There are plenty of half- or third- casters in D&D - Paladins, Artificers, and Rangers all gain access to spellcasting, but they're stuck with lower-level spells, only ever getting up to 5th level (and those only by tier 4). Fighters and Rogues also each half a subclass that grants them spellcasting, but they get spells at an even lower rate than the aforementioned classes, capping out at 4th level spells and with a spell list that is mostly limited to a couple of schools of magic. Warlocks are the odd class that is, technically, a pure caster (and gets up to 9th level spells at the same rate that any Wizard or Cleric would) but generally has to rely more on cantrips (particularly one cantrip) in battle.
The thing is, most of these classes are fine being like this, because their main strength is their martial capability, which is more reliable and consistent than spells - my Eldritch Knight Fighter rarely casts spells other than Mirror Image and Shield, and can mostly just rely on his standard attacks (and Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade).
On the flip side, a Wizard has access to a profound amount of spellcasting, but they're typically not able to swing around a giant sword, and usually have to run away (or teleport away) if a creature gets into melee with them, as they're unlikely to survive the onslaught.
But there are some pure caster classes that aren't so fragile, and are actually built to enter the fray.
Now, before I begin, I'll note that some pure casters are actually built fairly well to step into combat anyway. Clerics tend to get pretty decent armor, and about half of their subclasses give them heavy armor and martial weapons, along with bonus damage on their melee attacks - despite being full casters meant to mostly cast spells, they are capable of wading into melee and surviving decently. Druids also have a bit of this as well, as they can technically wear medium armor (as long as it's not made of metal) and shields, and a cantrip like Shillelagh even allows them eschew strength and dex and still hit plenty hard with a big old stick.
But I'm going to focus primarily of five subclasses that turn classes that are generally meant to hang out at the back into those that can mix it up on the front lines. We're going to talk Valor and Sword bards, Moon Druids, Hexblade Warlocks, and Bladesinger Wizards.
Let's start with the Bards.
The broad concept for Bards is that they are meant to be Jacks of All Trade, Masters of None, and so there's always been a tradition of Bards fighting with a weapon when they're not casting spells through music. I suppose I ought to include College of Whispers bards here as well, given that they do have one major feature that boosts melee damage. But the rest of their subclass features are fairly agnostic to whether you're playing as a caster or a brawler.
The College of Valor was one of the first two subclasses in the Player's Handbook.
Immediately, you get proficiency in medium armor, shields, and martial weapons, so with a modest dexterity investment, you can get an AC of 18 at level 3. You also get to use your Bardic Inspriation die to boost the damage of attacks or one's AC, though you can't use this on yourself.
At level 6, you get the Extra attack feature, which is a staple for any melee-based class.
At level 14, you get the ability to make a melee attack as a bonus action if you use your action to cast a Bard spell, similar to an Eldritch Knight's Improved War Magic.
The College of Swords, which came out with Xanathar's Guide to Everything, I think largely improves upon Valor to be a little more unique.
Sword bards don't get shields, and only get the scimitar as an extra weapon proficiency, but they still get medium armor. You also start to get to use a weapon as a spell focus, which I believe means that you get to use that hand for somatic components (which makes Warcaster less necessary.) You also get either the Dueling or Two-Weapon Fighting style (likely taking scimitars if dual-wielding or a rapier if going with dueling.)
And even more at level 3, you get Flourishes, which are a bit like a Battle Master's Maneuvers, using your BI dice as superiority dice. Your speed also increases by 10 feet every time you take the attack action.
Again, at level 6, you get extra attack - pretty standard.
At level 14, you can just roll a d6 instead of expending a BI die to use a flourish, which means that you can truly use one every turn without every worrying about running out (though with a lower possible effect given that it's just a d6.)
And Bards only get three levels with subclass features, so that's it. Let's move on to Circle of the Moon.
Circle of the Moon druids are the subclass that focus most on the iconic Wild Shape mechanic, shifting into animal forms when they fight. At level 2, you get to pick higher-CR beasts to turn into, and the maximum level of those forms goes up at a much faster rate than they do for other druids, so by level 18 you can take on a CR 6 beast's form.
You also get to shift as a bonus action, which makes it much more practical to do in combat, as you don't have to waste a turn transforming, and you can expend spell slots to heal yourself while transformed as a bonus action.
At level six, your beast form attacks become magical, which is a pretty standard thing for any class or subclass relying on natural weapons, as there's no other practical way to allow them to damage a monster that's immune to mundane weapons.
At level 10, you can expend both uses of Wild Shape to turn into one of the four classic elementals from the Monster Manual, which are much tougher than the beasts you could use at this level.
Finally, at level 14, you get to use Alter Self at will, which I'll be honest and say is maybe a little underwhelming compared to what came before, but still very flavorful.
Next, we get the Hexblade Warlock. Now, technically any Warlock can go melee, and the Pact of the Blade is built around doing this. But I think the Hexblade is so good at this that I'd be hesitant to do so with any other subclass.
At level 1, you get Hex Warrior, which gives you medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. But on top of that, you also get the ability to designate one of your weapons (as long as it's not two-handed) as a Hex Weapon, and use your Charisma instead of Dexterity or Strength when attacking with it. And if you wind up taking Pact of the Blade (hint hint) this will apply to any of your Pact Weapons as well (and thanks to Pact of the Blade, you could have this as any kind of melee weapon - feel free to swing around an eldritch maul using nothing but your force of personality!)
And we're not done: you also get Hexblade's curse, a once-per-short rest debuff you can place on a target as a bonus action which causes your attacks to deal extra damage (equal to your PB,) crit on a 19, and heal for an amount equal to your Warlock level plus Charisma modifier if they die.
At level six, when a humanoid dies near you, you can use a reaction to draw out its spirit as a Specter (with temp hit points equal to half your warlock level and a bonus to attacks equal to your Charisma modifier) that lasts until your next long rest (or if it's killed.)
At level ten, if something has your Hexblade's curse on it, you can use a reaction to give it a 50% chance to automatically miss you if they attack you.
Finally, at level 14, you can move your Hexblade's curse to a new target when the old one dies instead of healing from it.
Last but not least, we have the Bladesinger Wizard. This was initially printed in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, but saw some revision (mostly just making it available to non-Elves, and as someone with maybe a more Warcraft-style conception of Orcs, I've always though that any class that features something called a "Bladesong" would have to be an orcish tradition, which is why I rolled up a Half-Orc Bladesinger - and got insanely good stats!)
At level 2, you get a whole bunch of things: first off, you get proficiency in light armor and a single one-handed melee weapon (I'd recommend a finesse weapon, given that you're going to be in light armor). You also get proficiency in performance, which is mostly flavor.
You also get the eponymous Bladesong. You can use it PB times per day (so 2 at level 2) and for a minute, you get a bunch of buffs - your speed increases by 10 feet, and you get an AC boost equal to your Intelligence modifier. You also get advantage on Acrobatics checks and a boost to your Concentration saving throws equal to your Intelligence (for both Concentration and AC, the minimum is a bonus of 1.)
At level 6, you get Extra attack, but you also get to replace one of those attacks with a cantrip (which is a somewhat better version of an Eldritch Knight's War Magic, as you keep your bonus action.)
At level 10, you get Song of Defense, which allows you to use a reaction to expend a spell slot and prevent 5 times the level of the slot's worth of damage if you get hit by any kind of damage, but only if you're in your bladesong.
Finally, at level 14, you get to add your intelligence modifier (minimum of 1) to the damage of your melee attacks while your bladesong is up.
So what do we think?
One that stands out, not necessarily for strength but for being different, is Circle of the Moon. Because you're relying on the stat blocks of beasts (or elementals,) you will tend to have a much lower hit bonus and AC than you would using your own form and stats. That being said, the fact that a wild shape form's hit points stack on top of your own mean that you can act as a huge damage sponge (the healing capabilities are also nice.)
I think that College of Valor is pretty clearly less exciting and interesting than College of Swords. Valor feels a bit too timid in its features (a common issue for PHB subclasses) while Swords gives you some interesting and unique things. Frankly, I'd more or less consider Swords to have rendered Valor obsolete for the most part.
The Hexblade is interesting - I've played a Hexblade who was actually a pure Blastlock, and the subclass works fine and is competitive with other subclasses even when the subclass is clearly meant to cater to Bladelocks. The Hex Warrior feature - both in the higher AC you can get and the crucial fact that you get to use Charisma for your attacks - is so profoundly good that I honestly can't really imagine making a Bladelock that isn't also a Hexblade - in the hypothetical 6th Edition, I'd make that a feature of Pact of the Blade, and perhaps make the armor proficiencies an invocation.
In fact, in this way, Hexblade and Moon Druids have something in common - they can both focus on their casting stat and not worry about a separate ability score for their attacks.
Also, the fact that you get all this at level 1 makes the Hexblade a fantastic one-level dip for other classes. I could totally see a Sword Bard grabbing this to allow them to just get Dex to 14 and then put everything else in Charisma. A Hexblade/Paladin is also a classic multiclass combination - if you want to easily get a +5 Aura of Protection (though you'll still want 15 Strength to properly wear plate armor.)
Finally, we have the bladesinger. I might be biased as the Bladesinger I rolled up had 19 Intelligence and 18 Dexterity at level 1 (not to mention 16 Con), so he's not going to have to worry about either of those stats being too low. Just getting any armor as a Wizard can be nice (even if Leather's base is only 11, once you get any armor, you can get +3 armor, so my aforementioned character in +3 studded leather armor would get an AC of 23 while in Bladesong, and that's before we even mention ability score improvements (so maybe make that 25).
What I think I like most about the Bladesinger is that there are so many things that help them get around the fact that wizards aren't generally supposed to be in melee - the Intelligence AC boost can give them an actually respectable Armor Class, and the bonus to concentration saves and the ability to prevent damage as a reaction are both really good to keep them chugging along. The only real downside is the same that the melee bards and any non-Hexblade Bladelock have, which is that you'll need both good Dexterity and good Intelligence to be fully effective (I would strongly recommend against picking a strength-based weapon, and given that you have to pick a one-handed weapon and that using a shield or anything in your off-hand other than I guess your spell focus cancels Bladesong, you should definitely choose a Rapier... or a whip if you want the reach.)
Obviously, as with all of these things, you should just pick the class that speaks to you. I think that, mechanically, if you're looking to play a martial class that has full access to high-level magic, the Hexblade is maybe your purest choice. But I also know lots of people don't like the way that Pact Magic works.
Moon Druids get insane at high levels. At level 18 you can cast any of your spells that don't require material components while in your wild shape and by level 20, not only do you get to ignore material components (as long as there's no cost and it isn't consumed) but you also get infinite wild shapes, which makes it insanely hard to kill you (if you drop out of your Earth Elemental form, which has a hefty 126 hit points, you can just use a bonus action on your turn to shift back into a brand new, 126-HP form). But that's level 20.
No comments:
Post a Comment