My ruling for Shadow Blade is that is turns your focus into a weapon - a wand basically turns into a lightsaber as you use the wand as the handle of the sword, a staff turns into a glaive or spear, etc. This way you are technically hitting with your focus, which has a value.

tensers transformation is a better version of feign death because instead of faking being dead to spy on the enemies in a dungeon room, you can just actually be dead (method acting)

I like bladesingers because of the variety. Sometimes you play a rogue and the RP really makes you want to shield all your friends from danger, but you can’t. Sometimes you play a Wizard and the RP makes you just want to physically tear someone apart but you know that it’d be a waste. Being able to choose to cast a dimension door to get someone into combat one turn, thunderwave to get someone out of range the next, get mad and hit the bad guy the next turn, and life transference when your loved one goes down? Delicious. I feel like bladesingers excel at choice. Sometimes the story calls for you to do some statistics and maximize damage, but I feel like bladesingers are at their best when they just listen to what’s going on in the battle and pick what their character would want to focus on and fix that problem. With the variety of a wizards spell list, the option to get physical when you need to, and the AC to not just be a burden to your healer if you get in range, combat is really fun. (Bonus perk: did you forget you were up next again? Don’t have time to read all the details of the spell you were thinking of casting. “Oh- ah- fuck it. I hit it with my sword.” Is a great fallback without feeling like your wasting a resource)

Ok this comment is late and so will probably go unseen, but! As a self-proclaimed Martial Bladesinger Fanboy, I have to say two things! 1: I don't really disagree with anything you've said :). 2: I think that so much of how effective a Martial-Focused Bladesinger is depends a lot on your paradigm and intent. If my approach to the character is something like: "I want to be the best Wizard I can be," then my approach will be vastly different than if it were something akin to "I want to make a powerful melee attacker." With the latter, you're not thinking as much about your high level spells and your Spell Save DC. It's more like "well, I could be a Fighter/Barbarian and take GWM/PAM... bleh, boring. Hexblade? Done to death and too few spell slots. Hm... what about a Bladesinger? I could be a really powerful Melee character *and* have lots of spell slots to Blink, Shield, Misty Step, etc. etc. with... sounds awesome!" With *that* approach, you're comparing yourself not to other Wizards (heresy, I know), but instead to the other Martial Melee characters of the world. And so, of course you're going to focus on Dex over Int. And not worry so much about what else you could be doing instead of casting Shadow Blade (or Animate Objects) as a 5th level spell, right? It's not "I could have used Wall of Force!" it's "this about on par with other Martials, damage-wise, but with way better spells than an Eldritch Knight could've had!" And I truly do think that, under that paradigm, you end up being really competitive, damage-wise with the best Martials, but get to bring along a much better bag of tricks to boot. I appreciate that, as you've pointed out, there are drawbacks. Ramp up time due to Bonus Action bloat is perhaps the biggest. That said, it feels to me like many of the strongest Martial damage-dealers in game require some similar ramp: The Hexblade casting Darkness or Shadow of Moil... even Barbarians have to Rage. When I've played Bladesinger in game, I don't typically mind going something like: round 1 - Bladesong and an additional defensive buff like Mirror Image (at lower level) or Blink (at higher), or a nice little Fireball or something while we all try to get in range and to soften up a few targets, then round 2 - Shadow Blade and make a couple of attacks (with Booming Blade, since that's allowed at my table, which admittedly isn't RAW though from what I can tell is allowed by most). It feels really fun and dynamic and, yeah, powerful. :) Just my 2c! Loved the video! Can't wait for all the blowback our commenters are going to give us when we release Bladesinger videos right on top of each other :P (mine will be out Tuesday).

Basic tip: remember to cast spells. I have a blade singer who almost never does. It is tempting to pretend to just be a martial, but you’ve got the best spell list at your disposal and you need to use it to maximise your character.

Ive been playing my bladesinger for two months now and was first underwhelmed because I felt my damage was subpar. But then I realized that the true strength in a Bladesinger is having your concentration protected by almost being unhittable. My DM gave me a homebrew magical item that increased my Ac by +2 (among other effects as well), and he probably shouldn't have. I changed my build from a gish striker to a control wizard with a highly protected Concentration check and have been loving it.

I agree with your assessment. I think the biggest reason everyone wants this to be some spell blade attacker is that a lot of the options for this archetype in DND are very poor. GFB and Booming blade are weird circumstantial spells and the smite style (branding smite, etc) spells that come a little closer use up a lot of spell slots for very little impact and require you concentration. People want that anime style magic sword fighter or that Final Fantasy spell sword/ runic knight with a bunch of elemental sword attacks. Power up your sword and unleash fury etc. I think a trick to this that I haven’t seen a lot of people do is use flavor to full effect. Casting fireball? Your sword is your focus, you twirl and twist and slam your sword on the ground and a line of energy surges forward to a point and then explodes. Casting cone of cold? You breathe deep and blow out foggy frigid air from your lungs and sweep your sword on a wide arc in front of you sending a wave of ice out towards your enemies. It kind of sucks that you have to lean into flavor to get that spellsword feel a lot of people want, but it’s what we’ve got. We have a ton of classes that have swords and that can cast spells, but not a lot of support for a true meshing of the two ideas unless you read between the lines a fair bit.

The biggest benefit I've found is just being more useful in the turns or even combats where you don't want to use your spell slot resources - especially at lower levels (at least until 7th or so) until you have plenty of slots. It rounds out some of the weaker early levels where if you weren't a bladesinger you'd run out of spells and just be fire bolting... I love the way you said that melee just replaces your "firebolt" turns.

I'm in a campaign that's winding down playing a bladesinger. It's honestly exceeding my expectations, and is so fun. In a party of a lore cleric, moon druid, and a forge domain cleric, I get to be the frontliner with all the benefits of being a wizard. So much fun. If you have every even thought about being a gish, I cannot recommend being a bladesinger enough.

It's probably very rarely going to come up for anyone, but the one time I played a bladesinger I had a very forgiving GM and a ridiculous amount of luck. Not only did we roll our starting stats and I got incredibly lucky, starting with a strong INT, DEX and CON, my GM also alowed me to use booming blade and green-flame blade with my shadow blade. Finally I managed to get my hands on a set of Illusionists bracers (let's you re cast a cantrip as a bonus action after you've cast one on the current turn). In other words, I could get in with my attack and bonus action, three attacks with shadow blade, two of which where booming blades. I was effectively the primary front line fighter for much of the game and I could still pull out big spells like hypnotic pattern, wall of force and the like when a particularly tough fight came our way. By far the strongest character I've ever gotten to play. Also they where a silly kobold.

I'm glad you mentioned the catch-22 in regards to Heavy Armor and Tensers Transformation. I had a player come to the table with the idea that he was going to put on Heavy Armor and cast Tenser's Transformation and he (and everyone else) had a good faceplam and 5 minute belly-laugh when this problem was explained to him. It was a 1shot so I let him do it anyway instead of sending him back to the drawing board. I don't think the designers realized this problem when making the spell, its reminiscent of the supremely knuckleheaded design of the net and how it basically always attacks with disadvantage.

No matter what happens I still love the blade singer because of one build. If I ever play in a game that ends at a low level I always look to play a character who is Arcane trickster 3/blade singer 2. Such a fun build

I am playing right now in campaign as baldesinger with scribes wizard, divine sorcerer and lore bard (we didn't share classes before campaign start), so on boss fights we just need someone to do pure damage, so I multiclassed in fighter, to fill this role. It may be not usual optimal way to play bladesinger, but with 4 full casters in group it is needed. So sometime the most optimal way is to play non-optimal way, and blade singer is great with opportunity to fill different roles in group. After all, it is a party game about team work

In my campaign i play an eldritch knight bladesigner focusing on melee. It may not be optimal, but its the most fun I've had playing dnd with them, just by amount of options i have with levelling up, and participating in combat

I can only imagine Colby from the D4 network watching this, his heart breaking, followed by a long passionate tirade to defend his favorite class (besides monk) Seriously though, his Bladesinger 2.0 build is impressive

I've not done the math or cast the spell in a game. However, at a glance, Tasha's Otherworldly Guise is a much better "transformation" spell for a bladesinger than Tenser's Transformation for a few reasons 1) You don't give up spellcasting to cast this spell or gain exhaustion for casting this spell 2) You don't give up armor class. You actually gain armor class with TOG 3) You can use INT for attack/damge rolls, which may be better than an extra 2D12 damage and advantage but I'm not sure 4)Fly speed 5)I'd much rather have two damage Immunities and a condition immunity than have prof in CON and STR saves and 50 temp hp TOG just seems like the defensive options are much better and it doesn't lock you into a playstyle like TT

What i greatly love with your videos is that i always learn something new . This time thanks to you i learnt that a tenser's transformation eldritch tatoo would be a great reward for any martial class . Thanks

Another fantastic journey in the world of D&D; Thanks Chris for all the content that you put out.

​ @Treantmonk's Temple I built a Bladesinger with bugbear MMOM. 1st turn, I can upcast scorching ray to proc surprise attack (extra 2d6 per hit) against the enemy move after me, and trigger bladesinging. 2nd turn, I trigger shadow blade (upcast), and make 2 attack with it. 3rd turn, shadow blade and cantrip combo. This way I can do way more dmg... And I would use shadow blade only if it's dim or dark setting. Without advantage, I would use spell to control instead. And thanks to Bugbear's Long-Limbed, I don't need to stay in melee range, so I can even use firebolt within my combo.

I love how you "Tell it Like it Is". Keep up the great work! 👍

Another great video! I am re-watching it and though I am not playing my bladesinger totally optimized I really enjoy your info break down and I always appreciate your style of information presentation. Keep up the videos I watch them all the time when I'm character and world building.

When I first started playing 5e I was looking for guides, and found your bladesinger guide, which has been one of my favorite classes since I started playing in 2nd. I immediately disregarded every other guide I found as I knew your work from 3.5/Pathfinder guides. I really enjoy playing it as a wizard that doesn't have to sit back. I play one in AL, and I feel like I surprise every DM with just how hard it is to hit the character

Great episode, thank you! What I enjoy about your videos is precisely that your opinions and advices clearly derivate from game experience, this should be obvious to anyone who has played d&d for while.

Great video 🙂. I like playing Bladesingers and get good results by casting a concentration spell and then taking the dodge action on subsequent rounds if I don't have another way to impose disadvantage on attacks against me.

Tenser’s sounds like a spell you should be able to cast on someone else.. Like to buff the Warrior and turn him into a super hero

This is all really really excellent advice!

I’m a huge fan of the bladesinger. There’s so much you can do and all the guides want you to take shadowblade which I consider suboptimal for a bladesinger.

Only time I was really satisfied with Tensor's Transformation was on a Level 14 Glamour Bard. Took Find Greater Steed and Tensors. I had a power up round where my character would mount their Sabertoothed Cat and use Tensors. Effects apply to both. Use Bonus action to do Unbreakable Majesty to add to the character's defense.

I've been playing the same campaign since I started playing 2.5 years ago with an unoptimised party (I happened to pick a good class - Shepherd druid, though I'm still lv7 and did not protect concentration when taking the ASI), and I have been followong the channel for some time, but without the opportunity to "put it to use". We're starting a new campaign in 2-3 months, and I am considering playing a mahou shoujo style of character as a Bladesinger, so I'm glad that your revamped guide came out before character creation even if it's just to get some ideas that I can tone down to suit my campaign in a way that still feels cool and powerful. I still don't know if I'll end up playing the bladesinger, but your videos have helped me understand the game more, even if I will end up not using them indiscriminately in order not to break my games. Keep up the good job. :D

I play a Classic Bladesinger for two years now and it is a blast of a game. I rolled my abilities and have another wizard in the party which does most of wizardry, so its not much kosher of a situation, but most of the time Im flashing around doing what needs to be done. Presently, My group is at level 9 and Im having a really nice time with him.

Firstly I agree with your considerations about tenser's transformation, but as I see it it clearly was not made for bladesingers, no, as I see it the only class it actually works well with is abjuration wizards, they with their ward (Wich they get some a lot of back w this) can protect the concentration and I once played a abj wizard who happened to roll really good stats so my dex was solid and this spell helped me be tanky and deliver great damage in quite a few fights, probably because we were lacking a damage focused martial, but I still think in fights where the enemy has magic resist, legendary resists and/or good saves this is a great backup, not for bladesingers who already have an enhanced multiattack and all the profs they need but for an abjurer who gets all the relevant benefits+ward recharge.

I went the Battlesmith route at levels 10-12. From levels 1-11, I was primarily a caster. While this does slow spell progression for higher level spells, I could only cast those spells once per day anyway. The vast majority of my casting, even if I went Wizard 20, is going to be level 5 or lower spells. For AC, I picked up a Barrier Tattoo (Half Plate equivalent without actually counting as armor). So my AC is 15 + DEX (max 2) + Blessing of Protection (1) = 18 base. First round against several enemies, I either Fireball or Hypnotic Pattern if I can avoid hitting my allies. If I can't, then I cast Haste on myself and engage in melee alongside my allies. Against a single enemy, I always just cast Haste on myself first round.

Woot! Thank you for the video I'm definitely going to play one!

favorite subclass by far

THANK YOU!! I mentor a number of GMs to help improve their skills and I have tried to warn them about Tenser’s Trap for months now. I didn’t run the math until after Halloween of this year when I played in a 15th level 1 shot and the Abjuration Wizard casted TT 3 times, once before a long rest and twice after. This used all of their high level slots, they did this while our COL Druid and Sorcerer both interchangeably cast Web (2nd) and flaming sphere (4th) on the enemy. I was working as the GMs hit point secretary and they outpaced the Wizard EVERY round. Not most rounds, EVERY ROUND.

Genuinely love how much of the video was against tensors transformation

This is another really good video. Bladesingers are almost better martials in damage and defense, but that's just even worse than a regular control wizard. Completely experienced this as a Bladesinger. Swapping to a Handcrossbow also has another big upside - range. For an optimal party this is just a massive advantage. Even a Bladesinger will die if they are the only one in melee. Even hanging in the back at lv6 is arguably better. Also dhampir and dragonmarks should probably also be considered.

This video saved my evening!

Thanks for the video!!! Really interesting your point of view.. and logical :)

The joy of playing a Bladesinger and getting a cloak of displacement is just great. I think I can count on my fingers the ammount of times i got hit by an attack after that, even playing full melee

Wonderful video I enjoy this type of character. (Gish) but I have always stayed away from the bladesinger because it always felt like a trap. Never thought about it as a wizard with a tone of defenses and the ABILITY to use a weapon if needed. Comment is really for the algorithm great content sir.

I'm playing a bladesinger in a current campaign (level 5 currently). It's a blast. Using a rapier. Bladesong dance and Haste on round 1. Haste, bladesong, and Mobile feat gives me a 100 foot speed and no opportunity attacks from my victim. Combined with dancing rapier, owl familiar for Help action, other spell shenanigans including booming blade, and a 23 ac, I am a BEAST in combat.

Found you through Dungeon Dudes and I think you are awesome. Dennis Hopper was bad ass!!!

This video is a perfect demonstration of how when optimizing, many people try to judge upsides, but they don't ever evaluate what they lose by going for those upsides.

Going to watch this *after* I record my episode for next week :P

A couple points for optimizing a weapon-based Bladesinger: I'm still not sure if this would outperform just playing like a normal wizard at higher levels, but it will definitely boost your damage some. The first thing is you can mitigate the damage loss at the start of combat by integrating normal spell casting. For example, instead of using shadow blade first round and singing second round, and then having your setup fully online by third round, you can instead start singing first round and cast a damage spell (something like steel wind strike if you still want to feel like you're a swordfighter) and then use shadow blade second round and play the rest of combat as outlined in the video. The next thing I would consider, if your stats allow it, is putting two levels in Paladin. Obviously you lose one casting level of spell slots, and you're lagging by two levels when it comes to unlocking new levels of spells, but it might be worth considering at midgame. Maybe put 9 levels in Wizard and then 2 in Paladin. Obviously you're missing out on 6th level spells which you would otherwise have by 11th level, but if you're trying to build around weapon attacks, we already determined that Tenser's is useless for that, and shadow blade is the same upcasted to 5th as it is to 6th, so you don't necessarily need that 6th level spell option. As far as Paladin, Divine smite doesn't require concentration or any actions, so you can just blow all your first and second level spell slots on a couple smites each round, substantially increasing your damage. At this point in the game, any 1st level damaging spells are going to get outperformed by a damage cantrip, so you wouldn't be using those low level spell slots in combat very much anyway. And since it doesn't involve your Paladin spellcasting modifier, you don't even need great Charisma to accomplish this.

One small thing to note is that a level 6 Bladesinger focussing on Shadow Blade would likely bump their Dexterity at level 4. I'm not saying that makes this the "optimal" way to play a Bladesinger, but it does boost the numbers should you choose to play this way.

Versatility is the name of the game with a Bladesinger. My Harengon Bladesinger owns a short sword and a rapier. When it makes sense to cast shadowblade he does and uses the short sword. When it makes sense to cast a bonus action spell during combat, out comes the rapier. I also have the hand crossbow for when I want to stay out of the way and that’s usually when I’m casting Ashardalon’s Stride too.

I'm so glad you mentioned goblin as an optimal race choice. Hide is amazing for when you're not in the front line. Also as far as fun factor goes, kiting with a booming blade hit and disengage is great with goblins. Moreover, though it's not necessarily optimal, spell sniper should allow booming and green flame blade to be used with reach weapons, so whip-casting is great fluff with snake school and allows you to run and hide after your attacks. Haven't seen the allure of shadow blade yet but may take it to mess around with when I hit level six next session. For now my key damage output is Scorching Ray on Webbed targets, or just letting others fireball the ones I web. Tasha's Caustic Brew is also a staple. For some reason our foes really like lining up and never see me until it's too late. Even if I only affect 3 targets and they wipe it off, it's one action for 3. Fair trade all day. Damage is fun but control beats damage imo.

Woohoo! Been waiting for this one

Tenser’s Transformation is how high level mages settle bar brawls amongst themselves.

I've been playing a bladesinger in a highly optimized campaign, and while putting Haste on myself and stabbing things was fun in the early levels (we started at level 5), now that we're level 11 I generally find my concentration is better served on things like Wall of Force or Dawn (don't judge me, we were fighting Strahd) or even just Web, and walking up and stabbing things is now a pastime for when the combat has been fully locked down and we're mopping things up. This is even though I opted for a balance between Dex and Int, and have a +4 in both. The high-level things I'm looking forward to are Simulacrum and Clone and True Polymorph, not +Int to damage at level 14.

I also see a lot of fun builds listed here in the comments from tables that roll. I know this isn't optimal, but here's mine. I rolled some monster stats here: 13 str 18 dex 15 con 20 int 11 wis 14 cha Currently 8 levels of Bladesinger and 2 levels of Paladin(stats are reflective after ASIs) with tough as a feat(Currently 91 HP at level 10). It's allowed me to take a wide variety of spells and still bring big damage when I need it, all without sacrificing the ability to stay in melee even if I happen to get hit. Super effective character so far, and a lot of fun to play.

Tenser's Transformation has always been a dicey spell at best across all editions... I think it isn't too bad for a bard in the right circumstances, but not being on their list means it's a costly acquire and many of the spell's downsides like the exhaustion hurt them. It's a very poorly designed spell.

This really took away my excitement to play a bladesinger. I needed to hear it, though.

I recently played a blade singing character from level 10 to 17, I was a warforged and I actually did the 3 dip in artificer but I did it in armorer. My thought process was this, spells are at their most powerful when they have lasting effects and a lot of those spells require concentration therefore if you take the concentration buff from bladesong and add proficiency to it from artificer it will boost the like likelyhood that you will never lose concentration. I also rationalized it to myself that while I would be loosing out on an ASI compared to straight classing, if I were to spend that ASI on warcaster or resilient constitution then that would be the same effect as having lost the asi for the multiclass, as far as feats and scores go. I also wanted to make use of the armorer’s gauntlets, the party was an undying warlock, a shadow monk, and a divine soul sorcerer at the time, so no one in that party was really good at the frontline or avoiding damage. I thought if I used my melee attacks to grant disadvantage against hitting my allies, my super high AC would help waste enemies actions as they tried and failed at hitting me instead. My DM was also nice in allowing my gauntlets to count as light so that I could use the other as a bonus action attack (which tbh idk logically why that isn’t the case since nothing about the armorer’s gauntlet suggests that it is sized such that swinging it would be harder than swinging a dagger in the same hand but idk if mechanically that makes things too powerful or not). My DM however did not rule that you could use booming blade with shadow blade as he felt it could do too much damage for the resource expenditure (which I don’t agree with personally and tbh whenever I see people building for shadow blade I think it does mean you are loosing a lot of what makes wizards powerful with their spell casting potential in the first place but I digress). Overall, while it was frustrating to be 1 to 2 levels behind on maximum spell level you can cast compared to other players, I Decided I could live with it given how many other primary spell casters will take a three level dip in another class and not be that bothered by it. I also like having access to infusions, even though they were fairly basic ones, but mind sharpener Is really nice to have, it might be excessive for yourself since you would already have proficiency and intelligence to concentration while in blade song, but giving it to another party member who was a full caster could always be very beneficial. All in all, I really enjoyed the character and the breath of options that gave me, I’m not convinced it was 100% optimal but he could do a lot of things and a couple of levels of artificial were nice to have, although my DM was annoyed with me having both a familiar and a homunculus…and then using that homunculus for a ring of spell storing for things like haste or other spells that could be in the ring that I didn’t want to use my own concentration on. It got worse once I had simulacrum as well, But to be totally honest by that point in time I found that the familiar and the homunculus were often not on the board because of how easily AOE destroyed them, or I’d have them stay put in a safe place during combat. Speaking of simulacrum, the one use of tensers transformation I did find was having it on the simulacrums spell list. Since it can’t recover spell slots anyways and it doesn’t have a ton of hit points, when it was out of useful spell slots in a combat or I needed it to take the heat off of me or my party members tensers transformation was a good way to have the simulacrum burn itself out with a bang. Since it also had the gauntlets it was good at distracting enemies and did respectable damage in melee when necessary and since a simulacrum has half your HP, that 50 temp HP really helped boost its ability to take hits that got past its AC. There was a specific time when my character wise incapacitated inside of a monster but my simulacrum Was still able to fight it and ultimately kill it saving my character. That said, I would never have used my actual character to cast a spell, but on something like a simulacrum where it’s going to be destroyed anyways, it didn’t hurt in the slightest.

It wouldn’t be a true bladesinger video without a justified rant about Tenser’s Transformation :D

I totally agree! I would never cast shadow blade and use two weapon fighting as a bladesinger, that's just a waste. The extra attack is great on many turns you might have just cast a cantrip on otherwise, but it is not you main power. Something I think bladesingers can benefit from more than most is the whip. As a one handed reach weapon it's good for not getting into enemies reach while still being able to get your extra attack/cantrip in.

“The fighter is out performing us.” Something I love to hear, because I’ve actually heard it from the party mages at my table.

Good rolled and optimize bladesinger is awsome this is my favorite

It does seem a tad... off to treat dex as 16 in the damage calculations. You said to pick intelligence because spellcasting is worth more but what you are analysing is a *weapon* focussed bladesinger. Those numbers would be higher if dex was focussed, and might well be at least more appealing. You started from 'focus spells' then went to prove that if we focus spells we are indeed bad at hitting with weapons, so... I mean, yeah, we focussed spells. Now you would still likely land at 'worse than a sharpshooter crossbow expert fighter;. But I do want to say- and I know this is an optimiser channel so this is sacriligious- do we have to be as good as one of the most damage optimised chassis? Like, we are still a spellcaster outside of combat! We have utility and mobility options, we have counterspell. I think it end up a pretty rad and potent character. Yes, it might have less value than a spellcaster focussed wizard, but so does pretty much everything. I would not choose bladesinger if I wanted to play a master of spells! I pick bladesinger because spellsword cool, and I want to see how far I can go with it, how good I can make it! Great video, but sometimes I feel we too easily dismiss the optimisation of specific aesthetics because they don't measure up. I know they don't, but man I have run out of ideas on how to feel cool playing someone who uses a fiddly little toy crossbow to fight dragons.

I have a warlock/bladesinger. I know it's far from optimized, but between armor of agathys and bladesong for setup, then hex and sword/2 EB combo, I'm having a lot of fun and have a solid damage output when I try. Between studded armor, a +1 protection item, a high roll on my dex stats, bladesong, and shield when I need it, it's not often I get hit even before the concentration buffs, so when I'm not using hex I'm trying more battlefield control options. It's a fun build, but I'm sure I'm behind Chris' damage curve. Excited for the build video!

OMG. I was midway through the video and I realized you're Treantmonk! THE Tratmonk. The wizard from pf1e. HOLY MOLY! I missed you!

I’ve been thinking about playing a strength based tortle blade singer with pole arm master a spear and blade ward so you could make two attacks and blade wars in a round I think it’s interesting

So my latest bladesinger just got a ring of spell storing, and now he’s got his familiar attuned to it. The DM ruled you can booming blade with shadow blade, and use your haste action to attack and swap that attack for a cantrip. I can have his owl cast haste on him while he casts shadow blade. I calculated his DPR at level 6 in dim light to 50 DPR, with two booming blade attacks and a normal attack. Things get weird when you add magic items, though I will admit that the item could be used just as well to boost other wizard spell casting.

Im going to be playing a blade singer on a campaign starting later this year. Waiting to see your build and other recommendations.

I'm playing a 7th level BS and we had a big naval ship fight that went 9 rounds over two sessions. I had the most fun in a long combat situation. With a +4 Dex and cloak of protection, my AC is 17 or 21, and then with Shield it's 26. I burned 4 spell slots in shield and every time my DM sighed in dismay. He was really happy the two times it finally go through. For race I picked Harengon, because I wanted to be mobile above all else. I was planning to use the rabbit hop to escape melee. But I've run into the issue of too many bonus actions so I haven't really used it. I am dual welding flametongue scimitar and shadow blade, which each take a bonus action to activate fully. Hilariously, we found out last night that the flame blade light kills the attack advantage of the Shadow Blade 😄. I don't mind though; I got the flame blade bc I don't have darkvision, and I may want to concentrate on something else. So you've got a 5'10" rabbit weilding a shadow sword and a beacon bright fire sword each hand, dancing around on a ship deck. My crazy high dex means I'm usually going high in initiative, and with the battle overtaking two different ships, I got to use spells and melee in abundance. By the time all my stuff was cooking, I was taking 3 attacks per turn, tanking, and doing reasonable damage. I think the Bladesinger might be a little too powerful... I felt spoiled for choice most rounds, when I could see characters like the rogue or warlock frustrated.

I made a bladesinger, because I wanted a character that used a blade and was able to teleport around the battlefield. I used blink and shadow blade and some multiclassing. It worked pretty well for what I wanted to accomplish. The DM did usually have one encounter days, which was important for my char to keep up. At higher levels my char also became more and more of a utility caster. Still I liked the character build and it was a fun puzzle to make my concept viable.

One thing I like with bladesinger is taking the whip as your martial weapon proficiency and using war caster+whip to cast attack of opportunity spells more often

I completely agree with sentiments about Tenser's Transformation. Just a few days ago a friend showed me a homebrew Strength Wizard subclass. I had a few criticisms about the subclass and he responded with Tenser's Transformation. I had never seen it, but even after looking it up, I was confused. Not being able to cast spells and getting exhausted after didn't seem all that great.

Great video, hope to see GOBLIN in the build :D

Honestly, range blade singer is just solid. I use mind sliver and light crossbow. Great when I'm not casting Spells. You can still duel daggers when you need to and attack with spirit shroud. Or just hang back and cast spells. I've noticed with most of my games my wizard ends up in melee so I might as well have some defenses and damage when needed.

Honestly, I found that using haste on first level with blade song gives you better everything. Ups your ac, adds melee attacks and more movement. At low to mid level it’s useful for melee, then later it’s just to boost ac and get away from danger. I switched to spells more often. Steel wind strike for large groups when my party was mixed in. Plus I used a Shadar Kai, which gave me more get in get out ability and more resistances. I ended up being the most dangerous of the party because of damage avoidance and dealing. I pretty well matched damage through casting and was the hardest to hit, then add in protective spells for the party, like counterspell.

Played a Bladesinger for a few sessions, at level 3-4 and all I know is I would love to play one again. Which is why I watch a lot of videos on Bladesingers because I wanna hear how others would play one xD

Treant, Tenser's is a spell that I think was not designed for player use. Where it shines is with some prep time that ordinarily gained if one is a BBEG. Tenser's does require concentration, and stipulate that you cant cast spells while the spell is active, however when combined with another (non) PC heavy spell it does combine a bit better. If you combine Tenser's with Glyph of Warding, we get more possible spell combinations, specifically because of the wording and duration on Glyph of Warding. " You can store a prepared spell of 3rd level or lower in the glyph by casting it as part of creating the glyph. The spell must target a single creature or an area. The spell being stored has no immediate effect when cast in this way. When the glyph is triggered, the stored spell is cast. If the spell has a target, it targets the creature that triggered the glyph. If the spell affects an area, the area is centered on that creature. If the spell summons hostile creatures or creates harmful objects or traps, they appear as close as possible to the intruder and attack it. If the spell requires concentration, it lasts until the end of its full duration." When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, the damage of an glyph increases by 1d8 for each slot level above 3rd. If you create a , you can store any spell of up to the same level as the slot you use for the glyph of warding."The duration of Glyph of Warding is "Until Dispelled or Triggered"So while an "Optomizer's" dream scenario, because we know have options, Tenser's becomes more viable. You can already have your Heavy Armor equipped and the BBEG can deliver his

Essentially you are talking about starting off as obi wan and ending as yoda

I agree that the Bladesinger is best played when they remember they are wizards that can be competent in melee should the situation arises. Not to mention their stellar AC combined with Shield. I still plan to make a High Elf Bladesinger wielding a Scimitar of Speed in higher levels, though...

I'll point out one thing for Tenser's, and it's the use case I keep it around for. Tenser's is for the times you've run out of other spell slots. It's also a sort of panic button. It's also for the times you desperately need those temp hitpoints to stave off death. We've had some encounters where my bladesinger is all tapped out of spells, and even a couple of times where she's the last person standing, and Tenser's has been the difference between living and dying when I'd been hanging in there just by a fingernail. Doesn't make it a great spell, but there is a use.

Buddy of mine is DMing his first campaign soon. He's gonna run lost mines of phandelver and I'll be playing a wizard and choosing bladesong at 2nd level. I'll largely be choosing battlefield control spells. We have a sorcerer that wants to be a blaster, a cleric for support and a paladin for frontline weapon use. Wizard seemed the best choice to round out the party, make the others more effective, and I'll be able to poke holes in things with my rapier if the situation calls for it. Super looking forward to it

The thing is in my experience of playing wizards is that I will run out of spell slots before the rest of the party, so I tend to try to use catrips half the time. Having bladesong helps fill out options. Also, elven accuracy with shadow blade.

I’ve been playing a Bladesinger in a campaign for almost 2 years now. We started at level 1 and are a bit into level 14 now. The plan is to go to level 20. My build is pretty simple: Wizard up to level 10, then 2 levels in fighter (for RP and lore reasons but also action surge) and then the rest in wizard. My feats are Warcaster (booming blade on reaction attacks and never dropping concentration) and Tough. Point buy: 8, 14, 14, 15, 10, 10. He’s a high elf (and this was before Tasha’s) so his stats were 8, 16, 14, 16, 10, 10 after race increases. His stats are currently 8, 18, 14, 20, 10, 10 and I prioritized Int for my ASI. 128 (rolled) HP, 17 bass AC (24 with BS and Haste/Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise and 29 with Shield) My weapon of choice was a standard rapier until I got my Moonblade. This with Booming Blade is much better than Shadowblade imo and doesn’t take time to set up.

I’m probably going with the longsword on an artificer as it’s good single hand damage and I can up the range by another two points by going two handed while not bladesinging. I’d go with the mobility feat instead of two weapon fighting so I can get in, hit and get out without provoking attacks of opportunity. I think spiritual shroud is a nice choice to replace shadow blade; flexible damage type plus secondary effects. I personally would go with three levels in artificer, as I’m playing this class as a fighter supplemented by spells, otherwise I’d play a different subclass. You still eventually get access to the highest spells in the game, and you can get a magical weapon and a +1 to ac through infusion. You also get a pet who can apply disadvantage to an attack as a reaction, helping diminish the use of your first level spells on shield. Never mind having him around to provide flanking bonuses. That on top of using int to attack all sounds like a worthy trade to me. Also, my first three levels are probably going into artificer; not as much damage but it’ll keep you alive better. First rule of optimization; dead characters do no damage.

Tenser's Transformation is a fun RP trick to pull out of your sleeve. I can see a couple of really fun scenarios where the spell would make the whole table crack up. If I was playing a Wizard, and I found it in a spellbook at some point, I'd probably take the time to transscribe it to my spell book. Probably. Maybe.

While I agree Tensor's is not a great spell, I've been in a situation where it was useful. Surrounded by mummies where I couldn't effectively use AOEs and I happened to have a staff of striking (spare attunement slot and no one else wanted it). Killed a lot of mummies and soaked a lot of damage and made all my con saves. That's the only time I've cast it though, and haven't prepped it since.

I wanted to find a way to make tensor's transformation good. When I was working on my body snatcher build, I tried to integrate it, but the issues with armor proficiency made it fail unfortunately. There's just no practical way of making use of the armor proficiency that it gives short of the Glyph of Warding 'power station' loophole (which generally isn't allowed). The Body Snatcher build involved making a Divination Wizard with high mental ability scores (ignoring physical), and resilient Charisma feat, and taking a spell scroll of Magic Jar as the 'free' magic item at the beginning of the campaign (I suppose if you start at 11th level or higher for a one shot you could also do it that way). You then use the Magic Jar spell and your character is now a soul in a gem, capable of stealing other people's bodies and stat blocks for yourself (humanoids only). Discard your original body, and just jump from body to body. The Magic Jar spell has some severe punishments for failing saves when the body you are in dies, but Divination wizard can cheese these (and can also cheese the save that the opponent gets when you try to possess them, guaranteeing success).

Once your concentration is up, using Blade Ward can be an interesting option if you can punish a creature for attacking you while taking a shot with a ranged weapon. A few spells can do the trick. Tensei is also pretty good if you use Contingency to teleport (misty step or something else) as soon as the temp are gone. Not sure if Dimension Door can be used, but if so even better.

It's also worth considering playing a mountain dwarf for Wizard if you want to run another subclass of wizard. You can use the two +2s and medium armor to boost what matters

I am here for the Treantmonk sass today.

I keep trying to find ways to make Tenser’s viable. My first thought was to somehow get a find steed/ greater steed, then Tenser’s powers up two creatures instead of one. But, even that isn’t much better than a summoning spell, while eliminating any future spellcasting on your part. And it’s really difficult to get a found steed on a wizard. I still like the fantasy of the spell, though. So as a DM, I’ll have bad guys cast it, or give a scroll of it to the party at level 5-7 range.

I think you have a very specific way of playing Bladesinger that is quite different from the way many people play it. As far as I'm concerned the two ways to play bladesinger are disabler and damage. If you're in a party with a lot of save or suck spellcasters that wears down legendary resistance quickly, you want to build intelligence first and help get rid of legendary resistance with saving throw spells. If you are in a party with few ways to get rid of legendary resistance the last thing you want to do is cast save or suck spells. So in a party where you need to be damage the correct build is DEX first bladesinger. I think it's important to note that you often don't have a spare bonus action to bladesong at high levels (once you get animate objects) because you want to cast and use animate objects which takes an action to cast and a bonus action to use. A typical fight is three rounds and if you attack on turn 1 and use your bladesong and then don't cast animate objects till turn 2 (when you have a bonus action to use it) your damage drops by a very large amount. Towards this end I often go DEX first on bladesinger and pick up the Mobile Feat at character creation via custom lineage or variant human. If you go custom lineage for darkvision, your first ASI will even your 17/15 to 18/16. If you're going to be a disabler bladesinger then your typical spell selection allows you to have bonus action economy to bladesong as none of your spells will require action+bonus action the turn you cast them. This means you are far more capable of staying in melee, you want to build INT first and you don't want to take a feat like mobile. Which of these bladesingers is better comes down to party composition though. You should attack the boss resource the rest of your party attacks. Bosses in D&D have two HP bars (Legendary Resistance and Actual HP) and you want to focus on the same resource as the rest of the party for best results.

You‘re great❤

I'm glad you brought up multiclassing wizard and artificer because I have a question that i haven't seen answered really well anywhere else. I'm currently playing a wizard who for story reasons is considering taking up artificer for the next two levels, this is gonna put me behind on wizard spells, i know, but i feel for the most part my 4th levels spells will still be effective as big guns (got polymorph and storm sphere as an evocation wiz) Our party is pretty large and we fight pretty large battles for the most part. our main healer support is a celestial sorcerer, and they kind of get stretched thin sometimes, and there was a point where they were downed and luckily, my wizard was behind to get her up with a potion. I'm thinking, I take a few levels of artificer now, since the DM gives us feats at every 5 character levels with the tradeoff that we cannot take feats on ASI, so my INT is already 20. i'd get medium armor proficiency, proficiency with tools I can use to great effect to RP with the party, and I could make use of my 1st level slots by having my familiar drop clutch heals with cure wounds while I concentrate on storm sphere or minute meteors. I really like the sound of this because Wizards are really the most fun when you play them utility rather than pidgeonholing into a niche. is this a good way to go about my progression? (granted I'm prepared to be behind on empowers evocation. I'm fine as long as I can get to 9th level spells, and i'll still get to them with wizard 18)

Maybe if we flip the script a bit: With one subclass, and the 'right' spells. The Wizard, an already very powerful class, can also 'nearly' compete in every other aspect of combat when compared to the other classes, even when ignoring many of the core aspects of being the wizard. XD

I would like you to talk briefly about tashas otherworldly transformation. If not in the bladesinger video, then in something in the near future. Seems like tensers without the negatives. I took it on a warlock (tome) because I ended up being the primary meat shield in a party of casters where I had the most base health

I agree. I prefer to think of Blade Song as a defensive trait for when enemies engage you in melee which is where most wizards get into trouble. With Blade Song, Booming Blade, and the Mobile feat (VH or CL race) you can slip away and make enemies think twice about chasing you.

I get what you’re saying & @ the same time taking 3 levels of artificer to gain you a steel defender to aid you in combat & help keep your allies safe is also good as well!

I'm playing a Bladesinger in Storm King's and it's a blast. I maxed Dex over Int since Shield can do the rest really so the Dex boosts my damage and hit chance, especially during the Shadow blade levels. I also think Resilience makes more sense over War Caster since War Caster is pretty redundant with Bladesinger.

Yea Chriss, I play a high level wizard and I looked at this myself as an option, "tensor's transformation. I gave it the boot at the first glance. My Div wizard was way better off controlling the battlefield. even if it were a bladesinger, that lvl 6 disintigration is a better choice when the map gets hot.... especially if you can eliminate a mob in the process. good advice to nix TT

Hey Treantmonk! I was really enjoying your build guide before it delisted. In that video, you recommend "wearing studded leather under your mage armor". Unfortunately, the Mage Armor spell gives the condition that the target is not already wearing armor. I know the video is already uploaded and private, so it might be too late to correct the error, but it was just something I noticed. Looking forward to watching the rest of it this Friday :)

In your "shadow blade at level 6" segment you are forgetting three things. One, cantrips scale at level 5, 11, and 17, so that booming blade cast as a level 6 character scales up to +1d8 thunder on hit, +2d8 if the target moves. This bumps your damage by about ~5 if we assume 55% chance to hit and 50% chance of getting that movement bonus damage. Not huge, but it's something. Two, Shadowblade and booming blade deal damage types that are very rarely resisted and even if the shortsword damage is resisted due to the weapon being non-magical, the vast majority of your damage output is unlikely to be resisted, which automatically makes you that much better than any martial who does not have a magic weapon at this point. Three, during your first round setup activating your bladesong, there's nothing stopping you from tossing out an actual spell with your action rather than attacking. You could use Mirror Image for some serious survivability, toss out a Tasha's Mind Whip to shut down a strong but stupid opponent's next turn, maybe use See Invisibility if you know there's an invisible opponent.