I recently got back into dnd and found this cool Shadow Blade spell. I have been playing around with it and it seems to make a great melee Sorcerer or Pal2/Sorx build.
I have read all about Eldritch Knight builds and builds that try to use extra attacks such as Pal 5 or 6 splash. But extra attacks don't really scale well with Shadow Blade since many magic martial weapons outclass most Shadow Blade uses (I could be shown wrong but several threats seem to show that EK Shadow Blade builds don't have much steam.
Shadow Blade does not play well with Hexblade's either as most of their extras require a Pact Blade to be used.
Rogues can get some use from it but are mostly limited to 1 or 2 attacks.
The Sorcerer seems to have the most synergy with Shadow Blade because of Twin Booming Blades and Quickened Green Flame Blades. Meaning with just 3 sorcery points you can do 3 of these buffed up cantrips. On top of this you are a fully fledged caster with sick sick high level spells.
From a pure sorcerer perspective you can really abuse this when paired with twinned Booming Blade and quickened Green Flame Blade. At level 20 you can get 27d8 damage (24 from straight attacks and 3 from Green Flame Blade's second target). This damage will be split some between 2 melee enemies who are close to each other, but you could use Lightning Lure to pull one of both of them close.
This build starts to do its thing as early as level 3 when you have access to all the cantrips needed, Shadow Blade, Shield, Absorb Elements, Mage Armor, and Mirror Image (although you only know 4 spells at this level so you have to chose 1 of these to not have). As a one turn wonder you could do 7d8 plus 12 damage split between 2 close targets, with 2 Booming Blades and 1 Quickened GFB. Granted you will be out of Sorcery points. Otherwise you could just have a nice BB or GFB attack.
At lvl 20 each sorcery point gives you a twinned booming blade for 8d8 +5 damage (not including the moving damage if they move) or 2 gets you an 8d8 +5 GFB. If you pair this with 2 lvls of paladin you get smites for an extra 15d8 and access to armor. Pal2/sorcx is probably the most pure power option. But you must consider that this build can eat through both spell slots and sorcery points very quickly even at max lvl the pally combo gives you 1 less lvl 7 spell slot and 2 fewer sorcery point and if taken earlier than level 17 will slow down spell progression (imo spell progression is something important) So you could at least make an argument for pure sorcerer, the lvl 20 cap stone is something as well. As sorcery points are gold in the build and even make you consider converting spells into sorcery points as well and you could easily blow 3 sorcery points every turn.
Also in terms of total damage a lvl 4 spell turned into a smite is 5d8 but that same spell slot turned into sorcery points (4) is 4 extra twinned BB for 32d8 +20 or 2 quickened GFB for 22d8 +20 damage. But paly2 does give you the option of much stronger bursting.
This build unless splashed pal2 early will have a low AC and low hitpoints. Spells such as Shield, Mirror Image and Absorb Elements will help.
All in all the damage although nice is lower than other pure burst, but what makes it very sick is that you could do 2 BB then haste lets say a Meteor Storm or other high lvl spell and laugh.
I will be playing this character in my wife's new campaign since she said I had to play a halfling wild sorcerer with all the luck feats. Although a Draconic origin would be best probably this does have good synergy considering the fact that many of the Wild Magic Surges do bad things to people close to me, and halflings will benefit from Shadow Blade just as well and anyone else.
Exclaimer this build is not AL legal sadly due to Shadow Blade being from XAGE and BB/GFB being from SCAG.
I have read all about Eldritch Knight builds and builds that try to use extra attacks such as Pal 5 or 6 splash. But extra attacks don't really scale well with Shadow Blade since many magic martial weapons outclass most Shadow Blade uses (I could be shown wrong but several threats seem to show that EK Shadow Blade builds don't have much steam.
Shadow Blade does not play well with Hexblade's either as most of their extras require a Pact Blade to be used.
Rogues can get some use from it but are mostly limited to 1 or 2 attacks.
The Sorcerer seems to have the most synergy with Shadow Blade because of Twin Booming Blades and Quickened Green Flame Blades. Meaning with just 3 sorcery points you can do 3 of these buffed up cantrips. On top of this you are a fully fledged caster with sick sick high level spells.
From a pure sorcerer perspective you can really abuse this when paired with twinned Booming Blade and quickened Green Flame Blade. At level 20 you can get 27d8 damage (24 from straight attacks and 3 from Green Flame Blade's second target). This damage will be split some between 2 melee enemies who are close to each other, but you could use Lightning Lure to pull one of both of them close.
This build starts to do its thing as early as level 3 when you have access to all the cantrips needed, Shadow Blade, Shield, Absorb Elements, Mage Armor, and Mirror Image (although you only know 4 spells at this level so you have to chose 1 of these to not have). As a one turn wonder you could do 7d8 plus 12 damage split between 2 close targets, with 2 Booming Blades and 1 Quickened GFB. Granted you will be out of Sorcery points. Otherwise you could just have a nice BB or GFB attack.
At lvl 20 each sorcery point gives you a twinned booming blade for 8d8 +5 damage (not including the moving damage if they move) or 2 gets you an 8d8 +5 GFB. If you pair this with 2 lvls of paladin you get smites for an extra 15d8 and access to armor. Pal2/sorcx is probably the most pure power option. But you must consider that this build can eat through both spell slots and sorcery points very quickly even at max lvl the pally combo gives you 1 less lvl 7 spell slot and 2 fewer sorcery point and if taken earlier than level 17 will slow down spell progression (imo spell progression is something important) So you could at least make an argument for pure sorcerer, the lvl 20 cap stone is something as well. As sorcery points are gold in the build and even make you consider converting spells into sorcery points as well and you could easily blow 3 sorcery points every turn.
Also in terms of total damage a lvl 4 spell turned into a smite is 5d8 but that same spell slot turned into sorcery points (4) is 4 extra twinned BB for 32d8 +20 or 2 quickened GFB for 22d8 +20 damage. But paly2 does give you the option of much stronger bursting.
This build unless splashed pal2 early will have a low AC and low hitpoints. Spells such as Shield, Mirror Image and Absorb Elements will help.
All in all the damage although nice is lower than other pure burst, but what makes it very sick is that you could do 2 BB then haste lets say a Meteor Storm or other high lvl spell and laugh.
I will be playing this character in my wife's new campaign since she said I had to play a halfling wild sorcerer with all the luck feats. Although a Draconic origin would be best probably this does have good synergy considering the fact that many of the Wild Magic Surges do bad things to people close to me, and halflings will benefit from Shadow Blade just as well and anyone else.
Exclaimer this build is not AL legal sadly due to Shadow Blade being from XAGE and BB/GFB being from SCAG.
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