Bladesinger Preview!

[Herschel]

I'm waiting for the whole thing to come out before passing too much judgement on it but as a DM seeing a Int/Dex character with nifty basic attacks makes me anticipate good things (re: extra attacks) for my controllers. ;-)

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

And note that this isn't necessarily a matter of 'easy mode' or simplification. It is more a matter of just streamlining the game experience. I can be the greatest living charops expert and there's no reason why I shouldn't just play a Slayer if that's the kind of character I want and it does what I want.

A quibble: It IS simplification. It decreases the number of choices necessary to achieve your stated goal. That's not "bad." It's not a sin. Simplicity is not inherently a bad thing. Often it is a virtue. And as you say, it gives you exactly what is on the label. There's also significant virtue in that.

But, by definition, it IS simplification.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Last month there was a large playtest article in Dragon that provided multi-class and hybrid options for many of the classes from HotFK and HoS.

I know. It was utter garbage.

 

[Akaiku]

Huh, requires offhand to not hold a weapon or a shield. Nothing about an implement.

Go bladesingers with a spear and orb! Chaaaaaaaarge~

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Huh, requires offhand to not hold a weapon or a shield. Nothing about an implement.

Go bladesingers with a spear and orb! Chaaaaaaaarge~

Yup, the off hand doesn't have to be empty, it just can't hold a weapon or a shield. You could use any implement in it. DIS might be a cool option.

Also, everyone has forgotten about the existence of Versatile Expertise? Yeah, it is one of the OLD expertise feats, but it would still be highly relevant, especially if you were to say want to play yourself say a dwarven axesinger (it is the guys he hits that do the singing).

 

[ceiling90]

Whoa. That just blew my mind. Bladespell is more or less equivalent to that feat; save for that part about treating the blade as a wand (and it doesn't actually do much, since it doesn't have any way to get superior implement on the blade nor do get wand accuracy), unless there's a way to poach that wand mastery...
But then again, you can hold an implement in your off hand anyway.
Really, that blew my mind.

So you can be a Spearsinger (there's one handed spears right?) or an Axesinger, or a Whipsinger, or one-handed melee singer of choice. And that's a single feat; though someone will arguably bring it up as a feat tax issue; but blades are some of the best weapons around anyway...

 

[Journeymanmage]

...

So you can be a Spearsinger (there's one handed spears right?) or an Axesinger, or a Whipsinger, or one-handed melee singer of choice. And that's a single feat; though someone will arguably bring it up as a feat tax issue; but blades are some of the best weapons around anyway...

"Blade Magic: Benefit: Choose a one-handed melee weapon with which you have proficiency, and that is a light blade or a heavy blade. You gain proficiency with that weapon as an implement, meaning you can use your implement powers through it....."

Unless you and AbdulAlhazred are saying use the implement in the off-hand ....

 

[Xris Robin]

Yup, the off hand doesn't have to be empty, it just can't hold a weapon or a shield. You could use any implement in it. DIS might be a cool option.

Also, everyone has forgotten about the existence of Versatile Expertise? Yeah, it is one of the OLD expertise feats, but it would still be highly relevant, especially if you were to say want to play yourself say a dwarven axesinger (it is the guys he hits that do the singing).

DIS would only apply to your dailies, though. Bladespells don't use damage rolls, or even have the Implement keyword, I think.

 

[ceiling90]

Everything, except your "dailies" doesn't care if you use a sword or not. The at-wills specify one-handed melee weapons with the off hand not wielding shield or weapon.

So implements (that aren't... weapons), would work in the off-hand. Arguably, couldn't you use a weapliment in that off-hand too (as long as you aren't wielding it as a weapon)? So when you use a "daily", switch hands. I don't remember there being a rule that you can't do that (I mean isn't that how dual implement users work it?).

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

DIS would only apply to your dailies, though. Bladespells don't use damage rolls, or even have the Implement keyword, I think.

Yeah, well, dailies would be good things to optimize. Perhaps lower priority than buffing your weapon, but still interesting.

And yes, I think not being able to use other weapons as implements is crappy, even if you can get some with this or that feat. I don't see why this restriction exists...