D&D 5E Experience with a bladesinger?

[aarduini]

Im a big fan of Fighter/wizards, and the blade singer was my favorite kit when it first appeared. In my opinion no other addition has really captured the feel of what a bladesinger was suppose to play like except this version. I have a total of three bladesingers. I have one 10th level who I converted using the one time rework option from a 1st level fighter 9 level wizard to a 1st level fighter 9 level blade singer. I also have a blade singer I built from scratch that I am playing in Out of the abyss with, and lastly I have a 5th level fighter 1/bladesinger 4. All four of them are a blast to run.

The bladesinger is not an optimized class. It shines at being a for real gish class. You won't out fight the paladin or fighter in melee, but they don't have options like putting your opponents to sleep after you've widdled down their hps or Thunderwaving them off a cliff. As a wizard in melee, you have a ton of options and different directions you can go in combat. One of my favorite is booming blade combined with Flaming sphere. Its a no win scenario for your opponents.

I played my 4th level version in a mod. He held off 6 foes for 6 rounds. If he wasn't able to do that, the rest of the party would have been overwhelmed. I used a combination of thunder wave, sleep, false life and melee attacks. It was a blast, and they rest of the group was amazed.

I do think there is room for improvement. I do think they should have had some option like War Magic rather than the extra attack. I also believe they should've had a better incentive to use a longsword as that is the traditional elven weapon and the bladesingers traditional weapon as well, but playing a strength based bladesinger is just too limiting. I went through the builds again and again. I can't justify it.

If you like mystic warriors or gish type classes, I believe the blade singer will do the job. Watch out for Area effect spells. Shield is your friend as is mirror image and blur. If you are playing AL, try to play with a wizard who has Absorb Elements, so you can scribe the spell from him/her as you can't take that spell normally due to the idiotic rulings of the AL admins.

I hope that helps

 

[Celtavian]

Im a big fan of Fighter/wizards, and the blade singer was my favorite kit when it first appeared. In my opinion no other addition has really captured the feel of what a bladesinger was suppose to play like except this version. I have a total of three bladesingers. I have one 10th level who I converted using the one time rework option from a 1st level fighter 9 level wizard to a 1st level fighter 9 level blade singer. I also have a blade singer I built from scratch that I am playing in Out of the abyss with, and lastly I have a 5th level fighter 1/bladesinger 4. All four of them are a blast to run.

The bladesinger is not an optimized class. It shines at being a for real gish class. You won't out fight the paladin or fighter in melee, but they don't have options like putting your opponents to sleep after you've widdled down their hps or Thunderwaving them off a cliff. As a wizard in melee, you have a ton of options and different directions you can go in combat. One of my favorite is booming blade combined with Flaming sphere. Its a no win scenario for your opponents.

I played my 4th level version in a mod. He held off 6 foes for 6 rounds. If he wasn't able to do that, the rest of the party would have been overwhelmed. I used a combination of thunder wave, sleep, false life and melee attacks. It was a blast, and they rest of the group was amazed.

I do think there is room for improvement. I do think they should have had some option like War Magic rather than the extra attack. I also believe they should've had a better incentive to use a longsword as that is the traditional elven weapon and the bladesingers traditional weapon as well, but playing a strength based bladesinger is just too limiting. I went through the builds again and again. I can't justify it.

If you like mystic warriors or gish type classes, I believe the blade singer will do the job. Watch out for Area effect spells. Shield is your friend as is mirror image and blur. If you are playing AL, try to play with a wizard who has Absorb Elements, so you can scribe the spell from him/her as you can't take that spell normally due to the idiotic rulings of the AL admins.

I hope that helps

2nd Edition captured bladesinging the best by far. That is what I imagined an elven bladesinger to be like.

 

[aarduini]

I think this edition has come the closest to the 2nd edition version out of all the other editions. The class really does feel like a wizard warrior should feel. The Eldritch knight just doesn't have the spell versatility to fulfill that nitch

 

[Sacrosanct]

I think this edition has come the closest to the 2nd edition version out of all the other editions. The class really does feel like a wizard warrior should feel. The Eldritch knight just doesn't have the spell versatility to fulfill that nitch

that's a good point. EK spell list is pretty limited by comparison

 

[Mephista]

Here's someone on Giantitp forum talking about their bladesinger in melee - http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?465513-5e-Bladesinger-In-Melee

I think people are being spoiled by Sharpshooter and Great Weapon Mastery, and anything that doesn't match up to that is automatically bad.

 

[Mephista]

I mean, lets be honest, what do people WANT from this? Two attacks with a rapier at level 6 is 2d8+2*DEX, an average of 15. That's better than an Evoker's Firebolt (2d10+INT, avg 14) at the same level. Its only at level 11 that an Evoker's Firebolt pulls ahead (average ~20). At level 14, we're doing an extra +INT damage each strike, for boosting an average of at least 21 damage. Then, Evoker pulls ahead at level 17 again, with 27 damage on average.

All this is without magic items or buffs. With a +3 weapon at level 17, we're talking about 2*(1d8+DEX+INT+3). Assume an average of 4 for stats, and we have 2*(4.5+4+4+3) = 2*15.5 = 31. The Bladesinger is dealing more damage than an Evoker with a cantrip, plus has Haste and Fireshield to boost their damage output. With Haste active, our Bladesinger is doing an extra 1d8+DEX at minimum, while a max average of 15.5 at level 17. That puts the Bladesinger heads above any cantrip. Hells. It puts the Bladesinger roughly on par with an Eldritch Blaster with Hex at level 17: (1d10+1d6+CHA)*4 = (5.5+3.3+5)*4 = 14*4 = 48. Both potentially have Foresight up, so its a strong chance of hitting on both. Still, 48 average damage versus 46.5 average damage. That's very close.

Bladesinger isn't meant to outfight the Fighter; thank the gods, because that would be the return of 3e problems. But, with the right spells, Bladesingers do a hell of a showing. And its FUN.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I really think the bladesinger is fine although I understand the concerns with extra attack not playing well with the new cantrips. war magic would indeed have been a very nice addition. On the other hand, extra attack is usable with a bow and two weapon fighting which is not forbidden with bladesong. A bonus action attack can also be gotten with some some spells. If you yre concerned about the damage output in melee just replace extta attack with war magic.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Here's someone on Giantitp forum talking about their bladesinger in melee - http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?465513-5e-Bladesinger-In-Melee

I remember that forum being nicer.

 

[Mephista]

On the other hand, extra attack is usable with a bow and two weapon fighting which is not forbidden with bladesong..

Well, that depends on if you interpret "use two hands to make an attack with a weapon." If you attack with an off hand, that could count, I think. But you're spot on with the bow. Don't know how I missed that.

Personally, I thought the intent was to do a free / focus hand, and sword in the other, like the other bladesingers I'm familiar with do.

 

[Huntsman57]

I think the Spellsinger is fantastic. While it gets its 2nd attack 1 level later than a fighter, the fact is that between levels 1-10 your damage output is similar to a fighter and with far more defensive benefits since he gets his higher level spells far faster. In fact, since the Spellsinger will get Haste long before an EK fighter you will likely be doing better average damage at levels 1-10 than the fighter. Naturally the Spellsinger will want to be mindful of acquiring feats like War Caster to avoid a loss of concentration.

By level 11 the fighter gets his extra attack so he'll probably now be similar damage to the Spellsinger, and maybe a tiny temp bump from Action Surge, but he STILL doesn't have Haste if he's EK. Both classes will still be doing very similar damage and by 10th level the Spellsinger not only has access to spells levels 1-5 but also can now convert spell slots to hit points. By 13th level the EK can finally cast Haste so it is not until this moment that he genuinely takes any meaningful damage lead against the Spellsinger, but just a level later the Spellsinger catches up a fair bit with the ability to add his Intelligence modifier to damage. Then, at 17th level the Spellsinger gets Foresight to more or less permanently gain advantage while enemies have disadvantage against us. At 18th level the Spellsinger pretty much gains a permanent +5 to AC as long as he has a reaction free via the ability to cast Shield without expending a spell slot. Even were we playing for 20th level, while the fighter would finally get yet another attack, regardless that the Spellsinger already has so much going for it defensively to more than make up for the offense difference, we can dip into another class for levels 19-20 to get a bit more damage from our existing attacks to compensate for the fighter's damage output advantage.

The Spellsinger will have similar damage output and superior defensive capabilities at most levels, and with the benefit of overwhelmingly superior spellcasting versatility. It's just a great class.