Errata: Until Artificer 9, you probably can't put an infusion on your armor *and* your gauntlets as they're all considered armor. If it were me playing this character in game, I'd honestly probably take the +1 weapon over +1 to AC, since our AC is already so good, unless my DM was *really* buying into the whole "I'm the tank! Attack me please!" bit :). Regardless, I think Mind Sharpener is the de facto infusion to replace whichever you drop.
@@theresnoracelikegnome Not to mention, since your concentration save will probably be super good, it’s not a bad idea to give the infusion to another full caster in the party
@@HybridHerps +14 with a 16 con and 6 proficiency in the late game. Not even counting if you decide to pick up warcaster or the like. Very good concentration
You don't have to "punch" with the thunder gauntlets. They deal thunder damage, not bludgeoning damage. You can flavor the thunder gauntlets as having spectral sword blades made of thunderous energy protruding from the palm or the back of the hand, like lightsabers. Here's the "blade" part of "bladesinging" for this character. B^)
I actually had an idea for this kind of build, including a couple levels of paladin to start, but as a water genasi adopted into a family of knights who happened to be more skilled with tinkering than fighting like the rest and spent a lot of time by the docks because of his affinity for water.
Colby in case no one else mentions this, a damage report or RTD report at level 3 for each build would be useful because lots of gameplay happens in tier 1. Thanks!
and there’s Sanctuary too from the artificer spell list, specially for level 3 and 4 while your AC is still 18. It’s a bonus action, no concentration, that lasts for a minute, and it forces an attacker to succeed a wisdom saving throw or they won’t be able to attack you (they can attack others, but if u hit them beforehand they’ll have disadvantage on that attack)
This kinda feels like Vi from Arcane. A skilled fighter and heavy hitter, fighting to protect her friends and take the blows for them, enhanced by magical fists that protect her with magical shields? fits perfectly with this build
I just played my first session with one of your builds despite watching all of your videos. This was the one I chose and have no regrets. I have never had the pleasure of telling a DM that a 28 misses before and I am now addicted. I managed to survive an 11 round combat with minimal spell slot usage and thanks to me tanking half the enemies including the Boss our party won without a single downed PC. You are my favorite youtuber. Keep on being awesome!
OMG! I made this exact character like 4 months ago! I wanted to play Vi from League, and did an artificer/Bladesinger. My DM let me count my gauntlets as light because it was part of light armor, so I could dual wield without needing the feat! He also let me make a unique infusion where if I cast a spell as an action, I could make a gauntlet attack as a bonus action. It’s so much fun! Love these vids man! Keep it up!
I’d also like to add that you can’t have both enhanced weapon on the gauntlets and enhanced defense on the armor. Until 9th level, the armor counts as one piece, so you’d have to choose between the two. Once you reach 9th level in artificer, then it splits up the armor into 4 individual pieces, letting you infuse each one. At that point, you can have both infusions, plus one on your boots and one on your helmet, if you even want or have a helmet, lol. But yeah, RAW, can’t have both. You can, however, talk it over with your DM and see if they’d allow you to use 2 infusions on the armor, one on the gauntlets and one on the armor itself. That’s the only way you’d be able to do that.
I played this character in a level 9 One Shot and it was amazing! We were playing Aereni Elves in Eberron, more specifically, we were associated with the Undying Court. I played as a Mark of Shadow Elf and my character was basically an indoctrinated super soldier of the Chiral Blades who was raised from the youngest age possible to be a living weapon. The only thoughts ever in his mind were completing his next mission. One of us was a VIP who was an actual member of the Undying Court, and my character had been her bodyguard for a decade or so now. He was a devoted protector and she was teaching him how to truely enjoy being alive. During the final fight of the one shot, we fought against a Rakshasa general and I nearly got myself killed tanking him, hanging at 1 hp only because of Absorb Elements, and surviving for way too long at 1 hp. I was the biggest thorn in that general's side the entire fight and he never got to hit the VIP. Finally I got knocked out, with the belief that I was dying to protect my charge, satisfied. Then the VIP got the kill the very next round and pulled me up. It was an awesome one shot and such an amazing character, even if it wasn't this specific build. If you haven't had the pleasure of playing as an ArmorSinger, please do yourself the service!
This might be your best build so far. The armor artificer and bladesinger are my two favorite subclasses and you managed to do something with them that I've never heard of before (using blade ward as your cantrip of choice) and on top of that I love tank builds. 472828/10. Great build!
With the new stats in Monsters of the Multiverse, I wonder if an Earth Genasi would work with this build. The ability to ignore difficult terrain on the ground is pretty cool, but the real handy bit would be getting Blade Ward for free and gaining the ability to also cast it as a bonus action proficiency bonus times per long rest. It would add more survivability until wizard 6 and would also let you still cast blade ward on turns in which you should to use your action to cast spells rather than Attack. Plus, free Pass Without Trace at 5th level.
2:40 The reason why is because we secretly we want to be that gish character. We want to be the sword wielding spellcaster, if we were to be magically summoned to a world similar to D&D and we got to choose what class we can be. More than likely, most people are going to choose the gish archetype. Because we all know that the gish class is secretly the main character class. Oftentimes in media we see leaders that are established in fantasy worlds, wielding a sword while casting spells on the side. It's a sign of leadership, a sign of mastery over two opposite sides of the spectrum, and it's just straight up cool!
Ruby of the War Mage would be very interesting with this build. Since the gauntlets are simple weapons while you aren’t holding anything, you can attach a Ruby of the War Mage to turn a gauntlet into a spell casting focus for your wizard spells and only need to hold components for those you actually need to, therefore leaving your hands empty most of the time. It is a 50gp common magic item that requires attunement but it gives an amazing benefit. It could be attached to any weapon you wish if you don’t want to use the gauntlets. One benefit of it is that it won’t come off unless you want it to so combined with the armor, you will always have a spell casting focus since your armor only can be removed if you want it to come off.
Option for Cody - while usually you're tanking via the thunder gauntlets giving disadvantage on attacking anyone but you, in a situation such as where e.g. you're in their melee range and would be the logical or only choice to attack anyway, then consider Bestow Curse! Between the gauntlets and the spell, they would then get disadvantage on *everyone* - including you! Plus a host of other debuffs.
Most fun I had with magical tinkering is with my artificer character who acted like Santa Claus (bag of holding included) and my DM let me randomly hand out small toys to people we met that had magical effects. Like a sail boat that made sounds like the ocean or a small rock that worked like a night light
I used this exact build for a level 15 (3/12 split) one shot over the weekend and bloody hell this build is so powerful! Thank you Coby for this great character concept! The stupidly high AC meant I didn't bother disengaging and just kited all the enemies to use their reactions and draw them away from my allies
I'm DMing HoTDQ and the party's armorer imbued the seat of one of the cults wagon to smell like specifically "human feces" during "on the road". Amazing!
@@urs.sonofbear8965 The bladesinger extra attack that lets you cast a cantrip so blade wars can be useful as you go into melee instead of burning it and waiting a whole round.
23:24 you could just use a component pouch. They’re gauntlet’s so I assume you’re allowed to use them to open doors, drink things, and anything else you’d usually be able to do with hands. If that’s true you should be able to use spell components.
@@Mega2chan Just take enhanced spellfocus, that would allow for wizard spells and because its an infused item it can also be used for artificer spells.
Not something I’d allow. Gauntlets items you could use for fine work, and reaching into a component bag and pulling out sage instead of amaranth would be impossible… unless you keep you components in a bag of holding :)
Agro doesn’t exist in D&D, but casting haste on yourself and daring the dm to try and hit you comes really really close. Lindol, my first Bladesinger was a tank. I played him up to 20th level before Xanathar’s (luckily I got absorb elements from PotA) came out so Haste was my go to gish spell. He got a cloak of displacement, and pairing it with haste and shield often shot his AC passed 27 in second tier. I played him in AL, and DMs would take it personally when they couldn’t hit him. Haste was also nice for getting into melee fastest, making enemies want to swarm around him first. He was often attacked a dozen times a turn and wouldn’t get a scratch. (So when treantmonk says his first of three homebrew rules to make D&D better is to ban the shield spell, I understand. It does break the game.) Anyway now at 20th level he is a god among wizards because he has a finesse vorpal sword, a staff of power, a tome of the stilled tongue and a Diamond Spell Gem (which stores a 9th level spell to be cast without attunement). Between himself and his simulacrum he can cast 4 ninth level spells in one fight. And because the wish spell doesn’t take concentration he can cast spells like temple of the gods with an action which completely transform the battlefield.
As soon as you made the Vi comparison around 28:00 it hit me that nowhere in the book does it specify what genre of singing your "blades" do. A gruff gritty artificer/bladesinger whose "singing" of choice is heavy metal death screams is totally valid!
it doesn't even specify that you have to sing at all, your blade song could just be the woosh noises of your swings and the impact noises of your fists.
My wife built a bladesinger that was absolutely terrifying by using the following: Greater Invisibility and Mirror Image. So they get advantage on all their attack rolls and still cast spells while being invisible, so attacks against them have disadvantage and most spells require visibility to the target to be effective. Then Mirror Image on top so IF they hit, there is a good chance it just hits a Mirror instead of her. Just... terrifying.
My version of this character is a Warforged created by an artificer who thought it'd be funny to guard nature with a mechanical construct 'W4RD-N' gets his story from a custom Background i made called 'Warden' with proficiencies to Investigation, Survival, land vehicles (cart to haul away poachers) and Cartographers tools ( to make maps for lost travelers) The background uses the Outlander background feature "Wanderer" also, while I'm making this one look very robotic, and flavoring the thunder gauntlets into something akin to lightsabers (singing blades!), another possibility would be to make the construct's chassis look like a robotic bear, and flavor the thunder gauntlets as claws either way you have a robotic game warden, and maybe one could look like 'Smokey the Bear' Thank you for the build Colby!
I’ve been watching your Artificer build videos for a game that’s about to start with some friends. This one is so cool! Armorer and Bladesinger are two of my favorite subclasses. Thanks for breaking down the sometimes confusing DND mechanics in a way that’s easy to understand too Colby! I’ve learned a lot.
Yaaaaay! My favorite build. Makes dual wielding actually viable. I love this idea is basically an Arcane Boxer. My idea to use Magical Tinkering would also potentially be to be like Zer0 from Borderlands 2, wearing a hood that has emoticons or single word text appear in front of it as a "Light" emitting from it. Potentially being a character that is either mute or doesn't speak.
2:40 For me, it's partly because of DBZ. It was badass when I first saw the episode where Trunks came from the future. For context: this mysterious figure shows up unannounced, immediately slices the previous main villain first in half, then into small chunks, and follows it up with an energy beam, instantly vapourizing the BBEG. My tiny child mind was blown away by the coolness of it all. Ever since then I imagine my gish characters being able to teleport around and provide the perfect blend of slices and beams.
Seriously, I’d love so many BS videos with 6 or 9 BS + other classes like monk, fighter or rogue. I get pure BS is beautiful. I just think BS makes all the other melee fighters so much better.
I love this character. Someone who throws punches has a good defense and still is a spell caster. Perfection. I already have a story in my head why blade singing works for him without an actual blade.
I'm currently playing a Bladesinger Wizard, and I got really lucky with the roll for stats. I got two 17, so I put them in INT and DEX, and picked variant human to get the resilient feat. My con is 14. I'm now lvl 4, 20 INT and the spell book full of defensive spells My concentration is unbreakable, and I'm untouchable ! This feels very nice 😁
Is it actually any fun, being "over stated" and unbreakable/untouchable? Doesn't it take away from the charm of the encounter and mute the potential intensity?
I had a similar thing stat-wise (but instead cause the DM gave us big stat blocks to choose from) except I have 8 Con, and it is *soooo* fun being bulletproof glass that is almost never hit, but a single scratch (or nasty save) makes them shatter. My hp didn't catch up with my AC until level 8, and it's been the most fun I've ever had with a D&D character.
For you infusions, you mention Enhanced Defense, and Enhanced Weapon, however as Armorer, your Weapons are your armor, and until level 9 in Artificer, you can't treat them as separate items for infusions
This is definitely true, but you can make other party member's weapons tasty. Or you could kill your enhanced defense if you end up in an encounter where thats more benefitia than the 1 higher AC
Came to say the same thing. Was trying to set it up on dndbeyond and turns out this was the reason it wouldn't work, but will after lvl 9 of artificer. Shame
It's alright, getting that +1 isn't THAT impactful, plus that leaves room for your 2nd active infusion to be Mind Sharpener, which is really helpful for keeping concentration, especially if you Haste yourself. If you're Hasted with Bladesong active then your Concentration checks are already pretty good, and on the off chance you fail, use Mind Sharpener. Makes the chances of you keeping Haste up for an entire combat (or at least the full minute) much more doable.
Another fun use for Blade Ward(requires DM approval) is to cast Blade Ward and then drop on an enemy from a REALLY high place, swordpoint first, to inflict additional fall damage with your attack. "To the Promised Land." -Sephiroth
For some reason I really like the idea of the character having a sort of ‘whistle while you work’ from being an artificer that gets used as their bladesong
I like this idea more than mine. I decided my version would blast a recording the Bard's rendition of "Flight of the Valkyries" on a kazoo, or "The Final Countdown."
@ DnDDeepDive Cavalier fighter is your tanking style class, and I took resilient for dex saves and because I started with an odd dex score. 1 feat is left open past max dex and int so you can pyf fear or cob score increase. With fighter 14 you get 3 attacks and dual weilding 2 weapon fighting for a bonus action attack, and bladesinger giving you a cantrip as 1 of those attacks so booming, or green flame blade depending.
When I was younger I saw a anime I can't remember what its called where spell casters wore heavy armor and had guns. They explained that by carving spells partially into their armor they could activate them using their voice. After that I thought full plate wizards were amazing.
In my opinion, the best way to taunt as a bladesinger is to be concentrating on the most devastating effect on the battlefield. If you've trapped their boss in a wall of force and the minions have the option to hit you, I can almost guarantee they'll try, no matter how low the odds are.
I think I love characters who can use swords and magic because they're like jedi, and I loved Star Wars growing up. I also like the idea of a warrior who fights with more than just brawn and, well, I like the flashiness of swinging a sword then shooting out a fireball lol
This may be one of the best builds I've ever seen. Lots of tank and control and debuffs. very efficient. I wonder what you could do with one of my favorite toy builds, the Drunken Druid.
Great build! On another note, it would be hilarious to see a team build with a caster centaur (or another appropriate race) and a halfling barbarian who mounts the caster. Using the mounted combatant feat, the barbarian can force all attacks on themselves and give evasion to the caster.
I know this video is old now but I have been playing a Bladesinging Wizard with a slight dip in Artificer for the Infusion Mind Sharpener. Two weekends ago I did a one shot with a lvl 7 that was allowed +1 weapon +1 armor 1 rare item 1 feat. I went with a Tortle that was a Bear totem barbarian with Sentinel Feat with point buy. Anyways, Bear totem barb with +1 Battle axe +1 Shield (3 AC) and a Cloak of Displacement. I was a lvl 7 with 20 AC (17 Base tortle with +3 shield) or 22 when I was buffed with shield of faith. That was getting free hits when I wasnt getting targetted and if they targeted me it was at disadvantage (until I took damage). The DM allowed resist stacking so slashing etc. took half damage twice from totem and raging barb too. Boy was that fun to be able taunt and get the creature pissed with all the free damage and stopping it from moving. We punched well above our weight and got to a point I almost went shell defense to save myself. I would love to figure out a build to be a bladesinger tank that could blend those two.
As for the best use of artificer little sound blip, my brother has a lizard folk artificer that mixes metal and natural elements like bone and wood to make his items. His primary weapon is a flail that is a skull and spine. Well when trying to figure out or think through complicated emotions of people he will make the skull talk to him as if it is an actual person.
Magic Item report: This build is really cool, you of course want some magical items to boost your to hit so you can land your taunt but also items that boost your saves and AC. For the purposes of the report all Legendary / artifact magic items are not considered. Plus bonus armour is a given get the best studed leather you can find! While this is a contensious topic I believe that Animated Shield shouldn't break the bladesingers rule about not using a shield. Though this is not supported by the designers so seek at own risk. Best defensive magic items to look for: Cloak of Displacement Ring of Evasion Rod of Absorption (this one is great for defence and extra shield spells (or others)! must pick if possible) Ring and/or cloak of protection Mantle of Spell Resistance Staff of Defense (more shield spells and +1 AC, sign me up!) Orb of the Stein Rune (amazing hold the line magic item) Necklace of Adaptation (for when you fight in ~~space~~ /the phlogiston) Amulet of Health (adding up to 40 HP before reductions and +2 bonus on con saves is really good compared to the builds con mod ofc) Best atunement slots usage (in my opinion): Rod of Absorption Amulet of Health Cloak of Displacement This combo gives you: A reaction to nullify spells that only target you The ability to store 49 levels of extra spell slots to fuel up to 5th level spells 19 con, so +4 mod giving you 80 hp from con mod alone (40 more compared to the builds end) this is roughly a 25% HP increase making the final total 204 Disadvatange on attacks until they hit you (which is unlikely) you regain this bonus when your next turn begins Result: Magic items funnily enough help quite a bit, in the end you can get some strong as abilities just from being rich or lucky! The AC potential at the end of the build is 30 (with shield) this can be 32 with the magic +3 armor (we had +1 from artificer infusion before) and you have resistance to bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage and attack rolls have disadvantage. Disclaimer: Magic items are not guaranteed but talking with your DM about you wanting certain items, so they can design a quest or whatevs, is totally allowed and encouraged!
This is a really cool build! One I would definitely play in a campaign. One problem I'm seeing is that the in higher levels when monsters get in the +9 +10 to hit range, they are just better off kicking the crap out of your companions with disadvantage then attacking an insurmountable wall of magic and dancing.
This was fun for me as I was on a livestream last weekend with Dungeoneer's Pack where I said the Bladesinger seemed like it was designed to maybe be a tank (or at least be tanky) but was not actually very tanky. Perhaps I was wrong! :P
You can get around a fussy DM insisting your hands are full by using one of your infusions (and one of your attunement slots) on the excellent common magic item Ruby of the War Mage; a gem that embeds itself into one of your weapons (which since they are, can be one of your thunder guantlets) and causes that weapon to be able to be a spellcasting focus for ANY of your spells. Seriously good item, I use it a lot. Technically if the weapon ceases being a weapon (by you holding something with it) then the gem'll fall out and you'll have to redo the attunement to get it back in, so plan around that (making whichever the other hand is the only one you hold stuff in). But you're definitely NOT holding the gem itself, and that's the important part. Same as you wouldn't be holding two items in the same hand if it were embedded in a dagger. Neat way to save yourself a feat. Much less costly.
Excellent break down. One thing to remember is the Artificer at first level will not have access to the Shortsword as it is a Martial Weapon, not a simple weapon.
loved this, I love the idea that is is a bladesinger just punching things because it just isn't the stereotypical thing that the class itself leans into and I love it so much. I also like brawlers and monks so this is right up my alley.
One of my tankiest builds was a Jedi- I'm sorry, I mean "non-copyrighted sci-fi space-wizard-samurai"- that I built for a campaign using the Dark Matter expansion. Variant Human (+1 Dex +1 Wis) with the Telekinetic feat (+1 Int), four levels of Kensei monk, then the rest as a Bladesinger. Increase Dex with your first two ASIs, Int with your next two, and Wis with your last. At level 6 when i got Bladesong I had 21 AC (26 with Shield), at level 9 I got Haste so now my AC is 24/29. If the campaign makes it to level 20: Unarmored Defense + Agile Parry + Blade Song + Haste (or Platinum Shield) = 27 AC + Shield = 32, then I also have Deflect Missiles, Blade Ward, and Mirror Image, and the options of Patient Defense and Song of Defense on top of that, and this still hasn't accounted for potential magic items yet. Sure, my AC isn't quite as high as the party's Armorer/Forge Cleric "Space Marine" (and my HP _certainly_ isn't), but I'm more mobile and have _many_ more spells. I did consider Artificer instead with a build very similar to this one, but the Monk abilities suit the "Jedi" concept so well. What kind of Jedi would I be if I couldn't Deflect Missiles?
I remember asking for this when you did your last monk tank. So happy you tried to fit the tortle in. A while back I wrote a comment about how I was multiclassing my tortle monk into artificer. I'm playing a tortle drunken master guardian armorer. My dm let's me alocate my shell as "armor" which allows me to imbue it with armorer magic as if it were armor. Plus since I'm technically not wearing "armor" I use unarmored defense for my AC. It's so fun to run around as a drunken master hitting the evildoers and then giving them disadvantage on attacks to my allies. Such a fun tank!!!! Great to see this wizard monk variant. You're so creative Colby! Keep it up.
Found this channel by accident two weeks ago and have been watching like 2 a day since. Love the channel, and honored to be a part of that final push to 50k subs. And omg my kids still sing encanto songs all day months later. Also, monks are probably my favorite class from a role play standpoint. My favorite character to date is my Machoman Savagr themed monk. He even had a crafted chair to smash on people lol.
Does good damage too if you cast booming blade instead of blade ward. Shocking grasp could also be good if you want to remove someones reaction. All fot thematically as well. Super versatile.
I coincidentally wrote up a similar build but as a bugbear with 3 levels in battlemaster fighter in addition to the levels in artificer and bladesinger. Bugbear's reach means you could attack and run away to attack other enemies without taking a crazy numbers of opportunity attacks. Good choices for fighting styles include Defense, Interception, or superior technique for an extra maneuver. Action surge is of course amazing. Battlemaster maneuvers offer a lot, but my favorites include: Sweeping attack to hit potentially even more enemies with the same attacks with your artificer's thunder gauntlets causing even more disadvantage to more enemies. Menacing attack for giving enemies disadvantage against attacking you as well. Brace for imposing disadvantage on an enemy whom you may have missed or just entered battle possibly before they can attack an ally near you. Bait and switch for even more AC to yourself or a squishy ally. Ambush to make sure you attack before your enemies can to give them disadvantage from the start of combat. PS. I called it the "Glove Slap" in honor of the Simpson's episode with the B52 parady song of "Love Shack" PPS. If your DM allows it, using catnap on yourself and allies is great for regenerating the maneuvers.
Bladesingers are just so versatile if you build the correctly with other things: You need a tank, here you go. You need consistent damage, get 14 levels in it and a few other things and you wont drop off. You want a nova build, Eldritch Blademaster, or perhaps even a Critlander build that takes 6 levels in Bladesinger and the rest is 8 Sorcerer, 2 Paladin and 4 Fighter. Love them so much, and your great content.
Great video as always Colby, I think people are really sleeping on the Loxodon from ravnica for Gish builds. I think it pairs especially well with features that allow you to attack with your casting stat like the Hexblade, battlesmith/armourer, and shillelagh. I like to call them "Dumbo" builds because they're SAD elephants. They allow you truly dump STR and DEX save for skill checks and saving throws. You will likely have either a higher AC, HP or Con save than other casters as you aren’t spliting between CON and your AC stat. It does not, however, afford the most Feat flexibility and takes some time to ramp up till you max your casting stat and CON
Nice build! I built something similar but with war mage. I really like the idea you pushed with using the cantrip with blade ward. It makes that spell very useful for the character. One add on to the tactics that I would add is using Ashardalon's Stride with it. If you don't use the cantrip for Blade Ward, you can run around with minimum 60 Speed (can always upcast it when you build the wizard levels) and attack 3 different creatures per turn, forcing all 3 to have disadvantage and you can damage multiple targets per turn with the fire damage. Using this as an option, if you feel like your chances of getting hit will be low (IE not needing blade ward), you can rack up some pretty decent damage per round using Attack, Booming blade with extra attack, BA attack, plus 3+ 1d6 fire damage each turn. If I did my math correctly, aprox 107.5 dpr consistently when casting AS at 7th level and 80 movement per turn. Keep up the great work.
This perfectly captures the spirit of my current PC! His backstory is he's a prodigy arcane weaponry smith and had his hands cut off by rivals, he created arcane prosthetics (with some help obviously) to continue his work. DM allows these to act as my thunder gauntles! My endgame build will be 16 Armorer/4 Bladesinger just because we already have two very tanky Paladins in the party and I wanted to maximize the infusions/support options. Love to see the versatility this build has!
i think the best thing about hybrid characters is that they give the player a lot of options. i always play a hybrid class if i can in videogames too. enhancement shaman for example in wow when i still played. its also why i play a tempest cleric atm. you have the best of both worlds and dont even have to be worse in either than others. ok you dont get the martial stuff like a true fighter but you have stuff to make up for it booming blade + smite + spiritual weapon + bless.
Funny you do this video NOW. I was playing a bladesinger tank, but just died last week (2 sessions into my campaign I might add). Got my head lopped off by a dulahan.
I've played Artificers a number of times, and a few Bladesingers... but have not played them together yet. Our next game is forming soon and needs a tank. Now I'm pretty sure I'm rolling this as a Mark if Warding Dwarf for our next campaign. Thank you for another great build idea.
Since Bladesinging and thunder gauntlets are both “audible” things and one is kind of techy, maybe you could flavor this character as combining their disciplines by blasting loud music (dubstep?) and dancing to it, thus becoming a great distraction? Fizban’s Platinum Shield would be a crazy light show for you and Haste would just up the tempo.
I feel like the core of this build would work extremely well for folks who are trying to make a character like Vi from LoL/Arcane. A nimble fighter with powerful magically infused gauntlets who focuses on protecting allies? Pretty much spot on!
I've played a similarly themed character but went with Swords Bard. Was a ton of fun. Spells known are limited, of course, but you've got the staples: Shield (through a feat), Defensive Flourish (for when you need crazy tankiness), and max level spells, when you're running a 3/17 split. Swords also comes loaded with the TWF fighting style for that little bit of extra damage.
Colby!! I made an armorer/bladesinger a couple weeks ago and have been absolutely itching to play it. There are so many tools you have at your disposable with a gish character, and I think the armorer really gives you a solid base to use your spellcasting to control, defend, manipulate, or whatever other utility a given situation calls for. Glad you’re giving it the attention it deserves. However, I would argue you don’t need the Dual Wielder feat because you’re not wielding the gauntlets, you’re just wearing them. It’s effectively like using unarmed strikes while wearing armor, which I think opens up more options for this build than it takes away. I also think this is closer to RAW, though it is a bit nit-picky :)
I am currently playing a Bladesinger/X Multiclass in a campaign and I am absolutely loving it right now. And I recently made a written guide of my thoughts(On Bladesinger) and I enjoyed writing it.
One fun thing I did was when I was a human Artillerist in a party that all otherwise had darkvision. We had set up some traps in a big, grassy field at night to try and catch a gnoll pack. Using my tinkering, I had set them all up with lights that they could quickly turn on and off while hanging on their hips rather than fumbling with torches or lanterns. Once the fighting started, the party turned on their lights and started a brawl. The range on the cannon is way further than a gnoll's darkvision, and my DM said that I could see anything in the light even without darkvision. Since I could see them in the light but was too far out for them to see me, my party got to act as spotters while I was a long-range sentry gun that the enemy couldn't see, giving me advantage on all my attacks.
So I am only at the part where you talk about haste, but I played a very similar character to this that I loved from levels 13-17. Here’s what I did differently and why. Race: Warforge, Because I wanted to have the +1 defense as other warforged benefits, But I also was not worried about us starting feat. My DM allowed the gauntlet to work as if they were light, But even if that was not the case I still don’t think I would’ve prioritized a bonus action second attack because as a bladesinger your bonus action is being used so much for so many things But I don’t think it makes sense to have to worry about using a feat for this purpose. Infusions: This is obviously going to change from table to table, but I did not go with Plus One armor or weapon, because you cannot infuse an item that is already magical. Now, as an armor artificer, if you got rewarded +2 armor, I’m unsure if you’d be able to infuse the gauntlets or if since the armor is your weapon if the +2 on the armor applies to the gauntlet as well. My DM allowed the modifiers on armor to count towards the gauntlet but considered the armor one higher rarity than it’d have otherwise been, for purposes of rewarded loot or item purchasing/crafting. Because of that, I took infusions with utility purposes. Creating my own goggles of night vision was useful until I just bought them outright, and while mind sharpener is great on paper and can be given to an ally if you don’t need, None of my allies were able to use it and I’ve never actually failed a concentration saving throw to have actually needed to have it, granted your mileage may vary at lower levels. The infusion I used the most was homunculus servant, for scouting and to essentially act as a buffed familiar. Since I did not take proficiency in perception, I often used my homunculus’ perception to alert me and the party to things. But The reason I bring this up at this point of the video is because if you can get a ring of spell storing, You could use haste on the ring and have the homunculus wear the ring so that it’s using its concentration and not yours in order for haste to work…freeing you up for spirit shroud or any other concentration based spell you’d like. The utility the homunculus can bring you and creative play it can bring Makes me think it is a much better infusion than people give it credit for. Not to mention in combat, even at liter levels where it’s armor class and hit points are practically meaningless, It is at least still a piece on the board that could take a hit that otherwise might have been aimed at m you or an ally. I did take the telekinetic feat, that way I could start with 17 intelligence and have a half feat to boost it, and an extended mage hand or just prepping an extra cantrip (since you’d get the cantrip from the feat having it prepared as well only matters for extending the range) and the ability to slightly move enemies and allies without using a resource was nice. I am unsure if I would have preferred fey touched, since as a Wizard you already can get almost all the spells that this feat would grant you, aside from bless, and tbh idk how often you’d make use of bless…maybe as something a homunculus with a ring of spell storing could make use of but another party member with that spell could load it into the ring themselves. But I suppose it’d save on spell slots since you’d have free castings, so I’d say it’s a toss up. From there I just increased my intelligence and my dexterity after that. I did employ use of booming blade as well, so that I could gauntlet booming blade, push an enemy, and they’d have to either attack an ally at disadvantage or attack me and take the damage for moving into range to hit me again. Shield and mirror image were nice spells to have (I played this before silvery barbs was in the game but that would have been amazing to have) and contingency resilient sphere is a great combination. I also had a simulacrum at higher levels…and between that and animated objects and other spells I always made sure that even when there were sessions with only 3 player characters that I was putting pieces on the field that the DM had to have enemies consider in combats. Tbh, A character primarily fighting with their fists who was also may be obscuring their body with their clothing, I had decided that I was wearing a robe over my armor and a cloak over that, kind of gave me an almost monk like vibe in terms of a unassuming appearance but being able to fight hand to hand. Most NPCs did not know what my character was and just assumed I was a cloaked human or else or something along those lines, and I pictured my blade song being more like a fighting stance and precise movements of body and hands and arms rather than the singing metal swishing through the air, although as a war forged moving my body was basically squishing metal through the air lol. I really liked the character, his name was Tiaro, I roledplayed it as being without its own will until its creator left it without purpose, Who upon being gravely injured while wandering aimlessly wise taken in by a group of elves who then taught them how to utilize magic while still recognizing my existing martial abilities. Upon being given this new lease on life, it allowed them to gain their own sense of self and spurred them on a journey to discover who created them and for what purpose they exist, who even after our party ended up battling a demigod Tiaro has yet to come to a conclusion on those questions, save for learning that perhaps the very act of existence is to question and strive to find reason for being.
I am playing a similar build. i picked a warforged that uses a Warhammer, crusher and booming blade which kinda helps with tanking too. The Bladesong is the humming of the gears and hydraulics in him.
An interesting idea for a blade singer would be to have three levels of artificer to be a battle smith so we can use intelligence for our weapons attacks as well as defense and spell casting. Then three levels of blood hunter to get the mutant subclass so we can get the intelligence boosting mutagen… which incenses your intelligence based on your CHARACTER LEVEL, not blood hunter level. This way you can raise your attack modifier, defense modifier, AND spell casting modifier to insane levels!! The issue is surviving long enough to get it to work, and figuring out which class to start with
I‘m stoked to currently play this character in a Level 1-15 campaign (potentially up to level 20, if we do all side quests; level 2 right now) :D I’m playing Satyr though and will go Arti 4 for Dual Wielder before taking only wizard levels after ^^ Can’t wait to see, how tanky I’mma get! Thanks for the awesome build guide.
Yes, this is finally here! Been waiting since the last bladesinger video! When you said you were gonna wait a few months so as to not overdo it i was like NOOOOOOO!
I've been imagining this dude as an irishman who hangs out in pubs around like a wizard academy, so he's singing drinking songs, and getting in bar fights, hence why he doesn't use a weapon. Maybe he even saw some real bladesingers do their thing, and just figured out his own way of how to do that. Like the good will hunting of magic. This build is so cool, it's crazy how you get these builds so consistent with so many classes involved, and do it every week.
Great video! Another benefit from the haste, at least at the first three damage reports, would be the advantage on dex saves. Not sure if this is already accounted for, but would be helpful for survivability against the fireballs!
Errata: Until Artificer 9, you probably can't put an infusion on your armor *and* your gauntlets as they're all considered armor. If it were me playing this character in game, I'd honestly probably take the +1 weapon over +1 to AC, since our AC is already so good, unless my DM was *really* buying into the whole "I'm the tank! Attack me please!" bit :). Regardless, I think Mind Sharpener is the de facto infusion to replace whichever you drop.
Unfortunately Mind Sharpener ALSO only applies to armor :/
@@JSephH76 or a robe. Nothing says you can’t wear a robe over armour.
@@theresnoracelikegnome Not to mention, since your concentration save will probably be super good, it’s not a bad idea to give the infusion to another full caster in the party
@@theresnoracelikegnome Good point but I don't think many DMs would allow it. Definitely worth asking though!
@@HybridHerps +14 with a 16 con and 6 proficiency in the late game. Not even counting if you decide to pick up warcaster or the like. Very good concentration
You don't have to "punch" with the thunder gauntlets. They deal thunder damage, not bludgeoning damage. You can flavor the thunder gauntlets as having spectral sword blades made of thunderous energy protruding from the palm or the back of the hand, like lightsabers. Here's the "blade" part of "bladesinging" for this character. B^)
_Beat Saber intensifies_
thunder is roughly equivalent to sonic damage... So it really fits.
You can't go wrong with a warforged rocket-punching fools!
Have your guantlets do wrestling chops on opponents. You'd be the most electrifying gish in sports adventuring.
@@Torthrodhel Woooo!
I also invision this character having the sailor background and being that brawler pirate who's bladesong is sea shanties!
I love this!
I am currently playing this exact thing in one of my games, it's hella fun
I actually had an idea for this kind of build, including a couple levels of paladin to start, but as a water genasi adopted into a family of knights who happened to be more skilled with tinkering than fighting like the rest and spent a lot of time by the docks because of his affinity for water.
Colby in case no one else mentions this, a damage report or RTD report at level 3 for each build would be useful because lots of gameplay happens in tier 1. Thanks!
I'll second this comment! Would be pretty awesome to see this.
That would be nice!!
In addition to all the benefits you've listed for this awesome tank build, you get COUNTERSPELL!
and there’s Sanctuary too from the artificer spell list, specially for level 3 and 4 while your AC is still 18. It’s a bonus action, no concentration, that lasts for a minute, and it forces an attacker to succeed a wisdom saving throw or they won’t be able to attack you (they can attack others, but if u hit them beforehand they’ll have disadvantage on that attack)
@@Mega2chan sanctuary end if you do an hostile action
@@NartrachGaming oh shit that’s true
This kinda feels like Vi from Arcane. A skilled fighter and heavy hitter, fighting to protect her friends and take the blows for them, enhanced by magical fists that protect her with magical shields? fits perfectly with this build
I just played my first session with one of your builds despite watching all of your videos. This was the one I chose and have no regrets. I have never had the pleasure of telling a DM that a 28 misses before and I am now addicted. I managed to survive an 11 round combat with minimal spell slot usage and thanks to me tanking half the enemies including the Boss our party won without a single downed PC. You are my favorite youtuber. Keep on being awesome!
Nice!!!
OMG! I made this exact character like 4 months ago! I wanted to play Vi from League, and did an artificer/Bladesinger. My DM let me count my gauntlets as light because it was part of light armor, so I could dual wield without needing the feat! He also let me make a unique infusion where if I cast a spell as an action, I could make a gauntlet attack as a bonus action. It’s so much fun! Love these vids man! Keep it up!
I’d also like to add that you can’t have both enhanced weapon on the gauntlets and enhanced defense on the armor. Until 9th level, the armor counts as one piece, so you’d have to choose between the two. Once you reach 9th level in artificer, then it splits up the armor into 4 individual pieces, letting you infuse each one. At that point, you can have both infusions, plus one on your boots and one on your helmet, if you even want or have a helmet, lol. But yeah, RAW, can’t have both.
You can, however, talk it over with your DM and see if they’d allow you to use 2 infusions on the armor, one on the gauntlets and one on the armor itself. That’s the only way you’d be able to do that.
Level 1:(see above) [artificer 1, race & feat]
Level 2:(see above) [artificer 2 & infusions]
Level 3:(@17:05) [artificer 3 & sub-class]
Level 4:(@21:18) [wizard 1]
Level 5:(@25:00) [wizard 2 & sub-class]
Level 6:(@31:28) [wizard 3]
Level 7:(see above) [wizard 4 & ASI]
Level 8:(@35:23) [wizard 5]
Level 9:(@37:45) [wizard 6]
Level 10:(see above) [artificer 4 & ASI]
Level 11:(@40:42) [wizard 7]
Level 12:(@41:53) [wizard 8 & ASI]
Level 13:(@43:48) [wizard 9]
Level 14:(see above) [wizard 10]
Level 15:(@47:11) [wizard 11]
Level 16:(@49:32) [wizard 12 & ASI]
Level 17:(@50:20) [wizard 13]
I played this character in a level 9 One Shot and it was amazing!
We were playing Aereni Elves in Eberron, more specifically, we were associated with the Undying Court. I played as a Mark of Shadow Elf and my character was basically an indoctrinated super soldier of the Chiral Blades who was raised from the youngest age possible to be a living weapon. The only thoughts ever in his mind were completing his next mission. One of us was a VIP who was an actual member of the Undying Court, and my character had been her bodyguard for a decade or so now. He was a devoted protector and she was teaching him how to truely enjoy being alive. During the final fight of the one shot, we fought against a Rakshasa general and I nearly got myself killed tanking him, hanging at 1 hp only because of Absorb Elements, and surviving for way too long at 1 hp. I was the biggest thorn in that general's side the entire fight and he never got to hit the VIP. Finally I got knocked out, with the belief that I was dying to protect my charge, satisfied. Then the VIP got the kill the very next round and pulled me up. It was an awesome one shot and such an amazing character, even if it wasn't this specific build.
If you haven't had the pleasure of playing as an ArmorSinger, please do yourself the service!
This might be your best build so far. The armor artificer and bladesinger are my two favorite subclasses and you managed to do something with them that I've never heard of before (using blade ward as your cantrip of choice) and on top of that I love tank builds. 472828/10. Great build!
Ha ha thanks!
With the new stats in Monsters of the Multiverse, I wonder if an Earth Genasi would work with this build. The ability to ignore difficult terrain on the ground is pretty cool, but the real handy bit would be getting Blade Ward for free and gaining the ability to also cast it as a bonus action proficiency bonus times per long rest. It would add more survivability until wizard 6 and would also let you still cast blade ward on turns in which you should to use your action to cast spells rather than Attack. Plus, free Pass Without Trace at 5th level.
Unarmed Bladesinger gives big Capoeira vibes.
2:40 The reason why is because we secretly we want to be that gish character. We want to be the sword wielding spellcaster, if we were to be magically summoned to a world similar to D&D and we got to choose what class we can be. More than likely, most people are going to choose the gish archetype. Because we all know that the gish class is secretly the main character class. Oftentimes in media we see leaders that are established in fantasy worlds, wielding a sword while casting spells on the side. It's a sign of leadership, a sign of mastery over two opposite sides of the spectrum, and it's just straight up cool!
Keep your puny swords, gimme a meteor hammer. You chop into gambeson, I'll chop into masonry.
Ruby of the War Mage would be very interesting with this build. Since the gauntlets are simple weapons while you aren’t holding anything, you can attach a Ruby of the War Mage to turn a gauntlet into a spell casting focus for your wizard spells and only need to hold components for those you actually need to, therefore leaving your hands empty most of the time.
It is a 50gp common magic item that requires attunement but it gives an amazing benefit. It could be attached to any weapon you wish if you don’t want to use the gauntlets.
One benefit of it is that it won’t come off unless you want it to so combined with the armor, you will always have a spell casting focus since your armor only can be removed if you want it to come off.
Option for Cody - while usually you're tanking via the thunder gauntlets giving disadvantage on attacking anyone but you, in a situation such as where e.g. you're in their melee range and would be the logical or only choice to attack anyway, then consider Bestow Curse! Between the gauntlets and the spell, they would then get disadvantage on *everyone* - including you! Plus a host of other debuffs.
Most fun I had with magical tinkering is with my artificer character who acted like Santa Claus (bag of holding included) and my DM let me randomly hand out small toys to people we met that had magical effects. Like a sail boat that made sounds like the ocean or a small rock that worked like a night light
I used this exact build for a level 15 (3/12 split) one shot over the weekend and bloody hell this build is so powerful! Thank you Coby for this great character concept!
The stupidly high AC meant I didn't bother disengaging and just kited all the enemies to use their reactions and draw them away from my allies
Awesome! Also, I'm jealous! :)
I'm DMing HoTDQ and the party's armorer imbued the seat of one of the cults wagon to smell like specifically "human feces" during "on the road". Amazing!
An optimized build using Blade Ward. That's something you don't see every day
Why does he take Blade Ward, again? I'm too lazy to watch the entire video again ^^"
@@urs.sonofbear8965 The bladesinger extra attack that lets you cast a cantrip so blade wars can be useful as you go into melee instead of burning it and waiting a whole round.
23:24 you could just use a component pouch. They’re gauntlet’s so I assume you’re allowed to use them to open doors, drink things, and anything else you’d usually be able to do with hands. If that’s true you should be able to use spell components.
also you could use the armor itself to cast an artificer spell. You wouldn’t be able to do it with wizard spells unfortunately
@@Mega2chan Just take enhanced spellfocus, that would allow for wizard spells and because its an infused item it can also be used for artificer spells.
Not something I’d allow. Gauntlets items you could use for fine work, and reaching into a component bag and pulling out sage instead of amaranth would be impossible… unless you keep you components in a bag of holding :)
@@justicebrewing9449 Or they're magic. Them being a literal magic construct, means I wouldn't be surprised if they could just slim down to be gloves.
Agro doesn’t exist in D&D, but casting haste on yourself and daring the dm to try and hit you comes really really close.
Lindol, my first Bladesinger was a tank. I played him up to 20th level before Xanathar’s (luckily I got absorb elements from PotA) came out so Haste was my go to gish spell. He got a cloak of displacement, and pairing it with haste and shield often shot his AC passed 27 in second tier.
I played him in AL, and DMs would take it personally when they couldn’t hit him.
Haste was also nice for getting into melee fastest, making enemies want to swarm around him first. He was often attacked a dozen times a turn and wouldn’t get a scratch.
(So when treantmonk says his first of three homebrew rules to make D&D better is to ban the shield spell, I understand. It does break the game.)
Anyway now at 20th level he is a god among wizards because he has a finesse vorpal sword, a staff of power, a tome of the stilled tongue and a Diamond Spell Gem (which stores a 9th level spell to be cast without attunement).
Between himself and his simulacrum he can cast 4 ninth level spells in one fight. And because the wish spell doesn’t take concentration he can cast spells like temple of the gods with an action which completely transform the battlefield.
As soon as you made the Vi comparison around 28:00 it hit me that nowhere in the book does it specify what genre of singing your "blades" do. A gruff gritty artificer/bladesinger whose "singing" of choice is heavy metal death screams is totally valid!
it doesn't even specify that you have to sing at all, your blade song could just be the woosh noises of your swings and the impact noises of your fists.
My wife built a bladesinger that was absolutely terrifying by using the following:
Greater Invisibility and Mirror Image.
So they get advantage on all their attack rolls and still cast spells while being invisible, so attacks against them have disadvantage and most spells require visibility to the target to be effective. Then Mirror Image on top so IF they hit, there is a good chance it just hits a Mirror instead of her.
Just... terrifying.
My version of this character is a Warforged created by an artificer who thought it'd be funny to guard nature with a mechanical construct
'W4RD-N' gets his story from a custom Background i made called 'Warden' with proficiencies to Investigation, Survival, land vehicles (cart to haul away poachers) and Cartographers tools ( to make maps for lost travelers)
The background uses the Outlander background feature "Wanderer"
also, while I'm making this one look very robotic, and flavoring the thunder gauntlets into something akin to lightsabers (singing blades!), another possibility would be to make the construct's chassis look like a robotic bear, and flavor the thunder gauntlets as claws
either way you have a robotic game warden, and maybe one could look like 'Smokey the Bear'
Thank you for the build Colby!
I'd like to think this tank is the younger brother to the Eldritch Knight Bladesinger. Oh the fun to play both in a long campaign setting
I’ve been watching your Artificer build videos for a game that’s about to start with some friends. This one is so cool! Armorer and Bladesinger are two of my favorite subclasses. Thanks for breaking down the sometimes confusing DND mechanics in a way that’s easy to understand too Colby! I’ve learned a lot.
Man your enthusiasm for the meat and potatoes of D&D is incredibly infectious.
Yaaaaay! My favorite build. Makes dual wielding actually viable. I love this idea is basically an Arcane Boxer.
My idea to use Magical Tinkering would also potentially be to be like Zer0 from Borderlands 2, wearing a hood that has emoticons or single word text appear in front of it as a "Light" emitting from it. Potentially being a character that is either mute or doesn't speak.
2:40
For me, it's partly because of DBZ. It was badass when I first saw the episode where Trunks came from the future.
For context: this mysterious figure shows up unannounced, immediately slices the previous main villain first in half, then into small chunks, and follows it up with an energy beam, instantly vapourizing the BBEG. My tiny child mind was blown away by the coolness of it all.
Ever since then I imagine my gish characters being able to teleport around and provide the perfect blend of slices and beams.
It's no Bladesinger 3.0 but I take as much Bladesinger as I can get. 🤣
Same! 🧝🏻
Seriously, I’d love so many BS videos with 6 or 9 BS + other classes like monk, fighter or rogue. I get pure BS is beautiful. I just think BS makes all the other melee fighters so much better.
I love this character. Someone who throws punches has a good defense and still is a spell caster. Perfection.
I already have a story in my head why blade singing works for him without an actual blade.
I'm currently playing a Bladesinger Wizard, and I got really lucky with the roll for stats. I got two 17, so I put them in INT and DEX, and picked variant human to get the resilient feat. My con is 14.
I'm now lvl 4, 20 INT and the spell book full of defensive spells
My concentration is unbreakable, and I'm untouchable ! This feels very nice 😁
Is it actually any fun, being "over stated" and unbreakable/untouchable? Doesn't it take away from the charm of the encounter and mute the potential intensity?
@@AdamOwczarek If a monster could hit me, I would die so fast...
But I find that it's very nice to say "no, a 21 does not hit" hehe
I had a similar thing stat-wise (but instead cause the DM gave us big stat blocks to choose from) except I have 8 Con, and it is *soooo* fun being bulletproof glass that is almost never hit, but a single scratch (or nasty save) makes them shatter. My hp didn't catch up with my AC until level 8, and it's been the most fun I've ever had with a D&D character.
The outtakes at the end got me laughing. I don't know if I've just missed them on other videos but thanks for sharing editor.
Good! :) - yeah, I've been doing them for a couple months now. I just always had so much crap I was deleting I figured... "eh, may as well" :).
I almost clicked out of the video too early to see them, until I saw your comment. It was worth staying for.
For you infusions, you mention Enhanced Defense, and Enhanced Weapon, however as Armorer, your Weapons are your armor, and until level 9 in Artificer, you can't treat them as separate items for infusions
This is definitely true, but you can make other party member's weapons tasty. Or you could kill your enhanced defense if you end up in an encounter where thats more benefitia than the 1 higher AC
Came to say the same thing. Was trying to set it up on dndbeyond and turns out this was the reason it wouldn't work, but will after lvl 9 of artificer. Shame
It's alright, getting that +1 isn't THAT impactful, plus that leaves room for your 2nd active infusion to be Mind Sharpener, which is really helpful for keeping concentration, especially if you Haste yourself.
If you're Hasted with Bladesong active then your Concentration checks are already pretty good, and on the off chance you fail, use Mind Sharpener. Makes the chances of you keeping Haste up for an entire combat (or at least the full minute) much more doable.
Good point - will pin a comment on this.
Another fun use for Blade Ward(requires DM approval) is to cast Blade Ward and then drop on an enemy from a REALLY high place, swordpoint first, to inflict additional fall damage with your attack.
"To the Promised Land." -Sephiroth
This build gives me Int-based monk vibes. Kinda cool, I might use this in a future game
For some reason I really like the idea of the character having a sort of ‘whistle while you work’ from being an artificer that gets used as their bladesong
I like this idea more than mine. I decided my version would blast a recording the Bard's rendition of "Flight of the Valkyries" on a kazoo, or "The Final Countdown."
My favorite build from you by far. You really outdid yourself here.
I'm doing a variation of this in my current game. Artificer 2 right now in Curse of Strahd.
This video…this is the build I’ve been dreaming of since 5e came out. Thank you, I’m so happy!
@ DnDDeepDive Cavalier fighter is your tanking style class, and I took resilient for dex saves and because I started with an odd dex score. 1 feat is left open past max dex and int so you can pyf fear or cob score increase.
With fighter 14 you get 3 attacks and dual weilding 2 weapon fighting for a bonus action attack, and bladesinger giving you a cantrip as 1 of those attacks so booming, or green flame blade depending.
When I was younger I saw a anime I can't remember what its called where spell casters wore heavy armor and had guns. They explained that by carving spells partially into their armor they could activate them using their voice. After that I thought full plate wizards were amazing.
After listening to this video, I really want to run this build in a future game! Thank you! Keep up the awesome work!
In my opinion, the best way to taunt as a bladesinger is to be concentrating on the most devastating effect on the battlefield.
If you've trapped their boss in a wall of force and the minions have the option to hit you, I can almost guarantee they'll try, no matter how low the odds are.
The Fist Singer. Glorious.
I think I love characters who can use swords and magic because they're like jedi, and I loved Star Wars growing up. I also like the idea of a warrior who fights with more than just brawn and, well, I like the flashiness of swinging a sword then shooting out a fireball lol
This may be one of the best builds I've ever seen. Lots of tank and control and debuffs. very efficient.
I wonder what you could do with one of my favorite toy builds, the Drunken Druid.
Thanks! Will put it on the "to do" list :)
Great build! On another note, it would be hilarious to see a team build with a caster centaur (or another appropriate race) and a halfling barbarian who mounts the caster. Using the mounted combatant feat, the barbarian can force all attacks on themselves and give evasion to the caster.
I’d love to see your take on a build that excels in exploration. The Dungeon Delver build if it were.
I know this video is old now but I have been playing a Bladesinging Wizard with a slight dip in Artificer for the Infusion Mind Sharpener. Two weekends ago I did a one shot with a lvl 7 that was allowed +1 weapon +1 armor 1 rare item 1 feat. I went with a Tortle that was a Bear totem barbarian with Sentinel Feat with point buy. Anyways, Bear totem barb with +1 Battle axe +1 Shield (3 AC) and a Cloak of Displacement. I was a lvl 7 with 20 AC (17 Base tortle with +3 shield) or 22 when I was buffed with shield of faith. That was getting free hits when I wasnt getting targetted and if they targeted me it was at disadvantage (until I took damage). The DM allowed resist stacking so slashing etc. took half damage twice from totem and raging barb too. Boy was that fun to be able taunt and get the creature pissed with all the free damage and stopping it from moving. We punched well above our weight and got to a point I almost went shell defense to save myself. I would love to figure out a build to be a bladesinger tank that could blend those two.
As for the best use of artificer little sound blip, my brother has a lizard folk artificer that mixes metal and natural elements like bone and wood to make his items. His primary weapon is a flail that is a skull and spine. Well when trying to figure out or think through complicated emotions of people he will make the skull talk to him as if it is an actual person.
Magic Item report:
This build is really cool, you of course want some magical items to boost your to hit so you can land your taunt but also items that boost your saves and AC.
For the purposes of the report all Legendary / artifact magic items are not considered.
Plus bonus armour is a given get the best studed leather you can find!
While this is a contensious topic I believe that Animated Shield shouldn't break the bladesingers rule about not using a shield. Though this is not supported by the designers so seek at own risk.
Best defensive magic items to look for:
Cloak of Displacement
Ring of Evasion
Rod of Absorption (this one is great for defence and extra shield spells (or others)! must pick if possible)
Ring and/or cloak of protection
Mantle of Spell Resistance
Staff of Defense (more shield spells and +1 AC, sign me up!)
Orb of the Stein Rune (amazing hold the line magic item)
Necklace of Adaptation (for when you fight in ~~space~~ /the phlogiston)
Amulet of Health (adding up to 40 HP before reductions and +2 bonus on con saves is really good compared to the builds con mod ofc)
Best atunement slots usage (in my opinion):
Rod of Absorption
Amulet of Health
Cloak of Displacement
This combo gives you:
A reaction to nullify spells that only target you
The ability to store 49 levels of extra spell slots to fuel up to 5th level spells
19 con, so +4 mod giving you 80 hp from con mod alone (40 more compared to the builds end) this is roughly a 25% HP increase making the final total 204
Disadvatange on attacks until they hit you (which is unlikely) you regain this bonus when your next turn begins
Result:
Magic items funnily enough help quite a bit, in the end you can get some strong as abilities just from being rich or lucky! The AC potential at the end of the build is 30 (with shield) this can be 32 with the magic +3 armor (we had +1 from artificer infusion before) and you have resistance to bludgeoning, slashing and piercing damage and attack rolls have disadvantage.
Disclaimer:
Magic items are not guaranteed but talking with your DM about you wanting certain items, so they can design a quest or whatevs, is totally allowed and encouraged!
You forgot ring of spell storing so your familiar can cast and concentrate on haste on you.
This is just pure awesome sauce. Thanks Colby for another great fun build. I would love to play this! 😁
This is the build I have been looking for! Thank you! I can't wait to play this!
This is a really cool build! One I would definitely play in a campaign. One problem I'm seeing is that the in higher levels when monsters get in the +9 +10 to hit range, they are just better off kicking the crap out of your companions with disadvantage then attacking an insurmountable wall of magic and dancing.
This is why we took artificer 3 instead of all wizard.
This was fun for me as I was on a livestream last weekend with Dungeoneer's Pack where I said the Bladesinger seemed like it was designed to maybe be a tank (or at least be tanky) but was not actually very tanky. Perhaps I was wrong! :P
You can get around a fussy DM insisting your hands are full by using one of your infusions (and one of your attunement slots) on the excellent common magic item Ruby of the War Mage; a gem that embeds itself into one of your weapons (which since they are, can be one of your thunder guantlets) and causes that weapon to be able to be a spellcasting focus for ANY of your spells. Seriously good item, I use it a lot. Technically if the weapon ceases being a weapon (by you holding something with it) then the gem'll fall out and you'll have to redo the attunement to get it back in, so plan around that (making whichever the other hand is the only one you hold stuff in). But you're definitely NOT holding the gem itself, and that's the important part. Same as you wouldn't be holding two items in the same hand if it were embedded in a dagger.
Neat way to save yourself a feat. Much less costly.
You could also just use a component pouch and save the infusion and attunement slot, but I like your creative thinking.
@@dainslatton9877 that's true, I always forget they're a thing!
Excellent break down. One thing to remember is the Artificer at first level will not have access to the Shortsword as it is a Martial Weapon, not a simple weapon.
loved this, I love the idea that is is a bladesinger just punching things because it just isn't the stereotypical thing that the class itself leans into and I love it so much. I also like brawlers and monks so this is right up my alley.
I was working in this Bladesinging tank build for low lvl campaigns and you posted this video! Awesome!
One of my tankiest builds was a Jedi- I'm sorry, I mean "non-copyrighted sci-fi space-wizard-samurai"- that I built for a campaign using the Dark Matter expansion. Variant Human (+1 Dex +1 Wis) with the Telekinetic feat (+1 Int), four levels of Kensei monk, then the rest as a Bladesinger. Increase Dex with your first two ASIs, Int with your next two, and Wis with your last. At level 6 when i got Bladesong I had 21 AC (26 with Shield), at level 9 I got Haste so now my AC is 24/29. If the campaign makes it to level 20: Unarmored Defense + Agile Parry + Blade Song + Haste (or Platinum Shield) = 27 AC + Shield = 32, then I also have Deflect Missiles, Blade Ward, and Mirror Image, and the options of Patient Defense and Song of Defense on top of that, and this still hasn't accounted for potential magic items yet. Sure, my AC isn't quite as high as the party's Armorer/Forge Cleric "Space Marine" (and my HP _certainly_ isn't), but I'm more mobile and have _many_ more spells.
I did consider Artificer instead with a build very similar to this one, but the Monk abilities suit the "Jedi" concept so well. What kind of Jedi would I be if I couldn't Deflect Missiles?
This is just what I was looking for. Thanks. :D
I remember asking for this when you did your last monk tank. So happy you tried to fit the tortle in. A while back I wrote a comment about how I was multiclassing my tortle monk into artificer. I'm playing a tortle drunken master guardian armorer. My dm let's me alocate my shell as "armor" which allows me to imbue it with armorer magic as if it were armor. Plus since I'm technically not wearing "armor" I use unarmored defense for my AC. It's so fun to run around as a drunken master hitting the evildoers and then giving them disadvantage on attacks to my allies. Such a fun tank!!!! Great to see this wizard monk variant. You're so creative Colby! Keep it up.
Found this channel by accident two weeks ago and have been watching like 2 a day since. Love the channel, and honored to be a part of that final push to 50k subs. And omg my kids still sing encanto songs all day months later. Also, monks are probably my favorite class from a role play standpoint. My favorite character to date is my Machoman Savagr themed monk. He even had a crafted chair to smash on people lol.
I was literally making a character build just like this the other day. Thanks for all of the great build ideas for this type of character.
Does good damage too if you cast booming blade instead of blade ward. Shocking grasp could also be good if you want to remove someones reaction. All fot thematically as well. Super versatile.
I coincidentally wrote up a similar build but as a bugbear with 3 levels in battlemaster fighter in addition to the levels in artificer and bladesinger.
Bugbear's reach means you could attack and run away to attack other enemies without taking a crazy numbers of opportunity attacks.
Good choices for fighting styles include Defense, Interception, or superior technique for an extra maneuver.
Action surge is of course amazing.
Battlemaster maneuvers offer a lot, but my favorites include:
Sweeping attack to hit potentially even more enemies with the same attacks with your artificer's thunder gauntlets causing even more disadvantage to more enemies.
Menacing attack for giving enemies disadvantage against attacking you as well.
Brace for imposing disadvantage on an enemy whom you may have missed or just entered battle possibly before they can attack an ally near you.
Bait and switch for even more AC to yourself or a squishy ally.
Ambush to make sure you attack before your enemies can to give them disadvantage from the start of combat.
PS. I called it the "Glove Slap" in honor of the Simpson's episode with the B52 parady song of "Love Shack"
PPS. If your DM allows it, using catnap on yourself and allies is great for regenerating the maneuvers.
parody*
God damn. I love this build so much. Next to play for sure. Thank you.
That bruno thing at the end…. Took me by surprise XD my daughter LOVE it and i have it in my head all the time!!!
And this build is my next build! Was going to do the abjurer tank, but bladesinger come on!!!
Always such a relaxing intro! Fantastic build and looking forward to all the others!
I'm playing this character (except the race) and i got to start at 9th lvl. shaping up tp be my favorite character ever. thank you colby!!!!
Awesome!
Fellow Utah DND player. I appreciate your videos. I have been making a Bladesinger WIzard and have been using your guides
Bladesingers are just so versatile if you build the correctly with other things:
You need a tank, here you go.
You need consistent damage, get 14 levels in it and a few other things and you wont drop off.
You want a nova build, Eldritch Blademaster, or perhaps even a Critlander build that takes 6 levels in Bladesinger and the rest is 8 Sorcerer, 2 Paladin and 4 Fighter.
Love them so much, and your great content.
Great video as always Colby, I think people are really sleeping on the Loxodon from ravnica for Gish builds. I think it pairs especially well with features that allow you to attack with your casting stat like the Hexblade, battlesmith/armourer, and shillelagh. I like to call them "Dumbo" builds because they're SAD elephants. They allow you truly dump STR and DEX save for skill checks and saving throws. You will likely have either a higher AC, HP or Con save than other casters as you aren’t spliting between CON and your AC stat. It does not, however, afford the most Feat flexibility and takes some time to ramp up till you max your casting stat and CON
As a french guy fan of D&D optimisation and Rudy Gobert, you are my favorite youtube channel ;)
Gobert is the GOAT! Merci!
The bladsinging of your thunder gauntlets as music played through tesla coils to the rhythm of each punch.
Nice build! I built something similar but with war mage. I really like the idea you pushed with using the cantrip with blade ward. It makes that spell very useful for the character. One add on to the tactics that I would add is using Ashardalon's Stride with it. If you don't use the cantrip for Blade Ward, you can run around with minimum 60 Speed (can always upcast it when you build the wizard levels) and attack 3 different creatures per turn, forcing all 3 to have disadvantage and you can damage multiple targets per turn with the fire damage. Using this as an option, if you feel like your chances of getting hit will be low (IE not needing blade ward), you can rack up some pretty decent damage per round using Attack, Booming blade with extra attack, BA attack, plus 3+ 1d6 fire damage each turn. If I did my math correctly, aprox 107.5 dpr consistently when casting AS at 7th level and 80 movement per turn. Keep up the great work.
This perfectly captures the spirit of my current PC! His backstory is he's a prodigy arcane weaponry smith and had his hands cut off by rivals, he created arcane prosthetics (with some help obviously) to continue his work. DM allows these to act as my thunder gauntles! My endgame build will be 16 Armorer/4 Bladesinger just because we already have two very tanky Paladins in the party and I wanted to maximize the infusions/support options. Love to see the versatility this build has!
i think the best thing about hybrid characters is that they give the player a lot of options. i always play a hybrid class if i can in videogames too. enhancement shaman for example in wow when i still played. its also why i play a tempest cleric atm. you have the best of both worlds and dont even have to be worse in either than others. ok you dont get the martial stuff like a true fighter but you have stuff to make up for it booming blade + smite + spiritual weapon + bless.
Funny you do this video NOW. I was playing a bladesinger tank, but just died last week (2 sessions into my campaign I might add). Got my head lopped off by a dulahan.
d'oh!
I've played Artificers a number of times, and a few Bladesingers... but have not played them together yet.
Our next game is forming soon and needs a tank. Now I'm pretty sure I'm rolling this as a Mark if Warding Dwarf for our next campaign. Thank you for another great build idea.
Since Bladesinging and thunder gauntlets are both “audible” things and one is kind of techy, maybe you could flavor this character as combining their disciplines by blasting loud music (dubstep?) and dancing to it, thus becoming a great distraction? Fizban’s Platinum Shield would be a crazy light show for you and Haste would just up the tempo.
This really does feel like a magical martial artist you could even flavor the gauntlets like magical iron rings.
I feel like the core of this build would work extremely well for folks who are trying to make a character like Vi from LoL/Arcane. A nimble fighter with powerful magically infused gauntlets who focuses on protecting allies? Pretty much spot on!
Deleting squishies in less than a second doesn't sound like protection to me
What a funny build. Studded leather armor doesn't even have a helmet or gauntlets, but you certainly can make it into your arcane armor. XD
I can’t wait to finally use this build 😂🎉
I've played a similarly themed character but went with Swords Bard. Was a ton of fun. Spells known are limited, of course, but you've got the staples: Shield (through a feat), Defensive Flourish (for when you need crazy tankiness), and max level spells, when you're running a 3/17 split. Swords also comes loaded with the TWF fighting style for that little bit of extra damage.
OMG this has to be my new favourite build! I also love monks but you have got me on the Bladesinger train super hard too
Colby!! I made an armorer/bladesinger a couple weeks ago and have been absolutely itching to play it. There are so many tools you have at your disposable with a gish character, and I think the armorer really gives you a solid base to use your spellcasting to control, defend, manipulate, or whatever other utility a given situation calls for. Glad you’re giving it the attention it deserves. However, I would argue you don’t need the Dual Wielder feat because you’re not wielding the gauntlets, you’re just wearing them. It’s effectively like using unarmed strikes while wearing armor, which I think opens up more options for this build than it takes away. I also think this is closer to RAW, though it is a bit nit-picky :)
The text for the gauntlets says that they are treated as simple weapons, so they cannot be unarmed strikes.
I am currently playing a Bladesinger/X Multiclass in a campaign and I am absolutely loving it right now. And I recently made a written guide of my thoughts(On Bladesinger) and I enjoyed writing it.
Woo, super excited to watch this.
One fun thing I did was when I was a human Artillerist in a party that all otherwise had darkvision. We had set up some traps in a big, grassy field at night to try and catch a gnoll pack. Using my tinkering, I had set them all up with lights that they could quickly turn on and off while hanging on their hips rather than fumbling with torches or lanterns. Once the fighting started, the party turned on their lights and started a brawl. The range on the cannon is way further than a gnoll's darkvision, and my DM said that I could see anything in the light even without darkvision. Since I could see them in the light but was too far out for them to see me, my party got to act as spotters while I was a long-range sentry gun that the enemy couldn't see, giving me advantage on all my attacks.
awesome!
So I am only at the part where you talk about haste, but I played a very similar character to this that I loved from levels 13-17. Here’s what I did differently and why.
Race: Warforge, Because I wanted to have the +1 defense as other warforged benefits, But I also was not worried about us starting feat. My DM allowed the gauntlet to work as if they were light, But even if that was not the case I still don’t think I would’ve prioritized a bonus action second attack because as a bladesinger your bonus action is being used so much for so many things But I don’t think it makes sense to have to worry about using a feat for this purpose.
Infusions: This is obviously going to change from table to table, but I did not go with Plus One armor or weapon, because you cannot infuse an item that is already magical. Now, as an armor artificer, if you got rewarded +2 armor, I’m unsure if you’d be able to infuse the gauntlets or if since the armor is your weapon if the +2 on the armor applies to the gauntlet as well. My DM allowed the modifiers on armor to count towards the gauntlet but considered the armor one higher rarity than it’d have otherwise been, for purposes of rewarded loot or item purchasing/crafting. Because of that, I took infusions with utility purposes. Creating my own goggles of night vision was useful until I just bought them outright, and while mind sharpener is great on paper and can be given to an ally if you don’t need, None of my allies were able to use it and I’ve never actually failed a concentration saving throw to have actually needed to have it, granted your mileage may vary at lower levels. The infusion I used the most was homunculus servant, for scouting and to essentially act as a buffed familiar. Since I did not take proficiency in perception, I often used my homunculus’ perception to alert me and the party to things. But The reason I bring this up at this point of the video is because if you can get a ring of spell storing, You could use haste on the ring and have the homunculus wear the ring so that it’s using its concentration and not yours in order for haste to work…freeing you up for spirit shroud or any other concentration based spell you’d like. The utility the homunculus can bring you and creative play it can bring Makes me think it is a much better infusion than people give it credit for. Not to mention in combat, even at liter levels where it’s armor class and hit points are practically meaningless, It is at least still a piece on the board that could take a hit that otherwise might have been aimed at m you or an ally.
I did take the telekinetic feat, that way I could start with 17 intelligence and have a half feat to boost it, and an extended mage hand or just prepping an extra cantrip (since you’d get the cantrip from the feat having it prepared as well only matters for extending the range) and the ability to slightly move enemies and allies without using a resource was nice. I am unsure if I would have preferred fey touched, since as a Wizard you already can get almost all the spells that this feat would grant you, aside from bless, and tbh idk how often you’d make use of bless…maybe as something a homunculus with a ring of spell storing could make use of but another party member with that spell could load it into the ring themselves. But I suppose it’d save on spell slots since you’d have free castings, so I’d say it’s a toss up.
From there I just increased my intelligence and my dexterity after that. I did employ use of booming blade as well, so that I could gauntlet booming blade, push an enemy, and they’d have to either attack an ally at disadvantage or attack me and take the damage for moving into range to hit me again. Shield and mirror image were nice spells to have (I played this before silvery barbs was in the game but that would have been amazing to have) and contingency resilient sphere is a great combination. I also had a simulacrum at higher levels…and between that and animated objects and other spells I always made sure that even when there were sessions with only 3 player characters that I was putting pieces on the field that the DM had to have enemies consider in combats.
Tbh, A character primarily fighting with their fists who was also may be obscuring their body with their clothing, I had decided that I was wearing a robe over my armor and a cloak over that, kind of gave me an almost monk like vibe in terms of a unassuming appearance but being able to fight hand to hand. Most NPCs did not know what my character was and just assumed I was a cloaked human or else or something along those lines, and I pictured my blade song being more like a fighting stance and precise movements of body and hands and arms rather than the singing metal swishing through the air, although as a war forged moving my body was basically squishing metal through the air lol.
I really liked the character, his name was Tiaro, I roledplayed it as being without its own will until its creator left it without purpose, Who upon being gravely injured while wandering aimlessly wise taken in by a group of elves who then taught them how to utilize magic while still recognizing my existing martial abilities. Upon being given this new lease on life, it allowed them to gain their own sense of self and spurred them on a journey to discover who created them and for what purpose they exist, who even after our party ended up battling a demigod Tiaro has yet to come to a conclusion on those questions, save for learning that perhaps the very act of existence is to question and strive to find reason for being.
I am playing a similar build. i picked a warforged that uses a Warhammer, crusher and booming blade which kinda helps with tanking too. The Bladesong is the humming of the gears and hydraulics in him.
An interesting idea for a blade singer would be to have three levels of artificer to be a battle smith so we can use intelligence for our weapons attacks as well as defense and spell casting. Then three levels of blood hunter to get the mutant subclass so we can get the intelligence boosting mutagen… which incenses your intelligence based on your CHARACTER LEVEL, not blood hunter level. This way you can raise your attack modifier, defense modifier, AND spell casting modifier to insane levels!! The issue is surviving long enough to get it to work, and figuring out which class to start with
I‘m stoked to currently play this character in a Level 1-15 campaign (potentially up to level 20, if we do all side quests; level 2 right now) :D I’m playing Satyr though and will go Arti 4 for Dual Wielder before taking only wizard levels after ^^ Can’t wait to see, how tanky I’mma get! Thanks for the awesome build guide.
Yes, this is finally here! Been waiting since the last bladesinger video! When you said you were gonna wait a few months so as to not overdo it i was like NOOOOOOO!
I've been imagining this dude as an irishman who hangs out in pubs around like a wizard academy, so he's singing drinking songs, and getting in bar fights, hence why he doesn't use a weapon. Maybe he even saw some real bladesingers do their thing, and just figured out his own way of how to do that. Like the good will hunting of magic.
This build is so cool, it's crazy how you get these builds so consistent with so many classes involved, and do it every week.
Great video! Another benefit from the haste, at least at the first three damage reports, would be the advantage on dex saves. Not sure if this is already accounted for, but would be helpful for survivability against the fireballs!
Great stuff! I was trying to make a similar build but was having some trouble with decision points. This helped me out a lot, thank you!
no problem - glad you enjoyed! :)