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@LucanVaris

Жыл бұрын

Another good "Gish" build is an Abjuration Wizard, with a 3-5 level dip in Battle Smith. One of the requirements for this particular build, however, is getting your hands on Armor of Agathys. However-however, even though we're not going Warlock for any of our levels, we can easily gain the spell by either going Mark of Warding Dwarf, Vuman, or Custom Lineage, grabbing Magic Initiate (Magic Initiate can be acquired via normal feat acquisition as well, but it takes up valuable ASIs). Personally, I'd recommend Custom Lineage, as you can then start off the campaign as the best race in the entire game: The "Cast-Bold." :D The first pillar of this build to discuss is Armor of Agathys itself. Any time you cast this spell, you gain 5 temporary HP, multiplied by the spell slot. If you get hit with melee damage, you deal 5 X spell-slot damage to the opponent. While it may not be optimal to max-cast this at later levels, you can still technically gain up to 45 temporary HP from this, and deal up to 45 "thorns" damage to melee enemies. The only downside to this is that you have to have at least _one_ temporary hit point left from Armor of Agathys, and overwriting it with any other form of temporary HP (such as Armorer's Defensive Field) causes you to lose out on the benefits of Armor of Agathys (one of a couple reasons why we're not going Armorer for this). (Bonus point: This spell can be pre-cast, and requires no concentration, so some time before the fight starts, you can armor yourself up with this spell, and concentrate on anything else you might need.) The next pillar to discuss is the Abjuration Wizard side of things. Specifically, Arcane Ward. Any time you cast an Abjuration Spell, you gain a ward over your HP (and, more specifically, over your _temporary_ HP) that's equal to twice your Wizard level, plus your Int mod. Plus, every Abjuration spell you cast replenishes the ward. Now, on paper, this doesn't seem that impressive, as you can only recharge your shield by up to 9 points per cast, and late-game enemies can easily chunk their way past that. However, there's a few caveats that need to be taken into account: First off, anyone who attempts to chunk your HP in melee range is going to get backhanded by Armor of Agathys. Secondly, even with this build, that's still up to a 39-HP shield, which is taking damage before your up-to-45-HP Armor of Agathys, which _in turn_ is taking any and all damage before your _actual_ HP. This alone can easily grant you more survivability than most other classes. Thirdly, Abjuration spells are among the most damage-preventing spells in the game, and usually do a fine job of making you tankier. Shield, Absorb Elements, Mage Armor, Sanctuary, _Counterspell,_ to list a few. Most of these listed spells are staple spells for the Wizard, and not only can you add them to your spellbook at a discount (due to Abjuration Savant), but by proxy, each cast further extends the shelf life of your Armor of Agathys. Finally, the Abjuration Wizard capstone grants you not only resistance to spell damage, but it also gives you advantage on spell saves. It's a long shot to reach this level, but this essentially doubles Armor of Agathys' shelf life against spells (if not more so, due to the advantage on saves). The final pillar to discuss is Battle Smith. There are several reasons to take this subclass. First off, _any_ magical weapon you wield now uses your INT mod for attack and damage rolls, thanks to Battle Ready. This is a feature that Bladesong could have really used, since this allows for more accurate weapon attacks, due to making your general build Single-Attribute Dependent. (Bonus point: There's no weapon restriction for this feature, beyond "magical weapon." As such, magical bows and crossbows are just fine. Battle Ready gives you access to whatever Martial weapons you might want, so even more bonus point.) The second reason is access to Medium Armor and Infusions. Enhanced Defense, if applied to your armor AND a shield, can give even better AC than Mage Armor and Bladesong. With Half-Plate and the previously mentioned Battle Ready feature, this build can get away with having a 14 in Dex, while Bladesong might require quite a few more points, if they want more accurate weapon attacks as a Gish. This can, in turn, result in a higher early Intelligence score for this particular Multiclass, in comparison to Bladesinger, since Intelligence is really all you need to max, with this build. Now, five levels in Battle Smith is optional, but it grants you access to Extra Attack, which is always good for those who want to slice, shoot, and/or stab enemies twice as often. This is optional, however, as spellcasting takes priority. As such, three is all that's required. Regardless, the final reason to take the Battle Smith subclass is the Steel Defender, which can provide disadvantage towards attacks towards you, so long as it's nearby. This, paired with your unnaturally high AC, Arcane Ward, Armor of Agathys, Spell Resistance, and numerous Abjuration spells, all culminate into this Gish build being sturdy as hell. One additional, albeit massive, bonus caveat to this? There's a reason why I recommended going Custom Lineage "Cast-Bold" for this build. Any small race (such as Cast-Bold) can use their Steel Defender as a mount, since the Steel Defender's technically a Medium creature. This means that your Steel Defender is not only helping to deflect attacks, but it's also loaning its 40-foot movement speed to you. This can easily allow the player to kite enemies just as effectively as a Bladesong, and can also force enemies to pick between two targets, instead of one. (Of course, the Steel Defender has the added bonus that it _doesn't_ wear down after only a minute. ;3) On a side-note, the Steel Defender also has a few other bonuses over your average mule. For instance, the Steel Defender usually has more health/AC, can be patched up with a Mending cantrip, gets stronger with your Proficiency Bonus, and, if it dies, you can bap the corpse of your Steel Defender with a hammer or wrench, and convert a 1st-level spellslot into a jury-rigged Revivify for your mount. Furthermore, your Steel Defender can look like whatever you want, so long as it has two or four legs (unless your DM is lenient enough to let your have a mount with wheels/wings/thrusters/etc.). As such, instead of going with a boring mule mount, you can be a Cast-Bold that's carried around by an even _bigger_ mecha-Kobold. That's _two_ kobolds, for the price of one! :D Either that, or if your DM's lenient and lets your Steel Defender have wheels, you can go Biker Kobold. That's just me though. >:3 Now, some may argue that Multiclassing like this is a severe detriment to the Wizard side of things, due to Artificer being a Half-Caster. However, Artificer is the only half-caster class where, while calculating Multiclass spell slots, the player rounds _up._ As such, a three level dip in Artificer still counts as two levels of full-caster, when calculating available spell slots. Sure, you'll still gain access to spells a level slower than a straight Bladesong, but you'll only be _one_ level slower, especially if you take into account how readily Wizards can scribe new spells into their books. (Bonus point: If your DM's being extra-stingy with magic items, Artificer's Infusions can give you instant access to Enduring Spellbook, thus making your _spellbook_ sturdier as well.) Now, major question: Is this build better than a Bladesinger? Debatable, as both sides have their strengths. Is it a viable Gish build? Absolutely. At the end of the day, you're one level away from having the same number of spell slots as a full Wizard, you have around the same casting potential as any other Wizard, albeit with a _lot_ more tank in the bank. Either way, up to you how you want to have fun.

@jhnmuder5551

Жыл бұрын

instead of mending could use mold earth as it would be more useful in more situations

@jay.hartman1789

Жыл бұрын

Bladesong ends when you equip a shield. It was on screen and everything. So you can't get the AC bonus from a shield.

@LucanVaris

Жыл бұрын

@@jay.hartman1789 Pack is using the Shield _spell,_ not the Shield equipment.

@JanikOokami

3 ай бұрын

i ssaw guy dip into artifice for extra spell slot once or twice for something

I’m going to be playing a Tortle Bladesinger in a campaign soon. I showed my DM my character sheet and he already hates how high my AC is.

@Year2047

Жыл бұрын

Lol. Best part is you can dump dex as well and have at it with warhammers and the crusher feat.

@shinobidaniel_12

Жыл бұрын

True

@renatocorvaro6924

Жыл бұрын

Make sure that what your character sings is opera.

@guttyjip

Жыл бұрын

Name him Pavlo Tortellini

@thechurchofshulkanism1077

Жыл бұрын

This is when the DM starts throwing more than one encounter a day at you. Bladesinger is not amazing in the context of multiple fights a day

Played this in Curse of Strahd. It was awesome. My GM insisted on rolling for stats (witch I don't like), I rolled two 17s. Half-elf, 17+1 DEX, 17+1 INT. 17 AC in Mage Armor. 21 with Bladesong. And then there goes Shield Spell. I was better at tanking than our tank - while still being full caster. Glorious.

@ltphantomknight8942

Жыл бұрын

Rolled stats in "horror campaign" and got a 90 overall, 18,17,15,14,14,12(DM made me dump because too high ;() Currently playing a Battlesmith Scribe wizard (3/3 split at level 6 currently (Yes I'm aware it's not that optimized but it's fun)

@strongestcardaceofspades

Жыл бұрын

@@ltphantomknight8942 If a DM sees you roll and says you did too good then that's a massive red flag I'd imagine, but how are they in actuality?

@CalypsoTheWanderingStar

Жыл бұрын

I made a Battle Smith Artificer Bladesinger and also rolled some wacky stats, getting 6 Str/16 Dex/16 Con/18 Int/14 Wis and 18 Cha after modifiers. My backstory is that my Zariel tiefling comes from a family of bladesingers that use flametongue rapiers for their duels and performances, and are called the Fire Dancers. My bladesinger meanwhile was born with Muscular Dystrophy, so his family didn't let them perform alongside them. So to prove how wrong they were to look down on him the way they did, he is setting out to be the best bladesinger anyone has ever seen. The multiclass itself is actually 3 Battlesmith/3 College of Swords/14 Bladesinger for even more AC and combat options. It also gives me expertise in acrobatics and performance so I can further play into the fantasy of a performer.

@einkar4219

Жыл бұрын

until enemy lands a critical strike :) (I was playing bladesinger and 1 crit was enought to drop me to 0 at 3rd lv)

@Robin0Blackett

Жыл бұрын

@@einkar4219 Heh, exactly that happened... Twice in a row. Two damn owlbears got me with a crit, in the same round. And that was exactly the one time I was down to zero HP in the whole campaign. My GM was soooo happy he finally hit me with something.

Everybody, get your comments in before he fixes the title from "Bladeinging"

@Dijeouni

Жыл бұрын

7 min and it's already been fixed!

@markshenouda2852

Жыл бұрын

Gosh dang it

@vincentsverne6783

Жыл бұрын

nooo I was late

@adilrahman1142

Жыл бұрын

Damn, I wish I saw it

@scientist368

Жыл бұрын

I didn't have time. Was returning home from work

Ashardalon's Stride is an amazing spell for a bladesinger. Increased movement, free disengagements, and free fire damage without a save. As long as you plan your path right so you don't hurt your party, you can deal a lot of damage in a single turn while also taking out the mob enemies faster. It pairs well with Booming Blade as it makes it easy for them to stay locked. Pairs super well with Mirror Image, Bladesong, and Shield as you make it nearly impossible for them to hit you to even break your concentration. Warcaster makes it even better as long as the creature you are melee'ing with is either a caster or somebody with low AC. Ashardalon's Stride's fire damage is enough to make them want to flee, but a Booming Blade opportunity attack reaction will punish them for it. Have an ally with Haste and... Look. There is a reason why my DM gave my character the nickname of Hellsinger lately.

@defensivekobra3873

Жыл бұрын

plus the speed boost from bladesong stacks with the speed boost from the spell itself (and longstrider if you are willing to risk having 1 less shield cast), making it easier to trigger the effect more often and kite more effectively

@RedCoolade

Жыл бұрын

Consider going Mobile feat. It gives you static +10 movement, (so 50ft. movement while bladesinging) AND gives you static immunity to opportunity attacks. That frees up your concentration for other better spells. I was really interested in Ashardalons stride at first, but the above combo is what I'm currently playing, and trust me I'm loving it much more now that I can cast hypnotic pattern or slow WHILE zipping around the battlefield.

@carbonbeaker409

Жыл бұрын

Van Helsinger?

@derboeseVlysher

Жыл бұрын

@@RedCoolade I actually have both Mobile and Ashardalon's Stride (I don't use it every fight, but if I do, 70ft movement). The latter is especially fun when there are a lot of minions around. And evading Opportunity attacks and having high movement speed makes for nice hit and run with Booming Blade.

@MrBlancify

Жыл бұрын

In practice I've found it's not that good because rarely is there enough enemies that 1d6 per one of them amount to a lot of damage.

I love Bladesinger, purely because I can play as a Wizard, and be able to handle myself if I/my party messes up Nothing funnier than hearing the screams of confusion when my Wizard suddenly becomes a tank and is filling people full of holes with a rapier :D

I feel like many people forget Mountain Dwarves when they want to be an armored spellcaster. THEY GIVE YOU MEDIUM ARMOR. And dwarves already get a bunch of weapon proficiencies so they are perfectly set up to be great Gish builds. Not the best for Bladesingers specifically but I just wanted to mention it.

@monsieurdorgat6864

Жыл бұрын

One of my favorite wizards to make is a mountain dwarf necromancer. You get the armor, smithing proficiency, and then you can make weapons and armor to graft into your undead! Plus then the extra Str is great for hauling corpses and the extra Con is great for maintaining concentration and taking hits you can heal with the otherwise shitty necromancy life drain stuff.

@aedwa021

Жыл бұрын

@@monsieurdorgat6864 you can ply those weapons into their cold, dead hands

@darkvizardking69

Жыл бұрын

@@monsieurdorgat6864 just be careful of smelling like death, the party paladin will make you have to bathe for being a smelly fucker lol

@Spiceodog

Жыл бұрын

My favorite race for gish is magic jar spell

@RaykiryReaper

Жыл бұрын

Mountain dwarf conjurer, you get AC even more with shield get a +2 dex to be effective, you get CON and INT thx to tasha and then you sit on the battlefield while your evocations do the work and you can focus on being cost efficient with cantrips or using instantaneous spells. At lv10 is very funny literally incinerating hordes of enemies with a fire elemental that doesn't disappear

I remember someone suggesting getting several +1 silvered long swords and casting Animate Object on them, and having them float around you. The image that puts in my head is just…. So cool

@ancientgammoner6961

Жыл бұрын

Animate objects only works on nonmagical objects, so they could be silvered longswords but not +1/magical.

@spark9189

6 ай бұрын

become versus xiii noctis

I’m glad to hear “where everyone has advantage” back even though they stole it from Kobolds.

@KarmaSangheili

Жыл бұрын

We don't talk about 'they'... :>

@BeatPeet

Жыл бұрын

Who are you talking about? I'm not very involved in KZread drama, so I missed it entirely

@Teramin1

Жыл бұрын

@@BeatPeet wizards of the coast removed pack tactics from kobolds recently, trust me if it was KZread drama I wouldn’t know either

🤣 Gator blowing off steam in the background made my day! Thank you.

I've been playing a Bladsinger just about every weekend for over 2 years now. It has been one of the most fun character I've played in years. I'm level 16 now. Here's what I've learned: The Tough feat is a very good pick up but only if you can get Warcaster and max both Int. and Dex. first, Song of Defense is almost never worth using, Warcaster + Booming Blade is a better movement punish then Polearm Master + Sentinel, Song of Victory is nice but it comes way too late in the classes life cycle to see much use, obtaining a Staff of Power breaks your AC even further and helps with saves, Moonblades are very heavily tied to the lore of Bladesingers in the FR, and finally a 2 level dip into Fighter is better than level 19 and 20 Wizard; however, you should NOT take that dip before level 19 because it slows your spell progression.

@frking100

Жыл бұрын

Most overpowered character I ever played was a bladesinger with a 2 level dip into paladin. 3 lvl 4 smites and a booming blade per turn turned any big bad into pulp in 2 turns. His only weakness was strength and con saves. You also need to get resistance to poison and necrotic since they are the most common damage type that absorb elements doesn't cover. By the end of the campaign my wizard had to eat a finger of death per encounter.

@cdog157

Жыл бұрын

It depends when I play a wizard or a spellcaster in general. I personally do not want 9 level spells till level 20 specifically because I feel like they're just too broken and they break the game even 8th and 7th level spells and some of the six level spells are just too much if you ask me.

Ah, Kobold... you always get me laughing with your literal RAW interpretations. "Attack the ground for a quick Mending cast." Yes, I'll go theorycraft a sick combo with my Artificer Battle Smith pal and heal his pet. Thank you!

@monsieurdorgat6864

Жыл бұрын

They're kind of funny, but your group also needs to think its funny... Consistently. DnD isn't a video game, after all. If something seems stupid and clearly unintended, people can just say no.

@snazzyfeathers

Жыл бұрын

I've tried to use War Caster to opportunity attack an ally with a healing spell. It wasn't allowed unfortunately

@CalypsoTheWanderingStar

Жыл бұрын

I also made a Battle Smith Artificer Bladesinger, but I rolled some wacky stats, getting 6 Str/16 Dex/16 Con/18 Int/14 Wis and 18 Cha after modifiers. My backstory is that my Zariel tiefling comes from a family of bladesingers that use flametongue rapiers for their duels and performances, and are called the Fire Dancers. My bladesinger meanwhile was born with Muscular Dystrophy, so his family didn't let them perform alongside them. So to prove how wrong they were to look down on him the way they did, he is setting out to be the best bladesinger anyone has ever seen. The multiclass itself is actually 3 Battlesmith/3 College of Swords/14 Bladesinger for even more AC and combat options. It also gives me expertise in acrobatics and performance so I can further play into the fantasy of a performer.

@naturalkind5591

Жыл бұрын

@@snazzyfeathers just cast friends before lol

@junfusionseven9431

2 ай бұрын

9:53 this mending trick have been disproved by the ask the sage dnd celebration 2021in the 36:11 by Jeremy Crawford

If you play a bugbear, you can use their extra reach to make melee attacks and then back away to safety! If you get a hold of eldritch blast, you can combine it with a light crossbow to make a comedic amount of attacks each turn. I could see myself playing this subclass several times with different characters.

@sullivan108

Жыл бұрын

I was thinking of combining this with a warlock dip to get free Mage Armor

@ltphantomknight8942

Жыл бұрын

@@sullivan108 or just take one level of artificer for con and int saves for additional plus to con saves for spells and getting lucky you could find a artificers multi tool magic item which makes one cantrip of any spell list an artificer cantrip for Eldritch blast. Also the one level doesn't delay spell progression on the low end or if you want to run completely off of int maybe Battlesmith for the battle ready feature but strongly delays progression for a bit of tank and support to you're kit 😎

@ianmilligan6011

Жыл бұрын

If reach is your thing, the oft-neglected whip is also a solid choice -- finesse, one-handed, reach... what's not to love? (Piddly d4 damage die notwithstanding)

@benjaminmichaeldiehl4412

Жыл бұрын

I'm working on this right now. Xbe+EB+spirit shroud

I love this, I have a friend who his favorite wizard style is this one, even from older editions. Hilariously he actually built his to be a front line monster, while I'm not as rules savvy as most with D&D, my buddy is one of those terrifying lawful good rules lawyers. This mad lad made a literal glass tank, insane armor, insane damage, IF something did manage to get past his armor he'd just cast shield and make his armor even more disgusting, or bounce out of danger with one of his various spells, and of course melt entire fields of enemies at later levels cause freaking wizard. 😄

@comet9864

Жыл бұрын

Literal bulletproof glass sure, it breaks, but not easily

my absolute favorite wizard subclass by far. Nothing else compares to being a spell-blade of this caliber in D&D, especially when you're able to act as controller, single-target damage dealer, and potentially even AC Tank for literally any combat. An absolute recommendation that I have for builds is to go a single level into Artificer right at the beginning for the following: - CON save Proficency for free - Armor & Shield Proficiency (good to have at low levels, but you can drop it once you get Bladesong) - More WEAPON proficiencies (Not much, but it's still better than the wizard's spread of weapons) - INT- Based Spellcasting (+2 extra cantrips = Guidance is a must-have for utility characters, the other one's free. AND Cure Wounds as an emergency heal based on INT - everyone who can get healing of any kind definitely should for emergency purposes.) - FULL spellcasting (the way spellcaster levels are calculated, 1 level of Artificer technically counts as a full-caster class if you only have 1 level in it since they get spellcasting at level 1 anyway, so you're not giving up 9th level spellcasting to get this stuff!) - BIGGER hit die at lower levels = more hit points starting out (you're gonna be playing a wizard for most of the game, you'll take what you can get for the most part.) - TOOL proficiencies so you can hog the spotlight even more outside of combat when it comes to doing downtime stuff (Thieves Tools, Tinker's Tools, and one of your choice means you might just make the perfect back-up rogue!) The only thing you might be giving up is delaying your key features by 1 level, and then the Wizard Capstone of "Signature Spells" - which honestly, is kinda lackluster once you reach that level IMO. TL;DR, 1 level of Artificer right at the very beginning of your Bladesinger build allows you to trade far-off wizard features for immediate and early-game utility, defense, and support, which will all be useful throughout your career LONG before you get close enough to 20th level to even consider if it was worth it or not.

• You can cast mending as part of the Attack action by replacing one of the attacks, but that doesn't change the casting time. It still takes 1 minute to cast the spell. Quote: [PHB, Chapter 10] _"When you cast a spell with a casting time longer than a single action or reaction, you must spend your action each turn casting the spell, and you must maintain your concentration while you do so."_

@PackTactics

Жыл бұрын

You're not taking a cast a spell action. You are taking an attack action and extra attack says you cast the cantrip. So then you cast the cantrip. It doesn't say you follow the casting time in the extra attack, nor does it say you follow the "cast a spell" action. Features say what they do. Nothing more, nothing less.

@marcialhd

Жыл бұрын

@@PackTactics don't know man sounds like rules lawyering to me...

@ghostbonepunk1683

Жыл бұрын

​​@@PackTactics Question? Is tortle the best race to play bladesinger? If not, what is?

@wkuiper

Жыл бұрын

@@ghostbonepunk1683 I've played bladesinger High-Elf, was pretty fun and useful with the extra martial proficiencies.

@lysergidedaydream5970

Жыл бұрын

Nt sure if you'll get notified @ghostbonepunk But the best races for bladesinger are going to be goblin (bonus action disengage & hide), harengon (initiative bonus, limited bonus action hop), faerie (flight, faerie fire on a straight wizard), and custom lineage/variant human (lots of useful feats, especially newer half feats), shadar kai & eladrin for their limited teleport out of melee. Tortle can be good, but I'd suggest looking to cover your weaknesses over unnecessarily boosting one element where youre already strong.

The best part about Bladesinger is that you are a Wizard, the best class in the game, that can also mix it up in melee competently. That by itself is awesome. You can build to be a melee striker as a primary role, but my favorite way is to play like a Wizard that can surprise enemies when they charge at the "vulnerable Wizard".

@tylernorman7896

6 ай бұрын

This is why I like Abjuration, it's simple, yes, but I just like the Ward to be honest XD

I’d love to get a video on the Order of the Scribes subclass, it’s one of my favourites.

@justinpedrazaful

Жыл бұрын

I personally think order of the scribes is one of the best wizard subclasses in the game

@CaitSith87

Жыл бұрын

@@justinpedrazaful due to the drone strike or why?

@justinpedrazaful

Жыл бұрын

@@CaitSith87 because just being able to change out the damage type alone is amazing

@ltphantomknight8942

Жыл бұрын

@@justinpedrazaful Currently playing a Battlesmith Scribe wizard 3 3 split multi class and most of the element changes are for flavor as not many enemies have vulnerability or is nice for bypassing resistance, but higher class level features are awsome

@justinpedrazaful

Жыл бұрын

@@ltphantomknight8942 also I don't think you can permanently loose your spell book either which is awesome and being able to cast a ritual spell as normal can be huge if your short on time and slots

This is a fantastic guide, thanks for doing that. And extra kudos for continuing to clearly state “do what is fun, it’s ok to not be optimal, you will be fine”. The optimization community historically often shot itself in the foot while intending to hand out helpful advice, and it’s great to see the more positive focus of optimizers lately. This is your best video since the wholesome New Years video. 👍🏻

For the hasted action, JC has confirmed in a livestreamed sage advice panel that bladesinger's extra attack does NOT change the casting time of mending. You can *start* casting mending with it, but you'll need to concentrate and continue to cast it each turn afterward for the full casting time. Also, Haste has limited synergy with bladesinger's extra attack. Haste is the specific feature limiting what you can do with the action, but there are a couple loopholes. Namely, that Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade are both... *drumroll*... weapon attacks. So yeah, you can cast THOSE spells with it for your hasted action, but you won't be able to cast other cantrips that do not have a weapon attack.

@comet9864

Жыл бұрын

whoa wait you can cast booming/gfb with hasted action? woah, you should not have told me that

@TheHaven923

Жыл бұрын

@@comet9864 maybe, check with your DM. And only with bladesinger's extra attack.

One trick you can do is start with three levels in Artificer, taking the Battle Smith specialty to get Battle Ready, which allows you to use your Intelligence modifier for your attack and damage rolls (that's already better than the Bladesinger's capstone, _at level 3),_ and then multiclass into Bladesinger. Sure, you lose three levels of Wizard spell progression, but you're basically a spellcaster version of the Hexblade Paladin. Another fun build is my "non-copyright samurai space wizard" (coughJedicough) in a Star-Wars-inspired campaign using the Dark Matter setting by Mage Hand Press (this build uses exactly none of the options from that setting). It's a Variant Human with the Telekinetic feat, and started with 4 levels of Kensei Monk to get Unarmored Defense, Unarmored Movement, Agile Parry, Deflect Missiles, and some Ki Point tricks, then went straight Bladesinger for Bladesong and spells to use as my "Force powers". Currently at level 12, not counting any magic items, my casual walking-around AC is 18 from Unarmored Defense, the same as if I'd cast _mage armor,_ then I have Bladesong and potentially Agile Parry and _shield_ for a possible total 29 AC (and my Bracers of Defense (+2 AC) and Ioun Stone of Insight (+2 Wisdom) boost that total to 32 AC), not to mention Deflect Missiles to potentially just say "no" to an attack. I'm a _monster_ in melee; one of the other players started calling me "M'Lady Cuisinart". Is this character optimal? Heck no. I'm 4 levels down in spell progression, only have 4 Ki Points and a 1d4 Martial Arts die, and if something _does_ manage to hit me I can go down pretty quick (which to be fair _is_ thematically appropriate, Jedi canonically tend to get taken out in one or two direct hits). Is this character fun? Aw heck yeah. [Edit: Fixed some formatting, and I accidentally a word.]

@Typical7

Жыл бұрын

I think you are highly underestimating wizard spell progression. Not just because of dpr but because you miss out on early control spells that can make an encounter feel way easier

@JacopoSkydweller

Жыл бұрын

@@Typical7 Sure, but if it's a fun character... I mean that's the whole point right?

@Typical7

Жыл бұрын

@@JacopoSkydweller "a trick you could do" sounded to me like op wanted to make something powerful

@arcticbanana66

Жыл бұрын

@@Typical7 You don't _have_ to start as an Artificer, you can easily wait until 5th level when you get access to 3rd-level Wizard spells. That's if you even choose to multiclass at all; as mentioned in the video, Bladesinger is good as a single class progression. The Artificer dip is good for some SADness, a few proficiencies, some Infusions, proficiency with Constitution saves if you start with it, and a (low powered) Steel Defender, which are all nice things to have, and being a half-caster means you only lose one level worth of spell slots, but it's not some OP combo like some people have been making it out to be. It's just a neat bit of synergy between the two subclasses.

Bladesinger is probably far and away my favorite Wizard subclass. I know you can play some funny number games with some of the other subclasses but Bladesinger is good to the point of being almost OP without demanding you game the system.

Gator in the background : '' shadow blade , shadow blade , shadow blade ....'' 😆

i've bought the book, read the bladesinger stats, and made a custom race, just to be able to play in the universe of "songs of war" . my DM watched the movie like 7 times, and it was really fun when i quoted a character, and he responded EXACTLY like it was in the movie dialogs.

i didn't hear it at first but then I listened closer and then I could hear Gator saying shadow blade on repeat in the background :')

always loved how Drow actually interacts with Bladesingers, giving you hand crossbow which is technically one handed so Bladesong is usable with it. even crossbow expert is nice, giving you a bonus action attack at low level and once you have the spells to replace that, it still leaves you with that nice no disadvantage to ranged attack in melee range feature. (especially if your DM does like you take a feat at level one, it really helps with the whole "surviving being a low level wizard" thing)

@cjslime8847

Жыл бұрын

I was looking it up as I thought you must be wrong but you are not wrong

@rouxzes

Жыл бұрын

I’m playing a drow bladesinger right now and I love it. The other proficiencies of rapiers and shortswords also go really good with bladesinger. It gives you options in addition to what weapon you pick for the class feature to maybe get a cool sword in the future. This is why elf used to be the only race for bs since they got weapon proficiencies that could open up bladesinger more than some races/lineages

To be honest, I ound funny that a subclass of a full caster deal more Melee damage than many regular Martial class, but it's still more optimal to just cast spells. (Extra Attack with a cantrip & Song of Victory, Many Martial don't have free damage like that)

Hey Kobold, awesome video as always. I'm playing a bladesinger who fights with a blade that turns into a bow when he cast spells at range (like simons bowblade from bloodborne) and I reflavor all my spells into arrows. This class is massive fun 😀 However there is another class I would really like you to take a look at in terms of optimization. And that is the Astral Self Monk. I still can't figure out what would be better. High Wisdom or Dexterity.

@milokiss8276

Жыл бұрын

Commenting on this because not only is that a neat bit of flavor, But mainly because I've also been needing that answer on Astral Self.

@dakripaez1254

Жыл бұрын

Wisdom 100%

grab a whip? it's one handed, got reach and finesse, and 1/2 of the time it's doing as much damage as a rapier without putting you into reaction range of certain enemies. add poison spray and you have a snake themed character who could use expedient retreat to move in, deal damage, and move out. then grab spell sniper and you can booming blade and attack with reach.

@tylershannon9319

Жыл бұрын

Actually Booming blade and green flame blade was errataed to not work with spell sniper anymore. It's stupid, but its raw as of the moment. Still, definitely sounds like a fun Snakey wizard!

@dwreanchinotan

Жыл бұрын

or, if you don't want to be called kinky, grab spell sniper, or really want a sword, just throw darts at the enemy.

Optimizing fun is how I make every character. If I make a multiclass character in 5e, I first look at the idea for what the kind of character it’ll be or their inspiration. Then how that inspiration or idea would translate to classes and subclasses, usually informed by RP ideas and then LASTLY I look at how I optimize the classes that combined while still keeping the OG feel or inspiration at the heart of the gameplay. It’s made all my multi classes and even mono class characters with unique feat/item combos REALLY fun in every aspect of the game usually. Love the videos, very informative and now I have ideas for a Bladesinger!

I played as a Bladesinger as a lord/noble. I'm a proud "minionmancer" and enjoyed roleplaying the caster/fencing prince archetype. Very Renaissance. A highlight of the build came from being directly challenged. Our party became THE boss fight. My character was wielding an actual army of NPC's and eventually was challenged to a duel by the enemy Orc Warchief. My bladesinger laughed and went, "you seek to challenge me, a wizard, to a melee duel. A martial duel against the wizard? Alright, I accept and will give you a coward's death!" After casting *Foresight* *longstride* *mage armor* and *haste* and at a level where I could cast *shield* for free, the Warchief learned a wizard with a base 30 AC, 100 ft of movement, 3 attacks, and a base +14 to hit, advantage on all rolls and giving disadvantage on everything against him, was not as much of a pushover as he thought. The war ended there on the field.

Now when i have this discussion regarding optimal use of bladesinger being ranged i can link your video thanks. :)

A solid combo, if multiclassing was on the table, would be the synergy of the Eldritch Knight Fighter with Bladesinger Levels, cause things like War Magic (paired with Bladesinger's extra attack) and Eldritch Strike (causing disadvantage on spell saves to anyone you hit with your attacks) can be a fun blend overall.

@defensivekobra3873

Жыл бұрын

build order aside, this would possibly only be marginally better than a pure-classed Eldrich Knight. As a Eldrich knight 7 Bladesinger 6 you would make one booming blade / green flame blade, one regular weapon attack and one BA weapon attack, while just barely casting 3rd level spells. By contrast a pure-classed eldrich knight 13 is also casting 3rd level spells, and they can do three attacks when taking the attack action on their turn if they aren't going for GFB / BB. That said it would be quite satisfying to be able to make 3 attacks in total AND be able to light your sword on fire

@texteel

Жыл бұрын

im fairly certain war magic and BS extra attack dont interact. War magic says: "'when you use your action to cast a cantrip". With bladesinger, you are taking the Attack action, and replacing 1 attack with a cantrip. Those are not the same

@vader4prez338

Жыл бұрын

I played a BladeSinger as the tank of a group; took 2 levels of Fighter. Action Surge shelled out the damage: 2 attacks and 2 cantrips, or drop Slow and then start wailing. Loved it.

@dumbwaki5877

Жыл бұрын

@@texteel they do interact. It doesn't say "take the cast a spell action to cast a cantrip", just that you use your action to cast a cantrip. Taking the attack action to cast a cantrip uses your action to cast it.

I used this for a previous campaign. I was a rock gnome, and we flavored him learning it by finding a spell book that explained how to do it. I later multiclassed into artificer because that character was the crafter of the group.

I couldn't help but lose my crap when I heard Gator in the background just going Shadoblade over and over. Lol. I would love an animated d&d session between all your characters.

One of my favorite characters I've played was a Bladesinger in a seafaring campaign. His main role was singing sea shanties to boost morale on the ship, and he'd sing more aggressive shanties in combat.

I've been waiting for this video, my kenku bladesinger smiles on you all

haha I'm watching these vids for the humor part. Great content!

Thx aligator, i look for shadow blead and once i ve seen what it does, its so good for blade singer!

I had a ton of points to work with in a one shot once so I played a strength based one. He was awesome.

I love my bladesinger. Just a few things. I just double checked my character on d&d beyond. You lose bladesonger if you wear medium armor or use a shield. Other then that a great break down. Mine is disgusting with mage armor. Dex 20, Mirror image, bladesong. 13+5+4=22 . I'm generally the tank on the team. With shield bumping me to 27. Love the idea of 1 level of artificer I've been seeing

@marcialhd

Жыл бұрын

actually its 3 levels of Artificer and you need to take the Battle Smith subclass, as that will give you the ability to make attack and damage rolls with Intelligence, making you pretty much a SAD (Single Ability Dependant) class.

Level 11 Bladesinger with 3 levels Swashbuckler Rogue. Flametongue Rapier, with Greenflame Blade for Cantrip of choice. So for just the first attack I’m dealing 1d8+4 Piercing, 2d6 Fire, 2d6 Sneak, and 3d8 Fire (with limited AoE) Then add another 1d8+4 Piercing and 2d6 Fire for the second attack and I’d say that’s a pretty good chunk of damage for a single target. Not to mention the extra 10 damage from level 14 Bladesong. As fo being a “squishy wizard”, just take Tough. Your AC is going to be super high with Bladesong, Mage Armor, and Shield, so get Tough to flesh out your HP and get to gishing. I know Haste is a bad word, but add that and your AC shoots up again, and you get another attack to deal at minimum another 1d8+4 and 2d6 Fire. Not to mention Bladesong is built to keep concentration. Add War Caster and now you have even better concentration AND you can use Booming Blade to lock them down as a reaction for damage and CC. Gish may not be “optimal”, but it most certainly isn’t weak if you build a bit for it

I don't think the Mending bit would work as you described. Just because you can use it in place of one of your attacks, doesn't mean the casting time would get reduced to the duration of one attack. Neither Actions nor Attacks have a specific durations set for them in the first place, as far as I'm aware anyways. Even if they did though, I don't think there's anything to indicate that the casting time of Mending would get reduced to the "casting time" of an attack.

@pandanielxd

Жыл бұрын

And why would the casting time of an action be reduced to one attack then?

@naturalkind5591

Жыл бұрын

How would it work instead of this?

@fenec250

Жыл бұрын

So how would it work? RAW you are allowed to cast a cantrip, including Mending, in place of an attack. If you need to complete the minute of casting for Mending, by the same logic you need to complete the casting of an action or bonus action for the other cantrips. That makes the feature completely useless. If you bypass the original casting time and complete the casting as part of the Attack action, you get the situation described in the video. A middle ground would be that Mending takes one minute to take effect. You can still cast it once per round, but it doesn't heal the Steel Defender of your Battle Smith immediately.

@spookwoop1295

Жыл бұрын

@@pandanielxd I'm not sure what you're referring to, but Actions don't get "reduced" to Attacks. You can attack using an Action, however as stated before, I don't think Actions have a specific duration or "casting time" associated to them

@naturalkind5591

Жыл бұрын

@@spookwoop1295 so how would a normal action cast spell work?

I loved my bladesinger. My spellbook was a mind flayer skull (that talked to him) total Jekyll and Hyde vibes. So when I would bladesong I would actually RP going insane. I would thunder step into combat and then melee it up! I eventually re-classed into Order of Mutant Blood hunter. I miss spells, but blood maladies are cool too.

My favorite bladesinger I ran was actually just a gunsinger Gunner feat and sharp shooter ofc Just flavor wise shooting firebolts and disintegrates out of a pistol was 10/10 fun. Also when you don’t feel like using more than one spell haste and dual wielding the pistols worked amazingly. Had my personal pistols enchanted with elemental weapon at level 20 each doing an extra 3d4+3 every shot It’s just fun so thought I’d mention it

Hey Kobold, actually Elven Bladesinger was originally released in AD&D 2nd edition as an elf only class in the Elves Handbook.

Casting blade ward also grants you a ton of extra Resilience

Something thing to note: eldritch knight’s 9th (11th?) level feature also works with blade singer extra attack since you can attack cantrip then bonus action attack. You might say it makes you a weaker bladesinger but I say it makes you a stronger eldritch knight. I had a player, incredible luck, rolled 3 17s and a 16 (plus other stuff), took human and a half feat (we started with one) level 3; wizard 2 monk 1 18 ac butt naked 22 with bladesong 27 with shield. It was an unprecedented build that only works if you roll crazy good (it also works with barbarian 1).

I had made a zariel tiefling that was a Battle Smith Artificer Bladesinger, but I rolled some wacky stats, getting 6 Str/16 Dex/16 Con/18 Int/14 Wis and 18 Cha after modifiers. My backstory is that my Zariel tiefling comes from a family of bladesingers that use flametongue rapiers for their duels and performances, and are called the Fire Dancers. My bladesinger meanwhile was born with Muscular Dystrophy, so his family didn't let them perform alongside them. So to prove how wrong they were to look down on him the way they did, he is setting out to be the best bladesinger anyone has ever seen. The multiclass itself is actually 3 Battlesmith/3 College of Swords/14 Bladesinger for even more AC and combat options. It also gives me expertise in acrobatics and performance so I can further play into the fantasy of a performer.

29ac, blur for disadvantage to attack me and mirror image for even less chance to hit the real me! I love Blade singing. And when you run out of fight dances, you're still a full blown wizard.

"Bladesinger is best played in the backline" me currently being the main tank of the party as a bladesinger

@Observer29830

Жыл бұрын

And that is as it should be. You'd be wasting your full potential by staying in the back and not using any of your abilities whatsoever most of the time.

Holy sht the bit about Mending helps me SO much I have a [Artifacer Battle Smith 3 / Bladesinger 6+] character for the flavor, CON save, Battle Ready (Hex Weapon for INT) and the Steel Defender that greatly aids your tankiness The only part of the Defender that doesnt scale with PB is its HP, so being able to use Mending as part of an Attack is going to be amazing for keeping it alive

Looking forward to the Swords Bard video. When I first looked at it, it screamed "Hand Crossbow" to me.

Finally. I love Bladesinger!

9:48 Today I've learned that Bladesingers make the best repairpeople lol

Soo...at 7:09 onward was gator just yelling, "SHADOWBLADE, SHADOWBLADE, SHADOWBLADE" 🤣

I played a pre-Tasha's Bladesinger in Tomb of Annihilation, and it was the most fun I've had as a player. At his strongest (level 15), he had an AC 26 with Disadvantage (16 Dex + studded leather armor + 20 INT + Shield + Ring of Defense + Cloak of Displacement) and +13 with Advantage on Concentration checks (14 Con + 20 Int + proficiency thanks to Resilient + Ring of Defense + Warcaster). There were also many options with damage mitigation to balance out the lackluster hit points associated with squishy wizards. Attack rolls? Shield rarely goes wrong. Elemental save-based damaging effects such as a red wizard's Lightning Bolt or a red dragon's fire breath? Absorb Elements halves it. Save-based damaging effects that bypass Absorb Elements such Valindra's Disrupt Life? Song of Defense. There was a contingency for everything. The major challenge was option paralysis: you only get one reaction per turn and concentrate on one spell at a time, so I spent a lot of time weighing pros and cons as to whether or not I wanted to, for example, maintain concentration on Sunbeam against the atropol or drop it in favor of Telekinesis to save the Warlock who fell into the lava. If I used Absorb Elements against Valindra's Fireball, I'm screwed if she decides to use her Legendary Action Disrupt Life, since I can't use Song of Defense. But that's the same drawback for any other wizard or spellcaster anyway. The way I played Bladesinger, and probably the most optimal way, is to focus a bit more on melee at lower levels in order to extend the longevity of your spell slots, and once you hit Level 5-7, start transitioning to being a dedicated caster. Because the other casters in my party were a sorcerer and a warlock (the cleric couldn't play most of the time due to work obligations, and the sorcerer's player became a bard after their character died in the Tomb), I filled the role of utility, control, and support while the others focused on DPR. Depending on the campaign and party, your mileage may vary.

I'm currently playing a Shadar-Kai bladesinger with the Mobile Feat. SO freaking FUN! Bamfing around the battlefield and not triggering opportunity attacks is pure bliss. For now 😅

For the shadow blade video we all need: arcane trickster is very fun to pick it up with since it's an illusion spell

Treantmonk's Bladesinger build is also straight wizard, with a goblin for BA hide to protect concentration. I kinda like to get a level of rogue to start with for the expertises (esp stealth) and hand crossbow proficiency, and if you have decent dex then you can fill the party's rogue skills as well.

The talk about raining cloudgiants is so fun because a plot in my campaign will be to stop hunters that want to kill them as they are needed for agriculture

I have played and really enjoyed a blade singer rogue. You rush the 6 levels of wizard then go rogue. I found if you play it with high mobility hit and run style, you save the blade song for encounters where you can't get away or take cover. Even more effective with glide abilities and climb speed.

I always have a ton of fun with shadow blade while playing a bladesinger. Because booming blade works with it, I really enjoy it! Dark elves are my favorite race so the flavor is really great. I'm really excited for a shadow blade video to come out!

@GrammerPollice

Жыл бұрын

Up to your DM, but Booming Blade requires a weapon with monetary value, so I believe technically it doesn't actually work with Shadow Blade.

@cristiananao294

Жыл бұрын

@@GrammerPollice Jeremy Crawford would allow it, mate...

@gayperson420

Жыл бұрын

@@GrammerPollice rule of cool

@comet9864

Жыл бұрын

@@GrammerPollice yeah, technically. just depends if dm goes is big on RAW or takes the errata oversight into consideration

You can also use a hand crossbow or pistol with bladesinging w/o ending the bladesong if you have the weapon proficiencies with those weapons. While may not be optimal, I really like paring booming blade with the mobility feat. Go in, hit and move away w/o provoking attacks of opportunity.

honestly i just love artificer+bladesinger multiclass. you can have some amazing ac

I'm playing a bladesinger controller and it feels really nice, (I also picked up shadowtouched to get inflict wounds and use my familiar on my turn to have it go in, use help and then deliver the spell with advantage)

An interaction i like is that the eldritch knight cantrip/attack feature stacks with the bladesinger one, so it… works amazingly to cast shadowblade and run into melee, because you easily have the HP and damage to justify it now, i know you would probably say staying full caster is optimal for all the shutdown, but i love optimising damage for melees too much

About the Mending part, that's... wrong. Yes, Specific beats General, but you need to remember one thing: most cantrips work with the Extra Atttack interaction because they have a casting time of 1 Action, having both its start and ending at the same action. With Mending's 1 minute, you will still need to keep going with the verbal and somatic components during its time. Replacing your extra attack with the casting replace it with the start of casting, not with the full casting of a spell, so in a game, you replace your melee attack with the casting Mending and then... you spend 10 rounds doing nothing while repairing an object. You can however replace the first attack with True Strike and get advantage on the second attack! It's useless, but it's better useless than True Strike in general!

@tylershannon9319

Жыл бұрын

Well, that's an interpretation of the rules, not specifically stated. The wording is you can replace one attack with a casting of a cantrip, it doesn't say whether or not that's just the start or the full casting. It's technically ambiguous, so what's in the video isn't wrong, it just isn't guaranteed to be right.

@michael_betts

Жыл бұрын

True strike only works on your first attack roll on the next turn, so using it and then attacking on the same turn does not grant you any benefit.

@Specter053

Жыл бұрын

@@michael_betts ah yeah, right. Well, that's even worse.

@defensivekobra3873

Жыл бұрын

this interpretation is not really consistent with how similar effects work, ususally when a given action / bonus action / legendary action says that "[the creature] casts [the spell]", the spell will have finished casting as part of this action. Take for instance this lair action that the demon lord Bahomet has: "Baphomet casts mirage arcane, affecting a room within the lair that is no larger in any dimension than 100 feet. The effect ends on the next initiative count 20." mirage arcane has a casting time of 10 minutes. The effect simply says that Bahomet casts the spell as part of this action, and then Bahomet does so, on initiative count 20. Same principle here, the effect says we cast the spell as part of the attack action, so we cast the spell as part of the attack action.

@Specter053

Жыл бұрын

@@defensivekobra3873 Lair actions follow a entirely different structure than, for example, replacing an extra Attack with a cantrip. They presume a creature is being powered up by the place they are in, and due to this power up, they can bend the general rules of the system. There is really no real reason except a very literal RAW interpretation of rules that the Mending Extra Attack stuff follows the same logic.

My favourite character was a bladesinger wizard. At level 2, they had a functional AC of 24 (+3 dex, +3 int, mage armour, shield). The DM for the campaign which featured this character is the most brutal DM I have ever had. Combats were always fatal which brought both frustration and meaning to each of them. Fortunately, the AC on this character meant that they could act as the wall. There was a moment in a lvl 3 combat where I also prevented a counterspell with shocking grasp which was fun (DM was not happy, no opportunity attacks + no counterspell = unyielding rage). I ended up having to retire that character before it hit lvl 5 (where it would've gotten blur on top of mirror image) due to a scenario where he got trapped in a dungeon for 2 and a half months so justifiably went insane (DM basically said that I will never roll insight correctly again) and drank a suspicious liquid which gave me a permanent debuff to strength based rolls. Don't blame the DM because my character was a little OP and could steal the party's thunder a lot but kinda upset that he didn't die a hero's death

i really love the idea of 2 or 3 levels into artificer for multiclassing with bladesinger, taking battle smith if you want to be SAD (attacking and defending with int), or just 2 levels for their other benefits. but straight bladesinger is pretty great too.

It's worth noting that you can't use Shadow Blade with Booming Blade due to the lack of a monetary value on the conjured weapon. That said, if you want just pure damage output, try Summon Fey at 4th level for a fuming fey spirit. The fuming fey gets two attacks, one at advantage. Add Help from your familiar and you have advantage on Booming Blade each turn. Not only are you outpacing the melee at melee, you still have all the strengths any wizard would have and all the AC of a barbarian doing it.

Also if you pickup spell sniper and get Eldritch blast or dip in to warlock you can do an attack adn then eldritch blasts multiple times, also picking up eldritch adept would allow for agonizing blast.

I love this subclass a lot and I'd multi-class with it as an Arcane Trickster Rogue. It's really good if your party have trouble getting through traps or chests. And you get tons of proficiencies that help with out of combat solutions. I could get my AC up to 28 with Shield. If you wanna be a more melee focused Bladesinger, multiclassing into rogue until you get Magical Ambush is neat! Do be warned! This is a late game build that comes online once you've hit between lvl 10-12. Don't multiclass if the campaign will finish around those levels.

Gator was channeling Colby from D4 when he was calling for Shadow Blade, lol

what you say is mostly correct from the pure optimazing, but if you want to stay a range and use your spell there are better subclasses to do that and more optimal, if you pick this class you pick it for his flavor (at least most people do)... and that mean use your wizard at mele but you never has to lose to that mind set because you are a full wizard and with that you may end an encounter early if you play smart with your spell slots...

The fantasy I definetly have with this class at level 6 is duel weilding a rapier and a shadow blade. Use 1 attack with booming blade on the rapier and the other attack using shadow blade. If you need to cast any other spells with material components, you can sheeth your rapier with a free object interaction and then draw it on your next turn.

For fun went 3 lvls in lycanthrope blood hunter before going wizard. We're lvl 5 and between silvery barbs for critical, shield for non crits(26 ac), lycanthrope resistance, he deals on average 17 if he hits (+8 if they move) and typically is the tank of the party

I am playing a bladesinger fighter warlock rn. very fun once you get the special extra attack. hexblade warlock allows you to use your melee weapon as an arcane focus with improved pact weapon. If you get the crossbow expert feat, you can just run to an enemy, punch them and throw eldritch blast at them over and over again. very fun would recommend

I'm currently playing a crossbow blade singer, he may not be optimised but I adore playing him

At my table bladesingers can replace the haste action attack with a cantrip, since that is a valid reading. (There are two specific rules, so soecific vs general doesn’t apply) Also we can booming blade with shadow blade.

I can’t believe no one has mentioned this but- play a bladesinging gunslinger- just max out your dex and int and you’re basically untouchable. If you’re using a revolver or pistol this works, even better- if you DO use a revolver you can cast any sort of cantrip once you use an attack action to reload. Let’s say you take magic initiate and get eldritch blast. If we’re going by the subclass gunslinger rules and you’ve got a pepperbox- fire all those shots and once you’ve gotta reload, do that then pop eldritch blast and hit 2-4 people. Not to mention if you’ve got hex and sharpshooter available. This is what I did with my reborn half-elf, he’s a drunkard and starts out as a gunslinger but as he goes further on he starts sobering up and studying wizardry. I promise you he’s a beast- all hail Gunsinger!

Yay! My fav 😍

Had a one shot (that turned into 4 sessions), played a tortle blade singer as a melee focused wizards with bladesong, was amazing :D

I would say artificer is a strong class to multiclass with bladesinger, Armorer or battlesmith are both great options that gives you a weapon where you can add int to attack and damage with. And the infusions are very handy(specifically how you make a weapon magical for the benefit from battlesmith). Artillerist is also decent, but would require more than a 3 level dip to be made effective, and that would cost on the spell progression late game.

Here's a fun little tank build. I dub it the tank singer. You can get this by level five. But only if you roll the dice and put an 18 into intelligence and pick up an extra two intelligence through varied races. Or just be a tortle and start with a 17 AC Blade singer+2 lvl Fighter battlemaster +3 lvl Maneuver evasive footwork 1d8 Shield+5 Blade singer +5 AC ( mage armor+2 dex) +15 Total 26-33 AC at lvl 5 Choose the tortle race bumps it up to 28-35 AC Choose the barrier tattoo. That's an 18 AC 29-36 Battlemaster gives you action surge. That's two spells you can cast. And other fighter maneuvers for extra damage. Also a bit more health Realistically not a lot of campaigns get to level 20. The chances of you getting 9th level spells kind of low. Even if you do get 9th level spells and this is just me. I think it's better RP to get them at level 20. It allows you to enjoy the aspects of fighting up close and personal more often.

You are the first KZreadr I've heard that isn't on the full-melee bladesinger train, and I dig it. Who would have thought a wizard is strongest casting spells from a distance. Thanks for the video

@carlosbarreto4695

10 ай бұрын

Well, the whole idea of a Bladesinger is that he combines magic with melee attacks (which is why he has Bladesong). If you're not going to melee, then why choose Bladesinger instead of any other school? It's like being a Evoker that doesn't use Fireball and similar spells.

@FallenFromGlory

5 ай бұрын

@@carlosbarreto4695 He said it in the video lmao. Their main subclass feature is faster spell progression.

@carlosbarreto4695

5 ай бұрын

@@FallenFromGlory What do you mean by "faster spell progression"? Bladesinger's spell progression is the same like any other Wizard.

@FallenFromGlory

5 ай бұрын

It's not, actually,It's not, actually. Any optimized wizard is going to armour dip- something which a bladesinger can substitute their Bladesong for- leading to getting spells one level before other wizards.@@carlosbarreto4695

@FallenFromGlory

4 ай бұрын

No, any other optimized wizard would armour dip in something like hexblade, peace cleric, or artificer. This wizard doesn't need to for shorter encounter days, and if you play your cards right you're effectively a whole level ahead.@@carlosbarreto4695

"I'm just a lawful evil lizard with strong opinions"... I'm pretty sure Pack Tactics' a Congressman IRL.

I remember back when I was trying to work out how to make a kind of redmage character (like the class from ff14) and blade song is probably the closest you can get to a redmage in terms of single class but with multi-classing I found out that blades bard is probably your best to get this because of their flourish features as you can combine these with the martial attack of booming blade and using a push flourish, to not just push the target away from you but to also apply the booming blade's second effect, honestly there are allot of different creative builds and character ideas you can get from bladesong if you want the kind of magical musketeer character

@fabiovarra3698

Жыл бұрын

if you multiclass 1 level hexblade warlock with college of sword bard you can use charisma for your melee attacks, so that you need only 14 dex for the medium armor

You've outlined exactly why I multiclass Bladesinger after level 6. It may not be as strong as going full Wizard, but that's the good stuff for playing a gish. I love it with Arcane Trickster.

@jacoblockett390

Жыл бұрын

my ideas for mutlicassing have been torn between a champion dual wielding fighter (dual wielder feat, dex/int focus, using shadow blade and/or booming blade with a rapier to pump out 3 attacks per turn with increased crit rate, increased AC by INT + 1. even with just 1 level fighter dip at 6 wizard, you're getting 3 full power attacks, one being interchangable for a cantrip (shadow blade 2d8, booming blade rapier 2d8, regular rapier 1d8). Improved critical boosts that rly hard. as for rogue, I have a dream of making a rogue swashbuckler/bladesinger wizard/battle smith artificer.

One thing I found recently, is things like pam or better XBE STILL work because apart of your attack action you met those requirements. So; Attack via weapon, (2 levels in warlock) E-blast the amount it is(1-4) then attack via weapon again . Giving you to attack either 3-6 times. Pretty great

I had a blade song once that had a +3 to intelligence and to dexterity (I rolled really good on stats) and one of my favorite things to do with him was to cast haste on him, because the AC bonus that haste gave I ended up having two actions, 80 ft of movement, and an AC of 21, 26 if I used Shield, with all the hit and run I was doing i was basically the Flash.

also shapechange is really good on a bladesinger. You can become a planetar or a marilith and use bladesong as well as booming blade.

gator yelling shadowblade in the back gives me life.

“I’m just a lawful evil lizard with strong opinions” could go on a Tshirt

About the topic of defensive mechanic for spellcasters, a video about War Magic (or Swords vs Valor Bards!) would be great!

It's really fun on how the Bladesingers are able to pull a Barbarian/Monk to add their main Ability Score to their AC, mixing with Mage Armor at that too. It had me come up with a unique/fun Multiclass idea. What happens when you have a student with a fierce anger problem? Bladesinger Wizard with Barbarian Multiclass~? Casting Mage Armor first, can make the AC 13+Dex+Con, and when needing a boost, Int with Shield for extremes. That's a Wizard that is NEVER getting hit outside of Nat 20's~. Another one would be going Monk instead of Barbarian, since no spells while Raging. No double HP but still a nice boost

My favorite way to play this subclass is to dip twilight cleric and use twilight sanctuary to guarantee advantage on shadow blade. Since I’m mainly there for the dim light, I don’t care too much if DM nerfs the other parts of twilight cleric. Take elven accuracy and it’s pretty reliable damage. Obviously not optimal but super fun!

Idea. 1 level into barbarian for unarmored defense. Rest into bladesinger. Plus you get two rages for once u run outta spells. example character. Zayarel: Str: 8 Dex: 16 Con: 18 Int: 18 Wis: 11 Chr: 10 AC: 10+Dex+Con (+Int when bladesinging) = 17 without bladesinging, 21 w bladesinging

I like the idea of the Mountain Dwarf War Mage with the Heavily Armored feat for high ac as a wizard

Once a played a Paladin 2/Bladesinger X character, using heavy armor and shield. He was MAD as you can imagine, but it was alot of fun, specially when i got extra attack, using booming blade, attack and smite.