D&D 5E [GUIDE] Inquisitor Lim's Bladesinger and Wizard Guide: Xanathar's Edition

[Rofel Wodring]

What would you be using after you gained advantaged in the battlefield with some spells? Just regular BB and GB?

Not just those two spells. I rated spells like Blur and Misty Step and even Greater Invisibility pretty highly. If you're fighting encounters of low to medium difficulty, they're very efficient on the spell slots. If you're a level 10 character and your encounter is just fighting three earth elementals, blowing a spell slot on Haste or Blur and a couple of Shields is in fact a very good use of your spells (and are situations when your character really shines). It's just that when you're fighting Hard or Deadly encounters is when you want to drop the melee buttkicker facade and play more like a traditional wizard.

Even if you are doing the 1-3 encounter workdays actual D&D is set up for, Bladesinger lets you prep and use a few spells that would normally get overlooked by less efficient wizards (namely, every other wizard but the Illusionist and low/mid-level Necromancers) such as Passwall and True Seeing. A, say, Abjuration Wizard who needs to (or should) be expending 3rd and 4th level spell slots on medium/hard encounters about every round is just less efficient than a Bladesinger doing so with a single Greater Invis/Haste/Blur. The point is that for actual challenging encounters, like a level 10 encounter against a Lich and their deathlock wight minions, you play like a high-AC/concentration traditional wizard.

As far as spells like Blink and Mirror Image go, they're efficient and don't require concentration and they did get Blue ratings in my guide. The problem is that they're not reliable when you REALLY need them. Mirror Image isn't going to stand up to multiattack and while Blink is very stochastically efficient over a long duration of encounters, it's not exactly bacon-covering on discrete rounds. It's very possible (like, a 1/8 chance) of Blink not giving you a single round's respite in a 3-round fight against an ancient dragon.

 

[Rofel Wodring]

Guess I would like to know your dpr “rotation”.
also, do you play most 1h or dw?

When I need to throw down and lay down some additional DPR when I don't think the martials will really be able to help, I usually use spells like Contingency -> Melf's Minute Meteors, Bigby's Giant Hand, Animate Objects, Storm Sphere, Conjure Elemental, Flaming Sphere back in the day (though it's fallen off bigly), and even upcasted Fireball. Conjure Elemental is my favorite, since it often lasts me two or even three combats and Earth/Air Elementals are useful between combats. I've just been using those elementals, but I'm hoping to use a Galeb Duhr with a couple of boulders from my Bag of Holding in my game Saturday.

Haste and Greater Invisibility are there for spell slot efficiency, not for 'we need DPR and we need it NOW'. I have a Flametongue shortsword and am level 13 right now, so that's only worth an additional 3d6+4 damage -- about the same a Melf's Minute Meteors for damage in Haste's case. This might change if I ever get Tenser's Transformation and I decide to let my Familiar have one of my attunement slots for my Ring of Spellstoring. Then I could have, with that spell and a Tressym Haste, an attack routine next level of 11d6 + 8d12 + 36, or 138.83 DPR assuming critical hits (quite plausible since Tenser's Transformation gives advantage on all attacks).

It occurs to me that I might have to really redo a lot of my 'retire your melee buttkicker assumptions as you gain levels' assumptions in my guide due to that blasted spell, needless to say.

I'm not a big fan of Tenser's Transformation balance-wise, let me say.

 

[Felipe Marques]

full post below (can't find a way to delete this)

 

[Felipe Marques]

Dear Rofel,
Once again thank you for sharing your knowledge.

I still got some doubts.

1- do you use DW? The reason I'm insisting on this matter is coz I really did not want to, since for me is against the Bladesinger lore to do so. But reading all the rules I find not having a 2nd wep a huge dps loss once you decide to go all out on melee. Do you agree? I could see a scenario where you have 3 weps. 2 short swords and 1 rapier. The short swords for when you go haste + blink and the rapier for when you are casting regularly.
I really wanted a scenario where I could single wep without losing dps.

2- can you explain to me a little better the Tenser Transformation combo + familiar?
How have you been using your familiar ? I like to use it as situational and specially in a "death from above" kind. It seems you proposed a "simulacrum" kind of combo with the familiar. Also, where is TT from? I could not find it.

3- could you list some spell combos you usually do for some different situations? Spell preparations, concentration usage, etc?

thank you.

 

[Rofel Wodring]

1. Not really. There's some value in DWing if you're in a game with a huge number of magical item drops, but the big problems are:
1A. Even warcaster doesn't get around the whole 'how are you accessing your material components' question unless you're using a staff -- and there's no way to get a DEX staff without multiclassing.
2A. It just doesn't do that much damage unless sexed up. The old Nadrigol guide recommended taking a level of Fighter for +DEX, but I find that arrangement foolhardy. But until you get to level 14 and/or use Tenser's Transformation, you do all that rigmarole for... what? An extra d6 damage? Compared to using, say, a rapier for your attacks, you do an extra 1.5 damage a round when you're not hasted and a mere .5 damage when you are.

Even if you are okay with that kind of ruthless prioritizing, it'll usually end up even less than that because of bonus action clog and the limitations on drawing weapons. When you want to use your bonus action for something else (like, say, a Misty Step or to start your Bladesong) you end up losing out on damage because you're using two shortswords instead of a rapier. For example, say you're a level 8 or so Bladesinger. You get involved with an 'Easy' combat, one that doesn't tax your resources too much. You budget two Shields and a Misty Step (a trivial expenditure of your resources) and just wail on the foes with your blades.

ROUND 1
16 DEX Rapier BS: Bonus Action for Bladesong, runs up and hits the foe twice using extra attack. 2d8+6, average 15 damage.
16 DEX Shortsword BS: Bonus Action for Bladesong, runs up and hits foe twice using extra attack. 2d6+6, average 13 damage.

ROUND 2
16 DEX Rapier BS: Hits the foe twice using extra attack. No bonus action. 2d8+6, average 15 damage. 30 DPR total.
16 DEX Shortsword BS: Hits the foe twice using extra attack, uses bonus action for a shortsword attack. 3d6+6, average 16.5 damage. 29.5 DPR Total.

ROUND 3
Rapier Elf: Two more attacks. Uses bonus action for Misty Step. 45 DPR total.
Shortsword Elf: Two more attacks. Uses bonus action for Misty Step. 42.5 DPR total.

ROUND 4
Rapier Elf: Two more attacks. Hanging bonus action. 60. DPR total.
Shortsword Elf: Two more attacks. Uses bonus action for shortsword attack. 59 DPR total.

So really, it's often a DPR increase when you count the opportunity cost of bonus action clog. It's too much rigmarole for little benefit.

DWing can be worth it in the late game in certain circumstances (You have poisons, a lot of magical items, Song of Victory, a Tenser's Transformation or two), but it's generally not worth it. It's especially not worth sinking permanent character resources (like that Dual Wielder feat) into it.

2. I have a Tressym familiar, which has a bunch of great goodies, including seeing Invisible creatures. The problem is if it dies, I don't get another one. I really love cats RL and the thing is totally adorable, so I find the minor increase in power at higher levels not really worth risking my familiar from a roleplay standpoint. I also have a Ring of Spell Storing, however, so my plan right now is to use my Familiar as an extra concentration slot and have it stay out of danger areas after using the spell on me.

3. Sure.

For Easy/Medium encounters, I generally use spells like Protection from Good and Evil/Blur to conserve spell slots.
For Hard/Deadly encounters with solo or one or two heavy-hitting monsters, I use Ray of Enfeeblement or Telekinesis, depending on if they're a STR-based attacker or not.
If I want to drain an monster's Legendary saving throws, Ray of Enfeeblement and Sunbeam are quite efficient at doing so, but my party is generally so efficient that they can kill the target with melee damage faster than making an opening for a save.
If the game is foolish enough to throw a bunch of ground-based melee opponents at you, upcast a Fly for the party members that are juicier targets. The barbarian and STR-based Eldritch Knight may balk at having to plink away with javelins, but expending no resources other than a level 5-6 spell is a good use of a spell slot.
If you're fighting a lot of threatening CR 2-6 mobs, "deal with them later" spells like Banishment, Wall of Force, and Fear have your back.

If you're unsure of what to do, it's rarely a bad idea to throw out Web, Phantasmal Force, Suggestion. You can also run around with a Conjure Elemental, though keep in mind that unless you have a Banishment or Dispel Magic on standby you can't really use your concentration slot to do something else. It's metagaming, but I like to start the day out on canned adventures or blind dungeon crawls with a Conjure Elemental because it's a good use of a concentration slot but you generally have the option to switch over to something better later in the day.

I haven't tried this in actual play yet, but for mass encounters I definitely want to try out Transmute Rock + a good concentration spell like Sleet Storm or Black Tentacles or Watery Sphere.

 

[Felipe Marques]

Awesome. Thank you very much!

 

[rczarnec]

Also, where is TT from? I could not find it.

Tenser's Transformation is from Xanathar's.

 

[Gadget]

It should be noted that Tensor's Transformation gives you proficiency in heavy armor you could not possibly don before the spell duration was over (it takes 10 minutes to don heavy armor). And, as you are likely not already proficient, donning the armor and then casting the spell would not be possible, RAW. Not really much of an issue for a blade-singer, as they likely would not need or want to have heavy armor, but it is an issue.

 

[Rofel Wodring]

I don't particularly care much for the idea behind Tenser's Transformation, but it's a more effective spell than I thought. Especially if you have Haste backup from someone/something else.

Generally, while status effects and CC are still useful, one thing 5E D&D did do was make it so that running up to an enemy and whaling on them with attacks was more more useful than in previous editions.

And a 14th-level 18 DEX/18 INT Bladesinger with nothing but shortswords can expect to do with a full-attack action do about 75 damage in a round. Which they probably will, since they have advantage on the roll. That's very close to Endgame GMW Eldritch Knight Plus Haste damage once you account for miss chances. And that damage can go way up if you want.

 

[SpoCk0nd0pe]

Thank you very much for the guide! It has some fresh insights on spell selection and I really like your approach looking at the save types.

I would love to know how you set up your contingencies.

If you look into Bladesinger multi class options, might I suggest pairing with Arcane Trickster 12? That way you can get into range of meaningful melee damage and also get all the Rogues' skill monkey goodies. A BS/AT is as good as the rogue at skill monkeing, can usually outdo sword and board fighters in melee and is a decent spell caster. He lacks higher level spell slots but he gets a ton of memorizations in return.