I ask this question because I'm currently planning what classes to take for my Bladeslinger Wizard 2, Battlesmith Artificer 3 character. At this point, I have the gist of my character locked down, as a secondary melee fighter with a heavy focus on utility. So my question is whether it's worth it to go back into wizard for the higher level spells or just keep the little bonus to spell slots I got from it and continue down Artificer with the occasional upcast?
There are definitely more benefits to going down wizard than just the spells, being able to use cantrips on Extra Attack, and having a better arcane recovery is definitely enticing but artificer's raw utility is leaving me split on what to keep as my main class.
Your steel defender mostly scales with your wizard levels, but its hp won't - if you bail out at Artificer 3 or 4, it will have 22 or 27 hp, respectively. That's incredibly fragile. If you want to be a Battlesmith, you probably want more Artificer levels for that if nothing else, which means no more than Bladesinger 5 to avoid picking up Extra Attack twice. Bladesinger 3 lets you swap wizard cantrips, but Bladesinger 5 is nothing other than the usual spell progression. What I would recommend you do is stop at Bladesinger 2, and only jump to 4 if you need the ASI.
On the flip side, if you want lots of Bladesinger, Artillerist scales with only your Intelligence modifier, so you can take basically as much or as little of it as you like.
The Bladesinger's cantrip extra attack ability is so enticing but I envisioned this character with a squad of robots and gadgets on him. Ditching the coolest thematic part of his character for more Bladesinger doesn't feel right, and the weaker Steel Defender only reinforces that in my mind, I forgot about how its health scaled so thank you.
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I ask this question because I'm currently planning what classes to take for my Bladeslinger Wizard 2, Battlesmith Artificer 3 character. At this point, I have the gist of my character locked down, as a secondary melee fighter with a heavy focus on utility. So my question is whether it's worth it to go back into wizard for the higher level spells or just keep the little bonus to spell slots I got from it and continue down Artificer with the occasional upcast?
There are definitely more benefits to going down wizard than just the spells, being able to use cantrips on Extra Attack, and having a better arcane recovery is definitely enticing but artificer's raw utility is leaving me split on what to keep as my main class.
Your steel defender mostly scales with your wizard levels, but its hp won't - if you bail out at Artificer 3 or 4, it will have 22 or 27 hp, respectively. That's incredibly fragile. If you want to be a Battlesmith, you probably want more Artificer levels for that if nothing else, which means no more than Bladesinger 5 to avoid picking up Extra Attack twice. Bladesinger 3 lets you swap wizard cantrips, but Bladesinger 5 is nothing other than the usual spell progression. What I would recommend you do is stop at Bladesinger 2, and only jump to 4 if you need the ASI.
On the flip side, if you want lots of Bladesinger, Artillerist scales with only your Intelligence modifier, so you can take basically as much or as little of it as you like.
The Bladesinger's cantrip extra attack ability is so enticing but I envisioned this character with a squad of robots and gadgets on him. Ditching the coolest thematic part of his character for more Bladesinger doesn't feel right, and the weaker Steel Defender only reinforces that in my mind, I forgot about how its health scaled so thank you.