Hi @
Quickleaf, thanks for taking the time to read it through and comment on it.
Aww, that's so sweet! <3
You're welcome. That's what the ENWorld community is here for. I tried to be a little tongue-in-cheek because my criticism was pretty scathing. I'll try to offer some brief ideas for how you could adjust things...
Ah, the cure wounds is really a mistake. That should not have been in there, and will most certainly be gone. Also, Ritual Casting, in hindsight, is perhaps not too fitting for a bladesinger. I mean, he spends time dancing, not doing rituals.
Those are steps in the right direction.
I took the bard as basis for the bladesinger (including the 2'nd attack at level 11) and the Ritual Casting/Cure Wounds is a copy/paste mistake...
Bard? Well, if you're talking about the bard's College of Valor...they *don't* get a 3rd attack at 11th level. They get a 2nd attack at 6th level.
Here's where you're making it overpowered: Compare your bladesinger to an eldritch knight. Both get 3 attacks at 11th level. Eldritch knight has limited spell progression. But your bladesinger has full spell progression like a bard. That's clearly unbalanced.
I think your mistake is trying to make the bladesinger a full caster. IMO you'd be better off looking to the ranger & paladin spellcasting (>eldritch knight, but <bard), and possibly the 4th edition swordmage.
Truth be told, this is something I have really been struggling with. I tried to compare it with the Bladesinger arcane tradition from SCAG where you get your full INT to AC from level 1, ánd you can wear light armor. So I had thought this was fairly balanced, when paired with Insightful Movement. I specifically wanted to prevent taking 1 level in Bladesinger and immediately having your full INT to AC as a bonus. Though I made the mistake of granting cantrip-and-attack at level 1 instead, which is of course my bad.
Why not just give the bladesinger Unarmored Defense like the monk, swapping INT for WIS?
I had actually tried to make this more balanced that the SCAG Bladesinger I mentioned above, where you get the bonus to AC from level 1, fully. This one scales, instead of always offering it fully. When combined with the Dust In The Wind style, it would give you something akin to what the SCAG bladesinger has. At least, that was my reasoning...
You're making a fighter/mage class, a gish. So it's good you're comparing to the SCAG Bladesinger arcane tradition, but you also need to keep the fighter & whichever spellcaster you're modeling after as your bounding posts.
Oh, it was so nót my intention to make it overpowered. I have actually spent some time trying to make this balanced. For example:
- reduced the speed to 20, where the SCAG Bladesong improves the speed to 40. I found it much more fitting that by dancing, twirling and dodging you lose forward momentum.
- not have the full INT to AC available from level 1, but have it scale, to prevent 'level 1 dip' into the class
- not being able to wear any armor
- not being able to dual-wield (which the SCAG bladesinger actually could)
But apparently I've failed in making it balanced
Well, I am not sure about the AC. It *may* be balanced. I think you need to compare some numbers and demonstrate how it stands next to a fighter.
Look at a 9th-level human fighter wearing plate mail with a shield and defensive fighting style = AC 21.
Look at a 9th-level human bladesinger with Dex 20, Int 14, dust in the wind (bladesong) +2, insightful movement (+2) = AC 19
Looks balanced at first blush, right? Now imagine the bladesinger multiclassing into cleric/druid/fighter/paladin/ranger and getting medium armor proficiency, and then picking up the heavy armor training feat. Imagine it at higher level...for example, I could see a 18th-level bladesinger with AC 23. So is the balance it starts of with lower AC than a tank fighter but eventually surpasses at higher levels? Maybe it works out ok, maybe not, I don't know. What about a bladesinger using Thorny as a Rose (Bladesong) AND taking the Dodge action (a logical choice if you can't attack) at the same time? Add prof bonus to AC AND enemies have disadvantage to attack you? Is that too much? But that's the sort of design process you need to go through when balancing a new class (in lieu of actual playtesting).
Oh, and I also forgot to add a time-limit/number of times per day. Will think about that too. Either keep it a bit powerful but limit uses, or tone it down and make it unlimited use...
Yep. Good luck!
