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Message: <blockquote data-quote="xenoflare" data-source="post: 1293398" data-attributes="member: 12431">hmmhi!  i guess this is just from my experience as an observer, because i hadn't really got any bladesinger playing experience in 3e and later.   i think the staggering and delaying of the AC bonus is to prevent "creative multiclassing" from various classes, both base and prestige, to engineer the AC monsters that players can whip up haha. Now, instead of just taking one level of bladesinger to dump my high Int mod into AC, i have to actually take a commitment to the class, therefore preventing a repeat of the "cherry-picking of classes" phenomenon. For example, if we were to give full int mod to AC at level 1, suppose some player made a level 10 character - a half-elf monk 2/ cleric 3/ psychic warrior 2/ mystic wanderer 1/ wizard 2/ bladesinger 1, he could easily get a very high unarmored AC that includes his full dexterity, wisdom, charisma, and intelligence modifiers to AC, together with access to Inertial Armor as a psi PC and Shield of Faith etc as a divine caster. And if you add in the various buff spells, that's easily 4 more buffs to your AC!  This is an extremely rare hypothetical situation - but indeed it can be done, and i guess that's why the int bonus got staggered to prevent system abuse at higher multiclass levels. i know the "pure" bladesinger probably got shafted in this agreement, but hey - if you can convince your DM you won't pull a super monty haul chop suey kway chap mixture of classes and prestige classes on him, and will stay focused on the bladesong path, i suppose negotiations can come out with something favourable for you.  About Song of Celerity - well, i think the Web Enhancement one was good, on the high end of good, in fact, but the Races of Faerun was quite whacked out, IMHO - it seems to be incredibly powerful and versatile. The Complete Warrior's version seems to be ok, but on the low end of the scale - in a rather arbitrary fashion, i think maybe an increased use/day of the Song of Celerity would be warranted, maybe at level 6? or maybe you could argue for both the level 2 spell and level 4 spell quickening-uses of Song of Celerty to be usable once per day each? That'll make the class feature a lil' more balanced, in my opinion.  Lastly, about the focus of the class, i think the design philosophy went thru a bit of change here and there. In Ad&d, the bladesinger kit was basically one of the more powerful ones around (but hey, kits were hardly balanced at all those days. i was a patrician - gee, i have extra gp to spend, but i must spend it on feeding other nobles and housing them. another guy, the bladesinger gets extra AC or attack bonuses. what's the rule of thumb to balance them out with one another?)  But in 3e, where people try to make an attempt to make classes more balanced with each other, i guess the bladesinger stopped being a pure "fighter/ wizard". now you can progress into a bladesinger from a bard, or a hexblade, or a weird PrC that gives arcane spells, or progress into bladesinging from being a spellsword samurai or whatever. The shift to spell progression by level rather than separate spell list reflects the system's emphasis on letting your character define the class style, rather than vice versa - ie, a hexblade who takes bladesinger would be a different kettle of fish from a bard/ barbarian/ bladesinger, who would be different from a rogue/ wizard/ bladesinger.   i know this is little consolation to you, my fighter/ wizard friend, in this new world of strange new neighbours on the bladesinging block, but i hope it helped anyway.  and by the way, happy new year, in a rather late way!yours sincerely,shao</blockquote>

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