#SHADOW BLADE BUILD 5E HOW TO#

Between Bladesong, Shadowblade, Cunning Actions, and other bonus action spells, you have some really tough calls to make on how to spend the bonus action, and may find yourself getting surprisingly far into combat without actually getting around to activating your Bladesong (which is fine because you can cast Shield). The only issue I've had playing my AT/Bladesinger is that it has really serious bonus action demand. Being a Rogue without darkvision often sucks under any circumstance, and once you pick up Shadow Blade it will be especially painful to not be able to

You might consider going custom lineage rather than variant human so that you can pick up darkvision. Even if your DM won't play ball on using it with the SCAG cantrips after the Tashas rewrites it is still a mandatory part of a melee Rogue/Wizard's toolkit as soon as you can pick it up. Advantage in dim light and darkness is the most Rogue friendly weapon you can possibly find, and one of the most satisfying spells to upcast which, since you'll often have higher level slots than you have spells with the multiclass, is pretty damned awesome. I particularly love Arcane Trickster-Bladesinger because it solves my problems with both those subclasses (AT just doesn't get enough spell slots and variety soon enough, a couple Wizard levels fixes that right up, and Bladesinger just doesn't have enough incentive to be in melee, even a little sneak attack and easy disengaging after booming blade up their melee damage considerably).Īlso can't recommend Shadow Blade enough for such builds. It's one of the few multiclasses that doesn't have a bunch of waiting to come online levels, and almost any split you do works. Rogue Bladesingers are awesome, and I'll evangelize for them any day. Shadow Blade: ATs can get this at level 7. It's also worth noting that powergaming rogues try to use their reaction for an extra sneak attack (there are feats that can help with this). Might get more mileage from Absorb Elements.

And lower hp and no evasion (rogue 7) makes the character vulnerable to AoE damage.

With bladesong, any extra AC is mostly overkill anyway. Shield: Arcane Tricksters can get this anyway, but swap it out after level 5, where uncanny dodge functions as a kind of shield-lite. They are unlikely to find room to cast Hex, which doesn't contribute much if you are not making many attacks per round. Hex: Rogues are very busy with their bonus actions, with hide, disengage, off-hand attacks (when the main hand sneak attack is a miss) and Aim (post Tasha's). It works, but you can do most of what you want with a single class arcane trickster.īB/GFB: as per rules, you can sneak attack with these, so you don't need an extra weapon attack (check with your DM though). I am thinking at 10th level (Blade singer 6, arcane trickster 4) I will be able to do booming blade and a weapon attack in the same turn while also concentrating on hex, shadow blade or blur for extra damage or a killer AC. Level 1 Fey touched (spells Hex, Misty Step) Progression is R1-W2-R4-W6- then rogue until we quit. I figure I will subclass into Arcane Trickster so as not to fall as far behind on spell slots. The idea is to act like a rogue but with shield spell and bladesong for a kicking AC and things like blur and shadow blade at later levels. I rolled into a 18 dex and 16 intelligence after Variant Human bonuses and fey touched feat. So I decided I would go with a melee oriented rogue. I was going to play an Arcane archer but two of three players are already ranged characters. I joined a group though and the character I wanted to play was not really a good option considering the party. Has anyone tried this combo? I have played bladesinger before but I never multiclassed one of them and I have always thought it was a bad idea to multiclass them beacues you need to spam shield and can not afford to lose the slots.

Shadow blade build 5e