.  Neat, I guess…”).  These altered features make it a more effective sniper and give it a few more tricks, both in-combat and out.

• “Arcane Ammo” is now “Arcane Ammunition.”  Otherwise identical.
• The “Long-Range Casting” feature for the subclass has been replaced.  It’s effects have now been rolled into the “Increased Casting Range” feature, which improves at lvl 15 to be the weapon’s long range.  I think a majority of players and DMs will agree that combat rarely occurs at such increased ranges, and so this doesn’t throw off balance, but if this ends up being a major issue I will either just remove the “long-range casting” altogether and cap the feature at normal weapon range (which is still a boon for many spells), OR make the feature the weapon’s long range from the get-go, so that every spell benefits from it.  Feedback as always is helpful here.
• “Arcane Beacon” has been changed due to the new lvl 15 feature for the Eldritch Archer.  Now, instead of granting advantage the beacon can be used as a mini-scrying spell.  This provides no direct combat bonus, but instead the Eldritch Archer gets a strong utility spell which allows it to take full advantage of features like its “Phasing Shot” and even its increased casting range.  The ammo can be set up to provide sight for the Eldritch Archer, meaning more potential angles to “Phasing Shot” from, scouting, etc.
• The new 15th level feature is “Eldritch Accuracy,” which allows you to temporarily convert your “Arcane Infusion” from damage to a bonus to hit rolls.  This helps push the Eldritch Archer into the king of accurately hitting things from far away, which is where its strengths lie.

Spellsword

Changes made to the Spellsword are designed to help cement its fantasy and role as a skirmisher.  Now, the Spellsword is able to reposition itself on the battlefield through short-range teleports and make better use of its Arcane Infusion damage and weapon strikes.

• Removed the “Parry” feature, which wasn’t doing much for the subclass’s fantasy and stepped on the Battlemage’s toes a bit as the “resilient” subclass.  It has been replaced with a new feature, “Infusion Surge,” which lets you double the damage of your “Arcane Infusion” once per turn.  This helps push the Spellsword as the subclass that does the best job of running in and hitting people really good with their weapon.  Note that this is once per TURN, so yes you get to use it on your turn and again later during another creature’s turn if you get a chance to attack.
• “Recursive Spell Strike” has been replaced with “Recursive Strike,” which combines the “Recursive Spell Strike” concept with the “Spellsword Flourish” concept, which is now also removed.  Now, the feature allows the Spellsword to use a bonus action to attack with their weapon on the same turn that they attempted a “Spell Strike”.  If the “Spell Strike” missed, that bonus action can also be used to attempt the strike again (but they do not have to miss to use the bonus action).  This was done because the two features we removed did not combo well, and there was a lot of “I never get to use this feature because using this other feature makes up for it.”  I personally don’t tend to like that kind of build as it makes one feature feel useless.  The Spellsword should be allowed to get more weapon attacks in; that is its greatest strength compared to the other subclasses, and so this feature essentially lets them attack twice (at the cost of a bonus action) even when they Spell Strike.
• “Adaptive Infusion” has been replaced with “Arcane Advance,” which lets the Spellsword reposition itself through a short-range teleport after making a strike.  While “Adaptive Infusion” was an interesting feature, it didn’t really sell the skirmisher playstyle well and, ultimately, was something that wouldn’t have been used much.
• The new 15th level feature is “Enhanced Counter”, which gives the Spellsword advantage on the attack roll it makes when it uses its Arcane Counter feature.

Version 1.8 21Feb2018

Battlemage

• Added shield proficiency to the third level feature, helping with overall tankiness for the tank-based subclass.

Eldritch Archer

• Changed the wording of various features to reference “ammunition” rather than “arrows.”  Crossbows exist, too!  Arcane Arrows has been changed to Arcane Ammo as a result.
• Changed the phrasing of Phasing Shot, and it can now work with any kind of ammo (not just your Arcane Ammo).

Spellsword

• Changed the name of the Counterstrike feature to Arcane Counter.

Version 1.7 18Jan2018

Overall

• Fixed a few spelling errors.

Eldritch Archer

• Added a line to the “Increased Casting Range” and “Long-Range Casting” features to establish they have to be used with a ranged weapon.  I mean; obvious maybe, but just a small QoL thing.

Version 1.6 13Nov2017

Overall

• Added a few spells from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything.

Eldritch Archer

• Included a line in the Increased Casting Range and Long-Range Casting features, specifying that you must be wielding your bonded weapon to use them.  In effect, the fluffy idea is that you are casting the spells by firing your bow with a special arrow, thus increasing the range of the spell.  But, you can only do this with your bonded weapon, pushing the idea that the bonded weapon (cause it’s just so special).

Version 1.5 02Nov2017

Overall

• Closed a loophole in the Spell Strike feature.  As written it would have technically allowed the swordmage to use a cantrip for the feature.  Now written to establish that the swordmage has to use a spell of 1st level or higher.

Version 1.4 27Oct2017

Overall

• Updated PDF with proper credits.

Version 1.3 20Oct2017

Overall

• After a lot of critiquing, it’s available.