Ok, I looked at a few builds for swordmages, and I think that's what I'm going to stick with.<br/><br/>I am going to try to talk Howling into allowing White Lotus Riposte feat from Dragon 374, however (text: "When an enemy you hit with an arcane at-will attack power attacks you before the start of your next turn, that enemy takes damage (of the same type the attack power deals) equal to the ability modifier to the attack power’s damage.")<br/><br/>It's the only feat that's more or less central to the build that doesn't have something similar in the "allowed" books, at least as far as I can tell.  I can make it work without it, but losing the catch-22 of "attack me and take damage, or attack someone else and take damage" makes the build a bit weaker.