D&D 5E Totally underwhelmed by 5e bladesinger, am I missing something?

[Mort]

lol, I can only assume you're kidding OP. Bladesinger gives up School abilities sure, ... but is also a full arcane caster with mega AC.

My being underwhelmed has nothing to do with the power level of the sub-class. I acknowledge in the OP that that's fine.

My being underwhelmed is more to the fact that it's essentially pure wizard with a tiny splash of fighter - and that the "optimal" way to play the sub-class is to just stick to being a wizard with very little actual fighter/mage stuff. It's just IMO - which is why I asked if I was missing something.

I will say that the people who have played the 5e bladesinger seem to really love it (as evidenced by this thread and a livestream or 2 I've checked out)- so obviously it's got something going for it!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

My being underwhelmed has nothing to do with the power level of the sub-class. I acknowledge in the OP that that's fine.

My being underwhelmed is more to the fact that it's essentially pure wizard with a tiny splash of fighter - and that the "optimal" way to play the sub-class is to just stick to being a wizard with very little actual fighter/mage stuff. It's just IMO - which is why I asked if I was missing something.

I will say that the people who have played the 5e bladesinger seem to really love it (as evidenced by this thread and a livestream or 2 I've checked out)- so obviously it's got something going for it!

as with most such discussions, ignore most of what people say.

Seriously. The "best" way to play a bladesinger may be to play it as a wizard that can stab if it has to, but that is a numbers in character optimization thing. Ignore that. Bladesingers can fight, you want to use it to fight, so do that. The party isn't going to die if you focus your spell list on spells that support being a melee combatant. Be a swashbuckler that can shoot fireballs and fly. That's a cool and fun thing to be.

 

[transtemporal]

My being underwhelmed has nothing to do with the power level of the sub-class. I acknowledge in the OP that that's fine.

My being underwhelmed is more to the fact that it's essentially pure wizard with a tiny splash of fighter - and that the "optimal" way to play the sub-class is to just stick to being a wizard with very little actual fighter/mage stuff. It's just IMO - which is why I asked if I was missing something.

I will say that the people who have played the 5e bladesinger seem to really love it (as evidenced by this thread and a livestream or 2 I've checked out)- so obviously it's got something going for it!

Oh ok, I see what you're saying. I think the high AC is a really strong feature for a full caster but... I think proponents are largely kidding themselves about the melee potential. But is it fun to play? Heck yeah! Spellcasting swashbuckler, sign me up!