Best race for Bladesinger post-tasha's?

[Merudo]

After the release of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, what is the best race for a Wizard Bladesinger?

There are quite a few juicy options now available:

Dwarf (Mountain): two +2s, poison resistance, and the armor/weapon proficiencies can be traded for heavy & hand crossbow proficiencies.

Half-Elf: a +2 and two +1s, multiple variants, and access to Elven Accuracy

Goblin: bonus action disengage / hide

Kobold: a single +2, but with pack tactics

Variant human: two +1s, and a feat (probably Warcaster/Res:Con, or Fey Touched/Telekinetic)

Custom Lineage: similar to variant human, but with a single +2 as well as Darkvision

Aarakocra/Winged Tiefling: fly

Satyr / Yuan-ti: magic resistance

Mark of Healing Halfling: halfling with a large number of healing spells

From LumenPlacidum:

Tortle: base 17AC without needing Mage Armor, regardless of Dex

Mark of Warding Dwarf: free alarm, mage armor, and arcane lock, plus 9 added spells (including Armor of Agathys) to the spell list

[SupahCabre]

Bladesinger is elf-only iirc, so the best race is probably High Elf still

[Merudo]

Bladesinger is elf-only iirc, so the best race is probably High Elf still

The new version in Tasha's doesn't have this restriction.

[LumenPlacidum]

Tortle? With +5 from Int, the tortle bladesinger has AC 22. I suppose that mage armor and 20 Dex is better, but this involves so little investment. Take a half-feat at 4 and +2 Int at 8, and have three more ASIs for feats.

Mark of Warding Dwarf? Armor of Agathys is great.

[Merudo]

Tortle? With +5 from Int, the tortle bladesinger has AC 22. I suppose that mage armor and 20 Dex is better, but this involves so little investment. Take a half-feat at 4 and +2 Int at 8, and have three more ASIs for feats.


Turtle is really good if the focus is to get a high AC, but you still need dexterity to make meaningful use of Extra Attack.

[whateew]

A build I've been thinking about is a tortle who takes crusher at level 4, so knocks people back with booming blade on a Warhammer. Seemed funny to me.

[Eldariel]

I quite like the Sharpshooter Bladesinger build. To that end, the best races are probably Half High-Elf > High Elf/Drow > Mountain Dwarf/Hobgoblin/Goblin/Vuman/CL/etc. Though CL and Vuman are great if you go with a 1-level dip in like Fighter [Archery fighting style, proficiencies, etc.] or Forge Cleric [full casting, +1 weapon out of the gate, etc.]. But delaying all your cool stuff is a bit painful to me.

Half High-Elf going 16/16/17 and then EA (+1 Int) > Sharpshooter or the other way around. Picks up at level 6 with access to Haste + Extra Attack (and Minor Illusion for easy advantage at range), then on 8 has the full ranged 600' Longbow Sharpshooter suite in addition to a typical Bladesinger's melee abilities and nigh' full casting. It does benefit greatly of high rolled stats though, of course. CBE (Hand Crossbow from Tasha's swaps) and FI: Archery to taste of course, depending on how serious one is about archery focus (I prefer using Archery as a longrange option and just switching to Shadow Blade/Booming Blade in melee, in some configuration depending on whether DM follows RAW or RAI here).

Half High Elf with Weapon Training over skill versatility using Tasha's assignments. Then go:

Int > Dex > Con > All [PB probably 17 Int/16 Con/16 Dex - though you can enhance your low levels by going 17 Dex and up to 18 Dex - but on Tier 3 when you get Magic Jar latest that becomes quite suboptimal]

Level 1: You're an archer with a familiar. So you can just get advantage on your hit per turn and do fairly decent damage.

Level 2: You're a Bladesinger now. Great. Basically this just means if enemies close in to melee you can turn on Bladesong and go hit things in the face, and wear Studded Leather for when you don't have slots/time to cast Mage Armor.

Level 4: Sharpshooter

This is where you kick off. You've got a hit at advantage and fairly decent hit chance per turn. Aggressively abuse your familiar and go from here.

Level 5: Now you've got Haste. This means for big importance fights you can get 2 attacks per turn (though reliable advantage only on one; Minor Illusion does enable getting advantage but it's a bit hard on action economy unless you precast it).

Level 6: Now you've got Extra Attack. And you can replace one attack with a cantrip so you can create concealment with Minor Illusion and shoot from behind that instead. Or Mold Earth for cover in archer duels or whatever: remember that you've got Sharpshooter so you ignore all cover and thus shoot at no penalties but this doesn't apply to return fire.

Level 8: Elven Accuracy. Now you've got either 18 Dex or Int (depending on which you went with: in the long run I'd go 18 Int) and plenty of slots for Haste all day. You can also use Greater Invisibility for reliable advantage on all attacks instead (or even Silent Image for concealment-based advantage but Minor Illusion is preferable to this end since it doesn't take Concentration).

Level 11: You unlock a couple of spells. Magic Jar means you can grand theft body the highest Dex humanoid you run across (even better if they have a nice Multiattack or something). Contingency gives you another layer of defense (you can e.g. use Resilient Sphere or Dimension Door to break line of effect or range on spells such as Dispel, or attacks, or whatever). And finally, you get Tenser's, which this build is actually pretty good at using. Now, make no mistake, you won't Tenser's up close where you wanna use Shield and Absorb Elements and such that often. But it just so happens to be a godlike buff for an Archer. +2d12 damage per hit and Advantage on attacks gives you excellent damage.

And you can create a Homunculus to like poison your arrows, spot for you (infinite range sense sharing) or whatever.

Level 12: You can get Fighting Initiate for Archery style (or potentially Resilient: Con or Alert or Lucky or some other generally useful feat). Extra numbers and more utility and better ability to maintain Concentration and so on. +2 Int is also not a bad call.

Level 13: You unlock Simulacrum. This means you finally get to go Haste + Tenser's for when you need to absolutely obliterate something.

Level 16: Some of the remaining feats.

Level 17: You unlock Wish to get a Greater Steed, Shapechange which means you can e.g. turn into a Planetar and enjoy +5d8 on all your weapon attacks (among a myriad of benefits). Really, at this point you don't care about what you do anymore: you get numbers up the wazoo.

Level 18: I'm sure you can think of something to do with infinite castings of any level 1 or 2 spell. For instance, Pyrotechnics gives you ability to literally walk in total obscurement (and you can have Blindsight from Shapechange or True Polymorph or Magic Jar or whatever), Shield/Absorb Elements/etc. have obvious utility, Gift of Alacrity is stupid good, Mage Armor lets you Mage Armor everything, etc.

Level 19: Final feat.


Basically, the idea here is to be a switch-hitter. In melee, you've got:

Shadow Blade + Booming Blade [provided DM lets you combine them; otherwise you can use TWF to some decent effect or Haste]: hit for 3d8+5+1d8 + 3d8+5 with advantage at +8 on level 6. This is basically for fighting within 75' (you move 40' with Bladesong, can Misty Step for 30' more and then get damage in).

Bladesong gives you up to 23 AC [if you roll double 18s & cast Mage Armor] and and near-guaranteed Concentration saves (and you have the Shield-spell for +5 more AC up to 28, and Absorb Elements on top of it).

This makes you a beast in terms of both, damage and defense. You can also cast Haste instead and use it to BB/GFB again, just with a Rapier. It only costs you a single boost, gives you +2 more to AC (up to 30 if necessary) and lets you BB/GFB twice and hit once. And move 160' a round (80' base with Dash action so you can keep up with dashing Dragons while still taking an action).


OTOH, at range you've got:

Haste

Longbow (600' range)

Sharpshooter

Minor Illusion (create total concealment for yourself and shoot from behind it with triple advantage)

1d8+15 x3 at triple advantage and +3 (you could pick up Archery fighting style on 12 if you wanted to via Fighting Initiate)


Enough movement speed to ensure enemies never reach you. You can't Bladesong but that doesn't matter, you just switch to Shadow Blade or Rapier + Bladesong while in melee (depending on whether you have Haste active or not). Obviously Song of Victory just keeps on enhancing your melee capability.

All of this makes incredible use of all your stats. Did I mention you're still a full Wizard? So you can just Hypnotic Pattern and Summon Greater Demon and Polymorph and all that jazz as you please. But you're a Wizard that:

- Has insane AC, Concentration-bonus and melee capability 2-4/day for basically free

- Has incredible ranged prowess,able to compete with most Fighters even

- Is incredibly durable: you can have 16 base Con and Shield and Absorb Elements and Haste and you can even False Life if you need to generate extra HP (or Polymorph if it really comes down to you being low)

- Has incredible mobility. Think Monks are fast? Your Haste Bladesinger can go up to 240' a round, and can full attack after 160' (120' without Bladesong if you're Longbow kiting). And this is before you use your bonus action for e.g. Misty Step.

- Has great combat prowess: triple advantage combined with Shadow Blade and Minor Illusion + Extra Attack (comboed with Bladesinger ability to cast Cantrip while attacking) mean you have easy access to really good damage. It's hard to compare to level 6 Shadow Blade + BB/GFB (which is particularly highlighted by your stats) for 7d8+10 + 2d8/1d8+5 extra if the conditions are met on this level.

- Has a lot of utility. Mold Earth and Minor Illusion create cover/concealment amidst your full attack (when Hasting you can use 3 of them so 2 attacks + cantrip). Green-Flame Blade and Booming Blade create conditions; you can even full attack BB + Misty Step away to force enemy to proc the extra damage if desired. Or Haste > full attack + disengage (or even hide if you use Minor Illusion or Mold Earth to generate cover/concealment).


You have incredible strategic versatility in addition to all the awesome that comes with being a full caster. Down the line you can pick up Alert (which means if you use Pyrotechnics or similar to generate total concealment, enemies attack you at disadvantage while you attack them normally + lets you go first + makes you immune to surprise) and Lucky. Or Fighting Initiate: Blindfighting (to abuse with Darkness/Pyrotechnics/Fog Cloud) or Archery (to go with your ranged prowess.

And as you level, you unlock further buffs: Tenser's Transformation is obviously godlike on a build like this and once you hit 13, your Simulacrum can Haste you while you Tenser's or Shadow Blade yourself. Level 13 SS/EA/Archery style with Tenser's + Haste is hitting 3 times a turn at triple advantage +7 [+5 Dex + 5 Prof + 2 Style - 5 SS] with 1d8+15+2d12 per attack (that's an average of 83 DPR on an AC 20 target or plain 100 damage on AC 15) twice and day and that doesn't stop you from doing normal Wizard stuff or meleeing with Bladesong (where your level 5 Shadow Blade + Haste is looking at 3 +10 attacks at BB 6d8+10 + normal 4d8+10 + Haste BB 6d8+10 and additional 6d8/4d8+10 with conditions for a total of 75+28=103 damage vs. AC 20/80+30=110 vs. AC 15 without the riders). And you're still a full caster (you can start by like Summon Greater Demoning and then casting Tenser's and letting the demon run amok for 1d6 rounds when you need to nova, or just Planar Bind something; and you have stuff like multitarget Blindness without Concentration too as CC). You could Crown of Stars for bonus action non-Concentration damage too (and it benefits of your Elven Accuracy too).


Down the line you unlock stuff like Planetar (+5d8 on all your attacks) and Marilith (7 attacks with your Song of Victory bonus + Reactionary to Counterspell/Shield/Absorb Elements each turn) from Shapechange for example. And of course Wish for Greater Steed to share your buffs with you and to give you flight, and Mind Blank-sort of immunities and Contingency and Magic Jar if you feel so inclined (though your own body is good enough that you might not want to bother) and so on.

[aadder]

So did they alter it other than removing the Elf requirement? If i recall correctly Bladesinger gave you extra attack and the ability to make a basic attack after a cantrip?

[BloodSnake'sCha]

Luxodon and Lizard folk have a built-in mage armor.

One con based and one dex based.

[PhantomSoul]

So did they alter it other than removing the Elf requirement? If i recall correctly Bladesinger gave you extra attack and the ability to make a basic attack after a cantrip?

Yeah, it got Tashaed beyond removing setting assumptions; offhand (probably missing something):
- Bladesong uses are now proficiency per long rest, so you're going to go in melee as often or more rarely (making you even more of a caster, which experience has shown me can already be a struggle)
- Your extra attack is now turbo-charged to let you cast a cantrip instead of an attack (so leaving your bonus action free compared to the eldritch knight's magic-melee blend feature, and a clear boost, especially if dual-wielding)

[verbatim]

A build I've been thinking about is a tortle who takes crusher at level 4, so knocks people back with booming blade on a Warhammer. Seemed funny to me.

Crusher + Warcaster + Sentinel to reaction cast Booming Blade on someone, set their movement speed to zero, and push them back 5 feet as a reaction sounds comedic and probably not AS powerful as the Sentinel/Pole-Arm builds if only because that's a lot of feats to take.

[Theodoxus]

Crusher + Warcaster + Sentinel to reaction cast Booming Blade on someone, set their movement speed to zero, and push them back 5 feet as a reaction sounds comedic and probably not AS powerful as the Sentinel/Pole-Arm builds if only because that's a lot of feats to take.

Setting their speed to zero negates the large point (at least for me), for using BB and knocking them back - the fact they'll need to move to get back in range to hit you with a melee attack. If they decide not to move, you're still a wizard - you hit them with a fire bolt or somesuch. (You could obviously move up to attack them again, laying another BB and knockback on them, but provided they're an intelligent opponent, as a DM, after the first couple of times, I'd have the monster stand there readying an attack when you moved back into range.)

[whateew]

Setting their speed to zero negates the large point (at least for me), for using BB and knocking them back - the fact they'll need to move to get back in range to hit you with a melee attack. If they decide not to move, you're still a wizard - you hit them with a fire bolt or somesuch. (You could obviously move up to attack them again, laying another BB and knockback on them, but provided they're an intelligent opponent, as a DM, after the first couple of times, I'd have the monster stand there readying an attack when you moved back into range.)

Still, having a melee enemy wasted an action and a potential multiattack on doing this is a massive win - especially if there's a visual tell on the enemy when they ready an action.

However, there is little reason to do this on a bladesinger - my build of choice for this idea is high half elf + tempest cleric (since it's so thematic). You don't even need warcaster - first turn, don't draw your weapon, instead cast bless / spirit guardians. Bonus action whatever. Second turn, spiritual weapon, then draw, then attack. Funky

[1Pirate]

Crusher + Warcaster + Sentinel to reaction cast Booming Blade on someone, set their movement speed to zero, and push them back 5 feet as a reaction sounds comedic and probably not AS powerful as the Sentinel/Pole-Arm builds if only because that's a lot of feats to take.
RAW this doesn't work. Sentinel only procs on an Opportunity Attack, Warcaster specifically replaces the OA with the spell.

[Theodoxus]

That's really splitting hairs, but I guess technically correct. But with that kind of feat expenditure, I'd be ok with letting the melee portion of a cantrip cast via warcaster to count as an opportunity attack for the purposes of sentinel. YMMV, of course.

[Omni-Centrist]

My favorite is aarakocra to be honest, just be because a sword wizard with 50ft of fly movement is terrifying