CW Bladesinger - am i missing something?

[ForceUser]

Personally, I'd increase the no. of times they can use song of celerity to either 3/day or 1/day/level. At will, as per the 3E bladesinger, is a bit whacked, but the new version is on the weak side IMO.

They've definitely watered down the CW Bladesinger from his 3E heyday. Now he's neat but a bit on the bland side.

 

[Darklone]

He's more a fighter and less a spelllobber.

 

[The Souljourner]

He's handy for getting into spellsword though - only requires 1st level arcane spells... two levels of wizard get you into bladesinger, three levels of bladesinger get you into spellsword, and three levels of spellsword get you into eldritch knight. Makes for a good fighter with spell backup, since he's only lost a single base attack bonus vs. the straight fighter, and yet has access to 7th level spells at 20th level. That's pretty good! It's what I plan on doing for my next character.

-The Souljourner

 

[Darklone]

Eeks. Well, I'll throw it at my players and ask the survivors.

 

[sithramir]

No, you quicken it without getting slower.
When a sorcerer (or other spontaneous caster) uses any metamagic feat, it changes the spell's casting time to one full round. That means Quickening is useless for sorcerers. Song of Celerity is not subject to that effect, so a sorcerer/bladesinger can use it to quicken his spells.


Quickening a spell does not remove its components. The caster must still speak for verbal components, gesture for somatic components, and so on. He just does it faster.

If you want to cast a normal spell as a free action without suffering arcane spell failure, you must use both Quicken Spell and Still Spell.

Free actions don't incur attacks of opportunity so why would you need a still spell?

 

[Spatzimaus]

Free actions don't incur attacks of opportunity so why would you need a still spell?

If you're Held, or wearing armor (arcane spell failure). Same reasons you'd need Still Spell on a normal casting. Why would the Attack of Opportunity part matter? On the really low chance that someone tries to counterspell you? I don't know about you, but I never see players counter anything, so the whole "Still and Silent keep someone from identifying your spells" part never comes up.

This ability lets you quicken one spell on the fly. Great. It's too good of an ability to do at will, or even 1/day/level. I'd say 1/day at level 4, 2/day at 7, 3/day at 10. But this ties into the "Quicken is really strong but +4 is too high" discussion going on in another thread on this board.

 

[Cheiromancer]

He's handy for getting into spellsword though - only requires 1st level arcane spells... two levels of wizard get you into bladesinger, three levels of bladesinger get you into spellsword, and three levels of spellsword get you into eldritch knight. Makes for a good fighter with spell backup, since he's only lost a single base attack bonus vs. the straight fighter, and yet has access to 7th level spells at 20th level. That's pretty good! It's what I plan on doing for my next character.

-The Souljourner

I'd go bladesinger 5/spellsword 1, myself. Say you play a half-elf, and start Swashbuckler 3/Fighter 1/Wizard 2. Swashbuckler has more skill points, and Balance and Tumble are class skills. You also get weapon Finesse as a bonus feat and insightful strike as the third level ability. A level of fighter is necessary to get all the armor proficiencies.

Then I'd go 5 levels of bladesinger for more of the benefits of the bladesong style (+5 dodge bonus as long as Intelligence is at least 20), and 1 level of spellsword (to ignore 10% ASF- enough for a mithral chain shirt). Then Eldritch Knight. Still end up with BAB 18 and CL 13 at 20th level.

Probably I'd skip over bladesinger entirely, though: Human or Half-elf, start with swashbuckler 3/wizard 3/fighter 1, then go spellsword 3 and Eldritch Knight. I won't get a dodge bonus from bladesong style, but I can use a shield, and so I would probably end up with the same AC.

 

[The Hanged Man]

Free actions don't incur attacks of opportunity so why would you need a still spell?

Free actions do incur AoO, if the action is a type that provokes an attack. There just don't happen to be any under the core rules. Quicken Spell specifically says a spell cast using the feat does not provoke an AoO - the only reason for a sorceror to take it, normally.

Bladesinger is a pretty suck class, though, even if you do read the Song of Celerity to allow a free action spell.

 

[The Hanged Man]

Free actions don't incur attacks of opportunity so why would you need a still spell?

Actually, free actions can incure AoO. Quicken spell specifically says it does not, but Rapid Reload for LIght Crossbow allows you to reload as a free action, but reloading still draws an AoO.

Bladesinger is the suck, though. One free quicken - on a low level spell - plus int bonuses for AC is just . . . this . . . close to worthless if you have to give up CL to get it.