So I got an awesome set of stats, help me make a bladesinger.

[Jmarsh56]

I managed to roll 12,13,14,15,15,17 for my upcoming character. And I'm thinking about doing a bladesinger. Either straight up wizard, or something else I have considered is going bladesinger/bard.

Help me understand what makes a bladesinger tick.

[Raif]

I managed to roll 12,13,14,15,15,17 for my upcoming character. And I'm thinking about doing a bladesinger. Either straight up wizard, or something else I have considered is going bladesinger/bard.

Help me understand what makes a bladesinger tick.

There's a few very very good guides out there that explain the finer points of bladesingers, but your stats are killer!

I would do something like:

High Elf (dex +2, int +1)
Strength - 12
Dex - 17 (15+2)
Con - 15
Int - 18 (17+1)
Wis - 14
Cha - 13

Then you can at level 4 get +1 Con and +1 Dex to round those numbers out or go Res Con which gives you a 16 Con and Proficiency which is super nice.

Bladesingers are all about keeping up concenctration and using Bladesong to keep up concentration and later on do some decent melee damage with Song of Victory.

There's 2 "styles" of play I'd say - either melee oriented or a caster who can be OK in melee and uses the Bladesinger melee stuff to extend spellslots or defend their concentration spells. Whta kind is the type you want?

What level are you going to play at? both starting and probable ending level?

[Mortis_Elrod]

Idk what’s allowed at your table but holy cow that’s a nice spread.

So just spit ballin here you can walk away with half elf boosting Int and Dex and Cha. Here’s the spread:

12/16/15/18/13/16

Then do whatever you want. Spread makes it easy to do a crazy multiclass as long as it didn’t involve barbarian or Paladin.

I like bladesinger and Bard is great. Nothing wrong with 6/14 or 8/12 or 10/10 split, but I’d recommend more Bard levels and either Whispers Or Lore for college. Pick up a shadowblade and then go to town.

[Jmarsh56]

Starting at level 8, we have a rogue fighter and paladin in our group right now so I'm thinking magically inclined, I had already brainstormed a bard cleric combo (light not life) and lore combo. But I realized I had completely forgotten about bladesinger. But we definitely don't have any arcane presence and I was hoping to fill that role.

[Raif]

Starting at level 8, we have a rogue fighter and paladin in our group right now so I'm thinking magically inclined, I had already brainstormed a bard cleric combo (light not life) and lore combo. But I realized I had completely forgotten about bladesinger. But we definitely don't have any arcane presence and I was hoping to fill that role.

I would very much avoid multiclassing on the bladesinger, they have solid features at nearly every level that really help the class out on top of the very awesome wizard chassis.

[Lord8Ball]

I'd dip 2 levels into rouge for cunning action then go bladesinger 18. Not only is it thematic for a speedy sword dancer it will help your survivability and the sneak attack die helps make up for lack of melee damage compared to other classes especially with improved invisibility. Other than that I recommend picking up glyph of warding at level 5 to stack concentration buffs without needing it. Also, the spell shield is a must for insane ac stacking.

[Deathtongue]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O6vBhvie18hFDmnom5lMv3zTj1nYUkvC8UxH0ngZWXQ/edit
The full guide is here, but basically:

Don't multiclass if you want your Bladesinger to do damage. This is doubly true if you have access to Shadow Blade, but even if you're playing vanilla D&D and you ONLY care about melee megadamage multiclassing is a sucker's game. If you do have access to Shadow Blade and you want to do large amounts of damage in melee, every delayed level is a delayed damage upgrade or spell slot upgrade.

Now, you will often have better uses for your concentration slot than Shadow Blade/Haste/Greater Invis/whatever. But the thing is, the rounds in which you're using that concentration slot for something else (Fly, Polymorph, Hypnotic Pattern, etc.) it's likely that your multiclassing add-ons aren't going to be relevant.

Basically:


Should You Multiclass?
Because multiclassing is very popular, this guide does (intend to have eventually) have an extensive section on multiclassing. However, before you do, PLEASE READ THIS SECTION EVEN IF YOUR POT OF GOLD IS WATCHING THAT DAMAGE-PER-ROUND GO UP!

A lot of people look at the Bladesinger, note they don't have a passive melee damage adder like Sneak Attack or the Two-Weapon Fighting Style, note that they can't use Great Weapon Fighting, then panic and start looking for ways to slap on multiclassing to increase their melee efficacy. The popular opinion (and fix) is to splash in a level of two of Fighter or even Paladin or Hexblade.

I think this is wrongheaded. If your intent is to use your Bladesinger to melee, splashing in a level is generally not worth it until the very end of the game, and only in specific circumstances. If you look at your Bladesinger as a platform for highly defensive damage from a variety of sources -- rather than the orthodox view of only viewing melee DPR as important – you'll find multiclassing is never worth it.

Level 6: You miss out on Fireball, Haste, and/or Extra Attack. If you're feeling cheesy, you also miss out on Animate Dead for extra skeleton minions.

Level 8: But let's say you're a Bladesinger 6 / Fighter 2. Now you miss out on Polymorph and Greater Invis. One of them is a turbo-charged swiss army knife that you will always find a use for, the other one makes you a melee god.

Level 10: Let's say you're a Bladesinger 8 / Fighter 2. Now you miss out on Animate Objects. With Arcane Recovery, you could've cast this three times per day. This is a titanic boost to your DPR. You also miss out on Song of Defense. You have two good tricks of 'don't die instantly when monsters look at you funny' (Absorb Elements, Shield) but this completes the trinity. There are a lot of big-time damage makers you have no answer to and sometimes a critical hit sneaks through. If you're abusing Planar Binding, you miss out on extra Conjure Elementals.

Level 12: You miss out on Contingency. You can think of it as an Action Surge that only works with buffs and/or an Action Surge that works even better with defensive ploys. SEE MY SECTION ON CONTINGENCY FOR MORE DETAILS. If you managed to get that spell, you also miss out on Tenser’s Transformation. I could live without Tenser’s, but I have a hard time imagining someone who loved them some melee showboating doing so.
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Level 14: You miss out on SIMULACRUM. Best feature anyone gets in the game, with the possible exception of Wish. It's so good that I recommend snagging Shape Water just so you'll have a source of ice for it. You also miss out on Song of Victory, which is one of the biggest passive DPR adders per game. If you're using TWFing + Haste, this is an extra 16-20 damage per round. That smite or fighting style ain't looking so hot now.

Level 16: Actually, you don't miss out on much here. I haven't played at this level of play, but I would imagine really regretting that I didn't have Maze. But this is probably the level in which I'd feel most comfortable being behind two levels. You do have enough spell slots to cast Tenser’s Transformation to last you an entire workday if that’s the only thing you care about.

Level 18: Now it’s back to regrets again. You miss out on Spell Mastery. This is infinite shield and misty step/mirror image all day long. This is better than any class feature any martial gives you with the possible exception of Aura of Protection. You also miss out on Foresight and Wish and Shapechange and True Polymorph. Any one of those four spells is better than any class feature any martial gives you, period.

Level 20: You might think that you're in the clear, but a lot of guides miss out on the fact that you gain an extra level 6 and level 7 spell slot. Even if you're not interested in another Mass Suggestion or Whirlwind, you could always just cast Contingency or Tenser’s Transformation twice and have those spells for every challenging workday encounter instead of just one. Signature Spell is okay, but it's still good.

[Kaliayev]

From an optimization perspective, I generally agree that bladesingers should not multi-class. If it's allowed at your table, the only class that is worth multi-classing into is mystic. I would go with three levels to pick up some interesting options from the the mystic chassis. I would do this on levels 13, 14, and 15. You lose out on your fourth ASI for a while and you won't get the fifth, but you should be able to cover most of your bases with the three ASIs you have from reaching level 12. At level 12, your modifiers should be +3 con, +5 dex, and +5 int. With three levels in mystic, you get sustained, one-way telepathy with your party, two psionic talents, four disciplines, 14 psi points, three more hit points, and a psi limit of three. Order of the immortal is amazing for a bladesinger. At third level, you have an additional three hit points and you get psionic resilience. Since you've already maxed your int modifier, you're getting five temporary hit points per round. As another bonus, if you're ever in a position where you've been deprived of your armor, you have mage armor's ac through immortal durability (also useful if you don't feel like throwing expensive gear on your simulacrum). While I would prefer order of the nomad on an arcane trickster, it's also a viable option for bladesinger. You have the option of routinely swapping out two extra proficiencies/languages after a long rest. Memory of a thousand steps lets you completely avoid an attack through a reactionary teleportation, provided you've been moving around a lot. It recharges on a short rest, making it incredibly useful as a lifesaver. Crits are a bit less frightening to you now.

Regardless of your order, bestial form is the most obvious discipline choice. As a bonus action, you gain a bonus 2 AC with tough hide. This lasts an hour, so you can easily use it before going into a hostile area. Your second discipline should be chosen so as to set your focus to something that grants +1 AC (mastery of wood and earth or iron durability). The third and fourth disciplines should be based around what you find most useful. I'll mention that I've got a soft spot for nomadic mind thanks to its overall utility. The same build orientation applies to your two psionic talents. Since bladesingers are likely using a shadow blade, blade meld is likely useless to them. The damaging talents appear to be worded like cantrips, so their damage is likely based on character level, rather than class level. Mystic charm is one of the least problematic charmed condition applications I've seen, so consider picking it up if your party is lacking a face. Oh yeah, you can also heal when you use your psionic disciplines. The amount healed is based on the psi cost and requires a bonus action, so potentially 14 points of easy combat healing between long rests. If you have an emergency defensive contingency spell (e.g. wall of force creating a sphere around yourself when dropping to x health) and psionic restoration, you can top yourself off pretty quickly.

From a roleplaying perspective, I do like the idea of multi-classing to bard, though I would limit it to three levels. This flavors your bladesinging a lot, especially if you have a respectable charisma score. While you're attacking enemies, your singing blade inspires your allies. You gain a skill, expertise in two skills (arcana anyone?), jack of all trades, some useful bard spells/cantrips, and some extra party healing during short rests. If you find yourself using counterspell a lot, you benefit from jack of all trades adding to your spellcasting ability check. You also don't lose out on spell slots. For me, the colleges of sword and glamour make the most sense. Enthralling performance seems like an incredibly elven thing to do in social encounters and mantle of inspiration strikes me as a cool addition to the bladesinger's tool set. On the college of swords end, you get proficiency with scimitars, you can use your blade as a spellcasting focus, you can choose between two fighting styles, and defensive flourish can add even more to your impressive AC.