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<blockquote data-quote="TheOneGargoyle" data-source="post: 8356036" data-attributes="member: 6924207">My experience has been different I guess.&nbsp; There is one major aspect to the bladesinger that seems frequently overlooked:They are heavily reaction-constrained.&nbsp; You only get one reaction per round, so you can pick one out of the list of SoD, Absorb Elements, Counterspell and Shield, and once you've used one, you can't use any of the others.&nbsp; If you're always in fights where only one thing is happening every round, yes you will be a God b/c you can choose the best response to that thing.&nbsp; But as soon as two or more things start happening in a round, you can't do that any more.&nbsp; In theory you can be having an AC in the 30s, taking half dmg from AOEs, burning spell slots to soak dmg and be counterspelling the BBEG, but in practice, you can't do all of those things at once.&nbsp; I frequently see the bladesinger in our group defend against some melee attacks and then get hit with a big AoE, or the reverse, or take a crit and use SoD to soak it and then cop some melee hits b/c they can't Shield, etc.I haven't played one yet either, but I'm keen to do so, and I think they'd be solid, and flavourful.Battle Smith does get shield, it's in the extra spells added in the subclass along with a couple of smite spells and a couple of aura spells.&nbsp; It's&nbsp; pretty darn solid.I would probably agree with Battle Smith being A tier and Bladesinger S tier.&nbsp; It's hard to assess the impact of the Steel Defender though, it might bump them up to S tier, esp at lower levels.&nbsp; But definitely behind Bladesinger, esp at higher levels due to L6+ wizard spells.Seems like a good benchmark to compare to the Gish we're trying to create.What do you reckon ?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TheOneGargoyle, post: 8356036, member: 6924207"] My experience has been different I guess. There is one major aspect to the bladesinger that seems frequently overlooked: They are heavily reaction-constrained. You only get one reaction per round, so you can pick one out of the list of SoD, Absorb Elements, Counterspell and Shield, and once you've used one, you can't use any of the others. If you're always in fights where only one thing is happening every round, yes you will be a God b/c you can choose the best response to that thing. But as soon as two or more things start happening in a round, you can't do that any more. In theory you can be having an AC in the 30s, taking half dmg from AOEs, burning spell slots to soak dmg and be counterspelling the BBEG, but in practice, you can't do all of those things at once. I frequently see the bladesinger in our group defend against some melee attacks and then get hit with a big AoE, or the reverse, or take a crit and use SoD to soak it and then cop some melee hits b/c they can't Shield, etc. I haven't played one yet either, but I'm keen to do so, and I think they'd be solid, and flavourful. Battle Smith does get shield, it's in the extra spells added in the subclass along with a couple of smite spells and a couple of aura spells. It's pretty darn solid. I would probably agree with Battle Smith being A tier and Bladesinger S tier. It's hard to assess the impact of the Steel Defender though, it might bump them up to S tier, esp at lower levels. But definitely behind Bladesinger, esp at higher levels due to L6+ wizard spells. Seems like a good benchmark to compare to the Gish we're trying to create. What do you reckon ? [/QUOTE]

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