D&D 5E Bladesinger - a criticism of its design

[Thiago Tf]

You are triping about Blade singer

1- The class is an archetype of wizard, so it's an wizard after all.
2- It has the intelligence + dex+ 10 (12 if you are using a light armor). But it's not soo different of the barbarian (dex +con) or the monk (dex+wis) unarmored defense. The difference is the hit dice, the barbarian and the monk has a lot of more life points than the wizard. How could the wizard stand on the front line without a better hit dice? The answer is this case is a Huge AC. You are all right, they probably will now be treat by any attack but a critical one. However, when the attack hits, the wizard will probably fall.
3- bladesinger could not use a shield and the bladesong at the same time. Review the book.
4- the amount of damage a bladesinger can deal at an enemy is low comparing if others front lines characters.
5- It steel been a better option for bladesingers to cast a spell then use a melee attack. So, the biggest advantage relay on the freedom of movement in the battlefield for the caster.
thanks for reading

 

[Johnny Gilbert]

I used to love the bladesinger back in 2e. This 5e bladesinger looks more like yet another Bard as opposed to an Elven keeper of ancient Marshall and Magic. It looking like they reinvented the SongMage class and titled it, Elven Blade Singer... garbage.
No thanks WotC.

 

[Raunalyn]

I had a Bladesinger in my Out of the Abyss campaign...I can see some of the criticisms around this class and how it can be construed as over-powered or over-shadowing the melee classes. However, I would like to explain how I was able to overcome this.

First of all, their damage does not scale as well as a similar level melee class. They get a maximum of 2 attacks (3 if they are hasted), whereas a fighter will get 3 (or more) attacks. So, this is kind of a wash.

Secondly, their AC can get really high, which caused me a bit of frustration a few times. However, they are squishy. To get around that, hit them with spells and effects that target their weakest defense...Constitution, Strength, or Charisma effects. Once I started targeting those saves, I was able to effectively challenge the Bladesinger's player.

Lastly, if they are going to be in Melee a lot (and they will be), make sure you target them with the mob that has the biggest To Hit bonus and that does the most damage. Yes, you have a smaller chance of hitting them, but if you DO hit them, they are going to feel it!

 

[Jester David]

Thread necro...

Bladesinger (SCAG) is an Arcane Tradition for Wizard that seems to be balanced around the assumption a PC won't have high Intelligence and high Dexterity.

So... nine months later. Was the bladesinger as bad a you feared in actual play?

 

[the Jester]

You retort with numbers and statistics, so I need you to read my lips: the game's balance is best served by having a ceiling of 15 on starting stats ☺.

This observation is no less true regardless of what numbers you throw at me...

Disagree. And I don't see any evidence of this, just your assertion.

If you want to change the game so it remains balanced even for higher numbers, be my guest. I'm just saying it isn't, no matter how much we wish it was...

Do you have evidence for this? Or are you making this assertion based on playstyle preference?

 

[clearstream]

Thread necro...



So... nine months later. Was the bladesinger as bad a you feared in actual play?

After playing with Bladesinger for awhile, we agreed not to roll them for our campaigns.

They're very strong in melee, and they're still full casters. That was too much for us.

 

[clearstream]

Thread necro...



So... nine months later. Was the bladesinger as bad a you feared in actual play?

Roll forward a few years #vindicated

 

[Charlaquin]

Roll forward a few years #vindicated

I dunno, I think the changes are a net buff. They did nerf how often you can use bladesong, but how bad a nerf it is will be dependent on how many encounters your group tends to have between long rests. In the group I’m currently playing a bladesinger in, I doubt I’ll even notice the difference because we tend to have 1-2 combat encounters per session. When I DM I go much closer to the recommended daily XP budget, so Bladesingers will be hit harder there. Still, this just means that for a few encounters a day, the bladesinger is “just” a normal wizard without ungodly AC. But they also got a big offensive buff with Extra Attack now letting them cast a cantrip.

 

[clearstream]

I dunno, I think the changes are a net buff. They did nerf how often you can use bladesong, but how bad a nerf it is will be dependent on how many encounters your group tends to have between long rests. In the group I’m currently playing a bladesinger in, I doubt I’ll even notice the difference because we tend to have 1-2 combat encounters per session. When I DM I go much closer to the recommended daily XP budget, so Bladesingers will be hit harder there. Still, this just means that for a few encounters a day, the bladesinger is “just” a normal wizard without ungodly AC. But they also got a big offensive buff with Extra Attack now letting them cast a cantrip.

Sadly, they are really just conforming it to their new rest construct. 5.5e has only one kind of rest, possibly...

 

[Horwath]

Sadly, they are really just conforming it to their new rest construct. 5.5e has only one kind of rest, possibly...

well, either they should go with 4E short rest of 5 minutes or scrap the idea all together and just go with long 8 or so hours long rest.

And yes, necromancy is strong withing you!