I have a Bladesinger build I'm hoping to tryout in a campaign some day. After lvl 2 Bladesinger dip into Fighter to get Battlemaster. With Battlemaster I would take Parry, Riposte and either Feinting Attack or Precision Attack. From there push to Wizard/Bladesinger 6 to get the 2nd attack prer round plus more spells. Then Fighter 4 to get another set of stat boosts or a feat. Wizard/Bladesinger from there on out. At 4th lvl in either class pick up the feat Elven Accuracy. Mix in the good ole spells like Blur, Shield, Mirror Image, Haste, Slow, maybe get Color Spary for fun. Maaybe I'll even get to try this build out....someday.
Casting the spells does NOT provoke of AoO. But a lot of people take the mobility feat thinking they can run up to a creature, cast GFB or BB, and run back to the safety of their allies. But the mobility feats ability to negate an attack of oppurtunity is only based on taking the attack action. And casting those spells is casting a spell action. Again, so if you take mobility, run up to a creature and cast either of the two bladesinger cantrips, and run away then the creature would indeed get an attack of opportunity against your Bladesinger.
This is not correct. BB requires the cast a spell action, and then a melee attack is made as part of that action. The Mobile feat does not say you must take a Melee attack action, only that you make an melee attack. So indeed BB and mobile to run away are options. Swashbucklers can also do this with that cantrip, and of course all rouges with their bonus action.
I have been having a lot of fun as a Bladesinger in AL games. I don't really worry about dying anymore, my base AC is 17, while bladesinging it is 22,and I can cast shield. Last night the DM needed to roll a 19 or 20 to land a hit on me, which made me tankier than the Paladin.
My experience might be a little different because I'm playing Adventurer's League and enjoying role-playing...
For a bit of fun, I really recommend Polymorph. Noting the description does say 'creature that you can see within range into a new form. An unwilling creature must make a Wisdom saving throw', and with no clarity on whether players are considered creatures, I have been able to willingly polymorph myself. This has resulted in dropping a Zombie Ice-spire Ogre off a cliff as a Giant Eagle, other party members volunteering to be polymorphed into Owlbears, accidentally trampling the party as an Elephant...
Also grease is fun, cast grease, get party member to set grease on fire with downed enemies in it...
Otilukes Resilient Sphere for making the Halfling into a larger version of a hamster in a ball to get past a hazard.
Spider climb for physics breaking horse riding...
Steel Wind Strike is insane for clusters...
I'm looking at Tiny Hut for the next level up as everywhere we go seems to be freezing cold and party members failing their exhaustion con saves is a bit of a problem.
For damage output, I haven't really found anything I like better than Lightning Bolt and Sickening Radiance (Level 9 so access to Level 5 spells so far). Mostly my spell list is all utility spells with a few damage dealing ones. It's been more fun to deal damage via the cantrips and the odd spell rather than relying on spells purely. Our party has only the wizard and Paladin to tank the hits so I've spent most of the time on the front lines. I picked up Gauntlets of Ogre Power from an early adventure so me STR went from 8 to 19, my skill increases have been all INT so far to max it out, then I'll do DEX since the AC boost will help.
Luckily in AL I was allowed to take the faction items (Ring of Protection w/ studded leather +1) which gave me a decent boost to AC. It is fun watching Hill Giants attacks fail to land while the rest of the party gets hammered
And here I thought polymorph just existed to work on T-Rexes, by turning them into a small helpless animal, put them in a paper bag, sneak up to someones house and leave them at the doorstep, knock, light the bag on fire and run.
And here I thought polymorph just existed to work on T-Rexes, by turning them into a small helpless animal, put them in a paper bag, sneak up to someones house and leave them at the doorstep, knock, light the bag on fire and run.
And here I thought polymorph just existed to work on T-Rexes, by turning them into a small helpless animal, put them in a paper bag, sneak up to someones house and leave them at the doorstep, knock, light the bag on fire and run.
And here I thought polymorph just existed to work on T-Rexes, by turning them into a small helpless animal, put them in a paper bag, sneak up to someones house and leave them at the doorstep, knock, light the bag on fire and run.
uhm ...will need a T-rex :P
Use whatever you got on hand, the main focus is unintelligent, hostile, deadly. We started it with turtle bombs. Sneak into local, hurl a turtle at a wall near your enemy on its "death" it reverts to original its form, its pissed and goes on a rampage. Since we were going through tomb of annihilation in chult, T-Rex's were handy. Other games, unleash a purple worm in down town Waterdeep. Because as players we are nice, we didn't throw the turtle above the target and have a sniper take it out then so a 5 ton pissed off t-rex dropped 20 feet on top of them. Got to take it easy on the DM sometimes, no one wants to wing the damage from that. We are generous like that.
Bladesinger is an excellent hybrid of melee and spell caster at low to mid levels. In general, spells are a more valuable use of an action than an attack (web, flaming sphere, hypnotic pattern, Wall of Force, etc). The wizard must husband their spell use at low to mid levels. A spell cannot be cast every round in a day where multiple combats are expected. At higher levels there are so many spell slots available that the best bang for the buck tends to be just cast a spell.
A bladesinger's biggest strength is spells and defense supplemented by melee damage. The primary attribute is Intelligence then constitution and dexterity. As a wizard you need good constitution saves. Resilient Constitution or Warmagic should be your first ASI improvement. With an odd constitution, I would go with resilient constitution at level 4 to improve HP, concentration checks and add constitution saves. I would likely max Intelligence after that. Further intelligence will improve your AC, concentration saves, spell damage, and spell save. That's more than most feats. You could also think about Alert to get the jump on enemies with a big spell round 1.
Low level combat tactics
Familiar helps you or another party member
Bonus Action Bladesong
Action:
Cast "Big Gun" spell (often concentration)
Following rounds maintain concentration and melee attack
Flaming Sphere vs Shadowblade. Shadowblade will do more damage if that's all you want to focus on. I prefer Flaming Sphere to lose a little damage, but gain the ability to concentrate on a crowd control spell like Web of Hypnotic pattern. In this case action priority is: CC -> Flaming Sphere -> Melee Cantrip
Needed Spells
Level 1
Find Familiar (free help action to you or another party member
Shield (always have prepared)
Absorb Elements (always have prepared)
Level 2
Mirror Image (better than Blur which requires concentration)
Flaming Sphere / Shadow Blade
Web
Level 3
Counter Spell
Hypnotic Pattern or Fear
Example Level 4 Bladesong Build:
Race: Eladrin High Elf (free misty step / rest)
Attributes: Point Buy
Strength 8
Dexterity 14 (16)
Constitution 15
Intelligence 15 (16)
Wisdom 10
Charisma 10
Spells:
shield, find familiar, absorb elements, other
web, flaming sphere, mirror image, other
ASI: Reslient Constitution to give +3 Con (concentration checks now = 3+2+3) Concentration checks only fail on a roll of 1.
Blur is stupidly good for bladesinger's until you get haste once you get haste it's out classed by the beauty and versatility that haste provides.
For most bladesinger's I'd recommend dipping fighter for the first level to pick up con save and dual weild (or protection depending on your role) tho with artificer it's really tempting to pick that for a 2-3 level dip to get con save, infusions, +1 to weapons and armor, your weapon and armor into foci, cure wounds and sanctuary if you go 3 you get either a turret or homonculus.
The synergy of artificer and wizard is really strong.
But now back to the bladesinger I found myself disappointed by mirror image as a singer as most of the images were taken out by swings that would have missed anyways and it doesn't help at all against spells that target your nads ( non AC defenses ).
I really recommend false life as healers in this edition don't heal really until you drop and dropping kills singers as they lose most of their built up buffs and become a squishy wizard in melee. Think of it as a blade tax much like mage armor is a caster tax. But if you go 3 artificer don't bother with it as temp HP don't stack.
Shield and absorb elements are your bread and butter spells and are so essential that at levels 6-8 it's often a good use of second level slots if you run out of first level ones.
Once you get haste you should cast it, use your main action to dodge, your haste attack to attack and bonus to attack. When you need to cast use the haste action to disengage move out cast then move back in to melee expect to be casting shield when you get back in as you are way easier to hit without Dodge. If you took warcaster (you should) then when your not casting shield you can use booming blade to really punish mobs.
For fights where you're unlikely to be hit anyways (or where you have some temp HP or trust in heals) replace the Dodge with BB/GFB or casting a spell that targets nads (as attack spells roll with disadvantage in melee).
All in all tho playing a singer is really fun as it's like walking a tight rope as one well placed hit that causes a concentration loss can drop the previously almost unhitable engine of distruction to the ground bleeding out.
I completely disagree. Blur is a terrible spell compared to mirror image. Blur takes your concentration. Compare concentrating on blur to fighting 1/2 the enemies with a web. Or increase your damage even further by using Flaming Sphere or Shadowblade.
I also disagree with dipping fighter. You'll get +1AC, con saves, +4HP, and 1D10 HP / rest for delaying your spell progression. You can't dual wield effectively until level 5 when you can pick up warcaster. I think you're best off going straight wizard as a bladesinger given the tiers where most people play (levels 1-12). A F1/W9 (war mage) focused on strength and heavy armor is a better subclass combination.
Artificer is a nice combination again, but suffers nearly the same problem. Spell slots and ASIs are delayed to get a +1hit/+1AC and the best of warcaster.
I use Shadow Blade, which you can also use as a thrown weapon to help keep your distance. Invest in items that raise your Con since it's hard to split all your ability points between that, Dex, and Int. My opening move is to bladesing and throw out something blasty, then next turn shadow blade and take on whoever looks strongest. Add in Elven Accuracy, and I'm rolling three strikes per attack if we're in dim light or darkness or anytime I have advantage.
Shadow Blade is great if there is someone else controlling the field. CC is where wizards excel. A good web or hypnotic pattern will sacrifice your personal damage to greatly reduce the difficulty of an encounter.
That's why I prefer to "CC" round 1, then attack round 2. If it's an easier fight, or a fight with few enemies where CC may be ineffective, I use flaming sphere. Yes, flaming sphere does less overall damage than shadow blade. However, I can concentrate on something else and still have flaming sphere up. Flaming sphere reduces my overall damage slightly, but I gain in versatility.
Wizards have a swiss army knife of spells. If you wan't to focus on pure single target damage, that's OK. It's your character. I just can't see giving up the available versatility for a little more damage.
Shadowblade is the Bladesinger equivalent of the barbarian trap, "Look at all the damage I did!" The wizard just knods his head and says "stupid dumb fighter" as he kept half the field incapacitated and shutdown the spellcaster with a timely counterspell.
Starting at 2nd level, you can invoke a secret elven magic called the Bladesong, provided that you aren’t wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield. It graces you with supernatural speed, agility, and focus."
My experience might be a little different because I'm playing Adventurer's League and enjoying role-playing...
For a bit of fun, I really recommend Polymorph. Noting the description does say 'creature that you can see within range into a new form. An unwilling creature must make a Wisdom saving throw', and with no clarity on whether players are considered creatures, I have been able to willingly polymorph myself. This has resulted in dropping a Zombie Ice-spire Ogre off a cliff as a Giant Eagle, other party members volunteering to be polymorphed into Owlbears, accidentally trampling the party as an Elephant...
Also grease is fun, cast grease, get party member to set grease on fire with downed enemies in it...
If all this happened in AL, then your DM doesn't know what they're doing. For something that's all about standardized play, that's a serious QC problem.
Polymorph only turns other creatures into beasts, and owlbears are monstrosities. They're not a valid choice until you get True Polymorph. And grease doesn't say it's flammable, so it isn't flammable.
Polymorph only turns other creatures into beasts, and owlbears are monstrosities. They're not a valid choice until you get True Polymorph. And grease doesn't say it's flammable, so it isn't flammable.
Polymorph only turns other creatures into beasts, and owlbears are monstrosities. They're not a valid choice until you get True Polymorph. And grease doesn't say it's flammable, so it isn't flammable.
Monstrosities are still creatures.
They are, but the Polymorph spell specifically says "The new form can be any beast whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's (or the target's level, if it doesn't have a challenge rating)."
And grease doesn't say it's flammable, so it isn't flammable.
Conversely, grease doesn't say its inflammable either. And just about anything in the world will either burn or melt / evaporate. Furthermore, its made using butter and/or pork grease, both of which are very much flammable. Absence of evidence is not proof of evidence of absence. Or, in other words, just because something is not in the book doesn't mean anything beyond "the rules don't cover this."
In the end, that makes this a situation where its deliberately left as a DM call. The writers of 5e didn't want to cover every niche case in the book and left such calls up to individual DMs, and this very definitely counts as one of those times. Rulings, not rules.
Say what, now? Since when does casting those spells provoke opportunity attacks?
I have a Bladesinger build I'm hoping to tryout in a campaign some day. After lvl 2 Bladesinger dip into Fighter to get Battlemaster. With Battlemaster I would take Parry, Riposte and either Feinting Attack or Precision Attack. From there push to Wizard/Bladesinger 6 to get the 2nd attack prer round plus more spells. Then Fighter 4 to get another set of stat boosts or a feat. Wizard/Bladesinger from there on out. At 4th lvl in either class pick up the feat Elven Accuracy. Mix in the good ole spells like Blur, Shield, Mirror Image, Haste, Slow, maybe get Color Spary for fun. Maaybe I'll even get to try this build out....someday.
Casting the spells does NOT provoke of AoO.
Correction: Thanks Burgen_Badluck
This post has been edited to reflect that.
This is not correct. BB requires the cast a spell action, and then a melee attack is made as part of that action. The Mobile feat does not say you must take a Melee attack action, only that you make an melee attack. So indeed BB and mobile to run away are options. Swashbucklers can also do this with that cantrip, and of course all rouges with their bonus action.
I have been having a lot of fun as a Bladesinger in AL games. I don't really worry about dying anymore, my base AC is 17, while bladesinging it is 22,and I can cast shield. Last night the DM needed to roll a 19 or 20 to land a hit on me, which made me tankier than the Paladin.
My experience might be a little different because I'm playing Adventurer's League and enjoying role-playing...
For a bit of fun, I really recommend Polymorph. Noting the description does say 'creature that you can see within range into a new form. An unwilling creature must make a Wisdom saving throw', and with no clarity on whether players are considered creatures, I have been able to willingly polymorph myself. This has resulted in dropping a Zombie Ice-spire Ogre off a cliff as a Giant Eagle, other party members volunteering to be polymorphed into Owlbears, accidentally trampling the party as an Elephant...
Also grease is fun, cast grease, get party member to set grease on fire with downed enemies in it...
Otilukes Resilient Sphere for making the Halfling into a larger version of a hamster in a ball to get past a hazard.
Spider climb for physics breaking horse riding...
Steel Wind Strike is insane for clusters...
I'm looking at Tiny Hut for the next level up as everywhere we go seems to be freezing cold and party members failing their exhaustion con saves is a bit of a problem.
For damage output, I haven't really found anything I like better than Lightning Bolt and Sickening Radiance (Level 9 so access to Level 5 spells so far). Mostly my spell list is all utility spells with a few damage dealing ones. It's been more fun to deal damage via the cantrips and the odd spell rather than relying on spells purely. Our party has only the wizard and Paladin to tank the hits so I've spent most of the time on the front lines. I picked up Gauntlets of Ogre Power from an early adventure so me STR went from 8 to 19, my skill increases have been all INT so far to max it out, then I'll do DEX since the AC boost will help.
Luckily in AL I was allowed to take the faction items (Ring of Protection w/ studded leather +1) which gave me a decent boost to AC. It is fun watching Hill Giants attacks fail to land while the rest of the party gets hammered
You can absolutely use polymorph on a fellow party member.
And here I thought polymorph just existed to work on T-Rexes, by turning them into a small helpless animal, put them in a paper bag, sneak up to someones house and leave them at the doorstep, knock, light the bag on fire and run.
i hope my players never read this post
uhm ...will need a T-rex :P
Use whatever you got on hand, the main focus is unintelligent, hostile, deadly. We started it with turtle bombs. Sneak into local, hurl a turtle at a wall near your enemy on its "death" it reverts to original its form, its pissed and goes on a rampage. Since we were going through tomb of annihilation in chult, T-Rex's were handy. Other games, unleash a purple worm in down town Waterdeep. Because as players we are nice, we didn't throw the turtle above the target and have a sniper take it out then so a 5 ton pissed off t-rex dropped 20 feet on top of them. Got to take it easy on the DM sometimes, no one wants to wing the damage from that. We are generous like that.
Bladesinger is an excellent hybrid of melee and spell caster at low to mid levels. In general, spells are a more valuable use of an action than an attack (web, flaming sphere, hypnotic pattern, Wall of Force, etc). The wizard must husband their spell use at low to mid levels. A spell cannot be cast every round in a day where multiple combats are expected. At higher levels there are so many spell slots available that the best bang for the buck tends to be just cast a spell.
A bladesinger's biggest strength is spells and defense supplemented by melee damage. The primary attribute is Intelligence then constitution and dexterity. As a wizard you need good constitution saves. Resilient Constitution or Warmagic should be your first ASI improvement. With an odd constitution, I would go with resilient constitution at level 4 to improve HP, concentration checks and add constitution saves. I would likely max Intelligence after that. Further intelligence will improve your AC, concentration saves, spell damage, and spell save. That's more than most feats. You could also think about Alert to get the jump on enemies with a big spell round 1.
Low level combat tactics
Flaming Sphere vs Shadowblade. Shadowblade will do more damage if that's all you want to focus on. I prefer Flaming Sphere to lose a little damage, but gain the ability to concentrate on a crowd control spell like Web of Hypnotic pattern. In this case action priority is: CC -> Flaming Sphere -> Melee Cantrip
Needed Spells
Example Level 4 Bladesong Build:
Race: Eladrin High Elf (free misty step / rest)
Attributes: Point Buy
Spells:
ASI: Reslient Constitution to give +3 Con (concentration checks now = 3+2+3) Concentration checks only fail on a roll of 1.
I completely disagree. Blur is a terrible spell compared to mirror image. Blur takes your concentration. Compare concentrating on blur to fighting 1/2 the enemies with a web. Or increase your damage even further by using Flaming Sphere or Shadowblade.
I also disagree with dipping fighter. You'll get +1AC, con saves, +4HP, and 1D10 HP / rest for delaying your spell progression. You can't dual wield effectively until level 5 when you can pick up warcaster. I think you're best off going straight wizard as a bladesinger given the tiers where most people play (levels 1-12). A F1/W9 (war mage) focused on strength and heavy armor is a better subclass combination.
Artificer is a nice combination again, but suffers nearly the same problem. Spell slots and ASIs are delayed to get a +1hit/+1AC and the best of warcaster.
Shadow Blade is great if there is someone else controlling the field. CC is where wizards excel. A good web or hypnotic pattern will sacrifice your personal damage to greatly reduce the difficulty of an encounter.
That's why I prefer to "CC" round 1, then attack round 2. If it's an easier fight, or a fight with few enemies where CC may be ineffective, I use flaming sphere. Yes, flaming sphere does less overall damage than shadow blade. However, I can concentrate on something else and still have flaming sphere up. Flaming sphere reduces my overall damage slightly, but I gain in versatility.
Wizards have a swiss army knife of spells. If you wan't to focus on pure single target damage, that's OK. It's your character. I just can't see giving up the available versatility for a little more damage.
Shadowblade is the Bladesinger equivalent of the barbarian trap, "Look at all the damage I did!" The wizard just knods his head and says "stupid dumb fighter" as he kept half the field incapacitated and shutdown the spellcaster with a timely counterspell.
Flaming sphere is a concentration spell. You can't have it up and another concentration spell at the same time.
Pretty sure you can’t wear armor and do the blade singer class features.
"Bladesong
Starting at 2nd level, you can invoke a secret elven magic called the Bladesong, provided that you aren’t wearing medium or heavy armor or using a shield. It graces you with supernatural speed, agility, and focus."
You can wear light armor and bladesing.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/wizard#Bladesinging
If all this happened in AL, then your DM doesn't know what they're doing. For something that's all about standardized play, that's a serious QC problem.
Polymorph only turns other creatures into beasts, and owlbears are monstrosities. They're not a valid choice until you get True Polymorph. And grease doesn't say it's flammable, so it isn't flammable.
Monstrosities are still creatures.
They are, but the Polymorph spell specifically says "The new form can be any beast whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target's (or the target's level, if it doesn't have a challenge rating)."
Conversely, grease doesn't say its inflammable either. And just about anything in the world will either burn or melt / evaporate. Furthermore, its made using butter and/or pork grease, both of which are very much flammable. Absence of evidence is not proof of evidence of absence. Or, in other words, just because something is not in the book doesn't mean anything beyond "the rules don't cover this."
In the end, that makes this a situation where its deliberately left as a DM call. The writers of 5e didn't want to cover every niche case in the book and left such calls up to individual DMs, and this very definitely counts as one of those times. Rulings, not rules.