Trying to design a Bladesinger

[Aaron L]

The RoF Bladesinger is much more flavorful than the Complete Warrior version, and has been embraced by someone at WotC as the "true" Bladesinger (Eric Boyd I think? Not sure), at least for the Forgotten Realms. Whereas the CW BS gets a half caster progression, the RoF version gets it own spell list with a small spells per day selection, and all of its spells are focused on mele combat, physical improvement, and defense. It also gets 3 bonus feats, and Song of Celerity has unlimited uses per day. Races of Faerun is kind of a "halfway" 3.5 book, as it came out right before 3.5 was released and incorporates many of its elements.


Heres my Bladesinger, in a haphazard psuedo statblock format:

sun elf male fighter 4/ wizard 8/ bladesinger 11/ eldritch knight 4

Mostly Dodge and Expertise related feats as befits a nimble fighter. He is a fighter as opposed to a swashbuckler because he predates CW (by a long shot), and he isnt a rapier type anyway, Ive always envisioned the bladesong as involving a lot of fluid (kind of like kung fu tai chi sword styles) slashing motions and cant see poking with a rapier being as elegant. Arcane Strike is also an excellent feat for both power and bladesinging style.

The epic feat Combat Insight is wonderful, it lets you use your INT modifier for damage instead of STR.

I went fighter 4/wiz 2/ BS 10/ EK 4, then after 20 took one level of BS just to be an "epic" BS (and get an epic feat from it), and then went all wizard. With Song of Fury he gets 5 attacks with a full attack, (6 with his bracers of the blinding strike), and can throw off a spell as well (which is pretty dang cool to do, cutting someone apart and then tossing a fireball at another group of enemies), and I filled out the whirlwind attack tree because the bonus feats for a bladesinger pretty much ARE the tree, and I wanted him to be a full master of the style, so I took ALL of the listed feats figuring that they comprised and represented a full mastery of the bladesong. (Yes, Im a powergamer and wont deny it, I like my characters to be as powerful and streamlined as they can be. But RP is just as important, so I will sacrifice some "power" choices for character personality reasons)

 

[Thanee]

Is the RoF one based on the old 3.0 splatbook one (errata'ed version)?

3.0 revised Bladesinger

Bye
Thanee

 

[werk]

Try a Fi 2 / War Mage... going into Eldritch Knight. the Bladesinger PrC is a terrible conversion of an otherwise wicked concept from 2e.

I'll second this. I've yet to get a viable bladesinger in 3.0/3.5, and it used to be my pet class.

 

[tenken]

I'll second this. I've yet to get a viable bladesinger in 3.0/3.5, and it used to be my pet class.

It does seem that WOTC went out of their way to nerf the class. Maybe someone had a really annoying Bladesinger in their 2nd edition group and designed this on purpose.

The problem seems to me to be that there are four required feats that are not very impressive to be frank, cutting spell level progression in half, losing bonus feats that fighters get, gaining special abilities that are dubious in their usefulness, and not being to wear armor.

Just compare it to some of the other PrCs and it's painfully obvious that it's underpowered.

That's why I wanted to come here and ask for help.

I figured if anyone could help me, it's you guys.

 

[werk]

It does seem that WOTC went out of their way to nerf the class. Maybe someone had a really annoying Bladesinger in their 2nd edition group and designed this on purpose.

Hehe, yeah. The thing that really bothered me on my last BS (from the errata link above) was that I had a few levels of wizard, but could only cast bladesinger spells with my bladesong, so I found myself with resources that I simply couldn't use. The PrC doesn't seem to stack well with the prereqs.

 

[BadMojo]

Is the RoF one based on the old 3.0 splatbook one (errata'ed version)?

3.0 revised Bladesinger

Yes. If there are any major differences between the two, I didn't notice them at a quick glance.

I'm interested to find out what the official WotC position is on this class. As someone mentioned, Races of Faerun was a "nearly 3.5E" book. The Player's Guide to Faerun, which serves to update FR to 3.5E, mentions the RoF book, but only says that some of the feats have been changed as a result of 3.5E.

There's no reference to the CW Bladesinger in any FR books, nor no mention of any changes to the class.

Out of curiousity, was it Skip Williams who designed the 3.0 Bladesinger?

 

[Aaron L]

The Tome and Blood bladesinger and the Races of Faerun bladesinger are identical, except for one change: the RoF version can use Song of Celerity with ANY arcane spell of an appropriate level.

 

[BadMojo]

The Tome and Blood bladesinger and the Races of Faerun bladesinger are identical, except for one change: the RoF version can use Song of Celerity with ANY arcane spell of an appropriate level.

Personally, I prefer the RoF version. I don't think the Song of Celerity thing is a big deal though, since due to the fairly hefty pre-reqs of the class I doubt many Bladesingers will have more than a handful of arcane caster levels.

I'd still love to find out what the official, semi-official, or unofficial Bladesinger for FR is.

 

[Krelios]

Well, the 2nd edition Bladesinger was really just broken. It did everything well and had pretty much no drawbacks (unless you count being an elf a drawback).

I understand that the Bladesinger basically went through the same process as Psionics: Over-powered in 2nd ed., under-powered at its first release in 3.0, and "balanced" when it came out for 3.5. Of course, I think the 3.5 Bladesinger didn't quite make the pendulum swing all the way back, it's still a little weak; but I'd rather have it a little weak than as broken as it was originally.