D&D 5E The Most Annoying Wizard Ever- A Bladesinger Build

Lillika · May 4, 2016

Back in 4e I created The Most Annoying Rogue Ever - Optimized Halfling Rogue. Well I soon realized that this build would be hard to pull off in 5e and that the Rogue class is far different than the things you could do in 4e. Well the Bladesinger as presented in The Swordcoast Adventures Guide hit me as a class that you could make the most annoying build ever.

The key to the 4e build was to get a really high AC and then have rerolls in case you are hit. The value of rerolls on very high AC increases exponentially the higher your AC, for example. If the enemy has to roll a 20 to hit you, this will happen 1 in 20 times, while the probability of having to roll a 20 twice is 1/400. That is 20 times as hard to hit.

The Blade singer can achieve the highest AC in the game barring magic items and also has access to several other AC increasing or damage decreasing reactions. The most obvious are Shield spell and Absorb Elements. Both of these are great because they are reactive so you can save them for when you are actually hit.

This character is annoying because it can laugh in the face of danger and wade right into the enemy with little fear of being hurt. If the enemy decides to focus on you, simply use shield the first time you are hit, you might say that this is a waste of a spell, but not really, those enemies would have attacked someone else and you are in essence reducing incoming damage significantly with just a lvl 1 reactive spell. If you aren't attacked, then you are still a full fledged Wizard that people are afraid to attack.

Mage armor will be taken and will last 8 hours, at lvl 2 putting your AC at 19 (16 Int and Dex) and increasing as your increase your Int and Dex increase up to 23. Shield puts them up to 24-28. Magic items can increase this further, but in this edition they can not be expected.

Blur does seal the deal, but I am not a fan of it not being a reactive spell, if you use this you are actively taking away a spell slot for defense. My preference would be to be a variant human (I know that the book only allows Elves, so this is a variant that the DM would have to approve) and take the Lucky feat. Otherwise a character would have to wait till lvl 16, or maybe as sooner if you want to postpone max AC.

The bonus is that your melee attack isn't bad and an option, but for the most part the strength of this build is that you are a full Wizard and can use the other spells that you want to take.

This thread will be added to and turned into a real build, but I thought I would at least start it up. Please give your options and ideas to make this build better.

Blue · May 5, 2016

It's fine as long as they are only going against your AC. And you're not out of bladesongs - which can easily happen with the DMG recommended amounts of encounters and short rests. Also hey can attack you before you can a chance to activate it, but that's a smaller deal for a dex-focused character.

I'd rate it as "middling annoying" right now. If you can get Dex, Wis and Con saves up to the same astronomic levels I'm be more inclined to grant your self-proclaimed "most annoying build ever".

Lillika · May 5, 2016

I only laughed because I liked your language, "middling annoying"

. Well the idea is that you are a full caster, and you are only going to wade into combat when you activate Blade Song. Also Absorb Elements (lvl 1 spell, giving you resist to a particular damage type) will help you in damage situations because it is a reaction. Lets Stat this character out. Since this is the character OPP build lets assume that the DM will allow us to use variant human. (We can also stat out a High Elf as well, later)

8 Str
16 Dex
14 Con
16 Int
10 Wis
8 Cha

Saves at lvl 1
(-1)
(+3)
(+2)
(+3)
(+2)
(-1)

Lucky probably be the preferred choice. If you are crit, just have the DM reroll.

You will be raising Int and then Dex. Wis is proficient so that will go up. So Con is a little low, staying at +2 for your career, Dex will go up to +5, and Wis will go up to +6 as you lvl.

Probably the must haves are Shield, Absorb Elements and Mage Armor. At lvl 2 Blur might be a good choice, but probably Lucky will be good enough. The rest is up to you. It is important to remember that you are a Wizard and refer to other wizard guides for help here, except with one notable exception, some of the up close short range spells that are usually off limits to wizards are no longer offlimits, such as Thunderclap. For the most part with the second attack coming at lvl 6, probably the melee attack cantrips will not be that beneficial.

Z. H. Darkstar · May 5, 2016

You don't become a Bladesinger until 2nd level, so your part about Mage Armor granting 19 AC needs to be changed. MA would give you 16 AC at 1st level.

Also, the default race options are both Elves and Half-Elves. This allows for the Half-Elf variants to come into play to give some adaptability for different campaigns. Here are the point buys that would be ideal for both High Elves and Half-Elves.

High Elf
Str 8
Dex 16 (14+2)
Con 14
Int 16 (15+1)
Wis 12
Cha 8

Half-Elf
Str 8
Dex 16 (15+1)
Con 14
Int 16 (15+1)
Wis 10
Cha 10 (8+2)

If you're looking for a Bladesinger build that is melee-focused and has annoying written all over it, go with Bladesinger 5/Arcane Trickster 15. This build sacrifices the spellcasting potential of Wizard 20 for slightly more HP, a massive increase in weapon damage potential by combining Sneak Attack with GFB/BB, and a bevy of increases to your defenses and skills. The level progression that I would go with is Rogue 2/Wizard 2/R 5/W 5/R 15. It might be a slow starter in terms of spell and ASI progression, but you'll have 19 AC and do up to 2d8+1d6+3 damage via rapier+SA+BB at 4th level. Your at-will damage potential would then go up to 3d8+2d6+3 at 5th. The one thing that might really turn off spellcasting aficionados is the fact that you're going to be limited to 3rd level spells and 5th level slots, so curating a spell list for this build is going to require taking this into consideration.

Lillika · May 6, 2016

While that could be a decent build B-)

. The strength of going pure Bladesinger, is that you are a full casting Wizard. Level 3 spells are when they start to become game changing, Hypnotic Sphere for example. Any build that slows down progression in spell casting is very limiting. Also the key to controlling most tough fights is getting a key spell cast in the first few turns of combat.

With this in mind, adding to average damage in a combat round is not as important. Also you lose Song of Defense if you multiclass, this ability helps secure your role as very hard to take down.

Summary, the reason this build is the most annoying ever, is that you are very very hard to damage and a full caster.

Lillika · May 6, 2016

Z. H. Darkstar said:
You don't become a Bladesinger until 2nd level, so your part about Mage Armor granting 19 AC needs to be changed. MA would give you 16 AC at 1st level.

Good catch, fixed

Z. H. Darkstar · May 6, 2016

Lillika said:
Also you lose Song of Defense if you multiclass, this ability helps secure your role as very hard to take down.

Song of Defense would be replaced by Uncanny Dodge and Evasion, both of which could be acquired levels sooner than a pure Bladesinger gets Song of Defense. Plus, neither of those abilities require the expense of spell slots, so they can be used far more consistently without affecting spellcasting.

Lillika said:
Summary, the reason this build is the most annoying ever, is that you are very very hard to damage and a full caster.

I think that it's the Bladesinger subclass itself that is most annoying ever, not just a single build using it. The way I see it, a Bladesinger can be either an annoying defensive caster or an annoying gish striker, but can't specialize in both. Our builds are just two sides of the same annoying coin.

If anything, the Bladesinger might just be part of the Most Annoying Rogue.

Lillika · May 6, 2016

Z. H. Darkstar said:
Song of Defense would be replaced by Uncanny Dodge and Evasion, both of which could be acquired levels sooner than a pure Bladesinger gets Song of Defense. Plus, neither of those abilities require the expense of spell slots, so they can be used far more consistently without affecting spellcasting.

I think that it's the Bladesinger subclass itself that is most annoying ever, not just a single build using it. The way I see it, a Bladesinger can be either an annoying defensive caster or an annoying gish striker, but can't specialize in both. Our builds are just two sides of the same annoying coin.

If anything, the Bladesinger might just be part of the Most Annoying Rogue.

I will look into multiclassing options, for the most part I have never seen a multiclass option that I like, but it's probably a bias that I will have to eventually get over, now is as good of a time as any.

Fox Arkenrath · Jan 24, 2017

Wowsers there are so many great multiclassing options. Particularly when you consider that it's generally rare for campaigns (at least that I've ever seen) to reach capstone.

FormerlyHemlock · Jan 25, 2017

Blue said:
It's fine as long as they are only going against your AC. And you're not out of bladesongs - which can easily happen with the DMG recommended amounts of encounters and short rests. Also hey can attack you before you can a chance to activate it, but that's a smaller deal for a dex-focused character.

I'd rate it as "middling annoying" right now. If you can get Dex, Wis and Con saves up to the same astronomic levels I'm be more inclined to grant your self-proclaimed "most annoying build ever".

You may have just described a Paladorc. By 12th level, a Paladin 9/Wild Sorcerer 3 can have:

AC 21 (Defense Style + Plate Armor + Shield), plus Shield for AC 26, plus Quickened Blur spell if desired for disadvantage to attackers
+5 to all saves and advantage on any save he cares to (thanks to Tides of Chaos) at least once per long rest
Lucky feat for more save advantage or negating crits
560 HP of healing per long rest via Extended Aura of Vitality

On the full spellcaster side of things, I really enjoy the Rogue 2/Bladesinger X as a party scout and near-full-wizard. Rogue 2's Athletic Expertise allows you to make good use of the Bladesinger's Extra Attack for grapple/prone against small numbers of enemies when you don't want to bother spending a spell slot on Blur; and Stealth Expertise combines with Cunning Action (Hide) and Fog Cloud/Darkness/Greater Invisibility to make you very strong defensively when you need to take down enemies by yourself (e.g. when scouting ahead alone, you meet a Frost Giant). Since you're a wizard, you can even Enlarge yourself to get extra benefit out of your Athletics Expertise, in case you wanted to grapple/prone that Frost Giant instead of repeatedly hamstringing him with Greater Invisibility + Cunning Action (Hide) + Booming Blade or Fire Bolt.

The paladorc is stronger defensively, but the Roguesinger is more like a full wizard. Rogue 2/Illusionist X with Medium Armor Proficiency feat is also quite fun in a slightly different way.