Bladesinger Preview!

[Marshall]

Eh. I don't think any of the wizard variants can actually replace a defender, a leader or a striker.

This one can be decent Defender even without the mark mechanic, a little low on HP/Surges for it, but the defenses(AC and Ref at least) are insane. It also does striker amazingly well with the only real disadvantage being stuck with one-handed [W]'s. +DEX to damage and insane accuracy for a couple turns an encounter is nothing to sneeze at.

I think the former is closer. Not that the class as a whole is overpowered, but its at-will abilities are better than normal to balance its less powerful dailies.

HAH. Several Sorcerer builds would kill to have Burning Hands as a level 1 Daily. No, adding miss effects to Wizard encounters just blew the curve on a lot of those powers.

 

[DracoSuave]

This one can be decent Defender even without the mark mechanic, a little low on HP/Surges for it, but the defenses(AC and Ref at least) are insane.

If by insane, you mean 'equivalent to Scale mail' with an 18 in Int, and a feat then you'd have a point.

By that standard, Clerics have insane AC.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Chill, man. Does the fact that someone, on some campaign, somewhere in the world is playing a gnoll bladesinger offends your sensibilities?

As for "munchkin power builds", the best races for bladesingers are still Eladrins and Elves (two races with +Dex/Int).

You cearly forgot the famous gnomish bladesinger! He also Has int/dex and perfect racial abilities fo this kind of character...

hmmh... I KNOW hat my next character will be!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

This one can be decent Defender even without the mark mechanic, a little low on HP/Surges for it, but the defenses(AC and Ref at least) are insane. It also does striker amazingly well with the only real disadvantage being stuck with one-handed [W]'s. +DEX to damage and insane accuracy for a couple turns an encounter is nothing to sneeze at.



HAH. Several Sorcerer builds would kill to have Burning Hands as a level 1 Daily. No, adding miss effects to Wizard encounters just blew the curve on a lot of those powers.

bladesong + burnig hands = the sorcerer will desperately trying to kill for this combo...

 

[DracoSuave]

bladesong + burnig hands = the sorcerer will desperately trying to kill for this combo...

The problem is sorcerers don't jive well with bladespells, or the melee basic attacks that trigger them. Warlock'd be a better choice, as it, at least, has a power that can actually work with bladespells.

And, sorcerers would rather have sorcerer dailies as dailies than a wizard encounter power.

 

[Kzach]

I understand that Almost gives the DM the ability to allow say a human baldesinger.

OMG! I *SO* want to see Baldsinger become a human-only primary class now!

 

[Incenjucar]

Do you guys enjoy CRAPPING on the legacy of D&D FOR YOUR MUNCHKIN POWER BUILDS?
All of these armchair designers really piss me off...

Allowing the legacy of the game to overshadow the future of the game is to doom it to a slow death. Tradition is no excuse to continue a harmful action. Limiting a class to a tiny fraction of the available races has no real benefit and only undermines the openness of the game. You can continue to limit it in your game, and it can continue to be assumed the default situation, but the rules should never outright stop a race from adopting a class.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Nice class design. I like the reuse of existing elements. Notice reused but also recontextualized so they will work in a different enough way to keep things from seeming like you're just another wizard, and yet you definitely ARE a wizard.

Mechanically this should be pretty solid. You've got a few choices, go for charge optimization ALA Slayer, go for high mobility skirmisher like tactics, possibly with say a Drow Knife and picking up a rogue power somewhere, or almost defender-like maxing out defenses and taking feats that amplify stickiness. Picking up a daily power swap to another class would probably make good sense as well, it is a feat but in this case since you're 'trading up' from an encounter power to a true daily it may actually make sense.

Seems like Frostcheese would work pretty well with this guy too.

I think the wizard utility powers are actually going to be a pretty key piece of this class. having Shield or Expeditious Retreat on a melee character should be pretty handy.

Overall it is a pretty elegant design, probably the best we've seen from WotC in a while. It will almost certainly perform better than the last few.

 

[Klaus]

The problem is sorcerers don't jive well with bladespells, or the melee basic attacks that trigger them. Warlock'd be a better choice, as it, at least, has a power that can actually work with bladespells.

And, sorcerers would rather have sorcerer dailies as dailies than a wizard encounter power.

A sorcerer can take Ensorcelled Blade, which counts as a basic melee attack.

 

[Klaus]

You cearly forgot the famous gnomish bladesinger! He also Has int/dex and perfect racial abilities fo this kind of character...

hmmh... I KNOW hat my next character will be!

Aw yeah! Yoinked!