D&D 5E Help deciding Divination Wizard vs. Bladesinger

[WASDHammer]

Great feedback, all.

One thing I was mulling over, actually, was multiclassing Bladesinger 11/Echo Knight 4. The idea was to create an "Echosinger", who would fold space/time to change the outcome in battle. For flavor, I could use the Echos to fold space, creating duplicates of myself across different dimensions to join the fray. Could be crazy fun to send out an Echo ahead of me to make my melee attack for me. Or alternatively, if I am in trouble, swap places with the echo to get out of trouble as sort of a bonus action "misty step". Even cooler, grab sentinel, sit back as my echo engages on my behalf, and if the baddie tries to escape, lock him down with an OA.

For additional flavor, Mirror Image, Shield could be my "space folding defense" spells, and I could even alter space/time to change outcomes (Lucky). I would miss out on Level 7 & 8 Wizard spells, but those are really two spell slots (big ones, I know but still, they aren't exactly used that often).

So the build would look something like this:
Variant Human
Stats (at lvl 15): STR 9 / DEX 17 / CON 16 / INT 20 / WIS 13 / CHA 11
Progression: Wizard 6 > Fighter 4 > Wizard 5 or Wizard 2 > Fighter 4 > Wizard 9 (to bring online earlier but big delay to extra attack).
Feats: Starting (Lucky), ASI W4: +2 INT, ASI F4: Warcaster, ASI W8: Sentinel (or Piercer for the +1 DEX and added dmg bonus)
Spells would still follow normal Bladesinger, but now with added Second Wind and Action Surge.

It could be a totally non-viable play, but what do you think? Could be fun, right?

 

[Blue]

I had a heck of a lot of fun playing a bladesinger 1-13 in Avernus. That was pre-Tasha's, and the extra attack change addressed the low damage issue I had. I raised DEX faster than INT and my spell list was not focused on things that required saves or spell attacks. I was very hard to hurt a lot - between a fantastic AC while bladesinger and spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, Misty Step for OA free repositioning and eventually Counterspell I could tie up half the foe's melee combatants on one side while the party dealt with others on the far side.

I had a heck of a lot mroe slots left over for utility, including high level utility that often only gets used in combat like Wall of Force.

Just as a side note, Custom Lineage says "Instead of..." and JC has confirmed that Custom Lineage is instead of and not any existing race from the book - for an existing race you play that race. So you can't pick Custom Lineage and at some point pick up a racial feat like Elven Accuracy. I mention this because once you start getting things like Great Invisibility (or the pseudo-trap option Tenser's Transformation), you can generate a lot of Advantage and may want it.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I played a bladesinger to level 10. The significant thing I found different from playing a full wizard was that I had to decide at the beginning (or very early on) of every combat if my character was going to hang back and cast spells or charge in and swing his sword. Honestly, I enjoyed the decision making process and variety. I'm considering playing another bladesinger in an upcoming campaign.

So that is why I would ask you "Do you want to occasionally mix it up in melee or not?" in order to prompt you to decide.

 

[WASDHammer]

I'm itching to hit stuff and then shoot fireballs.

 

[FrogReaver]

I'm itching to hit stuff and then shoot fireballs.

I get the impression you want to play a bladesinger. It will be fun and effective. The goal of D&D isn't to have the most effective character ever, it's to have the most fun character ever, and if hitting stuff and fireballing is what you find fun right now then go for it.

One alternative take on the 'hit stuff and fireball' concept. Start Fighter 1. Take the rest levels as evoker wizard (so you can fireball on top of yourself and allies). Use Rapier and Shield (equip) with Booming Blade/Greenflame blade. You'll be trading a bit of melee damage, but fireballing will be much easier.

 

[Blue]

As a side note, while bladesinging you could have the highest AC in the party, and with plenty of extra slots to give it +5 until you go again if you are hit. Mobile isn't needed - while you are built on a chassis that has 2 less HPs per level, a bladesinger in combat is pushing the top boundary of the bounded accuracy range and you will take less damage from attacks than your average front-liner. Now, you may want mobile for a particular play style, but it is not needed to play a bladesinger. I'd recommend raising DEX with your ASIs first - it always applies even when not bladesinging, and it helps your attacks.

 

[Blue]

I played a bladesinger to level 10. The significant thing I found different from playing a full wizard was that I had to decide at the beginning (or very early on) of every combat if my character was going to hang back and cast spells or charge in and swing his sword. Honestly, I enjoyed the decision making process and variety. I'm considering playing another bladesinger in an upcoming campaign.

So that is why I would ask you "Do you want to occasionally mix it up in melee or not?" in order to prompt you to decide.

I played a bladesinger 1-13 pre-Tasha's. While I would have loved the Extra Attack change, one thing the pre-Tasha's bladesinger had going was that it was two uses of Bladesinging per short rest, instead of PROF per long rest. Because of that I basically never had to make the choice to bladesing or not.

Which is a long-winded way of saying I hadn't considered that now it will be a bit split like this where there are times you can't/don't want to bladesing. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[ECMO3]

I played a bladesinger 1-13 pre-Tasha's. While I would have loved the Extra Attack change, one thing the pre-Tasha's bladesinger had going was that it was two uses of Bladesinging per short rest, instead of PROF per long rest. Because of that I basically never had to make the choice to bladesing or not.

Which is a long-winded way of saying I hadn't considered that now it will be a bit split like this where there are times you can't/don't want to bladesing. Thanks for pointing it out.

Having played both before and after, it does make a difference in tier 1/2, but not a huge one.

By tier 3 it is not really an issue. You are not bladesinging every battle, but you have enough with upcast false life, greater invisibility, blur etc that you can still be in melee every battle if you want to be. You just have to be a bit more cautious .... sometimes.

The main difference is I use haste less and blur or greater invisibility more than I did pre-tasha's which over the course of the day in some ways undoes the damage bonus I got with the better extra attack.

One thing I want to try is a 1-level death cleric dip. If you do that you can use extra attack and make an attack and then twin Toll The Dead against adjacent foes for 3d12 each in tier 3.