Masters of Sword and Spell: The Bladesinger's Handbook (By Adamclare)

[Veep]

Masters of Sword and Spell: The Bladesinger's Handbook
​

Bladesingers mix swordplay and magic to create a class that provides moderate single target control while having the capability to do nearly striker level damage.

Bladesingers attack with melee basic attacks, but their primary feature is their Bladespells, a set of No-Action attacks that trigger whenever they hit with a melee basic attack during their turn. Bladespells deal automatic damage as well as apply a variety of effects on their targets and they target either the enemy hit by the melee basic attack or any enemy within 10 squares of the Bladesinger. This gives Bladesingers the ability to either focus on a single enemy and get the equivilent of a striker mechanic or send the control where it is most needed, even if they can't get there themselves. The Bladespell mechanic forces Bladesingers to think more tactically than other melee classes because they must consider the optimum use of a slide, slow or knocking a creature prone over a large portion of the battlefield.

Bladesingers are at their best while under the effect of their Bladesong, an encounter utility power which provides a huge boost to attack and damage rolls as well as a defensive bonus until the end of their next turn. While under their Bladesong, they transform into full strikers and attempt to inflict that most potent of status effects: dead.

Because they are an Intelligence/Dexterity class, Bladesingers suffer from two weak non-armor defenses. This is a major concern considering that they are primaraily melee fighters, so they should be prepared to invest in defensive items and feats to shore up these weaknesses.

This Handbook uses the following system for ratings:

Red: An useless or overshadowed option (from 0/10 to 2/10)
Violet: An option insufficient for most needs but that can be worked, with some difficulty, into something good (from 3/10 to 5/10)
Black: An option sufficient for your needs but nothing more (from 6/10 to 7/10)
Blue: A solid choice which should be always taken into account (from 8/10 to 9/10)
Sky Blue: The best choice in a single spot. These choices are never wrong (10/10)
Gold: A rare rating given to specify that if you make another choice, you are probably doing something wrong (mandatory, without rank)

Unranked: sometimes choices are out of rank. I'm reserving this green hue for this strange need, usually for non combat-related powers.

This Handbook will cover the following sources:

AP - Arcane Power
AV - Adventurer's Vault
AV 2 - Adventurer's Vault 2
D XXX - Dragon Magazine, issue XXX
DMA 2009 - Dragon Magazine Annual 2009
DP - Divine Power
DSCS - Dark Sun Campaign Setting
Du XXX - Dungeon Magazine, issue XXX
E1 - Death's Reach (Adventure)
FRPG - Forgotten Realms Player's Guide
HoFL - Heroes of Fallen Lands
HoFK - Heroes of Forgotten Kingdoms
Homm - Village of Hommlet (Adventure)
HoS - Heroes of Shadow
NCG - Neverwinter Campaign Guide
MOTP - Manual of the Planes
MP - Martial Power
MP2- Martial Power 2
P1 - King of the Trollhaunt Warrens (Adventure)
P2 - Demon Queen Enclave (Adventure)
P3 - Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress (Adventure)
PHB - Player's Handbook
PHB 2 - Player's Handbook 2
PHB 3 - Player's Handbook 3
PHB D - Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn
PHB T - Player's Handbook Races: Tiefling
PHH 1 - Player's Handbook Heroes: Series 1
PHH 2 - Player's Handbook Heroes: Series 2
PP - Primal Power
PsP - Psionic Power



Special Thanks to:

Nausicaa for The Power of Knowledge - The Wizard's Handbook

LDB for the standard handbook format

Anyone with comments, suggestions, or contributions to make to the guide

Class Traits:

Hit Points and Surges: Basic striker HP, which is good for a controller. At least you don’t get the Arcanist and Mage’s abysmal HP.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: You get what you need, no more, no less. There’s probably a build that uses hammers or axes, but most builds will use blades. You will probably upgrade to Hide Armor, but it’s hardly a requirement.

Implement Proficiency: It’s a bit awkward, but it gets the job done. You get weapon-as-implement and get to treat your weapon as a Wand.


Class Features:

Blade Magic: It either saves a feat on implement proficiency or gold on another implement. The new expertise feats applicable to Bladesingers are both fairly underwhelming, but they're generally better than Versatile Expertise for Int builds. I hope the final version of the expertise feats has a stronger benefit and doesn't limit the bonus to a specific power source because you're almost better off taking both Light Blade Expertise and Wand Expertise.

Guarded Flourish: +2 shield bonus to AC is great as a class feature. It keeps your AC competitive, but it is a shield bonus so some things won't stack with it. It does let you upgrade to Hide Armor, which you should pick that up at some point.

Cantrips: Suggestion is very good and is probably a must take if you dump Charisma. The others are all great if your DM lets you use them creatively.

Bladesong: Pretty much the reason for the class existing at all. It provides a huge bonus to damage for two turns and includes a +2 bonus to attack rolls and defenses as an added advantage. You should try and make as many attacks as possible while under its effects. It grants additional benefits as you level up.

Instinctive Attack: You might end up ignoring this completely, but for most Bladesingers it's a welcome boo. Swordmages and Battleminds have to burn a feat to attack with their primary stat, so it's nice to get it for free.

Bladesinger Daily Powers: Daily powers are where the Bladesinger is really lacking. Wizards have some very good encounter powers, but they are simply not at the level of Wizard daily powers in terms of control or damage. You won’t be able to bring the same amount of raw power to bear as a standard Wizard and lack the more potent status effects they can inflict.

Spellbook: The spellbook is good for some added versatility, but unfortunately you’ll rarely know when your spellbook spell will be better than your prepared spell until it’s too late.

Arcane Strike: This helps with the daily power issue a little bit. What are you doing with your minor actions? Nothing? Well then you effectively get a free attack when you use your daily powers. Honestly, this is the only feature that makes the daily powers worth using for most characters. It’s a lot more effective to boost your melee basic attacks than your daily powers and every round you don’t make a basic attack is a round where that investment is wasted.

Steely Retort: Free attacks are always good, even if you can't trigger Bladespells off of them. You are under Bladesong, so at least your attacks will hit harder.

Unerring Bladespell: The ability to guarantee the application of your primary control feature should be great, but the requirement to by under Bladesong makes this almost worthless. Bladesong is when you will be using Heroic Effort, Elven Accuracy, Stone of Earth, your Harper Pin, etc to make sure your attacks hit. If you trigger this with any regularity, you're in bad shape.

Bladespell Burst: This would have been fantastic at heroic, pretty good at paragon, but this is epic, so I expect more. Once per encounter you can Bladespell in a burst 1 centered on a creature. The centering requirement limits the number of targets it can hit and burst 1 is pathetically small at epic.



Class Stats:

Strength: Strength is tricky to evaluate because hypothetically, you could just make your melee basic attacks with it which makes it your primary. Have I mentioned that you’ll want to qualify for Hide Armor? You’ll probably want a couple points here to hit that magic 13 you need.

Constitution: As a melee combatant, you can’t afford to ignore it. Half-Elves can get a melee basic attack from it, which is wonderful for boosting Fortitude and getting some much needed HP and healing surges. You also need it to qualify for Hide Armor, which is important.

Dexterity: This will be an important stat for every build. Start it as high as you can afford and boost it often. Your Bladespells rely on it and it supports a wide variety of skills. If you decide to ignore Intelligence, it will also determine your Reflex and AC.

Intelligence: Hypothetically this is your primary stat. Realistically, many builds will ignore this in favor of another attack stat. It’s not even required for your daily powers as there are plenty of “No Attack” powers available, but it does increase the variety of powers you can choose significantly. It’s also tied to Arcana, which you are automatically trained in and is a generally useful skill. It will also determine the AC and Reflex for most Bladesingers. Start it as high as reasonable and keep pumping it.

Wisdom: Your will needs to come from somewhere and this should probably be it unless you have a way of getting a Charisma melee basic attack or get a racial bonus to Charisma, in which case this becomes a likely dump stat. Perception is the best skill in the game and you get it as a class skill so I’d recommend keeping this at least decent.

Charisma: One of the likely dump stats. For Tieflings and Half-Elves this can become the primary stat. For other races, you can expect that someone else will likely be better at the social skills, so unless there’s a Charisma based multiclass you want or you get a racial Charisma boost, Wisdom is generally better.



Races:

Intelligence Builds:

The default Bladesinger build.


Eladrin: The quintessential Bladesinger. Perfect stats, a strong racial power, and very good racial support. Quite simply, one of the best races for the class.

Elf: Another archetypal Bladesinger. Ideal stats, increased speed, and a very strong racial power.

Human: Humans are generally good for most classes and this is no exceptions. Humans have the very important option of taking a proper Wizard at-will power. You can pick up an area attack (Beguiling Strands and Winged Horde make good picks) to shore up a big weakness of the class. A bonus to non-armor defenses is also great on Dex/Int class and an extra feat is nothing to scoff at.

Tiefling: A bonus to intelligence if you want it, but you can also multi-class paladin and get a melee basic attack keyed off Charisma. Tieflings have creat racial support which makes up for their lack of Dexterity boost.

Shadar-kai: A perfect stat match is always good, but a very strong racial power (especially for a melee semi-squishy) is enough to push them up to light blue.

Gnome: Perfect stats, but the size and speed penalties as well as a lackluster racial power mean you are better off taking a different race in most cases.

Deva: It gets an Intelligence boost and Memory of a Thousand Lifetimes is great for making that crucial save or landing that key attack. Damage resistance to a common damage type is big plus as well.

Shade: Too bad you can’t take both Int and Dex, but you get your choice of either which is still pretty good. The healing surge penalty is a bummer, but Stealth training is a welcome addition and significantly increases your utility out of combat.

Githzerai: Intelligence boost is a good starting point and Githzerai Blade Mastery is one of the only reasons to use a Bastard Sword over a Rapier. Iron Mind is very strong and if you pop it while under Bladesong, you should be very difficult to hit.

Shardmind: I love the features but hate the fluff. It gets an Int boost and it’s racial utility is great during your Bladesong turns. Shard Swarm also has a lot of strong additional features that you can add with feats to improve it’s already considerable utility.

Stength Builds:

These builds ignore your Wizard aspect almost completely, but Stength can still be used for a melee basic attack, so Str/Dex races are pretty good choices. You limit your daily power selection, but gain a decent Fortitude defense.

Thri-Kreen: Thri-Kreen are very mobile and their racial power is great under Bladesong, which makes them a solid choice for non-Int builds.

Half-Orc: Half-Orcs are a generally good Str/Dex race. Furious Assault is a bit wasted on your low [W] value but Half-Orcs include some built in resilience and make great chargers. Charging is very well supported and works with Bladespells, so any bonuses to it should be strongly considered.

Dragonborn: Dragonbreath and Bladesong are a powerful combination. It's one of the best supported racial powers and makes a very stong addition to your Bladesong turns.

Miscellanious:

These races allow you to use a power from another class that counts as a melee basic attack. There are several good options and they allow you to use things like White Lotus feats that are otherwise useless for Bladesingers.


Half-Elf: Dilettante…er…Half-Elf makes a great race for Bladesingers. Eldritch Strike, Solinor’s Hammer, or any other attack that can be used as a melee basic attack will let you benefit from better support and still use your Bladespells. They don’t get a Dex boost, but Dilettante opens so many options it’s hard not to give them a good grade.

Revenant: Sadly, this is probably the best race for Bladesingers. You get to be a Half-Elf and you get a Dex boost, too. Unnatural Vitality is also extremely powerful so it's probably better than half-elf for most builds. It’s a great way to gain some added durability and if you’re like me, you hate losing a turn because you happen to be unconscious.

Other races:

Any race with a Dexterity bonus is at least Black. Melee training will let any race be proficient as a Bladesinger, so if there is some other race you are set on playing, go ahead. You will be fine as long as you can muster a post-racial 18 in your attack stat and 14 in Dexterity, which luckily every race can do. Let me know if I’ve left out a race that has some particularly strong racial features or feats that bump it up to at least Blue and they will get their own write up. I'll add write ups for the Black races soon.



Skills:

Acrobatics (Dex): It keys off your secondary stat, so you’ll be decent at it even without training. It has some good skill powers associate with it and it’s required by some paragon paths if you end up multi-classing into Rogue. Training will also let you reduce falling damage, which is always good to have when that situation comes up.

Arcana (Int): A fantastic skill and you get it for free. Often applicable in skill challenges, covers a wide range of monster knowledge, grants access to the most rituals if you take Ritual Caster. It keys off your likely primary stat, so you should be as good as anyone else in the party.

Athletics (Str): It keys off a possible primary stat and is hugely useful for a melee character. Some of the skill powers are pretty good and nothing is more embarrassing than failing a jump or climb check and falling onto your face.

Diplomacy (Cha): Diplomacy: You get a cantrip that lets you replace this with Arcana once per encounter. Your arcana will be higher than your diplomacy even if you train both, so pick something else and appreciate the fact that you can make an awesome diplomacy check without any training.

History (Int): It keys off of your primary stat and has some interesting skill powers.

Intimidate (Cha): Someone else should be better at this that you.

Nature (Wis): It’s an important knowledge skill to have. Hopefully someone else in the party has it covered as a lot of classes get it for free, but it might come down to you. I wouldn’t let the party go without at least someone trained it in.

Perception (Wis): Perception is probably the most useful skill in the game. Take it.



Weapons

Bastard Sword: The best heavy blade you can use one handed but it's not worth the feat unless your Githzerai.

Broadsword: The increased proficiency bonus of the longsword makes this an inferior heavy blade.

Dagger: They are light blades, but the d4 weapon die means that unless you want to use a Superior Implement Dagger, you're better off with another weapon.


Khoposh:
It opens up Axe support, which can be a big deal, but light blades are generally better.

Longsword: The heavy blade of choice. There's some heavy blade only enhancements that make this worth considering over a rapier.

Rapier: The weapon of choice for most Bladesingers. Light blade support is fantastic and a d8 weapon die makes this the biggest light blade you can get.

Scimitar:
Like the broadsword, High Crit is not enough to compensate for its -1 to attack rolls compared to a longsword.

Short Sword: Obsoleted by Rapier's downgrade from Superior to Military weapon.

Drow Long Knife: Heavy thrown is situationally useful, but rarely worth the feat.

Katar: High crit is potentially worth a feat and smaller damage die compared to a rapier, but probably not for most people.

Spiked Shield: Probably not worth the feat but some feats and features require a shield, and this is the only way to get it without giving up Bladespells and Bladesong (which is basically the entire class).

Wrist Razors: Not for attacking, but you can get some fun properties. You're generally better off with a proper arm slot item. Might I recomend Bracers of Mighty Striking.


At-Will Powers:

Melee Basic Attack: It’s your bread and butter. It triggers your Bladespells and uses your primary stat. You should be making one every turn, sometimes twice a turn and sometimes on other people’s turn.

Magic Missile: It's pretty lackluster but at least you get it for free. It’s a ranged basic attack with range 20, so you can always rely on it if you can’t get into melee range. I would pick up a +1 Master's Want of Magic Missile to get the automatic push 1 on it. It's trivially cheap after early heroic.

Shadow Sever: Prone is a pretty strong condition, especially at-will and especially in heroic. It forces enemies to charge, it makes them grant combat advantage, and take a -2 penalty to attacks untill they use a move action to stand. The one downside is that it deals necrotic damage, which is commonly resisted.

Dancing Fire: Fire is commonly resisted and combat advantage isn’t very strong control. Probably pass unless your Tiefling.

Dazzling Sunray: -2 to attacks is an effective debuff in most circumstances. Radiant damage is great and has a lot of support. In the Forgotten Realms, Morninglords are all over the place and having one in the party makes this pretty much mandatory.

Frost Bite: Slow can be very good in the right circumstances and cold damage has fantastic item and feat support. Two minor gripes: The slow ends before your next turn, so you can’t use World Serpent’s Grasp to knock them prone (although your allies can, depending on the initiative order), and by the time you can hit monsters with melee basic attacks, slow has lost a lot of its utility. This gets better in paragon when you can use it to exploit frost vulnerability.

Lightning Ring: This power is weak for a couple reasons. First, it’s soft control, so the monster gets to decide if it want to be controlled or not. Second, the punishment damage is so low that it doesn’t provide enough incentive to stay where it is nor enough to turn you into a striker when they move anyways. If you’re building your Bladesinger as a striker, it improves significantly, but you’re still better off using a Bladespell that can benefit from vulnerability.

Unseen Hand: Force damage is rarely resisted and slide 3 can be extremely powerful. Slide 3 on someone you didn’t even hit can be downright unfair. It combines very well with other control and prone, slow, and immobilize all get much better if you can move the target out of melee or charge range and if you have someone making zones, this can trigger it twice. It’s a power that favors tactical thinking and if used right can destroy monster positioning. You can also slide people off cliffs, so there’s that.


Ways to Recharge Bladesong
I think this is important enough to merrit its own section. Items, feats, paragon path features, etc will all be included in their respective sections as well, but here they will be presented as a simple list ordered by level without ratings.
Level 11: Spellstorm Mage (PHB) feature "Storm Spell". Once per day, make a Wisdom check and recover a power based on your result. You are gaurenteed at least an encounter utility power, so you're set.

Level 11: Wizard of the Spiral Tower (PHB) Action point feature "Spiral Tower Action". Spend an action point to recover an expended encounter power (doesn't specify attack or utility, so presumably either) instead of taking an extra action. Harsh, but repeatable.

Level 12: Blood Mage (PHB) utility power "Soul Burn". Daily power, minor action, spend a healing surge and regain an expended encounter power instead of hit points.

Level 14+: Battlemaster Weapon (AV): Item daily power, minor action, recovers any encounter power.

Level 16: Spellscarred Savant (FRPG) feature "Spellfire Mastery". Expend a Spellscarred encounter power to recover an arcane encounter power. Requires Student of the Plage multiclass feat.

Level 21: Ring of Wizardry (PHB): Item daily power, minor action, recovers an arcane encounter utility power.

Level 29: Opal Ring of Rememberance (AV): Item daily power, minor action, recovers an arcane encounter utility power.

 

[Veep]

All powers now up and rated. Let me know if there's a rating you disagree with or think needs more explaination.

Level 1 Daily Powers:
Non-Int builds will go straight to Charm of Misplaced Wrath. Int controllers will favor Grasping Shadows or Ray of Enfeeblement, as well as Charm of Misplaced Wrath. Int strikers will like Burning Hands or Skewering Spikes.

Astral Wasp: Lightning Ring as a daily power, only less damage on the punishment. It’s weak for all the same reasons as Lightning Ring, but it’s a daily power and targets Fortitude.

Burning Hands: It’s big (although unfriendly) and does damage on a miss. A solid choice.

Charm of Misplaced Wrath: The choice for non-Int builds and a good one for them, too. A brute’s basic attack can be pretty devastating and for Int build, getting a Daze and slide out of it makes this a very strong choice.

Chill Strike: Dazes on a hit, slows on a miss. A solid choice.

Conduit of Ice: A difficult terrain and damaging zone. Pretty strong and can punish enemies locked down by your defender.

Darkening Flame:
It’s a minion popper if they’re bunched up properly, but it’s mediocre damage and no other control.

Empowering Lightning: Not great damage and a push. Pretty weak.

Force Orb: A ranged attack that grants an area burst 1 attack on a hit. If you want the area attack, pick a proper area attack

Grasping Shadows:
Very good. Area Burst 1 slow that targets will and a damaging zone that you can use Unseen Hand to exploit.

Icy Terrain: Proning in area burst 1 is pretty good. The zone is weak compared to Grasping Shadows, but Prone and difficult terrain can ruin a melee monster’s first turn.

Illusory Obstacles: No damage, but party friendly area burst 1 daze is good enough that it doesn’t matter. The miss effect is very good, too.

Leaden Transmutation:
Slowed and can’t shift as an effect is ok, but it compares unfavorably to Chill Strike.

Orbmaster’s Incendiary Detonation: A generally stronger version of Icy Terrain. The damage on the zone is low, but it applies at the start of turn.

Ray of Enfeeblement: Weakened is a very good condition, sometimes better than daze.

Skewering Spikes:
A triple attack is very attractive while under Bladesong.

Staffstrike Corrosion:
Granting you and your allies concealment is potentially strong against artillery, but it’s a generally weak power.

Twilight Falls: Burst 1 that dazes a target in the origin square. It’s party friendly and the zone is an effective debuff against monsters locked in melee.

Level 2 Utility Powers:

Arcane Insight: A reroll on Arcana checks can be useful in skill challenges and for rituals if you decide to take the feat.

Daunting Presence: A strong penalty to enemy attacks and a bonus to Intimidate.It effects mutliple enemies, but Shield interupts.

Expeditious Retreat: Great mobility power. It would be amazing as an encounter power, but it's pretty weak for a daily.

Familiar Harrier: Great if you have a familiar.Better if you have Familiar Mount.

Feather Fall: Occasionally useful, but not frequently.

Float: Pretty weak. If your DM loves pressure traps, maybe gave it a look.

Glib Tongue:
The attack bonus is mostly wasted, but the skill bonus can be nice.

Guardian Blades: For Int builds it’s a great retribution power. Makes you immune to melee minions, which is nice.

Instant Friends: Role play only but very powerful power in that respect.

Jump: Good mobility power. Pseudo-leaderish in that you can give your move action to an ally.

Lifetaker: This grants a lot of temporary hit points and is a big durability upgrade. It would be nice if you could trigger it when it was most needed, but it’s still strong.

Memory to Mist:
One of my favorite pure role play powers. Makes interrogation more exciting and less awkward.

Moonstride: A good “escape” power. Insubstantial will prevent a lot of damage and the movement can get you out of the enemy’s reach or behind your defender. Better than Shield if you find yourself frequently mobbed, but generally a bit worse.

Mystical Debris: A great power that lets you reshape the battlefield. Combine with Terrain Advantage for permanent combat advantage. Much worse for non-Int builds.

Phantasmal Terrain:
I can’t imagine ever using this power. DMs use terrain and traps against the players. Making those features more potent seems like the opposite of what you want to do.

Shield: Probably the best power for most heroes. Everyone gets hit eventually and negating a crucial hit can be the difference between victory and TPK.

Spectral Image: It’s defense are so low that at its very best, this wastes a single standard action for team monster. If it could reliably do that, it would actually be decent, but the restrictions on the power prevent it from appearing a credible enough threat to draw monster attention.

Summon Shadow Serpent: I categorize this a role play power because it really has no place in combat. It scouts, I suppose, but until initiative is rolled, scouting is basically role play.

Level 5 Daily Powers:
Non-Int builds will like Radiant Pillar, Int controllers get the fantastic Color Spray, while Int strikers get a great area power in Fire Shroud.

Arcane Bolt: No attack required, but only marginally better than magic missile. Non-int builds are better off missing with another power than using this one.

Blissful Ignorance: Decent control without an attack roll. Useful for getting yourself or your party out of sticky situations or shutting down enemy soldiers.

Chill Claws: Minor debuff on a two target attack. Probably too weak.

Cinderfall: Low damage for a damage only power. The effect damage is too low to make it better than the level 1 bursts that offer zones or additional effects.

Color Spray: Great power. A huge, albeit unfriendly, dazing blast. The damage is low, but this is one of the strongest control powers at this level.

Cordon of Bones: Basic area attack with a damaging zone. Good, but not great.

Ebony Razors: Big blast and it grants concealment. The prickly effect line is stronger for you than for standard wizards because you’re more likely to be in melee.

Fire Shroud: Fantastic power. Burst 3 is huge, it’s party friendly, and it causes ongoing damage.

Hypnotic Pattern: No damage, but great control. It has the potential to wreck several monster’s turns. If you’re party has an Aura defender, this can be a good set-up power for them.

Icy Rays: Immobilizing two monsters at range is very good.

Maze of Mirrors: No damage, but mass immobilizing is a great way to start an encounter.

Melting Pool: Weak damage, but it’s an area burst 2. If you want the big area power of the level, grab Shock Sphere.

Pinioning Vortex: As funny as I imagine this looking, it doesn’t last long enough to deny the target actions, which makes it poor control. Also, a bit silly that it dazes and the target grants you combat advantage. Seems redundant.

Radiant Pillar: The power of choice for non-Int builds and one worth consideration for Int builds, too. Auto-blind is very powerful. I wish it was party friendly, but oh well. The ability to apply radiant vulnerability is situationally useful at heroic, but in Paragon and Epic can reliably deal damage.

Shock Beetle Swarm: The beetle misses the minion killing ability of most auto-damage zones, and relying on your Con modifier is not going to yield impressive damage for the builds that can use this power.

Shock Sphere: Area burst 2 and miss half make this a pretty strong choice for striker builds.

Level 6 Utility Powers:

Able Companion (D 380): Enables ally movement, but a very small effect for a daily power.

Darklight (HoS): This might come up occasionally and at least it lasts for the whole encounter, but you can get Light as a cantrip.

Dimension Door (PHB-HoFL): Good mobility power but underwhelming for a daily.

Disguise Self (PHB): Role play only and almost useless even for that. It's description basically says that the power does not work for anything you might want to use it for.

Dispel Magic (PHB-HoFL): It's one of the few ways to get rid of enemy zones, so if that's a problem for your party, this is the power for you.

Emerald Eye (AP): An ok attack bonus for your charm and illusion daily powers, but it doesn't stack with Bladesong and honestly, you should only be using daily powers during Bladesong.

Familiar Call (D 382): A huge movement power if you're using a familiar.

Fire Shield (AP): Strong resistances and a powerful retribution effect. You're in melee and this will either keep you alive or add a significant amount of damage. Either way a strong choice.

Force Ladder (D 383): A very weak movement power.

Glowering Wrath (D 381): A decent increase on forced movement powers and an ok skill bonus. Fairly unexeciting.

Invisibility (PHB-HoFL): A major action sink. The effect is strong, but not worth the actions required to use it.

Levitate (PHB): Unlike standard wizards, you want to be in melee, so this power loses a lot of its appeal. The defensive bonus is pretty harsh, but it's an early option to get some limited flight.

Refocus (PHBH): I really like this power. It helps overcome the awkward spellbook problem of having the right power for a given situation, but not having it memorized. RAW, this might not work with Bladesinger daily powers, but it's still useful for utility powers.

Shadow Investiture (HoS): Unless your campaign is set mostly in the Shadowfell, look elsewhere. Even then, there's better choices.

Spectral Hound (AP): It flanks and grants a bonus to defenses and perception. A weaker choice, but an acceptable one.

Summon Iron Cohort (AP): Great power. Potentially deflects a lot of damage. Gets better at higher levels when it can take those stunning and dominating attacks for you.

Wall of Fog (PHB): Blocking line of sight is fairly strong control. You can't keep monsters from walking through it, but it can be very good against artillery.

Wizard's Escape (AP-HoFL): Once per day, absolutely negate a melee attack against you. The baked in movement is also nice. A very good choice.
Level 9 Daily Powers:
Non-Int builds will grab the chaos sowing Phantom Foes. Int controllers will like the large burst and zone of Corrosive Mist. Int strikers will also like Corrosive Mist, but Lightning Bolt is a strong competitor.

Charm of the Defender: Pretty good. Potentially a lot of monster-on-monster attacks.

Concussive Echo: Effective minion dispersal, but it’s single target and the damage is only ok.

Corrosive Mist: Very nice. An area burst 2 attack that leaves an auto-damaging zone behind.

Enemies Abound: A friendly burst 1, but its rider is pretty weak.

Fire Burst: Better damage than the other burst 2 powers but that’s all it does. The zone on Corrosive Mist should do more damage than the higher damage dice.

Fire Sea Travel: Solid power. The built in teleport is nice and the rider is fairly strong, although dependant on battlefield positioning.

Ghoul Strike: There’s got to be a way to exploit missing with this power and Arcane Strike. Being reliable is a huge boon and it offers decent control between the immobilize and the zone.

Lightning Bolt: A more damaging Skewering Spikes that adds half damage on a miss. Very good for striker builds.

Murderous Twin: Good control. Dazing a monster in response to moving or attacking ends their turn right there.

Phantom Foes: The choice no-attack power of the level. Auto-slowing is nice, but you also get a 45% chance to redirect their next attack. The slow isn’t party friendly, but the attack redirection is, and area burst 2 is pretty big for this level of control.

Repelling Sphere: I like Fire Shroud better, but this is ok. The push is good battlefield control and the familiar benefit lets you use it as an area burst 3, which you haven’t been able to do before.

Spectral Ram: Single target, but push and prone at range can be very powerful. The damage is better than average and pushing on a miss makes it work well with zones.

Thunder Cage: Unlike the other Lightning Ring-esque power, this is actually decent. Because the punishment has a damage roll, it's a much stronger threat. It triggers on forced movement so you can use your Bladespell off Arcane Strike to slide them out of their square, triggering the damage, and then back into the square. It doesn’t have a “The first time...” limit on it, so I’m pretty sure this works as many times as you can get them to leave and reenter the square.

Tomebound Ooze: The most damaging power thus far and while your Con modifier won’t be very high, free damage is still good.

Twist of Space:
It’s not party friendly, but that’s almost a benefit here as you mostly want this power to rearrange the battlefield.

Winter’s Wrath: Like corrosive mist, but the zone is less effective at damaging. It does grant concealment

Worms of Minauros: Mediocre damage and mediocre control work about as well together as you'd imagine.

Level 10 Utility Powers:

Arcane Gate (PHB-HoFL): Fantastic mobility power and with good out of combat applications.

Blur (HoFL): Doesn't stack with Bladesong, but it's a strong bonus for your non-Bladesong turns. Unlike standard wizards, you'll be in melee, so the invisibility is less valuable.

Circle of Protection (D 382): The damage resistance scales poorly and the zone is fairly small. The push and extra squares of movement to enter it make it a decent control power.

Energy Devourer (HoFL): A good boost to survivability, but the damage boost will likely be wasted.

Familiar Shape (D 381): Cute. Can grant additional movement modes, but the action costs make it prohibitive to use in combat.

Feywild Spell Surge (DMA 2009): Rerolls are always good, even if it only works on your daily powers.

Illusory Wall (AP): A huge control power. I couldn't see an Int control build taking anything else.

Mass Resistance (HoFL): A good defensive buff for the entire party, but that's your leader's job. Pick a striker or controller power and leave leading to the Clerics.

Mirror Image (PHB): I really dislike this power compared to Shield and Repelling Shield. It's proactive, instead of reactive, and it never guarantees that an attack will miss, which makes it too weak for a daily power.

Phoenix Step (D 388): Very situational. You have a credible opportunity attack, so you often won't want to be removed from play.

Repelling Shield (PHBH): It doesn't work on ranged powers, which is odd because Shield does. I think the ability to work on ranged power is better than the push from this power, but you could very easily take both. The push is pretty good and you will use this every encounter. One of the better choices for the level.

Resistance (PHB): Scales better than Mass Resistance but it only effects you. The group benefits are better than the higher resistance offered here, which makes this an easy power to skip.

Summon Hammerfist Crusher (AP):
Your party strikers should be doing better damage than the crusher (if not at level 10, then fairly soon) so if you really need to destroy an object, they will do just as well.

True Seeing (AP): Very good skill bonuses and a big upgrade to your vision, but if you frequently have vision problems, your DM is being mean.

Umbral Leap (HoS): A nice mobility power. Enshrouding Candles and the Shade utility Twilight Torch can give this a lot of flexibility.

Wall of Gloom (HoS): An auto-blinding wall is a very strong control power. It's unfriendly and can't keep enemies trapped inside it, but you get to ignore the blindness, so if you're alone it can help you gain an edge or escape.

Witch's Reversal (D 382): If you took area daily powers, this is a slightly better Feywild Spell Surge, if you took single target dailies, it's non-functional.

Words of Deceit (D 381): This is a can of rules worms. If this works on Bladesinger dailies, it's gold for non-Int builds. If not, it's completely worthless.

Level 15 Daily Powers:
Non-Int builds will appreciate the control of Hold Monster. Int controllers will grab the very strong Dark Gathering, although Mesmeric Hold and Prismatic Burst are strong options. Int strikers will choose between the blasterific Thunderlance and the attack redirecting Mirror Sheen.

Arcane Arrows (D 381): Terrible power. The damage is only slightly better than Magic Missile. Even builds that are non-Int based can do much better at this level.

Arcane Chastisement (D 382): While immediate action daily attacks are generally pretty bad for Bladesings, this one is fairly good. It’s strong against elites, solos, and enemies that use large blasts and the trigger is easy and flexible enough that you will be able to trigger it during Bladesong.

Blackening Pyre (HoS): Better damage than the previous burst/zone powers, but the smaller area and weaker zone make it less effective than Corrosive Mist from level 9.

Dark Gathering (HoS): Really great power. Area burst 2 daze would be enough to rate this highly, but being party friendly, conditionally blinding a target and a huge zone of heavily obscured makes it likely the best powers of the level.

Earth Brute (AP): Poor single target damage and although it has some good tactical possibilities, it won’t be able to deny enemies actions, which is what you’re aiming to do.

Entangling Force (AP): Fairly good power that gets better if the monsters rely on teleporting or have large shifts. Should reliably keep its targets where they are for a turn. A shame it’s unfriendly because this would be perfect to throw over a defender.

Frostburn (PHB): Good size, good damage, and a decent zone. All told, an ok power, but nothing too exciting.

Hold Monster (HoFL): Restrained is a strong condition and while this power would be better with additional targets or range, it’s an auto-effect, so it just works. The power of choice for non-Int builds by a mile.

Illusory Assailant (AP): Good damage, even if it’s single target, and it flanks or blocks movement for a turn. A reasonable option, but other powers are stronger.

Mesmeric Hold (PHB): Immobilize is a strong condition and being able to target three monsters at range makes this a strong choice. Even the miss effect is good when used early.

Mirror Sphere (HoFL): Good power, but depending on how your DM handles monsters knowing what conditions they are under, it could lose some value. At its worst, the effected monster can’t attack for a turn, which is good control. It’s even better if it also eats one of its own attacks in the process, but even the miss effect will provide a strong incentive for the to spend the turn taking Total Defense.

Orbmaster's Umbral Assault (AP): Weak power. You have no way of keeping them in the zone so the blinding will have no effect. The size and damage are also abysmal for this level.

Prismatic Burst (PHB): Large burst, better than average damage, and a strong hit effect (blind) make this a solid choice. The miss effect is good, too.

Thunderlance (PHB): A strong blast power with good damage and a large forced movement effect. A solid choice.

Twisted Lightning (HoFL): Above average damage (and miss half) to several enemies. Its placement makes it semi-friendly. Overall an ok power.

Wake of Fire (D 388): Three target and area burst 2 powers will reliably hit more targets for better damage and stronger control.

Level 16 Utility Powers:
Beneficient Tranformation (HoFL): It provides the perfect answer to a particular problem. It lets you fly against enemies that fly, resist their most used damage type, or level the sensory playing field. While weak for a daily, its flexibility makes it worth a glance.

Clever Escape (AP):
Even once per day, a minor action teleport and invisibility is a strong choice. The illusion is a nice bonus and the DC is actually non-trivial for Int builds.

Dancing Shadows (HoS): It’s like a weaker Shield, but it can target an ally. The effect is likely too small to justify taking this.

Dimension Switch (D 380-HoFL): I like it. It both gets you into melee (preferably in position for a Feral Armor attack) and gets an ally out of trouble.

Displacement (PHB):
A good deflection power. Great when you or an ally is crit. It suffers the same problems as Second Chance in that the enemy is still fairly likely to hit on the reroll, but at least it works on attacks that hit by more than 4.

Flame's Protection (D 388): The lesser version of Fire Shield. While weaker than its bigger brother, you can use it every encounter and spread the damage resistance and prickliness around.

Fly (PHB-HoFL): By level 16, enough potential enemies can fly that it’s worth having the ability to take to the air yourself. If you get an encounter long fly speed from your paragon path or item, you can skip it, but it should end up in your spellbook at least.

Greater Invisibility (PHB): Much better for scouting than Invisibility and less of an action sink, but it still requires a standard action to cast, which limits its utility unless you can use it before the start of combat.

Phantom Mask (AP-HoFL): The best disguise power yet. The DC scales off your Int instead of relying on your likely dismal Bluff. It also effects the entire party so it has some good role play potential.

Phase Shift (AP): Insubstantial and phasing are both good but as a daily power, it’s underwhelming.

Soul Harvest (HoS):
Another awkward leaderish power. Shadow Sever will reliably kill minions with necrotic damage, so it’s not hard to trigger and the effect is fairly strong, but this isn’t your job.

Spatial Lock (D 375): This gets better later in paragon and in epic when more monsters can teleport. The zone is decent sized so when you need it, you should be able to hit most of the relevant targets with it.

Spectral Vision (AP): I see its potential, but I can’t imagine this power being useful very often. The illusion rules are a bit unclear, but a monster isn’t going to forget than there was a pool of lava in a square, even if it looks like a carpet now, so it will only be effective when the PCs control the terrain and can set up before combat, both of which are limited occurrences.

Stoneskin (PHB): Requiring a standard action means that it gets a lot better if you know combat is coming. The effect is strong enough that its worth the action in most circumstances.

Summon Diamond Falcon (AP): The only reason flying is worth a utility power slot is to attack flying monsters. Granting combat advantage and taking a -5 penalty to attack rolls makes this a bad way to do that.

Words of Truth (D 381): A strong role play power, although one question is a pretty small payoff. Memory to Mist and Instant Friends are probably better but if you absolutely must have an answer, this is the only guaranteed way to get it.
Level 19 Daily Powers:
Non-Int builds will automatically take Mass Charm, which is a strong choice for Int builds as well. Int controllers get a strong Stun power in Phantasmal Horror and Int strikers will either grant themselves a huge number of attacks with Charm of False Glory or take a big damage blast power like Dancing Flame.

Charm of False Glory (D 381): A very strong power. Immobilize is a strong effect, but the real value is the huge amount of free attacks your target will be making. You can target allies or yourself, so you can grant an obscene amount of attacks.

Combust (PHB): Large area and good damage with half damage on a miss. A very strong choice for striker builds.

Crushing Titan's Fist (PHB): Mass immobilizing is fantastic and the zone is essentially impassable. It does decent damage, too. Overall a good option.

Dancing Bolts (AP):
Stick with a true area burst 2. In order to chain the attack, you need to keep hitting and unless your targets are perfectly placed, an area burst 2 will hit more targets more reliably.

Dancing Flames (HoFL): Striker builds will love this power. Great damage, good size, and party friendly with half damage on a miss.

Force Volley (PHB):
Three target dazing is very strong. The damage and range are both good. A good choice.

Furnace of Sand (AP): A very good zone makes this power a strong competitor, although the damage has fallen behind other burst powers.

Gripping Chains (AP): Honestly, if this is the effect you’re looking for, Entangling Force from level 15 prevents teleporting, too, so even with a smaller area of effect, you should consider sticking with that.

Horrific Shadow (HoS): Invisibility and a disincentive to attack you is a strange combination, but it’s effective in keeping you an undesirable target for a turn.

Ice Tomb (PHB): Damage and a stun makes this a powerful combination. The fact that you can’t target the stunned enemy is a bit of a bummer, but it gives you the opportunity to engage someone else while they are out of action.

Mass Charm (HoFL): By far the best no-attack roll power so far. Huge movement and several granted attacks. It would be nice if the area were bigger, but that’s a minor gripe on a fantastic power.

Phantasmal Horror (HoFL): Stuns on a hit, dazes on a miss. The best single target control power so far. The damage roll bonus is also very nice. You should only daily power during Bladesong, so all your attacks in your Bladesong turns will be even more devastating.

Shard of the Endless Avalanche (AP): While it’s funny to imagine, this doesn’t do enough damage or cover enough area to make it a strong choice.

Soul Blight (HoS): Campaign dependant, but if you expect to be fighting undead with any regularity, this is much stronger pick. If not, this power is a very weak choice with average damage and very limited control.

Thunderous Transformation (D 382): The familiar rider makes aerial drops a serious possibility, but the effect is fairly weak.

Wand Coupling (D 380): If you’re using proper wands, this is pretty good because it essentially adds a free attack on top of your daily power. If you stuck with weapon-as-implement, it’s less appealing because there are so few weapon based encounter powers that would be worth using. The damage is average and the effect is weak, but the ability to make an extra attack is worth a lot.
Level 22 Utility Powers:
Acererak's Apotheosis (HoS): Extremely campaign dependant. If necrotic resistance and being undead are going to be valuable, it’s ok, but I wouldn’t take it unless I knew it would be regularly applicable.

Arcane Recall (HoFL): If you like one of your lower level utility powers better than anything at this level, this will let you use your favorite power again.

Dimensional Journey (D 380): A strong movement power, but it’s weak for a daily and doesn’t stand up to the competition at this level.

Dire Familiar Incantation (D 382): Flanking belongs to heroic tier and the control it provides is very weak. Push 1 or Prone are underwhelming at for a level 22 daily.

Fire Sigil (D 388): Fire blaster builds might give it a look, but the requirement to use Arcane fire attacks limits it to your daily powers and the effect ends if you move so it’s impact will be limited.

Globe of Invulnerability (AP): Terrible power. 100 HP is pathetically little in epic and you can’t attack while in it, which makes it completely useless in combat.

Mass Fly (PHB-HoFL): Depends on your party, but generally a strong choice. Most players should have a way to fly one encounter per day by this point, so this will either free up the item or power they’re using for that, or grant the party a second encounter of flight.

Mordenkainen's Lucubration (AP): You’re only sustain powers will be utilities, so you won’t have enough to make this a worthwhile choice. There’s not many good sustain utility powers either, so you’re probably better off just spending the actions.

Mordenkainen's Mansion (PHB): It’s a great way to take an extended rest in areas where it would normally be impossible. Pure fluff, but nice.

Phantom Legion (AP): The action and movement limitations make it unconvincing and the illusions defenses make them non-issues in a fight. Useless in combat and not even an effective role play power.

Time Stop (PHB-HoFL): Can alleviate the action requirements of some utility or item powers that require a standard action or provide a large mobility boost for a turn. You can’t beat the action economy of the power, so give it a good look.

Wall of Force (HoFL): Large wall and it’s blocking terrain, too. The wall has decent durability and the damage is a nice kicker for when they finally break through.

Wraithform (HoS): You will be very hard to damage. Flight, insubstantial and phasing for an entire encounter is a powerful combination.
Level 25 Daily Powers:
Non-Int builds get an off level. They can miss with Chain Lightning for damage, Charm of False Heroism for a slide and immobilize, or with Thunderclap for a daze. Int controllers will probably end up with Thunderclap while Int strikers have a clear choice in Chain Lightning.

Acid Storm (PHB): The biggest area power so far and the zone is pretty good. At area burst 4, the fact that it’s unfriendly is a big deal and the zone can cut both ways.

Animate Shadows (HoS):
A little weak from an epic tier power. It has decent damage, and is a friendly area burst 2. The movement control is very weak and granting combat advantage is an insignificant rider.

Arcane Volley (D 381): I don’t understand the targeting restriction from a flavor point of view, but that’s a non issue because the power is so bad that it should never come up.

Astral Claw (AP):
A large forced movement power. It works well if you can use it with zones, as prone is a decent way to keep someone in a zone for another turn. The damage is poor for a single target power and the “punishment” for standing up is really weak.

Chain Lightning (HoFL): The striker power of the level. It does good damage to the first target, and acceptable damage to the others (miss half making up for the smaller dice on the other attacks). The attacks are guaranteed, so you will get to attack the entire battlefield. A fantastic power, probably the best of the level for all builds.

Charm of False Heroism (HoFL): While it doesn't possess the raw power of mass charm it can be really useful. A large slide and Immobilize are a strong combination and it has the potential to make a good number of attacks.

Crushing Necrotism (D 382): Really bad. Poor range and bad single target damage and the effects are really small. Slowed and combat advantage is way too weak for epic tier and the autodamage is too small in effect, too weak in damage, and too easily avoided to be of any consequence.

Deceptive Shadows (HoFL): I think this power is underwhelming. “Cannot see” is a decent effect, but it’s too easily negated by melee monsters that just need to get adjacent. It’s also unfriendly, which makes it a weak choice overall.

Flaming Rebuke (D 388): The fire damage conditional stun is potentially powerful, but too conditional for my taste. Without the stun, it’s not worth taking. You could reasonably not trigger this during Bladesong, too, which is another strike against it.

Freezing Bolts (AP): You got this power at level 15 in Mesmeric Hold. It even had a miss effect and targeted Will, which is worth the loss of a d6 of damage.

Orbmaster's Insuperable Lethargy (AP): Weakened and Immobilized are both strong conditions. Getting to choose the appropriate one gives this power some nice flexibility but the damage is poor, the size is average, and it’s unfriendly. It’s ok, but there are better options.

Staffstrike Shock (AP): Terrible power. It only does damage and it’s not even very good at that. The rider is the only thing that makes this worth considering for Arcanists, and since you can’t get it, you shouldn’t take this power.

Thunderclap (PHB): A very good power. The damage is ok for a single target attack but it stuns, so that's less important. It dazes on a miss, which is still good.

Vampiric Strike (HoS): Nothing exciting, but it’s one of the few real self-healing powers you can get. The range shouldn’t be an issue and the effect line provides some added durability to you or an ally. Its damage is mediocre and its control is non-existent, so it’s probably a pass for most builds.
Level 29 Daily Powers:
Non-Int builds will get a slide and monster attack from Confusion or some damage from one of the "miss half" powers. Int controllers will debate between Charm of the Puppet Strings and Steal Time. Int strikers will probably take the nova boosting power of Steal Time.

Black Fire (PHB): Only a slight upgrade on Dancing Flame which you get 10 levels earlier. There’s so many fantastic powers at this level that this looks weak in comparison. It’s still a solid power, but it’s not nearly as good as other options at this level.

Blazing Death Storm (HoS): Decent damage and half damage on a miss is ok, if a little underwhelming. The zone is ok, but nothing special. It’s unfriendly, which makes Black Fire the stronger choice if you’re going for the Fire blaster.

Charm of the Puppet Strings (D 381): You can finally dominate! A very strong power that will deal a huge amount of damage to a large portion of your enemies.

Confusion (HoFL): Pales in comparison to Charm of the Puppet Strings. It’s damage is not nearly good enough to justify taking this over a power that dominates. It’s power is mostly in the effect line, so it’s a good choice for non-Int builds.

Forcecage (PHB): A weaker version of stun + damage compares poorly to actually stunning the target and getting another standard action from Steal Time. Skip it.

Impenetrable Gloom (HoS): A nice area daze power with a conditional stun thrown in. It’s party friendly and does decent damage. The zone is nice, but not the reason to take the power.

Lost in the Mists (AP): Your Charisma will almost certainly be too low for this to be a better choice than Charm of the Puppet Strings. It’s still a dominating power, but it’s much weaker than its competition.

Mind-Numbing Presence (D 382): Really weak. If the zone dazed enemies that started their turns in it, it would be a strong competitor, but it’s too large to really prevent monsters from acting normally. The damage for staying in the zone is not enough incentive for any monster to daze itself by leaving. Impentrable Gloom is better in almost every way.

Orb of Doom (D 380): Your sword counts as a wand, not an orb, so this power is completely useless without another implement. It’s not strong enough to compete with the good dominating or stunning powers, although it affects a larger area and it does provide very good control.

Phantasmal Dread (HoFL): Immobilize is generally better than “can’t move closer” and Stun beats it by a mile. The attack penalty is substantial, but doesn’t last long enough to make up for the general weakness of the spell.

Sequestering Force (HoFL): Cannot leave by any means is a pretty unique effect. I don’t think it’s enough to take the power, but it’s certainly a way to keep someone where they are for a round.

Soul Fire (AP): Mass weakening is nice, but not good enough to distinguish itself from the other powers you get at this level.

Steal Time (AP): Probably the best power for Bladesingers. It stuns and you get back your standard action which will power up your Bladesong nova turn.

Tomebound Bloodbeast (AP): A very weak power. Its damage hasn’t been upgraded from the version you get at level 9. Your Con is likely too low to make use of the summon.

 

[Veep]

Native Wizard, Bladesinger, and Arcane Paragon Paths are pretty lackluster. You will likely be looking to your multiclass or race for a paragon path.

Native Paragon Paths


Sorcerous Sword (NCG): The only (so far) Bladesinger specific path. It's pretty bad, so you'll probably want to take something else. The action point feature can be replaced with Feral Hide Armor and requires giving up the extra action. Shifting your speed as a move action under Bladesong is good, as is a free teleport once per encounter, but unlike most paths, this gives you another encounter-as-daily power instead of a proper encounter power.

Academy Master (D374): Normally very good, but absolutely useless for Bladesingers. No arcane at-will attacks powers that hit mean that literally the only thing this the arcana boost and a reroll on action point. Everything else is non-functional. Improves for Eldritch Strike users.

Arcane Wayfarer (AP): The powers are all decent and the only wasted feature is the ability to teleport on a critical hit with wizard powers since you only have 3 per day. Really, the reason to take this is the teleport speed it offers at level 16.

Battle Mage (PHB): +4 to attacks during your action point (and presumably Bladesong) turn is fantastic. The free melee basic attack on becoming bloodied is ok, as you should have a good one, but the fact that it can't trigger Bladespells prevents it from being better. The opportunity attack feature is comicly underpowered compared to where your melee basic should be, but the powers are ok.

Blood Mage (PHB): One of the better Wizard paths for Bladesingers. If you took Area attacks as your Bladesinger dailies, the Bolstering Blood feature can add some significant damage. The powers are all large party friendly bursts, and the utility power lets you recharge Bladesong once per day. The level 16 feature is actually pretty good for CON builds and multiclass fighters with Striking Resurgence.

Bonded Summoner (AP): You don't do summons. Nothing to see here.

Draconic Antithesis (D369): Highly campaign dependent, but mostly useless. The damage resistance could be useful, but scales poorly, it doesn't compare with other options.

Hermetic Sabateur (AP): You don't get enough Wizard powers for the features to be worth it, and they wouldn't even make this path worth taking if you did.

Master of Flame (D388): The two features that make this path good for other Wizards (expanded blast/burst size and Burning Transformation) are essentially nonfunctional. At most, they work with 4 powers per day, which is not nearly enough to base your path on.

Master Preserver (DSCS): Pseudo-leaderish in its features. The encounter power is useless unless you're a Half-Elf but it can add some healing and damage prevention to a fragile party.

Planeshifter (MotP): Sequester is very good as is the action point feature, but the rest of the features are more flavorful than powerful.

Rimetongue Caller (AP): Another summoning focused path, which makes it useless.

Shadow Shaper (HoS): Night Terror doesn't require an attack roll, so it's ok for non-Int builds, but if you dumped Int, there will be better options in your multiclass. The rest of the features are useless.

Simbarch of Aglarond (FRPG): A good increase in durability and some healing options. If your party is leader-lite, it might be worth considering. Silverfire can add a huge amount of damage over the course of an encounter against a solo.

Spellguard Wizard (FRPG): The draws here are the Immediate Interrupt encounter power and the Dex mod to close attacks on an action point. The extra surges are appreciated, but if you really need them, pick another path and take Durable.

Spellstorm Wizard (PHB): One of the few wizard paths without wasted features. Extra Damage Action will power up your Bladesong nova round, but it's limited to standard action attacks, so it's limited to two attacks. Storm Spell recharges Bladesong once per day and auto damage on becoming bloodied will clear the field of minions. Overall, very solid if you want to stay with a Wizard path.

Unseen Mage (AP): Extremely weak. Your utility powers and daily powers would need to be dedicated to invisibility to make it even functional and the benefits are too weak to justify that.

War Wizard of Cormyr (FRPG): Arcane Fundamentals opens up a greater range of potential Dilettante powers. There might be something world shattering hidden among the arcane at-will powers, but I haven't found it yet. The powers are all ok, but it's value really hinges on what you can do with Arcane Fundamentals.

Weaver of Chance (AP): Purely a flavor path. Entropy is inherently impossible to optimize around which is why we spend so many resources reducing the effects of die rolls.

Wizard of the Spiral Tower (PHB): It provides Int based weapon attacks, which is nice. You can trade an action point to recover Bladesong instead of taking the extra action, which makes this worth considering as it's one of the few ways to recover Bladesong more than once per day.


Multiclassing opens up a whole new range of options for your paragon path. Paths which rate Black or higher have been rated. Paths are rated based on their power for the builds likely to use them. Fighter, Rogue and Swordmage paths are currently rated. If you think I've neglected anything, let me know. Other multiclass paths to follow soon.
Multiclass Paragon Paths

Fighter

Dreadnaught (MP): The extra hit points and ability to end effects as a minor action (and some damage) will go a long way in improving your survivability. If you found yourself dazed or unconscious more than you thought was acceptable through most of heroic, this is worth considering.

Gladiator Champion (DSCS): The best path to turn yourself into a defender. Note: You can take gladiator as your theme to qualify for this path and use a different multiclass. Whirlwind of Destruction is a powerful stickiness tool and your OA should be a serious deterrent to monsters attempting to escape. The powers using Primary Stat makes this an incredibly flexible path and the action point feature is good, if unexciting.

Iron Vanguard (PHB): If you can't take Mark of Storm, this is a good path for Con builds. Regaining Con mod HP on kills is good (assuming Con is your primary score) but it's the ability to deal Con mod extra damage on proning that makes this worth looking at. You can prone at-will, so it's extra damage based off your primary modifier for those builds. Lyrander Wind-Rider is almost always better, but is often not allowed because it requires a Dragonmark.

Kensei (PHB): The most generic default path there is. +1 to hit, +4 to damage. The powers and action point feature are very mediocre, but the path remains solid.

Kulkor Arms Master (MP): Requires Kulkor Battlearm Student feat. The new Flail Expertise feat makes this trivially easy to trigger. Lashing Flail gives you the slide you need on all your basic attacks. You waste a feat and use a weapon you can't use as an implement, but the pay-off is well worth it. A free melee basic each round is about the best thing you could get from a paragon path. It's pretty clearly the best path, but that's true for almost every class.

Shock Trooper (MP): Dex mod extra damage once per round to a target granting your combat advantage. Your dexterity should be good enough for that to be a big deal and at level 16, combat advantage should be trivially easy to get.

Rogue

Arcane Trickster (MP2): There may be something you can do with Dagger Spell, but I haven't seen anything yet. The powers are good enough to give this a quick glance, but unless you have some special build in mind, you can get better features from other paths.

Blade Bravo (MP2): Another off-defender path. It lacks the stickiness of Gladiator Champion but does have an at-will mark (although no way to punish violation).

Poison Master (MP2): Int mod to damage is great if you went Int/Dex, although it does limit your weapon choice and poison is commonly resisted.

Shadow Assassin (PHB): Dex mod damage when missed can add up quickly. Bladesong's defense bonus will help you get maximum value out of this feature and creates a no-win situation combined with Steely Retort.

Swordmage

Malec-Keth Jannisary (MotP): All of the powers are solid and the ability to ignore resistances can be situationally useful. The reason you'd take this path is the 1d4 extra damage on all attacks. This includes melee basic attacks and Bladespells and lets you add an elemental keyword to both. This will let you apply cold vulnerability with your basic attack and then immediately trigger in on your Bladespell, regardless of which one you use. It allows you to pick a weapon that grants minor or free action attacks while still using Lasting Frost/Wintertouched or any number of other elemental keyed abilities. Note: This is extra damage, so it does not add a damage roll to your Bladespells.




Racial Paragon Paths, including paths that require a specific race and multiclass will be listed here. Only paths rated Black or higher will be included.
Racial Paragon Paths

Eladrin

Bralani Wintersoul: Overall a very strong path for both controllers and strikers. If you can reliably damage yourself (or more likely have your party do it for you), Winter's Touch can add a huge amount of damage to your melee basic attacks and Bladespells. The powers are fairly good and the level 16 feature is a powerful control tool.
Shiere Knight: Not as good as Bralani Wintersoul. The primary draw is the defense bonus on teleports, which is pretty decent for Feychargers.
Azure Guard: Requires worship of Correllion. Offers similar defensive bonuses on teleports as the Shiere Knight, but generally better powers and features.

Elf

Twilight Guardian: Ignoring difficult terrain is pretty good for a melee class. Rerolls on action points are generically good, and a restraining encounter power will help your control.

Human

Adroit Explorer: So if you read Ambitious Effort like I do, this is pretty amazing. Getting two proper encounter powers will significantly improve your control. Even if your DM disagrees on how Ambitious Effort works, the utility and daily powers are both strong, the extra action point, attack bonus on becoming bloodied, and the damage resistance make this a very attractive path.

Tiefling

Turathi Highborn: A potentially very large bonus to damage rolls against bloodied targets if you went CHA-based. It's powers are usable by both CHA and INT builds which is a plus, as is a good upgrade to Infernal Wrath. The powers are all good, so it's certainly worth your consideration.
Lost Soul: DM dependent, but if you find yourself facing ongoing damage frequently, this offers strong retribution. It's a temporary hit point generating machine if you direct your Bladespells at minions, which will boost your durability.
Hell's Keeper: Requires a divine multiclass. The powers are CHA based, but on action points you get to turn Slow into Restrain, which is a massive upgrade. The bonus to saving throws against most of the worst status effect is good, and restraining on critical hits is a nice bonus.
Turathi Hell-Kite: Requires a martial multiclass. A powerful durability upgrade and a minor action daze make it worth a look.

Gnome

Fey Beguilder: A wide selection of utility powers, a skill training and rolling twice on stealth checks. Not great but it's better than most of the Wizard paths.

Githzerai

Storvakal: You get to ignore cover and concealment (effectively) and can use your action point to grant saves against all your conditions. Nothing special in the powers, but ok.
Rrathmal: Psychic resistance has variable value, but rolling twice on initiative is strong, as is the pursuit utility power. The daily power's zone can guarantee your allies hit for an entire encounter, which is just silly. The encounter power basically trades one standard action attack for a crit on your next one, which is a feature potentially worth building around. Using a Rending Khoposh, you can get a free melee basic out of the crit which reduces the action cost of using the power.

Shardmind

Shard Disciple: A bigger Shard Sward makes it a better set up for Area attacks and with Buffeting Shard Swarm, you can pull enemies close for a big Feral Armor attack. A second use of Shard Swarm each encounter makes feats that improve it significantly better.

Dragonborn

Mitheral Arm: A proper Wizard encounter power is a welcome addition, although you'll have to retrain out of your best encounter-as-daily to take it. Your action point/Bladesong turns get a good accuracy boost and a teleport speed is a powerful tool.
Ninefold Master: Requires Draconic Spellcaster. A big upgrade to your Dragon Breath damage and the ability to use it for free on action points make this worth a look, even if the powers are likely wasted. Damage resistance is a nice bonus, but you're taking the path for the dragon breath upgrades.
Honorable Blade: Requires martial multiclass. Adds an elemental keyword to your melee basic attacks which frees up your weapon choice for enhancements that grant free or minor action melee basic attacks. It grants a free use of Dragon Breath on an action point and it's encounter power grants yet another Dragon Breath use.
Inner Dragon: Requires fighter multiclass. Adds ongoing damage to your Dragon Breath and a free use on action points.



Other Paragon Paths: This includes Dragonmark, Deity, and skill paragon paths. Only paths rated Black or higher will be included.
Miscellaneous Paragon Paths

Lyrander Wind-Rider (EPG): Requires Mark of Storm. Very strong. Con mod bonus to damage (not limited to rolls, as I read it) is amazing. Arcane Admixture will let you get the damage on one of the better Bladespells and either a Lightning Weapon or Eldritch Strike and Arcane Admixture will let you get it (as well as +1 to hit) on your melee basic attacks, too. A Con build not going for Polearm Momentum can't do much better.

Traveler's Harliquin (D382): Requires training in Bluff, a multiclass feat, and worshiping the Traveler. Simply fantastic. Grants access to multiple multiclasses and gives you a free multiclass feat, too. It opens up otherwise unavailable combinations like Roundabout Charge and Fey Charge, Deft Blade and Eladrin Swordmage Advance, and innumerable others. Training in Bluff will either come from your multiclass feat or your background, so that isn't a serious impediment to anyone who wants to take the path.

 

[Veep]

You're going to want to mutliclass. Not only are multiclass feats some of the best feats in the game, but they open up a whole new world of options. A Bladesinger, especially is going to want to multiclass because there is a lot of support for melee basic attacks in Martial classes that you would benefit greatly from.

Multiclass Options:

I will be looking and multiclass feats that can be taken with Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Inteligence of 13, as well as a few selected other multiclass feats that are worth building towards.

Acolyte of the Veil (Assassin): Stealth and acrobatics are both good skills. Shadow step might come in handy, and ki focuses are currently better supported weapliments than blades. It's ok, but not terribly exciting. If you want to go Assassin, Practiced Killer and Shadow Initiate offer more.

Battle Awareness (Fighter): Quite simply one of the best multiclass feats available. It's a bit of a contortion to get your stats to line up while still pumping Dex, but a free attack and a decent skill training probably make it worth it. You can't trigger Bladespells, but if you trigger it during Bladesong, that's full of win and it's a Martial class, too. Very highly recommended.

Berserker's Fury (Barbarian): +2 to damage for an encounter a day is pretty great but it's not a martial class and it's class skills overlap almost entirely with yours.

Blade Initiate (Swordmage): Skill training is wasted but it's still fairly strong. The +3 to AC for encounter a day can make you a very difficult target. For Eladrin, this goes up to light blue because Eladrin Swordmage Advance is really that good. A move action melee basic attack during your turn will let you Bladespell an additional time and help squeeze an extra attack into your Bladesong.

Bravura Leader (Warlord): Potentially very strong, especially if you have a real Warlord granting additional bonuses on action points. It's martial, so that's a plus. +4/6/8 to damage is generally worth granting combat advantage.

Brawling Warrior (Fighter): A +1 to an attack you just made can sometimes turn a miss into a hit. It's easier to qualify for than Battle Awareness and unlocks all the same Fighter and martial goodness.

Cyclone Warrior (Fighter): Trivially easy to qualify for, but the benefit is minimal compared to the either fighter multiclass feats. You can get some millage out of it by drawing a dagger, activating its ability, droping the dagger as a free action, and enjoying +1/2/3 to damage for turn.

Defender of the Wild (Warden): It gives an 1/encounter mass mark. You don't really have the tools to enforce it, but while benefiting from Bladesong defenses, you might want to draw some fire.

Demanding Talent (Battlemind): Not very exciting. A 1 turn single target mark and no way to punish do not a defender make.

Disciplined Talent (Psion): The power is at least useful. Dishearten is a great controlling area attack. While the entry feat is fine, it doesn't open up anything good enough to take it over another feat.

Heart of the Blade (Swordmage): How many times has your sword broken? Blade Initiate is almost always better unless you really want to train Endurance.

Insightful Leader (Warlord): Other warlord multiclass feats provide better benefits than +1 to defenses on an action point.

Monastic Disciple (Monk): Flurry of Blows once an encounter is decent, as are Ki Focuses. There's too many good options for decent to be good enough, though.

Practiced Killer (Executioner): The best of the assassin multiclass feats. 1d8 per tier is a nice way to add some spike damage. The executioner is also a martial class, so it qualifies you for feats that require that .

Resourceful Leader (Warlord): A damage bonus on a hit and temporary hit points on a miss means that your allies action points will be more devastating, especially multi-attackers.

Ruthless Efficiency (Rogue): It's ok. Sneak of Shadows is better.

Shadow Initiate (Assassin): Shroud is, of course, much better are characters that are not actually assassins. Practiced Killer gets you martial support, which is better then the extra damage from two shrouds.

Skirmishing Leader (Warlord): Shifting 1 is not even close to +4/6/8 or +3/5/7 to damage. Outshone by the other options.

Sneak of Shadows (Rogue): Very good. Borderline gold. It opens up martial support, Surprising Charge, Roundabout Charge, and Sneak Attack is the strongest striker feature to steal for a turn.

Soldier of the Faith (Paladin): Very average for most builds. At least is includes a punishment to go with its mark, albeit a weak one. All the Paladin multiclass feats are better for Tieflings, though, who get Wrath of the Crimson Legion, which gives you a Charisma Melee Basic attack and a mass marking encounter power.

Student of Artifice (Artificer): Arcana is wasted and infusion is poorly supported. It's a minor action surgeless heal once per day, which is decent.

Student of Battle (Warlord): Martial support and a daily heal. If you need the healing more than the attack/damage bonuses it's a worthwhile pick.

Student of Divine Runes (Runepriest): A very poorly supported class. There's really no reason to take this over Student of Battle.

Student of the Sword (Fighter): A weaker multiclass feat than most of the others. You should qualify for something better.

Tactical Leader (Warlord): +1 to hit for allies on action points is great. The benefit only applies once per encounter, so it's not as strong a nova enabler as Bravura Leader or Resourceful Leader

Twilight Adept (Rogue): Cunning Sneak is very strong and rogue support is fantastic. Sneak of Shadows is probably better, but it conceivable to take this instead.

Two-Bladed Warrior (Ranger): Mostly wasted on you as you should never be dual wielding. Rangers are better off going Warrior of the Wild

Vamparism (Vampire): It would take a strange build indeed to make proper use of this feat. Potentially a Revenant (Half-Elf) with Vampire Slam and going Dex/Cha could use it effectively, but it's a very specialized build.

Walker of the Dark Path (Blackguard): It qualifies you as a paladin with no prerequisites, which is nice. Tieflings who favor striker over defender might consider this.

Walker of the Light Path (Cavalier): It gives the full defender aura, although you can only punish once per encounter. Even without punishment, the aura will make you an attractive target if you want to attempt to off-tank. It also opens up paladin support for Tieflings. Combine with Gladiator Champion's level 16 feature and you're now a Knight.

Warrior of the Wild (Ranger): The ranger multiclass of choice. Hunter's Quarry isn't Sneak Attack, but it's pretty good.

Wrathful Warrior (Fighter): If your Costitution is decent this can add an extra layer of durability. If it's not, take another multiclass fighter feat.

Special Mention:
Adept Dilettante (Half-Elf): If you want to be a Con/Dex based Eldritch Strike abuser and want Warlock support without having to waste points in Charisma, this is the feat for you. It also lets you use Wisdom, Constitution, or Charisma for your Dilettante power, which gives you a lot of flexibility with your stats.


Wizard feats mostly rely on class features you lack or powers you can only use 3 times per day. Most of your feats will come from the general category or from your multiclass. Several feats would improve if your melee basic attack was an arcane power (or better yet, a Wizard power) but lacking that, you should stick to other options.
Wizard Feats


Heroic

Careful Summoner: Completely useless. You won't ever summon and even if you could, you'd pass on this.
Destructive Wizardry:
Potenetially decent depending on your daily power selections, but you only get area attack powers as dailies, so its overall impact will be minor.
Enlarge Spell: Same as above. It can make your dailies a little more "daily" feeling, but you don't have enough powers that could use it to make it worth spending the feat on. I like it better than Destructive Wizardry for upping your daily powers, but neither are worth taking.
Phantom Echoes: You don't have enough illusion powers to use this at all and as with Careful Summoner, the benefit is too small to take this even if you did.
Bitter Cold: You can't trigger this enough to be worth a feat and the benefit is pretty minimal. I'm sensing a common theme. "Hit" and "Wizard Power" tend to come up a lot and since you can only do that 3 times per day, it's best to skip feats that revolve around doing that.
Far Spell: Increases the range of your Bladespells, so it's not completely useless. If your DM likes huge maps, this might be worth a look. Probably still a pass.
Immolate the Masses: It works with Bladespells! 1 temporary hit point is a small benefit for redirecting your Bladespell to a minion instead of focus firing on your melee basic attack target. It can grant more temp on daily powers, but that's not enough to make it a serious consideration.
Burn Everything: If you want to use a Flaming Weapon (for example, because you're a Tiefling) but encounter a lot of fire resistant creatures, this is the feat for you. Situational at best.
Stoking the Fire: +2 to damage after hitting with a fire power. It's a power bonus, so it doesn't stack with Bladesong, which means even if you use a Flaming Weapon, you should skip it.
Sympathy of Flame: Wow is this bad. You don't have enough ways to give ongoing fire damage, you have to make damage rolls with arcane powers to benefit at all, and the benefit is only slightly better than Weapon Focus.
Expanded Spellbook:
This is probably completely non-functional by RAW. If you can talk your DM into letting you use it to take proper Wizard dailies, it's pretty much mandatory.

Paragon

Acid Spash: In an unsual turn of events, now we must miss with a wizard power to use this feat, yet alas we have but 3 wizard powers.
Energy Recovery: You don't get many Save Ends effects on your daily powers and your Wisdom modifier is not likely to be high enough to use this even if you did.
Lightning Transport: This can be really great if your DM uses minions and it improves the value of Lightning Ring a lot. Popping a minion to teleport your CON mod is not a bad use of your Bladespell by any means. Eldritch Strike users like it because their CON mod is going to be huge.
Phantasmal Destruction: Requires wizard illusion powers which means it's worthless to you.
Sympathetic Transference: You can end Slow on your allies at-will. That's worth something. Not very much, but something.
Consuming the Weak: Requires arcane attacks to hit. Your old nemesis.
Spell Focus:
You suffer from a lack of Save Ends powers, but this is a decent upgrade to the few you might pick up.

Epic

Focuses Wizardry: Non-humans can't burst or blast at-will. Your daily area powers are only good if you can hit lots of monsters, so don't let this trap you into leaving out targets.
Nightmare Wizard: Daze is a strong condition, even if it requires critting on a specific type of daily power to get it. It might come up once or twice over the course of a campaign, but you can do better.
Vengeful Summoner: You probably don't qualify becuase of the high CON requirements, but if you do, it means even the fairly weak summons you can access would be useless to you because you lack the INT to use them.
Wizard Implement Expertise: Wonky stat requirements and applicability to only your daily powers limit its desirability, but increased crit range is always a good thing.
Arcane Mastery: Fantastic for normal wizards, and potentially great for Bladesingers as well. If your paragon path gave you a wizard daily power, this will let you recover it which is about the best use of an action point you can get. Rules issues aside, recovering your encounter-as-daily powers can be pretty nice, too.
Spell Accuracy: Getting to ignore a few allies gives your daily powers much greater flexibility in targeting. Obviously better with a large WIS modifier, even at +1 or +2, it's still an ok choice if you picked party-unfriendly blasts.



Racial Feats



Most of your feats will come from this category. Boosts to your defenses, attacks, damage, accuracy, survivability are all to be found here.
General Feats

Heroic

Light Blade Expertise:
Rapiers are going to be the weapon of choice for most Bladesingers. This is worth the -1 to hit on your daily powers in Heroic and by paragon you should have a spare feat to pick up wand expertise.
Wand Expertise:
Not at important as the weapon versions, but key if you want to use your daily powers with any regularity.
Heavy Blade Expertise: Mostly for Githzerai, as light blades are generally better, but if you're using a heavy blade, you should have this.
Versatile Expertise: Until the new weapliment feats come out, this is the only all-in-one option. No added benefits and it scales later in paragon and epic. If you can find the feat, take Light Blade and Wand, but if you're feat starved, this is your expertise of choice.
Weapon Focus: +1/2/3 to damage with the weapon of your choice. It won't apply to your Bladespells or Daily powers but it's a very strong addition to your melee basic attacks. It's light blue because while you'll almost certainly take it, it's not a priority.
Toughness: 5 HP per tier may not sound like a lot, but it matters more than you might think. It won't get you to defender HP but it will help you take a few more hits before going down.
Iron Will/Great Fortitude:
One (maybe both) of these defense will be low. Take one (or both) or get used to your DM hitting you on a 3. If you go Dex/Int, these are both probably mandatory.
Superor Will/Fortitude/Refelxes: Superior Will is good enough to take even if you don't need the defensive bonus. They're all great, but most builds probably don't qualify for Superior Will which makes Improved Defenses the better choice.
Improved Defenses: For the feat starved, this can replace dedicated Fortitude and Will boosters. I recommend boosting your weakest defense in heroic and then retraining into Improved Defenses at paragon.
Resiliant Focus: +2 to all saves is great. If you can squeeze it in, take it.
Nimble Blade: +1 to hit when you have combat advantage. You need to hit to activate your Bladespells, so accuracy is king.
Armor Proficiency (Hide): Extremely good. +1 to AC gives you defender level armor. The big draw here is Feral Armor. You can use it as a weapon if you want to, but its encounter power is enough to make taking the feat for Hide worth it.
Improved Initiative: Your dexterity will be high, so you should have a good modifier already. Going first will help your Bladespells have maximum effect.
Wintertouched: Terrible in heroic, amazing in paragon. Use a Frost weapon and Lasting Frost to apply frost Vulnerability which the Bladespell Frost Bite gets to exploit immediately.

Paragon

Lasting Frost: Combat advantage and +10 to damage is hard to turn down.
Armor Specialization (Hide): Keeps your AC competitive.
Repel Charge: A free melee basic attack when you are charged? Sign me up! You can prone, slow, or slide at-will so you can force enemies to charge pretty easily. You don't get to trigger Bladespell, but if it nets you a single attack per encounter, it was a feat well spent.

Epic

Epic Fortitude/Will: You'll need one. Probably both. Will is so important in Epic that even if you have invested in Wisdom or Charisma, you should probably take it anyway.
Superior Initiative: If you took Improved Initiative earlier, retraining is a no-brainer. If you didn't, now is a great time to invest in your initiative.



One of the primary reasons to multiclass is because of the feats it opens up. Your reliance on melee basic attacks means that you can make effective use of the many MBA boosters found in other (mostly martial) classes.
Feats that require multiclassing

Feats are rated based on their utility for the builds that would use them. Feats tied to weapon groups also include in their rating the value of using that weapon group compared to a light or heavy blade. If you are using that weapon already, feats that boost that weapon group improve significantly.

Heroic

Martial Alacrity: An alternative to Improved Initiative. Trades a lower initiative bonus for the ability to shift as a minor action during your first turn.
Martial Freedom: If you find yourself slowed or immobilized a lot, this is a hefty bonus to saves against those conditions.
Crushing Mace: +2 untyped bonus to damage on melee basic attacks is huge. The requirement of using a mace is a killer, though. If you have another reason to use maces, it's a great pickup, but most Bladesingers will stick with a Light Blade.
Draw First Blood: If your Wisdom is at all respectable, this is a decent choice. It's extra damage, so that's always worth a look.
Practiced Study: Role-play only, but has some interesting uses.

Paragon

Deft Blade (Any Martial Class):
One of the reasons you're using a rapier and multiclassed into a martial class. Targeting Reflex is generally worth +2 to attack rolls and often more.
Hammer Shock (Any Martial Class): If you're using a hammer, this is a good reason to train Intimidate. Rattling is a solid debuff on your melee basic attacks.
Impaling Spear (Any Martial Class): There's very few reasons to use a spear over a light blade, but if you've found that reason, this is your Deft Blade equivalent.
Lashing Flail(Any Martial Class): A fantastic reason to use a flail, although it's really the only one. A Staggering Weapon will let you turn your melee basic attack into battlefield controlling machine.
Piercing Pick(Any Martial Class): Targeting fortitude is not nearly as good as targeting reflex. Picks are also terribly supported, especially when compared to light blades.
Striking Resurgance (Fighter): One of the best parts about multiclassing fighter. Effectively turns your second wind into a free action so you don't have to give up attacking while healing.
Wicked Blade(Any Martial Class): High Crit is pretty good. Light blades are still better, but this is a welcome boon to heavy blade users.

Epic

Epic Recovery: Lets you use your second wind a second time. With Striking Resurgence, this is a major survivability upgrade.
Martial Mastery (Any Martial Class): It probably required way too many feats to get it, but if you've ended up with a good martial encounter attack power, this will enable you to use it twice. If you took a multi-attack or minor action attack power, this can really power up your Bladesong turns.
Martial Resolve (Any Martial Class): It requires endurance training and 15 Wisdom, but the benefit is very strong. With 15 Wisdom you can take Superior Will, which is better, but they stack and Martial Resolve covers some extra conditions including the dreaded Weakened, so it's a solid choice even with Superior Will.

 

[Gabriel Glover]

Personally i consider barbarian multiclass more highly simply due to the synergy of having the Rage Drake Frenzy ability

 

[MwaO]

Someone just saved that handbook when the WotC forums closed down. This post links to the usually newest(or most relevant) handbooks...

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...acter-Optimization-WOTC-rescue-Handbook-Guide