Spellcasting gestures might include a forceful gesticulation or an intricate set of gestures. If a spell requires a somatic component, the caster must have free use of at least one hand to perform these gestures.
Material (M)
A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell’s material components — or to hold a spellcasting focus — but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components.
Somatic=need free hand
Material=need full hand
Somatic and Material= need "free hand" AND "full hand" but "full hand" is considered "free hand" because of somatic component
If the "full hand" is considered a "free hand" when a spell is S,M...why would it THEN be considered full when it was just S?
If its "free enough" to be used with S,M it should be "free enough" to be used with S.
It is not a matter of logic, it is a matter of rules. RAW you can make the somatic components with the hand that holds the material components. But if there are no material components, the arcane focus isn't a material component, and you can't do the somatic components with that hand. Does it have logic? No. But that's how RAW works.
Thank you for expanding on my point, RAW states that if a spell has a Somatic component you need a free hand. It states if you have a Material component, THAT material component can be in the FREE HAND you're using for your somatic component. Therefore a material component in your somatic hand does not render your hand "not free". Ill take this back to my group.
Thank you for expanding on my point, RAW states that if a spell has a Somatic component you need a free hand. It states if you have a Material component, THAT material component can be in the FREE HAND you're using for your somatic component. Therefore a material component in your somatic hand does not render your hand "not free". Ill take this back to my group.
This is not true. If you take this reading then you could have weapons in both your hands and cast any spell with a somatic component since a weapon is a material component for the Booming Blade spell and it would make it ok to use a hand holding a weapon for the somatic component on any spell.
For clarity your hand is considered "free" with a material component in it only for the spell(s) that use that specific material component. So longsword in your hand and shield in another hand and you can cast booming blade (because the sword is the matterial component), but not the Shield spell (since it has no material component).
If you have a dried mustard seen in one hand and weapon in another and you can cast Hex (since the mustard seed is the material component) or Booming Blade (since the weapon is the material component) but not absorb elements (which has no material component) or protection from evil and good (which uses holy water as a material component).
Thank you for expanding on my point, RAW states that if a spell has a Somatic component you need a free hand. It states if you have a Material component, THAT material component can be in the FREE HAND you're using for your somatic component. Therefore a material component in your somatic hand does not render your hand "not free". Ill take this back to my group.
I'm not sure I understand you. RAW works like this: You need a free hand for somatic components and for material components. You can make the somatic components with the hand that holds the material component (and vice versa, you can hold the material components with the hand that makes the somatic components. Which is exactly the same thing).
So, if we look at the casuistry: - Do you have a free hand? You can make somatic components, material components, or both. - Do you have both hands full? What are they busy with? - Is one of them holding a spellcasting focus? You may cast spells that require material components (if it has no monetary value), or somatic and material (if it has no monetary value). But not only somatic. - One of them is holding a specific material component (for example a weapon for booming blade)? You can make the somatic and material components for that spell. But you can't cast other spells that don't require that material component (unless they are only verbal).
And then there would be the feat warcaster that allows you to make the somatic components even if you have your hands full with weapons and/or shield. But you still need the material component if the spell calls for it (which, as always, can be substituted for a spellcasting focus if the material has no monetary value).
If Im casting fireball, I have bat guano in my hand (material) and the somatic gesture I make with the bat guano in my hand is a "wrist twist" (somatic) before throwing it. The spell fireball KNOWS that I need to do both therefore the somatic component is a "gesture" that takes the material component into account (somatic,material)
The spells that require JUST a somatic gesture know your hand is free of material components so it will be designed around "The Magicians"-esk intricate finger weaving and twiddling happening. Hence Somatic only, and the reason you must drop whatever's in your hand to do the finger waggles.
This puts a logical framework behind the RAW, and can then be explained to my player group.
If Im casting fireball, I have bat guano in my hand (material) and the somatic gesture I make with the bat guano in my hand is a "wrist twist" (somatic) before throwing it. The spell fireball KNOWS that I need to do both therefore the somatic component is a "gesture" that takes the material component into account (somatic,material)
The spells that require JUST a somatic gesture know your hand is free of material components so it will be designed around "The Magicians"-esk intricate finger weaving and twiddling happening. Hence Somatic only, and the reason you must drop whatever's in your hand to do the finger waggles.
This puts a logical framework behind the RAW, and can then be explained to my player group.
There is no logical explanation. This is what I was trying to tell you in the first message. RAW is like that, and it has a mechanical explanation (that you don't need to have two free hands to cast a spell). But in the real world it doesn't make any sense. Not even if you look for a magical logic or in the field of the fantastic. Any explanation will be absurd, because from a simulationist point of view it is absurd. But that's what the rules say. And it is like that both RAW and RAI.
If Im casting fireball, I have bat guano in my hand (material) and the somatic gesture I make with the bat guano in my hand is a "wrist twist" (somatic) before throwing it. The spell fireball KNOWS that I need to do both therefore the somatic component is a "gesture" that takes the material component into account (somatic,material)
The spells that require JUST a somatic gesture know your hand is free of material components so it will be designed around "The Magicians"-esk intricate finger weaving and twiddling happening. Hence Somatic only, and the reason you must drop whatever's in your hand to do the finger waggles.
This puts a logical framework behind the RAW, and can then be explained to my player group.
Great explanation ....but as long as we are talking about logic, what is behind bat guano as the component for fireball in the first place?
Actually it’s not phosphorus, it potassium nitrate (saltpeter) and carbon from the guano along with the sulfur which make the gunpowder. Realistically as a bladesinger you want the warcaster feat and the ruby of the warmage magic item. The feat allows you to do the somatics with your weapon while the item allows you to use the weapon as a focus effectively eliminating the need for most components (non expended and 0 GPV components).
Actually it’s not phosphorus, it potassium nitrate (saltpeter) and carbon from the guano along with the sulfur which make the gunpowder. Realistically as a bladesinger you want the warcaster feat and the ruby of the warmage magic item. The feat allows you to do the somatics with your weapon while the item allows you to use the weapon as a focus effectively eliminating the need for most components (non expended and 0 GPV components).
I think Warcaster depends on your playstyle and level. If you plan to play a survivable caster relying on offensive spells in tough fights with some defensive buffs then Warcaster is a good feat.
Most of the time I play a bladesinger though I am looking for a frontline melee tank who will be using spells most for defense. In this case I think you are better served with an ASI than with Warcaster. Since you can't fight with 2-handed weapons having a hand free is rarely a problem.
I also typically go with a component pouch instead of a spell focus. That way you can pull out a component as your free interaction, cast a spell and then drop it on the ground for free without it cluttering up your hand for a reaction spell.
Warmage also gives you advantage on concentration saves and the ability to cast a spell as a reaction so it’s useful for essentially any caster that is likely to get into melee. But we already know that. The problem is material components. Yes you can use the free hand for both material and somatic components as a blade singer but you still have that interaction reaching into your component pouch for the right component. The ruby eliminates this for any spell with a nonconsumable and 0GPV component (most material component spells). Granted you still need that pouch for consumable and valuable components but it reduces the need considerably. 3.5e or 4e had a magic item I really liked for this - the Belt of Many Pouches - with 10 sets of 10 small pouches that magically presented you the item you were reaching into it for so there was no grabbing the wrong component by accident - something I’ve seen DM’s throw at mages with a component pouch.
Warmage also gives you advantage on concentration saves and the ability to cast a spell as a reaction so it’s useful for essentially any caster that is likely to get into melee. But we already know that.
The thing is on a Bladesinger who is running defensive spells; a higher AC is going to save concentration more often than advantage will because if you are going into melee being not hit is the best way to not lose concentration. Most of the time your concentration is going to be on Protection from Evil and Good or Blur or occasionally Haste.
A +1 in AC when you are giving disadvantage to enemies attacking you is huge. For example, going from say a 25 to 26 AC against someone with a +7 attack bonus and disadvantage is going to cut the number of times you are hit by more than half (from 9 times in 400 attacks to 4 times in 400 attacks). That means half as many concentration saves from getting hit (in addition to losing fewer hps). Now there are save spells/effects and AOEs and it does not help as much on those, but higher AC on a melee Bladesinger will protect your concentration in melee more than the advantage will IME.
The reaction attack is difficult to use effectively on a Bladesinger. You don't have access to Dissonant Whispers or Command so you can't easily create your own AOOs. So you are left with AOOs that happen as chance and many of those times you either will have already burned your reaction on shield or you will be saving it for shield or silvery barbs. A lot of times you are either not going to have or not going to want to use the reaction for the AOO. As a result it is rarely useful on a Bladesinger IME.
We clearly have somewhat different styles of play, I’m all for maxing Dex before taking warcaster but then I’d like both warcaster and resiliant along with the blade song bonus if I could them all. That said my main point wasn’t really warcaster but rather the ruby of the Warmage and it’s ability to make your weapon your casting focus eliminating the need to carry most components.yes you still need the expendable and valuable components but no more bat guano pellets smelling up the place is sort of nice.
I'm in the camp with Wi1dBi11. In my "opinion", if you are serious about a Bladesinger, level 4 ASI goes to:
War Caster Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell You have practiced casting spells in the midst of combat, learning techniques that grant you the following benefits: • You have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell when you take damage. • You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands. • When a hostile creature’s movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature.
You only need to have Material components in your inventory, you don't need to have them in your hand.
You shouldn't get hit much if you have Bladesong up, but when you do get hit, it will likely be from a crit, so the adv on conc is great, and the ability to cast spells on Op attacks comes in handy too; especially when you consider Booming Blade. It almost guarantees the extra damage. And the adv on conc checks, combined with Bladesong allows you to reliably use concentration spells like Haste, Greater Invis, Shadow Blade, Blur, Globe of Invuln... etc etc.
The feat also allows dual wielding to get a bonus action attack when taking the attack action which can be exchanged for a maneuver like disarm (which Bladesong also gives you adv against being disarmed), so with haste you can get in a blade cantrip + three weapon attacks (or disarm attempts at level 6+) or a full action spell + 2 weapon attacks (or disarms) - raising your DPR while concentrating on a single level 3 spell (keeping in mind cantrips increase in efficacy at lvls 5, 11, & 17). If solo, Haste also allows combos like booming blade + 2 attacks (or disarms) and disengage (with increased movement from bladesong). I feel the need to mention that you can use your move action to interact with an object (kick away or pick up a disarmed weapon) to force the opponent to move once you've disengaged (to force that secondary damage from Booming Blade, or maybe force the opponent past allies for other AoO to retrieve their weapon and either use their action to disengage or get hit with a double Booming Blade).
All while having the capability of dropping classic wizard bombs if the situation calls for it.
You only need to have Material components in your inventory, you don't need to have them in your hand.
RAW you need to have them in your hand (or a focus in your hand) when you cast a spell that uses a material component. It can be thwe same hand that does somatic components.
You shouldn't get hit much if you have Bladesong up, but when you do get hit, it will likely be from a crit, so the adv on conc is great, and the ability to cast spells on Op attacks comes in handy too; especially when you consider Booming Blade. It almost guarantees the extra damage. And the adv on conc checks, combined with Bladesong allows you to reliably use concentration spells like Haste, Greater Invis, Shadow Blade, Blur, Globe of Invuln... etc etc.
It depends on your play style. When I play a bladesinger I am playing as a melee tank and the character is in the front every time ahead of the Paladins, Fighters and other martial classes. The only class that can really keep up is a Raging Bear totem Barbarian and only then for one fight.
If you are playing a tank bladesinger your goal should be to not get hit at all in tier 2, literally. I had a bladesinger that went 4 levels without getting hit a single time (she did get damaged, just not from attacks).
You only have 1 reaction, so opportunity attacks only work if you do not use the Shield spell or Silvery Barbs spell and if you do not use those spells you will get hi if you are in the thick of melee soaking up 5-10 attacks a round. It is math, even with the 19 AC you will have in bladesong (or the 16 out of bladesong) you will get hit, and not just by crits. If you use those spells and a defensive spell like blur or Protection from Evil and Good you will almost never get hit. Silvery Barbs cancels crits and after the first round when you get your defenses up crits should be extremely rare anyway.
It is all play style though if you are going to play on the edges and let the martials soak up a lot of attacks, then sure. But if you are going to move into the middle of 8 enemies on round 1 having a lower AC is going to hurt you and you are going to have to choose between using shield to keep from getting hit or to save a reaction for Booming Blade on a possible AOO.
The feat also allows dual wielding to get a bonus action attack when taking the attack action which can be exchanged for a maneuver like disarm (which Bladesong also gives you adv against being disarmed), so with haste you can get in a blade cantrip + three weapon attacks (or disarm attempts at level 6+) or a full action spell + 2 weapon attacks (or disarms) - raising your DPR while concentrating on a single level 3 spell (keeping in mind cantrips increase in efficacy at lvls 5, 11, & 17).
But disarm is not that powerful. You disarm the bad guy and he drops his weapon .... then he picks it back up and attacks you with it next turn, all you really did was waste your bonus action. You weapon attacks nominally do 1.5 damage more than you would do wielding a rapier while gobbling up your bonus action.
There is a time when Warcaster is really good though - if you have a magic staff in one hand and want a melee weapon in the other hand to attack with. This is particularly good with a staff of defense.
If solo, Haste also allows combos like booming blade + 2 attacks (or disarms) and disengage (with increased movement from bladesong). I feel the need to mention that you can use your move action to interact with an object (kick away or pick up a disarmed weapon) to force the opponent to move once you've disengaged (to force that secondary damage from Booming Blade, or maybe force the opponent past allies for other AoO to retrieve their weapon and either use their action to disengage or get hit with a double Booming Blade).
Kick it away is something I have heard of some tables doing although it is stretching the limit and if I can do that for free, why can't I kick a flask of oil at someone for free. That would make it a lot more powerful, but most tables I play at would not allow this. Also you would have to drop one of your weapons to pick it up if you were holding two of them.
You only need to have Material components in your inventory, you don't need to have them in your hand.
RAW you need to have them in your hand (or a focus in your hand) when you cast a spell that uses a material component. It can be thwe same hand that does somatic components.
You shouldn't get hit much if you have Bladesong up, but when you do get hit, it will likely be from a crit, so the adv on conc is great, and the ability to cast spells on Op attacks comes in handy too; especially when you consider Booming Blade. It almost guarantees the extra damage. And the adv on conc checks, combined with Bladesong allows you to reliably use concentration spells like Haste, Greater Invis, Shadow Blade, Blur, Globe of Invuln... etc etc.
It depends on your play style. When I play a bladesinger I am playing as a melee tank and the character is in the front every time ahead of the Paladins, Fighters and other martial classes. The only class that can really keep up is a Raging Bear totem Barbarian and only then for one fight.
If you are playing a tank bladesinger your goal should be to not get hit at all in tier 2, literally. I had a bladesinger that went 4 levels without getting hit a single time (she did get damaged, just not from attacks).
You only have 1 reaction, so opportunity attacks only work if you do not use the Shield spell or Silvery Barbs spell and if you do not use those spells you will get hi if you are in the thick of melee soaking up 5-10 attacks a round. It is math, even with the 19 AC you will have in bladesong (or the 16 out of bladesong) you will get hit, and not just by crits. If you use those spells and a defensive spell like blur or Protection from Evil and Good you will almost never get hit. Silvery Barbs cancels crits and after the first round when you get your defenses up crits should be extremely rare anyway.
It is all play style though if you are going to play on the edges and let the martials soak up a lot of attacks, then sure. But if you are going to move into the middle of 8 enemies on round 1 having a lower AC is going to hurt you and you are going to have to choose between using shield to keep from getting hit or to save a reaction for Booming Blade on a possible AOO.
The feat also allows dual wielding to get a bonus action attack when taking the attack action which can be exchanged for a maneuver like disarm (which Bladesong also gives you adv against being disarmed), so with haste you can get in a blade cantrip + three weapon attacks (or disarm attempts at level 6+) or a full action spell + 2 weapon attacks (or disarms) - raising your DPR while concentrating on a single level 3 spell (keeping in mind cantrips increase in efficacy at lvls 5, 11, & 17).
But disarm is not that powerful. You disarm the bad guy and he drops his weapon .... then he picks it back up and attacks you with it next turn, all you really did was waste your bonus action. You weapon attacks nominally do 1.5 damage more than you would do wielding a rapier while gobbling up your bonus action.
There is a time when Warcaster is really good though - if you have a magic staff in one hand and want a melee weapon in the other hand to attack with. This is particularly good with a staff of defense.
If solo, Haste also allows combos like booming blade + 2 attacks (or disarms) and disengage (with increased movement from bladesong). I feel the need to mention that you can use your move action to interact with an object (kick away or pick up a disarmed weapon) to force the opponent to move once you've disengaged (to force that secondary damage from Booming Blade, or maybe force the opponent past allies for other AoO to retrieve their weapon and either use their action to disengage or get hit with a double Booming Blade).
Kick it away is something I have heard of some tables doing although it is stretching the limit and if I can do that for free, why can't I kick a flask of oil at someone for free. That would make it a lot more powerful, but most tables I play at would not allow this. Also you would have to drop one of your weapons to pick it up if you were holding two of them.
RAW for War Caster: You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands. You do not need to have the components in your hand with this feat because the part of RAW for material components missing above is: A character can use a component pouchor a spellcasting focusin place of the components specified for a spell. Using the material components can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components. (Which can be holding weapons or a shield with War Caster feat). Spells that you can't use a component pouch for are ones that explicitly say that they consume the (M) or that have a specific cost, which with the exception of "maybe" globe of invuln or conjure elemental, a Bladesinger likely wouldn't use in combat (absolutely spells you would want WarCaster for adv on concentration any way). But even if your DM was a stickler for having to remove material components from their pouch instead of just cupping or gripping the pouch whilst on your waist (acting the same as a focus), cantrips and reaction spells don't use them and if you are casting spells that do need them it would likely only be once (maybe twice) in an encounter as a Bladesinger (not to mention that something like haste allows an additional interact with object action every round).
Disarm is also incredibly great if you use it correctly... Not to mention that you can use it to free a grappled ally, or disarm a casting focus from an enemy caster, if you use it on a melee opponent you don't have to kick the weapon away, you can kick it to an ally to pick up (depending on initiative) or pick the weapon up yourself if you have a free hand. And to address your concern of "kicking a flask of oil" - you absolutely could kick it "across the floor" to someone as an interact with an object, but it would just be a flask of oil sitting at their feet, unless you used an action to break the flask open (if you kicked the flask too hard (as an action) it would likely just bust all over your foot). You could also use one of your attacks as the shove/knockdown action (if you think you can beat their athletics or acrobatics check) to step away (forcing them to move and trigger booming blade). OOOOOR... if you were a bladesinger with War Caster, you could kick the weapon away 15' to force the enemy to move (thus triggering the important part of booming blade) AND triggering an AoO to reapply another coating of booming blade. Having a blade cantrip + 3 attacks is huge if you can exchange those extra attacks for wise maneuvers. With some common to rare magic items (Cloak of displacement, bracers of defense, ring of protection) by level 8 or so (with 18/16 dex/int), you should not even need to use your reaction for shield unless enemies are hitting your 23 (25 with haste) AC with disadvantage (from cloak of displacement or any other number of buffs you can cast)... at which point, they are likely hitting AC 28-30 if they are that strong, in which case shield likely won't be that reliable (to forego forcing double booming blade 6d8+2d6+8 damage if they both hit and the enemy moves for their weapon.. and that combo increases again at lvl 11 to 12d8+2d6+8... without a magic weapon - and if using a lvl 5 up-cast Shadow Blade at that level we're talking 20d8+8 psychic and thunder damage likely with advantage). You will absolutely be the center of the enemies attention since that would even punish a raging barbarian's HP pool (as psychic damage). Forcing the enemy to disengage for their action would also force a barbarian to have to enter rage again unless they are lvl 15+ (if they can't attack and don't get attacked because there was no AoO) and otherwise wastes their action for that round, so most melee would take the AoO in hopes of retrieving their weapon and attacking, not expecting that much damage (unless your DM was metagaming).
But, to your point, you absolutely don't "need" to dual wield - War Caster is fantastic for the spell use as an AoO as a melee character and the adv on Conc Saves (+ int mod) helps ensure you keep those buffs up in melee. Resilience is also helpful, especially if your 13 was in CON. But if you have another use for your bonus action, by all means use it... if you don't have a plan for your bonus action every round, you should absolutely capitalize on an attempted maneuver (the 1d6 damage if negligible, but a chance to shove an enemy away from you or remove their weapon as a threat the next round (and potentially force that AoO) as a bonus action is huge and in my opinion War Caster is a must for a Bladesinger over the ASI).
You only need to have Material components in your inventory, you don't need to have them in your hand.
RAW you need to have them in your hand (or a focus in your hand) when you cast a spell that uses a material component. It can be thwe same hand that does somatic components.
You shouldn't get hit much if you have Bladesong up, but when you do get hit, it will likely be from a crit, so the adv on conc is great, and the ability to cast spells on Op attacks comes in handy too; especially when you consider Booming Blade. It almost guarantees the extra damage. And the adv on conc checks, combined with Bladesong allows you to reliably use concentration spells like Haste, Greater Invis, Shadow Blade, Blur, Globe of Invuln... etc etc.
It depends on your play style. When I play a bladesinger I am playing as a melee tank and the character is in the front every time ahead of the Paladins, Fighters and other martial classes. The only class that can really keep up is a Raging Bear totem Barbarian and only then for one fight.
If you are playing a tank bladesinger your goal should be to not get hit at all in tier 2, literally. I had a bladesinger that went 4 levels without getting hit a single time (she did get damaged, just not from attacks).
You only have 1 reaction, so opportunity attacks only work if you do not use the Shield spell or Silvery Barbs spell and if you do not use those spells you will get hi if you are in the thick of melee soaking up 5-10 attacks a round. It is math, even with the 19 AC you will have in bladesong (or the 16 out of bladesong) you will get hit, and not just by crits. If you use those spells and a defensive spell like blur or Protection from Evil and Good you will almost never get hit. Silvery Barbs cancels crits and after the first round when you get your defenses up crits should be extremely rare anyway.
It is all play style though if you are going to play on the edges and let the martials soak up a lot of attacks, then sure. But if you are going to move into the middle of 8 enemies on round 1 having a lower AC is going to hurt you and you are going to have to choose between using shield to keep from getting hit or to save a reaction for Booming Blade on a possible AOO.
The feat also allows dual wielding to get a bonus action attack when taking the attack action which can be exchanged for a maneuver like disarm (which Bladesong also gives you adv against being disarmed), so with haste you can get in a blade cantrip + three weapon attacks (or disarm attempts at level 6+) or a full action spell + 2 weapon attacks (or disarms) - raising your DPR while concentrating on a single level 3 spell (keeping in mind cantrips increase in efficacy at lvls 5, 11, & 17).
But disarm is not that powerful. You disarm the bad guy and he drops his weapon .... then he picks it back up and attacks you with it next turn, all you really did was waste your bonus action. You weapon attacks nominally do 1.5 damage more than you would do wielding a rapier while gobbling up your bonus action.
There is a time when Warcaster is really good though - if you have a magic staff in one hand and want a melee weapon in the other hand to attack with. This is particularly good with a staff of defense.
If solo, Haste also allows combos like booming blade + 2 attacks (or disarms) and disengage (with increased movement from bladesong). I feel the need to mention that you can use your move action to interact with an object (kick away or pick up a disarmed weapon) to force the opponent to move once you've disengaged (to force that secondary damage from Booming Blade, or maybe force the opponent past allies for other AoO to retrieve their weapon and either use their action to disengage or get hit with a double Booming Blade).
Kick it away is something I have heard of some tables doing although it is stretching the limit and if I can do that for free, why can't I kick a flask of oil at someone for free. That would make it a lot more powerful, but most tables I play at would not allow this. Also you would have to drop one of your weapons to pick it up if you were holding two of them.
RAW for War Caster: You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands. You do not need to have the components in your hand with this feat because the part of RAW for material components missing above is: A character can use a component pouchor a spellcasting focusin place of the components specified for a spell. Using the material components can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components. (Which can be holding weapons or a shield with War Caster feat). Spells that you can't use a component pouch for are ones that explicitly say that they consume the (M) or that have a specific cost, which with the exception of "maybe" globe of invuln or conjure elemental, a Bladesinger likely wouldn't use in combat (absolutely spells you would want WarCaster for adv on concentration any way).
Nowhere in the warcaster feat does it say or suggest that you can hold a material component and a somatic component in the same hand. You can use the somatic component when you are holding a weapon or a shield .... or a material component, but you can not hold a material component in the same hand you are holding a weapon or a shield in unless that weapon is also a focus (staff) or the weapon is the material component for the spell (Green Flame Blade, Booming Blade)
Here is the text for Warcaster Feat:
You have practiced casting spells in the midst of combat, learning techniques that grant you the following benefits:
You have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell when you take damage.
You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands.
When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature.
Nowhere does it say you can hold both weapons and a material component in the same hand. You are trying to find a technicality, but if you want to wordsmith this read the words above, it does not say that you actually use the "hand" that is holding the weapon or the shield for the somatic components, it just says you can perform them. Nothing in warcaster allows you to hold more than a single weapon or a shield in each hand.
But even if your DM was a stickler for having to remove material components from their pouch instead of just cupping or gripping the pouch whilst on your waist (acting the same as a focus), cantrips and reaction spells don't use them and if you are casting spells that do need them it would likely only be once (maybe twice) in an encounter as a Bladesinger (not to mention that something like haste allows an additional interact with object action every round).
Whatever you do, you can't be holding a weapon in the same hand that holds the material component.
You are also factually wrong, many cantrips do use material components - Booming Blade, Gereen Flame Blade, Message, Dancing Lights, Friends, Infestation, Mending, Minor Illusion and Resistance all use material components.
Some reaction spells also use material components as well - Feather Fall, Gift of Gab and Soul Cage are reaction spells which require material components.
Disarm is also incredibly great if you u it correctly... Noto t mention that you can use it to free a grappled ally, or disarm a casting focus from an enemy caster, if you use it on a melee opponent you don't have to kick the weapon away, you can kick it to an ally to pick up (depending on initiative) or pick the weapon up yourself if you have a free hand. And to address your concern of "kicking a flask of oil" - you absolutely could kick it "across the floor" to someone as an interact with an object, but it would just be a flask of oil sitting at their feet, unless you used an action to break the flask open (if you kicked the flask too hard (as an action) it would likely just bust all over your foot).
I don't know how you would use it to free a grappled ally. I agree if your DM lets you kick something without using an action it is a lot more powerful, but most DMs do not allow that.
You could also use one of your attacks as the shove/knockdown action (if you think you can beat their athletics or acrobatics check) to step away (forcing them to move and trigger booming blade).
You would still take a reaction attack even if they are prone. More to the point, you need to think of the math here. Say you are in tier 2 using booming blade and extra attack -
So you hit with booming blade. Now if the enemy moves he takes 9 damage.
You have a choice:
option 1 attack him again for 8.5 damage if you hit (1d8+4).
Option 2- you shove him back and out of reach(if you are playing a bladesinger with point buy you probably have an 8 strength). IF you succeed he is now out of range
Then if he moves (which he does not have to) he takes 9 damage. So 0.5 point more than if you just attacked him, and you gave him an AOO and your shove is less likely to succeed!
So If you beat his athletics/acrobatics, and if he does not hit you with his AOO, then you avarage about 1 more damage.
A better option is just to attack him a second time and then move away taking the AOO and depending on your AC to beat it. In that case you do 7 points of damage with the attack, plus
I will also add this only works if the enemy is within 1 size of your character and if you manage to beat him with your puny strength.
OOOOOR... if you were a bladesinger with War Caster, you could kick the weapon away 15' to force the enemy to move (thus triggering the important part of booming blade) AND triggering an AoO to reapply another coating of booming blade.
As I said few tables play that way and if they do the DM should be using this against you as well. Which gives the Bladesinger is a BIG disadvantage. In teir 2 if you have a 19 AC in bladesing and a 24 with shield, an enemy probably usually needs an 18-20 to hit you .... or double 18+ if you have blur or PEG up.
But if he can disarm you - well if you have a 16 dex and you are in bladesong (getting advantage on acrobatics) that will give you an average roll of about 17, which means most enemies in tier 2 will disarm you on a roll of 11 or 12. With bad rolls on your part they will disarm you on a 5.
So your 8th level bladesinger disarms the enemy and kicks his weapon across the room. Then he just disarms you and picks up your magic rapier to stab you with it. Oh and now you are unarmed so your future disarm checks are made using strength!
Why would he EVER move away when he can just take your weapon .... oh and by the way when he disarms you, if he moves you can still cast a spell on him as an AOO, but that spell can't be booming blade because booming blade has a component with a cost (the weapon he just picked up off the ground)
Let me put some math to this so you understand what I am saying - your 6th level bladesinge moves up to face 3 CR4 wereboars. You go for a disarm on one of them and kick his weapon across the room. Now ALL 3 of them get 2 attacks each to try to disarm you and take your weapon. Let's say you have a +3 Acrobatics and you are in bladesong so you have advantge. They have a +5 attack roll. In order to hang on to YOUR weapon you need to beat them 6 times before your turn comes around again in order to hang on to your weapon. Your chance of hanging on to your weapon is 3%. 97% of the time YOU are going to lose your weapon. If you are holding two weapons you will lose BOTH weapons 85% of the time.
Now the bad guys are holding YOUR weapons, oh and by the way you need magic or silver to damage them.
That is with a common CR4 enemy, it should be a medium encounter for a party of 4 6th level PCs.
Having a blade cantrip + 3 attacks is huge if you can exchange those extra attacks for wise maneuvers.
How do you get +3 attacks? You get a blade cantrip and an attack and then potentially an offhand attack. So that is a blade cantrip plus 2 attacks.
With some common to rare magic items (Cloak of displacement, bracers of defense, ring of protection) by level 8 or so (with 18/16 dex/int), you should not even need to use your reaction for shield unless enemies are hitting your 23 (25 with haste) AC with disadvantage (from cloak of displacement or any other number of buffs you can cast)
But if he is disarming you your AC irrelevant. The onyl thing that metters is your acrobatics and he has you beat by a mile there, even with you having advantage. If you manage to get proficiency through a background or race you can make it closer, but he is still going to disarm you and take your magic weapon a lot.
With some common to rare magic items (Cloak of displacement, bracers of defense, ring of protection) by level 8 or so (with 18/16 dex/int), you should not even need to use your reaction for shield unless enemies are hitting your 23 (25 with haste) AC with disadvantage (from cloak of displacement or any other number of buffs you can cast)... at which point, they are likely hitting AC 28-30 if they are that strong, in which case shield likely won't be that reliable (to forego forcing double booming blade 6d8+2d6+8 damage if they both hit and the enemy moves for their weapon.. and that combo increases again at lvl 11 to 12d8+2d6+8... without a magic weapon - and if using a lvl 5 up-cast Shadow Blade at that level we're talking 20d8+8 psychic and thunder damage likely with advantage).
Ok a few points:
1. there are not these magic items just lyhing around
2 if you took Warcaster you could not have a 16/18 Dex/Intelligence until 8th level (unless a Human). If you also took Reslient you would not have it until 12th level.
3. The buffs you cast to give an enemy disadvantage (Blur, PEG) are concentration and can't be stacked with Haste
4. Why would the enemy EVER move for their weapon when they can just take yours instead?
You only need to have Material components in your inventory, you don't need to have them in your hand.
RAW you need to have them in your hand (or a focus in your hand) when you cast a spell that uses a material component. It can be thwe same hand that does somatic components.
You shouldn't get hit much if you have Bladesong up, but when you do get hit, it will likely be from a crit, so the adv on conc is great, and the ability to cast spells on Op attacks comes in handy too; especially when you consider Booming Blade. It almost guarantees the extra damage. And the adv on conc checks, combined with Bladesong allows you to reliably use concentration spells like Haste, Greater Invis, Shadow Blade, Blur, Globe of Invuln... etc etc.
It depends on your play style. When I play a bladesinger I am playing as a melee tank and the character is in the front every time ahead of the Paladins, Fighters and other martial classes. The only class that can really keep up is a Raging Bear totem Barbarian and only then for one fight.
If you are playing a tank bladesinger your goal should be to not get hit at all in tier 2, literally. I had a bladesinger that went 4 levels without getting hit a single time (she did get damaged, just not from attacks).
You only have 1 reaction, so opportunity attacks only work if you do not use the Shield spell or Silvery Barbs spell and if you do not use those spells you will get hi if you are in the thick of melee soaking up 5-10 attacks a round. It is math, even with the 19 AC you will have in bladesong (or the 16 out of bladesong) you will get hit, and not just by crits. If you use those spells and a defensive spell like blur or Protection from Evil and Good you will almost never get hit. Silvery Barbs cancels crits and after the first round when you get your defenses up crits should be extremely rare anyway.
It is all play style though if you are going to play on the edges and let the martials soak up a lot of attacks, then sure. But if you are going to move into the middle of 8 enemies on round 1 having a lower AC is going to hurt you and you are going to have to choose between using shield to keep from getting hit or to save a reaction for Booming Blade on a possible AOO.
The feat also allows dual wielding to get a bonus action attack when taking the attack action which can be exchanged for a maneuver like disarm (which Bladesong also gives you adv against being disarmed), so with haste you can get in a blade cantrip + three weapon attacks (or disarm attempts at level 6+) or a full action spell + 2 weapon attacks (or disarms) - raising your DPR while concentrating on a single level 3 spell (keeping in mind cantrips increase in efficacy at lvls 5, 11, & 17).
But disarm is not that powerful. You disarm the bad guy and he drops his weapon .... then he picks it back up and attacks you with it next turn, all you really did was waste your bonus action. You weapon attacks nominally do 1.5 damage more than you would do wielding a rapier while gobbling up your bonus action.
There is a time when Warcaster is really good though - if you have a magic staff in one hand and want a melee weapon in the other hand to attack with. This is particularly good with a staff of defense.
If solo, Haste also allows combos like booming blade + 2 attacks (or disarms) and disengage (with increased movement from bladesong). I feel the need to mention that you can use your move action to interact with an object (kick away or pick up a disarmed weapon) to force the opponent to move once you've disengaged (to force that secondary damage from Booming Blade, or maybe force the opponent past allies for other AoO to retrieve their weapon and either use their action to disengage or get hit with a double Booming Blade).
Kick it away is something I have heard of some tables doing although it is stretching the limit and if I can do that for free, why can't I kick a flask of oil at someone for free. That would make it a lot more powerful, but most tables I play at would not allow this. Also you would have to drop one of your weapons to pick it up if you were holding two of them.
RAW for War Caster: You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands. You do not need to have the components in your hand with this feat because the part of RAW for material components missing above is: A character can use a component pouchor a spellcasting focusin place of the components specified for a spell. Using the material components can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components. (Which can be holding weapons or a shield with War Caster feat). Spells that you can't use a component pouch for are ones that explicitly say that they consume the (M) or that have a specific cost, which with the exception of "maybe" globe of invuln or conjure elemental, a Bladesinger likely wouldn't use in combat (absolutely spells you would want WarCaster for adv on concentration any way).
Nowhere in the warcaster feat does it say or suggest that you can hold a material component and a somatic component in the same hand. You can use the somatic component when you are holding a weapon or a shield .... or a material component, but you can not hold a material component in the same hand you are holding a weapon or a shield in unless that weapon is also a focus (staff) or the weapon is the material component for the spell (Green Flame Blade, Booming Blade)
Here is the text for Warcaster Feat:
You have practiced casting spells in the midst of combat, learning techniques that grant you the following benefits:
You have advantage on Constitution saving throws that you make to maintain your concentration on a spell when you take damage.
You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands.
When a hostile creature's movement provokes an opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting time of 1 action and must target only that creature.
Nowhere does it say you can hold both weapons and a material component in the same hand. You are trying to find a technicality, but if you want to wordsmith this read the words above, it does not say that you actually use the "hand" that is holding the weapon or the shield for the somatic components, it just says you can perform them. Nothing in warcaster allows you to hold more than a single weapon or a shield in each hand.
But even if your DM was a stickler for having to remove material components from their pouch instead of just cupping or gripping the pouch whilst on your waist (acting the same as a focus), cantrips and reaction spells don't use them and if you are casting spells that do need them it would likely only be once (maybe twice) in an encounter as a Bladesinger (not to mention that something like haste allows an additional interact with object action every round).
Whatever you do, you can't be holding a weapon in the same hand that holds the material component.
You are also factually wrong, many cantrips do use material components - Booming Blade, Gereen Flame Blade, Message, Dancing Lights, Friends, Infestation, Mending, Minor Illusion and Resistance all use material components.
Some reaction spells also use material components as well - Feather Fall, Gift of Gab and Soul Cage are reaction spells which require material components.
Disarm is also incredibly great if you u it correctly... Noto t mention that you can use it to free a grappled ally, or disarm a casting focus from an enemy caster, if you use it on a melee opponent you don't have to kick the weapon away, you can kick it to an ally to pick up (depending on initiative) or pick the weapon up yourself if you have a free hand. And to address your concern of "kicking a flask of oil" - you absolutely could kick it "across the floor" to someone as an interact with an object, but it would just be a flask of oil sitting at their feet, unless you used an action to break the flask open (if you kicked the flask too hard (as an action) it would likely just bust all over your foot).
I don't know how you would use it to free a grappled ally. I agree if your DM lets you kick something without using an action it is a lot more powerful, but most DMs do not allow that.
You could also use one of your attacks as the shove/knockdown action (if you think you can beat their athletics or acrobatics check) to step away (forcing them to move and trigger booming blade).
You would still take a reaction attack even if they are prone. More to the point, you need to think of the math here. Say you are in tier 2 using booming blade and extra attack -
So you hit with booming blade. Now if the enemy moves he takes 9 damage.
You have a choice:
option 1 attack him again for 8.5 damage if you hit (1d8+4).
Option 2- you shove him back and out of reach(if you are playing a bladesinger with point buy you probably have an 8 strength). IF you succeed he is now out of range
Then if he moves (which he does not have to) he takes 9 damage. So 0.5 point more than if you just attacked him, and you gave him an AOO and your shove is less likely to succeed!
So If you beat his athletics/acrobatics, and if he does not hit you with his AOO, then you avarage about 1 more damage.
A better option is just to attack him a second time and then move away taking the AOO and depending on your AC to beat it. In that case you do 7 points of damage with the attack, plus
I will also add this only works if the enemy is within 1 size of your character and if you manage to beat him with your puny strength.
OOOOOR... if you were a bladesinger with War Caster, you could kick the weapon away 15' to force the enemy to move (thus triggering the important part of booming blade) AND triggering an AoO to reapply another coating of booming blade.
As I said few tables play that way and if they do the DM should be using this against you as well. Which gives the Bladesinger is a BIG disadvantage. In teir 2 if you have a 19 AC in bladesing and a 24 with shield, an enemy probably usually needs an 18-20 to hit you .... or double 18+ if you have blur or PEG up.
But if he can disarm you - well if you have a 16 dex and you are in bladesong (getting advantage on acrobatics) that will give you an average roll of about 17, which means most enemies in tier 2 will disarm you on a roll of 11 or 12. With bad rolls on your part they will disarm you on a 5.
So your 8th level bladesinger disarms the enemy and kicks his weapon across the room. Then he just disarms you and picks up your magic rapier to stab you with it. Oh and now you are unarmed so your future disarm checks are made using strength!
Why would he EVER move away when he can just take your weapon .... oh and by the way when he disarms you, if he moves you can still cast a spell on him as an AOO, but that spell can't be booming blade because booming blade has a component with a cost (the weapon he just picked up off the ground)
Let me put some math to this so you understand what I am saying - your 6th level bladesinge moves up to face 3 CR4 wereboars. You go for a disarm on one of them and kick his weapon across the room. Now ALL 3 of them get 2 attacks each to try to disarm you and take your weapon. Let's say you have a +3 Acrobatics and you are in bladesong so you have advantge. They have a +5 attack roll. In order to hang on to YOUR weapon you need to beat them 6 times before your turn comes around again in order to hang on to your weapon. Your chance of hanging on to your weapon is 3%. 97% of the time YOU are going to lose your weapon. If you are holding two weapons you will lose BOTH weapons 85% of the time.
Now the bad guys are holding YOUR weapons, oh and by the way you need magic or silver to damage them.
That is with a common CR4 enemy, it should be a medium encounter for a party of 4 6th level PCs.
Having a blade cantrip + 3 attacks is huge if you can exchange those extra attacks for wise maneuvers.
How do you get +3 attacks? You get a blade cantrip and an attack and then potentially an offhand attack. So that is a blade cantrip plus 2 attacks.
With some common to rare magic items (Cloak of displacement, bracers of defense, ring of protection) by level 8 or so (with 18/16 dex/int), you should not even need to use your reaction for shield unless enemies are hitting your 23 (25 with haste) AC with disadvantage (from cloak of displacement or any other number of buffs you can cast)
But if he is disarming you your AC irrelevant. The onyl thing that metters is your acrobatics and he has you beat by a mile there, even with you having advantage. If you manage to get proficiency through a background or race you can make it closer, but he is still going to disarm you and take your magic weapon a lot.
With some common to rare magic items (Cloak of displacement, bracers of defense, ring of protection) by level 8 or so (with 18/16 dex/int), you should not even need to use your reaction for shield unless enemies are hitting your 23 (25 with haste) AC with disadvantage (from cloak of displacement or any other number of buffs you can cast)... at which point, they are likely hitting AC 28-30 if they are that strong, in which case shield likely won't be that reliable (to forego forcing double booming blade 6d8+2d6+8 damage if they both hit and the enemy moves for their weapon.. and that combo increases again at lvl 11 to 12d8+2d6+8... without a magic weapon - and if using a lvl 5 up-cast Shadow Blade at that level we're talking 20d8+8 psychic and thunder damage likely with advantage).
Ok a few points:
1. there are not these magic items just lyhing around
2 if you took Warcaster you could not have a 16/18 Dex/Intelligence until 8th level (unless a Human). If you also took Reslient you would not have it until 12th level.
3. The buffs you cast to give an enemy disadvantage (Blur, PEG) are concentration and can't be stacked with Haste
4. Why would the enemy EVER move for their weapon when they can just take yours instead?
I'm not saying that War Caster alone allows you to hold both an item and (M) at the same time, the rules for material components allowing for a component pouch combined with the material components rule allowing the use of the hand performing the (S) component to be allowed to also use the (M) component. To stay on topic, I'm simply stating that you don't need a free hand to cast "all" of your spells with war caster. As I stated before, spells that a Blade Singer would use "in combat" that require material components would rarely be used more than once or so in an encounter. Of the spells you listed, maybe Featherfall... if it were memorized.
1. Nobody is saying magic items are just lying around, but by lvl 8 (as I said) you should have at least 2-3 items of common to rare quality, and if you are a frontline bladesinger for your party, the non-armor defensive items should be prioritized to you. If you don't have a ring of protection, and/or bracers of defense by lvl 8, (and your DM is still increasing CR, you're at a pretty hardcore table). 2. High Elf/Eladrin using standard array can start with 16/16 Dex/Int, with a single ASI puts them at 18/16, so by lvl 8 they could have a feat + 18/16 3. That is correct that Haste is concentration, but if you don't have a magic item granting DIS ADV like the cloak of displacement I listed (as an example) you should probably concentrate on something other than haste (or shadow blade)... But, if you really wanted to use haste without a CoD, there are a couple of buffs that aren't conc that grant you great defenses like mirror image or blink (I save blink or for when haste is about to expire, or drop it early with invisibility for the lethargy round). But to clarify, yes, we know haste is a conc spell. 4. Unless it was a rogue or maybe monk NPC, I doubt they would want to wield a short sword, but nobody says that the enemy can't "attempt" to take your weapon... but the beauty of that, is not only does bladesong give you advantage against disarm attempts (acrobatics check), the NPC is also using their action (unless its a battle master.. in which case that's just gonna happen any way lol) and if you have War Caster, you can be dual wielding, so if the enemy wastes their multi-attack "attempting" to disarm you , you're still a wizard that doesn't "need" weapons to be effective. When I play a bladesinger I carry 4 light, finesse swords (usually short swords) for RP flavor, so that would be amusing if a single NPC wasted all of its actions trying to disarm me while we were beating it down only to have me mage hand and/or misty step to retrieve two of them if they're within 15' of each other and where I was standing. So to use your outstanding scenario of 3 wereboars "attempting" to disarm me... that's still 0 damage and 6 wasted attacks as I (as a wizard) have a myriad of tools to very safely retrieve my weapons while they're all clumped up in a big group. Also, I'm not sure why you chose wereboars, since they would prefer to use their charge attack with their mauls which do 2d6 damage, so if they want to instead attempt to disarm me and use my short swords instead of try to inflict us with lycanthropy, I'm all for it lol. (But we know that a non-metagaming DM wouldn't have tactical maneuver wereboars disarming players). Feel the need to mention that with Haste up (and not needing to make a single conc check) that disengage is one of the extra actions you can take... or interact with 2 objects for them to attempt to disarm you again if they like lol.
The take away of that scenario is if the enemy is using their actions disarming you every round, they're not hurting anyone (including you) and your AC doesn't even matter... likely while the whole party is annihilating them and/or their friends. That's still a win win...
And in that same vein of your scenario, there are other effective spells you can use with the war caster AoO... if you happened to be disarmed: Toll the Dead, frostbite, banish, any touch spell: shocking grasp, vamp touch and many more once you hit lvl 9 that can shut down an enemy if they fail a save. Casting a spell as a reaction is quite nice (compared to the wizard's alternative to AoO - which is a basic melee attack if holding a melee weapon, which is still "effectively" nothing), but booming blade would obviously be the most efficient (if armed) which was why I mentioned it. Again.. most normal NPCs aren't going to attempt to disarm you (especially a wereboar that would attack more like a savage brute).
I also feel I need to mention again that at Tier 2, the cantrip damage is doubled, so your math of the average damage is way off. And... if you are likely to have more than 2 enemies attacking you, then you "may" want to save your reaction for shield... but without war caster, its a safe bet that the only thing you will do with your reaction is cast shield or absorb elements and otherwise just stand there waiting for enemies to attack you... when they can just walk right past you (without even meta gaming). Having options is what being a wizard is all about. Another good bait trick is to take the dodge action and use your reaction for booming blade when the enemy gets tired of missing you... if you have Haste up, you could also get an attack in.
4. Unless it was a rogue or maybe monk NPC, I doubt they would want to wield a short sword, but nobody says that the enemy can't "attempt" to take your weapon... but the beauty of that, is not only does bladesong give you advantage against disarm attempts (acrobatics check), the NPC is also using their action (unless its a battle master.. in which case that's just gonna happen any way lol) and if you have War Caster, you can be dual wielding, so if the enemy wastes their multi-attack "attempting" to disarm you , you're still a wizard that doesn't "need" weapons to be effective.
1. They want your weapon chiefly because you disarmed them and kicked theirs away and a short sword
2. They do not use an action to disarm you, they use an attack just like you did. Further their attack bonus will be higher than your acrobatics bonus. Yes you will have advantage, but they will have a higher bonus to start with.
3. It is not an attempt, it is more or less a certaintly. As I noted, with 3 wereboars it is almost certain they succeed, even with you having advantage. You talked about yourself using disarm like it was automatically going to succeed, none of this "attempt" stuff, when your chance of success on a single attack will be far lower than theirs using multiattack.
4. Sure you can do lots of things, but you just cast Haste on yourself, you were intended to get an extra attack every round. Moreover the wasting attacks arguement works both ways as you wasted an attack to disarm them to start with/.
When I play a bladesinger I carry 4 light, finesse swords (usually short swords) for RP flavor, so that would be amusing if a single NPC wasted all of its actions trying to disarm me while we were beating it down only to have me mage hand and/or misty step to retrieve two of them if they're within 15' of each other and where I was standing.
Mage Hand takes an entire action to use, if you use that you are doing no damage and are not disarming anyone.
You can only draw one weapon in a turn without using an action (and none if you kick his weapon across the floor after you disarm him). Yeah you can go misty step and pick up his Maul (since he is now holding your shortsword), but then to use it you give up bladesong (since it is a 2-handed weapon) and you are swinging it with strength.
So to use your outstanding scenario of 3 wereboars "attempting" to disarm me.'
Again your disarm is much, much more likely to fail and you did not call that an "attempt"
that's still 0 damage and 6 wasted attacks as I (as a wizard) have a myriad of tools to very safely retrieve my weapons
They are holding your weapons, the only way to retrieve them is to disarm them (making them drop YOUR weapons) and pick them up. You will lose this back and forth because you will fail to disarm them far more often than they will fail to disarm you. So you will be wasting turns on disarm
Also I want to point out that is not 0 damage. Once they take both your weapons they are going to use the rest of their attacks to attack you (or knock you prone and then attack you).
Also, I'm not sure why you chose wereboars, since they would prefer to use their charge attack with their mauls which do 2d6 damage, so if they want to instead attempt to disarm me and use my short swords instead of try to inflict us with lycanthropy, I'm all for it lol.
I chose them because they are a CR4 opponent that carries weapons. This should be a relatively easy encounter (technically medium) for a 6th level party. Using Elephants or Red Dragon Wyrmlings would not be much of a discussion since they can't be disarmed.
We can go Succubus or Ettin if you want, the results are going to be the same (those are the other 2 CR4 enemies that carry weapons)
(But we know that a non-metagaming DM wouldn't have tactical maneuver wereboars disarming players).
If you are disarming them (or more accurately attempting to) then any DM worth his salt is going to use the same on you.
The take away of that scenario is if the enemy is using their actions disarming you every round, they're not hurting anyone (including you) and your AC doesn't even matter... likely while the whole party is annihilating them and/or their friends. That's still a win win...
And the same goes for you. The difference is they have more attacks to use to try to disarm and those attacks are more likely to succeed, meaning they have more attacks left over to attack you with.
Again.. most normal NPCs aren't going to attempt to disarm you (especially a wereboar that would attack more like a savage brute).
ALL of them should if you are using this as a normal tactic, especially when they are better than you at it.
I also feel I need to mention again that at Tier 2, the cantrip damage is doubled, so your math of the average damage is way off.
No it is not In tier 2 movement from booming blade causes 2d8 damage which is 9 damage average.
And... if you are likely to have more than 2 enemies attacking you, then you "may" want to save your reaction for shield..
As I explained much earlier in this thread it is about playstyle. If I am playing a bladesinger I am doing a tank build and I try to have EVERY enemy attack me as much as possible. I try to draw attacks away from the fighters, barbarians Paladins and other PCs. If there is a big group of enemies and I win initiative I am going to go into bladesong and move right in the middle of them encouraging as many as possible to attack me.
As I said earlier if you are going to attack on the edges and take foes on one on one then that is a different playstyle.
. but without war caster, its a safe bet that the only thing you will do with your reaction is cast shield or absorb elements
Shield, Absorb Elements, Counterspell and Silvery Barbs are all relatively common reaction casts. Shield more than the other three
and otherwise just stand there waiting for enemies to attack you..
Which is the whole point of tanking. Get them to attack you instead of your allies.
. when they can just walk right past you (without even meta gaming).
They can, one of them taking booming blade damage if I hit with that on my turn. But they can do that with you too. You only get one reaction, you can only use an AOO on one enemy. The rest can walk right by you
Having options is what being a wizard is all about. Another good bait trick is to take the dodge action and use your reaction for booming blade when the enemy gets tired of missing you... if you have Haste up, you could also get an attack in.
I think Blur or PEG is better than dodge because it does the same thing and only uses 1 action instead of every action. But I do combine Dodge and Haste and occasionally just dodge.
A wereboar is not going to exchange their heavy 2-handed weapon to wield short swords... But again - the job of a front liner isn't necessarily to deal damage, but to engage the melee combatants and keep them from attacking the softer party members. So regardless of the enemy's actions, if all of the attacks (or disarm attempts) are focused on the bladesinger, then that is a success.... in your unique scenario, fighting disarming wereboars, Shield is the most viable option for a reaction, but War Caster still grants Adv on Conc saves. But why would anyone waste a spell (or ability) to misty step and pick up a weapon that they couldn't use (war maul)? I was stating that I could misty step out of being surrounded if MY weapons were kicked away, and yes, mage hand is an action (cantrip), but misty step is a minor action (spell), meaning you could use both in the same round (after the first... in your awkward scenario where all the enemy is doing is disarming your 4 weapons - and again, in my response to that weird scenario, I would be concentrating on Haste because in my response to that scenario I was wearing a Clock of displacement, and haste would allow an extra action like disengage or an additional interact with object). I agree that Blur or PEG is "situationally" better than dodge or haste (if you don't have a magic item like my cloak), but again, in your disarming wereboar scenario, if you have all of the wereboars focusing on you (or no weapons in hand) then dodge is a pretty easy action to take and using your reaction to shield = successfully fulfilling the role of tank. I think this debate is becoming overly hypothetical. As a bladesinger I would personally put all of my eggs in the basket of convincing the party to pool resources together (20-30kgp) or request a specific adventure to quest for materials (Displacer Beast CR3 + purchased/traded/negotiated item from a CR9+... if you have a nature lover in your party, getting something like leaves of a Treant may be a relatively easy option and more quests to perform a task for the Treant in exchange for leaves... maybe the tears of a cloud giant? There are many ways to get additional adventures out of simply trying to acquire the specific items that you want) for it to be crafted over 10 weeks (using XGtE rules) to get a cloak of displacement... That is a must have for the tank of any group by T2+ in my opinion.
You're thinking of a very specific encounter while myself and others advocating for the War Caster feat seem to be thinking of a more broad use for the feat. Of course there will always be situations where you won't use your AoO and will want to use it for shield, or just play defense, but having the "option" to be offensive, or stop an enemy from just walking past you at a crucial moment is more advantageous than detrimental (T2 Booming Blade is significant enough damage to draw an enemy's ire... not to mention (if you happen to be disarmed) something as encounter changing as bestow curse (if they fail their wisdom save, they're done) or something as simple as a shocking grasp as it passes you to allow your ally to move away from them without provoking an AoO... on their turn of course - because I feel like you're going to nitpick and mansplain how "they can't move on the enemy's turn so shocking grasp wouldn't work" We know. THAT is not the point being made).
It is not a matter of logic, it is a matter of rules.
RAW you can make the somatic components with the hand that holds the material components. But if there are no material components, the arcane focus isn't a material component, and you can't do the somatic components with that hand.
Does it have logic? No. But that's how RAW works.
Thank you for expanding on my point, RAW states that if a spell has a Somatic component you need a free hand. It states if you have a Material component, THAT material component can be in the FREE HAND you're using for your somatic component. Therefore a material component in your somatic hand does not render your hand "not free". Ill take this back to my group.
This is not true. If you take this reading then you could have weapons in both your hands and cast any spell with a somatic component since a weapon is a material component for the Booming Blade spell and it would make it ok to use a hand holding a weapon for the somatic component on any spell.
For clarity your hand is considered "free" with a material component in it only for the spell(s) that use that specific material component. So longsword in your hand and shield in another hand and you can cast booming blade (because the sword is the matterial component), but not the Shield spell (since it has no material component).
If you have a dried mustard seen in one hand and weapon in another and you can cast Hex (since the mustard seed is the material component) or Booming Blade (since the weapon is the material component) but not absorb elements (which has no material component) or protection from evil and good (which uses holy water as a material component).
I'm not sure I understand you.
RAW works like this:
You need a free hand for somatic components and for material components. You can make the somatic components with the hand that holds the material component (and vice versa, you can hold the material components with the hand that makes the somatic components. Which is exactly the same thing).
So, if we look at the casuistry:
- Do you have a free hand? You can make somatic components, material components, or both.
- Do you have both hands full? What are they busy with?
- Is one of them holding a spellcasting focus? You may cast spells that require material components (if it has no monetary value), or somatic and material (if it has no monetary value). But not only somatic.
- One of them is holding a specific material component (for example a weapon for booming blade)? You can make the somatic and material components for that spell. But you can't cast other spells that don't require that material component (unless they are only verbal).
And then there would be the feat warcaster that allows you to make the somatic components even if you have your hands full with weapons and/or shield. But you still need the material component if the spell calls for it (which, as always, can be substituted for a spellcasting focus if the material has no monetary value).
So, its like this.
If Im casting fireball, I have bat guano in my hand (material) and the somatic gesture I make with the bat guano in my hand is a "wrist twist" (somatic) before throwing it. The spell fireball KNOWS that I need to do both therefore the somatic component is a "gesture" that takes the material component into account (somatic,material)
The spells that require JUST a somatic gesture know your hand is free of material components so it will be designed around "The Magicians"-esk intricate finger weaving and twiddling happening. Hence Somatic only, and the reason you must drop whatever's in your hand to do the finger waggles.
This puts a logical framework behind the RAW, and can then be explained to my player group.
There is no logical explanation. This is what I was trying to tell you in the first message. RAW is like that, and it has a mechanical explanation (that you don't need to have two free hands to cast a spell). But in the real world it doesn't make any sense. Not even if you look for a magical logic or in the field of the fantastic. Any explanation will be absurd, because from a simulationist point of view it is absurd.
But that's what the rules say. And it is like that both RAW and RAI.
Great explanation ....but as long as we are talking about logic, what is behind bat guano as the component for fireball in the first place?
phosphorous in bat guano and a pinch of sulfur ...its a gunpowder thing
Actually it’s not phosphorus, it potassium nitrate (saltpeter) and carbon from the guano along with the sulfur which make the gunpowder.
Realistically as a bladesinger you want the warcaster feat and the ruby of the warmage magic item. The feat allows you to do the somatics with your weapon while the item allows you to use the weapon as a focus effectively eliminating the need for most components (non expended and 0 GPV components).
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I think Warcaster depends on your playstyle and level. If you plan to play a survivable caster relying on offensive spells in tough fights with some defensive buffs then Warcaster is a good feat.
Most of the time I play a bladesinger though I am looking for a frontline melee tank who will be using spells most for defense. In this case I think you are better served with an ASI than with Warcaster. Since you can't fight with 2-handed weapons having a hand free is rarely a problem.
I also typically go with a component pouch instead of a spell focus. That way you can pull out a component as your free interaction, cast a spell and then drop it on the ground for free without it cluttering up your hand for a reaction spell.
Warmage also gives you advantage on concentration saves and the ability to cast a spell as a reaction so it’s useful for essentially any caster that is likely to get into melee. But we already know that. The problem is material components. Yes you can use the free hand for both material and somatic components as a blade singer but you still have that interaction reaching into your component pouch for the right component. The ruby eliminates this for any spell with a nonconsumable and 0GPV component (most material component spells). Granted you still need that pouch for consumable and valuable components but it reduces the need considerably. 3.5e or 4e had a magic item I really liked for this - the Belt of Many Pouches - with 10 sets of 10 small pouches that magically presented you the item you were reaching into it for so there was no grabbing the wrong component by accident - something I’ve seen DM’s throw at mages with a component pouch.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
The thing is on a Bladesinger who is running defensive spells; a higher AC is going to save concentration more often than advantage will because if you are going into melee being not hit is the best way to not lose concentration. Most of the time your concentration is going to be on Protection from Evil and Good or Blur or occasionally Haste.
A +1 in AC when you are giving disadvantage to enemies attacking you is huge. For example, going from say a 25 to 26 AC against someone with a +7 attack bonus and disadvantage is going to cut the number of times you are hit by more than half (from 9 times in 400 attacks to 4 times in 400 attacks). That means half as many concentration saves from getting hit (in addition to losing fewer hps). Now there are save spells/effects and AOEs and it does not help as much on those, but higher AC on a melee Bladesinger will protect your concentration in melee more than the advantage will IME.
The reaction attack is difficult to use effectively on a Bladesinger. You don't have access to Dissonant Whispers or Command so you can't easily create your own AOOs. So you are left with AOOs that happen as chance and many of those times you either will have already burned your reaction on shield or you will be saving it for shield or silvery barbs. A lot of times you are either not going to have or not going to want to use the reaction for the AOO. As a result it is rarely useful on a Bladesinger IME.
We clearly have somewhat different styles of play, I’m all for maxing Dex before taking warcaster but then I’d like both warcaster and resiliant along with the blade song bonus if I could them all. That said my main point wasn’t really warcaster but rather the ruby of the Warmage and it’s ability to make your weapon your casting focus eliminating the need to carry most components.yes you still need the expendable and valuable components but no more bat guano pellets smelling up the place is sort of nice.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I'm in the camp with Wi1dBi11. In my "opinion", if you are serious about a Bladesinger, level 4 ASI goes to:
War Caster
Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
You have practiced casting spells in the midst of
combat, learning techniques that grant you the
following benefits:
• You have advantage on Constitution saving throws
that you make to maintain your concentration on a
spell when you take damage.
• You can perform the somatic components of spells
even when you have weapons or a shield in one or
both hands.
• When a hostile creature’s movement provokes an
opportunity attack from you, you can use your reaction to cast a spell at the creature, rather than making
an opportunity attack. The spell must have a casting
time of 1 action and must target only that creature.
You only need to have Material components in your inventory, you don't need to have them in your hand.
You shouldn't get hit much if you have Bladesong up, but when you do get hit, it will likely be from a crit, so the adv on conc is great, and the ability to cast spells on Op attacks comes in handy too; especially when you consider Booming Blade. It almost guarantees the extra damage. And the adv on conc checks, combined with Bladesong allows you to reliably use concentration spells like Haste, Greater Invis, Shadow Blade, Blur, Globe of Invuln... etc etc.
The feat also allows dual wielding to get a bonus action attack when taking the attack action which can be exchanged for a maneuver like disarm (which Bladesong also gives you adv against being disarmed), so with haste you can get in a blade cantrip + three weapon attacks (or disarm attempts at level 6+) or a full action spell + 2 weapon attacks (or disarms) - raising your DPR while concentrating on a single level 3 spell (keeping in mind cantrips increase in efficacy at lvls 5, 11, & 17). If solo, Haste also allows combos like booming blade + 2 attacks (or disarms) and disengage (with increased movement from bladesong). I feel the need to mention that you can use your move action to interact with an object (kick away or pick up a disarmed weapon) to force the opponent to move once you've disengaged (to force that secondary damage from Booming Blade, or maybe force the opponent past allies for other AoO to retrieve their weapon and either use their action to disengage or get hit with a double Booming Blade).
All while having the capability of dropping classic wizard bombs if the situation calls for it.
Really fun way to play a Wizard!
RAW you need to have them in your hand (or a focus in your hand) when you cast a spell that uses a material component. It can be thwe same hand that does somatic components.
It depends on your play style. When I play a bladesinger I am playing as a melee tank and the character is in the front every time ahead of the Paladins, Fighters and other martial classes. The only class that can really keep up is a Raging Bear totem Barbarian and only then for one fight.
If you are playing a tank bladesinger your goal should be to not get hit at all in tier 2, literally. I had a bladesinger that went 4 levels without getting hit a single time (she did get damaged, just not from attacks).
You only have 1 reaction, so opportunity attacks only work if you do not use the Shield spell or Silvery Barbs spell and if you do not use those spells you will get hi if you are in the thick of melee soaking up 5-10 attacks a round. It is math, even with the 19 AC you will have in bladesong (or the 16 out of bladesong) you will get hit, and not just by crits. If you use those spells and a defensive spell like blur or Protection from Evil and Good you will almost never get hit. Silvery Barbs cancels crits and after the first round when you get your defenses up crits should be extremely rare anyway.
It is all play style though if you are going to play on the edges and let the martials soak up a lot of attacks, then sure. But if you are going to move into the middle of 8 enemies on round 1 having a lower AC is going to hurt you and you are going to have to choose between using shield to keep from getting hit or to save a reaction for Booming Blade on a possible AOO.
But disarm is not that powerful. You disarm the bad guy and he drops his weapon .... then he picks it back up and attacks you with it next turn, all you really did was waste your bonus action. You weapon attacks nominally do 1.5 damage more than you would do wielding a rapier while gobbling up your bonus action.
There is a time when Warcaster is really good though - if you have a magic staff in one hand and want a melee weapon in the other hand to attack with. This is particularly good with a staff of defense.
Kick it away is something I have heard of some tables doing although it is stretching the limit and if I can do that for free, why can't I kick a flask of oil at someone for free. That would make it a lot more powerful, but most tables I play at would not allow this. Also you would have to drop one of your weapons to pick it up if you were holding two of them.
RAW for War Caster:
You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands. You do not need to have the components in your hand with this feat because the part of RAW for material components missing above is:
A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus in place of the components specified for a spell. Using the material components can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components. (Which can be holding weapons or a shield with War Caster feat). Spells that you can't use a component pouch for are ones that explicitly say that they consume the (M) or that have a specific cost, which with the exception of "maybe" globe of invuln or conjure elemental, a Bladesinger likely wouldn't use in combat (absolutely spells you would want WarCaster for adv on concentration any way).
But even if your DM was a stickler for having to remove material components from their pouch instead of just cupping or gripping the pouch whilst on your waist (acting the same as a focus), cantrips and reaction spells don't use them and if you are casting spells that do need them it would likely only be once (maybe twice) in an encounter as a Bladesinger (not to mention that something like haste allows an additional interact with object action every round).
Disarm is also incredibly great if you use it correctly... Not to mention that you can use it to free a grappled ally, or disarm a casting focus from an enemy caster, if you use it on a melee opponent you don't have to kick the weapon away, you can kick it to an ally to pick up (depending on initiative) or pick the weapon up yourself if you have a free hand. And to address your concern of "kicking a flask of oil" - you absolutely could kick it "across the floor" to someone as an interact with an object, but it would just be a flask of oil sitting at their feet, unless you used an action to break the flask open (if you kicked the flask too hard (as an action) it would likely just bust all over your foot). You could also use one of your attacks as the shove/knockdown action (if you think you can beat their athletics or acrobatics check) to step away (forcing them to move and trigger booming blade). OOOOOR... if you were a bladesinger with War Caster, you could kick the weapon away 15' to force the enemy to move (thus triggering the important part of booming blade) AND triggering an AoO to reapply another coating of booming blade. Having a blade cantrip + 3 attacks is huge if you can exchange those extra attacks for wise maneuvers. With some common to rare magic items (Cloak of displacement, bracers of defense, ring of protection) by level 8 or so (with 18/16 dex/int), you should not even need to use your reaction for shield unless enemies are hitting your 23 (25 with haste) AC with disadvantage (from cloak of displacement or any other number of buffs you can cast)... at which point, they are likely hitting AC 28-30 if they are that strong, in which case shield likely won't be that reliable (to forego forcing double booming blade 6d8+2d6+8 damage if they both hit and the enemy moves for their weapon.. and that combo increases again at lvl 11 to 12d8+2d6+8... without a magic weapon - and if using a lvl 5 up-cast Shadow Blade at that level we're talking 20d8+8 psychic and thunder damage likely with advantage). You will absolutely be the center of the enemies attention since that would even punish a raging barbarian's HP pool (as psychic damage). Forcing the enemy to disengage for their action would also force a barbarian to have to enter rage again unless they are lvl 15+ (if they can't attack and don't get attacked because there was no AoO) and otherwise wastes their action for that round, so most melee would take the AoO in hopes of retrieving their weapon and attacking, not expecting that much damage (unless your DM was metagaming).
But, to your point, you absolutely don't "need" to dual wield - War Caster is fantastic for the spell use as an AoO as a melee character and the adv on Conc Saves (+ int mod) helps ensure you keep those buffs up in melee. Resilience is also helpful, especially if your 13 was in CON. But if you have another use for your bonus action, by all means use it... if you don't have a plan for your bonus action every round, you should absolutely capitalize on an attempted maneuver (the 1d6 damage if negligible, but a chance to shove an enemy away from you or remove their weapon as a threat the next round (and potentially force that AoO) as a bonus action is huge and in my opinion War Caster is a must for a Bladesinger over the ASI).
Nowhere in the warcaster feat does it say or suggest that you can hold a material component and a somatic component in the same hand. You can use the somatic component when you are holding a weapon or a shield .... or a material component, but you can not hold a material component in the same hand you are holding a weapon or a shield in unless that weapon is also a focus (staff) or the weapon is the material component for the spell (Green Flame Blade, Booming Blade)
Here is the text for Warcaster Feat:
You have practiced casting spells in the midst of combat, learning techniques that grant you the following benefits:
Nowhere does it say you can hold both weapons and a material component in the same hand. You are trying to find a technicality, but if you want to wordsmith this read the words above, it does not say that you actually use the "hand" that is holding the weapon or the shield for the somatic components, it just says you can perform them. Nothing in warcaster allows you to hold more than a single weapon or a shield in each hand.
Whatever you do, you can't be holding a weapon in the same hand that holds the material component.
You are also factually wrong, many cantrips do use material components - Booming Blade, Gereen Flame Blade, Message, Dancing Lights, Friends, Infestation, Mending, Minor Illusion and Resistance all use material components.
Some reaction spells also use material components as well - Feather Fall, Gift of Gab and Soul Cage are reaction spells which require material components.
I don't know how you would use it to free a grappled ally. I agree if your DM lets you kick something without using an action it is a lot more powerful, but most DMs do not allow that.
You would still take a reaction attack even if they are prone. More to the point, you need to think of the math here. Say you are in tier 2 using booming blade and extra attack -
So you hit with booming blade. Now if the enemy moves he takes 9 damage.
You have a choice:
option 1 attack him again for 8.5 damage if you hit (1d8+4).
Option 2- you shove him back and out of reach(if you are playing a bladesinger with point buy you probably have an 8 strength). IF you succeed he is now out of range
Then if he moves (which he does not have to) he takes 9 damage. So 0.5 point more than if you just attacked him, and you gave him an AOO and your shove is less likely to succeed!
So If you beat his athletics/acrobatics, and if he does not hit you with his AOO, then you avarage about 1 more damage.
A better option is just to attack him a second time and then move away taking the AOO and depending on your AC to beat it. In that case you do 7 points of damage with the attack, plus
I will also add this only works if the enemy is within 1 size of your character and if you manage to beat him with your puny strength.
As I said few tables play that way and if they do the DM should be using this against you as well. Which gives the Bladesinger is a BIG disadvantage. In teir 2 if you have a 19 AC in bladesing and a 24 with shield, an enemy probably usually needs an 18-20 to hit you .... or double 18+ if you have blur or PEG up.
But if he can disarm you - well if you have a 16 dex and you are in bladesong (getting advantage on acrobatics) that will give you an average roll of about 17, which means most enemies in tier 2 will disarm you on a roll of 11 or 12. With bad rolls on your part they will disarm you on a 5.
So your 8th level bladesinger disarms the enemy and kicks his weapon across the room. Then he just disarms you and picks up your magic rapier to stab you with it. Oh and now you are unarmed so your future disarm checks are made using strength!
Why would he EVER move away when he can just take your weapon .... oh and by the way when he disarms you, if he moves you can still cast a spell on him as an AOO, but that spell can't be booming blade because booming blade has a component with a cost (the weapon he just picked up off the ground)
Let me put some math to this so you understand what I am saying - your 6th level bladesinge moves up to face 3 CR4 wereboars. You go for a disarm on one of them and kick his weapon across the room. Now ALL 3 of them get 2 attacks each to try to disarm you and take your weapon. Let's say you have a +3 Acrobatics and you are in bladesong so you have advantge. They have a +5 attack roll. In order to hang on to YOUR weapon you need to beat them 6 times before your turn comes around again in order to hang on to your weapon. Your chance of hanging on to your weapon is 3%. 97% of the time YOU are going to lose your weapon. If you are holding two weapons you will lose BOTH weapons 85% of the time.
Now the bad guys are holding YOUR weapons, oh and by the way you need magic or silver to damage them.
That is with a common CR4 enemy, it should be a medium encounter for a party of 4 6th level PCs.
How do you get +3 attacks? You get a blade cantrip and an attack and then potentially an offhand attack. So that is a blade cantrip plus 2 attacks.
But if he is disarming you your AC irrelevant. The onyl thing that metters is your acrobatics and he has you beat by a mile there, even with you having advantage. If you manage to get proficiency through a background or race you can make it closer, but he is still going to disarm you and take your magic weapon a lot.
Ok a few points:
1. there are not these magic items just lyhing around
2 if you took Warcaster you could not have a 16/18 Dex/Intelligence until 8th level (unless a Human). If you also took Reslient you would not have it until 12th level.
3. The buffs you cast to give an enemy disadvantage (Blur, PEG) are concentration and can't be stacked with Haste
4. Why would the enemy EVER move for their weapon when they can just take yours instead?
I'm not saying that War Caster alone allows you to hold both an item and (M) at the same time, the rules for material components allowing for a component pouch combined with the material components rule allowing the use of the hand performing the (S) component to be allowed to also use the (M) component. To stay on topic, I'm simply stating that you don't need a free hand to cast "all" of your spells with war caster. As I stated before, spells that a Blade Singer would use "in combat" that require material components would rarely be used more than once or so in an encounter. Of the spells you listed, maybe Featherfall... if it were memorized.
1. Nobody is saying magic items are just lying around, but by lvl 8 (as I said) you should have at least 2-3 items of common to rare quality, and if you are a frontline bladesinger for your party, the non-armor defensive items should be prioritized to you. If you don't have a ring of protection, and/or bracers of defense by lvl 8, (and your DM is still increasing CR, you're at a pretty hardcore table).
2. High Elf/Eladrin using standard array can start with 16/16 Dex/Int, with a single ASI puts them at 18/16, so by lvl 8 they could have a feat + 18/16
3. That is correct that Haste is concentration, but if you don't have a magic item granting DIS ADV like the cloak of displacement I listed (as an example) you should probably concentrate on something other than haste (or shadow blade)... But, if you really wanted to use haste without a CoD, there are a couple of buffs that aren't conc that grant you great defenses like mirror image or blink (I save blink or for when haste is about to expire, or drop it early with invisibility for the lethargy round). But to clarify, yes, we know haste is a conc spell.
4. Unless it was a rogue or maybe monk NPC, I doubt they would want to wield a short sword, but nobody says that the enemy can't "attempt" to take your weapon... but the beauty of that, is not only does bladesong give you advantage against disarm attempts (acrobatics check), the NPC is also using their action (unless its a battle master.. in which case that's just gonna happen any way lol) and if you have War Caster, you can be dual wielding, so if the enemy wastes their multi-attack "attempting" to disarm you , you're still a wizard that doesn't "need" weapons to be effective. When I play a bladesinger I carry 4 light, finesse swords (usually short swords) for RP flavor, so that would be amusing if a single NPC wasted all of its actions trying to disarm me while we were beating it down only to have me mage hand and/or misty step to retrieve two of them if they're within 15' of each other and where I was standing. So to use your outstanding scenario of 3 wereboars "attempting" to disarm me... that's still 0 damage and 6 wasted attacks as I (as a wizard) have a myriad of tools to very safely retrieve my weapons while they're all clumped up in a big group. Also, I'm not sure why you chose wereboars, since they would prefer to use their charge attack with their mauls which do 2d6 damage, so if they want to instead attempt to disarm me and use my short swords instead of try to inflict us with lycanthropy, I'm all for it lol. (But we know that a non-metagaming DM wouldn't have tactical maneuver wereboars disarming players). Feel the need to mention that with Haste up (and not needing to make a single conc check) that disengage is one of the extra actions you can take... or interact with 2 objects for them to attempt to disarm you again if they like lol.
The take away of that scenario is if the enemy is using their actions disarming you every round, they're not hurting anyone (including you) and your AC doesn't even matter... likely while the whole party is annihilating them and/or their friends. That's still a win win...
And in that same vein of your scenario, there are other effective spells you can use with the war caster AoO... if you happened to be disarmed: Toll the Dead, frostbite, banish, any touch spell: shocking grasp, vamp touch and many more once you hit lvl 9 that can shut down an enemy if they fail a save. Casting a spell as a reaction is quite nice (compared to the wizard's alternative to AoO - which is a basic melee attack if holding a melee weapon, which is still "effectively" nothing), but booming blade would obviously be the most efficient (if armed) which was why I mentioned it. Again.. most normal NPCs aren't going to attempt to disarm you (especially a wereboar that would attack more like a savage brute).
I also feel I need to mention again that at Tier 2, the cantrip damage is doubled, so your math of the average damage is way off. And... if you are likely to have more than 2 enemies attacking you, then you "may" want to save your reaction for shield... but without war caster, its a safe bet that the only thing you will do with your reaction is cast shield or absorb elements and otherwise just stand there waiting for enemies to attack you... when they can just walk right past you (without even meta gaming). Having options is what being a wizard is all about. Another good bait trick is to take the dodge action and use your reaction for booming blade when the enemy gets tired of missing you... if you have Haste up, you could also get an attack in.
1. They want your weapon chiefly because you disarmed them and kicked theirs away and a short sword
2. They do not use an action to disarm you, they use an attack just like you did. Further their attack bonus will be higher than your acrobatics bonus. Yes you will have advantage, but they will have a higher bonus to start with.
3. It is not an attempt, it is more or less a certaintly. As I noted, with 3 wereboars it is almost certain they succeed, even with you having advantage. You talked about yourself using disarm like it was automatically going to succeed, none of this "attempt" stuff, when your chance of success on a single attack will be far lower than theirs using multiattack.
4. Sure you can do lots of things, but you just cast Haste on yourself, you were intended to get an extra attack every round. Moreover the wasting attacks arguement works both ways as you wasted an attack to disarm them to start with/.
Mage Hand takes an entire action to use, if you use that you are doing no damage and are not disarming anyone.
You can only draw one weapon in a turn without using an action (and none if you kick his weapon across the floor after you disarm him). Yeah you can go misty step and pick up his Maul (since he is now holding your shortsword), but then to use it you give up bladesong (since it is a 2-handed weapon) and you are swinging it with strength.
Again your disarm is much, much more likely to fail and you did not call that an "attempt"
They are holding your weapons, the only way to retrieve them is to disarm them (making them drop YOUR weapons) and pick them up. You will lose this back and forth because you will fail to disarm them far more often than they will fail to disarm you. So you will be wasting turns on disarm
Also I want to point out that is not 0 damage. Once they take both your weapons they are going to use the rest of their attacks to attack you (or knock you prone and then attack you).
I chose them because they are a CR4 opponent that carries weapons. This should be a relatively easy encounter (technically medium) for a 6th level party. Using Elephants or Red Dragon Wyrmlings would not be much of a discussion since they can't be disarmed.
We can go Succubus or Ettin if you want, the results are going to be the same (those are the other 2 CR4 enemies that carry weapons)
If you are disarming them (or more accurately attempting to) then any DM worth his salt is going to use the same on you.
And the same goes for you. The difference is they have more attacks to use to try to disarm and those attacks are more likely to succeed, meaning they have more attacks left over to attack you with.
ALL of them should if you are using this as a normal tactic, especially when they are better than you at it.
No it is not In tier 2 movement from booming blade causes 2d8 damage which is 9 damage average.
As I explained much earlier in this thread it is about playstyle. If I am playing a bladesinger I am doing a tank build and I try to have EVERY enemy attack me as much as possible. I try to draw attacks away from the fighters, barbarians Paladins and other PCs. If there is a big group of enemies and I win initiative I am going to go into bladesong and move right in the middle of them encouraging as many as possible to attack me.
As I said earlier if you are going to attack on the edges and take foes on one on one then that is a different playstyle.
Shield, Absorb Elements, Counterspell and Silvery Barbs are all relatively common reaction casts. Shield more than the other three
Which is the whole point of tanking. Get them to attack you instead of your allies.
They can, one of them taking booming blade damage if I hit with that on my turn. But they can do that with you too. You only get one reaction, you can only use an AOO on one enemy. The rest can walk right by you
I think Blur or PEG is better than dodge because it does the same thing and only uses 1 action instead of every action. But I do combine Dodge and Haste and occasionally just dodge.
A wereboar is not going to exchange their heavy 2-handed weapon to wield short swords... But again - the job of a front liner isn't necessarily to deal damage, but to engage the melee combatants and keep them from attacking the softer party members. So regardless of the enemy's actions, if all of the attacks (or disarm attempts) are focused on the bladesinger, then that is a success.... in your unique scenario, fighting disarming wereboars, Shield is the most viable option for a reaction, but War Caster still grants Adv on Conc saves. But why would anyone waste a spell (or ability) to misty step and pick up a weapon that they couldn't use (war maul)? I was stating that I could misty step out of being surrounded if MY weapons were kicked away, and yes, mage hand is an action (cantrip), but misty step is a minor action (spell), meaning you could use both in the same round (after the first... in your awkward scenario where all the enemy is doing is disarming your 4 weapons - and again, in my response to that weird scenario, I would be concentrating on Haste because in my response to that scenario I was wearing a Clock of displacement, and haste would allow an extra action like disengage or an additional interact with object). I agree that Blur or PEG is "situationally" better than dodge or haste (if you don't have a magic item like my cloak), but again, in your disarming wereboar scenario, if you have all of the wereboars focusing on you (or no weapons in hand) then dodge is a pretty easy action to take and using your reaction to shield = successfully fulfilling the role of tank. I think this debate is becoming overly hypothetical. As a bladesinger I would personally put all of my eggs in the basket of convincing the party to pool resources together (20-30kgp) or request a specific adventure to quest for materials (Displacer Beast CR3 + purchased/traded/negotiated item from a CR9+... if you have a nature lover in your party, getting something like leaves of a Treant may be a relatively easy option and more quests to perform a task for the Treant in exchange for leaves... maybe the tears of a cloud giant? There are many ways to get additional adventures out of simply trying to acquire the specific items that you want) for it to be crafted over 10 weeks (using XGtE rules) to get a cloak of displacement... That is a must have for the tank of any group by T2+ in my opinion.
You're thinking of a very specific encounter while myself and others advocating for the War Caster feat seem to be thinking of a more broad use for the feat. Of course there will always be situations where you won't use your AoO and will want to use it for shield, or just play defense, but having the "option" to be offensive, or stop an enemy from just walking past you at a crucial moment is more advantageous than detrimental (T2 Booming Blade is significant enough damage to draw an enemy's ire... not to mention (if you happen to be disarmed) something as encounter changing as bestow curse (if they fail their wisdom save, they're done) or something as simple as a shocking grasp as it passes you to allow your ally to move away from them without provoking an AoO... on their turn of course - because I feel like you're going to nitpick and mansplain how "they can't move on the enemy's turn so shocking grasp wouldn't work" We know. THAT is not the point being made).