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The gish archetype has long been one of the most beloved playstyles in all of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons going all the way back to the earliest editions of the game. The term "gish" translates as a melee combatꩲant spellcaster and is used by the D&D community to 𒐪describe any character build that includes near-equal usage of both sword and sorcery.
Among the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:gish options available in D&D 5E, the bladesinger Wizard is the most popular. This subclass is lauded for its simplicity from its build perspective. However, it comes with many nuances that separate veteran gish players from initiates and novices. Today, we'll dive into the most important decision points when building a gish, as well as the best options you have available for building the subclass to its utmost capacity. Let's begin.
Updated July 26, 2023, by Sean Murray: Looking to start your next campaign as a bladesinger Wizard? We've refreshed this guide with improved formatting and more breakout tips to make your bladesinger build more effective.
Ability Scores
As is the case with all martial/spellcasting character classes (or "gish" for those unaware), the bladesinger suffers from the problem of being MAD (Multiple Ability score Dependent). This means that the bladesinger subclass relies on more than one ability score in order for it to be firing on all cylinders.
As a bladesinger, you need to have a high Dexterity score to provide yourself with a better AC (Armor Class) and more reliable melee attacks, but you also need to have high Intelligence in order to give your spells that extra bit of oomph. On top of this, the bladesinger is also highly dependant on having a decent Constitution score for reasons we'll get into later.
As a result, bladesingers should really only be made on characters that have either rolled well for their statistics or otherwise have access to three starting ability scores above 14.
It's ultimately up to you whether you want your bladesinger to prioritize Dexterity and focus more on being a melee combatant or prioritize Intelligence and boost their spellcasting.
Dexterity ends up being a better choice for the first 13 levels of play while Intelligence wins out in campaigns running from 14th level and higher.
Feats
Yet another reason that bladesingers are best made on characters that have access to multiple high ability scores is just how important feats are for the subclass. The Wizard is among the classes that receive the least ASIs (Ability Score Improvements) in the game, so you've really got to make your feats count.
The best feats for the bladesinger include Elven Accuracy, Resilient (CON), Mobile, and War Caster. Elven Accuracy is only available to characters of Elf or Half-Elven lineage, but it makes for some truly exciting melee combat gameplay and is the best feat to take for players interested in landing as many critical hits as possible.
This is a half feat that increases your Dexterity, Wisdom, and Intelligence score by 1 while also providing you with super advantage any time you make an attack roll with advantage. Super advantage translates as the ability to roll three dice on your attack instead of two.
In case you're not interested in crit-fishing, there's also the Mobile feat, which pairs incredibly well with one of the bladesinger's go-to cantrips, Booming Blade. This feat increases your movement speed by 10 ft. and prevents opponents from making attacks of opportunity against you provided you've already hit them with an attack this turn.
Lastly, Resilient (CON) or War Caster will make it so that your bladesinger never fails a concentration check except in niche cases.
Concentration is an incredibly important mechanic for bladesingers in particular, 🦩but more on that later.
Cantrips And Spells
The bladesinger makes use of a number of cantrips and spells that rarely ever see play from other classes. Chief among them are the cantrips Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade: both of which mꦯodify your melee attack to deal extra 📖spell damage.
These cantrips are especially useful for the bladesinger thanks to the bladesinger's special extra attack feature that allows them to cast a cantrip in place of one of their attacks.
Green-Flame Blade is perfect to use whenever you're facing down adjacent enemies while Booming Blade will function as your bread and butter. Bladesingers with mobile especially will make great use of Booming Blade thanks to Mobile preventing oppor😼tunity attacks and Booming Blade dealing extra damage to any enemy hit by it if the creature moves during its next turn.
On the leveled spells side of things, bladesingers with Elven Accuracy especially will get a ton of mileage out of the 1st level Find Familiar spell. Using this spell, your familiar can grant you advantage on your attack by taking the help action on its turn which then triggers your elven accuracy super advantage.
Alternatively, there's also the 2nd level spell Shadow Blade, which places a weapon that deals 2d8 psychic damage in your hands as a bonus action. The weapon always attacks with advantage in areas of dim light or darkness: a common environment condi💝tion imposed by the majority of monst﷽er habitats.
Wizards have the lowest hit-point pool in the game, which doesn't make them especially good at taking hits. Bladesingers get around this by using Shield and Absorb Elements to negate and reduce instances of damage.
At higher levels of play, bladesingers ought to consider the incredibly niche and surprisingly overpowered 5th-level spell Steel Wind Strike as well as even the rarely seen 9th-level spell Blade of Disaster. We hope you like landing critical strikes because these spells off꧙er the best chance at landing multiple of them (especially when paired with Elven Accuracy).
Concentration
Seeing as bladesingers want to spend the majority of their actions making use of their extra attack feature, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:concentration spells are particularly good as their effects continue to pay dividends turn after turn provided you can maintain concentration.
While the bladesong subclass feature provides a built-in boost to your concentration checks, it's simply not enough to be relied upon alone.
Consequently, it's recommended that you pick up either War Caster or Resilient (CON) as a feat by the time you hit 12th level at the latest (though earlier is certainly better). The spells you'll be concentrating on provide incredible buffs to your character that you will want to maintain throughout the entirety of your battles.
Beyond Shadow Blade, these spells include Haste and Fly at 3rd level, Greater Invisibility at 4th level, Wall of Force at 5th level, Tasha's Otherwordly Guise and Fizban's Platinum Shield at 6th level, and a number of 9th level spells.
Needless to say, succeeding on your concentration checks is a key component of proper bladesinging.
High Levels Of Play
The last thing to know about bladesingers is that they fall off pretty hard compared to other Wizard subclasses once you reach the highest echelons of play. This is due to the fact that 7th-level spells and higher are so powerful that making melee attacks against an enemy pales in comparison to what these spells offer.
As a result, bladesingers essentially become regular Wizards wꦉith very few added spellcasting benefits in the final tier of play.
That being said, one way to keep your gish dreams alive at the highest levels is by taking Elven Accuracy and focusing on the use of the 9th-level spell Blade of Disaster. This is a concentration spell that forms a blade-shaped planar rift which crits on dice rolls of 18 or higher. The blade normally deals 4d12 force damage, but this damage increases to a total of 12d12 force damage on a critical hit.
This spell also allows you to make two melee spell attacks as a bonus action when you cast it as well as each turn you maintain concentration on it, importantly retaining you your action to cast spells with.
All that being said, you're now ready to begin your bladesinging journey.