"Building" a gish

[Aden Dellebecque]

I'm interested in doing this with a character, and curious as to how other people handle it while maintaining a realistic power level. When you go sword and spell, how do you do it? What combo of classes do you represent this with? Do you keep your PB and chocolate separate and never mix your casting and melee, or do you weave the two together? What limitations do you place on your character in regards to either having both or to mixing them, and where do you excuse yourself for rule of cool?

[Virella]

I play a Fist of Rhalgr. So I play a muscle wizard. Not exactly a mage + sword wielder, but still someone who uses magic while punching folk around.

 

How do I get around it? By not having her go around and beat the shit out of everyone for no apparent reason. With great power comes great responsibility, more so OOC then IC.

 

Or in Ave's case give her severe case alcoholism, depression and not bothering to do shit. I made her an alcoholic on purpose so she would 'mellow out'. Barking dog never bites ect.

 

There's plenty of ways to work around it with whatever character concept. I feel it is more so the player's responsibility to make it work OOC rather than IC. Ave's still not dumbed down in her abilities, she simply can't be arsed to, what in turns makes it capable for me to roleplay her in an unmoderated scene. Next to that I sort of make sure people I roleplay with are kinda on the same line as I am, and make sure there's a mutual understanding on what Ave is (or their characters for that matter). Else? I don't even touch the fact her powerlevels are over 9000 in casual roleplay, because it won't come up anyhow.

[Caspar]

The distinction between magical and nonmagical in the setting is kinda murky, as people are supernaturally empowered in many circumstances, and presumably, since everything is made up of aether, they function within the same mechanisms as magic. 

 

If you're explicitly trying to combine spellcasting with swordplay and purely mundane martial techniques, perhaps one way to do it would be thinking of ways to focus on efficiency over power or efficacy. Since magic in fiction often relies on focus, and in FFXIV relies an actual physical "focus" at that, think of ways to integrate spellcraft into your character's martial routines. Like say, a hidden space behind a buckler that allows for an open arcanistry book. Or what's to say you couldn't make the hilt of your gladius contain a wand? Probably you can't swordfight and complete somatic components for casting Ruin or Physick in the same breath, but if your character focused on paring down unnecessary steps and completing a quick, dirty cast of a spell fast enough (Maybe in the vein of Swiftcast if it's Thaumaturgy.) it isn't impossible to see your character being able to alternate mid battle between swordfighting and using spells, rather than say, using both in the same move. For that, I would look into Jobs and the more supernatural martial traditions in the setting.

 

My general rule of thumb is the more things a character can do, the less specialized and competent they are in them. A character with a wide number of skills that are "good enough" can triumph over enemies who specialize just as much as they can too, since having versatility is a definite edge. If a character specializes in one or two things intensively, so that they can compete in either category or be exceptional in one, I try to emphasize in my RP what things they gave up over the years to make that level of mastery possible, especially if they are young.