Guide:Gish (Spellblades): Difference between revisions

*At 5 Paladin and 4 Sorcerer, you will have 4/3/3, but will have access to 3 Superiority Die through the Battlemaster subclass.

*If you use '''Potion of Hill/Cloud Giant Strength,''' you can dump Strength as a stat and run '''14 Dex, 16 Con, 17 Cha''' at base.

'''2. 6 Paladin + 6 Bard / 6 Bard + 2-4 Paladin + 2-4 Fighter:''' If you've ever wanted to have multiple fighting styles that don't synergize, this build is for you.  Of the two, I believe Bard spikes much harder at level 6 than Paladin does, due to Improved Bardic Inspiration refreshing charges on every Short Rest instead of Long Rest, and the two Extra Attacks don't stack, unlike with Warlock.   

*The main advantage I see of this build is specifically being able to use '''Slashing Flourish''' + '''Inquisitor's Might''' or '''Hunter's Mark''' from '''Oath of Vengeance.'''  I don't know if I think that's worth it.   

*4 levels in Paladin give you spell slots and immunity to disease, which is nice.  3 levels of Fighter gives you Battlemaster, or I guess Eldritch Knight if you take purely utility spells like Shield.

'''3. 6 Bard + 6 Sorcerer / 6 Bard + 4 Sorcerer + 2 Fighter / 6 Bard + 3 Sorcerer + 3 Fighter / 8 Bard + 4 Sorcerer:''' Bard can be substituted for Paladin in any Gish build I can think of, trading Divine Smite for, typically, Slashing Flourish.  Like the "Sorcadin," a, uh, "Sord" build allows you to combo flexible crowd control with good physical hits, usually through Hold Person, and so the same rules apply.  However, as noted in other parts of this guide, the extra level you need to gain extra attack as a Bard does limit your build flexibility. However, because both Bard and Sorcerer are full spellcasters, you will have significantly more spell slots, making spell combat a bigger part of your turn-by-turn strategy.  To help even out your physical options, 2 levels into Fighter will net you Action Surge or, if you want less Metamagic, you can take 3 levels of Fighter for Battlemaster maneuvers.  The specific breakdown for your character levels will change depending on how many feats you want.

*Highly recommend to take 6 levels of Bard, at bare minimum, for the Extra Attack.  There's ''some'' niche for a 4-6 College of Lore Bard + 6-8 Sorcerer, just because of '''Cutting Words''', but that is much more of a pure support build, and doesn't really utilize weapon attacks at all.   

'''4. 6 Bard + 4-5 Rogue + 1-2 Wizard:''' A better version of Arcane Trickster, in my opinion, uses Charisma as it's Spellcasting Modifier, and only uses Wizard spells for utility.  Compared to the version of this build listed earlier, this build will have more spell slots and more uses of Bardic Inspiration.  You can actually skip Arcane Trickster entirely for ''Thief'' or ''Assassin,'' depending on your preferences.  I created this build to be very tanky while still being able to deal good damage.  Like Eldritch Knight, it is primarily a striker class that uses spells for utility rather than damage.

*2 levels of Wizard gives you access to either Abjuration or Divination, both increase your survivability.  

*'''Thief''' is probably still the best Rogue subclass for this build, as usual.  A build that improves Arcane Trickster by not picking Arcane Trickster at all.