Hey friends - just FYI, I'm out of town this week so probably won't be as responsive to comments here as I usually like to be - sorry, I'm not ignoring! Hope you enjoyed the show :).
I've been playing an Eladrin Bladesinger, mostly based on Bladesinger 2.0, for almost 2 years now. I was living the dream: - Teleporting myself, friends and foes with fey step, vortex warp and dimension door; - Asking for the blessing of the Queen of Air and Darkness when casting my shadow blade and dancing through the shadows to oblitarate my enemies; - Summoning the Feys from the courts of Barovia to help me in blattle; - Riding my illusory Stead on the battlefield; - Protecting myself and my friends turn after turn with silvery barbs, shield and counterspell - Scouting through the eyes of my raven familiar. I had everything.... UNTIL TODAY! When you (YES YOU, COLBY!) came with an even more awesome build! The sheer image o a tortle hiting his hammers on his own shell to start a bladesong, not as a soothing melody, but as a thundering warsong gives me goosebumps. What an amazing character! Thank you once more for sharing this with us. I hope you and your family have an great week! See you next tuesday!
The tortle starting the war song sounds like the intro to Diggy Diggy Hole by Wind Rose. It starts with drums that I imagine have a similar rhythm to the tortle's war song.
To expand the MC Hammer reference and “Have You Seen Her?” This character can cast Blink, so during the battle, the bard can sing the song to taunt the enemies while the bladesinger is plane-shifted. 😂
Played a fairy Bladesinger (styled after Peter Pan) and my GM gave me a Scimitar of Speed. Man did I have fun with this thing! Turn 1 was Bladesong and Haste on myself, followed by a weapon attack with the hasted action. Each turn after, I could use almost any combination of spells and attacks/movements I wanted. Had 80ft movement including flying, had an action, hasted action, and bonus action, and an AC off the wall. Bladesinger is one of the most busted subclasses ever created.
Hey Colby I've been a player for a couple of years and started as Dungeon Master last year. First found you in a Dungeon Dudes Video. Been Watching your videos for a couple of weeks now... Always listening to your soothing voice while driving to or from work. I thought I might leave a comment for the algorithm. Keep up the amazing work.
I did this recently with the goblin race due to their disengage feature. It was awesome imagining this little green guy whirling around the battlefield, bringing the smackdown. Then i realized. Yoda. I made young Yoda 😂😂 Edit: ...and you made Master Oogway 😂
Twinzies! I do lament occasionally that I didn't stick with my first plan for Custom Lineage though. Could have just got Mobility and not needed my Bonus Action to disengage.
I now want to play a Tortle that was always told he was "too slow" to be a Bladesinger and now he's this Kung Fu Panda-esque being that is just unreasonably fast and tanky.
I was surprised to not hear a story arch on this build. The flavor of a bladesinger paladin would be so interesting to explore! A very fun thought experiment, though! I work night shift and listen to your videos to stay awake on the drive home, great way to keep the gears spinning!
I really feel like the ‘use weapons as spellcasting focus’ part of War Caster should be a class/subclass feature. Artificers, Rangers, Paladins and maybe War Clerics, Bladesingers and Hexblades should get that automatically. Primarily the half-casters, to help give them a little bonus over full-casters. Those that study the use of martial combat and spellcasting should have extra abilities with combining them.
Oath of the Singing Sword immediately came to mind. As always, loved the video. Not even just on particular builds, but watching your videos has really helped my creative side come out for character builds.
My DM was amazing and allowed me to get ahold of the Illusionist's Bracers on my Bladesinger. I'm a Goblin, and Bladesingers were always meant to be basically Jedi, so now I can go full tilt with Shadow Blade (Lightsaber) fun. Yeah, I'm Yoda. Illusionist's Bracers - When you cast a cantrip, you can use your bonus action to cast the cantrip a second time. Obviously, using this to double cast Booming Blade. DM also supports using Booming Shadow Blade, so right now at lvl 5 I can get two Shadow Blade attacks with Booming Blade damage added. In a couple of levels (cause multiclass) I'll have 3 attacks with Shadow Blade per turn. I've done this math, and it's still not quite as good as Animate Objects, so I don't feel bad... I'm just excited that I get to live the Jedi Bladesinger dream.
Colby, I love the creativity of your builds. I confess when you asked for a raise of hands, my reaction was pure anxiety. The thought was, "that multiclass would make me really, really MAD! What's my dump stat, Colby? WHAT'S MY DUMP STAT?!" I was really relieved that you answered that question almost immediately, with Dex--'cause we're playing a Tortle.
@@KaroxNightshade Thanks for the correction. out of respect for Colby, I'll edit my comment to get his name right, and leave this comment here so you don't look crazy or out-of-context.
Dual-wielding light hammers? I immediately imagined that one guy from Andor who works in the belltower. That dude was committed to his job, and while he wasn't singing, music was at least sort of involved!
I am also a bladesinger fan and I am currently in a game as a Blood Hunter/Bladesinger build. I notice that there is barely any blood hunter builds on UA-cam. I’m a dual wielder reborn undying profane soul blood hunter with a fire (phoenix) affinity and 2 levels into bladesinger. Being able to use my swords to cast my spells and healing when I kill an enemy has been great. I hope to see more blood hunter builds on UA-cam in the future since there are a lot of combinations. Love your videos!
New to the game, and to your channel. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with character creation, and enjoy that just as much if not more than the game itself. Thanks for the great content, it really has helped! By the way, I would love to see your take on a Hexbuckler! I know there are a few routes you can go, so I’d be interesting to see which way you lean.
I started this type of build in BG3 just the other day thinking this should be interesting. Now I’ve just found this video and thank you for the advice on this build!
I would love to see you build a barbarian/celestial warlock! That’s what I’m playing now and it’s so fun. I’m level 10 eladrin currently but plan is for barb 6/ celestial warlock 14. While raging I can heal with a bonus action, smite, teleport myself or a party member, and armor of Agathys isn’t concentration and works great on a barb. We have a cleric so I’m mostly for clutch heals to get people up but being able to revivify is huge since only our cleric had it so if they went down we were screwed. Being able to leave rage in a pinch to heal with cure wounds on myself too basically puts me right back to full HP. I picked blade so I could use my pact slots to smite but honestly I think an ancestral guardian barb / talisman celestial warlock would be a really cool build. You could also do pact if the chain and get good berry through MI to be able to get people up while raging.
When I saw your Short yesterday, I definitely wasn't expecting you say tortle as the race, but rather base human for the +1 to all stats. That would turn a lot of 12's into the 13 minimums, and bump a couple of 13's or 15's by 1 for decent Dex and Con. Tortle is definitely the better option.
I built a Custom Lineage Barb 2/Pal 2/Wizard 16 (Delilah d’Lysander) for a 1v1 challenge in our Lvl20 Fight Club. 30 AC (w/ Shield Spell), Booming Blade, Silvery Barbs, Smites for days, would have loved to have played her in a campaign. Barb 1/Wiz 2 is what I like to call the “Skinny Dip” as it lets you effectively fight “naked” with a ridiculously high AC.
Heyo, small thing here, but the die from Superior Technique is probably supposed to actually become a D8 upon becoming a Battle Master since it is just added to your pool of other dice. Crawford said something similar a couple years ago (before Tasha’s released) about Martial Adept and then Superior Technique got slightly better wording to tell you that it becomes a D8 as well.
Thanks for this! I always wondered about the interaction, because taking Metamagic Adept as a Sorcerer made sense at times, but taking the Battlemaster feat as a Battlemaster never made sense, because of the non-scaling die. Glad to see it was addressed.
My level 3 character for a campaign that just started is a warlock with cloud of daggers and misty step (fey touched). During my single player session, I was fighting a construct with super low int in a tight tunnel. I cast cloud of daggers between it and me, it walked through and I used eldritch blast to push it back through. When it got too close to me, I used misty step to escape to the other side of cloud of daggers. It worked phenomenally.
I did Paladin Bladesinger before. It was [16 STR - 16 CON - 13 INT - 13 CHA] Very low Dex and Wis. It was a warforged so he got chainmail, shield, +2 AC from race and fighting style. So his base AC without bladesinging was 20! Completely ditched out Bladesong feature and only used Extra Attack. Later on i got fullplate so his AC increased to 22. The bane of this character was doing saving throws, but i got bless with me to help a little :D
Big Matthew Sweet fan. Owned every album of his in high school. Girlfriend was the first song/music video I ever saw of his and was immediately enamoured by the fact that he was an old school anime fan too.
Given the musical flavor of the Bladesinger (and the fact that they get performance proficiency), I think it would be a fun detail to have them play a big Hammer Dulcimer using the same light hammers they fight with. Bards aren't the only ones who can play instruments after all!
Bladesinging doesn't necessarily have music associated to it. It's more like a dance, and their "song" is the noise the sword makes as they swing it through the air. At least according to the flavor text, I'm not telling you that you can't have a singing/dancing/music wizard. Here is the flavor text - "In combat, a bladesinger uses a series of intricate, elegant maneuvers that fend off harm and allow the bladesinger to channel magic into devastating attacks and a cunning defense. Many who have observed a bladesinger at work remember the display as one of the more beautiful experiences in their life, a glorious dance accompanied by a singing blade."
This build is awesome, and I think that's how I'll build my next bladesinger. But I must say, I don't know what Tortle and Bladesong actually give us. You can just as easily be any other ancestry, grab plate mail and a shield, and completely ignore Bladesong. Then you can take dueling with your Pali fighting style, and you barely lose any damage early and probably increase it later. Strengthsingers are awesome and I built many. Just ignore Bladesong.
I don't know if we talk about this enough, or if we can talk about it enough, but *just* the conversation of what is going to be allowed on each table and what isnt is a *fascinating* question. Colby I value your consistency much more than I care about any particular assumption you make. Thank you for your contribution to optimization nerds at every table 🫡
Love this idea. You could get a headband of intellect and get your int set to 19. That would add AC to you and more. You could also look into getting bracers of defense since they work with no armor.
Hey, Colby! I was going through the D&D: Optimized playlist in the background and noticed that some videos were missing! On a quick look, it seems that entries 118, 121, 126, 128, 146, 152, 153, 154, and 161 are currently not included in the playlist.
Im looking at making a backup character for a campaign I'm in and this will be an excellent start (with some minor adjustments for the campaign) thanks Colby! You rock!
before going into the video, will say it does remind me of another combination I've wanted to see before. Paladin of some kind, and war magic. Now, to see this setup, because this sounds fun :D
Paladin crossed with any full caster is always going to be good. If you have more spells slots that means more smites. I’d even add a level of hexblade warlock in there. In one action you’ve got the normal attack damage, bonus action smite spell then you can freely add on divine and eldritch smite (they’re both special actions so as long as you’ve got the spell slots to spare you can do this).
If I get it right, Haste specifically lets you make another Attack action and restricts it to one weapon attack I can see an interpretation where you could still cast Booming Blade with that action
@@forrestlarson2293 It all comes down to the wording "One weapon attack only". This prevents anything OTHER then a weapon attack, due to specific beats general. If it was "Only one weapon attack" then the Bladesinger could have replaced the attack with a cantrip. It’s all down to semantics and English grammar honestly.
@@brannenpfister2579 considering the haste spell came out long before bladesinger, it is clear that the wording is intended, and written, to mean that your number of attacks is limited during your hasted action. The location of the "only" during the sentence makes no difference. In either instance, you could take it to mean either thing, but as stated, we know the truth.
After rolling godlike stats on a backup character, I'm bringing my own version of this build to the table. I rolled 3 14s, a 15, a 17 and an 18. I'm throwing the 18 into Intelligence, a 17 in Dexterity, a 15 in Constitution and 14s in everything else. We're starting at level 5 so I took the 2 levels of Paladin 1st and then I'm going full bladesinger until level 20. I went with Half Elf for the +2 and 2 +1s and for the flavor. +2 went into Dex and the 2 +1s went into Con. My background is a custom background with Strixhaven Initiate Lorehold for Int based Healing word, Thaumaturgy for advantage on some charisma based skills and I haven't decided between Light and Sacred Flame yet. I'm leaning Sacred Flame as I'm going to be playing alongside a Twilight Cleric and Sacred Flame is just another source of potential radiant damage. At wizard level 4, I'm taking Elven Accuracy to max my Dex out and for super advantage for when I cast shadow blade and divine smite with it. Next ASI would be a half feat in Intelligence to have my melee and spellcasting mods be maxed out, next would be resilient Con and lastly I would take dual wielder (my DM is letting me take 2 weapon fighting for the Pally Fighting style) OR Tough, haven't decided yet.
Thank you for a wonderful video once again! Keep up the great work! 5 months cant come soon enough, I’m curious what you’ll do once you get your hands on the new PHB.
Considering building around _Steel Wind Strike,_ it might work if you built around teleporting. I had two builds focused on that: 1) focused on self-teleportation, a Shadar-Kai Echo Knight Fighter 7/Bladesinger Wizard 13 and 2) focused on team-teleportation and with three "pets", an Eladrin Echo Knight Fighter 3/Scribes Wizard 14/Wildfire Druid 2/Order Cleric 1. I have no idea how to judge them beyond how much they can teleport, though. Teleportation is useful, but teally hard to quantify unless you have an explicit tactic. I suppose _Vortex Warp_ and later _Scatter_ work as instantaneous forced movement, but...
If you add Lorehold Student as a background you get Spirit Guardians at level 5 Bladesinger. I've dubbed this build my mobile microwave build. Upcast Spirit Guardians with your highest level spell level, initiate bladesong, sprint into the nearest enemy cluster and watch them melt like they chose the wrong grail in Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Was randomly reading Sage Advice today after watching this and found the following: Is natural armor considered light armor? No. Natural armor doesn’t fit into the categories of light, medium, and heavy armor, and when you have it, it isn’t considered to be an armor you’re wearing. So RAW, we shouldn't be able to pick up the Defense Fighting Style, though your DM's ruling may vary.
I did a sustain version of this build, oath breaker paladin+ 1 hexblade +6 blade singer. I've never gotten to play it though but adding charisma mod twice on every attack feels really good lol
You can go with heavy armor, it is less powerful than tortle but it makes you also less reliant on bladesong to stay in melee. Also you can get better racial that the tortle one, when you get at later levels if your DM gives you access to a medium or large barrier tattoo you can use bladesong and be armored. If you go V Human with Polearm master and Great weapon fighting style you will have a greater burst damage potential since you can reroll the smite damage too. It has less survivability with a 2h weapon but the damage should be insane. Eventually even without the barrier tattoo you can use bladesong when you get access to shapechange but a bladesinging smiting Planetar who rerolls any 1s and 2s on the damage dices seems a pretty strong burst damage option
I think Tenser's transformation is a good spell for this build, so we can have advantage on all our weapon attacks and some force damage to add to the damage.
I don't know if you see this d4 but anyway. What about build that focuses on the Tiny Servant spell? They have better AC then zomberts and skells from Animate Dead. They also do comparable damage, you could even use silver coins which gets around a small amount of Immunities. But then they have Blindsight! If you throw in Darkness then your Tinies would all attack at advantage and all attacks against them would be at disadvantage (mostly). If you some how can cast Crusader's Mantle then you would effectively double the damage your Tinies can do.
I see a lot of people be like "well if shadow blade is supposed to work with booming blade why else would it say that" it's spell foci. A spell focus can replace any components without a listed value, it has to cost at least 1 sp to keep you from casting the spell with no weapon
Colby: I really shouldn’t show off my triceps during a- Dark Colby: Do it. Colby: But I can’t… I really shouldn’t do it right at the beginn- Dark Colby: DO IT.
I love these builds as I've definitely been inspired mechanically to construct new character concepts from them. I do somewhat wish that there were more techniques and combinations to be had as I feel like we see a lot of the same strategies when it comes to things like either grappling into an AoE or shoving into an AoE. I understand they're mechanically powerful, but I've always felt like some approaches to this feel very "video gamey" rather than really that sensible during a narrative. To be fair, there have been 163 builds at this point, so I'm aware it's hard to avoid the "same 'ol, same 'ol" schtick. Hopefully with a build like this I can roll for stats and get lucky enough to not need to rely on the Tortle's feature for AC.
Would love to see a build around Steel Wind Strike. Maybe trying to maximize advantage on spell attacks and other tricks like Elven Accuracy to try for occasional spell attack crits. Make Shocking Grasp relevant again before the nerf. (Shocking Grasp didn't need to get nerfed). Throw in other spell attacks like Crown of Stars at higher levels. Who knows?
Also curious about folks thoughts on using Lightning Lure instead of Crusher to targets into your Cloud of Daggers? Also is only a Verbal Component so can be used while Duel Wielding without any bending over backwards to drop weapons etc.
Different route: Use Half-Elf for +2,+1,+1. Start Str 14+1, Dex 8, Con 13+1, Int 13, Wis 9, Cha 15+2. Start Paladin, rock heavy armour right from the start and never bother with Bladesong at all. 2nd level Hexblade to use cha for attacks, then 6 in bladesinger, then Paladin 2. Doesn’t come online before level 9 (given that you’ll need 2 in Paladin for divine smites) and you should probably only cast defensive spells and buffs with the wizard spells because of low intelligence. I wouldn’t think this is fun to play at lower levels, but for a higher level one shot or something, why not.
I wonder if the spreadsheet should have some way of accounting for the difference between a turn 1 nova and a turn 2 nova. At the very least, the turn 1 nova should get its 2nd turn "non-nova" round added to the spreadsheet, but also, they seem like fundamentally different categories, no? Doing all the damage in turn 1 is *so* much better!
Uses light hammers? Anvil's Song. There's a lyric from the song: Mine! Mine! Mine! By Wind Rose that fits really well but I can't remember it off the top of my head.
Love the build! Although it hurts spell progression I think I'd prefer to start Wizard3 into Warlock3 pact of the blade, for invocations Devils sight and the second one doesn't matter cause I switch it at lvl 3 for Eldritch Smite. Lvl3 Watlock also gives you two lvl2 spellslots to use for smites or two free casts of darkness per short rests which you can see through with Devils sight. I also love having access to Armor of Agathys with higher spellslots
Colby, just FYI I posted a spike growth grappler optimised build in response to Chris's video yesterday on this topic. Would love it if you compare this build sometime to your other builds. Build details copied below: I came up with an optimised Spike Growth grappler build around a year ago after watching Colby’s Cheesegrater and Bard Grappler videos (I dubbed it Fluffy the Ferocious Feline in some 1-shots I played). I tried to get in touch with you at the time to suggest the build. Anyway, I think it’s possible to run this build for huge damage without a party of companions: - Druid 8 (Moon Druid), Rogue 3 (Bonus Action dash and Skirmisher), Fighter 7 (for Action Surge and Psi Leap) - Race = Tabaxi (Feline Agility) - Feats = Mobile - Move speed = Wild Shape into Quetzalcoathus (Huge for Grappling) for 80ft flying speed + 10ft Longstrider + 10ft Mobile = 100ft - Psi Leap (may need to use Moorbounder depending on DM) to double speed to 200ft - X2 Feline Agility = 400ft - On turn, move 400ft, Action dash 400ft, Action Surge Dash 400ft, Reaction 0.5x movement (Skirmisher) at 200ft = 1,400ft - Damage against a Large or larger enemy = 700dpr - Damage against a medium or smaller enemy = 1,400dpr Then you can add magical items to this, for example in a level 20 one shot: - Hasted speed doubles = 800ft - Boots of Speed x2 = 1,600ft - Potion of Haste - adds another dash action (+400ft) - On turn, move 1,600ft, Action dash 1,600ft, Action Surge Dash 1,600ft, hasted action dash 1,600ft, Reaction 0.5x movement (Skirmisher) at 800ft = 7,200ft - Damage against a Large or larger enemy = 3,600dpr!! - Damage against a medium or smaller enemy = 7,200dpr!! Please check my workings as I did rather rush this post!
I'm currently playing a Shadar-Kai Rogue 1/Paladin 2/Bladesinger 2 in a Strahd game right now and she just nukes everything. Luckily the game I joined does rolled stats so requirements weren't too bad, and I came into the game at 5th level so I didn't have to worry about lower levels.
I really, really wish there was a lower level Steelwind Strike that did appropriately proportional lower damage, but still had the coolness of that spell.
Standard human works really well for it. I think I had a gauntlet of ogre strength, but still The thing that disappointed me was that when you have several encounters a day, the extra spell slots weren't that big of a deal :/
It's been 24h since the release of this video and i haven't found anything funny to say about it (although the idea of reflavoring hammers into Sais for tmnt reference is cool) so i guess i'll plug a weird build idea, that only Colby could complete: Triple build based of Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades and Alucard for the Castlevania show. Challenge is (except for the fact, that it'd be first triplet on the channel) is to make it work as the synergetic team, not just three characters being in a same party. Or maybe i just want for Colby and everyone in the chat to watch that amazing show. Fight me 🙃
Could you use your familiar, if they are a flying type, to always hover above you, giving you the shade you need to get all, or some, of the shadow blade bonuses?
In my opinion the strongest theoretical level 20 build in the game is based on these two classes. 3 levels Assassin, 3 levels Gloomstalker, 2 levels Paladin, 3 levels Echo Knight and the rest in Bladesinger
Thinking of Shadow Blade, how about making a build based around it's less good little brother? Flame Blade, there could be a fun challenge to build a character to optimise this spell
Hey friends - just FYI, I'm out of town this week so probably won't be as responsive to comments here as I usually like to be - sorry, I'm not ignoring! Hope you enjoyed the show :).
Have a nice trip and thanks for the work 😃
Have an amazing time and stay safe.
Have fun thanks for the wizard smites
Enjoy the break, Colby!
no breaks, funny internet man😡😡
I've been playing an Eladrin Bladesinger, mostly based on Bladesinger 2.0, for almost 2 years now.
I was living the dream:
- Teleporting myself, friends and foes with fey step, vortex warp and dimension door;
- Asking for the blessing of the Queen of Air and Darkness when casting my shadow blade and dancing through the shadows to oblitarate my enemies;
- Summoning the Feys from the courts of Barovia to help me in blattle;
- Riding my illusory Stead on the battlefield;
- Protecting myself and my friends turn after turn with silvery barbs, shield and counterspell
- Scouting through the eyes of my raven familiar.
I had everything.... UNTIL TODAY! When you (YES YOU, COLBY!) came with an even more awesome build!
The sheer image o a tortle hiting his hammers on his own shell to start a bladesong, not as a soothing melody, but as a thundering warsong gives me goosebumps. What an amazing character!
Thank you once more for sharing this with us.
I hope you and your family have an great week!
See you next tuesday!
The tortle starting the war song sounds like the intro to Diggy Diggy Hole by Wind Rose. It starts with drums that I imagine have a similar rhythm to the tortle's war song.
Tortle: Stop
*Enemies don't stop
Tortle: Hammer Time
Enemies: Oh oh oh
To expand the MC Hammer reference and “Have You Seen Her?” This character can cast Blink, so during the battle, the bard can sing the song to taunt the enemies while the bladesinger is plane-shifted. 😂
I came here to say almost exactly this.
OH YEAH! Kool-Aid man
Magnificent.
~_~
Played a fairy Bladesinger (styled after Peter Pan) and my GM gave me a Scimitar of Speed. Man did I have fun with this thing! Turn 1 was Bladesong and Haste on myself, followed by a weapon attack with the hasted action. Each turn after, I could use almost any combination of spells and attacks/movements I wanted. Had 80ft movement including flying, had an action, hasted action, and bonus action, and an AC off the wall. Bladesinger is one of the most busted subclasses ever created.
Hey Colby
I've been a player for a couple of years and started as Dungeon Master last year.
First found you in a Dungeon Dudes Video. Been Watching your videos for a couple of weeks now...
Always listening to your soothing voice while driving to or from work.
I thought I might leave a comment for the algorithm.
Keep up the amazing work.
I did this recently with the goblin race due to their disengage feature. It was awesome imagining this little green guy whirling around the battlefield, bringing the smackdown. Then i realized. Yoda. I made young Yoda 😂😂
Edit: ...and you made Master Oogway 😂
Twinzies! I do lament occasionally that I didn't stick with my first plan for Custom Lineage though. Could have just got Mobility and not needed my Bonus Action to disengage.
I now want to play a Tortle that was always told he was "too slow" to be a Bladesinger and now he's this Kung Fu Panda-esque being that is just unreasonably fast and tanky.
I was surprised to not hear a story arch on this build. The flavor of a bladesinger paladin would be so interesting to explore! A very fun thought experiment, though! I work night shift and listen to your videos to stay awake on the drive home, great way to keep the gears spinning!
The Smiting Bladesinger: D&D Build #163
Level 01 (see above) [wizard 1 & race]
Silvery Barbarian Mob (@12:06)
Level 02 (see above) [wizard 2 & sub-class]
Level 03 (@16:17) [wizard 3]
Level 04 (@21:13) [wizard 4 & ASI]
Level 05 (@21:50) [paladin 1]
Level 06 (@23:18) [paladin 2 & fighting-style]
Level 07 (see above) [wizard 5]
Level 08 (@29:02) [wizard 6]
Level 09 (@29:40) [fighter 1 & fighting-style]
Level 10 (see above) [fighter 2]
Level 11 (@34:56) [wizard 7]
Level 12 (@35:22) [wizard 8 & ASI]
Level 13 (@36:03) [fighter 3 & sub-class]
Level 14 (see above) [fighter 4 & ASI]
Level 15 (@42:15) [wizard 9]
Level 16 (@44:34) [wizard 10]
Level 17 (@44:56) [wizard 11]
This might be the most Colby character ever
I really feel like the ‘use weapons as spellcasting focus’ part of War Caster should be a class/subclass feature. Artificers, Rangers, Paladins and maybe War Clerics, Bladesingers and Hexblades should get that automatically. Primarily the half-casters, to help give them a little bonus over full-casters. Those that study the use of martial combat and spellcasting should have extra abilities with combining them.
Oath of the Singing Sword immediately came to mind. As always, loved the video. Not even just on particular builds, but watching your videos has really helped my creative side come out for character builds.
My fiancée is going to love that book! I already have her birthday present for next year bought, thank you Colby.
My DM was amazing and allowed me to get ahold of the Illusionist's Bracers on my Bladesinger. I'm a Goblin, and Bladesingers were always meant to be basically Jedi, so now I can go full tilt with Shadow Blade (Lightsaber) fun. Yeah, I'm Yoda.
Illusionist's Bracers - When you cast a cantrip, you can use your bonus action to cast the cantrip a second time.
Obviously, using this to double cast Booming Blade. DM also supports using Booming Shadow Blade, so right now at lvl 5 I can get two Shadow Blade attacks with Booming Blade damage added. In a couple of levels (cause multiclass) I'll have 3 attacks with Shadow Blade per turn. I've done this math, and it's still not quite as good as Animate Objects, so I don't feel bad... I'm just excited that I get to live the Jedi Bladesinger dream.
Colby, I love the creativity of your builds. I confess when you asked for a raise of hands, my reaction was pure anxiety. The thought was, "that multiclass would make me really, really MAD! What's my dump stat, Colby? WHAT'S MY DUMP STAT?!"
I was really relieved that you answered that question almost immediately, with Dex--'cause we're playing a Tortle.
Colby
@@KaroxNightshade Thanks for the correction. out of respect for Colby, I'll edit my comment to get his name right, and leave this comment here so you don't look crazy or out-of-context.
Oh Colby,
I truly adore your videos. You have created such a wonderful positive space. Thanks for putting your energy into this!
Sir, that indeed was a deep hammer cut. I had to look up from my desk job just to be present in the moment..
Nice to see more love for the BladeTortle. Loved the build!
Dual-wielding light hammers? I immediately imagined that one guy from Andor who works in the belltower. That dude was committed to his job, and while he wasn't singing, music was at least sort of involved!
I am also a bladesinger fan and I am currently in a game as a Blood Hunter/Bladesinger build. I notice that there is barely any blood hunter builds on UA-cam. I’m a dual wielder reborn undying profane soul blood hunter with a fire (phoenix) affinity and 2 levels into bladesinger. Being able to use my swords to cast my spells and healing when I kill an enemy has been great. I hope to see more blood hunter builds on UA-cam in the future since there are a lot of combinations. Love your videos!
Ayy im a dhampir bladesinger 6/lycan BloodHunter 3 in my campaign for around a year,had a lot of fun,i reflavored the lycan into a half vampire state
Blood Hunter is technically homebrew content and not officially a class by wotc
I love using the Tortle as a way to get good AC without sacrificing too many stats. Very clever! I like this build quite a lot
I agree with Colby and I also think Tortle is great material for reskinning. As a "Warforged" of sorts for instance.
New to the game, and to your channel. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with character creation, and enjoy that just as much if not more than the game itself. Thanks for the great content, it really has helped!
By the way, I would love to see your take on a Hexbuckler! I know there are a few routes you can go, so I’d be interesting to see which way you lean.
I started this type of build in BG3 just the other day thinking this should be interesting. Now I’ve just found this video and thank you for the advice on this build!
One of my favorite subclass combinations. Can't wait to see what you cooked up!
The art this week is *chef’s kiss*
I would love to see you build a barbarian/celestial warlock! That’s what I’m playing now and it’s so fun. I’m level 10 eladrin currently but plan is for barb 6/ celestial warlock 14. While raging I can heal with a bonus action, smite, teleport myself or a party member, and armor of Agathys isn’t concentration and works great on a barb.
We have a cleric so I’m mostly for clutch heals to get people up but being able to revivify is huge since only our cleric had it so if they went down we were screwed. Being able to leave rage in a pinch to heal with cure wounds on myself too basically puts me right back to full HP.
I picked blade so I could use my pact slots to smite but honestly I think an ancestral guardian barb / talisman celestial warlock would be a really cool build. You could also do pact if the chain and get good berry through MI to be able to get people up while raging.
I think I did that for the shaman video? Support barbarian?
When I saw your Short yesterday, I definitely wasn't expecting you say tortle as the race, but rather base human for the +1 to all stats. That would turn a lot of 12's into the 13 minimums, and bump a couple of 13's or 15's by 1 for decent Dex and Con. Tortle is definitely the better option.
I built a Custom Lineage Barb 2/Pal 2/Wizard 16 (Delilah d’Lysander) for a 1v1 challenge in our Lvl20 Fight Club. 30 AC (w/ Shield Spell), Booming Blade, Silvery Barbs, Smites for days, would have loved to have played her in a campaign. Barb 1/Wiz 2 is what I like to call the “Skinny Dip” as it lets you effectively fight “naked” with a ridiculously high AC.
Heyo, small thing here, but the die from Superior Technique is probably supposed to actually become a D8 upon becoming a Battle Master since it is just added to your pool of other dice. Crawford said something similar a couple years ago (before Tasha’s released) about Martial Adept and then Superior Technique got slightly better wording to tell you that it becomes a D8 as well.
Thanks for this! I always wondered about the interaction, because taking Metamagic Adept as a Sorcerer made sense at times, but taking the Battlemaster feat as a Battlemaster never made sense, because of the non-scaling die. Glad to see it was addressed.
My level 3 character for a campaign that just started is a warlock with cloud of daggers and misty step (fey touched). During my single player session, I was fighting a construct with super low int in a tight tunnel. I cast cloud of daggers between it and me, it walked through and I used eldritch blast to push it back through. When it got too close to me, I used misty step to escape to the other side of cloud of daggers. It worked phenomenally.
nothing like some cosy bladesingin' d4 in the morning ❤
I did Paladin Bladesinger before. It was [16 STR - 16 CON - 13 INT - 13 CHA] Very low Dex and Wis.
It was a warforged so he got chainmail, shield, +2 AC from race and fighting style. So his base AC without bladesinging was 20! Completely ditched out Bladesong feature and only used Extra Attack. Later on i got fullplate so his AC increased to 22.
The bane of this character was doing saving throws, but i got bless with me to help a little :D
Big Matthew Sweet fan. Owned every album of his in high school. Girlfriend was the first song/music video I ever saw of his and was immediately enamoured by the fact that he was an old school anime fan too.
Fun Fact. Feats Extra has all the feats nearly from the game in it now. Crusher feat is available.
I was about to make the same comment. I've just added all the giant feats too.
Given the musical flavor of the Bladesinger (and the fact that they get performance proficiency), I think it would be a fun detail to have them play a big Hammer Dulcimer using the same light hammers they fight with. Bards aren't the only ones who can play instruments after all!
Love this, imagine a travel dulcimer strapped to the back of the shell
Bladesinging doesn't necessarily have music associated to it. It's more like a dance, and their "song" is the noise the sword makes as they swing it through the air. At least according to the flavor text, I'm not telling you that you can't have a singing/dancing/music wizard.
Here is the flavor text - "In combat, a bladesinger uses a series of intricate, elegant maneuvers that fend off harm and allow the bladesinger to channel magic into devastating attacks and a cunning defense. Many who have observed a bladesinger at work remember the display as one of the more beautiful experiences in their life, a glorious dance accompanied by a singing blade."
It would have to be bigger than a xylophone and really sturdy. Maybe a magical one made out of admantine and mithral.
This build is awesome, and I think that's how I'll build my next bladesinger.
But I must say, I don't know what Tortle and Bladesong actually give us. You can just as easily be any other ancestry, grab plate mail and a shield, and completely ignore Bladesong. Then you can take dueling with your Pali fighting style, and you barely lose any damage early and probably increase it later.
Strengthsingers are awesome and I built many. Just ignore Bladesong.
I don't know if we talk about this enough, or if we can talk about it enough, but *just* the conversation of what is going to be allowed on each table and what isnt is a *fascinating* question. Colby I value your consistency much more than I care about any particular assumption you make. Thank you for your contribution to optimization nerds at every table 🫡
Love this idea. You could get a headband of intellect and get your int set to 19. That would add AC to you and more. You could also look into getting bracers of defense since they work with no armor.
Hey, Colby! I was going through the D&D: Optimized playlist in the background and noticed that some videos were missing! On a quick look, it seems that entries 118, 121, 126, 128, 146, 152, 153, 154, and 161 are currently not included in the playlist.
As someone who usually doesn't do point buy method, I think I'll keep this concept in my back pocket for when I roll some godly starting stats.
Colby is totally the Steve Irwin of D&D dragons ❤
So excited for this one, I already have a bladesinger paladin so I want to see how it holds up against yours :)
This is now at the top of my list of characters I want to play
I am working on a Tortle Bladesinger using a quarter staff wielded one handed using polearm mastery. Very effective.
Im looking at making a backup character for a campaign I'm in and this will be an excellent start (with some minor adjustments for the campaign) thanks Colby! You rock!
Thanks Colbs! 🐉
before going into the video, will say it does remind me of another combination I've wanted to see before. Paladin of some kind, and war magic.
Now, to see this setup, because this sounds fun :D
I was just about to try this... great timing.
Paladin crossed with any full caster is always going to be good. If you have more spells slots that means more smites. I’d even add a level of hexblade warlock in there. In one action you’ve got the normal attack damage, bonus action smite spell then you can freely add on divine and eldritch smite (they’re both special actions so as long as you’ve got the spell slots to spare you can do this).
If I get it right, Haste specifically lets you make another Attack action and restricts it to one weapon attack
I can see an interpretation where you could still cast Booming Blade with that action
Colby probably had BG3 on his mind.
...take a drink.
No. Booming blade is casting a spell
@brannenpfister2579 bladesinger allows you to trade one of your attacks with a centrip (like booming blade) whenever you take the attack action.
@@forrestlarson2293
It all comes down to the wording "One weapon attack only". This prevents anything OTHER then a weapon attack, due to specific beats general.
If it was "Only one weapon attack" then the Bladesinger could have replaced the attack with a cantrip. It’s all down to semantics and English grammar honestly.
@@brannenpfister2579 considering the haste spell came out long before bladesinger, it is clear that the wording is intended, and written, to mean that your number of attacks is limited during your hasted action. The location of the "only" during the sentence makes no difference. In either instance, you could take it to mean either thing, but as stated, we know the truth.
After rolling godlike stats on a backup character, I'm bringing my own version of this build to the table. I rolled 3 14s, a 15, a 17 and an 18. I'm throwing the 18 into Intelligence, a 17 in Dexterity, a 15 in Constitution and 14s in everything else. We're starting at level 5 so I took the 2 levels of Paladin 1st and then I'm going full bladesinger until level 20. I went with Half Elf for the +2 and 2 +1s and for the flavor. +2 went into Dex and the 2 +1s went into Con. My background is a custom background with Strixhaven Initiate Lorehold for Int based Healing word, Thaumaturgy for advantage on some charisma based skills and I haven't decided between Light and Sacred Flame yet. I'm leaning Sacred Flame as I'm going to be playing alongside a Twilight Cleric and Sacred Flame is just another source of potential radiant damage. At wizard level 4, I'm taking Elven Accuracy to max my Dex out and for super advantage for when I cast shadow blade and divine smite with it. Next ASI would be a half feat in Intelligence to have my melee and spellcasting mods be maxed out, next would be resilient Con and lastly I would take dual wielder (my DM is letting me take 2 weapon fighting for the Pally Fighting style) OR Tough, haven't decided yet.
Thank you for a wonderful video once again! Keep up the great work!
5 months cant come soon enough, I’m curious what you’ll do once you get your hands on the new PHB.
Considering building around _Steel Wind Strike,_ it might work if you built around teleporting. I had two builds focused on that: 1) focused on self-teleportation, a Shadar-Kai Echo Knight Fighter 7/Bladesinger Wizard 13 and 2) focused on team-teleportation and with three "pets", an Eladrin Echo Knight Fighter 3/Scribes Wizard 14/Wildfire Druid 2/Order Cleric 1.
I have no idea how to judge them beyond how much they can teleport, though. Teleportation is useful, but teally hard to quantify unless you have an explicit tactic. I suppose _Vortex Warp_ and later _Scatter_ work as instantaneous forced movement, but...
If you add Lorehold Student as a background you get Spirit Guardians at level 5 Bladesinger. I've dubbed this build my mobile microwave build. Upcast Spirit Guardians with your highest level spell level, initiate bladesong, sprint into the nearest enemy cluster and watch them melt like they chose the wrong grail in Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Thanks for the build Colby, I enjoyed it 👍🏻
Was randomly reading Sage Advice today after watching this and found the following:
Is natural armor considered light armor? No. Natural
armor doesn’t fit into the categories of light, medium, and
heavy armor, and when you have it, it isn’t considered to be
an armor you’re wearing.
So RAW, we shouldn't be able to pick up the Defense Fighting Style, though your DM's ruling may vary.
That is true
replace the defense fighting style with hopefully adding bracers of defence and or protection magic items
Was *not* expecting the MC Hammer segue
Enjoy spring break!
I'm just saying... if you roll stats and roll well you play something like this. Daaaamn good. I have played similar builds 2-3 times and loooooved it
I did a sustain version of this build, oath breaker paladin+ 1 hexblade +6 blade singer. I've never gotten to play it though but adding charisma mod twice on every attack feels really good lol
hooray new video! I will catch the video after work today, just wanted to drop this now :)
Awesome, loving these new videos ^^ !!!
You can go with heavy armor, it is less powerful than tortle but it makes you also less reliant on bladesong to stay in melee. Also you can get better racial that the tortle one, when you get at later levels if your DM gives you access to a medium or large barrier tattoo you can use bladesong and be armored.
If you go V Human with Polearm master and Great weapon fighting style you will have a greater burst damage potential since you can reroll the smite damage too. It has less survivability with a 2h weapon but the damage should be insane.
Eventually even without the barrier tattoo you can use bladesong when you get access to shapechange but a bladesinging smiting Planetar who rerolls any 1s and 2s on the damage dices seems a pretty strong burst damage option
I think Tenser's transformation is a good spell for this build, so we can have advantage on all our weapon attacks and some force damage to add to the damage.
I don't know if you see this d4 but anyway.
What about build that focuses on the Tiny Servant spell? They have better AC then zomberts and skells from Animate Dead. They also do comparable damage, you could even use silver coins which gets around a small amount of Immunities. But then they have Blindsight! If you throw in Darkness then your Tinies would all attack at advantage and all attacks against them would be at disadvantage (mostly). If you some how can cast Crusader's Mantle then you would effectively double the damage your Tinies can do.
Still kills me that a dart thrower blows away so many of these builds years later.
Long live the Needler!
Nice MC Hammer reference.
I see a lot of people be like "well if shadow blade is supposed to work with booming blade why else would it say that" it's spell foci. A spell focus can replace any components without a listed value, it has to cost at least 1 sp to keep you from casting the spell with no weapon
Colby: I really shouldn’t show off my triceps during a-
Dark Colby: Do it.
Colby: But I can’t… I really shouldn’t do it right at the beginn-
Dark Colby: DO IT.
I love the idea of a Tortle having runes carved into their shell if you went Rune Knight
Does Colby love the bladesinger because he sings in every video he makes???😮
I love these builds as I've definitely been inspired mechanically to construct new character concepts from them. I do somewhat wish that there were more techniques and combinations to be had as I feel like we see a lot of the same strategies when it comes to things like either grappling into an AoE or shoving into an AoE. I understand they're mechanically powerful, but I've always felt like some approaches to this feel very "video gamey" rather than really that sensible during a narrative. To be fair, there have been 163 builds at this point, so I'm aware it's hard to avoid the "same 'ol, same 'ol" schtick. Hopefully with a build like this I can roll for stats and get lucky enough to not need to rely on the Tortle's feature for AC.
I've been experiencing this in BG3 and holy crap it's so freaking strong.
"Prioritize getting a headband of intellect over all other items." Or get a *Mizzium Apparatus* like an absolute madman.
A true Kobold move.
@@justinsmart581 Flex on other Paladins by casting Find Greater Steed at level 8.
I done a Bladesinging, Bard, and paladin multiclass buuld in bg3 and it was really fun
Would love to see a build around Steel Wind Strike. Maybe trying to maximize advantage on spell attacks and other tricks like Elven Accuracy to try for occasional spell attack crits. Make Shocking Grasp relevant again before the nerf. (Shocking Grasp didn't need to get nerfed). Throw in other spell attacks like Crown of Stars at higher levels. Who knows?
Also curious about folks thoughts on using Lightning Lure instead of Crusher to targets into your Cloud of Daggers? Also is only a Verbal Component so can be used while Duel Wielding without any bending over backwards to drop weapons etc.
Different route: Use Half-Elf for +2,+1,+1. Start Str 14+1, Dex 8, Con 13+1, Int 13, Wis 9, Cha 15+2. Start Paladin, rock heavy armour right from the start and never bother with Bladesong at all. 2nd level Hexblade to use cha for attacks, then 6 in bladesinger, then Paladin 2. Doesn’t come online before level 9 (given that you’ll need 2 in Paladin for divine smites) and you should probably only cast defensive spells and buffs with the wizard spells because of low intelligence. I wouldn’t think this is fun to play at lower levels, but for a higher level one shot or something, why not.
New team up builds, the dog and the duck!
😂
Best class combo
I did not want a Paladin Bladesinget because I had not even considered it.
Now, that's all I want and immediately started her backstory.
"Hi, you must be new here!" literally made me laugh out loud.
Love this build! You know what I really want to do now? Make the character a very angry Hammer Bro koopa! lol
I wonder if the spreadsheet should have some way of accounting for the difference between a turn 1 nova and a turn 2 nova.
At the very least, the turn 1 nova should get its 2nd turn "non-nova" round added to the spreadsheet, but also, they seem like fundamentally different categories, no? Doing all the damage in turn 1 is *so* much better!
Anther fantastic video! Love it
Uses light hammers? Anvil's Song.
There's a lyric from the song: Mine! Mine! Mine! By Wind Rose that fits really well but I can't remember it off the top of my head.
Love the build!
Although it hurts spell progression I think I'd prefer to start Wizard3 into Warlock3 pact of the blade, for invocations Devils sight and the second one doesn't matter cause I switch it at lvl 3 for Eldritch Smite. Lvl3 Watlock also gives you two lvl2 spellslots to use for smites or two free casts of darkness per short rests which you can see through with Devils sight. I also love having access to Armor of Agathys with higher spellslots
Colby, just FYI I posted a spike growth grappler optimised build in response to Chris's video yesterday on this topic. Would love it if you compare this build sometime to your other builds. Build details copied below:
I came up with an optimised Spike Growth grappler build around a year ago after watching Colby’s Cheesegrater and Bard Grappler videos (I dubbed it Fluffy the Ferocious Feline in some 1-shots I played). I tried to get in touch with you at the time to suggest the build. Anyway, I think it’s possible to run this build for huge damage without a party of companions:
- Druid 8 (Moon Druid), Rogue 3 (Bonus Action dash and Skirmisher), Fighter 7 (for Action Surge and Psi Leap)
- Race = Tabaxi (Feline Agility)
- Feats = Mobile
- Move speed = Wild Shape into Quetzalcoathus (Huge for Grappling) for 80ft flying speed + 10ft Longstrider + 10ft Mobile = 100ft
- Psi Leap (may need to use Moorbounder depending on DM) to double speed to 200ft
- X2 Feline Agility = 400ft
- On turn, move 400ft, Action dash 400ft, Action Surge Dash 400ft, Reaction 0.5x movement (Skirmisher) at 200ft = 1,400ft
- Damage against a Large or larger enemy = 700dpr
- Damage against a medium or smaller enemy = 1,400dpr
Then you can add magical items to this, for example in a level 20 one shot:
- Hasted speed doubles = 800ft
- Boots of Speed x2 = 1,600ft
- Potion of Haste - adds another dash action (+400ft)
- On turn, move 1,600ft, Action dash 1,600ft, Action Surge Dash 1,600ft, hasted action dash 1,600ft, Reaction 0.5x movement (Skirmisher) at 800ft = 7,200ft
- Damage against a Large or larger enemy = 3,600dpr!!
- Damage against a medium or smaller enemy = 7,200dpr!!
Please check my workings as I did rather rush this post!
I'm currently playing a Shadar-Kai Rogue 1/Paladin 2/Bladesinger 2 in a Strahd game right now and she just nukes everything. Luckily the game I joined does rolled stats so requirements weren't too bad, and I came into the game at 5th level so I didn't have to worry about lower levels.
Omfg I just realized I can find your stuff on Spotify! Huzzah!
47:00 i miss hexblade as well as a classik colby dib, but the rest is pretty spot on
I really, really wish there was a lower level Steelwind Strike that did appropriately proportional lower damage, but still had the coolness of that spell.
Standard human works really well for it. I think I had a gauntlet of ogre strength, but still
The thing that disappointed me was that when you have several encounters a day, the extra spell slots weren't that big of a deal :/
Just realized i haven't watched a build in almost 2 months.😢 But it's good to be back home
It's been 24h since the release of this video and i haven't found anything funny to say about it (although the idea of reflavoring hammers into Sais for tmnt reference is cool) so i guess i'll plug a weird build idea, that only Colby could complete:
Triple build based of Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades and Alucard for the Castlevania show. Challenge is (except for the fact, that it'd be first triplet on the channel) is to make it work as the synergetic team, not just three characters being in a same party.
Or maybe i just want for Colby and everyone in the chat to watch that amazing show. Fight me 🙃
I don’t know what you’re talking about The Smitesinger is such a cool name! 😂
If I was to go this way I would prioritize getting a Headband of Intellect.
Could you use your familiar, if they are a flying type, to always hover above you, giving you the shade you need to get all, or some, of the shadow blade bonuses?
In my opinion the strongest theoretical level 20 build in the game is based on these two classes. 3 levels Assassin, 3 levels Gloomstalker, 2 levels Paladin, 3 levels Echo Knight and the rest in Bladesinger
Oh! Now I’m curious what the sustained dps build/stats would be like
Thinking of Shadow Blade, how about making a build based around it's less good little brother? Flame Blade, there could be a fun challenge to build a character to optimise this spell