Bladesinger feat-tax decrease+ potential changes

[thorien]

Hello,

it is something I posted on Discord a while ago, but it was scrolled without much echo, so I would like to put it under a fair consideration.

My idea is to remove the Still Spell from Bladesinger mandatory feat list. The reasoning is:

Still Spell, in the lorewise approach, assumes using spells without gestures. At the same time, Bladesingers specifically have one hand left for spellcasting and, while I assume Still Spell could still be a choice for some of them, I don't think it should be mandatory, seeing that the class still requires Four other feats on entry (Five in total), making it one of the most feat-taxed PRCs on CD, even more taxed than Weapon Master after CD changes.

Mechanically, Bladesinger gains Greater Spellsong, which in turn removes ASF from light armor. While the usefulness of this is disputable in current setup (The best light caster armors - elven chains often have their ASF penalty removed anyway.), the efect makes Still Spell moot for using light armor and anything heavier is not quite fitting for the spirit of the class. Seeing that, saving for Song Of Fury that is gained on level 10 and AC bonus from int that is capped on 5 (on the contrary to non-caster classes like IB or Duelist) other Bladesinger class features are not terribly strong, I don't think that having the feat tax reduced would de-balance the class, while it could open way for more viable Bladesinger builds.

Moreso, the class ability called Song of Celerity is a one-use-Haste cast on a minimal possible caster level. It would be nice if it was either removed along with decreasing the feat-tax or bolstered? With current availability of items and scrolls of haste, it seeems completely superfluous.

I would also be grateful for confirming the class requirements and potentially - updating them in haks, because that alone caused issues with levelling into the class - was a problem I experienced myself, but I know I was not the only one. IIRC, Lore and Perform were involved previously and, while they are theoretically not needed these days, I couldn't still take the class without them.

[bracethyself]

I don't disagree with the rationale for removing Still Spell, however the feat tax is repaid by bonus feats the class receives. So going or staying doesn't matter.

Just a few thoughts that have been bouncing around for awhile:

Agreed greater spellsong is mostly useless in CD's current setup for a number of reasons:
1) The nerf of EMA for armored casters, is a double nerf for non-dex builds. So wearing armor for a bladesinger is sort of moot, except for bard/bladesinger build who gets it anyway.
2) Most of the gish focused armor has ASF anyway.

Suggestions for fixing it:
1) Bard bladesingers cap the bladesong bonus at +10 instead of +5 (since they can't get EMA) OR allow bard levels and bladesinger levels stack for bard song.
2) Allow wiz/sorc bladesingers wearing elven chain mail to get the full +16 AC bonus from EMA. Dex bladesingers still get an 8 point higher AC over Str bladesingers in elven chain.
3) Dex bladesingers admittedly I don't have any ideas.

Song of Celerity: Agreed also not super useful currently. Was more useful when bladesinger was half-caster and consumables were lower. I don't have a ton of suggestions here, as auto-quicken would also be sort of moot.

[lurkerabove]

Jul 10, 2022 12:21:51 GMT -5 thorien said:

Moreso, the class ability called Song of Celerity is a one-use-Haste cast on a minimal possible caster level. It would be nice if it was either removed along with decreasing the feat-tax or bolstered? With current availability of items and scrolls of haste, it seeems completely superfluous.

Yeah, this one.

I'm not sure how this ended up what it is from the PnP. In PnP this is the ability that lets the Bladesinger cast one spell per round as a free action (swift action in 3.5). A 10 round Haste isn't even the current base for a scroll or consumable, and with Bladesingers now getting full spell progression, they will have Haste and Mass Haste at their disposal to memorize and cast by the time this ability kicks in or not long after, and making it one use per day...

Mechanically, it should be the benefits of Auto Quicken, which wouldn't be moot IF you're not already hastened. I'm assuming akin to how Rangers get Ambi/TWF/ITWF applied on equip of legal armor, we could do the same with the Auto Quickens.

OR better, just make it a Bladesinger gets an unlimited/cooldown use of Haste as the radial ability? Effectively, this is enabling that one swift action cast per round so long as you keep the ability up, also take it up to the current base scroll Haste duration.

Making it essentially free Haste isn't unbalancing, seeing Haste scrolls are cheap anyhow and the takeaway is the Bladesinger gets to free up a few slots of Haste preparations for other stuff. A net gain IMO since bladesinger builds can't always pile on spell slot gear vs. other stat/combat improving properties.

[Hand_of_Banath]

Honestly swapping it out for auto quicken - perhaps even giving the higher tiers through progression sounds reasonable enough.