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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 7252315" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Having seen actual Bladesingers in action, a lot of this comes down to intelligent play.  Though having the same proficiency bonus as everyone else, the Wizard is designed to AVOID melee combat, and is very effective at it, having multiple defensive spells ranging from "the best light armor in the universe", "no that didn't hit", "nice, roll again", "I'm not even HERE right now", "go ahead, hit me, see where that gets you", and "resistance to everything".  And those are rarely the best ways to shut down an enemy.  If you give the Wizard better AC, she needs to cast those spells less often, and can focus on better uses of their magic- there was a lot of talk about multiclassed/Mountain Dwarf Wizards when 5e first came out.However, as play progressed, Wizard players noted that there was rarely any reason to need that AC- in most combats, getting to the Wizard in the first place isn't all that easy, especially once they put a "zone of nope" between them and the enemy (grease/web/sleet storm) or just takes enemies out of the fight entire (sleep/hold person/hypnotic pattern).  The Bladesinger is in a strange position, with their ability to get "warrior-like" AC without diluting their casting abilities or having Dwarven blood for at least 2 combats a fight.  Really, on that alone, we're basically saying the 'singer gets 2 extra uses of a defensive buff per short rest, which is already better than what other traditions give, but most people seem to downrate this feature because, again, it's already known that Wizards are already good at avoiding combat.And it's a really good defensive buff, able to grant +3-+5 AC, and an equally good buff to Concentration.  But again, why is that Wizard in melee?  It's not like there's all THAT many good close range spells.So right off the bat, we have to accept the truth.  The Bladesinger IS very strong, by the numbers, but a well-played Wizard doesn't NEED it's advantages.  Any discussion of Bladesinger melee shenanigans has to start with the acknowledgement that this is a subpar strategy for the Wizard.Having gotten past that, we then note that in at least 2 battles per short rest (which can basically be all day unless you're being stingy enough with short rests that the Warlock can't do anything but eldritch spam) the Wizard becomes the best class for casting in melee- high AC and concentration.  They're better than the Dragon Sorcerer, and even the Paladin can't equal their concentration until they get their Aura.  And even if the Paladin has good spells to cast (she does!), well, good luck getting most Paladins to accept that ("if I cast spell how would I kill things with a bucket of d8's?"). Hell, the 'singer is better at melee casting than the Cleric, who is actually supposed to be able to do this (weird shield interactions notwithstanding) because nobody bothered to give the Cleric a buff to concentration!So ok, the Bladesinger is in melee range, when he has no real reason to be.  While there, he benefits from one of the best defensive packages the game has to offer.  Booming Blade and Shocking Grasp are at least equal to Battlemaster Maneuvers (and can be used at will!).  The only real weakness the 'singer has is...2 less hit points per level than the Fighter (and an additional -2 at level 1; actual numbers will vary based on Constitution).  Which the Wizard class already tends to trivialize in a lot of ways.And, on top of all of this, the Bladesinger can always fall back to...being a Wizard.  IMO, the real weakness of the Bladesinger is that you have to be an Elf!  Imagine if we could get Genasi or Tieflings in on this action...The real problem here isn't the Bladesinger's design.  It's just some of the system's sacred cows running around in the china shop again.  Magic is just better, and having more magic is better than anything else, because there are no real rules on what Magic can and can't do in D&D.  Anything any class can do can probably be replicated magically, and magic can do things nothing else in the system can do.  The argument is being made that a Bladesinger will burn all of his spells to replicate being a Fighter.  The problem with that argument is that we're not saying the Bladesinger can't do it, or can't be effective at it- we're saying it's a poor use of the Bladesinger's spells!In other words, we're looking at Thor mixing it up in melee and saying "Hey, cut that out- we have a Hulk for that!  You should be flying around and shooting lightning at things!".</blockquote>

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