D&D 5E rogue-bladesinger?

[Maxperson]

You're a Wizard with a solid bonus action defensive ability. Being in melee is the last place you want to be.

Those slots used on Shield at low levels would be far better spent on Sleep or similar spells.

I think what you're missing is that the game is not about DPR, roleplaying, optimization, or anything else. There are lots of right ways to play and fun is at the top of the list. I've played standard wizards who stand back and just use spells for more than 30 years. I'm currently playing a Bladesinger and going into to the front lines because it's fun to use a sword as a wizard AND be able to cast spells, my choice. It doesn't matter if Sleep is better than a Shield spell if Sleep is less fun. 5e is the most forgiving edition, so optimization is a waste of time if you aren't into that sort of thing.

 

[Flamestrike]

The moral of the story is the enemy can't effectively get to any other party member, you know it, you have been exposed and that is why they are all running away.

They haven't run away! You still have to deal with them, only now they have alerted the whole dungeon, and reinforced!

 

[Flamestrike]

This is such BS and you know it. Even with good rolls where I kill all four orcs (which is odd since our rolls are terrible until now) and if I advance and threaten both orogs, I only get one OA and 1 orog still gets away EVERY SINGLE TIME. There is no way at all to keep him, even if it is only 1, from leaving and raising the alarm.

One Orog gets pinned (Sentinel). The other one then dashes away into the other room.

Next up is the Ranger who moves 35' into the room where he positions himself to be able to see the survivor through the 10' doorway (cover is irrelevant as he's a sharpshooter), Hunters Marks it, shoots twice, and as it's already badly wounded, likely killing it.

The remaining Orog threatening you, can be dealt with by the Rogue who goes next, shooting twice with his hand crossbow and sneak attack.

The Cleric can then.. I don't know; heal you or cast bless or whatever.

Round 1 is now over and all enemies in encounter are 1 dead, with the party buffed and having taken 0 damage in return. Even IF the Orog that fled alerted encounter 2, the party is in bladesong, with bless and hunters mark active, at full HP, and ready for it.

Bottom line here is you want your players to do what you want them to do and you will completely eliminate player agency to force that to happen.

Utter and total bulldust! You can do what ever you want to do, and the enemies will react accordingly.

I did nothing to 'eliminate your agency' there. You're free to dance around in the hallway, race across the room to the other door or do whatever the hell you want.

 

[Flamestrike]

"Not a threat" yet all 6 enemy flee from battle without even trying.

In case you missed we took the room, we won the fight and we used less resources than otherwise would have.

Hahahahahaha!

In case you missed it, this doesn't help you at all. It actually strategically hurts you.

 

[Flamestrike]

Because I don't have a sign around my neck saying I have a high AC. At this point I am one elf standing in a doorway with a human behind her that some of them can see.

You're just standing there are you? I thought you were leaping around, springing in and out of a defensive stance, while parrying, ducking and weaving via taking the Dodge action while also Blade-dancing with the Sentinel feat?

You're not just 'standing there'.

You're also blocking the damn doorway, which you insisted I retcon to being only a few feet wide. As soon as the door became only a few feet wide, it became effectively impossible to do what they wanted to do (storm the party), and the only thing the could do was throw missile weapons through it, and fall back to alert the rest of the dungeon (we are sentries after all) and reinforce at a position where they could bring their whole force to bear.

You could have blocked the doorway by being a big dumb fighter and just standing there. They would have done the same thing to him as well.

 

[Maxperson]

You're just standing there are you? I thought you were leaping around, springing in and out of a defensive stance, while parrying, ducking and weaving via taking the Dodge action while also Blade-dancing with the Sentinel feat?

So, I've been near people who are dancing and they're pretty easy to hit. And everyone fighting springs in and out of defensive stances, parries, ducks, etc. Those things are a normal part of combat. If you are having the orcs avoid attacking the Bladesinger due to a high AC without having first attacked him a few times, so that they learn by missing badly that he's really hard to hit, you are metagaming the orcs info that they should not possess.

 

[auburn2]

One Orog gets pinned (Sentinel). The other one then dashes away into the other room.

Next up is the Ranger who moves 35' into the room where he positions himself to be able to see the survivor through the 10' doorway (cover is irrelevant as he's a sharpshooter), Hunters Marks it, shoots twice, and as it's already badly wounded, likely killing it.

To start with why does the bladesinger need to use shield? According to you earlier the enemy would "ignore" her, but instead of "ignoring", they use every single action they have in the first round to attack her? You just contridicted yourself. As a matter of fact the argument was not only that they would ignore her, but that would ignore her to attack others and beat the party in terms of action economy ..... but you are not doing that either. Also nowhere in the description of dodge does it say you are "leaping around" you are probably waiting for the enemy to get close or lanuch an attack to do something like that, but even if it is I hardly think 6 aggressive orcs are going to be scared off by a leaping, dodging, dancing elf.

The Ranger can't shoot the fleeing orog unless the DM is stupid. The orog is going to move to the side to avoid getting shot at. The Ranger is 30' into the hallway with allies in front of him in the hallway (difficult terrain to move through them or uses extra movement to go around them). This savant Orog is smart enough to know a lone elf in a doorway is unhittable just by looking at her but he is too stupid to know to move to the side while fleeing to get full cover? If you were playing the enemy smart instead of trying to make a point and take away player agency he would move to the side and the only person who could target him is MAYBE the Rogue and that is after taking dash as a BA and without a sneak attack and to even do that assumes the wizard and the immobilized Orog in the room are positioned so he does not have to go through or around them. Oh and by the way now in terms of rolls - lets see with fireball I managaged to kill all 4 orcs and the Orog that got away missed his save. I managed to hit the Orog that might have saved on fireball with sentinel, the Ranger managed to hit and get enough damage to kill the fleeing Orog too stupid to take cover. Finally, let's point out the wizard needs to go into melee range for that corner condition where I can stop them with fireball, great rolls, and a stupid Orog to even be possible. She can't stop them from fleeing if she "acts like a proper wizard should" and stays back out of melee after the fireball.

The whole point of your original position is it is never a help for the party for the bladesinger to dodge and keep the enemy off other players. You set up a scenario, tried to prove you point with the enemy getting great initiative rolls, when it didn't work, you changed your tactics to get a "bad" outcome for the party but one which is completely irrelevant to your original claim concerning combat and action encomy.

Your original argument was NOT that bladesong and dodge allows an enemy to flee from a battle and alert the complex, it was that the enemy will ignore her and she does not contribute to the fight. You argued that it would help the enemy win the fight or at least do better in the fight based on action economy and the bladesinger taking a useless action. That is what YOU said would happen, it didn't happen and you didn't even try to support that claim. As a matter of fact all the attacks they did launch targeted the bladesinger who they were supposedly going to "ignore". What you really see and don't want to admit is bladesong+dodge in this scenario, or in many others like it, puts the party way AHEAD on action economy forcing the enemy to use actions on things like overun, grapple or futile attacks with very little chance of hitting. Meanwhile the party pulverizes them with damage from range. You know it, it has been made abundantly clear but you don't want to admit it.

New game - it is a 40x40 foot barracks with a 3' door 2 Orogs and 4 Orcs and no exit. Bladesinger opens it positions herslef in the doorway does bladesong. This is a much better scenario to evaluate YOUR argument because they can't avoid a fight and we can evaluate your claims that this hurts the party in terms of action economy. Try to support your actual argument now.

Lets play!

 

[Simonb1]

At 10th level you'll be kind of a subpar melee fighter, who should be hanging back and casting spells. Prior to that you'll be an awful melee fighter who should be hanging back and casting spells.

I would have thought a melee fighting tank would be a better option in a party with 2-3 ranged PCs.

Dex based Elven (+2 Dex) Eldritch Knight using a Double bladed Scimitar looks pretty good with those stats, taking the Revenant blade feat at 4th level (which also raises your Dex to 20 as an Elf), and then taking GWM at 6th, and whatever else you want at 8th and 10th.

Your AC should be fine with +1 from the Revenant blade feat, a high Dex (or heavy armour) and Defence style (AC 20) with Shield online from 3rd.
If your DM considers Custom lineage [Elf] to qualify for Elven feats, take Revenant Blade at 1st level for a Starting Dex of 20 (plus a finessable and heavy double weapon).

Lytham pqp

 

[Kiyal]

Ok, how does this stupid argument have anything to do with the OP's actual question?

 

[Maxperson]

Ok, how does this stupid argument have anything to do with the OP's actual question?

Bladesingers!