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Message: <blockquote data-quote="auburn2" data-source="post: 8174744" data-attributes="member: 6855259">Moving on a few notes-the damage is not the point of sentinel.  The entire feat is based on stopping someone who is moving.  The bladesinger likely has a 19AC or a 20 if she pushed dex to 18 with an ASI or half feat.  Elven accuracy is a waste for a bladesinger.  Sentinel, War Caster, an ASI or one of many other half feats are better IMO.I will point out I said a long, long way above up at the top that a Barbarian is the only character that can come close to matching a bladesinger and he can.  You did not play him right for that though.  Reckless attack is not the best play here for the Orcs. I would also go for the Orcs first.   He has to be able to kill twice as many enemy for the math to work out on that, if their AC was higher it would be a better play.  He is going to hit the Orcs most of the time without reckless attack.  Going without reckless attack means a few more misses and a longer fight, but it also means a lot more misses for them, especially in the first round when they do most of the damage.  That said:The Barbarian wins initiative, is in rage and reckless attack.  He can't use cleave in round 1 because he went into rage,  and kills 1 Orog.   1 Orog and 4 living Orcs do 20 hp damage in round 1, that assumes 1 Orc misses (Orog 21, 3 Orcs 20 = 41, halfed to 20).   Round 2 he kills the other Orog and an Orc.  Remaining orcs all hit and do another 15hp.  Third round he knocks off 2 more orcs and the last orc hits for 5 points of damage, meaning he is left with exactly 0hp plus whatever he has from constitution bonuses.  So at the end of 4 rounds the Barbarian is nearly dead, but the enemy is totally dead.  In this example both the Barbarian and the orcs missed once, which is reasonable  as they all had advantage every swing.Rolling into disadvantage against a 24AC effective bladesinger - on average the bladesinger will get hit 1 time in 5 rounds of combat and use 2-3 first level slots.  So she is down 11hp and 2-3 spells after 5 rounds fighting that entire group.  That is of course assuming the entire rest of the party does not manage to kill a single enemy in 5 rounds .... and the bladesinger does not bother to try to go on offense (and she would do this only if she was confident her party could kill them)In discussing this lets remember the whole point of your argument and the whole reason she is using dodge is that it is a "waste" for the bladesinger to use a single 2nd level spell slot and be in blur for this fight.  I mean she gets 3+ per day but it is a waste for her to use one in a fight that will put a Barbarian on deaths door in 4 rounds?  If she can't afford to waste the slot and needed to be full defense she will do this like I said.  But she could just as easily use blur, have the same defense and still get an action which she could use for spells or attacks and if she was fighting on her own or fighting an enemy that the party could not take down she would.I  have a third option for you though.  The Barbarian and the Bladesinger walk into the room together and see a group of Orogs and Orcs.  The bladesinger charges in making a lot of noise, waving her sword and gets in close to the enemy on the first turn.  The Barbarian slinks up slowly goes into rage and lets loose on an Orog on the edge without getting too close to the others, he kills that Orog and backs off, putting the bladesinger between himself and the others.  If he can he uses his extra movement and gets completely out of range, but let's assume he can't.  Now the other Orog decides to go for the Barbarian since he is the bigger threat (even though it is round 1 and it is not obvious yet IMO).  Bladesinger hits him with booming blade OA for 18 points of damage and a loud thunder crack ... he pushes through and hits barbarian for 10.  Orcs see this and stay on the bladesinger, lets assume bad luck and one hit slips past for 10 damage (she already used her reaction).  Now Barbarian takes out this Orog in one shot and takes down 2 more orcs, and again positions himself so the others can't get to him easily.  They go for him anyway as it is clear he is doing the killing.  Bladesinger kills one with an OA, the other hits the Barbarian for 5.  Orc dies next turn.I have a 4th option which is how it should really go down if you are smart - Barbarian does the smart thing and hangs back like above, letting the Bladesinger go in first and keeping himself away.  Bladesinger goes into blur on round 1 and starts using BB after that.  She is doing 15 points per turn and any orcs she hits die if they move (if they survive the attack).  Barbarian is coming in from the outside killing 2-3 enemy per round and retreating.  The fight is over probably in 3 rounds and if they stay on the bladesinger both heroes probably get out completely unscathed.  If they don't stay on the bladesinger the Barbarian probably loses about 10hp.At the end of the first battle the Barbarian is victorious but nearly dead.  At  the end of the 3rd the Barbarian is down 15hp, bladesinger is down 10 and has not used a single spell.   At the end of the 4th they are both probably at or near full hp and have used 1 second level spell and maybe a 1st level spell too. The beauty in 3rd  and  4th option is the Barbarian uses reckless attack and does not pay penalty for it.  Even if the bladesinger only manages to suck up 1 round worth of attacks as a group and they all run to the Barbarian after that it is still 20 more hp the party does not lose.   Being intelligent in a fight beats being reckless every time (excuse the pun) <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />Finally I will note we did this at 5th level, which is fine.  But if we make it 6th level the bladesinger can both attack with a a weapon and take the bladeward cantrip in the same turn, giving resistance to any damage that actually makes it through and she can do that while blur is running and with shield in reserve.</blockquote>

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