In the homebrew campaign i'm playing, multiclassing is a taboo and doesn't get used that often. I'm currently playing a wizard, but because he finds magic far to broken sometimes, and then to hit the anti magic dm button in numerous of occasions to prevent this.
So since my character is pretty useless at that part,I want to switch to the bladesinger subclass, to at least stay a bit relevant during those times.
But if I want to do that the dm said i need to make it STR based, because we already have 2 dex melee characters (arcane archer fighter, assassin rogue) and only one str based melee character (barbarian) and he wants to make it even in his campaign.
he did make a few alterations to make it more manageble: - I can use medium armor and still go in bladesong -I have proficiency in every weapon -following spells are not affected by anti magic: magic weapon, stoneskin, green flame blade and booming blade -If i attack + use green flame blade or booming blade on it, i can still do the extra attack skill (he's considering in also letting me use green flame blade or booming blade on the 2nd attack, but want to see 1 fight first how this goes)
what is a good way to go about this, in terms of stats, weapons, feats, and noteworthy spells this is what i made dusfar. ddb.ac/characters/25969274/BOy7LZ but i'm really open for suggestion, it's a tricky build to make and i want to try to make it viable :-)
If you can get him to get you heavy armor when bladesinging, it would be much better than medium armor and a 10 dex. Without using a shield +int isn't a huge bump to heavy armor when you have d6 hit dice. Cantrip on a second attack will be very powerful on two handed weapons, perhaps op.
On another note, an arcane archer melee? That defeats the purpose of their class features. And for game play what difference does a strength based melee vs dex based change for the DM. You might be better off with an Eldritch Knight than a home brew wizard.
edit....I realise this comes over as overly critical but this is my intiial feeling after reading your post...
I realise we only have your post to go off of but what atyle of game is your DM running?
If it were a low magic game then I could see wanting to nerf magic a bit, has he said in game if there are areas of wild magic where magic is unpredictable or dead magic where it doesnt work at all or otherwise given any reason for the anti magic button? If not maybe ask some in character questions and look into researching why your magic appears to fizzile out which could give a reason for him using the anti-magic button.
As for pushing you to strength based builds because two other players are already dexterity based, this seems a bit off in my opinion, afterall you are playing the character and should enjoy doing so. Based on the changes to bladesinging you noted I think that is going ot be so more overpowered than the base version he'll end up wanting to nerf it. However, if he is going to make you do a Strength Build.......is he still keeping the elf only restriction on bladesinger, because if not then a Bugbear (from Volo's Guide to Monsters), Glaive weilding bladesinger with the amendments you noted above could actually be quite interesting.
Thanks for the input, the dm is a bit damaged in terms of player trust , and he had some power games in the past who kept ruining all of his campaigns, so now he runs into his campaigns with a bit of an iron fist: -no magical items really but only for story points, -no gold (we're level 7 atm and have 35-65 gp each) -when he feels an important battle can be cheesed by magic: no magic by suddenly magical artifacts the npc happens to cary and get destroyed immediately when set npc gets downed/killed. -as mentioned primary stat distribution, no multiclassing,... but how to let him open up again is a question for another day I believe.
he is a great storyteller and his homebrew are campaigns that run 2+ years when played 1 time a week :-)
ass to your question: i can't change race of the wizard, only the subclass, i'm a variant human atm: I can change the feats, stat distribution and yeah I don't have to follow the race restriction, and i keep level 7 :-)
Sorry I missed your reply about only able to change subclass. If that's the case I think you're out of luck, a melee wizard without hp or armor is going to fall much faster than the fighter or even the rogue.
Dex is only op if he let's it be. It's his world but you drive the story and if he is dictating how you play that isn't the case. Any fighter (arcane archer) can hang in melee, but that doesn't make them a melee build, and dm counting a dex archer to restrict your choice seems out of place.
I would still recommend eldritch knight, take heavy armor and a shield or fighting style and beat the ac hes restricting your bladesinger to. Get the d10 hp, cantrip + attack at lvl7, more asi, all the spells he allowing in the game, much less MAD. Or Paladin if you want more spell casting.
Trying to nerf a wizard by unbalancing a build is ripe with problems and nerfing the ac of bladesinger removes the only thing that keeps it alive; a level2 bladesinger would have a higher ac than your level 7 character can get.
Good luck and I hope you find a way that is fun to play.
oh boy do I not like ddb character sheets.....but any way....
Right..lets give this a go....I've not tried a build like this so....
Stats and Human Variant as you have it.
lvl 4 feat I'd favour Alert, if you've a low Dex then the buff to your Initiative will be handy and the immunity to surprise and opponents not getting advantage for being hidden is a big bonus to.
Armour, you've got elven chain which is good as its ac14 starting off, its not great but workable.
Weapons, so yo've got Great Axe listed on the sheet but Greatsword has slightly better damage (its 2d6 vs 1d12 so a greaswords damage range is 2-12 vs the great axe 1-12).
Adjustments to Spells:
Cantrips: Booming Blade, Chill Touch, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation. I dont think having both Booming & Greenflame Blade is worth it and between the two I like Booming Blade more, you've not got a ranged cantrip and Chill Touch is very useful for stopping creatures that regenerate as well as hampering undead.
lvl 1 spells: you do get 6 lvl 1 spells starting off though so I think I'd add Absorb Elelemtns (from Xanathars Guide to Everything) and Shield. Both Shield and Absorb Elements will increae your odds of suriving if you do get mobbed. I'd also try to find room for Identify and Protection form Evil & Good. Just to flesh out the rituals psells and give you a good defensive spell against aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends and undead.
lvl 2 spells: .Hold Person, Invisibility, Levitate and Misty Step. Basic flight and teleportation effects,. Hold Person and Invisibility; These are your basic battlefield control and infiltration so if magic is only being turned off when a BBEG arrives you should get some use out of them, just bear in mind they also require concnetration. Magic Weapon for a wizard isnt great as they have the blade cantrips to deal magic damage in combat and I feel there are better things to spend your concentration on and to be honest, I'm not a fan of shatter.
Lvl 3 upwards are all solid choices but I would rethink Haste & Stoneskin.With a fairly low AC the chance of you getting hit goes up and losing concentration wastes the spell and the last line of the Haste spell description can be a killer! I'd lean more to Arcane Eye for scouting and Dimension Door for getting the hell out of stodge in place of Stoneskin and Remove Curse or Magic Circle in place of Haste for a bit more versatility.
Hey everyone,
In the homebrew campaign i'm playing, multiclassing is a taboo and doesn't get used that often.
I'm currently playing a wizard, but because he finds magic far to broken sometimes,
and then to hit the anti magic dm button in numerous of occasions to prevent this.
So since my character is pretty useless at that part,I want to switch to the bladesinger subclass,
to at least stay a bit relevant during those times.
But if I want to do that the dm said i need to make it STR based, because we already have 2 dex melee characters (arcane archer fighter, assassin rogue)
and only one str based melee character (barbarian) and he wants to make it even in his campaign.
he did make a few alterations to make it more manageble:
- I can use medium armor and still go in bladesong
-I have proficiency in every weapon
-following spells are not affected by anti magic: magic weapon, stoneskin, green flame blade and booming blade
-If i attack + use green flame blade or booming blade on it, i can still do the extra attack skill
(he's considering in also letting me use green flame blade or booming blade on the 2nd attack, but want to see 1 fight first how this goes)
what is a good way to go about this, in terms of stats, weapons, feats, and noteworthy spells
this is what i made dusfar. ddb.ac/characters/25969274/BOy7LZ
but i'm really open for suggestion, it's a tricky build to make and i want to try to make it viable :-)
thanks in advance and stay safe out there!
If you can get him to get you heavy armor when bladesinging, it would be much better than medium armor and a 10 dex. Without using a shield +int isn't a huge bump to heavy armor when you have d6 hit dice. Cantrip on a second attack will be very powerful on two handed weapons, perhaps op.
On another note, an arcane archer melee? That defeats the purpose of their class features. And for game play what difference does a strength based melee vs dex based change for the DM. You might be better off with an Eldritch Knight than a home brew wizard.
Heavy armor is off limits sadly, and yeah our Arcana archer is more hybrid, he wants to be able to play ranged primarly and melee when needed
Our dm finds dex an op stat so he's really pushing it on a party level to the amount of user who can use it as primary stat
edit....I realise this comes over as overly critical but this is my intiial feeling after reading your post...
I realise we only have your post to go off of but what atyle of game is your DM running?
If it were a low magic game then I could see wanting to nerf magic a bit, has he said in game if there are areas of wild magic where magic is unpredictable or dead magic where it doesnt work at all or otherwise given any reason for the anti magic button? If not maybe ask some in character questions and look into researching why your magic appears to fizzile out which could give a reason for him using the anti-magic button.
As for pushing you to strength based builds because two other players are already dexterity based, this seems a bit off in my opinion, afterall you are playing the character and should enjoy doing so. Based on the changes to bladesinging you noted I think that is going ot be so more overpowered than the base version he'll end up wanting to nerf it. However, if he is going to make you do a Strength Build.......is he still keeping the elf only restriction on bladesinger, because if not then a Bugbear (from Volo's Guide to Monsters), Glaive weilding bladesinger with the amendments you noted above could actually be quite interesting.
Thanks for the input, the dm is a bit damaged in terms of player trust , and he had some power games in the past who kept ruining all of his campaigns,
so now he runs into his campaigns with a bit of an iron fist:
-no magical items really but only for story points,
-no gold (we're level 7 atm and have 35-65 gp each)
-when he feels an important battle can be cheesed by magic: no magic by suddenly magical artifacts the npc happens to cary and get destroyed immediately when set npc gets downed/killed.
-as mentioned primary stat distribution, no multiclassing,...
but how to let him open up again is a question for another day I believe.
he is a great storyteller and his homebrew are campaigns that run 2+ years when played 1 time a week :-)
ass to your question: i can't change race of the wizard, only the subclass, i'm a variant human atm:
I can change the feats, stat distribution and yeah I don't have to follow the race restriction, and i keep level 7 :-)
Sorry I missed your reply about only able to change subclass. If that's the case I think you're out of luck, a melee wizard without hp or armor is going to fall much faster than the fighter or even the rogue.
Dex is only op if he let's it be. It's his world but you drive the story and if he is dictating how you play that isn't the case. Any fighter (arcane archer) can hang in melee, but that doesn't make them a melee build, and dm counting a dex archer to restrict your choice seems out of place.
I would still recommend eldritch knight, take heavy armor and a shield or fighting style and beat the ac hes restricting your bladesinger to. Get the d10 hp, cantrip + attack at lvl7, more asi, all the spells he allowing in the game, much less MAD. Or Paladin if you want more spell casting.
Trying to nerf a wizard by unbalancing a build is ripe with problems and nerfing the ac of bladesinger removes the only thing that keeps it alive; a level2 bladesinger would have a higher ac than your level 7 character can get.
Good luck and I hope you find a way that is fun to play.
Can you let me know what stats you have? I'm tinkering a build......
He posted a link...
ddb.ac/characters/25969274/BOy7LZ
oh boy do I not like ddb character sheets.....but any way....
Right..lets give this a go....I've not tried a build like this so....
Stats and Human Variant as you have it.
lvl 4 feat I'd favour Alert, if you've a low Dex then the buff to your Initiative will be handy and the immunity to surprise and opponents not getting advantage for being hidden is a big bonus to.
Armour, you've got elven chain which is good as its ac14 starting off, its not great but workable.
Weapons, so yo've got Great Axe listed on the sheet but Greatsword has slightly better damage (its 2d6 vs 1d12 so a greaswords damage range is 2-12 vs the great axe 1-12).
Adjustments to Spells:
Cantrips: Booming Blade, Chill Touch, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation. I dont think having both Booming & Greenflame Blade is worth it and between the two I like Booming Blade more, you've not got a ranged cantrip and Chill Touch is very useful for stopping creatures that regenerate as well as hampering undead.
lvl 1 spells: you do get 6 lvl 1 spells starting off though so I think I'd add Absorb Elelemtns (from Xanathars Guide to Everything) and Shield. Both Shield and Absorb Elements will increae your odds of suriving if you do get mobbed. I'd also try to find room for Identify and Protection form Evil & Good. Just to flesh out the rituals psells and give you a good defensive spell against aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends and undead.
lvl 2 spells: .Hold Person, Invisibility, Levitate and Misty Step. Basic flight and teleportation effects,. Hold Person and Invisibility; These are your basic battlefield control and infiltration so if magic is only being turned off when a BBEG arrives you should get some use out of them, just bear in mind they also require concnetration. Magic Weapon for a wizard isnt great as they have the blade cantrips to deal magic damage in combat and I feel there are better things to spend your concentration on and to be honest, I'm not a fan of shatter.
Lvl 3 upwards are all solid choices but I would rethink Haste & Stoneskin.With a fairly low AC the chance of you getting hit goes up and losing concentration wastes the spell and the last line of the Haste spell description can be a killer! I'd lean more to Arcane Eye for scouting and Dimension Door for getting the hell out of stodge in place of Stoneskin and Remove Curse or Magic Circle in place of Haste for a bit more versatility.
Your spell choices are solid. I would recommend false life for a hp boost, but that's if he can slide it past the magic barrier.
Thank you verry much for the feedback!! :-D
Thank you all so much for the help! This helps so much!!