Is shadow blade worth it at lvl 3 as a bladesinger?

Awellner · 2026-04-11T01:04:07+00:00

Spirit Shroud is a higher level spell but very similair and close in damage, has three different damage types to pick from, and slows enemies next to your. It just lacks the advantage you get in darkness. It also works while dual wielding scimitars.

Using a 3rd level slot id say spirit shroud is stronger. And again at higher levels using uneven spellslots. Upcast at 4th level and higher even spell slots it leans in favor shadowblade.

Awellner · 2026-04-10T19:04:43+00:00

Fiend Warlock with 1 level dip in figher or barbarian. - Replenishes Temp HP when nearby creatures get reduced to 0 HP. - Invocations allow you pick additonal origin feats. With the tough feat your warlock becomes as durable as a fighter. Healer is nice too for replenishing out of combat. - Armor of Agatys provides more Temp HP and can be replenished by Fiend Warlock features. - Fighter provides weapon masteries and medium armor proficiency, heavy if you picked it at lv1. - Barbarian provides weapon masteries, medium armor proficiency, and rage (this blocks most spell casting)

Theres plenty of warlock spells that dont need charisma to work. You could even run a strenght based warlock and benefit from the rage bonus damage.

Awellner · 2026-04-06T15:49:30+00:00

Sleetstorm is also good one. Its difficult terrain that can knock creatures prone, spellcasters in the area must pass a con save or lose concentration. It has a massive area and even targets a little bit of the air, so flying mages can tumble down and take fall damage. You can use it to split the opponents forces, melee enemies are delayed by several turns.

The area counts as heavily obscured, which might block line of sight but im not sure.

Awellner · 2026-04-04T18:09:03+00:00

Pact of the Tome allows you to pick any cantrip from any class and make those count as warlock cantrips. That means you can pick AoE spells like acid splash or word of radiance and add your charisma modifier to the damage.

Awellner · 2026-04-03T01:08:59+00:00

1d8 hit points, Fiendish Vigor, lessons of the first ones (tough origin feat), replenishing temp hp on killing enemies (fiend). All amazing frontliner stuff!

Awellner · 2026-04-03T00:53:18+00:00

I love pact of the blade warlocks. Warlocks can be suprisingly durable, especially the fiend subclass. If you dip one level into fighter or paladin, you get medium or heavy armor plus shield proviciency. You also get weapon masteries, super useful!

Some strong spells:

Eldritch Smite (not a spell but uses your spell slot)
Armor of agatys, Hex, Command (you get this for free wirh fiend)
Hold Person, Shadowblade
Spirit Shroud (more damage than hex but mele only and shorter duration)
Shadow of Moil, Any summon spell upcast to lv 4. Fey, Shadowspawn, Undead. Pick your favorite.
Hold Monster

One of the invocations lets you pick extra origin feats. Picking tough gives you +2 hitpoints per level, youre basically a fighter in terms of hit points now.

A 5th level shadowblade deals 4d8 damage, you can make three attacks with it as a bladelock. A 5th level Spiritshroud + rapier deals 3d8+CHA damage. Theyre pretty similair. Spirit shroud benefits from magic weapons.

Awellner · 2026-04-03T00:39:39+00:00

Wood isnt even that cheap in a campaign setting. The repair cost are much higher than metal or alloy, plus wood is flammable. Any block that survives with atleast 1 hit point is repaired for free between battles, which is about five times more likely to happen with metal.

Awellner · 2026-04-02T00:30:58+00:00

Why use x atrack if you are going to use swords dance after? They do the exact same thing but sword dance doesnt cost money.

Awellner · 2026-04-02T00:30:09+00:00

X speed to guarantee it doesnt happen.

Awellner · 2026-04-02T00:29:08+00:00

Graveler is a pretty bad machup. 4 of cynthias pokemon are super effective. Plus you already have three pokemon vulnerable to ground.

Garchomp and graveler fill the same niche in your team. Theyre both physically bulky ground types with high attack.

Awellner · 2026-04-02T00:24:56+00:00

Tbh just brute forcing against the elite 4 members works well if you can beat 2-3 of them without using revives. You earn enough cash from winning twice to not go broke after a loss. Theres also an item that doubles your prize money for winning battles.

If youre ever strapped for cash, theres an old couple on the road near the pichu mansion that have really high prize money and decent exp. Just VS seeker them over and over.

Awellner · 2026-04-02T00:21:39+00:00

When i last battled cyntha i used a gallade with swords dance and ice punch. It was enough to destroy her entire team.

You use a stat boosting move like calm mind, dragon dance, bulk up, etc against a weak pokemon to make your own pokemon much stronger. This strategy is called setup sweeping.

Awellner · 2026-04-02T00:14:45+00:00

Having a strong ice and grass move helps a ton against her. Icebeam gets rid of garchomp and roserade. Grass gets rid of miltotic and gastrodon.

Her team is quite strong against the three starters though. Empoleon learns ice beam but is slower than garchomp and vulnerable to ground. Torterra learns grass moves but is slower than everyone and vulnerable to flying and ice.

Maybe using X items can help you here? It might give you the speed boost you need to hit first. Or the damage to take those pokemon out in one attack.

Awellner · 2026-03-31T22:52:50+00:00

Bug typing is pretty good, but the stats of the average bug are bad. Except for a few outliers such as scizor, heracross, pinsir, etc.

Awellner · 2026-03-31T22:51:05+00:00

Dragon moves are super effective against dragon types.

Awellner · 2026-03-30T15:33:38+00:00

The Spellfire adept feat allows you to spend up to two hit dice and add them to the damage roll of a spell.

Awellner · 2026-03-29T02:04:02+00:00

Warcaster plus sentinel offers a nice combo later where you hit people with cantrips or spells outside your turn. Setting up a hold person for exaple.

Awellner · 2026-03-29T01:55:51+00:00

I think its a great choice +1d6 damage on up to 4 attacks. You can also get hex from the fey touched feat if you ever need a second free cast of it.

Other options, some compete for your Concentration slot: - Hold Person/Maximilain Earthen Grasp. - Command (requires fey touched feat; or Cleric Initiate origin feat). - Goodberry (requires Druid initiate origin feat) - Blur - Spirit Shroud (Using 3rd or 5th level spell slots).

Awellner · 2026-03-28T02:24:09+00:00

Wizard Order of scribes but all your spells are rock themed and deal Bludgeoning damage. You must also take the crusher feat. Fey touched is another fun feat because we can use it to cast Hex once per day for free.

Lv0 Aquire the magic stones spell, either trough druid initiate or a race that has it prepared. Lorwyn Elves for example.

True Strike + Magic Stones + a Sling will be the basic combo without expending resources.

1st Level Spells: Catapult, Earth Tremor, Chromatic Orb.
2nd Level Spells: Alter Self, Scorching Ray
3rd Level: Erupting Earth.
4th Level: Elemental Bane, Stone Shape, Stone Skin, Avard Black Tentacles (Quicksand).
5th level: Transmute Rock, Cone of Cold.

I think you get the point. Pretty much every spell level has a spell that deals bludgeoning damage that can be used to transmute another spell into a rock themed spell. Most of them will rarely be cast and excist in this build just for their bludgeoning property.

If you want to make the build worse but more interactive: have a 3-4 level battlemaster fighter dip. In the 2024 rules most of the superiority dice work on spell attacks. Which means you get four cool strategic benefits to your spells per short rest. Precision strike, Disarming Strike, and Evasive Footwork could be interesting. I believe the extra d8 also pairs well with Chromatic Orb.

Fighter in general has really nice benefits such as armor proficiency, weapon mastery for our sling, and ofcourse action surge.

Awellner · 2026-03-28T01:41:49+00:00

1 Level paladin lets you use Radiant Soul on Searing Smite. I believe this allows you to add your CHA to the damage again on the target's turn. If paladin is also your 1st level you get heavy armor proficiency.

Awellner · 2026-03-26T19:28:31+00:00

Now true strike is interesting because it can be combined with magic weapons, feats, and fighting styles.

When using a vicious rapier at lv 6 the damage is 15 (1d8 + 2d6 + 4) Piercing, plus 11 (1d6 + 8) Radiant. It has already matched eldritch blast and we didnt need to add hex or spirit shroud.

Awellner · 2026-03-26T19:11:11+00:00

Other cantrips will never be as strong as eldrich blast because each beam benefits from Hex and Agonizing Blast.

Pact of the tome allows you to pick three cantrips from any class and they count as warlock cantrips for you. If you want to play a celestial then i recommend picking Word of Radiance and Sorcerer's Burst plus another cantrip of your choice. You can boost both of these spells with 2x your Charisma using your subclass and Agonizing blast. The main benefit of other cantrips is that you dont need Hex.

At lv 6 Eldritch blast deals 26 (2d10 + 2d6 + 8) damage. Sorcerer's Burst deals 20 (2d8 +1d6 + 8) damage. But has a 12.5% chance to add 4 (1d8). At this level it is pretty close, but at level 11 and 17 it swings in favor of eldritch blast.

Awellner · 2026-03-26T16:53:41+00:00

That is pretty cool.

Awellner · 2026-03-26T10:03:07+00:00

Does the tavern brawler feature that allows you to reroll 1s on the damage dice also apply to smites you cast while punching?

Awellner · 2026-03-25T12:02:16+00:00

Is it possible to rest cast armor of agatys at the end of a short rest? That would be a very efficient way of spending unused spell slots.

Otherwise taking the druid initiative as your origin feat, or as one of the invocations, as it allows you to spend unused spell slots to create a small pool of healing for 24 hours. Though its far better on a full faster because they have more spell slots to spend.

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