The Aether Warden

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The Aether Warden
Originally pitched as the Earth Warden, the Aether Warden was imagined as an ancient and illusive order native to Neokos, composed of roaming mythical warriors able to tap into the power of the land while fighting. We wanted another go at a half-caster Fighter, with Spellblade having quite a few issues in this regard - it started much too similar to the official Eldritch Knight, and the adjustments we did afterwards did not help much as it left a fairly fundamental issue. There was no real payoff for Spellblades to be casting spells in combat instead of just attacking like every other fighter (until level 15 with Arcane Escape).

The Aether Warden, on the other hand, starts off much stronger with Mythology of Might - making them a Constitution based half-caster as their Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Modifier all rely on Constitution instead of Intelligence. Experienced Tabletop players will know that Constitution based spellcasters are by nature freakishly powerful, as they are able to massively increase both their survivability and offensive capacities at the same time; which is why being a half-caster helps keeping the Aether Warden’s magic powers in check.

This allows the Aether Warden’s spells - limited as they are - to have a high save DC, making them more efficient at disabling enemies with control spells such as Sleep or Hideous Laughter… and also for the Aether Warden to more reliably keep their concentration up when damaged, which feeds into their level 7 feature Arcane Strength - increasing their Strength and AC while concentrating on a spell, scaling with the level of the spell slot used. At last, level 10 will unlock Earthen Succor, a straightforward feature which heals the Aether Warden based on the level of spell slot used and increased effect if the casting time takes an action.

A monstrous juggernaut on the battlefield, a high level Aether Warden is incredibly hard to take down as they prioritize a high Constitution score which means a large HP pool, and they have access to multiple sources of healing with both Second Wind and Earthen Succor. Arcane Strength improves their fighting capabilities with additional Strength and AC as long as they keep concentration, which again is beefed up by their high CON, and their spells are also hard to resist since they don’t have to split their attention between highly valued Fighter attributes and Intelligence.