I want a charismatic and acrobatic dancer with 2 weapon fighting, evasive and many attacks, and with some spells. And what are some good multiclassing here (not just from this list)?
Hexblade has invocations and spells but lacks twf technique and some dexterous feats.
Battle master has fighting style and maneuvers but lacks the charismatic effects and spells.
Valor bard is too much support.
Swords bard has bad reputation, is it justified?
Swashbuckler is skill monkey with dex and cha, but lacks the extra attack and spells.
Really you just want a class whose power budget isn't weighted towards its bonus action. I think Warlock might be the way. You'll want a feat or two. Mobile, maybe. Dual Wielder, probably.
...That just sounds like Bladesinger. Keep in mind that you'll need the War Caster feat to duel wield and cast spells, though. If you want more combat and less spells, Eldritch Knight works.
...That just sounds like Bladesinger. Keep in mind that you'll need the War Caster feat to duel wield and cast spells, though. If you want more combat and less spells, Eldritch Knight works.
You won't need it if you pick your spells carefully. Spells without Somatic or Material components will be fine. This will limit what you can do, of course. But most Wizards don't use swords, so...
So…just tossing this out there: after “Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything”, Battlemaster Fighters can use their Superiority Dice on “Commanding Presence” to give them a boost to (most) of their Charisma checks.
So a charming, charismatic Battlemaster Fighter would be an excellent dual wielder, a solid party face, but lacking in spells.
A Sword Bard balances pretty much all the things you could ask for…they are natural dancers & performers, they are built for dual-wielding, and are full spellcasters. As a Charisma class, their social skills are only rivaled by Rogues.
Swashbuckler Rogues make for both a great performer, dancer, and talker…and their ability to reliably use Sneak Attack & dash across the battlefield makes them great skirmishes. A natural dual wielding build.
Those would be my top three; but only one of them uses magic.
Bladesinger Wizards are a solid alternate option, though they are definitively skirmishers…they cannot take a hit like the other three; but with proper races or feats, they can gain the social skills required, alongside their fighting & magic.
Not sure what you've heard, but the problem with Swords Bards is that they are full casters. Your ability to swing a sword as a Swords Bard improves only to a point and is outpaced by your ability to cast powerful spells around the end of Tier 2. They are still Bards, so they do just fine, but once you get to a high enough level you are faced with the choice of swinging your sword, which is the kind of fun you are after if you built a gish, or casting that fight ending spell and using your toolkit most effectively.
It's not a bad subclass at all, it just doesn't synergize with it's main class. Take this from someone whose favorite and most played character is a Swords Bard. I multiclassed out of Bard into Hexblade and Swashbuckler specifically to limit myself to 3rd levels spells because I wanted to remain a sword swinger throughout my play time.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Another oft overlooked option would be a Fey wanderer ranger - Dex and charisma based. You get a decent set of spells, multiple attacks, decent AC & HPs and, with the feylost background a great selection of charisma based skills. Here is an example:
I want a charismatic and acrobatic dancer with 2 weapon fighting, evasive and many attacks, and with some spells. And what are some good multiclassing here (not just from this list)?
Hexblade has invocations and spells but lacks twf technique and some dexterous feats.
Battle master has fighting style and maneuvers but lacks the charismatic effects and spells.
Valor bard is too much support.
Swords bard has bad reputation, is it justified?
Swashbuckler is skill monkey with dex and cha, but lacks the extra attack and spells.
If you want to combine spells with many attacks and you insist on 2-weapon fighting, which consumes your bonus action and precludes solutions that include spells by having you cast them with your bonus action, the only possible solution is Blade Dancer Wizard, which will let you cast a cantrip "inside" your attack action. Otherwise, you're going to have to relax some constraints. For example, if you'll settle for making many melee weapon attacks and we don't need to use 2-weapon fighting to do it, that frees up a lot of design space.
Out of the choices listed, Battlemaster Fighter seems like the best. It and Swords Bard are the only classes on your list that get the Two Weapon Fighting Style option, and while it lacks spellcasting, you can get some level of spellcasting depending on your race or if you take a feat for it. But Fighter does give you the most Attacks, and Battlemaster Maneuvers give you a lot of versatility.
If I had to create a TWF charismatic magic user, I would probably go with Wi1dBi11's suggestion of Fey Wanderer Ranger. They get the fighting style, and Ranger-only spells largely are Vocal-only... or like Conjure Barrage, the Material Component is actually a weapon, so you can still use one of your weapons (assuming it has the thrown property) as the spellcasting focus.
I don't think there's any one class that pairs perfectly with a TWF Gish... mostly because it limits your spellcasting considerably by having both hands occupied with a weapon. I guess that's partly why my top recommendation for the original question was Battlemaster, since it doesn't rely on spellcasting but still has a lot of versatile effects and abilities that largely don't use up your bonus action or require components beyond just attacking as normal.
I want a charismatic and acrobatic dancer with 2 weapon fighting, evasive and many attacks, and with some spells.
If you want spells, why'd you include classes that completely lack them? Also, any class can be good at dancing if they take proficiency in Performance.
What you need to ask yourself is if you want two weapon fighting or just being able to attack with two weapons. If you have more than one attack you can attack with different weapons in different hands or make evey attack with the same weapon. It's only if you want to make a bonus weapon attack that two weapon fighting and its limitations come into play.
All that said, your best option is probably swords bard with a single level of Hexblade warlock to make you less MAD.
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I want a charismatic and acrobatic dancer with 2 weapon fighting, evasive and many attacks, and with some spells. And what are some good multiclassing here (not just from this list)?
Hexblade has invocations and spells but lacks twf technique and some dexterous feats.
Battle master has fighting style and maneuvers but lacks the charismatic effects and spells.
Valor bard is too much support.
Swords bard has bad reputation, is it justified?
Swashbuckler is skill monkey with dex and cha, but lacks the extra attack and spells.
Really you just want a class whose power budget isn't weighted towards its bonus action. I think Warlock might be the way. You'll want a feat or two. Mobile, maybe. Dual Wielder, probably.
...That just sounds like Bladesinger. Keep in mind that you'll need the War Caster feat to duel wield and cast spells, though. If you want more combat and less spells, Eldritch Knight works.
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You won't need it if you pick your spells carefully. Spells without Somatic or Material components will be fine. This will limit what you can do, of course. But most Wizards don't use swords, so...
Edit: Here's the list for Wizards. Use the same criteria to search for other classes.
So…just tossing this out there: after “Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything”, Battlemaster Fighters can use their Superiority Dice on “Commanding Presence” to give them a boost to (most) of their Charisma checks.
So a charming, charismatic Battlemaster Fighter would be an excellent dual wielder, a solid party face, but lacking in spells.
A Sword Bard balances pretty much all the things you could ask for…they are natural dancers & performers, they are built for dual-wielding, and are full spellcasters. As a Charisma class, their social skills are only rivaled by Rogues.
Swashbuckler Rogues make for both a great performer, dancer, and talker…and their ability to reliably use Sneak Attack & dash across the battlefield makes them great skirmishes. A natural dual wielding build.
Those would be my top three; but only one of them uses magic.
Bladesinger Wizards are a solid alternate option, though they are definitively skirmishers…they cannot take a hit like the other three; but with proper races or feats, they can gain the social skills required, alongside their fighting & magic.
Not sure what you've heard, but the problem with Swords Bards is that they are full casters. Your ability to swing a sword as a Swords Bard improves only to a point and is outpaced by your ability to cast powerful spells around the end of Tier 2. They are still Bards, so they do just fine, but once you get to a high enough level you are faced with the choice of swinging your sword, which is the kind of fun you are after if you built a gish, or casting that fight ending spell and using your toolkit most effectively.
It's not a bad subclass at all, it just doesn't synergize with it's main class. Take this from someone whose favorite and most played character is a Swords Bard. I multiclassed out of Bard into Hexblade and Swashbuckler specifically to limit myself to 3rd levels spells because I wanted to remain a sword swinger throughout my play time.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Another oft overlooked option would be a Fey wanderer ranger - Dex and charisma based. You get a decent set of spells, multiple attacks, decent AC & HPs and, with the feylost background a great selection of charisma based skills. Here is an example:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sheet-pdfs/wcwilson82355_77696594.pdf
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
If you want to combine spells with many attacks and you insist on 2-weapon fighting, which consumes your bonus action and precludes solutions that include spells by having you cast them with your bonus action, the only possible solution is Blade Dancer Wizard, which will let you cast a cantrip "inside" your attack action. Otherwise, you're going to have to relax some constraints. For example, if you'll settle for making many melee weapon attacks and we don't need to use 2-weapon fighting to do it, that frees up a lot of design space.
Out of the choices listed, Battlemaster Fighter seems like the best. It and Swords Bard are the only classes on your list that get the Two Weapon Fighting Style option, and while it lacks spellcasting, you can get some level of spellcasting depending on your race or if you take a feat for it. But Fighter does give you the most Attacks, and Battlemaster Maneuvers give you a lot of versatility.
If I had to create a TWF charismatic magic user, I would probably go with Wi1dBi11's suggestion of Fey Wanderer Ranger. They get the fighting style, and Ranger-only spells largely are Vocal-only... or like Conjure Barrage, the Material Component is actually a weapon, so you can still use one of your weapons (assuming it has the thrown property) as the spellcasting focus.
I don't think there's any one class that pairs perfectly with a TWF Gish... mostly because it limits your spellcasting considerably by having both hands occupied with a weapon. I guess that's partly why my top recommendation for the original question was Battlemaster, since it doesn't rely on spellcasting but still has a lot of versatile effects and abilities that largely don't use up your bonus action or require components beyond just attacking as normal.
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If you want spells, why'd you include classes that completely lack them? Also, any class can be good at dancing if they take proficiency in Performance.