Suggestions for a gish character concept.

[Sis783]

So before i switched to 5e my friends and i played our own thing we made up. It was simple each character got 3 abilities/attacks/defense options. My character concept was a magic user who also fought in melee. Designed after a musketeer he used a rapier that also was his wand. He used wind magic to boost his defense capabilities and for very limited attacks. He used windbolts to attack at range and he had an ability to push people away from him. His last ability was really powerfull. He ran super fast and the only way to hit him was to roll a natural 20, he couldn't attack while doing this and once he was hit it was over.

The character was LG and he always tried to do the right thing. He was a metaphorical knight in shining armor. I want to recreate him in 5e but i have no experience in magic classes. I have played a barbarian and thats it so... any suggestions as to what class/multiclass i should do to build this character.

[trctelles]

So before i switched to 5e my friends and i played our own thing we made up. It was simple each character got 3 abilities/attacks/defense options. My character concept was a magic user who also fought in melee. Designed after a musketeer he used a rapier that also was his wand. He used wind magic to boost his defense capabilities and for very limited attacks. He used windbolts to attack at range and he had an ability to push people away from him. His last ability was really powerfull. He ran super fast and the only way to hit him was to roll a natural 20, he couldn't attack while doing this and once he was hit it was over.

The character was LG and he always tried to do the right thing. He was a metaphorical knight in shining armor. I want to recreate him in 5e but i have no experience in magic classes. I have played a barbarian and thats it so... any suggestions as to what class/multiclass i should do to build this character.

You could play DEX Eldrith Knight (Fighter Subclass), they fit well in the backstory you told. They can cast Booming Blade (Cantrip) to get that gish feeling early on, and they can get most value from picking buff spells, rather than damage ones. Pick Haste, Shield and stuff like that and you should be fine.

A DEX Horizon Walker (Ranger Subclass from Xanathar's Guide to everything) with Dueling Fighting Style is nice too. You get really good buffs for damage/utility and with Planar Warrior you can deal the least resisted damage type by using your bonus action. You should get Zephyr Strike for 1st lvl spell and get that "run fast and deal damage" thing

Warlock Hexblade (Xanathar's too) is one of the strongest single class gish right now. You get 14 DEX/ 16~ CON and pump the rest in CHA and you're good to go for the rest of your carrier. They don't fit much on the profile you gave, but they're REALLY strong, they get a lot of versatility.

[Consensus]

I think someone has made a thread about a very similar character before, but that's just sort of thinking out loud.
I think a good way to do this could be bladesinger wizard, either straight wizard, or 1 or two level fight dip for dueling fighting style and action surge, or out levels into swashbuckler rogue, which is even better if you have higher stats than normal, because it can give CHA to initiative.

[strangebloke]

Devo Paladin 2/Storm sorcerer X

Given the wind theme. You get to expend spells to hit hard, you get to fly, if someone hits you you can float out of reach. You can attack on a round with booming blade (wind damage is approximately comparable to thunder damage?) You can get medium armor and knock people around with Storm Sorcerer abilities. You can deal great AOE damage in melee...

Won't have much HP.
Won't have that exact 'gotta go fast' capstone ability.
Won't be the best hand-to-hand combatant.

But if you refluff things like shield and mage armor as 'wind shield' and 'wind armor' then you are probably pretty close to on point thematically.

If you like that level of magic, but want to be smart as opposed to you could go bladesinger as well.

If you want more martial, you've described a swashbuckler pretty adroitly.

[Afrodactyl]

A college of swords bard is a very respectable Gish, and they get to use weapons as spellcasting foci

[Citan]

So before i switched to 5e my friends and i played our own thing we made up. It was simple each character got 3 abilities/attacks/defense options. My character concept was a magic user who also fought in melee. Designed after a musketeer he used a rapier that also was his wand. He used wind magic to boost his defense capabilities and for very limited attacks. He used windbolts to attack at range and he had an ability to push people away from him. His last ability was really powerfull. He ran super fast and the only way to hit him was to roll a natural 20, he couldn't attack while doing this and once he was hit it was over.

The character was LG and he always tried to do the right thing. He was a metaphorical knight in shining armor. I want to recreate him in 5e but i have no experience in magic classes. I have played a barbarian and thats it so... any suggestions as to what class/multiclass i should do to build this character.
Hi!
This will be a bit tricky to really recreate, but still doable.

If you REALLY wants everything there is no much choice:
"rapier as focus": means the latest Xanathar's Bard that can use weapon as focus IIRC. Otherwise there is a UA that provided that.
Otherwise, take Warcaster to circumvent the problem.

"wind magic to boost defense": Warding Wind (Druid, Bard) is the definitive one you want.
"windbolts to attack at range": you'd actually want a push effect, but the "air effects" that actually do damage are fairly rare. The best option is probably a refluff of Eldricht Blast paired with Repelling Blast.
If you don't mind doing no damage though, Gust, Gust of Wind and some class features (4e Monk, Lightning damage for Tempest Cleric 6, and I forget a few others) can work.

"ran super fast, hard to hit but couldn't attack while doing this". The only thing I see to reproduce this would be to stack quite a few spells/features: Haste obviously (so you can use your main action to Dodge, then Dash), Mirror Image (so you are indeed harder to hit), then Cunning Action from Rogue (bonus action Dash), Action Surge from Fighter (extra Action), Mobile feat (10 feet extra speed), Longstrider (10 feet extra speed, 1 hour), Monk's extra speed (up to 20 feet because you can't expect going full Monk anyways), Barbarian's lvl 5 extra speed (but works against magic so I don't recommend it), Draconic Sorcerer's wings (free fly), Sanctuary (1mn, forces WIS or drop attack), Foresight (forces disadvnatage), Time Stop (because you'll really need it to enable all those buffs XD).

The way I see it you have two main options.
Either "I want all" then you are totally shoehorned into a Bard: pick Valor Bard and Warcaster, or pick the new Bard that has sword as focus (unless I'm totally mistaken, very possible don't own Xanathar's).
Pick all the spells I mentioned thanks to Magic Secrets.

Or you are ready to make some sacrifices in how close to be from the old character...
Then you can easily mix and match.
In which case you can go on a DEX&CHA base (Bard, Rogue, possibly Sorcerer -extra spells Metamagic- or Fighter -manoeuvers-).
Or DEX&WIS (Monk&Druid, possibly Cleric or Rogue or Fighter).
Or pure CHA (Bard, Hexblade, possibly Rogue or Sorcerer if you don't care about being a full caster with Wish, Timestop and Foresight).
Or pure WIS (use Shillelagh on a club that has been shaped as a rapier, even if technically a club: unless DM allows a homebrew weapon that is technically both a club for Shillelagh and a rapier for other stats).
Or pure DEX ("just" pick either Lore Bard 6 or Divine Soul Sorcerer 5 or Land Druid 6).

The only essential things you want to respect your old character (imo) are...
- Extra mobility: at least Longstrider, Haste, possibly Mobile feat, possibly class feature speed.
- Defense features: Warding Wind, 18+ AC one way or another, possibly Defensive Duelist feat, possibly Uncanny Dodge (Rogue 5) or Deflect Arrows (Monk 3+) or Evasion (Monk 7, Rogue 7), possibly Mirror Image, Sanctuary.
- Cantrips: Gust, possibly Booming Blade (refluff as pushing air so hard when making move that it creates a soundwave -actually this must be pretty close to what PHB expects ^^-).


Pure CHA: Swords Bard 18, Hexblade Warlock 2
+++: All aforementioned spells (including Time Stop!!) thanks to Bard list (Longstrider, Warding Wind, Foresight) or Magic Secrets (Sanctuary, Haste, Mirror Image, etc). Also IIRC Extra Attack embedded.
---: no real weaknesses, apart from the need to take Resilient: Constitution somewhere, the lack of extra mobility without spells and the requirement to rely on spells more often than not for defense.
Level: Start Bard obviously up until Bard 6. Then take one level of Warlock for better ranged cantrip. Then resume Bard up to 7-8. Then at any point you like take the other level of Warlock for Repelling Blast invocation (and whatever else you want). Pick Armor of Agathys, and refluff it if DM admits it as creating wind current so speedy it creates cold around you, or maybe you unleash some slices of wind as a reaction when attacked -so slashing damage instead of cold-).

DEX&CHA: you drop high-level spells to instead go pure gish: Swords Bard 10, Swashbuckler Rogue 7, Divine Soul Sorcerer 3.
+++: all aforementioned spells up to 5th level ones. Very strong defensive features and great mobility thanks to Rogue (+ extra Expertise and Initiative), great defensive spells thanks to Sorcerer with Extended and Quickened metamagics as bonus (Sanctuary, Aid, Shield, Mirror Image).
---: more complex to build unless you are fine with playing with low-level spells most of your career and getting Evasion as capstone or close to it.
Sorcerer 1 > Bard 6 > Rogue 3 > Sorcerer 3 > Rogue 5 > Bard 10 > finish is how I would follow personally.
Variant: eat a bit at Bard and/or Rogue to bump Sorcerer to 5 (so you can pick Haste and another spell), or Hexblade Warlock (some redundancy but still nice, especially if you want to be great in "single-target striker" role), or Cleric (whatever Domain you fancy, idea here is just to get access to all good 1st level defense/buff spells, even if you will be limited by your WIS).

DEX&WIS: 4E Monk 11-14, Land Druid 6 (the one that gets Haste).
+++ Simple enough to build, ends as very powerful defensively, even if you don't max WIS, has great mobility, excellent variety of spells, and several tools you'd like (Monk's "push and damage" ability, also Fly and Burning Hands/Fireball which you could refluff).
--- A bit hard to survive at low levels, Resilient: Constitution is a hard requirement if you use Haste and don't plan on getting Diamond Soul (otherwise Warcaster), you have no space for other feats, and you are very dependent on short rests to have fun.
Variant: trade 4E for Sun Soul, if DM agrees refluff: the 30 feet attack may be force or plain bludegeoning instead of radiant, Burning Hands may be refluffed as you making a special move with your arm to create damaging wind, etc...

Pure DEX (CHA/WIS just enough for multiclass): Battlemaster Fighter 12, Swords Bard 5 or Lore Bard 6 or Land Druid 6 (if you want Haste), finish however you want (more Bard, Hexblade Warlock, Long Death Monk for THP, Shadow or Divine Soul Sorcerer etc).
+++: most space for feats, and you don't care about anything else than DEX and CON either. Sturdy chassis, many attacks, you still get most spells you want, and a good balance between short rest and long rest.
--- Obviously you have less spells to play with, and depending on which caster you pick you may have strong strings attached in roleplay (Druid).

DEX&INT: this one I didn't speak of, but it can work too: Fighter 1 / Bladesinger X (you'll just need to get Warding Wind another way) or Eldricht Knight 11 / Bladesinger 5 / whatever.
You care more about INT because otherwise no point in grabbing Bladesinger School, but besides that it's a pretty strong gish too. :)
Fighter chassis makes you sturdy, Wizard brings you Shield, Mirror Image, Haste, Bladesinger makes you quicker on your feet and sturdier.

This may be the best build if you actually want to use offensive spells, thanks to Eldricht Strike and ability of Wizard to prepare spells each day (even more if your DM agrees to give you spells as loot).



I know my post is a bit like throwing dozens of boulders at you while saying "hey, eat that and deal with it yourself". XD
I just wanted to give you an overview of what you can do.

If you can tell us a bit more about how you see your character (is he rather a man of people? A wise man? How would he approach a difficult fight? Is he a heavy magic user or is it just wind effects to buff himself? Is he a teamworker or a solo player?) I'll be glad to point out more precise suggestions. ;)

(Also I put UA content aside for obvious reasons, but if you can use it, I think Mystic may answer most of your requirements too ;)).

[Sis783]

First of all id like to thank you guys for your help. I have decided on pact of the blade warlock, specifically great old one. My character is a half elf. Alot of people dis on the great old one and pact of the blade combo but i will do my best to make it work. Im guna grab the invocation from xanathars to allow to to use my weapon as a focus. Will be getting mirror image and investiture of wind as 6th level spell. Fluffing eldritch blast as my wind bolts. Part of the great old one flavor text stated that your characters patron might not even be aware of your existence despite you stealing power from it so part of my characters backstory was that he came upon a book that detailed a process of invading the dream of cultist warlocks getting power from cthulhu. My character listens in on cthulus teaching to these warlocks and steals his power. I will probably have angry cthulhu cultists after me at some point but hey thats fun drama. I like the idea that my character is stealing power from a bad entity and using it to do good in the world its kinda funny. Might get him killed but hes willing to risk it if it means he can make the world a better place.