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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rofel Wodring" data-source="post: 7219952" data-attributes="member: 6873189">Yes, they are. First of all, a big problem with your 'but what about the Shapechange and the Simulacrum!' argument: that stuff comes online at level 17, minimum, which is really level 19 for you. What about all of the other levels in between? Builds that take until 90% of the game is over are looked down upon for a reason, even if you're lucky enough to start there.As far as pooh-poohing Contingency, you're really underestimating the goodness of that spell, especially at levels 11-14 when its ability to be cast in downtime makes your melee efficacy explode if you want. Even though I mercilessly criticize D&D for having much shorter workdays than the game expects, it's not an hour-long short. What are you doing those other 3 to 11 hours? What are you doing with that concentration slot in the meantime? I guess you're going to go back to using Haste or Greater Invis, but Contingency lets you fast-cast those spells. And even if you're not interesting in fast-casting another concentration spell, you still have a bunch of other fun options to play with: Blink, Mirror Image, Melf's Minute Meteors, Fire Shield, Dimension Door, Dispel Magic, and whatever comes out with Xanathar's Guide to Everything.Long rest, or at least being able to replenish your spells from it, is always 8 hours. That got clarified.You sure don't sound like you care about stuff because melee efficacy. Any Bladesinger who uses Simulacrum to boost their single-target DPR by 40-60 instead of doing something awesome like, I don't know, Banishing/Wall of Forcing three monsters while you spend the minute casting Symbol or forcing the monster to burn two Legendary Saves in the first round of combat with a double-Otto action has their priorities in the wrong order. Unless you're in a party that lacks martial muscle, DPR in any challenging fights should be a secondary concern for you. You should be worrying about establishing control, because that's what your spells are good at. I know it sucks as a gish to get dice envy when a Battlemaster / Paladin gets TWO crits on an eight-attack sequence, but you're just going to have to deal with it.Again, what about the other seventeen levels?Well, guess what. 5E D&D doesn't really do the 'single monster' trope for most challenging fights. Not that they don't exist, but 90% of the time if published content is anything to go by a hard fight will be something like 'you're level 10 and you're facing 10 ogres, 2 stone giants, 1 cloud giant, 2 hill giants, and 2 fire giants.' 10d8 Chain Lightning to four targets or 10d6 to 12 targets might make you feel small in the pants compared to a Flametongue Double-Attack + Haste + Melf's Minute Meteors, but those will win you the fight faster than pushing all of that onto one monster.Yes, if you feel dice envy and feel like throwing down at full-force against six goblins, you're going to run out of resources in a typical work day as a Sorceradin. So what? What makes the Sorceradin good is that they have good (rather than average) round-to-round damage with minimal investment (which is not zero!) and they can throw down when it's time to throw down. Unless magical items are in play, it requires some careful, but not strict, budgeting but the results are amazing when you do it right. A Paladin 2 / Old Favored Soul Sorcerer 9 with GMW and a +2 Greatsword can for the cost of a Haste Spell, 2 Sorcery Points for Quicken, and 1 1st-level spell slots for smite can, if all of their attacks hit, do 8d6 (base) + 2d8 (smite) + 2d8 (Booming Blade) + 40 (GMW) + 8 (enhancement) + 16 (strength) = 94 damage for that round. Even more if we have Two-Handed Weapon fighting in play from the paladin. They definitely have simulacrum envy on Bladesinger wizards, but not because their damage can't keep up.Action Surge isn't really all that great for Bladesingers, unless, again, magical items are in play. Mostly because the really great spells you'd want to cast in combat are concentration-based. It's best used to fast-cast buffs (which you have Contingency for), fast-cast concentration spells that require double actions like Sunbeam and Eyebite and Telekinesis, or to layer on a little extra pain. Unfortunately, concentration-less spells either tend to be higher level (Mass Suggestion, upcasted Bestow Curse) or instantaneous damage spells like fireball and lightning bolt. Looking at it that way, I'd consider it a fair tradeoff, though skewed slightly in favor of the extra spell slots unless you're using it in a way that wouldn't matter to your build. Using it to get in some more melee damage is, uh, kind of a waste of the ability. If I had shapechange up, I'd rather use it on, say, an extra ancient brass dragon's breath or a double-or-nothing on a Balor's summoning of 1d2 mariliths, personally.</blockquote>

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