wanting to make a melee-based wizard for SpellJammers because I think it'd be fun, Im wanting to use the Vedalken as my chosen race since we already have 3 elves but am open to suggestions, some spells that I would like to somehow implement into this build would be Spiritual weapon+Mirror image and Blade song with Misty Step, not too sure what sword I want to get as a start, I think my options are greatsword/rapier for swords, not too sure what the difference is between the two if it matters at all. trying to go for a fast build w/ I think points going into Intelligence and Dexterity? my background is the Astral drifter but I might use Sage. I'm really open to all suggestions :)
Bladesinger is definitely your best choice for a martial wizard.
For Bladesingers: "You gain proficiency with one type of one-handed melee weapon of your choice." Greatsword is a two-handed weapon. The Rapier is your best choice for one-handed weapons if you're DEX based, which is seems like you are. If you want Misty Step for free, you might check out the Fey Touched feat, or shadar-kai or eladrin for race.
Booming shadowblade doesn't work as written. You need an accepting DM to let you do that anymore. As a summoned weapon, the shadowblade does not have a value of 1sp. As the rule is written, I personally would not allow it to work.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
If you really want to be melee-primary or melee-only I would start with a 16+ in both Dexterity and Intelligence. Con is not that important, you can have as low as 10 and still dominate melee because of your spells. I generally take Wisdom over Constitution as my third stat mostly because Wisdom saves can be devastating. You never want to fail one of those while you are in melee and that is really how you get in a bind - fail a wisdom save, your defenses drop and now you are very vulnerable and on the front line.
Then get defensive spells - Mage armor, Silvery Barbs, Protection from Evil and Good, Shield, Absorb Elements, False Life, Blur, Haste, Greater Invisibility and Contingency are your primary spells level 1-20. I also usually get counterspell and dispel magic. There are some good higher level spells, but they are mostly situational, things like Primordial Ward for example. You should also get misty step, you can pick that up with Fey Touched if you start with an odd dexterity or odd intelligence. For a pure melee build gift of alacrity is the best spell to pair with it. Hex is an ok choice, but on a pure melee wizard it should mostly be out of combat as it uses concentration which should generally be on something else.
If you want to be a hard melee tank you should NOT be using shadowblade a lot, you need something that makes you harder to hit instead. I would also not get mobile, instead of making yourself immune to AOOs, you want to make it so they have almost no chance of hitting you - let enemies waste actions. For that reason I generally prioritize dexterity first and intelligence second, with the exception for Fey Touched if you start with an odd score in one of them. If playing a race that does not get weapon proficiencies you can also consider weapon master and boost dex if it is odd. I would not get Warcaster until Dex and Intelligence were at 20 either.
Use your higher level slots for upcast false life and after level 11 have contingency running with a 5th level false life under it. This will give you more total hit points than a fighter until level 9 (assuming using your highest level slot on false life), after level 10 you will start to fall behind a fighter but you are a lot harder to hit than a fighter and have even more hit points available on tap with song of defense.
Get a Bat familiar. The reason you want a bat is the blindsight, so if you can't see someone your bat can tell you where he is. You can also use this to misty step if you are blinded (action to use your bat's eyes, bonus action misty step to location you can see).
If you have blur or PEG up along with bladesing and Mage Armor and max false life and are staying on the Intelligence/Dexterity ladder with ASIs and a good (12+) Wisdom you:
1. Will be extremely hard to hit taking little or no damage from attacks, I have had bladesingers go several multiple levels in a row without taking a single hit in melee.
2. Your Wisdom saves are great making you difficult to charm, frighten etc.
3. Your Dex saves are ok - good at low level fair at high level and you have resistance to elemental attacks through false life.
4. You have either a good or great (with proficiency) Acrobatics along with advantage on those when in bladesong.
5. You can misty step out of anything that does get a hold of you. Get swallowed by a purple worm and use absorb element to half the acid damage, look through your bat's eyes then misty step put of there.
This adds up to a character that is very hard to damage effectively.
The weakness of a pure bladesinger is their damage is not great, however you can really boost this by using booming blade and then moving (don't worry about the AOO) making enemies move to attack you again and thereby take more damage. If you could do this every turn (which you really can't) you would keep up with the other extra attack classes pretty well.
For race a lot of them work - Eladrin, Shaddar-Kai, Drow Elf, Elf, Dwarf, Gith, Variant Human, Custom are my favorite. I like these races because you can get multiple weapons. Your one weapon at 2nd level is ok but it can be very limiting if you don't find that one weapon. As a bladesinger you ideally want proficiency in Hand Crossbow, Rapier, Short Sword, Scimitar, Whip and Dagger. If you take Drow you will have all of these after 2nd level. If you take human or customm you can boost dex and start these. If you take Dwarf, Elf or Gith you can change your race weapons to get some of these. Finally if you are Shaddar-Kai or Eladrin you can change which weapons you are proficient in with a long rest - this can be really good if your DM uses random weapon drops - find an awesome morningstar and guantlets of ogre power for example.
I also like Goblin a lot, although if you are doing that you probably want to pick up weapon master unless your DM is the kind of guy that gifts the exact weapon you will want.
There are more powerful ways to build a bladesinger, but I don't think there are more poweful ways to build a melee-focused bladesinger.
First time posting sorry if there are any typos,
wanting to make a melee-based wizard for SpellJammers because I think it'd be fun, Im wanting to use the Vedalken as my chosen race since we already have 3 elves but am open to suggestions, some spells that I would like to somehow implement into this build would be Spiritual weapon+Mirror image and Blade song with Misty Step, not too sure what sword I want to get as a start, I think my options are greatsword/rapier for swords, not too sure what the difference is between the two if it matters at all. trying to go for a fast build w/ I think points going into Intelligence and Dexterity? my background is the Astral drifter but I might use Sage. I'm really open to all suggestions :)
Bladesinger is definitely your best choice for a martial wizard.
For Bladesingers: "You gain proficiency with one type of one-handed melee weapon of your choice." Greatsword is a two-handed weapon. The Rapier is your best choice for one-handed weapons if you're DEX based, which is seems like you are. If you want Misty Step for free, you might check out the Fey Touched feat, or shadar-kai or eladrin for race.
thanks so much!, ill go test this out and see what i can do and post some screenshots when im done
Bladesinger, DEX-focused, CON second, INT third. Try to get Tough later to have martial-like HP and have fun with Booming Shadow Blade!
Booming shadowblade doesn't work as written. You need an accepting DM to let you do that anymore. As a summoned weapon, the shadowblade does not have a value of 1sp. As the rule is written, I personally would not allow it to work.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
You are correct. My DM allows it, though.
Get War Caster and dual wield shortswords maybe??? If your DM wont let you booming shadow blade, consider blade ward for extra attack.
'Mr Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people’s business.'
Snape froze. Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the map didn’t stop there. More writing was appearing beneath the first.
'Mr Prongs agrees with Mr Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.'-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Stay sharp, always carry a dagger and never deal with a devil (except for me, of course).
If you really want to be melee-primary or melee-only I would start with a 16+ in both Dexterity and Intelligence. Con is not that important, you can have as low as 10 and still dominate melee because of your spells. I generally take Wisdom over Constitution as my third stat mostly because Wisdom saves can be devastating. You never want to fail one of those while you are in melee and that is really how you get in a bind - fail a wisdom save, your defenses drop and now you are very vulnerable and on the front line.
Then get defensive spells - Mage armor, Silvery Barbs, Protection from Evil and Good, Shield, Absorb Elements, False Life, Blur, Haste, Greater Invisibility and Contingency are your primary spells level 1-20. I also usually get counterspell and dispel magic. There are some good higher level spells, but they are mostly situational, things like Primordial Ward for example. You should also get misty step, you can pick that up with Fey Touched if you start with an odd dexterity or odd intelligence. For a pure melee build gift of alacrity is the best spell to pair with it. Hex is an ok choice, but on a pure melee wizard it should mostly be out of combat as it uses concentration which should generally be on something else.
If you want to be a hard melee tank you should NOT be using shadowblade a lot, you need something that makes you harder to hit instead. I would also not get mobile, instead of making yourself immune to AOOs, you want to make it so they have almost no chance of hitting you - let enemies waste actions. For that reason I generally prioritize dexterity first and intelligence second, with the exception for Fey Touched if you start with an odd score in one of them. If playing a race that does not get weapon proficiencies you can also consider weapon master and boost dex if it is odd. I would not get Warcaster until Dex and Intelligence were at 20 either.
Use your higher level slots for upcast false life and after level 11 have contingency running with a 5th level false life under it. This will give you more total hit points than a fighter until level 9 (assuming using your highest level slot on false life), after level 10 you will start to fall behind a fighter but you are a lot harder to hit than a fighter and have even more hit points available on tap with song of defense.
Get a Bat familiar. The reason you want a bat is the blindsight, so if you can't see someone your bat can tell you where he is. You can also use this to misty step if you are blinded (action to use your bat's eyes, bonus action misty step to location you can see).
If you have blur or PEG up along with bladesing and Mage Armor and max false life and are staying on the Intelligence/Dexterity ladder with ASIs and a good (12+) Wisdom you:
1. Will be extremely hard to hit taking little or no damage from attacks, I have had bladesingers go several multiple levels in a row without taking a single hit in melee.
2. Your Wisdom saves are great making you difficult to charm, frighten etc.
3. Your Dex saves are ok - good at low level fair at high level and you have resistance to elemental attacks through false life.
4. You have either a good or great (with proficiency) Acrobatics along with advantage on those when in bladesong.
5. You can misty step out of anything that does get a hold of you. Get swallowed by a purple worm and use absorb element to half the acid damage, look through your bat's eyes then misty step put of there.
This adds up to a character that is very hard to damage effectively.
The weakness of a pure bladesinger is their damage is not great, however you can really boost this by using booming blade and then moving (don't worry about the AOO) making enemies move to attack you again and thereby take more damage. If you could do this every turn (which you really can't) you would keep up with the other extra attack classes pretty well.
For race a lot of them work - Eladrin, Shaddar-Kai, Drow Elf, Elf, Dwarf, Gith, Variant Human, Custom are my favorite. I like these races because you can get multiple weapons. Your one weapon at 2nd level is ok but it can be very limiting if you don't find that one weapon. As a bladesinger you ideally want proficiency in Hand Crossbow, Rapier, Short Sword, Scimitar, Whip and Dagger. If you take Drow you will have all of these after 2nd level. If you take human or customm you can boost dex and start these. If you take Dwarf, Elf or Gith you can change your race weapons to get some of these. Finally if you are Shaddar-Kai or Eladrin you can change which weapons you are proficient in with a long rest - this can be really good if your DM uses random weapon drops - find an awesome morningstar and guantlets of ogre power for example.
I also like Goblin a lot, although if you are doing that you probably want to pick up weapon master unless your DM is the kind of guy that gifts the exact weapon you will want.
There are more powerful ways to build a bladesinger, but I don't think there are more poweful ways to build a melee-focused bladesinger.