Pact of the bladesinger

[wunderkid]

Hey all,

Right I'm fairly new to 5e and basically trying to come up with a character.

What I want: I always liked the bladelock and now that I've seen the bladesinger I want to see if there's a middle ground that makes use of certain aspects of both (namely arm or of aga and hellish rebuke and the spell choices of a wizard).

What I have: my initial build plan goes through to level 15. Opening with essentially 14 levels of bladesinger to get bladedancing, int to damage and some spell slots. Then one level (at least) of warlock to pick up armor and hellish.

What this gives me: a 7th level slot (potentially) for armor of aga, allowing a 35 temp hp/damage return. A good wedge of damage on basic attacks (d8 scimitar + dex + int). A good selection of in combat and out of combat spells. A pretty rocking AC. It's a little MAD though.

What I want: I'm not completely familiar with the spells. So anyone who can tell me which spells would most greatly benefit me in close combat, or any spells that are an auto-take because they are just THAT good for combat or out of combat utility.

Any glaring flaws I've missed with my build.

Any ways I could improve it.

What to do with the remaining 5 levels.

Any comments at all really, the only thing to me that matters is trying to stay true to the concept of a melle caster (from what I've read an 'optimised' bladesinger is basically just a caster who can have a good ac if people get close.)

Many thanks
Matt

[CaptAl]

Hey all,

Right I'm fairly new to 5e and basically trying to come up with a character.

What I want: I always liked the bladelock and now that I've seen the bladesinger I want to see if there's a middle ground that makes use of certain aspects of both (namely arm or of aga and hellish rebuke and the spell choices of a wizard).

What I have: my initial build plan goes through to level 15. Opening with essentially 14 levels of bladesinger to get bladedancing, int to damage and some spell slots. Then one level (at least) of warlock to pick up armor and hellish.

What this gives me: a 7th level slot (potentially) for armor of aga, allowing a 35 temp hp/damage return. A good wedge of damage on basic attacks (d8 scimitar + dex + int). A good selection of in combat and out of combat spells. A pretty rocking AC. It's a little MAD though.

What I want: I'm not completely familiar with the spells. So anyone who can tell me which spells would most greatly benefit me in close combat, or any spells that are an auto-take because they are just THAT good for combat or out of combat utility.

Any glaring flaws I've missed with my build.

Any ways I could improve it.

What to do with the remaining 5 levels.

Any comments at all really, the only thing to me that matters is trying to stay true to the concept of a melle caster (from what I've read an 'optimised' bladesinger is basically just a caster who can have a good ac if people get close.)

Many thanks
Matt

Well, to start, the Bladesinger's biggest weaknesses is low HP and a lack of burst damage. You can get a ridiculously high AC via bladesong and supporting spells (blur/haste etc), but are weak against AOE spells like fireball.

If I were going to combine BS and warlock, I'd take two or three levels of Warlock early and add BS after to have the temp HP from word go. Plus trading Int saves for Cha saves is no big deal.

Delaying Extra Attack isn't a big deal when you have the SCAG cantrips to compensate. The two short rest slots would combine well with Arcane Recovery to boost your wizarding powers.

The level 14 BS +Int to weapon damage is the only offensive boost you get outside of a mediocre extra attack, though. It's kind of lackluster, IMO. A bladelock keeps up BC of Hex, in addition to multiple attacks. So, you may want to consider adding that to your repertoire.

You're going to be MAD. It'll be tough to max out DEX, INT, have a decent CON, and keep at least a 13 CHA. With exceptional rolls it is possible. With point buy, maybe not.

[MaxWilson]

You're going to be MAD. It'll be tough to max out DEX, INT, have a decent CON, and keep at least a 13 CHA. With exceptional rolls it is possible. With point buy, maybe not.

I don't play with point buy, but I'll take a shot at this design:

Base array: 15, 15, 13, 12, 8, 8

Variant human, starting as Bladesinger (because I like Int saves)
Str 8 Dex 16 Con 12 Int 16 Wis 8 Cha 13, Tough

You'll get ASIs at Bladesinger 4, 8, 12, and 16, which you use to boost Dex and Int to 20.

At level 20 you'll be a warlock 2/bladesinger 18 with AC 13 (Mage Armor) +5 (Dex) +5 (Bladesong) = 23, plus Shield Master (Shield) for 28. You'll have 2 + (18 * (4+3)) + (2 * (5+3)) = 144 HP thanks to Con 12 and Tough. With Contingency (Armor of Agathys V when you drop below 50 HP) you effectively have a shadow HP pool of 25 HP, plus 25 temp HP from a regular casting of AoA, bringing your total effective HP up to 194. If you have a friendly cleric or paladin in the party to cast Aid VII or something that could go up to 224 HP.

I wouldn't play this character as written (e.g. I'd rather be AC 21 with Dex 16, but Mobile and Lucky) but if the design goal is to have lots of HP while maxing Dex and Int, that's one way to do it.

[wunderkid]

Many thanks for your responses.

Hex was definitely a possibility, originally I was looking at dual wielded weapons however iirc that doesn't work at all with the cantrips?

I'm hoping the level 10 song of defence will offer some protection from AoEs, and is also helpful for trying to mitigate ranged damage so my armor of aga can proc vs the melle (roughly what's the average damage I can expect to take per attack/per round from a melle fighter assuming he hits with each attack?)

With regards to that build it definitely looks similar to what I was thinking however the having lots of HP side I'd drop for mobility. After all ideally I'll prebuff an arm of aga and shouldn't get hit too often by direct attacks with that ac and when I am hit I can burn out a spell slot to reduce the pain. will hopefully lend me some level of survivability. (also thinking throwing out the odd bladeward to reduce the damage and increase the number of arm of aga procs).

Now one weakness I can see is archers as they won't proc the armour. Are there any spells that can effectively deal with them?

I think my main query now is the spell list. It's quite a daunting read, and I don't want to miss any cool tricks. But contingency looks fun, haste and mirror image I think are good ideas too. Any thoughts on those?