I died in ToA, yay, but hey, now I can make a new character. My party has asked me to go a full caster, it's only melee at the moment, although I would like to play a melee character. I'm okay with a bit of both but I'm not entirely sure how to do it. At first I though blade singer, but I've been told that its a terrible sub class. Any ideas on feats, stats, races, multi classing, background, or anything else would be great. Also we are at 7th level.
Roll up the character that you will have the most fun playing and have someone in the group who will have more fun playing a full caster retire their character and roll up a full caster. That way everyone will have fun.
Under those circumstances, you need AC and HP, which means dexterity and constitution. To me, Mage Armor and Shield are requirements for you and False Life is something worth considering for when you’re in melee.
I’d be attracted to the School of Abjuration or War Magic, but the School of Bladesong wouldn’t be bad for you either if your group gets a lot of short rests. Studded leather plus your dexterity modifier plus your intelligence modifier should give you an AC of 17 or higher twice per short rest which isn’t bad. That can free up a spell slot too because you’d be wearing armor instead of casting Mage Armor.
For feats, I’d consider Resilient (Constitution) or War Caster. I’d pick Resilient if your constitution is an odd number and otherwise go with War Caster. Or, you can bump your intelligence up. You have one ability score increase to work with so you’ve got a hard decision to make.
Any Druid can be Ok in melee. Moon Druids are HP soaks, but all Druids have good spells for melee and they have an Ok selection of weapons. Clerics can wear heavier armor than Druids can but Druids can cast Barkskin.
What's wrong with Bladesinger? It's still a fully functional wizard, but you get a few goodies that help you step up into melee from time to time if you want to. One of my previous campaigns had a bladesinger, and she worked just fine.
There are a lot of routes to getting your melee fix with a full caster. One easy way would be to build a nature cleric. You get heavy armor, and can select a druid cantrip. You'll want shillelagh. That allows you to use a staff or a club as a 1h weapon that uses your wis modifier to hit and damage rolls, with D8 damage dice. It's a great sword and board option, with all the cleric goodness built in.
A little more complex, but perhaps more fun and better scaling, would be an arcana cleric. Arcana domain allows you to select two arcane cantrips and cast them as cleric spells. You can go weaponless with shocking grasp, or go variant human to pick up druid initiate to again get Shillelagh, plus one other cantrip and a 1st level druid spell 1/day. With shillelagh, you can use one of the melee cantrips greenflame blade or booming blade. You could potentially do both, but I generally tend to prefer a single melee cantrip (greenflame blade is my 1st choice in this case) and a ranged attack roll cantrip. You'll have medium armor and a shield, so you can move right up into melee and smack something with your club that hits like a longsword and uses wisdom, PLUS add on the benefits of GFB/BB. Plus cleric goodies. I love arcana domain clerics, they are so versatile and flexible.
Another alternative would be a mountain dwarf divine soul sorcerer. Mountain dwarf gives you medium armor and hammers/axes. You have access to the melee cantrips outlined above. You also have a nice pick of close range nastiness to hand out like Inflict Wounds, Burning hands, and Thunderstep, plus get out of jail cards like misty step.
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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.
Bladesinger is excellent-I would question whoever told you it was terrible - Hexblade is as well although perhaps not full caster.
What do they mean by full caster anyway? Only Arcane types like Wizard and Sorcerer?
I have a Human variant Tempest Cleric taking Magic initiate for Booming blade.....this is a character that likes the front line as are several of the cleric subclasses. You don't have to be a healer....
As an idea that nobody has posted yet, Celestial warlock pact of the blade, maybe mix in a bit of paladin. Clerics also easily work if you take something like life or war or forge domains if you are interested in the idea of melee casting.
The inherent problem is that as you increase in level, your spell casting will almost always outstrip melee options past level 5ish. That isn't to say you won't melee, but it will likely morph eventually into something that is closer to a backup.
My build recommendation is for you to go (Race of choice, ideally something that gives you charisma) starting out as a paladin for the proficiencies, then swapping over into celestial pact warlock to let you bonus action heal and get those warlock goodies. Take pact of the blade or pact of the tome. If taking tome, you can learn shillelagh from the druid list to let you one hand a 1d8 weapon scaling off your charisma. Polearm mastery lets you make a second attack as a bonus action to try to scale with the fighter types. Paladin lets you smite with your slots. You can use a shield with this build + medium armor, attack twice a round, heal people with lay on hands or the celestial warlock's ability which is a ranged bonus action heal, plus all the paladin and warlock spellcasting goodies like hex, armor of agathys, divine shield, etc. (you want to take 2 paladin then 5 warlock probably, though you could do 4 paladin 3 warlock.)
Maybe look at a College of Valor or College of Sword Bard? I have a College of Swords Bard in my current game, and they seem pretty fun to play, especially with the Blade Flourishes. It would give your group some access to healing and some other utility spells, and you can dip your toes in to all the other class spell lists with Magical Secrets.
In the same game, I'm actually playing a Bladesinger Wizard, and it's pretty damn good. You tend to fall back on your spells more than melee as you get higher in level but I really love the subclass. Another potential interesting combination would be a Mountain Dwarf War Wizard. They don't get access to extra attack without multi-classing but they do get armor and weapon proficiencies which can help if you want to wade in to melee.
Mountain dwarf gives you proficiency with battle-axes, warhammers, and medium armor. That'll help you be melee with up to 17 base AC with half-plate armor and +2 dex. Alternatively, be a caster until level 4 and pick up the heavy armor proficiency feat. Then you'll be 18 ac in full plate.
I feel like I am posting the obvious but Hexblade with Pact of the Blade and the right selection of invocations can make you a very respectable melee combatant with semi-full casting potential. If your gaming table does not allow for short rests, then I would work with your DM to at least double if not triple your warlock spell slots since the devs balanced warlock around 2 short rests per day. Quick rundown of the build:
Max Charisma and then a balance of constitution and dexterity.
Pact of the Blade
Must have invocations- Improved Pact Weapon, Life Drinker, Thirsting Blade
Honorable Mention Invocations for Melee- Armor of Shadows, Cloak of Flies, Eldritch Smite, Fiendish Vigor, Maddening Hex, Relentless Hex
I died in ToA, yay, but hey, now I can make a new character. My party has asked me to go a full caster, it's only melee at the moment, although I would like to play a melee character. I'm okay with a bit of both but I'm not entirely sure how to do it. At first I though blade singer, but I've been told that its a terrible sub class. Any ideas on feats, stats, races, multi classing, background, or anything else would be great. Also we are at 7th level.
Roll up the character that you will have the most fun playing and have someone in the group who will have more fun playing a full caster retire their character and roll up a full caster. That way everyone will have fun.
Professional computer geek
I'm not against being a full caster, id just like to have some melee involved
Under those circumstances, you need AC and HP, which means dexterity and constitution. To me, Mage Armor and Shield are requirements for you and False Life is something worth considering for when you’re in melee.
For melee attacks you have Magic Weapon, Green-Flame Blade and Shocking Grasp as nice melee damage dealing spells that will work with any school of magic.
I’d be attracted to the School of Abjuration or War Magic, but the School of Bladesong wouldn’t be bad for you either if your group gets a lot of short rests. Studded leather plus your dexterity modifier plus your intelligence modifier should give you an AC of 17 or higher twice per short rest which isn’t bad. That can free up a spell slot too because you’d be wearing armor instead of casting Mage Armor.
For feats, I’d consider Resilient (Constitution) or War Caster. I’d pick Resilient if your constitution is an odd number and otherwise go with War Caster. Or, you can bump your intelligence up. You have one ability score increase to work with so you’ve got a hard decision to make.
Professional computer geek
Also, wizards aren’t the only pure casters. Clerics and Druids are also full casters and they’re both much better suited for melee than wizards are.
Professional computer geek
I dont like the idea of being a moon druid, can any of the other subclasses be okay in melee?
Any Druid can be Ok in melee. Moon Druids are HP soaks, but all Druids have good spells for melee and they have an Ok selection of weapons. Clerics can wear heavier armor than Druids can but Druids can cast Barkskin.
Professional computer geek
What's wrong with Bladesinger? It's still a fully functional wizard, but you get a few goodies that help you step up into melee from time to time if you want to. One of my previous campaigns had a bladesinger, and she worked just fine.
There are a lot of routes to getting your melee fix with a full caster. One easy way would be to build a nature cleric. You get heavy armor, and can select a druid cantrip. You'll want shillelagh. That allows you to use a staff or a club as a 1h weapon that uses your wis modifier to hit and damage rolls, with D8 damage dice. It's a great sword and board option, with all the cleric goodness built in.
A little more complex, but perhaps more fun and better scaling, would be an arcana cleric. Arcana domain allows you to select two arcane cantrips and cast them as cleric spells. You can go weaponless with shocking grasp, or go variant human to pick up druid initiate to again get Shillelagh, plus one other cantrip and a 1st level druid spell 1/day. With shillelagh, you can use one of the melee cantrips greenflame blade or booming blade. You could potentially do both, but I generally tend to prefer a single melee cantrip (greenflame blade is my 1st choice in this case) and a ranged attack roll cantrip. You'll have medium armor and a shield, so you can move right up into melee and smack something with your club that hits like a longsword and uses wisdom, PLUS add on the benefits of GFB/BB. Plus cleric goodies. I love arcana domain clerics, they are so versatile and flexible.
Another alternative would be a mountain dwarf divine soul sorcerer. Mountain dwarf gives you medium armor and hammers/axes. You have access to the melee cantrips outlined above. You also have a nice pick of close range nastiness to hand out like Inflict Wounds, Burning hands, and Thunderstep, plus get out of jail cards like misty step.
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
Check out Mountain Dwarf Wizard. I am about to start playing one. I plan to go Necro and use my minions to give me advantage or to keep things off me.
Bladesinger is excellent-I would question whoever told you it was terrible - Hexblade is as well although perhaps not full caster.
What do they mean by full caster anyway? Only Arcane types like Wizard and Sorcerer?
I have a Human variant Tempest Cleric taking Magic initiate for Booming blade.....this is a character that likes the front line as are several of the cleric subclasses. You don't have to be a healer....
As an idea that nobody has posted yet, Celestial warlock pact of the blade, maybe mix in a bit of paladin. Clerics also easily work if you take something like life or war or forge domains if you are interested in the idea of melee casting.
The inherent problem is that as you increase in level, your spell casting will almost always outstrip melee options past level 5ish. That isn't to say you won't melee, but it will likely morph eventually into something that is closer to a backup.
My build recommendation is for you to go (Race of choice, ideally something that gives you charisma) starting out as a paladin for the proficiencies, then swapping over into celestial pact warlock to let you bonus action heal and get those warlock goodies. Take pact of the blade or pact of the tome. If taking tome, you can learn shillelagh from the druid list to let you one hand a 1d8 weapon scaling off your charisma. Polearm mastery lets you make a second attack as a bonus action to try to scale with the fighter types. Paladin lets you smite with your slots. You can use a shield with this build + medium armor, attack twice a round, heal people with lay on hands or the celestial warlock's ability which is a ranged bonus action heal, plus all the paladin and warlock spellcasting goodies like hex, armor of agathys, divine shield, etc. (you want to take 2 paladin then 5 warlock probably, though you could do 4 paladin 3 warlock.)
Maybe look at a College of Valor or College of Sword Bard? I have a College of Swords Bard in my current game, and they seem pretty fun to play, especially with the Blade Flourishes. It would give your group some access to healing and some other utility spells, and you can dip your toes in to all the other class spell lists with Magical Secrets.
In the same game, I'm actually playing a Bladesinger Wizard, and it's pretty damn good. You tend to fall back on your spells more than melee as you get higher in level but I really love the subclass. Another potential interesting combination would be a Mountain Dwarf War Wizard. They don't get access to extra attack without multi-classing but they do get armor and weapon proficiencies which can help if you want to wade in to melee.
Mountain dwarf gives you proficiency with battle-axes, warhammers, and medium armor. That'll help you be melee with up to 17 base AC with half-plate armor and +2 dex. Alternatively, be a caster until level 4 and pick up the heavy armor proficiency feat. Then you'll be 18 ac in full plate.
I feel like I am posting the obvious but Hexblade with Pact of the Blade and the right selection of invocations can make you a very respectable melee combatant with semi-full casting potential. If your gaming table does not allow for short rests, then I would work with your DM to at least double if not triple your warlock spell slots since the devs balanced warlock around 2 short rests per day. Quick rundown of the build:
Max Charisma and then a balance of constitution and dexterity.
Pact of the Blade
Must have invocations- Improved Pact Weapon, Life Drinker, Thirsting Blade
Honorable Mention Invocations for Melee- Armor of Shadows, Cloak of Flies, Eldritch Smite, Fiendish Vigor, Maddening Hex, Relentless Hex
Bladesingers are pretty rad!
I'm playing a Bladesinger currently and I am probably having the most fun I've ever had playing 5th edition.
2 level dip as a Hexblade then focus on Bladesinger. Possibly adding a 3rd level as Hexblade at some pont.
Eldritch Knight!
Hexblade2/sorcerer18
college of swords bard
bladesinger
Honestly any heavy armour wearing Cleric gets nice buffs to their melee attacks at lvl 8 and still has a full range of spells to cast...
If it has to be a wizard than the githyanki race give some useful armour and weapons.