16:30 one of my favorite D&D play stories is listening to Matt Colville describe how in one of his campaigns, there was a legendary sword that the villain needed to steal for their grand plan. And one of his players was an eldritch knight and bonded to the sword. The villain would go all out to take and steal the blade, and over and over again the knight would summon it back to his hand. I always thought that was the coolest, and a great job of the player and DM working together/at odds to create a great story with some oft overlooked class mechanics.
@@torunsmok5890 not really since pact of the blade requires the item to be magic and they need constant contact with the weapon while eldritch knight just needs to begin the ritual at some point then touch the weapon at the end of the ritual the weapon doesn't need to be magic, doesn't need constant contact, and they can keep two
@@lucasramey6427 the implication of it being a legendary blade the villain needs for their plans is that it's a magic weapon anyway, and sure the EK can have 2, but you really don't need that unless you're doing a dual wielder like this video, plus the ritual differences aren't a big deal as the pc in question would obviously have the sword majority of the time
I'm currently playing one of those now Not so wise but OH BOY! Multiclassing doubles your Psionic Energy Dice. It's great! You want DPS I got your DPS! Colby, if you want my stat sheet, I'll send it to you.
Errata: At level 17, we probably can't benefit both from the Fighter's 3 attacks *and* the Bladesinger's "use a cantrip when you take the attack action" thanks to the way Extra Attack features don't stack ala the Multiclassing rules. It only affects the character at 17+, and isn't a huge blow to DPR even then, but it's not nothing. Also, for those mentioning War Caster and needing a free hand for Material/Somatic Components: I think it's only a problem if your DM won't let you drop your weapon as part of your reaction to cast shield. I forget that's not necessarily a given at every table so forgive me for not mentioning it! Otherwise, the weapon can double as both the somatic and material component for GFB, and if we're going to throw out Hold Person or something, we should be able to sheath one of our weapons first without issue. Also, also, not really an errata, but yes there's a typo at 19:21 - I *say* Dex and Int but *wrote* Dex and Wis. It should be Int, obviously. Curse you, late night editing brain!
That wording of the multi classing rules is about not getting to make 3 attacks by taking 5 levels of two martials. I don't think they are different features. I think it's actually meant to work this way, otherwise they would have changed eldritch knight when they changed blade singer. So the line in question is, "you can cast one of your cantrips in place of one of those attacks." What we have to ask is does it make sense that a character has the ability to attack multiple times and the ability nto weave together multiple attacks and spells in the same turn to be unable to do so if they get better at attacking? Mechanically, there is a rider on this characters extra attack that let's them cast a cantrip and a rider that let's them attack 3 times. Maybe we are worried about this breaking the game? At level 17... I think we need to stop playing defense for tiamat and her terrasques, they're big kids who can handle themselves.
When you action surge after taking 6 levels in Bladesinger, wouldn't you be able to cast the green flame blade again, and if you had haste up, wouldn't you also be able to turn that into a green flame blade attack?
@@quendi5557 when you action surge as a level 6 blade singer level 2 fighter. You take the attack action again meaning you can on that turn attack twice and cast booming blade twice. Your attack action goes like this ( attack once + cast a cantrip) so when you action surge it looks like (attack once cast a cantrip) + (attack once + cast a cantrip) If you have haste up you can attack one additional time. The special action granted by haste doesn't allow for spell casting or extra attack.
For some reason, I think melee spellcasters are my favorite archetype/playstyle, and this build definitely scratches that itch. Maybe I can convince one of my players to do a high-level 1-shot or something so I can play it XD
Interestingly, this build gets a bit stronger with one DnD rule changes to TWF, as you now get the off hand attack as part of the same action and could THEN make an attack with your bonus action at level 13 thanks to EK 7!
One of my all time favorite characters was an Old School Book of Elves Bladesinger. So favorite that my daughter inherited the character's name upon her birth. I've tried "rebuilding" using multiple options, many of your optimized versions. This one comes closest to mimicking that old school character. Very well done and much appreciated.
Bladesinger's special Extra attack is what seals it vs. War Magic for me. I like War Mage's that focus on the new Summon X spells due to the War Magic level 10 feature, then combining with other non-conc spells depending on situation.
My EK is a STR build so War Mage really helps out on initiative and the reaction feature at war mage lvl 2 is really nice in case someone decides to blast a big AoE
This build came at the perfect time. I’ve been tinkering with an eldritch knight bladesinger for almost a month now, trying to find a balance between being powerful and letting me play the way I enjoy the most
First video of his that I've ever found and instantly found my new comfort youtuber. Am I crazy, or is there something abnormally soothing about his voice talking about DnD? Def going to binge a few different episodes
What a surprise! I am actually playing an Eldtrich Knight in my campaign right now and I am just one level away from multiclassing into Wizard (probably War Magic). I am stoked to see what you cooked up tjis time!
I actually created an Eldritch Knight with a 2 level dip into War Mage... 18/2, so I lost out on a final ASI/feat, but gaining the boost to my initiative and arcane deflection was very helpful. It was a level 20 slugfest and between magic items and arcane deflection I was regularly bumping my AC to 26, which was useful so that I could save spell slots rather than have to cast shield as a reaction (and when I DID need to get to a higher AC, in this case a monstrous 29, shield was sitting in my back pocket as long as I hadn't used my reaction yet). There is absolutely great synergy between the two, it was easily the tankiest damage dealer I've created at high levels, and taking war caster let me engage in some great battlefield control by using booming blade--it was exceedingly dangerous to leave my attack range thanks to the 8d8 + 9 damage that resulted if I hit. A friend had suggested Bladesinger rather than War Mage but the build I was going with would have been hampered by the Bladesinger requirements RE: armor and type of weapon used since I was doing such a small dip; I'm very curious to see how this particular build works as well!
@@merlinrecon7528 initial melee weapon attack's damage (1d8+9, in this character's case), plus 3d8 on that strike, plus 4d8 when they keep moving. At high levels it is a great cantrip for a melee caster.
While I realize ability score increases make a whole lot of sense, especially with your point buy, I"d love to see all of the feats you might take if you happened to have rolled well enough that you don't have to throw all your points towards ASIs. Especially on this build where you had so many feats you could have picked.
OMG! Alert would be an absolute must and pick up Eldritch Adept for Armor of Shadows substituting your leather armor for another +1 to AC with unlimited Mage Armor. Pick up a Bracers of defense and you'll be sitting at a resting 22 AC, 27 w/ Bladesong and bumped up to 32 after casting Shield. Behold your armorless tank.
I played a build quite similar to this in a high level multi round arena battle one shot and it was fantastic! While I didn't do the most damage I was last one standing & was able to secure victory for my fellow combatants. The synergy between these two subclasses is just so full of great rp flavor I love it!
Here's a cool suggestion for magic armor. The Candlekeep Mysteries book has a set of magical scale mail called Serpent Scale Armor. It's basically scale mail but lets you add your full Dex mod to AC with it. It's effectively +2 studded leather and probably the coolest magic armor I've seen. Now I wish there was a magic set of heavy armor that acted like medium armor for the purpose of AC. I know Bladesong is impossible in medium armor but hey, if I were a DM, I'd treat it as light armor for that purpose since it's so cool.
This build brings me back to the Eldritch Knight/Bladesinger gunslinger character I played in a past campaign. It was so much fun casting Haste on myself and alternating between firing bullets and firebolts. Gun wizard best wizard.
Only thing I'd be concerned about a DM allowing at the table would be the combination of bladesinger extra attack and war magic. I can see a lot of people saying "You used your action to do the attack action, not cast a cantrip. You only cast a cantrip because you made the Attack *Action*. So you don't get to use War Magic".
this is basically what most of the internet decided is correct. As part of the "attack action" the bladesinger used a cantrip, that doesnt mean the character used his action to "cast a spell".
Is it possible to Dual Wield Shadow blade? I am relatively new to D&D (I guess you could more so say inexperienced) and I understand that Shadow blade requires concentration, but is there a way to "forego" that and use shadow blade in both hands?
@@svofoy_tre To my knowledge there isn't any way to forgo concentration or give it to someone else while still casting the spell on yourself. Especially since you yourself have to cast the spell to be able to use the 'weapon'. Therefor it'd be only possible to dual wield them if you could concentrate on 2 spells at once. And there is nothing in official D&D that allows you to do so.
Work has kept me away from your videos but now i have the time, oh i am gonna binge watch all of these. AND YES THE DUAL WIELDER JUST HAS THAT UMPH TO IT!! Thank you so much for this build, it reminds me a little if my first ever PC, Braum the dual wielding eldritch knight. He was strength AND dexterity built though lol. Not the best but he is my favorite character, brand new to the game and just making a Mortal Kombat Scorpion meets Jedi style of fighting.
I LOVE your videos! I have made so many based on these episodes for myself and my play group. one so that they don't have to worry about the semantics but more or less a guideline and they RUN with it so very well!
So Jeremy Crawford has said that for DnD 5e Warlocks being int based instead of cha based was tested and found to be very balanced that gets me thinking a Hexblade Bladesinger that wouldn't be MAD.
@@abedrahman4519 I'm not so sure, with mage armour (take the at will invocation if your worried about spell slots), a 12/13 dex, a bladesong (with +4 int) and the shield spell you have a standing 23 AC. Even though it takes you your reaction that's great. And this is without dualwielder, defense fighting style etc...
@@abedrahman4519 I have played a bladesinger & forge adept which let me duel wield using int instead of dex for both weapons and simply played a tortle to cover the ac
I love this type of character! However, and I don't mean to be critical, I think a pure bladesinger could easily keep up and have full Wizard progression to boot. By 6th level you could have a 3rd level Shadow Blade up and a rapier in the other hand and you could, for your action hit with Shadow Blade and cast Booming Blade with your rapier. Then attack again with your Shadow Blade bonus action. Because 5e doesn't distinguish between "main hand" and "off hand", if you are holding 2 weapons you can use either one with any of the attacks. With the Fighter levels you primarily only gain Action Surge, the two-weapon fighting style, and the bonus ASI at level 6. You aren't wearing medium or heavy armor so those proficiencies don't matter. As you mentioned in your edited comment Extra Attack doesn't stack so if you use the fighter Extra attack you can't use the Bladesinger level 6 Extra Attack ability (which is amazing). I think at most levels if you put a pure Bladesinger up against this build it would be, at least equal for this playstyle. I feel like the only way I would ever multiclass a Bladesinger is if I just wanted to be a Rogue. I would still take 6 levels of Bladesinger so that I could use this two-weapon fighting playstyle.
I don't disagree. It's why I am typically so loathe to multiclass my Bladesingers. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8g869Lju5Ws.html Really wanted to build an Eldritch Knight for this one though :).
@@DnDDeepDive Yeah, it's certainly one of the few subclasses that should never be multiclassed, possibly after level 17 but by then it's moot. Though, taking 6 levels to help another class doesn't count! 😏
When I play kotor, I always use two lightsabers, because I can enhance both of them with crystals and make them superior to any one or two handed lightsaber.
I always think sentinel is one of the best fests for a bladesinger you're so hard to hit. I know my DM would rather take the swing at the nearby rogue or paladin before the 25+AC bladesinger. One attack from an attack of opportunity is equal to multiple turns with your Duel weilding feat. Even more once you get +X weapons. And that's not even all sentinel gives you.
About 2 years ago, I played an Eldritch Knight Fighter/War Magic Wizard who was also dex based! A cool house rule that the DM agreed on was that my character wouldn't be fully penalized on spell progression as a multiclasser because it is the only multiclass that has you learn the same spell list. My rationale was that I was learning each spell and casting each spell the same way as before. So I was allowed to learn spells of the highest level I could cast if I spent ample downtime and gold to learn them. So as a 10/10 multiclass split, I learned 6th and 7th level wizard spells when RAW I should only have level 5. It was very balanced! I wanted to play as a Magus from Pathfinder/3.5 in 5e, and this was pretty much the same thing! For players and DM's alike I attest that this is a logical discussion to have with each other! I would also argue that an Arcane Trickster/Bladesinger would be a fair multiclass option.
One problem i see with this build is the lack of war caster. While duel wielding you cant cast alot of the spells you were talking about. Apart from that I do like the synergy from these two classes
I was thinking the same thing. Somatic spell components require a free hand so without the war caster feat you can't dual wield and cast those spells. I would swap the Dual Wielder feat for War Caster and adjust my build acordingly. Especially since later levels won't really rely on dual wielding.
You could always hold out for a Ruby of the War Mage to make your weapon a spellcasting focus. The errata that came out would then allow you to use the weapon as the material component, and the hand wielding said weapon for the somatic component. Not sure if relying on the acquisition of a specific magic item to make a build, though, would be advised.
@@KrisSchouw That only works for VSM or SM spells. Spells w/o a Material component (VS or S only, like Shield or Absorb Elements) need War Caster if you want to cast them with your hands full.
How good would a three-way MC of Bladesinger, Battlesmith Artificer and Mutant Bloodhunter be? Focus my INT into my AC, damage and spells with BH mutagens to boost my INT past 20
at high level I can appreciate the synergy. Delaying lots of Bladesinger features to get there would be rough going early on I think. Unless you went all the way to 5 in Battlesmith for 2 attacks?
A note I want to put out there, starting with 17 dex and 15 intelligence is strictly worse over 16 dex 16 int, and you can get the exact same stats at level 4 with an 18/16. Just make sure you’re taking care of your low level self. Edit: almost done with the video, I’m super hyped to play with this kind of character. :)
in the point buy method, you can only go up to a maximum of 15 without lineage bonuses, so he could start with a 14 in Dex and get it to a 16 with the lineage bonus, but he couldn't start with a 16 Int unless he went with another lineage option, like Variant Human
You know, this is a good point - could have gone Variant Human instead. We'd give up darkvision, and we don't actually benefit a *ton* from the higher int levels 1-4 (depending on what spells you're using as an EK), but worth considering.
@@DnDDeepDive darkvision is essential as being in dim light typically imposes disadvantage on attack rolls, meaning shadow blade would only be a flat roll. However a bunch different magic items can make up for our lack of darkvision. Slap on a pair of goggles of night and GG.
Isn't Warcaster a required feat on this build for the somatic component of many spells like Shield? Haven't finished the video yet, but seems like it needs to be the level 4 feat.
Curse you, Warcaster tax. Sometimes I forget that not everyone would be allowed to drop their off-hand weapon as part of the casting of Shield like at our table. Should have mentioned it, for sure.
@@DnDDeepDive That would make potentially great use of the Weapon Bond feature of the Eldritch Knight. You can just summon the weapon back to your hand if an enemy tries to be clever and steal your weapon.
@@DnDDeepDive Xanathar's common magic item can turn one of your swords into a focus. Alternatively, you can sheath 1 of your swords at the end of every other turn, that gives you 50% uptime with no feats. Also makes me want to theme you as a samurai who sheaths his blade for draw cuts all the time :P
@justBinia This is really cool flavor. Your first attack on the quick draw has the added effect from your gfb and you are so fast you are able to get in your 2nd and third attack before the flames disperse. Kinda gets tricky with the two weapon master feat and opportunity attacks between your turns but I definitely like the image of a spellblade quick draw fighter. Now i am picturing them fighting with sword in one hand and sheath in the other.
I came to the d4 Network for the eldritch sorcerer build but have somehow ended watching all the other 66 optimized builds! I will definitely have to add this one to the list of builds I want play / throw at my players. Thanks for the entertainment and keep up the great work!
Love this build, I've been waiting to see a good dual-wielder for a long time. It's a shame it becomes redundant later on and only there for flavour and half a shield. It's also a little frustrating that Bladesong and Shadow Blade both take a bonus action to activate so you have to wait until your 3rd round to get the full attack round.
First signed up for the describe as that is awesome! Full time DM for 6 years and I have now just found my BBG for levels 8-11 THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Thinking might go Tiefling as great look and add two of your Kobald baby dragon party to chase down my team... might scale back to only one to make sure no TPK but thank you for all you do!!! ❤
I love so many of these builds.... BUT - I never see a campaign that gets to go past 5-7. I would love to see what you do with a few characters WITH NO INTENTION of ever getting past those levels.
Admittedly, I really do try to build all of my characters to be strong at levels 6, 9, 13, and 17. I can't really think of many (though I'm sure there are a few) that I'd do much differently if I knew the campaign were ending at 7...
So my biggest gripe about this build is the bonus action clog and that fact that this build’s DPR at level 12 is about the same as a straight bladesinger 6. Furthermore, your level 13 ‘spike’ is only applicable on turn 3+ and you can have similar results by having an offhand short sword (which you use to do booming blade) which scratches your TWF flavor itch.
I totally get him wanting to play a dual wielding dex gish, but EK is probably the worst Fighter for two-weapon fighting. If you use Booming Blade + War Magic, whether you get the BS Extra Attack or not, you get a bonus action attack, even with a greatsword or sword and shield. 7 EK/6 BS with a Greatsword is crazy. And if you really want more bonus action options, get Hex through Fey Touched. But yeah, a dual wielding gish shouldn't get to 7 EK, because War Magic invalidates your Fighting Style (and kinda the DW feat if you actually take it).
@@Thrashlock agreed. a 2wf is best off in a subclass that doesn't do alot with its bonus action like champion or psi warrior. he actually ended up as a single wielder.
I have a friend that started out as a dex based EK, till lvl 8 when tasha's got released. His build turned out a little differently as a result, I donated my sorc characters staff of defense for him to hold in his offhand for extra shield casts and he's an absolute beast, great build, glad to see how it stacks up with the other top tiers.
Great video! I've always loved fighters with a splinter of magic within them. Would you consider trying a Psi-knight fighter? It's one of my favourite subclasses.
Try it this way. Go to 3.0-3.5. take a psion. Halve it's spell points. Or 2/3 off, if you are trying for a class that has fighter level attacks of 3 and over. 1 d8. Martial and simple weapons . Light and medium armour. can use intelligence to learn more spells from scrolls or psi chrystals. Does NOT GAIN EXTRA SPELL POINTS WITHOUT A FEAT. Does not learn faster than book, unless spell/ power research is performed. CANNOT HAVE MORE THAN HALF ITS POWERS from research, the other half as per book. Use psychic warrior or psion powers. IF PSION POWERS ONLY 1-3 DISCIPLINES ARE EASILY LEARNED, THE OTHERS ARE AT MINUSES TO LEARN. generally, this produces an agile build, with some projective punch, but the player will constantly have to balance mundane and psychic expenses. If you try to revamp the psychic warrior, strip off nearly all projective psychic abilities, and go for short range effects, and personal buffs.
I always loved the thought of dual wielding. My first ever character was a dual wielding Half Orc Fighter. Now I am really into bladesingers and would love to try something like this build in the future to combine both these things.
Neither does war magic from eldritch knight and extra attack from bladesinger stack (as you take the "attack action" listed under viable "actions in combat" phb p.192. The cantrip is just part of the extra attack feature from bladesinger. Its not a "cast a spell" action from the "actions in combat" that would trigger war magic), nor do RAW extra attack features stack (read phb p 164). Basically, don't multiclass Eldritch Knight and Bladesinger.
Hello!! What a great way to come up with descriptions for my game! I play a witch named Wicker and my DM often asks me to describe the rituals she performs rather than just saying, “I cast this spell”. This will be perfect to help me so I signed up right away! Also, I am a huge fan of Randall Hampton!!!! I have worked with him several times for character art.
Ran a similar build in a brief game that started at 15 and ended at 20. Did fighter 11/ wizard 9 with just the dueling fighting style Half elf, elven accuracy, dragons wrath rapier, and dueling fighting style I had the ability to get up to a 33 ac and the record damage in a round (with two or three crits in it i cant recall) was around 506 iirc. Very fun and strong build that can really let you “bat man” a lot of enemies as a mostly martial character. For example action surge with a shocking grasp and booming blade. If the caster attempts to teleport away you have a sure counterspell forcing them to stay in melee with you or run taking booming blade damage. If they realize whats happening and just want to run a second war caster booming blade can make them quickly rethink their choices. Then there’s just other potential fun things you can do making all cantrips casting time = 1 attack like getting creative with a minor illusion or potentially mending something with their weapon or limb still inside of it locking them in place etc. Overall one of my favorite builds since regardless of how you run it youll be a fairly high damage, fairly tanky, martial who can come up with any number of creative uses for your cantrips and some decent spells for whenever they’re needed. Love how much planning and creativity this build can pull off without being bad in more traditional and simple styles of “just hit a thing” or “i know this spell is op, ill cast that now” play style
Just found this channel and the intro was so good that I liked and subscribed before you even asked the viewer to like and subscribe. Bravo this is great stuff!
Very interesting! I basically made this exact same character! I did not know about the interaction with the extra attack though, I will consider that for my build. My dm was very nice though and gave me a magic item that lets me summon shadow blade concentration free with my blade singing bonus action!
I had a player in my campaign who built his Eldritch Knight to have the flavor of a force user so I gave him a sunblade and then he used shadowblade for his dual sabers. He loved to combine his Eldritch Strike ability and Thunderwave (force push) to take advantage of the environment. A lot of enemies went flying off of buildings and cliffs.
I am like 74 videos in I think at this point in my long binge of your content (it's between 60-80) and this so far is my favorite build. Not that any of them are bad or unlikeable, I just think this would be the one I would most like to play at a table as either a player or a DM building a powerful villainous character.
Not only did I like the video, and sign up for Dscryb, I may have also joined the channel as well. Love your content and share with my players every week. Please never stop.
I absolutely signed up for the dScryb promotion immediately. This is my jam, and I love giving flavor as a DM. Crossing my fingers to win, but will enjoy having this at my disposal regardless. Keep on doing good stuff, Colby.
First, just got into dscryb and it's great. Second, love your build, as always. I'm kind of a min-maxer (although I tend to go flavour over mechanics most of the time), and having made so many characters, I have to say, even with the occasional mistake here and there in your builds, it never ceases to amaze how you can so fluidly explain an entire build, in a way that is understood properely and without being obnoxious at all, while also keeping your calculations so neat. You sir, are amazing. Thanks for your hard work, keep making these beautiful builds. All the love
For awhile now I had an idea for a Yin Yang Gish duo build; Hexbladesinger wielding a moonblade, and A Bladesinging Eldritch Knight that has a Sunblade. Both would be Elves (Moon and Sun Respectively). This gives me something of a guide for how to build it now.
Gods, I love the art so much every time. This one is pretty fantastic, and the Bugbear on the recent Gloom Stalker video is high credit to my love of Tuskers.
Thanks I just might try this. I was playing around how to play a battle mage. I wasnt happy with the bladesinger or the Eldrich knight for various reasons. This is my first video to watch of youre. It was the Eldritch Knight and bladesinger that caught my attention. Keep up the good work. A bit long, but i was into it.
Swap out the off hand rapier for a Whip, especially if you have a magic one. Sure, it’s only a D4, but gives you a situational option of using your action, with the added reach reach, to trip an enemy up and force them prone. Doesn’t help you too much, but say that is your hasted action because you took out the enemy you are in combat with, it’s a nice little battlefield control and potential set up for Allie’s option.
Hey! Thanks for all the videos and builds you make. I have built several characters "around" or utilising some of your connections and tips both as a player and as a DM! I think this is the best way to show character builds and demonstrate their combat utility as well as give them some flavour etc. I am currently building my own world of Elunaria for my DM campaigns and dScryb couldn't have come at a better time, I have signed up and plan to use it - great pairing and thanks for the opportunity! Ps: Tax my smooth talking crossbow fighter sends you an all-knowing nod and Burnies my baby Kobold starts his fiery journey on Saturday, thanks for the inspiration! :P
I love that you’re using Dscryb for the flavor. I try to work in their spell descriptions for my paladin while not trying to steal the scene as a player. Btw I’m using your Vengence Paladin build. Originally I was a protector Aasimar from Ravnica to potentially deal with flying enemies, but since we rolled stats I needed to change to variant human to make the build reasonable. Fingers crossed that I get randomly picked for the account. I could use it for foundry vtt
I play in a game where we have access to talents from dragonix and to boot we get them T every level letting us make dope characters. Why this is dope, is one of the talents for bladesinger allows you to expend a spell slot and add 2d6×spell level any time you hit with a melee attack while in spell song. It's basically an op smite and it's not a spell so no concentration and if you action surge and hut all of your attacks, the nova damage just becomes game breaking
I have a dual wielder arcane trickster with the dual wielder feat. He got natural flying from COS, and has cone of cold and prismatic spray from magical items. It's largely the items but he's a powerhouse for sure having high level damage spells, and sneak attack w two weapons
Signed up for dScryb. Also, I would be pretty content to have a new bladesinger build every week. That said, if your Elven Accuracy Crit fisher build you hinted at ever shows up, I'd be all over that as well. Keep up the awesome content, by far my favorite D&D channel!
