High Elf AT. 2 levels of War Wizard or Blade Singer?

[nickl_2000]

So, you are playing a High Elf Arcane Trickster with Booming Blade from level 1 and eventually picking up GFB and a bunch of other goodies.

Would you take
War Wizard for a bonus of Int to initiative and Reaction bonus to AC/saves
Blade Singer for bonus to AC based on Int, extra movement, and other bladesong goodies


If it matters the stats after modifiers are
8 Str
18 Dex
18 Int
14 Con
10 Wis
11 Cha

[solidork]

Bladesinger, personally. When I was playing my AT I was actually usually annoyed when I went first since nobody would be in position for me to get a sneak attack, so a bonus to initiative is not something I would seek out, personally.

[nickl_2000]

Bladesinger, personally. When I was playing my AT I was actually usually annoyed when I went first since nobody would be in position for me to get a sneak attack, so a bonus to initiative is not something I would seek out, personally.

Wow, that is a really, really good point. I didn't even consider that going first in battle as a Rogue may not be the best option.,

[Nhorianscum]

Assuming 20 levels of progression? I would absolutely take a minimum of 9 levels in wiz (no real point to taking rouge past 11 here and going past 9 is an even odds choice), delaying spell/Rouge progression by 2 levels to get "better" at casting is pretty bad if we become actively worse at casting and rouging.

Assuming 15th level as our cap, 13AT/2 War wizard is solid hide, drop heightened control effect right off the bat every fight, multi into war after 7 or 9 for those tastey saves and gofirst. No loss of final spell progression and we still get 2nd level spells right on time 9/6 is arguably a better split here but it does delay 3rd level spells to 14 and deny our asi/Rtalent. So this is best in a 2 rouge party.

Assuming 11th level as cap: Same as at 15th we're looking at an atX/Wiz 2 split. The boons of war wizard are about on par with reliable talent. Bladesong is not. Cleric one or fighter one are still probably better here (discussed below).

Assuming a cap of 10 or lower. Don't multi wizard 2. 1 or 3+ are our "value" points here for multi's in general. Losing Mambush and delaying 2nd level spells to the penultimate level of the campain is trash no matter how you slice it. Do not take wizard levels to be worse at casting. Do not take rouge levels to be a worse rouge. Wiz7/AT3 is just flat out better at both than AT8/Wiz 2 because AT8 is not AT 9. AT7/Wiz 3 is awkward but we can at least bumrush 2nd level spells 1 level ahead of AT and keep all of our features so it's the more viable rouge heavy sub10.

(Worth noting, AT abilities work on any spell list not just wiz, Wis based AT is a pet build of mine imposing disadvantage in spirit guardians while spamming Booming Blade SA+ Command(Scram)+ Booming Blade SA+ 2 hits of rider damage is some really disgusting DPR.)

The goal here is to be a better gishtype caster, War gives us this, Bladesinger2 is worse than cleric 1 for this. (Bladesong vs a shield, 1st level domain power, and 1st level wonderspells on one level vs 2 makes cleric 1 viable below 10, Cleric 2 is still bad sub10 but at least CD is 3/day and we have the bladesinger adds on 24/7). Wiz 1 is comparable to a bonus feat ritual caster or magic innate here at the cost of a single level delay. Not great but tolerable early.

TL:DR, 13/2 or 9/6 at 15 cap. 9/2 at 11 cap. Sub10, Your spread isn't keyed for cleric 1 so I'll recommend fighter 1 with res (wis) AT9 in a sub 10 campain. Shield, fighting style, and 3/day second wind on one level trumps bladesong and war magic. We're not adding caster levels so we keep AT casting progression delayed by only 1 level rather than 2 which trumps war magic for cost/benefit. Alternately AT3/Wiz3/AT7 will give us early 2nd level spells and war magic to come out even with standard rouge progression at this point if you just really want that wizard multi this is our best rouge heavy build sub10. (Wizard heavy is just better before MAmbush and Rtalent are on the table). Regardless of build war wizard is just better than bladesinger in every way.

[stoutstien]

As a rogue you get plenty of uses for your reaction so war mage is nice but bladesinger I think wins out you can get at least a 16 in int

[AvvyR]

Bladesinger, personally. When I was playing my AT I was actually usually annoyed when I went first since nobody would be in position for me to get a sneak attack, so a bonus to initiative is not something I would seek out, personally.

You didn't take Find Familiar?

[nickl_2000]

You didn't take Find Familiar?

That's assuming you move after the Familiar and it's alive.

[Nhorianscum]

That's assuming you move before the Familiar and it's alive.

If you go before the familiar and have no place to hide-shoot and no spell to cast for BC. A simple movement>BA>Ready attack condition "owl" will do the do. You lose your reaction and that's it.

No huge drawback here.

[solidork]

You didn't take Find Familiar?

That is a good point, I got it with Ritual Caster. I took a magpie for flavor reasons and generally didn't want to risk it it combat. If you don't have those self imposed limitations on yourself then a familiar goes a long way towards alleviating this problem!