Errata: At level 17, we probably can't benefit both from the Fighter's 3 attacks *and* the Bladesinger's "use a cantrip when you take the attack action" thanks to the way Extra Attack features don't stack ala the Multiclassing rules. It only affects the character at 17+, and isn't a huge blow to DPR even then, but it's not nothing. Also, for those mentioning War Caster and needing a free hand for Material/Somatic Components: I think it's only a problem if your DM won't let you drop your weapon as part of your reaction to cast shield. I forget that's not necessarily a given at every table so forgive me for not mentioning it! Otherwise, the weapon can double as both the somatic and material component for GFB, and if we're going to throw out Hold Person or something, we should be able to sheath one of our weapons first without issue. Also, also, not really an errata, but yes there's a typo at 19:21 - I *say* Dex and Int but *wrote* Dex and Wis. It should be Int, obviously. Curse you, late night editing brain!
That wording of the multi classing rules is about not getting to make 3 attacks by taking 5 levels of two martials. I don't think they are different features. I think it's actually meant to work this way, otherwise they would have changed eldritch knight when they changed blade singer. So the line in question is, "you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks." What we have to ask is does it make sense that a character has the ability to attack multiple times and the ability nto weave together multiple attacks and spells in the same turn to be unable to do so if they get better at attacking? Mechanically, there is a rider on this characters extra attack that let's them cast a cantrip and a rider that let's them attack 3 times. Maybe we are worried about this breaking the game? At level 17... I think we need to stop playing defense for tiamat and her terrasques, they're big kids who can handle themselves.
When you action surge after taking 6 levels in Bladesinger, wouldn't you be able to cast the green flame blade again, and if you had haste up, wouldn't you also be able to turn that into a green flame blade attack?
@@quendi5557 when you action surge as a level 6 blade singer level 2 fighter. You take the attack action again meaning you can on that turn attack twice and cast booming blade twice. Your attack action goes like this ( attack once + cast a cantrip) so when you action surge it looks like (attack once cast a cantrip) + (attack once + cast a cantrip) If you have haste up you can attack one additional time. The special action granted by haste doesn't allow for spell casting or extra attack.
First video of his that I've ever found and instantly found my new comfort youtuber. Am I crazy, or is there something abnormally soothing about his voice talking about DnD? Def going to binge a few different episodes
Swap out the off hand rapier for a Whip, especially if you have a magic one. Sure, it’s only a D4, but gives you a situational option of using your action, with the added reach reach, to trip an enemy up and force them prone. Doesn’t help you too much, but say that is your hasted action because you took out the enemy you are in combat with, it’s a nice little battlefield control and potential set up for Allie’s option.
Before shadow blade comes online I feel like hunters mark through taking Fey Touched is super useful as well, and you also get a once per day free misty step too
This build only works if you has war caster because if you has both hands busy with weapons you can't do somatic and material components, so shield can't be casted
I think it's only a problem if your DM won't let you drop your weapon as part of your reaction to cast shield. Otherwise, the weapon can double as both the somatic and material component for GFB, and if we're going to throw out Hold Person or something, we should be able to sheath one of our weapons first without issue.
That was my first character in 5e :). I loved it. Admittedly, I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked due to the raging Barbarian in my party who rarely let me get surprise :/. I've got it on the to do list, but in case you haven't seen it yet, I *did* do a Shadow Monk/Rogue for the Anti-Mage episode, though it was an Arcane Trickster...
45:43 He’s discussing here how a 5th level shadow blade is competitive damage even versus Haste+ Flame Tongue Rapier, but is he considering the fact that the Haste Attack Action is in fact its own Attack Action and can be modified by Bladesinging Extra Attack to cast one of the blade cantrips?
well as discussed in his sliding into my dMs, haste attack action isn't allowed to be converted to a cantrip as the extra attack of the bladesinger requires "attackS" to replace with a cantrip. haste gives only 1 attack, not attacks.
@@Cyfearal agree to disagree then. it clearly says replace one of the attacks. there is no "one of" something if there isn't more than 1. that's simple grammar. moreover, you can find the more popular argument online that an ability/spell only does what it says it does. 1 attack only means that it. no substitutions, no extra attack, no dread ambusher, etc. lastly, you can find already a similar ruling of haste already by JC online wherein he didn't allow the haste attack to be affected by stuff like fighter extra attack, dread ambusher. i think it isn't a far off conclusion that this would be the same case for bladesinger extra attack.
16:30 one of my favorite D&D play stories is listening to Matt Colville describe how in one of his campaigns, there was a legendary sword that the villain needed to steal for their grand plan. And one of his players was an eldritch knight and bonded to the sword. The villain would go all out to take and steal the blade, and over and over again the knight would summon it back to his hand. I always thought that was the coolest, and a great job of the player and DM working together/at odds to create a great story with some oft overlooked class mechanics.
@@torunsmok5890 not really since pact of the blade requires the item to be magic and they need constant contact with the weapon while eldritch knight just needs to begin the ritual at some point then touch the weapon at the end of the ritual the weapon doesn't need to be magic, doesn't need constant contact, and they can keep two
@@lucasramey6427 the implication of it being a legendary blade the villain needs for their plans is that it's a magic weapon anyway, and sure the EK can have 2, but you really don't need that unless you're doing a dual wielder like this video, plus the ritual differences aren't a big deal as the pc in question would obviously have the sword majority of the time
I'm currently playing one of those now Not so wise but OH BOY! Multiclassing doubles your Psionic Energy Dice. It's great! You want DPS I got your DPS! Colby, if you want my stat sheet, I'll send it to you.
Interestingly, this build gets a bit stronger with one DnD rule changes to TWF, as you now get the off hand attack as part of the same action and could THEN make an attack with your bonus action at level 13 thanks to EK 7!
For some reason, I think melee spellcasters are my favorite archetype/playstyle, and this build definitely scratches that itch. Maybe I can convince one of my players to do a high-level 1-shot or something so I can play it XD
While I realize ability score increases make a whole lot of sense, especially with your point buy, I"d love to see all of the feats you might take if you happened to have rolled well enough that you don't have to throw all your points towards ASIs. Especially on this build where you had so many feats you could have picked.
OMG! Alert would be an absolute must and pick up Eldritch Adept for Armor of Shadows substituting your leather armor for another +1 to AC with unlimited Mage Armor. Pick up a Bracers of defense and you'll be sitting at a resting 22 AC, 27 w/ Bladesong and bumped up to 32 after casting Shield. Behold your armorless tank.
What a surprise! I am actually playing an Eldtrich Knight in my campaign right now and I am just one level away from multiclassing into Wizard (probably War Magic). I am stoked to see what you cooked up tjis time!
I actually created an Eldritch Knight with a 2 level dip into War Mage... 18/2, so I lost out on a final ASI/feat, but gaining the boost to my initiative and arcane deflection was very helpful. It was a level 20 slugfest and between magic items and arcane deflection I was regularly bumping my AC to 26, which was useful so that I could save spell slots rather than have to cast shield as a reaction (and when I DID need to get to a higher AC, in this case a monstrous 29, shield was sitting in my back pocket as long as I hadn't used my reaction yet). There is absolutely great synergy between the two, it was easily the tankiest damage dealer I've created at high levels, and taking war caster let me engage in some great battlefield control by using booming blade--it was exceedingly dangerous to leave my attack range thanks to the 8d8 + 9 damage that resulted if I hit. A friend had suggested Bladesinger rather than War Mage but the build I was going with would have been hampered by the Bladesinger requirements RE: armor and type of weapon used since I was doing such a small dip; I'm very curious to see how this particular build works as well!
@@merlinrecon7528 initial melee weapon attack's damage (1d8+9, in this character's case), plus 3d8 on that strike, plus 4d8 when they keep moving. At high levels it is a great cantrip for a melee caster.
Bladesinger's special Extra attack is what seals it vs. War Magic for me. I like War Mage's that focus on the new Summon X spells due to the War Magic level 10 feature, then combining with other non-conc spells depending on situation.
My EK is a STR build so War Mage really helps out on initiative and the reaction feature at war mage lvl 2 is really nice in case someone decides to blast a big AoE
How good would a three-way MC of Bladesinger, Battlesmith Artificer and Mutant Bloodhunter be? Focus my INT into my AC, damage and spells with BH mutagens to boost my INT past 20
at high level I can appreciate the synergy. Delaying lots of Bladesinger features to get there would be rough going early on I think. Unless you went all the way to 5 in Battlesmith for 2 attacks?
Only thing I'd be concerned about a DM allowing at the table would be the combination of bladesinger extra attack and war magic. I can see a lot of people saying "You used your action to do the attack action, not cast a cantrip. You only cast a cantrip because you made the Attack *Action*. So you don't get to use War Magic".
this is basically what most of the internet decided is correct. As part of the "attack action" the bladesinger used a cantrip, that doesnt mean the character used his action to "cast a spell".
Is it possible to Dual Wield Shadow blade? I am relatively new to D&D (I guess you could more so say inexperienced) and I understand that Shadow blade requires concentration, but is there a way to "forego" that and use shadow blade in both hands?
@@svofoy_tre To my knowledge there isn't any way to forgo concentration or give it to someone else while still casting the spell on yourself. Especially since you yourself have to cast the spell to be able to use the 'weapon'. Therefor it'd be only possible to dual wield them if you could concentrate on 2 spells at once. And there is nothing in official D&D that allows you to do so.
One problem i see with this build is the lack of war caster. While duel wielding you cant cast alot of the spells you were talking about. Apart from that I do like the synergy from these two classes
I was thinking the same thing. Somatic spell components require a free hand so without the war caster feat you can't dual wield and cast those spells. I would swap the Dual Wielder feat for War Caster and adjust my build acordingly. Especially since later levels won't really rely on dual wielding.
You could always hold out for a Ruby of the War Mage to make your weapon a spellcasting focus. The errata that came out would then allow you to use the weapon as the material component, and the hand wielding said weapon for the somatic component. Not sure if relying on the acquisition of a specific magic item to make a build, though, would be advised.
@@KrisSchouw That only works for VSM or SM spells. Spells w/o a Material component (VS or S only, like Shield or Absorb Elements) need War Caster if you want to cast them with your hands full.
So Jeremy Crawford has said that for DnD 5e Warlocks being int based instead of cha based was tested and found to be very balanced that gets me thinking a Hexblade Bladesinger that wouldn't be MAD.
@@abedrahman4519 I'm not so sure, with mage armour (take the at will invocation if your worried about spell slots), a 12/13 dex, a bladesong (with +4 int) and the shield spell you have a standing 23 AC. Even though it takes you your reaction that's great. And this is without dualwielder, defense fighting style etc...
@@abedrahman4519 I have played a bladesinger & forge adept which let me duel wield using int instead of dex for both weapons and simply played a tortle to cover the ac
I always think sentinel is one of the best fests for a bladesinger you're so hard to hit. I know my DM would rather take the swing at the nearby rogue or paladin before the 25+AC bladesinger. One attack from an attack of opportunity is equal to multiple turns with your Duel weilding feat. Even more once you get +X weapons. And that's not even all sentinel gives you.
One of my all time favorite characters was an Old School Book of Elves Bladesinger. So favorite that my daughter inherited the character's name upon her birth. I've tried "rebuilding" using multiple options, many of your optimized versions. This one comes closest to mimicking that old school character. Very well done and much appreciated.
Here's a cool suggestion for magic armor. The Candlekeep Mysteries book has a set of magical scale mail called Serpent Scale Armor. It's basically scale mail but lets you add your full Dex mod to AC with it. It's effectively +2 studded leather and probably the coolest magic armor I've seen. Now I wish there was a magic set of heavy armor that acted like medium armor for the purpose of AC. I know Bladesong is impossible in medium armor but hey, if I were a DM, I'd treat it as light armor for that purpose since it's so cool.
When I play kotor, I always use two lightsabers, because I can enhance both of them with crystals and make them superior to any one or two handed lightsaber.
This build came at the perfect time. I’ve been tinkering with an eldritch knight bladesinger for almost a month now, trying to find a balance between being powerful and letting me play the way I enjoy the most
Neither does war magic from eldritch knight and extra attack from bladesinger stack (as you take the "attack action" listed under viable "actions in combat" phb p.192. The cantrip is just part of the extra attack feature from bladesinger. Its not a "cast a spell" action from the "actions in combat" that would trigger war magic), nor do RAW extra attack features stack (read phb p 164). Basically, don't multiclass Eldritch Knight and Bladesinger.
I played a build quite similar to this in a high level multi round arena battle one shot and it was fantastic! While I didn't do the most damage I was last one standing & was able to secure victory for my fellow combatants. The synergy between these two subclasses is just so full of great rp flavor I love it!
I love so many of these builds.... BUT - I never see a campaign that gets to go past 5-7. I would love to see what you do with a few characters WITH NO INTENTION of ever getting past those levels.
Admittedly, I really do try to build all of my characters to be strong at levels 6, 9, 13, and 17. I can't really think of many (though I'm sure there are a few) that I'd do much differently if I knew the campaign were ending at 7...
re: Bladesinger Extra Attack cantrip (34:16): Eldritch Knight with War Magic and Bladesinger with Extra Attack are some of (imo) the few instances where Blade Ward can make sense. When ganged up on with the EK casting a cantrip as your action allows you to attack with your bonus; so Blade Ward and an attack. With Bladesinger, your extra attack also let's you replace on of your extra attacks with a cantrip. In both scenarios (which stack) the attack is whith your main (probably Shadow Blade) weapon. So attack action and attack with shadow blade, swap the second extra attack with Blade Ward, and then make an attack with your primary weapon as a bonus action. Two main hand attacks and resistance to physical damage which no resources used.
This build brings me back to the Eldritch Knight/Bladesinger gunslinger character I played in a past campaign. It was so much fun casting Haste on myself and alternating between firing bullets and firebolts. Gun wizard best wizard.
Isn't Warcaster a required feat on this build for the somatic component of many spells like Shield? Haven't finished the video yet, but seems like it needs to be the level 4 feat.
Curse you, Warcaster tax. Sometimes I forget that not everyone would be allowed to drop their off-hand weapon as part of the casting of Shield like at our table. Should have mentioned it, for sure.
@@DnDDeepDive That would make potentially great use of the Weapon Bond feature of the Eldritch Knight. You can just summon the weapon back to your hand if an enemy tries to be clever and steal your weapon.
@@DnDDeepDive Xanathar's common magic item can turn one of your swords into a focus. Alternatively, you can sheath 1 of your swords at the end of every other turn, that gives you 50% uptime with no feats. Also makes me want to theme you as a samurai who sheaths his blade for draw cuts all the time :P
@justBinia This is really cool flavor. Your first attack on the quick draw has the added effect from your gfb and you are so fast you are able to get in your 2nd and third attack before the flames disperse. Kinda gets tricky with the two weapon master feat and opportunity attacks between your turns but I definitely like the image of a spellblade quick draw fighter. Now i am picturing them fighting with sword in one hand and sheath in the other.
Great video! I've always loved fighters with a splinter of magic within them. Would you consider trying a Psi-knight fighter? It's one of my favourite subclasses.
Try it this way. Go to 3.0-3.5. take a psion. Halve it's spell points. Or 2/3 off, if you are trying for a class that has fighter level attacks of 3 and over. 1 d8. Martial and simple weapons . Light and medium armour. can use intelligence to learn more spells from scrolls or psi chrystals. Does NOT GAIN EXTRA SPELL POINTS WITHOUT A FEAT. Does not learn faster than book, unless spell/ power research is performed. CANNOT HAVE MORE THAN HALF ITS POWERS from research, the other half as per book. Use psychic warrior or psion powers. IF PSION POWERS ONLY 1-3 DISCIPLINES ARE EASILY LEARNED, THE OTHERS ARE AT MINUSES TO LEARN. generally, this produces an agile build, with some projective punch, but the player will constantly have to balance mundane and psychic expenses. If you try to revamp the psychic warrior, strip off nearly all projective psychic abilities, and go for short range effects, and personal buffs.
@@drkgaming7792 no you can get away with 16 dex to start. Light armor, unless magical, isn’t as good as mage armor for sure. But you don’t really need more AC than 21 13+3+5 with just three levels of artificer and you get to be a full wizard as well. Definitely an option to increase damage output and battlefield control with a steel defender as well
@@The_Gnome_Chomskee your bonus action will probably already be spoken for and I disagree with only needing 21 ac, there are low level monsters with plus 6 to hit
@@The_Gnome_Chomskee I think It's a Pitfall, only worth If you plan to never get your dex to 16+ (not even then perhaps) or If you REALLY want some arti feature, otherwise you're just holding back your class/spell growth and ASI progression that could give you a dex increase anyway to the ideal 20 int & dex. All that for a +1/+2 to attacks for a few levels is not worth It imo. In this case its better to just go Full bladesinger.
One thing that confuses me with these builds… how do you cast spells dual wielding? I am building this right now, and would love shield… but you need a free hand to cast it as a reaction.
Love this build, I've been waiting to see a good dual-wielder for a long time. It's a shame it becomes redundant later on and only there for flavour and half a shield. It's also a little frustrating that Bladesong and Shadow Blade both take a bonus action to activate so you have to wait until your 3rd round to get the full attack round.
NICE VID!!! bladesingers are always fun. But I think i got a dual wield build magicless which ha a 69 DPR consistent(no brust) which might be better if you like the flavor of a magicless swordsman (Like the swordmaster...pretty cool IMHO). Let me hear if you want to know it.
A note I want to put out there, starting with 17 dex and 15 intelligence is strictly worse over 16 dex 16 int, and you can get the exact same stats at level 4 with an 18/16. Just make sure you’re taking care of your low level self. Edit: almost done with the video, I’m super hyped to play with this kind of character. :)
in the point buy method, you can only go up to a maximum of 15 without lineage bonuses, so he could start with a 14 in Dex and get it to a 16 with the lineage bonus, but he couldn't start with a 16 Int unless he went with another lineage option, like Variant Human
You know, this is a good point - could have gone Variant Human instead. We'd give up darkvision, and we don't actually benefit a *ton* from the higher int levels 1-4 (depending on what spells you're using as an EK), but worth considering.
@@DnDDeepDive darkvision is essential as being in dim light typically imposes disadvantage on attack rolls, meaning shadow blade would only be a flat roll. However a bunch different magic items can make up for our lack of darkvision. Slap on a pair of goggles of night and GG.
I love this type of character! However, and I don't mean to be critical, I think a pure bladesinger could easily keep up and have full Wizard progression to boot. By 6th level you could have a 3rd level Shadow Blade up and a rapier in the other hand and you could, for your action hit with Shadow Blade and cast Booming Blade with your rapier. Then attack again with your Shadow Blade bonus action. Because 5e doesn't distinguish between "main hand" and "off hand", if you are holding 2 weapons you can use either one with any of the attacks. With the Fighter levels you primarily only gain Action Surge, the two-weapon fighting style, and the bonus ASI at level 6. You aren't wearing medium or heavy armor so those proficiencies don't matter. As you mentioned in your edited comment Extra Attack doesn't stack so if you use the fighter Extra attack you can't use the Bladesinger level 6 Extra Attack ability (which is amazing). I think at most levels if you put a pure Bladesinger up against this build it would be, at least equal for this playstyle. I feel like the only way I would ever multiclass a Bladesinger is if I just wanted to be a Rogue. I would still take 6 levels of Bladesinger so that I could use this two-weapon fighting playstyle.
I don't disagree. It's why I am typically so loathe to multiclass my Bladesingers. th-cam.com/video/8g869Lju5Ws/w-d-xo.html Really wanted to build an Eldritch Knight for this one though :).
@@DnDDeepDive Yeah, it's certainly one of the few subclasses that should never be multiclassed, possibly after level 17 but by then it's moot. Though, taking 6 levels to help another class doesn't count! 😏
So my biggest gripe about this build is the bonus action clog and that fact that this build’s DPR at level 12 is about the same as a straight bladesinger 6. Furthermore, your level 13 ‘spike’ is only applicable on turn 3+ and you can have similar results by having an offhand short sword (which you use to do booming blade) which scratches your TWF flavor itch.
I totally get him wanting to play a dual wielding dex gish, but EK is probably the worst Fighter for two-weapon fighting. If you use Booming Blade + War Magic, whether you get the BS Extra Attack or not, you get a bonus action attack, even with a greatsword or sword and shield. 7 EK/6 BS with a Greatsword is crazy. And if you really want more bonus action options, get Hex through Fey Touched. But yeah, a dual wielding gish shouldn't get to 7 EK, because War Magic invalidates your Fighting Style (and kinda the DW feat if you actually take it).
@@Thrashlock agreed. a 2wf is best off in a subclass that doesn't do alot with its bonus action like champion or psi warrior. he actually ended up as a single wielder.
Please sir, please I beg you Critmas Miracle, would you please include our levels and choices in your excel document, its so hard to go back and review and remember everything, help me, help us, YOU can save us all. Thank you sir. @d4: D&D Deep Dive
I'm playing this exact build already LOL My character is currently a Dex based EK 5/Bladesinger 4 I flavoured my character as a Ninja, and his spells as Ninjutsu Techniques :)
I understand why some tables might not allow booming blade with shadowblade, but why would you disallow using shadow blade and booming blade with other hand for your attack and then using the shadowblade as your bonus action attack?
Big fan, I love the channel. But my suggestions for this build would be to put off wizard levels until level 9 so you could take war caster to keep using spells with somatic components.
This video gave me the idea, that you could do a very interesting viking style type of berserker character reflavoring it as magical essense through runes or something along those lines instead of rage, using this build. You're gonna be in light armor, the dual wielding is great thematically. Throws me to the show vikings for inspiration. You'd either need to go with swords, OR be MAD, or convince a dm to let you have some sort of axe as a finesse weapon (which in vikings they use the axes dexterously).
Have one question if I attack with my main hand I have the 3 extra attack so if I bonus action attack with my offhand I also have the same 3 extra attack?
Work has kept me away from your videos but now i have the time, oh i am gonna binge watch all of these. AND YES THE DUAL WIELDER JUST HAS THAT UMPH TO IT!! Thank you so much for this build, it reminds me a little if my first ever PC, Braum the dual wielding eldritch knight. He was strength AND dexterity built though lol. Not the best but he is my favorite character, brand new to the game and just making a Mortal Kombat Scorpion meets Jedi style of fighting.
The down side to haste alone makes shadow blade better in my eyes. As for material component, i hate that change so much. By raw it means pact of the blade warlocks cant use it with their weapon... ffs. I do love that this shows how useless two weapon fighting is. The best two weapon fighting character uses one weapon... effectively anyway
@@DnDDeepDive thanks for the reply!!! What confused me was you mentioning Medium armor master being a valid feat that this build can take, which becomes useless once we start bladesinging. Feats are definitely not cheap, even with the dump truck of ASIs one gets from fighter. Loved the build in general btw
@@abedrahman4519 You're right - as I was editing last night I *almost* cut it but in my head I keep thinking "if I don't, someone is going to say 'actually, Medium Armor would be superior if you took the Medium Armor Master feat...'" so I left it in :P.
@@DnDDeepDive ahh the melancholy of a content creator; there's always someone who complains about something (which includes me ironically in this case). I hear you. Great work as always!!!
For awhile now I had an idea for a Yin Yang Gish duo build; Hexbladesinger wielding a moonblade, and A Bladesinging Eldritch Knight that has a Sunblade. Both would be Elves (Moon and Sun Respectively). This gives me something of a guide for how to build it now.
About 2 years ago, I played an Eldritch Knight Fighter/War Magic Wizard who was also dex based! A cool house rule that the DM agreed on was that my character wouldn't be fully penalized on spell progression as a multiclasser because it is the only multiclass that has you learn the same spell list. My rationale was that I was learning each spell and casting each spell the same way as before. So I was allowed to learn spells of the highest level I could cast if I spent ample downtime and gold to learn them. So as a 10/10 multiclass split, I learned 6th and 7th level wizard spells when RAW I should only have level 5. It was very balanced! I wanted to play as a Magus from Pathfinder/3.5 in 5e, and this was pretty much the same thing! For players and DM's alike I attest that this is a logical discussion to have with each other! I would also argue that an Arcane Trickster/Bladesinger would be a fair multiclass option.
I keep hoping they will make two-weapon fighting good in some edition of D&D. So far we're five, technically six if you count *that which shall not be named,* in without a single sign of hope.
I always loved the thought of dual wielding. My first ever character was a dual wielding Half Orc Fighter. Now I am really into bladesingers and would love to try something like this build in the future to combine both these things.
I have a friend that started out as a dex based EK, till lvl 8 when tasha's got released. His build turned out a little differently as a result, I donated my sorc characters staff of defense for him to hold in his offhand for extra shield casts and he's an absolute beast, great build, glad to see how it stacks up with the other top tiers.
There's an interesting thing you can do with eldritch knight's weapon bond feature and the beast barbarian's weapons the eldritch knight can begin their ritual and right before the end the beast barbarian rages and creates their simple melee weapon then the eldritch knight touches the weapon and bonds with it they can then summon it at will all the time
Coming back to this as I'm thinking about this as a character entering at level 13. Could you skip dual wiellder feat? Are there better sustained damaged builds if you build for different stages of the game?
going 2h or archery will always be better at any stage if your focus is dmg. remember colby likes shadow blade (and is a rogue) for the build so he boxed himself in that for the character concept. i'd skip dual wielder as the dmg bonus is paltry. it's just a +1 to ac in colby's build which doesn't really add alot to defense and imo not worth a feat spot for defense. being able to save a feat and equip a shield (going dueling) is better for both offense and defense. if you wanted more dmg and went archery or 2h and still really wanted defense from the feat slot then just pick up medium armor master for technically +1 ac.
@@DnDDeepDive It was more meant as a question, not as criticism. I thought I might have missed something, as the whole build was built around dual weapon usage.
yo kobe I made a subclass just to pass time and to try to make my long range dps dream come true in d&d, gonna send it to you on the email, any feedback I would appreciate very much
This was a bit of an eye opening “loophole” the way that they described the abilities carefully allows you to build something special. I’m impressed. Do any other sword using subclasses work well with Bladesong? Kensei? Sword bard? Hexblade? Food for thought
i'd suggest not building around bladesong if you aren't a tank. it's a trap for any striker build as it's a waste of action economy (unless you can't reach your enemy anyway on the 1st turn and have weirdly nothing useful to use your bonus action on). doing pam, smite spells, hexblade's curse, hex, hunter's mark, dragon's breath, spirit shroud, shadow blade, ensnaring strike, zephyr strike, war cleric, etc are all better uses of your bonus action than bladesong.
If you’re a spellsword with access to Glyph of Warding and Haste/Spirit Shroud, ask your DM for a Spell Gem. Bloodstone or Jade. RAW: Double spell concentration. Spell Gem casts the spell, meaning you’re not restricted by the 10ft radius of GoW. GoW sustains concentration for the spell, opening up your concentration for whatever else you want.
Right - at our table you can drop a weapon as part of your reaction for shield etc. Otherwise you'll need War Caster, obviously, which will delay us a smidge. Should've mentioned it.
@@DnDDeepDive I've only got back into D&D for a year and most of the games I've been in have been getting things like this completely wrong constantly. I'm starting to plan my next campaign as my last one is few sessions from done, and I'm kind of planning a bunch of "example fights" to show players things like imposing penalties on ranged attackers by engaging, flanking, cover and free hand stuff.
I'd like to see a build on the beast barb 3 monk x str build, which I briefly saw on a reddit post called "The Stronk" or something, which does pretty good damage and makes monk more survivable
A tortal bladesinger with int 17 (achevilbe at lvl 1 with piont buy) had resting AC, with bladesong of 20. and if you realy need you can cast sheild, or retract into your shell. or both for AC 30
Here is my take on the Eldritch Bladesinger: Start - Half-Elf: 1STR/1INT/2CHA Point Buy: 14/8/10/13/12/15 Lvl1 - Fighter - Blindsense/Defense FS -> Lvl2-3 Hexblade Warlock - Take Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast -> Lvl4-9 Bladesinger Wiz - ASI: +2 CHA Lvl 10-15 Fighter (EK) to War Magic. Feats: Elven Accuracy - CHA and Mobile. -> 16-20 Doesn't Matter, Get Warcaster. Go all into fighter if your DM will let you mix the Extra Attack Options. Result: 1-2 Get Plate, Shield, and Whip asap and Act as Fighter. 3-8 Drop Whip, Function as a EB Lock with 20+ AC. 9-14 Drop Shield, Use Whip until Mobile then change to a 1d8 1h, Become a Duelist Bladesinger that uses EB and Hex Weapon so all damage is CHA. Lvl 15: You can now Attack once, Eldritch Blast 3 times, then attack again, all also dealing spirit Shround dmg. add an additional EB bolt at 17, and if your DM is nice go to 11 in fighter for another attack. Rotation: Set up Spirit Shroud(lvl5) and Hexblade Curse -> Meleex1 + trigger Mobile -> back up -> Eldritch Blastx4 -> move in use BA for War Magic Attack Total Madness at lvl 17: No Magic Items, Have Advantage from Faerie Fire or Darkness+Bindsense, Crit on 19-20, Only Hex Curse and Spirit Shroud cast DPR averaged over 10 rounds: 10AC AVG DPR: 174, 18AC AVG DPR: 170 If Allowed 11 Fighter 7th attack? 10AC AVG DPR: 202, 18AC AVG DPR: 197
I think it's only a problem if your DM won't let you drop your weapon as part of your reaction to cast shield. Otherwise, the weapon can double as both the somatic and material component for GFB, and if we're going to throw out Hold Person or something, we should be able to sheath one of our weapons first without issue.
@@DnDDeepDive The Dual Wielder Feat probably makes this possible now that I look at it again. - You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one. I am unsure if you can weave in drawing and stowing a weapon within your attack action but at the very least this would let you get away with using S & M compoents for something like Mirror image or as you said Hold Person. I only point it out because some DM's can be prickly on the S part of spells. Dropping the weapon or Warcaster would solve this though for any other interaction like Sheild. Either way this does add to the benefit of Dual Wield as your bonus feat on top of its other perks
@@davrixdragon8223 dual wielder or warcaster isn't needed. he just needs to sheathe one of his weapons with his free object interaction to cast a pure "S" or "vs" spell. dual wielder or warcaster only helps if he wants to 2wf after casting an s or vs spell. if he 2wf's 1st then sheathes then casts a spell, those 2 feats aren't needed.
I'm playing an Eldritch Knight and my DM made the mistake of giving our group Illusionist's Bracers as loot. So now my level 9 Eldritch Knight can cast GFB or BB twice every turn. It's kind of nuts.
I know this is a way late comment, but raw, some of this shouldn't work. when you hit level 13 you get the awesome shadow blade combo, but you really need to drop the second weapon because you can't do the green flame blade spell without a free hand. unless the build is changed to include the warcaster feat or you have an item that lets you ignore somatic components, you need a free hand to cast green flame blade or booming blade. so you need a dm to rule you can use shadow blade with green flame blade AND rule the attack itself is the somatic component.
I LOVE your videos! I have made so many based on these episodes for myself and my play group. one so that they don't have to worry about the semantics but more or less a guideline and they RUN with it so very well!
So, fun little story and damage calculation. I'm building an EK/BS combo for a campaign I'm in now and am currently at lv 7, following same multiclass progression as Colby so far. However, for roleplay reasons, I was playing an Elf instead of Custom Lineage, and used my first fighter ASI to take Magic Initiate (Warlock) for Eldritch Blast and Hex, instead of bumping Dex, since I got the bonus from Elf, but I didn't get the Dual Wielder feat for bigger damage die (though I got a sick EB ranged option). So at Lv 5, when I got extra attack, I had 3 1d6+4 attacks + 1d6 on each from Hex (after the first round). With a 15 for my Dex initially (17 with Elf bonus), when I got to Lv 6, I used ASI to bump to 18 Dex and had a +7 to hit and +4 to damage. So by level 6, my damage was 3x(1d6+4)+3d6 = 6d6+12 dph = 33 dph, 30.75 dpr vs 10AC, 22.5 dpr vs 15AC, which meets/beats the lv 6 damage report in the video, even at lower Dex and without a familiar advantage. Though I'll acknowledge that doing this sets back higher level damage. Comparing the damage from Shadow Blade at Lv 9 with +8 to hit on this version of the build: 2x(3d8+4)+1d6+4 = 42.5 dph, 41.9 dpr vs 10AC, 31.275 dpr vs 15AC, which is lower than Colby's build, but surprisingly not by a huge margin. Plus, having the hex option available is almost the same dpr as a base cast 2nd level shadow blade (as opposed to 3rd), so I think that for a lower level campaign, I would def recommend the Magic Initiate route for early levels, since the EB can also cover any martial range deficiencies (and just fits the "eldritch knight", doesn't it?). The feat can come back to bite you later in damage unless you plan for it though.
I REALLY want to go bladesinger, but I just hate wizard mechanics so much. This is probably not a great build and I'm not entirely sure if it is viable or if I'm even playing it correctly. But I'm using an eldritch knight fighter/college of shadows bard (Note: doesn't become viable until lvl 10). TWF with longsword/Shadow Blade combo. Strategy is booming blade longsword followed by Shadow Blade via War Magic. Action Surge to cast Dissonant Whispers followed up with a Shadow Blade attack with Psychic Blades thrown in for good measure. I suppose everything prior to action surge can be done at lvl 7.
Well, TWF was always my personal preference in D&D 3/3.5 even though it was sub-optimal. Well, of course TWF rogue was absolutely deadly, because of sick amount of sneak attacks, but still You needed a lot of feats for that to work. For those of You who don't know, in D&D 3/3.5 You could land a sneak attack with every attack that fitted requirements for sneak attack to be possible, with proper equipment, feats and some multiclassing You could land 7 sneak attacks per turn, and that wasn't even fully optimized build.
I kinda like a full 20/20 EK (still dex based, duelist, 1x rapier+shield) for maximum attacks with sword & board. and a stealthy high AC. OR... A 17 BS / 3 Fighter (still dex based, dual weapon fighting, 2x rapiers) for level 9 spells wizard, with con saves, action surge, offhand attacks, also it has enough BS to get +INT bonus to attacks. In this build you probably wouldn't pick EK though since it's pretty redundant with 17 levels of wizard (echo knight looks amazing though). You kinda split the difference in a way which I didn't think would be all that interesting, but really was pretty fun. Although your build does invite battling with rules lawyers a bit more ;)
I love that you’re using Dscryb for the flavor. I try to work in their spell descriptions for my paladin while not trying to steal the scene as a player. Btw I’m using your Vengence Paladin build. Originally I was a protector Aasimar from Ravnica to potentially deal with flying enemies, but since we rolled stats I needed to change to variant human to make the build reasonable. Fingers crossed that I get randomly picked for the account. I could use it for foundry vtt
The problem here is...Warcaster. Without it, while dual wielding, you can't cast any spells except those with ONLY verbal, or with a material component that is specificaly the weapon you have in hand. Looking quickly at the sort of spells you'd want to cast, almost all are now dead, Blade Ward, Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Absorb, Shield, Mirror Image, Haste, Counterspell, Dispel. Blur, if you want to go super tanky, is viable, and you can cast Shadow Blade if you have just a rapier in your off hand and your main hand empty to then 'take' the sahdow blade in, but once you've done that, your hands are now full again. I know 'some' let you shieth and unsheath kinda for free, but that devalues the point of Warcaster. And even if this was allowed, I'd certainly rule you lose the +1 AC from duel wielding, cos you really aren't duelwielding, your spending a lot of time and attention on shiething and unsheathing your offhand weapon. Therefore, your stat bumps come much later because you probably 'had' to take Warcaster at 4th level, making 3rd level a very rough level as an Eldrich Knight who really almost can't cast spells within combat. There is a reason why this type of character is most 'normally' using a one handed weapon and a free off hand. You need two feats plus a fighting style to make this work, vs one feat for GWM and Sharpshooter, and even then it is fighting to keep up with them, I wish it was otherwise. (To me, the 'answer' if you 'must' weaponize your off hand to make physical attacks, forget the dueling with two weapons, and take one level in Monk for a quick 'swashbuckler' style slap to the face (I am thinking bugs bunny with the brick in the glove bit almost!)
I think the ideal setup would be just four levels in fighter, and the rest in wizard. That gets you Second Wind, Action Surge, a Fighting Style, Weapon Proficiency, The EK knight subclass (two extra cantrips, three memorized level 1 spells, one spellcasting level, weapon bond). You get all that in addition to one ASI, Con and STR save proficiency, and weapon proficiencies. The level 6 extra attack of bladesinging is much better, and the level 6 ASI you would get as a fighter, you would get at 16th level as a Wizard. You're not even missing out on damage because your level 5 blade cantrips are actually better than two vanilla attacks. You could even argue sacrificing the level 4 ASI as a fighter, and that way you can cast 9th level spells at level 20.
Is it possible to achieve levels in a different order? - first, get a bonus attack & cantrip at Eldrich Knight lvl7 - second, Shadow blade lvl8 + ASI - and after powerup it with blade singer? --- At present time my Bladesinger lvl4 died and I try to replace him and start EK lvl5 (with shield and only 1 rapier)
SWTOR was a fun MMO for a time. I went with the single lightsaber build for the Sith (to tank), and for the Jedi (the sneaky force user). Before the money shop changes, wielding a ghostly white saber was one of the most satisfying experiences in an MMO can think of. I appreciate the idea of this build, but the Shadow Blade play feels too "techy" in play; I like a more reflexive & instinctive experience.
Me: (writing down notes so I can desperately try to fix my Bladesinger) Note: As is, my Bladesinger was not doing much other than getting fucked over by combat, so I reflexively did 2 levels of fighter, before realizing with my Wisdom, Cleric was a better choice, so by now, I'm just making a mish-mash and hoping it works, until my 2 levels in fighter, I was basically just a bot who constantly used Detect Magic (due to me taking a rather pointless feat from Eldritch Adept to get Detect Magic at-will)
Colby, would you say that it might be better to MC into Bladesinger at lvl 8? I ask because at EK 7 we get access to ShadowBlade, which'd ramp up the DPR a lot earlier on the curve. I'm currently playing a version of this build and i'm lvl 6 so i'm curious to know your thoughts.
Ran a similar build in a brief game that started at 15 and ended at 20. Did fighter 11/ wizard 9 with just the dueling fighting style Half elf, elven accuracy, dragons wrath rapier, and dueling fighting style I had the ability to get up to a 33 ac and the record damage in a round (with two or three crits in it i cant recall) was around 506 iirc. Very fun and strong build that can really let you “bat man” a lot of enemies as a mostly martial character. For example action surge with a shocking grasp and booming blade. If the caster attempts to teleport away you have a sure counterspell forcing them to stay in melee with you or run taking booming blade damage. If they realize whats happening and just want to run a second war caster booming blade can make them quickly rethink their choices. Then there’s just other potential fun things you can do making all cantrips casting time = 1 attack like getting creative with a minor illusion or potentially mending something with their weapon or limb still inside of it locking them in place etc. Overall one of my favorite builds since regardless of how you run it youll be a fairly high damage, fairly tanky, martial who can come up with any number of creative uses for your cantrips and some decent spells for whenever they’re needed. Love how much planning and creativity this build can pull off without being bad in more traditional and simple styles of “just hit a thing” or “i know this spell is op, ill cast that now” play style
With the original description of Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade people would use those with Shadow Blade but with the errata to B.B. and G.F.B (both spells needing a weapon that costs 1 silver piece and the change from the range of 5 ft. to Self) it wouldn’t work, they tried to remove that combination due to how powerful it was. But still I know DMs who have the “The council has made a decision, but since it’s a stupid ass decision I’ve elected to ignore it.” So I don’t see why people would have a problem with it. I have some builds like the Shadow Assassin that was based around the combination of those spells but now it’s a pain in the ass to try to work around, unless you have a DM that just used the pre-errata/pre-Tasha’s version of B.B. and G.F.B
Errata: At level 17, we probably can't benefit both from the Fighter's 3 attacks *and* the Bladesinger's "use a cantrip when you take the attack action" thanks to the way Extra Attack features don't stack ala the Multiclassing rules. It only affects the character at 17+, and isn't a huge blow to DPR even then, but it's not nothing.
Also, for those mentioning War Caster and needing a free hand for Material/Somatic Components: I think it's only a problem if your DM won't let you drop your weapon as part of your reaction to cast shield. I forget that's not necessarily a given at every table so forgive me for not mentioning it! Otherwise, the weapon can double as both the somatic and material component for GFB, and if we're going to throw out Hold Person or something, we should be able to sheath one of our weapons first without issue.
Also, also, not really an errata, but yes there's a typo at 19:21 - I *say* Dex and Int but *wrote* Dex and Wis. It should be Int, obviously. Curse you, late night editing brain!
That wording of the multi classing rules is about not getting to make 3 attacks by taking 5 levels of two martials. I don't think they are different features. I think it's actually meant to work this way, otherwise they would have changed eldritch knight when they changed blade singer.
So the line in question is, "you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks."
What we have to ask is does it make sense that a character has the ability to attack multiple times and the ability nto weave together multiple attacks and spells in the same turn to be unable to do so if they get better at attacking? Mechanically, there is a rider on this characters extra attack that let's them cast a cantrip and a rider that let's them attack 3 times.
Maybe we are worried about this breaking the game? At level 17... I think we need to stop playing defense for tiamat and her terrasques, they're big kids who can handle themselves.
I don't think I'll ever reach level 17 XD
@@kaemonbonet4931 I like your take :).
When you action surge after taking 6 levels in Bladesinger, wouldn't you be able to cast the green flame blade again, and if you had haste up, wouldn't you also be able to turn that into a green flame blade attack?
@@quendi5557 when you action surge as a level 6 blade singer level 2 fighter. You take the attack action again meaning you can on that turn attack twice and cast booming blade twice.
Your attack action goes like this ( attack once + cast a cantrip) so when you action surge it looks like (attack once cast a cantrip) + (attack once + cast a cantrip)
If you have haste up you can attack one additional time. The special action granted by haste doesn't allow for spell casting or extra attack.
First video of his that I've ever found and instantly found my new comfort youtuber. Am I crazy, or is there something abnormally soothing about his voice talking about DnD? Def going to binge a few different episodes
Swap out the off hand rapier for a Whip, especially if you have a magic one. Sure, it’s only a D4, but gives you a situational option of using your action, with the added reach reach, to trip an enemy up and force them prone. Doesn’t help you too much, but say that is your hasted action because you took out the enemy you are in combat with, it’s a nice little battlefield control and potential set up for Allie’s option.
I was so stoked when you gave your sneak peek a few days ago. I've been playing an Earth Genasi Eldritch Knight with TWF, so I definitely took notes!
Loved it
Definitely want to play
Before shadow blade comes online I feel like hunters mark through taking Fey Touched is super useful as well, and you also get a once per day free misty step too
Looking forward to the seductive bard you'll build the episode after the next one
and wouldn't hate a dscryb account upgrade
This build only works if you has war caster because if you has both hands busy with weapons you can't do somatic and material components, so shield can't be casted
I think it's only a problem if your DM won't let you drop your weapon as part of your reaction to cast shield. Otherwise, the weapon can double as both the somatic and material component for GFB, and if we're going to throw out Hold Person or something, we should be able to sheath one of our weapons first without issue.
Here's a build I've been really excited to try recently! Rogue Assassin Shadow Monk! Wonder what you'd think of that combo :)
That was my first character in 5e :). I loved it. Admittedly, I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked due to the raging Barbarian in my party who rarely let me get surprise :/. I've got it on the to do list, but in case you haven't seen it yet, I *did* do a Shadow Monk/Rogue for the Anti-Mage episode, though it was an Arcane Trickster...
@@DnDDeepDive that's so awesome! Monk/Rogue and Rogue /Fighter classes need more love!
assassins are awesome in the right party, a fair DM and with the right build.
@@barryhill2836 not a fan of monk but definitely love fighter rogues.
45:43 He’s discussing here how a 5th level shadow blade is competitive damage even versus Haste+ Flame Tongue Rapier, but is he considering the fact that the Haste Attack Action is in fact its own Attack Action and can be modified by Bladesinging Extra Attack to cast one of the blade cantrips?
well as discussed in his sliding into my dMs, haste attack action isn't allowed to be converted to a cantrip as the extra attack of the bladesinger requires "attackS" to replace with a cantrip. haste gives only 1 attack, not attacks.
@@TheRobversion1 You do not need to be capable of performing multiple attacks to swap out an attack with a cantrip.
@@Cyfearal that's the reading RAW by most people and more importantly for this vid, the ruling of Colby's DMs.
@@TheRobversion1 That's RAI not RAW.
@@Cyfearal agree to disagree then. it clearly says replace one of the attacks. there is no "one of" something if there isn't more than 1. that's simple grammar.
moreover, you can find the more popular argument online that an ability/spell only does what it says it does. 1 attack only means that it. no substitutions, no extra attack, no dread ambusher, etc.
lastly, you can find already a similar ruling of haste already by JC online wherein he didn't allow the haste attack to be affected by stuff like fighter extra attack, dread ambusher. i think it isn't a far off conclusion that this would be the same case for bladesinger extra attack.
Where is the Crawford ruling saying this works? I need it now for an angry DM!
You can attack as a bonus action ?
16:30 one of my favorite D&D play stories is listening to Matt Colville describe how in one of his campaigns, there was a legendary sword that the villain needed to steal for their grand plan. And one of his players was an eldritch knight and bonded to the sword. The villain would go all out to take and steal the blade, and over and over again the knight would summon it back to his hand. I always thought that was the coolest, and a great job of the player and DM working together/at odds to create a great story with some oft overlooked class mechanics.
Fantastic!
The same idea would possibly work even better with hexblade warlock too
@@torunsmok5890 not really since pact of the blade requires the item to be magic and they need constant contact with the weapon while eldritch knight just needs to begin the ritual at some point then touch the weapon at the end of the ritual the weapon doesn't need to be magic, doesn't need constant contact, and they can keep two
@@lucasramey6427 the implication of it being a legendary blade the villain needs for their plans is that it's a magic weapon anyway, and sure the EK can have 2, but you really don't need that unless you're doing a dual wielder like this video, plus the ritual differences aren't a big deal as the pc in question would obviously have the sword majority of the time
What could be amazing is a fully psychic build; Soulknife rogue, psi warrior, telekenetic feat, and Kalashtar!!!!
On the list!
I'm currently playing one of those now
Not so wise but OH BOY! Multiclassing doubles your Psionic Energy Dice. It's great!
You want DPS I got your DPS! Colby, if you want my stat sheet, I'll send it to you.
……… I want it
@@TheNinjawithboots I want it also!
@@TheNinjawithboots And so do I!
Interestingly, this build gets a bit stronger with one DnD rule changes to TWF, as you now get the off hand attack as part of the same action and could THEN make an attack with your bonus action at level 13 thanks to EK 7!
For some reason, I think melee spellcasters are my favorite archetype/playstyle, and this build definitely scratches that itch. Maybe I can convince one of my players to do a high-level 1-shot or something so I can play it XD
While I realize ability score increases make a whole lot of sense, especially with your point buy, I"d love to see all of the feats you might take if you happened to have rolled well enough that you don't have to throw all your points towards ASIs. Especially on this build where you had so many feats you could have picked.
OMG! Alert would be an absolute must and pick up Eldritch Adept for Armor of Shadows substituting your leather armor for another +1 to AC with unlimited Mage Armor. Pick up a Bracers of defense and you'll be sitting at a resting 22 AC, 27 w/ Bladesong and bumped up to 32 after casting Shield. Behold your armorless tank.
I play with an upgraded standard array (17, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8) so people can take more feats so I agree it would be really nice.
What a surprise! I am actually playing an Eldtrich Knight in my campaign right now and I am just one level away from multiclassing into Wizard (probably War Magic). I am stoked to see what you cooked up tjis time!
I actually created an Eldritch Knight with a 2 level dip into War Mage... 18/2, so I lost out on a final ASI/feat, but gaining the boost to my initiative and arcane deflection was very helpful. It was a level 20 slugfest and between magic items and arcane deflection I was regularly bumping my AC to 26, which was useful so that I could save spell slots rather than have to cast shield as a reaction (and when I DID need to get to a higher AC, in this case a monstrous 29, shield was sitting in my back pocket as long as I hadn't used my reaction yet).
There is absolutely great synergy between the two, it was easily the tankiest damage dealer I've created at high levels, and taking war caster let me engage in some great battlefield control by using booming blade--it was exceedingly dangerous to leave my attack range thanks to the 8d8 + 9 damage that resulted if I hit.
A friend had suggested Bladesinger rather than War Mage but the build I was going with would have been hampered by the Bladesinger requirements RE: armor and type of weapon used since I was doing such a small dip; I'm very curious to see how this particular build works as well!
@@jsjoyner85 you also lost out on multi attack 4
@@jsjoyner85 wait where did the +9 for booming blade came from? I don’t remember booming blade has that kind of damage
@@merlinrecon7528 initial melee weapon attack's damage (1d8+9, in this character's case), plus 3d8 on that strike, plus 4d8 when they keep moving. At high levels it is a great cantrip for a melee caster.
@@jsjoyner85 oh it’s from the weapon ok got you
My cup of tea is Eldritch Knight/War Mage for those saving throw/ac bonuses but y'know what bladesinger works out well too
Bladesinger's special Extra attack is what seals it vs. War Magic for me.
I like War Mage's that focus on the new Summon X spells due to the War Magic level 10 feature, then combining with other non-conc spells depending on situation.
I love 10/10 war wizard ek because of those reactions. It’s epitomizes the gish so much more imo.
My EK is a STR build so War Mage really helps out on initiative and the reaction feature at war mage lvl 2 is really nice in case someone decides to blast a big AoE
Level 1:(see above) [fighter 1, race & fighting-style]
Level 2:(see above) [fighter 2]
Level 3:(@11:30) [fighter 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@19:08) [fighter 4 & ASI]
Level 5:(@19:47) [fighter 5]
Level 6:(@19:58) [fighter 6 & ASI]
Level 7:(see above) [wizard 1]
Level 8:(@23:41) [wizard 2 & sub-class]
Level 9:(@27:05) [wizard 3]
Level 10:(see above) [wizard 4 & ASI]
Level 11:(@31:33) [wizard 5]
Level 12:(@33:43) [wizard 6]
Level 13:(@37:56) [fighter 7]
Level 14:(see above) [fighter 8 & ASI]
Level 15:(@44:56) [fighter 9]
Level 16:(@46:33) [fighter 10]
Level 17:(@48:19) [fighter 11]
ty
How good would a three-way MC of Bladesinger, Battlesmith Artificer and Mutant Bloodhunter be? Focus my INT into my AC, damage and spells with BH mutagens to boost my INT past 20
at high level I can appreciate the synergy. Delaying lots of Bladesinger features to get there would be rough going early on I think. Unless you went all the way to 5 in Battlesmith for 2 attacks?
Thats creative
The issue I see, is that bladesingers need the dex for their ac. Studded Leather with +5 dex and bladesong is honestly kinda disgusting
Only thing I'd be concerned about a DM allowing at the table would be the combination of bladesinger extra attack and war magic. I can see a lot of people saying "You used your action to do the attack action, not cast a cantrip. You only cast a cantrip because you made the Attack *Action*. So you don't get to use War Magic".
this is basically what most of the internet decided is correct. As part of the "attack action" the bladesinger used a cantrip, that doesnt mean the character used his action to "cast a spell".
Crawford says it works. It was in the Sage Advice livestream for D&D Celebration
Is it possible to Dual Wield Shadow blade? I am relatively new to D&D (I guess you could more so say inexperienced) and I understand that Shadow blade requires concentration, but is there a way to "forego" that and use shadow blade in both hands?
@@svofoy_tre To my knowledge there isn't any way to forgo concentration or give it to someone else while still casting the spell on yourself. Especially since you yourself have to cast the spell to be able to use the 'weapon'. Therefor it'd be only possible to dual wield them if you could concentrate on 2 spells at once. And there is nothing in official D&D that allows you to do so.
@@Kyle-ly6bt dang, thanks for clearing that up for me tho.
One problem i see with this build is the lack of war caster. While duel wielding you cant cast alot of the spells you were talking about. Apart from that I do like the synergy from these two classes
Yeah I wondered if this would be brought up.
I was thinking the same thing. Somatic spell components require a free hand so without the war caster feat you can't dual wield and cast those spells. I would swap the Dual Wielder feat for War Caster and adjust my build acordingly. Especially since later levels won't really rely on dual wielding.
Same thought I had. Somewhere in those feats should be War Caster so you can actually cast Shield with two weapons in hand :D
You could always hold out for a Ruby of the War Mage to make your weapon a spellcasting focus. The errata that came out would then allow you to use the weapon as the material component, and the hand wielding said weapon for the somatic component. Not sure if relying on the acquisition of a specific magic item to make a build, though, would be advised.
@@KrisSchouw That only works for VSM or SM spells. Spells w/o a Material component (VS or S only, like Shield or Absorb Elements) need War Caster if you want to cast them with your hands full.
So Jeremy Crawford has said that for DnD 5e Warlocks being int based instead of cha based was tested and found to be very balanced that gets me thinking a Hexblade Bladesinger that wouldn't be MAD.
You would still need Dex for AC, so for the ridiculous AC one needs to Frontline as a wizard it would end up pretty MAD
@@abedrahman4519 I'm not so sure, with mage armour (take the at will invocation if your worried about spell slots), a 12/13 dex, a bladesong (with +4 int) and the shield spell you have a standing 23 AC. Even though it takes you your reaction that's great. And this is without dualwielder, defense fighting style etc...
@@abedrahman4519 I have played a bladesinger & forge adept which let me duel wield using int instead of dex for both weapons and simply played a tortle to cover the ac
@@joehales6153 tis the return of the Hexbladesinger
Tortle, hexblade/bladesinger
AC 17 out the gate and wont have to worry about dex bonus.
I always think sentinel is one of the best fests for a bladesinger you're so hard to hit. I know my DM would rather take the swing at the nearby rogue or paladin before the 25+AC bladesinger. One attack from an attack of opportunity is equal to multiple turns with your Duel weilding feat. Even more once you get +X weapons. And that's not even all sentinel gives you.
One of my all time favorite characters was an Old School Book of Elves Bladesinger. So favorite that my daughter inherited the character's name upon her birth. I've tried "rebuilding" using multiple options, many of your optimized versions. This one comes closest to mimicking that old school character. Very well done and much appreciated.
2 years later but that's so beautiful, I could totally see naming a child after my long term DND characters
Here's a cool suggestion for magic armor. The Candlekeep Mysteries book has a set of magical scale mail called Serpent Scale Armor. It's basically scale mail but lets you add your full Dex mod to AC with it. It's effectively +2 studded leather and probably the coolest magic armor I've seen. Now I wish there was a magic set of heavy armor that acted like medium armor for the purpose of AC. I know Bladesong is impossible in medium armor but hey, if I were a DM, I'd treat it as light armor for that purpose since it's so cool.
When I play kotor, I always use two lightsabers, because I can enhance both of them with crystals and make them superior to any one or two handed lightsaber.
This build came at the perfect time. I’ve been tinkering with an eldritch knight bladesinger for almost a month now, trying to find a balance between being powerful and letting me play the way I enjoy the most
Neither does war magic from eldritch knight and extra attack from bladesinger stack (as you take the "attack action" listed under viable "actions in combat" phb p.192. The cantrip is just part of the extra attack feature from bladesinger. Its not a "cast a spell" action from the "actions in combat" that would trigger war magic), nor do RAW extra attack features stack (read phb p 164).
Basically, don't multiclass Eldritch Knight and Bladesinger.
Yes. My thoughts exactly. That being said I would totally allow it at my table but RAW I recognize they’re incompatible.
It's absolutely criminal that blade singer isn't a Bard subclass! 🤣🤣
I played a build quite similar to this in a high level multi round arena battle one shot and it was fantastic! While I didn't do the most damage I was last one standing & was able to secure victory for my fellow combatants. The synergy between these two subclasses is just so full of great rp flavor I love it!
I love so many of these builds.... BUT - I never see a campaign that gets to go past 5-7. I would love to see what you do with a few characters WITH NO INTENTION of ever getting past those levels.
Admittedly, I really do try to build all of my characters to be strong at levels 6, 9, 13, and 17. I can't really think of many (though I'm sure there are a few) that I'd do much differently if I knew the campaign were ending at 7...
re: Bladesinger Extra Attack cantrip (34:16): Eldritch Knight with War Magic and Bladesinger with Extra Attack are some of (imo) the few instances where Blade Ward can make sense. When ganged up on with the EK casting a cantrip as your action allows you to attack with your bonus; so Blade Ward and an attack. With Bladesinger, your extra attack also let's you replace on of your extra attacks with a cantrip. In both scenarios (which stack) the attack is whith your main (probably Shadow Blade) weapon. So attack action and attack with shadow blade, swap the second extra attack with Blade Ward, and then make an attack with your primary weapon as a bonus action. Two main hand attacks and resistance to physical damage which no resources used.
This build brings me back to the Eldritch Knight/Bladesinger gunslinger character I played in a past campaign. It was so much fun casting Haste on myself and alternating between firing bullets and firebolts. Gun wizard best wizard.
Why don't you use the character art for the thumbnail? It's good, it's unique, it will bring in more views.
High elf Bladesinger is one of my all time favorite characters.
Isn't Warcaster a required feat on this build for the somatic component of many spells like Shield? Haven't finished the video yet, but seems like it needs to be the level 4 feat.
Curse you, Warcaster tax. Sometimes I forget that not everyone would be allowed to drop their off-hand weapon as part of the casting of Shield like at our table. Should have mentioned it, for sure.
@@DnDDeepDive That would make potentially great use of the Weapon Bond feature of the Eldritch Knight. You can just summon the weapon back to your hand if an enemy tries to be clever and steal your weapon.
@@DnDDeepDive Xanathar's common magic item can turn one of your swords into a focus. Alternatively, you can sheath 1 of your swords at the end of every other turn, that gives you 50% uptime with no feats. Also makes me want to theme you as a samurai who sheaths his blade for draw cuts all the time :P
@@remyb6854 on your turn sure, not necessarily as a reaction
@justBinia This is really cool flavor. Your first attack on the quick draw has the added effect from your gfb and you are so fast you are able to get in your 2nd and third attack before the flames disperse. Kinda gets tricky with the two weapon master feat and opportunity attacks between your turns but I definitely like the image of a spellblade quick draw fighter. Now i am picturing them fighting with sword in one hand and sheath in the other.
Great video! I've always loved fighters with a splinter of magic within them. Would you consider trying a Psi-knight fighter? It's one of my favourite subclasses.
Try it this way. Go to 3.0-3.5. take a psion. Halve it's spell points. Or 2/3 off, if you are trying for a class that has fighter level attacks of 3 and over.
1 d8. Martial and simple weapons . Light and medium armour. can use intelligence to learn more spells from scrolls or psi chrystals. Does NOT GAIN EXTRA SPELL POINTS WITHOUT A FEAT. Does not learn faster than book, unless spell/ power research is performed. CANNOT HAVE MORE THAN HALF ITS POWERS from research, the other half as per book.
Use psychic warrior or psion powers. IF PSION POWERS ONLY 1-3 DISCIPLINES ARE EASILY LEARNED, THE OTHERS ARE AT MINUSES TO LEARN.
generally, this produces an agile build, with some projective punch, but the player will constantly have to balance mundane and psychic expenses.
If you try to revamp the psychic warrior, strip off nearly all projective psychic abilities, and go for short range effects, and personal buffs.
Bladesinger/Battle Smith is also interesting. You don’t get to use the medium armor but you get to use your Int for martial attacks and damage.
You're still MAD you need high dex for high ac since light and mage armor is all you can use
@@drkgaming7792 no you can get away with 16 dex to start. Light armor, unless magical, isn’t as good as mage armor for sure. But you don’t really need more AC than 21 13+3+5 with just three levels of artificer and you get to be a full wizard as well. Definitely an option to increase damage output and battlefield control with a steel defender as well
@@The_Gnome_Chomskee your bonus action will probably already be spoken for and I disagree with only needing 21 ac, there are low level monsters with plus 6 to hit
@@The_Gnome_Chomskee I think It's a Pitfall, only worth If you plan to never get your dex to 16+ (not even then perhaps) or If you REALLY want some arti feature, otherwise you're just holding back your class/spell growth and ASI progression that could give you a dex increase anyway to the ideal 20 int & dex. All that for a +1/+2 to attacks for a few levels is not worth It imo. In this case its better to just go Full bladesinger.
@@Johnny0Masters you can easily have both 20 INT and Dex in 4 asi.
One thing that confuses me with these builds… how do you cast spells dual wielding? I am building this right now, and would love shield… but you need a free hand to cast it as a reaction.
Love this build, I've been waiting to see a good dual-wielder for a long time. It's a shame it becomes redundant later on and only there for flavour and half a shield. It's also a little frustrating that Bladesong and Shadow Blade both take a bonus action to activate so you have to wait until your 3rd round to get the full attack round.
NICE VID!!! bladesingers are always fun. But I think i got a dual wield build magicless which ha a 69 DPR consistent(no brust) which might be better if you like the flavor of a magicless swordsman (Like the swordmaster...pretty cool IMHO). Let me hear if you want to know it.
A note I want to put out there, starting with 17 dex and 15 intelligence is strictly worse over 16 dex 16 int, and you can get the exact same stats at level 4 with an 18/16. Just make sure you’re taking care of your low level self.
Edit: almost done with the video, I’m super hyped to play with this kind of character. :)
in the point buy method, you can only go up to a maximum of 15 without lineage bonuses, so he could start with a 14 in Dex and get it to a 16 with the lineage bonus, but he couldn't start with a 16 Int unless he went with another lineage option, like Variant Human
That wasn't an option, custom lineage gives a +2 to one stat only, he went with the highest int and dex possible with the race at that level
You know, this is a good point - could have gone Variant Human instead. We'd give up darkvision, and we don't actually benefit a *ton* from the higher int levels 1-4 (depending on what spells you're using as an EK), but worth considering.
@@DnDDeepDive darkvision is essential as being in dim light typically imposes disadvantage on attack rolls, meaning shadow blade would only be a flat roll.
However a bunch different magic items can make up for our lack of darkvision. Slap on a pair of goggles of night and GG.
I'd probably rather have warcaster anyway. Xp
I love this type of character! However, and I don't mean to be critical, I think a pure bladesinger could easily keep up and have full Wizard progression to boot. By 6th level you could have a 3rd level Shadow Blade up and a rapier in the other hand and you could, for your action hit with Shadow Blade and cast Booming Blade with your rapier. Then attack again with your Shadow Blade bonus action. Because 5e doesn't distinguish between "main hand" and "off hand", if you are holding 2 weapons you can use either one with any of the attacks. With the Fighter levels you primarily only gain Action Surge, the two-weapon fighting style, and the bonus ASI at level 6. You aren't wearing medium or heavy armor so those proficiencies don't matter. As you mentioned in your edited comment Extra Attack doesn't stack so if you use the fighter Extra attack you can't use the Bladesinger level 6 Extra Attack ability (which is amazing). I think at most levels if you put a pure Bladesinger up against this build it would be, at least equal for this playstyle. I feel like the only way I would ever multiclass a Bladesinger is if I just wanted to be a Rogue. I would still take 6 levels of Bladesinger so that I could use this two-weapon fighting playstyle.
I don't disagree. It's why I am typically so loathe to multiclass my Bladesingers. th-cam.com/video/8g869Lju5Ws/w-d-xo.html Really wanted to build an Eldritch Knight for this one though :).
@@DnDDeepDive Yeah, it's certainly one of the few subclasses that should never be multiclassed, possibly after level 17 but by then it's moot. Though, taking 6 levels to help another class doesn't count! 😏
So my biggest gripe about this build is the bonus action clog and that fact that this build’s DPR at level 12 is about the same as a straight bladesinger 6. Furthermore, your level 13 ‘spike’ is only applicable on turn 3+ and you can have similar results by having an offhand short sword (which you use to do booming blade) which scratches your TWF flavor itch.
I totally get him wanting to play a dual wielding dex gish, but EK is probably the worst Fighter for two-weapon fighting. If you use Booming Blade + War Magic, whether you get the BS Extra Attack or not, you get a bonus action attack, even with a greatsword or sword and shield. 7 EK/6 BS with a Greatsword is crazy. And if you really want more bonus action options, get Hex through Fey Touched.
But yeah, a dual wielding gish shouldn't get to 7 EK, because War Magic invalidates your Fighting Style (and kinda the DW feat if you actually take it).
@@Thrashlock agreed. a 2wf is best off in a subclass that doesn't do alot with its bonus action like champion or psi warrior. he actually ended up as a single wielder.
Please sir, please I beg you Critmas Miracle, would you please include our levels and choices in your excel document, its so hard to go back and review and remember everything, help me, help us, YOU can save us all.
Thank you sir. @d4: D&D Deep Dive
I'm playing this exact build already LOL
My character is currently a Dex based EK 5/Bladesinger 4
I flavoured my character as a Ninja, and his spells as Ninjutsu Techniques :)
I understand why some tables might not allow booming blade with shadowblade, but why would you disallow using shadow blade and booming blade with other hand for your attack and then using the shadowblade as your bonus action attack?
Episode 69 has to be a Bard build for obvious reasons
Big fan, I love the channel. But my suggestions for this build would be to put off wizard levels until level 9 so you could take war caster to keep using spells with somatic components.
This video gave me the idea, that you could do a very interesting viking style type of berserker character reflavoring it as magical essense through runes or something along those lines instead of rage, using this build. You're gonna be in light armor, the dual wielding is great thematically. Throws me to the show vikings for inspiration. You'd either need to go with swords, OR be MAD, or convince a dm to let you have some sort of axe as a finesse weapon (which in vikings they use the axes dexterously).
love it
Have one question if I attack with my main hand I have the 3 extra attack so if I bonus action attack with my offhand I also have the same 3 extra attack?
I love how you just put two Gishes together to really Gish the Gish.
Would also appreciate the dscryb subscription. :)
he didn't say it guys...
he said the 69 damage at 10 ac (level 13) but didn't say nice
Reminder that if you do actions surge you do 1 additional cantrip and a weapons attack with Bladesinger 6 not just 2 weapon attacks =p
Truth!
Work has kept me away from your videos but now i have the time, oh i am gonna binge watch all of these. AND YES THE DUAL WIELDER JUST HAS THAT UMPH TO IT!!
Thank you so much for this build, it reminds me a little if my first ever PC, Braum the dual wielding eldritch knight. He was strength AND dexterity built though lol. Not the best but he is my favorite character, brand new to the game and just making a Mortal Kombat Scorpion meets Jedi style of fighting.
Awesome! Glad you enjoyed :)
The down side to haste alone makes shadow blade better in my eyes. As for material component, i hate that change so much. By raw it means pact of the blade warlocks cant use it with their weapon... ffs. I do love that this shows how useless two weapon fighting is. The best two weapon fighting character uses one weapon... effectively anyway
agreed on haste and 2wf.
Tulok just did an EK + BS build on his channel, for Supergirl.
Psi warrior/blade singer
Ahh, a man of culture. Jedi Academy, Knights of the Old Republic, same schtick: purple lightsaber in the right hand, blue in the left hand.
9:36- Doesn't medium armor nullify blade song?
Yes
yep, hence why I say to make sure you're using studded leather when I discuss bladesong :).
@@DnDDeepDive thanks for the reply!!! What confused me was you mentioning Medium armor master being a valid feat that this build can take, which becomes useless once we start bladesinging. Feats are definitely not cheap, even with the dump truck of ASIs one gets from fighter. Loved the build in general btw
@@abedrahman4519 You're right - as I was editing last night I *almost* cut it but in my head I keep thinking "if I don't, someone is going to say 'actually, Medium Armor would be superior if you took the Medium Armor Master feat...'" so I left it in :P.
@@DnDDeepDive ahh the melancholy of a content creator; there's always someone who complains about something (which includes me ironically in this case). I hear you. Great work as always!!!
im immaging a dual blade scimitar from eberron it remember me to old edition drow warrior mage that i love
You love to see it
For awhile now I had an idea for a Yin Yang Gish duo build; Hexbladesinger wielding a moonblade, and A Bladesinging Eldritch Knight that has a Sunblade. Both would be Elves (Moon and Sun Respectively). This gives me something of a guide for how to build it now.
About 2 years ago, I played an Eldritch Knight Fighter/War Magic Wizard who was also dex based!
A cool house rule that the DM agreed on was that my character wouldn't be fully penalized on spell progression as a multiclasser because it is the only multiclass that has you learn the same spell list. My rationale was that I was learning each spell and casting each spell the same way as before. So I was allowed to learn spells of the highest level I could cast if I spent ample downtime and gold to learn them. So as a 10/10 multiclass split, I learned 6th and 7th level wizard spells when RAW I should only have level 5.
It was very balanced! I wanted to play as a Magus from Pathfinder/3.5 in 5e, and this was pretty much the same thing! For players and DM's alike I attest that this is a logical discussion to have with each other! I would also argue that an Arcane Trickster/Bladesinger would be a fair multiclass option.
I keep hoping they will make two-weapon fighting good in some edition of D&D. So far we're five, technically six if you count *that which shall not be named,* in without a single sign of hope.
I always loved the thought of dual wielding. My first ever character was a dual wielding Half Orc Fighter. Now I am really into bladesingers and would love to try something like this build in the future to combine both these things.
I have a friend that started out as a dex based EK, till lvl 8 when tasha's got released. His build turned out a little differently as a result, I donated my sorc characters staff of defense for him to hold in his offhand for extra shield casts and he's an absolute beast, great build, glad to see how it stacks up with the other top tiers.
There's an interesting thing you can do with eldritch knight's weapon bond feature and the beast barbarian's weapons the eldritch knight can begin their ritual and right before the end the beast barbarian rages and creates their simple melee weapon then the eldritch knight touches the weapon and bonds with it they can then summon it at will all the time
Glitching the game, man
Coming back to this as I'm thinking about this as a character entering at level 13. Could you skip dual wiellder feat? Are there better sustained damaged builds if you build for different stages of the game?
going 2h or archery will always be better at any stage if your focus is dmg. remember colby likes shadow blade (and is a rogue) for the build so he boxed himself in that for the character concept.
i'd skip dual wielder as the dmg bonus is paltry. it's just a +1 to ac in colby's build which doesn't really add alot to defense and imo not worth a feat spot for defense. being able to save a feat and equip a shield (going dueling) is better for both offense and defense. if you wanted more dmg and went archery or 2h and still really wanted defense from the feat slot then just pick up medium armor master for technically +1 ac.
You're not using the second weapon from level 13.... So kind of invalidates the build, right?
/shrug. In all my years playing D&D, I’ve only ever taken a character past level 13 in a campaign one time.
@@DnDDeepDive It was more meant as a question, not as criticism. I thought I might have missed something, as the whole build was built around dual weapon usage.
In any case, I like your content and builds! Thanks for them.
yo kobe I made a subclass just to pass time and to try to make my long range dps dream come true in d&d, gonna send it to you on the email, any feedback I would appreciate very much
This was a bit of an eye opening “loophole” the way that they described the abilities carefully allows you to build something special. I’m impressed. Do any other sword using subclasses work well with Bladesong? Kensei? Sword bard? Hexblade? Food for thought
If going Bard (especially level 5+ in bard) go Whisper. Mini smites are a bit better than the tricks Sword gives
i'd suggest not building around bladesong if you aren't a tank. it's a trap for any striker build as it's a waste of action economy (unless you can't reach your enemy anyway on the 1st turn and have weirdly nothing useful to use your bonus action on).
doing pam, smite spells, hexblade's curse, hex, hunter's mark, dragon's breath, spirit shroud, shadow blade, ensnaring strike, zephyr strike, war cleric, etc are all better uses of your bonus action than bladesong.
If you’re a spellsword with access to Glyph of Warding and Haste/Spirit Shroud, ask your DM for a Spell Gem. Bloodstone or Jade. RAW: Double spell concentration. Spell Gem casts the spell, meaning you’re not restricted by the 10ft radius of GoW. GoW sustains concentration for the spell, opening up your concentration for whatever else you want.
How are you casting Shield while holding two weapons as it requires a Somatic component?
Right - at our table you can drop a weapon as part of your reaction for shield etc. Otherwise you'll need War Caster, obviously, which will delay us a smidge. Should've mentioned it.
@@DnDDeepDive I've only got back into D&D for a year and most of the games I've been in have been getting things like this completely wrong constantly. I'm starting to plan my next campaign as my last one is few sessions from done, and I'm kind of planning a bunch of "example fights" to show players things like imposing penalties on ranged attackers by engaging, flanking, cover and free hand stuff.
I'd like to see a build on the beast barb 3 monk x str build, which I briefly saw on a reddit post called "The Stronk" or something, which does pretty good damage and makes monk more survivable
I have always loved the imagery of two weapon fighting. This build looks like a lot of fun.
A tortal bladesinger with int 17 (achevilbe at lvl 1 with piont buy) had resting AC, with bladesong of 20. and if you realy need you can cast sheild, or retract into your shell. or both for AC 30
Here is my take on the Eldritch Bladesinger:
Start - Half-Elf: 1STR/1INT/2CHA Point Buy: 14/8/10/13/12/15
Lvl1 - Fighter - Blindsense/Defense FS -> Lvl2-3 Hexblade Warlock - Take Eldritch Blast and Agonizing Blast -> Lvl4-9 Bladesinger Wiz - ASI: +2 CHA
Lvl 10-15 Fighter (EK) to War Magic. Feats: Elven Accuracy - CHA and Mobile. -> 16-20 Doesn't Matter, Get Warcaster. Go all into fighter if your DM will let you mix the Extra Attack Options.
Result: 1-2 Get Plate, Shield, and Whip asap and Act as Fighter. 3-8 Drop Whip, Function as a EB Lock with 20+ AC. 9-14 Drop Shield, Use Whip until Mobile then change to a 1d8 1h, Become a Duelist Bladesinger that uses EB and Hex Weapon so all damage is CHA. Lvl 15: You can now Attack once, Eldritch Blast 3 times, then attack again, all also dealing spirit Shround dmg. add an additional EB bolt at 17, and if your DM is nice go to 11 in fighter for another attack.
Rotation: Set up Spirit Shroud(lvl5) and Hexblade Curse -> Meleex1 + trigger Mobile -> back up -> Eldritch Blastx4 -> move in use BA for War Magic Attack
Total Madness at lvl 17: No Magic Items, Have Advantage from Faerie Fire or Darkness+Bindsense, Crit on 19-20, Only Hex Curse and Spirit Shroud cast
DPR averaged over 10 rounds: 10AC AVG DPR: 174, 18AC AVG DPR: 170
If Allowed 11 Fighter 7th attack? 10AC AVG DPR: 202, 18AC AVG DPR: 197
Something better.
1vl Fighter
6 lvls Bladesinger.
2 Lvl Fighter
3 lvl Fighter Echo knight.
-
Acction,
BoomingBlade,
ExtraAttack
Unleash encarnation
-Action surge
Booming blade
ExtraAttack
Unleash Encarnation
Bonus Action.
two weapon fight attack.
Wait if you have a sword in both hands, how do you deal with Semantic compentetns of spells without warcaster?
I think it's only a problem if your DM won't let you drop your weapon as part of your reaction to cast shield. Otherwise, the weapon can double as both the somatic and material component for GFB, and if we're going to throw out Hold Person or something, we should be able to sheath one of our weapons first without issue.
@@DnDDeepDive The Dual Wielder Feat probably makes this possible now that I look at it again.
- You can draw or stow two one-handed weapons when you would normally be able to draw or stow only one.
I am unsure if you can weave in drawing and stowing a weapon within your attack action but at the very least this would let you get away with using S & M compoents for something like Mirror image or as you said Hold Person. I only point it out because some DM's can be prickly on the S part of spells. Dropping the weapon or Warcaster would solve this though for any other interaction like Sheild. Either way this does add to the benefit of Dual Wield as your bonus feat on top of its other perks
@@davrixdragon8223 dual wielder or warcaster isn't needed. he just needs to sheathe one of his weapons with his free object interaction to cast a pure "S" or "vs" spell. dual wielder or warcaster only helps if he wants to 2wf after casting an s or vs spell. if he 2wf's 1st then sheathes then casts a spell, those 2 feats aren't needed.
I'm a simple man. You make a Gish video, I will watch it.
Also I'm now about to start using dScryb for session prep.
I'm playing an Eldritch Knight and my DM made the mistake of giving our group Illusionist's Bracers as loot. So now my level 9 Eldritch Knight can cast GFB or BB twice every turn. It's kind of nuts.
I know this is a way late comment, but raw, some of this shouldn't work. when you hit level 13 you get the awesome shadow blade combo, but you really need to drop the second weapon because you can't do the green flame blade spell without a free hand. unless the build is changed to include the warcaster feat or you have an item that lets you ignore somatic components, you need a free hand to cast green flame blade or booming blade. so you need a dm to rule you can use shadow blade with green flame blade AND rule the attack itself is the somatic component.
I LOVE your videos! I have made so many based on these episodes for myself and my play group. one so that they don't have to worry about the semantics but more or less a guideline and they RUN with it so very well!
So, fun little story and damage calculation. I'm building an EK/BS combo for a campaign I'm in now and am currently at lv 7, following same multiclass progression as Colby so far. However, for roleplay reasons, I was playing an Elf instead of Custom Lineage, and used my first fighter ASI to take Magic Initiate (Warlock) for Eldritch Blast and Hex, instead of bumping Dex, since I got the bonus from Elf, but I didn't get the Dual Wielder feat for bigger damage die (though I got a sick EB ranged option).
So at Lv 5, when I got extra attack, I had 3 1d6+4 attacks + 1d6 on each from Hex (after the first round). With a 15 for my Dex initially (17 with Elf bonus), when I got to Lv 6, I used ASI to bump to 18 Dex and had a +7 to hit and +4 to damage. So by level 6, my damage was 3x(1d6+4)+3d6 = 6d6+12 dph = 33 dph, 30.75 dpr vs 10AC, 22.5 dpr vs 15AC, which meets/beats the lv 6 damage report in the video, even at lower Dex and without a familiar advantage.
Though I'll acknowledge that doing this sets back higher level damage. Comparing the damage from Shadow Blade at Lv 9 with +8 to hit on this version of the build: 2x(3d8+4)+1d6+4 = 42.5 dph, 41.9 dpr vs 10AC, 31.275 dpr vs 15AC, which is lower than Colby's build, but surprisingly not by a huge margin. Plus, having the hex option available is almost the same dpr as a base cast 2nd level shadow blade (as opposed to 3rd), so I think that for a lower level campaign, I would def recommend the Magic Initiate route for early levels, since the EB can also cover any martial range deficiencies (and just fits the "eldritch knight", doesn't it?). The feat can come back to bite you later in damage unless you plan for it though.
I REALLY want to go bladesinger, but I just hate wizard mechanics so much. This is probably not a great build and I'm not entirely sure if it is viable or if I'm even playing it correctly. But I'm using an eldritch knight fighter/college of shadows bard (Note: doesn't become viable until lvl 10). TWF with longsword/Shadow Blade combo. Strategy is booming blade longsword followed by Shadow Blade via War Magic. Action Surge to cast Dissonant Whispers followed up with a Shadow Blade attack with Psychic Blades thrown in for good measure. I suppose everything prior to action surge can be done at lvl 7.
Well, TWF was always my personal preference in D&D 3/3.5 even though it was sub-optimal. Well, of course TWF rogue was absolutely deadly, because of sick amount of sneak attacks, but still You needed a lot of feats for that to work. For those of You who don't know, in D&D 3/3.5 You could land a sneak attack with every attack that fitted requirements for sneak attack to be possible, with proper equipment, feats and some multiclassing You could land 7 sneak attacks per turn, and that wasn't even fully optimized build.
I kinda like a full 20/20 EK (still dex based, duelist, 1x rapier+shield) for maximum attacks with sword & board. and a stealthy high AC.
OR... A 17 BS / 3 Fighter (still dex based, dual weapon fighting, 2x rapiers) for level 9 spells wizard, with con saves, action surge, offhand attacks, also it has enough BS to get +INT bonus to attacks. In this build you probably wouldn't pick EK though since it's pretty redundant with 17 levels of wizard (echo knight looks amazing though).
You kinda split the difference in a way which I didn't think would be all that interesting, but really was pretty fun. Although your build does invite battling with rules lawyers a bit more ;)
I love that you’re using Dscryb for the flavor. I try to work in their spell descriptions for my paladin while not trying to steal the scene as a player.
Btw I’m using your Vengence Paladin build. Originally I was a protector Aasimar from Ravnica to potentially deal with flying enemies, but since we rolled stats I needed to change to variant human to make the build reasonable.
Fingers crossed that I get randomly picked for the account. I could use it for foundry vtt
1st level Artificer, 2nd Warlock Hexblade, 3&4 Warlock, 5-14 Artificer Armorer, 15-17 Warlock. What do you think?
The problem here is...Warcaster. Without it, while dual wielding, you can't cast any spells except those with ONLY verbal, or with a material component that is specificaly the weapon you have in hand. Looking quickly at the sort of spells you'd want to cast, almost all are now dead, Blade Ward, Booming Blade, Green Flame Blade, Absorb, Shield, Mirror Image, Haste, Counterspell, Dispel. Blur, if you want to go super tanky, is viable, and you can cast Shadow Blade if you have just a rapier in your off hand and your main hand empty to then 'take' the sahdow blade in, but once you've done that, your hands are now full again. I know 'some' let you shieth and unsheath kinda for free, but that devalues the point of Warcaster. And even if this was allowed, I'd certainly rule you lose the +1 AC from duel wielding, cos you really aren't duelwielding, your spending a lot of time and attention on shiething and unsheathing your offhand weapon. Therefore, your stat bumps come much later because you probably 'had' to take Warcaster at 4th level, making 3rd level a very rough level as an Eldrich Knight who really almost can't cast spells within combat. There is a reason why this type of character is most 'normally' using a one handed weapon and a free off hand. You need two feats plus a fighting style to make this work, vs one feat for GWM and Sharpshooter, and even then it is fighting to keep up with them, I wish it was otherwise. (To me, the 'answer' if you 'must' weaponize your off hand to make physical attacks, forget the dueling with two weapons, and take one level in Monk for a quick 'swashbuckler' style slap to the face (I am thinking bugs bunny with the brick in the glove bit almost!)
I think the ideal setup would be just four levels in fighter, and the rest in wizard. That gets you Second Wind, Action Surge, a Fighting Style, Weapon Proficiency, The EK knight subclass (two extra cantrips, three memorized level 1 spells, one spellcasting level, weapon bond). You get all that in addition to one ASI, Con and STR save proficiency, and weapon proficiencies. The level 6 extra attack of bladesinging is much better, and the level 6 ASI you would get as a fighter, you would get at 16th level as a Wizard. You're not even missing out on damage because your level 5 blade cantrips are actually better than two vanilla attacks. You could even argue sacrificing the level 4 ASI as a fighter, and that way you can cast 9th level spells at level 20.
Is it possible to achieve levels in a different order?
- first, get a bonus attack & cantrip at Eldrich Knight lvl7
- second, Shadow blade lvl8 + ASI
- and after powerup it with blade singer?
---
At present time my Bladesinger lvl4 died and I try to replace him and start EK lvl5 (with shield and only 1 rapier)
SWTOR was a fun MMO for a time. I went with the single lightsaber build for the Sith (to tank), and for the Jedi (the sneaky force user). Before the money shop changes, wielding a ghostly white saber was one of the most satisfying experiences in an MMO can think of. I appreciate the idea of this build, but the Shadow Blade play feels too "techy" in play; I like a more reflexive & instinctive experience.
Me: (writing down notes so I can desperately try to fix my Bladesinger)
Note: As is, my Bladesinger was not doing much other than getting fucked over by combat, so I reflexively did 2 levels of fighter, before realizing with my Wisdom, Cleric was a better choice, so by now, I'm just making a mish-mash and hoping it works, until my 2 levels in fighter, I was basically just a bot who constantly used Detect Magic (due to me taking a rather pointless feat from Eldritch Adept to get Detect Magic at-will)
Colby, would you say that it might be better to MC into Bladesinger at lvl 8? I ask because at EK 7 we get access to ShadowBlade, which'd ramp up the DPR a lot earlier on the curve. I'm currently playing a version of this build and i'm lvl 6 so i'm curious to know your thoughts.
Ran a similar build in a brief game that started at 15 and ended at 20. Did fighter 11/ wizard 9 with just the dueling fighting style
Half elf, elven accuracy, dragons wrath rapier, and dueling fighting style
I had the ability to get up to a 33 ac and the record damage in a round (with two or three crits in it i cant recall) was around 506 iirc. Very fun and strong build that can really let you “bat man” a lot of enemies as a mostly martial character. For example action surge with a shocking grasp and booming blade. If the caster attempts to teleport away you have a sure counterspell forcing them to stay in melee with you or run taking booming blade damage. If they realize whats happening and just want to run a second war caster booming blade can make them quickly rethink their choices. Then there’s just other potential fun things you can do making all cantrips casting time = 1 attack like getting creative with a minor illusion or potentially mending something with their weapon or limb still inside of it locking them in place etc.
Overall one of my favorite builds since regardless of how you run it youll be a fairly high damage, fairly tanky, martial who can come up with any number of creative uses for your cantrips and some decent spells for whenever they’re needed.
Love how much planning and creativity this build can pull off without being bad in more traditional and simple styles of “just hit a thing” or “i know this spell is op, ill cast that now” play style
With the original description of Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade people would use those with Shadow Blade but with the errata to B.B. and G.F.B (both spells needing a weapon that costs 1 silver piece and the change from the range of 5 ft. to Self) it wouldn’t work, they tried to remove that combination due to how powerful it was. But still I know DMs who have the “The council has made a decision, but since it’s a stupid ass decision I’ve elected to ignore it.” So I don’t see why people would have a problem with it. I have some builds like the Shadow Assassin that was based around the combination of those spells but now it’s a pain in the ass to try to work around, unless you have a DM that just used the pre-errata/pre-Tasha’s version of B.B. and G.F.B