What's broken about 2e bladesinger?

[SpiderMonkey]

Inspired by another thread, I am wondering what was so broken about the 2e bladesinger. I don't remember it, as no one ever played one in my group. All I remember was flipping through the book and rolling my eyes. Can you guys remind me about it?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

You got cool powers in exchange for "always being in trouble". Of course, since trouble is what generates exp, the bladesigner essentially gets cool powers in exchange for leveling up faster.

Incidentally, this is another example of why 3e rocks. In 3e we just make the bladesinger and tack on a +1 ECL or somesuch and call it a day.

 

[Psion]

It tries to balance mechanical advantages with role-playing disads, a formula for failure IMO.

Some also point to the high (er, low...) AC you could get with the parrying and shield, but I never really thought that was much to be concerned about.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

It tries to balance mechanical advantages with role-playing disads, a formula for failure IMO.

Some also point to the high (er, low...) AC you could get with the parrying and shield, but I never really thought that was much to be concerned about.

The AC was balanced out in many cases by the low, low, HP they typically had (leading to an immortalized quote from my 2E game: "The bugbear hit me? I disbelieve."). I never saw big problems with it, myself.

 

[Alynnalizza]

As someone whose last character was a bladesinger in 2E. (albeit 6 or 7 years ago). There were several things broken. Most notably, as mentioned aboved, was the penalty of having to role-play. So if you already were into rp'ing then there was not real penalty, and only heaps of awards. Even with the -1 penalty to hit when wielding something other than her favorite weapon, it was real easy to compensate for this. Make the rapier your favored weapon, and use a short bow... Well as an elf, you already got a +1 with the bow, so the penalty is already negated, not to mention the inherent dex bonus, thus allowing the odds of having a better Dex than Str, which means your bladesinger could easily have as good a shot with a bow as her preferred weapon.

The AC was really low. Making it impossible to really threaten the bladesinger while challenging so of the others in the party. And I have story to back this up, one that the other players still shake their heads at.

The biggest issue I encountered was with the DM. If the DM is not willing to abuse the role-playing aspects of this kit, the bladesinger will walk away with the game. Even when the DM would place the rp aspects in, often the other party members would get 'bored'. Now this may just be my experience, so please take that in mind.