bladesinger 5e tasha
for the weird tortle tavern brawler bladesingers : you can now create a bonfire under the enemy, make him prone, then grapple him as a bonus action to make it stay inside the fire, then attack+scag cantrip+bonfire damages every turn! If you start as a bard, you get all the weapon proficiencies you need from there. This time around, Ill tackle the two full-caster combinations: the bard and the cleric. aid other tabletop gamers in creating memorable characters. Usually, Wizards only have to focus on raising one ability score, their intelligence. One D&D Paladin UA - Is this the dunk on Paladins we've been looking for?! Want to play a slicing-and-dicing College of Whispers assassin? Itll also apply a temporary buff to your next melee attack, infusing it with the damage type of whichever element just hit you. They are a great choice for the Bladesinger, not just because of the aforementioned ability placement but also the bonus feat. Answer: They can, but its generally against their best interests. In his spare time, he enjoys playing video games, building his PC, and running a rehearsal studio. Alternatively, you can go the route of light armor, prioritizing Dexterity and Wisdom, with Intelligence giving a small boost to AC while Bladesinging. Nevertheless, going with the base assumption of taking your first six levels in wizard before changing, you can make the multiclassing represent a conscious choice on the part of your character to serve a higher power. This is usually not a problem because they are very rarely found in combat. The bladesinger made its fifth edition debut in theSword Coast Adventurers Guide. If you're one of the new UA Dragonborn, you can even use your breath weapon and EB in the same action. Bladesong also comes in as the bread and butter of the subclass at 2nd level. These are mostly cause of their movement abilities. Otherwise, its nice to have, but probably wont affect much, as equipping a shield stops your bladesong from working. Similarly, 1st-3rd level defensive wizard spells like absorb elements, shield, protection from evil and good, blur, mirror image, and protection from energy enhance your survivability as a martial bard. Though undeniably powerful, the Bladesinger has many weaknesses that the player must be aware of and compensate for. Those are both terrible cantrips.. please do not pick those. Still, getting a hasted Attack action to trigger Divine Strike on the same turn that you cast a leveled spell is very good. Giving enemies a taste of their own medicine is always satisfying and rarely ineffective. Youll rarely be disappointed with the outcome. Wizards do not get very many feats, and this is an excellent opportunity to get one at first level. Until then, you benefit from an incredibly diverse spell list and a large selection of reliable cantrips that can keep up with the others. If you're willing to wait a while then any Bard at level 10 can grab find greater steed. Unlike similar gish subclasses likethe Eldritch Knight, Bladesinging gives you full spell slot progression, allowing you to lean more on defensive spells like shield and absorb elements to stay on your feet. Going into a class with another Extra Attack feature can feel redundant, since the two features dont mix. It's a completely useless cantrip, just attack twice for the same chance of hitting with a chance of hitting twice. This costs you 8th and 9th level spells and the extremely powerful 18th level Magical Secrets, but as a full caster you still get the slots to upcast your other spells, so make sure you get at least a few spells that benefit from that. To avoid this, you should multiclass into Bladesinger, giving you some great spells; find familiar, shield, haste, and misty step. Jeremy Blum (@PixelGrotto) is a journalist, gaming blogger, comic book aficionado, and fan of all forms of storytelling who rolled his first polyhedral dice while living in Hong Kong in 2017. Since the way the feature is worded with Tasha's, you're still taking the Attack action and just replacing one attack with a cantrip use. Enhances you with physical resistances, giving you a defensive edge in combat. Needless to say, youre unlikely to miss. Heres a brief list of a few races, in no particular order, that are ideal based on their ability score modifiers. An excellent ability that fits the Bladesinger, both thematically and mechanically. The War Domain even gets to benefit from its War Priest feature more often, since taking the Attack action is now much more viable. Having a decent ranged cantrip is essential. Extra Attack now lets you cast a cantrip as one of your attacks, and you no longer have to play it as an Elf (which I assume most people already didn't). His father trained him in sword fighting in hopes that he would follow in his footsteps, but his mother insisted he go to college. Fixing D&D's Madness - With Special Guest, Mat, from Role Play Chat! If youve chosen the elven races, this feat is a must-have. Can be helpful to give vision to your non-dark sighted allies. And because it allows you to cast one of your cantrips (as opposed to one of your wizard cantrips), it is fertile ground for multiclassing. Why bother resisting damage when you can make time itself grind to a halt? It has only a somatic component, which is described in the spell's description as pointing your finger at the target, something that would not be immediately recognizable as casting a spell. Here is how I would arrange ability scores for a Bladesinger using point buy (27 points), standard array, or rolled ability scores. If youd like to dual-wield but prefer slicing your enemies up, the scimitar brings slashing damage and is alsoLight. Nice to keep concentration on a big spell ! With the release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, it has been confirmed that even non-elf races can become Bladesingers! The quintessential Gish feat. Check back next time, when we do our best not to feel bad when the bladesinger takes the lunch money from our other Extra Attack features with the fighter and monk. For those who like to mix magic with their melee or reminisce about D&Ds older classes like the spellsword, the Bladesong might provide just the right tune. Wearing a gratuitous grin, he thrust it at me, telling me to turn to page 141, only cryptically adding, Your prayers have been answered., Since then, the Bladesinger has become one of my favorite classes to play. However, this one lets you substitute one of these attacks for a cantrip. And this article's character example is a half-orcbladesingerwhose husband is a half-elven wizard. The Bladesinger first appeared in second edition D&D. This feature essentially acts as a panic button, negating damage that you might not be able to take otherwise. After all, we cant let the bard have all the fun. Also it makes more sense balance wise too, because if it was intelligence you could use your bladesong more at the start, but its progression would be erratic and not particularly good. You should be good with light armor and letting the bladesong make up the difference, but a College of Valor bard has the additional option of strapping on a shield if theyre out of bladesong uses. Attack, then use Shocking Grasp so you can retreat without provoking Attacks of Opportunity. However, you can rely less on Intelligence by picking up mostly utility and buff spells from your wizard and still get the full experience of casting powerful spells as a bard. Alongside the Eldritch Knight which fulfills the opposite niche for fighters who want spells to supplement their swordplay the bladesinger is reminiscent of hybrid classes in previous editions of D&D, like fourth edition's swordmage. You may start as a bard, perhaps with two levels to get Jack of All Trades and Song of Rest. Click the link to learn more. This spread of abilities means they cant truly excel in any one area. Ability scores are critical when creating a character, especially a Bladesinger. The number of uses per short rest. For the Bladesinger, it will be intelligence and dexterity. As a subject for learning, it is absent from schools and guilds, with instruction only provided from a single master to a single student. -15 feet of extra movement. NADRIGOL. This is the reason Wizards get Steel Wind Strike. Using CBE or PAM and eldritch blast, you can generate 6 attacks per turn with upcast spiritshroud at 4d8 per attack on top of the usual dmg . Ok so I havent played in many years and have been invited to join a new game. They're full casters with splash of melee as backup. To compensate, their hard shell gives them a base of 17 AC, meaning that you can take all the points you would have put in Dexterity and put them into Strength instead. Planning on using a. spell, but see that one of your companions is in the blast zone? On the same idea, you may find a use to bladeward (it gives resistance to all physical damages). One D&D Druid UA - Right Direction, Wrong Everything Else. In the situation where you cannot benefit from Reaper, using one of the blade cantrips allows you a second chance to land your attack for Divine Strike damage just like the other domains. So, if youre worried about optimizing every part of your character, I would go strength. When you take the Cast a Spell action, you are expending your action to cast the cantrip. Also, as you become higher level and are granted access to more powerful spells, most of the time you will find your spells would be more effective than your weapon. For that you might not even need Crossbow Expert, since clerics have such a reliable use for their bonus action with spiritual weapon. Casting this will allow you to convert bonus actions into big bursts of radiant damage. High elves also gain a free cantrip, which never hurts. Bladesinger Overview Bladesingers are wizards that have mastered the art of the bladesong: an incredibly demanding fusion of swordplay and ancient elven magic. Invisibility that persists for as long as you maintain concentration. Nimble Escapeallows Disengage and Hide actions to be used as bonus actions, which helps keep you out of harms way. The most helpful of these is, funnily enough, thehelp action, which can be used to give yourself advantage on attacks. If sword fighting didnt work out, he could fall back on his education. And if you dual wield, then Mobile would have you with 3 attacks that could help prevent getting opportunity attacked (and they don't need to hit), instead of just 1 from Shocking Grasp that would need to hit to get that benefit. Use blade ward for defense without sacrificing your attack. Bladesinger isn't a GISH though, any more than a Bladelock is a GISH. However, with the Bladesinging Extra Attack, you instead have the option of replacing one of the attacks of your Attack action with a cantrip, freeing you up to do things with your bonus action - including the myriad of things triggered by the Attack action. 6 bladesinger, 11 fighter, 2 warlock hexblade, with the sorcerer metamagic feat for quicken metamagic will net you 12 blasts, and 4 attacks for a pretty fun burst combo. Two-handed ranged weapons interfere with Bladesinging, but hand crossbows are still an option for the domains with martial weapon proficiencies (or those who can get it from their origin). As with the bard, you can pick up haste or fly, but with so many good cleric spells requiring concentration, you might not use them as much. Jack of all trades. Honestly, I struggled. The information presented on this site about Dungeons and Dragons, both literal and graphical, is copyrighted by Wizards of the Coast. So you still can use Two-Weapon Fighting with it. Though the Bladesingers race used to be limited to elf or half-elf, with the new rules introduced in Tashas Cauldron of Everything, the racial requirement has been removed, allowing any race to become a Bladesinger if they wish. As mentioned, I generally assume that you begin as a wizard, or at least bee-line for wizard level 6 as quickly as you can if you have features or starting proficiencies you need from the other class. Id also argue that Jadis, the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia, makes an excellent example of the bladesinger, especially from the battle scene in The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe where she is dual-wielding her petrifying wand and a sword, counterspelling a phoenix-conjured wall of fire, and the like. The song also ends if you are incapacitated or use two hands to make an attack. and found yourself yearning for more spell levels/slots or a straight spellcaster and dreamed of being able to stand with the Fighter at the frontlines, the Bladesinger might just be waiting to dance their way into your heart. Secondly, this extra attack ties up your bonus action, which is often used to great effect, both for spellcasting and class features, as well as after the Attack action with features like two-weapon fighting, Shield Master, or Polearm Master. History (INT) Choose one Arcane (INT) Nature (WIS) or Religion (INT). The upside of not relying on Bladesinging is that your Intelligence score can be kept at 13 (or 14 if you really need that extra spell prep slot), letting you stick with utility and buff spells from the wizard while relying on your cleric spells to do the blasting. Great for boosting your survivability. Naturally, an Elven race had to make it onto the list. , Im afraid I have some bad news for you: it doesnt exist. Even though that action specifies only one attack, he doesn't lose the Bladesinger ability to cast a cantrip in place of it. Consider Booming Blade with a 18 Dex and 16 Int (AC=20): Pre-Tasha's: Rapier + Booming Blade: 2d8+4 [avg 13] + 2d8 [avg 9] Pre-Tasha's Extra Attack: 2* (1d8+4) [avg 17] They are the perfect way to start your character. This allows you to add your Intelligence modifier to your melee damage rolls while your bladesong is active. If you decide to forgo the benefits of your bladesong, your armor and shield proficiencies will allow you to reduce or even dump Dexterity, but you will then need to make up for it with Strength for better melee attacks unless you find a way to get shillelagh. grants the ability to cause more damage to any target of a larger size than you (which is practically everything). This is hilarious. When I play spellcasters, I usually pick a druid, so it took a little time to get used to being unable to turn into an alligator when an angry guy got up close and personal with a sword. A powerful buff, but at the cost of skipping a turn once the spell ends. Finesseallowsyou to use dexterity, it doesnt force you to. Use this to shut down other spellcasters before cutting them down with your blade. Adding an extra 10 feet to your movement and allowing you to move out of combat without an attack opportunity makes your character uniquely portable. Or 8 eldritch blast + 5 weapon attacks with action surge. A friendship emerged, and this friendship soon turned into love asthe two bonded over their mixed heritage and shared a propensity for helpingthose in need. This bonus is equal toyour Intelligence modifier, with a minimum of +1. Wizards were powerful; I knew that, but I wished there was some way of building them without having to run away at the first sign of trouble. So you can probably do 4 eldritch blast + 3 weapon attacks at best. Saving throw proficiencies are a question of Intelligence vs. Charisma, and whether you want your proficiency to boost a save where your modifier is low (Charisma) or to solidify one where it's higher (Intelligence). The resemblance isuncanny. Finally, the druid will get an honorable mention towards the end thanks to the Circle of Spores. And welcome to D&D! You would have to hit with Shocking Grasp and it would only affect the one enemy you hit, so not viable against groups of enemies. If youve taken my advice and prioritized Dexterity over Strength, youll need to choose a weapon with the, attribute. A low charisma score means youll rarely be the voice of the party. A Eldritch Knight is a bladesinger, plus Bladesinger comes online at a maximum of level 9, leaving you over half the game. Dram was fascinated by Zannan, and begged him to share the secrets of his sword artistry. Its not without its price, however. Bladesingers excel in the hands of those that can utilize their versatility, but without that creative spark, they are underpowered, if anything. I love my bladesinger so much. This opens up some weapon possibilities that wouldnt usually be viable for other Bladesingers. For extra points, try getting your hands on aSun Blade. When looking at the best race for your Bladesinger, or any class really, you want to decide which ability scores are most important to you and try to find a race that increases those. And someone seeing a rapier might assume you have a higher dexterity than you do and avoid spells with DEX saving throws. It only takes a bonus action to cast and can be thrown and called back to your hand. If you start as a wizard, you can also play a bladesinger whose talents got them recruited by a bardic college. Please enable JavaScript to get the best experience from this site. Question: Can Bladesinger use a longsword/shield? Honestly kind of don't know where to start so I thought I'd ask for help. The ability to create sounds and images (that can be pretty much whatever you need them to be) has almost infinite uses. Scan this QR code to download the app now, current leaks on Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. Unfortunately, their +1 to wisdom does nothing for a Bladesinger build. There is no right or wrong; there is only your imagination. Though none of this will make you as good as a fighter in a straight-up brawl, being able to dip in and out of direct combat allows for a more skirmisher-style approach. Because a bladesinger is a guy with a sword and a spell. 8 Ways Tasha Made the Bladesinger Awesome for Multiclassing: Bards and Clerics, How to triple your fireball damage: The Cloaker. ;p. Great character, but honestly, who uses True Strike? This repeats at the end of each of their turns. You use your intelligence to predict and dodge away from attacks, rather than simply being protected from a magical force or something that relies on your power, and you use your power to activate your bladesong, rather than your intelligence allowing you to sing more. you can now attack in melee, then use booming blade, then use your bonus action and the telekinetic feat to push your target out of melee range (nearly sure booming blade proc)! Dram will readily usemisty step andmirror image to dart around his enemies, plus shield and absorb elements toavoid damage. Dram also hasgreater invisibility at his disposal in case he needs to spy on a group of criminals and then spring into action to catch them by surprise. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. Even wizards without any interest in getting into melee range will benefit from it. Bladesingers are a fine choice for players hoping to build a variation of the classic roleplaying gish,which is a character that is skilled in both physical combat and magic. Having a one-handed ranged weapon will also allow you to shoot while Bladesinging. That brings us to another issue; hit points. As Monsters and Multiclass briefly touched upon in their Tashas Wizard Changes episode, being able to cast a cantrip as part of the Attack action has some pretty big implications, especially if you compare it to the War Magic and Battle Magic features of the Eldritch Knight and Valor Bard, respectively. Anyways, Lightning Lure can work well to "add" 10 ft. to your attacks or for some Scorpion thematics. If youre only going to take a single feat, make it this one. Wizards have great combat cantrips, but clerics also bring something to the table. aid other tabletop gamers in creating memorable characters, Press J to jump to the feed. Answer: No. Handy for certain saving throws, but mostly superfluous. It lasts for an hour, provided no loss in concentration, but magic weapons will cut right through it. Now, however, an additional element was added, stating that moreover, you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks. After that you could take 2 Fighter levels for a fighting style, more weapon proficiences and Action Surge. For an idea of how your stats should look, heres an example using a standard array: When you first take the Bladesinger subclass, you instantly gain proficiency in light armor and your choice of a one-handed melee weapon.
