Ranged Bladesinger: How Would You Build It?

[Omni-Centrist]

I'm looking for some cool idea on building Level 10 bladesinger, using Point Buy. My primary idea was to make Dex the primary stat, have 14 in Con and Int, and using Custom Lineage take Crossbow Expert, and start with a Level in Fighter for Con saves and Archery. Taking SS at Level 4 Bladesinger.

My biggest hurdle was trying to figure out if it makes more sense to leave Fighter at 1 or go 3 for Battle Master.

[Eldariel]

I'm looking for some cool idea on building Level 10 bladesinger, using Point Buy. My primary idea was to make Dex the primary stat, have 14 in Con and Int, and using Custom Lineage take Crossbow Expert, and start with a Level in Fighter for Con saves and Archery. Taking SS at Level 4 Bladesinger.

My biggest hurdle was trying to figure out if it makes more sense to leave Fighter at 1 or go 3 for Battle Master.

Definitely as little Fighter as possible. You want those higher tier buff spells ASAP (Tenser's is pretty good, Magic Jar is great if you run into any convenient humanoid bodies, and Contingency is a get-out-of-jail-for-free card). I wouldn't bother with Fighter at all; just pick a race that gets bonus proficiencies. But certainly, this is doable too; Archery style is indeed pretty good so it can actually vindicate taking that Fighter level, at least somewhat. But this means you'll be stuck without 6th level spells known or prepared for 2 levels instead of 1, and same with 7th level (where you can finally craft yourself a Simulacrum as a Haste-bot provided you haven't hit gold with Ring of Spell Storing yet; if you can't Magic Jar into a supernice body, Haste + Extra Attack + CBE + Tenser's is pretty much the peak you can do on this level out of any class).

You could just go race for Crossbow prof (High/Wood Half-Elf, any Elf or Dwarf or Hobgoblin or Githyanki or any such), then CBE/Sharpshooter/Fighting Initiate on 12. Would postpone buffing stats but it's there. Magic Jar and shapeshifting abilities in general can bypass the need to buff Dex so that isn't such a big deal. You do want Con-save proficiencies either way but at least you have Bladesong as a Concentration booster so that isn't so big. AC isn't that big of a deal at range either; you'll be at decent 16 + Shield for 21 with Mage Armor and Shield even without Bladesong, and fighting at range so you shouldn't take that much heat.


I'd just go Wood Half-Elf Bladesinger 10 with like 16/17/16 Dex/Con/Int and and Res: Con for that 18 Con on 16 and then just take Alert, Lucky or Int improvements (you could just get a Headband of Intellect instead, not that you care about it that much on this level). Switch proficiencies for Hand Crossbow (your main weapon), Heavy Crossbow (for long range) and Longbow (for really long range) and then you've got one proficiency leftover for if you wanna pick up a Tool or whatever. Note that Wis-saves are more important than Con-saves far as survivability goes here so you'd be taking Res: X anyways; in that sense you aren't spared a feat by taking Fighter first. Though Fighter first does spare you race for feat of course so it does come out one feat ahead either way.

Alternative to Res: Con is of course taking Elven Accuracy on 16 [Tenser's and later Foresight or similars make you well able to abuse it] and just starting with 17 Int, going to 18 with EA and then 20 on 19.

[Citadel97501]

I wouldn't take fighter, as I think that Artificer would be the most fun for a ranged bladesinger, and if used with an Artillerist you can use multiple ranged attacks both in spell & crossbow forms.

Basics:
Wizard: Bladesinger 6 & Artificer: Artillerist 5 combination, that would give you a deadly combination of Eldritch Cannon (off hand gun or force field abbreviated to EC), along with a main hand crossbow in the other hand, if you infuse the hand crossbow you can shoot, and then cast a firebolt, acid splash, or ray of frost.

Racial Fun:
Tabaxi: This gives you the ridiculous foot speed of Tabaxi, as with Bladesong you would move 40' per turn, or 80' per turn with the Tabaxi ability active, or as much as you want with the Haste spell which you should always be using. Oh and this build would be almost entirely Intelligence dependent.

Benefits: HIGH AC, extreme movement speed, magical guns/crossbows/Ray guns?...

How you fight:
Round 1: Main Action: Haste, Haste: Cantrip from Blade Singer, Bonus Action: Bladesong or fire Eldritch Cannon depending on danger and whether you had a EC active.
Round 2: Cantrip + Shoot, Cantrip, EC