Since the other thread raised the idea - here's the trial -

[Sun Wukong]

Hmn... Fighter 12/Blackguard 3/Frenzied Berserker 5/Divine Champion 10:

1d10 (Katana)
+ 10 (Strength Modifier * 1.5)
+ 8 (Feats)
+ 4 (Enchantment Bonus)
+ 20 (Enchanced Improved Power Attack)
+ 16 (Epic Divine Might)
+ 5 (Divine Wrath)
= 78.5~ Per Avarage Hit

78.5~ * 6 (Attacks per Round) = 471~ [78.5~ * 2 * 6 = 942~ (if all attacks score a crit)]


Then let us not forget about Smite Evil builds. For example a Paladin 30 can get 270 Smite Evil Damage, and have that regular divine might, weapon, and spell based damage on top of that. 300 damage per hit is not unreasoable, and most of it multiplies with critical hits.


Edit: Oh, and Frenzied Weapon Masters with their crits.

[Rain]

Then again. I think your forgetting wizards, if they wanted to could just look at a person and kill them with DC spells?

Any class that can just put an end to your:

Life: Finger of Death, Mass Fowl, Vamp Feast, Solpsism, petrification, phantasmal killer, werid.

Movement: Bigby's hand, Gust of Wind, Hold person, Storm of Vengence, Blade Barrier, Wall of (anything), Burst of Glacial Wrath

Defenses: Touch of idiocy, Enervate, Cloud of bewilderment, blade bend, r ray of enfebalment, (Any kind of dispell), Assay resistance, etc.

That's a scary class to face in my opinion because even if you were prepared to face that. Wizards can do everything above and still use their magic to kick your arse either polymorghed or warrior-enhanced.

Thats not scary to you?

(And i dont even play wizard or sorcerer.)

[Sun Wukong]

And most of all, Forgotten Realms wizards are not Lord of the Rings wizards, whose spell casting is basically something ripped out of Finnish Kalevala, namely casting spells with words and willpower. It is why Gandalf shouted: you shall not pass - instead of just casting a polar ray.

[Hoihe]

Writing from shitty 5 yo phone with laggy keyboard.

First off on why "fix" - the so called fix does not account for the differences of pnp and bg.

For one - npcs metagame hard. I was in the iron mines in a party of 5 christmas trees with each having a summon that too looked like a christmas tree. Meanwhile i had only maybe mirror image as a visible ward. Rather than dispel those that have visible wards or banish the summons, every si gle enemy targeted my character who for all intents and purposes looked like she had no magic on except for mirror image. Even analysis would need time to differentiate gear and wards.

Secondly there is an infinite amount of dispellers casting infinite dispels. I once ate a dispel and resisted it. Creature casted a second one because (do-me) me.

Lets not even talk about npc casters not needing spells to be tanky and hit hard.

By virtue of all of the above, you either have 30 cl and be immune to dispels or effectively no cl as you WILL get dispelled. And if you WILL get dispelled, you might as well builf to not need any buffs so you don't get deleted by a single spell that is way too frequent and powerful.

My original build as moon elf had 27 or something cl. Found that was literally worse than useless. Went for end result of 20 to not need spells but still way too reliant.

Only solution is 13/17 depending on practisedo

[Rain]

That still doesn't answer the question of, why even cast at all then?

If you find warding is so disposable now because of the amount of mobs with dispels combined with the dispel fix. Why even take a casting class in the first place and hinder your ability to be a competent fighter if all you want is the ABILITY to cast the spells?

You may as well just use scrolls and wards since you find warding disposable as then at the very least you aren't bringing yourself two steps backwards with trying to FIT the progression to cast the spells you need, rather then take the extra round to read the spell off a scroll quickly at the expense of- Idk a little time and money getting your hands on the wands and scrolls anyway?

The logic there just seems backward to me aside from as i said before: using the Caster level to get "unique" features for your character like immunity to crits from pale master or splitting for some kind of bard PRC or Dragon Disciple.

Just taking a casting class to a certain extent to just have the option to say: "I can cast this."(RP Prospective) Then double backing and saying "But i'm not good at casting this." (Power build prospective) Your going to get a result where the RP flavor you WANT in the build is completely interjecting the power you WISH you had in the build. Thus here we are. In a forum post where your demands for a character are examined by MULTIPLE builders to be impossible to achieve by YOUR standards.

[Steve]

One seems to forget that the Dispel Bug Fix solved the issue of OP arcane gishes...or any caster + melee combo that relied on the bug, which skewed the power balance of the Server.

CL 25 builds have now a 25-30% of being dispelled, and that balances out the FACT that these Builds would otherwise be indestructible war machines ROFL-stomping all Server content.

So now, if one chooses the Reward, you also take on the risk.

If you don't like the risk, it is also absolutely possible to exchange a little itsy-bitsy less power for CL 30.

THIS ALL COMED DOWN TO PLAYER CHOICE, sostopyourdamnwhiningandfigurethatshitoutyourself.

[Sun Wukong]

actually memorizing Dimensional Anchors, Sendings, Walls of Ice/Stone, Whisper Wind, Analyze Portal and countless other utility spells one can never prepare because they spend all their spells on imitating a fighter.

Dimensional Anchor: Cleric: 4, Sorcerer/Wizard: 4
Sending: Cleric: 4, Sorcerer/Wizard: 5, Other: Cleric with Trade domain 3
Wall of Ice: Sorcerer/Wizard: 4, Other: Cleric with Cold domain 5
Wall of Stone: Cleric: 5, Druid: 5, Sorcerer/Wizard: 5
Whisperwind: Bard: 2, Sorcerer/Wizard: 2
Analyse Portal: Bard: 3, Sorcerer/Wizard: 3, Other: Cleric with Portal domain 3

Your list of desired spells requires the following spell slots:
Level 2: 1
Level 3: 1
Level 4: 2
Level 5: 2

A sorcerer can learn the following number of spells per spell level:
Level 1: 5
Level 2: 5 (-1 based on above) (Mirror Images, Invisibility, Bladeweave, and +4 ability spell for what you lack an item)
Level 3: 4 (-1 based on above) (Displacement, Haste, Improved Mage Armor)
Level 4: 4 (-2 based on above) (You could pick pretty much anything)
Level 5: 4 (-2 based on above) (You can grab Teleport and something else)
Level 6: 3
Level 7: 3
Level 8: 3
Level 9: 3

This is to show that your desired utility spell selection does not automatically gimp the spell selection of a gish sorcerer. Thus, why not just play a sorcerer instead of a wizard? I think you would find the spontaneous spell casting wonderful, once more.

But that means you have to give up on your 20 INT/DEX with wizard base class. If you are willing to do that, then I believe there is a build that does exactly what you want it to. Higher Charisma is only going to make your character a better leader too. As far as role-play is concerned, you can feel free to claim your character is a wizard. Many Warlocks already do it.

[Hoihe]

Have a fun fact - i am not whining alone. Simply, i am the only one naive enough to belive others would e less closed-minded. Off the top of my head i could name two people who would agree with me.

Just because it is me vs you lot in this thread, it does not mean i am alone in this opinion.

One of which is debating entirely forsaking their concept because it is literally worse than useless.


And steve - what stops archers from being ubstoppable power machines? Absolutely nothing.

What justifies a 1/3 gamble to screw over a player entirely and make them useless? I wont even take a 1/100 gamble if i can help it, much less a 1/3.


As gor the person suggesting using scrolls.. let me quoth the rules -

Play your character sheet.

[Born2BeWild]

I am fine with my 15 cl character

edit: turns out its 14 cl

[Hoihe]

I am fine with my 15 cl character

Behold the glory of the most-lore friendly bladesinger:
Actually looks like an elf and not like a Space Marine overdosed on steroids and hit with the same radiation that made the Magnificient Hulk.

Is actually smart enough to be a wizard rather than having the intellectual capabilities of a pile of rocks, being forced to use a handicap to even cast their own spells.

Has a glorious split of wizard 5/swashbuckler 5/Eldricht Knight 10/Bladesinger 10.

And a glorious Cl of 25!

Very dangerous, truly. Most dangerous. You can trust me, it is so dangerous that if we allowed it to exist the world would implode!

So we need to give it a 30% chance to become completely and utterly useless until the next time they can rest. To make it more fun, can only rest every 20 minutes and select places.

Now behold John the Sneak Archer.

John the Sneak Archer is immune to everything by virtue of being untouchable. John only has 2 risks: mobs with high detection and zones that are too tight to kite in.

John can solo everything that doesn't fall into either of the above. He can even solo those that fall into the above by burning some coin.

John the Sneak Archer is balanced. John the Sneak Archer doesn't need a random 30% uselessness gamble.

[Sun Wukong]

It is people trying to help you come with a build. It is what this whole subforum is about.

It is you who refuses to accept builds that meet your criteria. It is you who refuses to budge even for the smallest of compromises that would make your experience of the server a far more pleasant thing.

For example, earlier I presented a build that met your exact specific requirements, you pulled an additional requirement out of your arse. I could paraphrase it as: 'I am an elf, I will not shapeshift, herp-a-derp.'

Have a look at the mirror if you wish to see someone who is being close-minded.

Because frankly... I think you would prefer a sorcerer gish rather than a wizard gish. You get to RCR to level 25 in the near future, so you pretty much get to ignore the multiclassing experience penalty if you go for Sorcerer/Cleric for the obvious reasons. You do not have go for EDM either, with high charisma regular Divine Might gives you a decent enough damage boost. Divine Shield works well as well.

Sorcerer 14/Eldritch Knight 10/Cleric 3/Shadowdancer 3 gets BAB of 21, caster level of 27, HIPS and Expose Weakness, all the 'RP Utility Spells' cast when needed, etc... etc...

*Reads another butt-hurt post by Hoihe.*

Hoihe, if you want to ignore the Forgotten Realms setting, if you want to ignore the nature of in game mechanics, you are free to do so. Go ahead, I will not stop you. However, the one thing you cannot ignore is the consequence of your choice.

Thus I think this is the time for me to will leave this topic be, there is no point trying to offer help to someone who refuses and scoffs at it.

[Hoihe]

It is people trying to help you come with a build. It is what this whole subforum is about.

It is you who refuses to accept builds that meet your criteria. It is you who refuses to budge even for the smallest of compromises that would make your experience of the server a far more pleasant thing.

For example, earlier I presented a build that met your exact specific requirements, you pulled an additional requirement out of your arse. I could paraphrase it as: 'I am an elf, I will not shapeshift, herp-a-derp.'

Have a look at the mirror if you wish to see someone who is being close-minded.

Because frankly... I think you would prefer a sorcerer gish rather than a wizard gish. You get to RCR to level 25 in the near future, so you pretty much get to ignore the multiclassing experience penalty if you go for Sorcerer/Cleric for the obvious reasons. You do not have go for EDM either, with high charisma regular Divine Might gives you a decent enough damage boost. Divine Shield works well as well.

Sorcerer 14/Eldritch Knight 10/Cleric 3/Shadowdancer 3 gets BAB of 21, caster level of 27, HIPS and Expose Weakness, all the 'RP Utility Spells' cast when needed, etc... etc...

*Reads another butt-hurt post by Hoihe.*

Hoihe, if you want to ignore the Forgotten Realms setting, if you want to ignore the nature of in game mechanics, you are free to do so. Go ahead, I will not stop you. However, the one thing you cannot ignore is the consequence of your choice.

Thus I think this is the time for me to will leave this topic be, there is no point trying to offer help to someone who refuses and scoffs at it.

Tell me what's so wrong about a swash 5/EK10/Wizard 5/BladeS10?

That build is literally useless with its 25 cl.

Literally useless so it can deal 1d6 + 20 damage/hit with a low AB, health and AC.

My 13 Cl build is an improvement over that.

I know people who are thinking of either abandoning their build idea or the server itself because people think mages need nerfing when multishot assassins can deal more damage in a single round than a wizard could in 2. They aren't even glass cannons because HiPS and massive range make them untouchable.

[chad878262]

Have a fun fact - i am not whining alone. Simply, i am the only one naive enough to belive others would e less closed-minded. Off the top of my head i could name two people who would agree with me.

Just because it is me vs you lot in this thread, it does not mean i am alone in this opinion.

One of which is debating entirely forsaking their concept because it is literally worse than useless.

No matter how the server is balanced there are going to be ways to build that are worse than useless. If I make a sneak focused rogue build with 16 DEX because he has a permanent injury caused by magic demon poison I cannot expect said sneak focused rogue to compete with 'real' sneak focused rogues that end up with 30 DEX.

And steve - what stops archers from being ubstoppable power machines? Absolutely nothing.

If I create an RP which due to RP must have 12 STR, 16 DEX, 16 INT and 14 CHA it will leave far less points for WIS. If I then say he is a blind Ranger who also has skill in Sorcery and uses Zen Archery his AB is going to be hurt. If I further make the build requirements that he can have no more than 7 levels of Ranger because he does not track quickly, is not an elf so has no Arcane Archer, and fill his levels with sneak attack classes, but no HiPS that Archer will quite likely be less than useless, it will certainly not be an unstoppable power machine.

On top of this, there is NOTHING stopping a mix that includes high BAB classes and magic classes from being high tier builds. However, when you refuse to utilize any of those and instead take a seemingly random level split of non-synergistic classes which does everything worse then you end up with a character which is only good for RP...because you built it that way.

What justifies a 1/3 gamble to screw over a player entirely and make them useless? I wont even take a 1/100 gamble if i can help it, much less a 1/3.

What does this even mean? If you don't want to gamble then use a build that gets better Caster Level...Or spend a bunch of money on wands and accept the need to use them...often. I have a character that uses wands like most people use toilet paper. It's expensive, but yet he still has plenty of gold...because he takes on higher risk targets to profit from them and because I went through the effort to calculate the approximate cost per use of all the vanilla wands (and posted it for others to use.) For example Deathward costs about 415 gold per use... He has it up pretty much all the time because his saves are less than useless. If it gets dispelled he reapplies it post haste. If he gets dispelled he generally immediately applies Least Mantle (roughly the same cost per use as Deathward). However, with how the loot tables have been improved he can get enough from ~4-5 chests to make a good 2,500-5K in gold. Taking on a boss like FGK is 5K+ so there are plenty of ways to ensure his uses of those wands are easily replenished/replaced.

Or you could simply make a W10/EK10/DS10 with CL29 and go about your merry way. It will wreck most content solo as a STR based armor wearer since you don't want BladeSinger which has far more synergy with DEX/INT setup you want to play.

Play your character sheet.

Doesn't such a statement include playing your weaknesses? If your PC has not dedicated herself to the Art, then she should not be as difficult to dispel as a full caster. Simple.

Behold the glory of the most-lore friendly bladesinger:
Actually looks like an elf and not like a Space Marine overdosed on steroids and hit with the same radiation that made the Magnificient Hulk.

Is actually smart enough to be a wizard rather than having the intellectual capabilities of a pile of rocks, being forced to use a handicap to even cast their own spells.

Has a glorious split of wizard 5/swashbuckler 5/Eldricht Knight 10/Bladesinger 10.

And a glorious Cl of 25!

Actually tops out at CL24... 5 (WIZ) + 9 (EK) + 6 (BS) = 20 + PSC = 24.

Regardless, mine is currently W5/SB5/BS10/EK4 with CL 18 and level 7 spells. Does not look like a space marine or irradiated Hulk (by the way, it's the Incredible Hulk...Magnificent is Iron Man) He also has more than enough INT to be a Wizard and I see nothing wrong with the split.

Very dangerous, truly. Most dangerous. You can trust me, it is so dangerous that if we allowed it to exist the world would implode!

It is, in point of fact a perfectly balanced Tier 2 split.

So we need to give it a 30% chance to become completely and utterly useless until the next time they can rest. To make it more fun, can only rest every 20 minutes and select places.

Or you could just equip with a Mithril Chainmail (bought mine from Mudd for ~15K), some armor bracers, dodge boots, deflection ring, natural armor amulet, decent weapon....like any other fighting man who doesn't ward up. Then use only wards you truly need or ones that you don't have anything better to pick. If you get dispelled, you still have decent AC, decent AB and damage is quite good. If things get to hairy you pop on a mirrors/displacement or invisibility to save your skin...maybe even have potions! This opens up far more opportunities to use your spellbook offensively and/or for RP spells. Bladesingers can even afford to take a reserve feat, should they wish to essentially have unlimited bonus damage on first attack in every battle at the cost of keeping one spell in their book, leaving the rest for RP/Wards/Whatever.

John the Sneak Archer is immune to everything by virtue of being untouchable. John only has 2 risks: mobs with high detection and zones that are too tight to kite in.

No one is immune to everything... Wizard can still pop an AoE in the last spot Johnny was seen and ruin his day.

Detection mobs are a thing...I've been fugued by a Fire Giant Wizard that saw through stealth...it was rather a surprise.

John can solo everything that doesn't fall into either of the above. He can even solo those that fall into the above by burning some coin.

Enough coin can allow you to solo anything... several etheral jaunt boots, wands of least mantle, wands of lesser breach, mirror image wands, displacement cloaks, IMA wands, shield wands, death ward wands, shadow shield elixirs, greater heroism potions, etc. etc. etc. can pretty much allow you to wreck everything with any build (even yours)... It will simply cost more than you earn.

In the case of John the archer, 99% of the server cannot solo everything even with the best build. The 1% that can spent the past several years playing that type of build to know everything they can and can not do so OOC'ly it is second nature to them. I've said quite often I'm rubbish at playing casters, though I suppose it would be better to say I'm less competent in them then in other types of play. However, I would guess there are few who know more about stealth/detection and playing sneak based characters (though I'm not naive enough to think there aren't still several out there better than me). Back to the Archer, it can be a nightmare in PvP against casters, certainly. However, anyone who withstands the initial onslaught can wreck them (such as B20/anything else 10) before HiPS recharges. If they do re-enter HiPS, a wand of grease, perfected alchemist fire, fire bombs, acid bombs, Flash/Grease bombs primed by a solid rogue type, etc. can all ruin their day. Archer's are not the end all/be all, bestest Tier 1 build out there...However, they are strong which is nice considering most games they're kind of a useless play style.

John the Sneak Archer is balanced. John the Sneak Archer doesn't need a random 30% uselessness gamble.

He can even solo those that fall into the above by burning some coin.

Trusting to consumables is always a gamble. His protection is not in anything, but HiPS. HiPS is VERY expensive, requiring insane focus (and Lisa100595 will still spot you every time.... <3 you Lisa! ). If you fail to devote your PC to maximizing Stealth it can become 'worse than useless'.


Which brings us back to the original premise... You want it all, to be HiPS without dedicating feats, stats and/or items to reaching high stealth. You want undispellable wards without dedicating your character to being a pure caster. You want combat abilities of a pure fighter while only dedicating ~half or less of your levels to combat classes. You want a build which, if it were allowed would make all other build types lesser, because you want to do everything better than the specialists that dedicate themselves to doing that thing. That would be rather unfair.

EDIT: And that SB5/W5/EK10/BS10 build is one of the top two builds for a Bladesinger, it is far from useless and will WRECK your CL13 'improvement'. I have been playing this build a decent amount of time since the last RCR period, taking it from ~17 to 24 and have no trouble. Using Namarra +2 he does ~30-36 damage per hit on average, his AC is 46 and I can get it to 49 with CE and with full Epic Gear he can get to 51 / 54 on top of CL24 AND he still has BAB27! 3 points less BAB then a full fighter, yet he has CL24... Now, would I jump for joy if SB3 gave Insightful Strike like vanilla? Sure! But is it 'necessary' for this build to be good? Heck no!

I have likely done as much testing prior to release and playing of the Bladesinger/Deathsinger as anyone and it is some of Valeforts very best work IMO. It is quite strong, but it has it's weaknesses...It is Tier 2, which is just fine! If you are/have sturggled with it, it is because of Stat spread, equipment, and/or spell selections. It is NOT because of a defect in how the class is designed.

[Hoihe]

Chad, explain why the person I know who plays SB5/wizard5/EK10/DS10 feels like they need to drop the rapier if they want to have any chance at competency?

Here's a difference between fighters and our gishes.

Fighters have a 25-30 strength giving 8-10 x 1.5 damage, then say 1d8 from longsword, then a bunch of feats that I am too lazy and exhausted to calculate, then (improved) power attack which is again affected by 2 handing.

They deal a lot of damage per hit and have very good AB even still. Meaning they not only have good alpha, they have good DpS

Now look at our Fighting gishes, be they Wizard 12/Shadowdancer 3/EK10/SB5 or SB5/wizard5/EK10/DS10.

They deal 1d6 + 16-20 and maybe 1d4 if they sacrifice 3 AB for it. And an AB of 30 something.

They can't buff up because they'll be dispelled to nothing. They can't use DC spells because everything has saves to counter a RWoT (because it'd be bad if a specialist class actually manages to trivialise content.) They CAN use cloud spells and such, but they likely need buffs to avoid killing themselves with it - so we are back at square one.

Best combat spell usage I can think are power words, orbs, raw damage and debuffs that don't allow for a save. Anything else might as well not be used.

As for "You have 50% chance to land your spell without them saving!"

50% chance for a player to do something using a limited resource is a vastly different story compared to 30% chance for infinite NPCs with infinite collective casts to do something. By virtue of nearing infinity, 30% might as well be 100%.

[chad878262]

Chad, explain why the person I know who plays SB5/wizard5/EK10/DS10 feels like they need to drop the rapier if they want to have any chance at competency?

Because they are not doing it right, to be blunt. Tell them to PM me if they don't want to post here and I will be happy to share strategies with them or, timezone permitting get in game with them for a demonstration. Could even RP it as training, would be fun!

Fighters have a 25-30 strength giving 8-10 x 1.5 damage, then say 1d8 from longsword, then a bunch of feats that I am too lazy and exhausted to calculate, then (improved) power attack which is again affected by 2 handing.

except INT based characters due nearly as much damage as STR based 2 handers with better AC. Shield users with NH do solid damage (though less than DEX/INT characters or 2 handers), but have even better AC... All of these pure melee/non-casters either have to cross-class UMD skill or accept they NEED a caster to ward them in order to survive certain area's....Lest they get hit with a bigby followed by spams of IGMS which will kill them, quickly even with the large HP pool.

They deal a lot of damage per hit and have very good AB even still. Meaning they not only have good alpha, they have good DpS

Yet if they get surrounded by more than a couple mobs, as quick as they kill they will still be in trouble, being swarmed by 5-6 mobs in a CR appropriate area will likely kill them. Of course a Bladesinger can pop mirrors/displacement for such a situation with 50+AC and do ~30-35 damage. Or another type of Bladesinger can throw down a grease/wall of fire as they do ~15-20 damage per hit... In both situations they are better off than that high damage fighter, just as the DEX/INT warrior or the Shield warrior is. High Defense is a fair trade for ridiculously sick OMG damage numbers. As with many things, the sexy pick (high damage) is not the most powerful pick, in the long run.

They deal 1d6 + 16-20 and maybe 1d4 if they sacrifice 3 AB for it. And an AB of 30 something.

My SB/W/BS/EK will have a final AB of 44, 41 when ICE is active, but he is built to be a warrior/wizard... I have build Bladesingers who only get level 7 spells with higher AB and AC then what mine has... I have built CL29 and 32 Bladesingers who only have ~36-38 AB, but have solid DCs for cloud spells, HiPS and Expose Weakness to help with the lower attack bonus, etc.

As I stated, my SB damage is ~3.5 (rapier) + 22 (INT) + 5 (EB from GMW) + ~2.5 (Deadly Defense) = ~33...

They can't buff up because they'll be dispelled to nothing. They can't use DC spells because everything has saves to counter a RWoT (because it'd be bad if a specialist class actually manages to trivialise content.) They CAN use cloud spells and such, but they likely need buffs to avoid killing themselves with it - so we are back at square one.

I can buff up depending on the area...He's a Wizard and he is INTELLIGENT. If he knows there are going to be many casters in an area, he is likely to seek help (from other elves, because he's kind of one of those "Elves are good, everyone else kinda sucks" types). He knows his limitations, but doesn't let that stop him from being useful...He equips so that, even without wards his AC is similar to a non-caster melee combatant. He uses spells for Song of Celerity, Cloud spells that do something even on a successful save, and tactics such as finding higher ground, choke points, etc. Much like the idea of playing a sneak and using corners, drawing in prey one at a time and Assassinating them without trying to take on a full room of combatants. As I said earlier (or was it the other thread), it is a VIDEO GAME and as such has limitations. It is up to you how you RP your actions to create stories around how you play mechanically.

Best combat spell usage I can think are power words, orbs, raw damage and debuffs that don't allow for a save. Anything else might as well not be used.

Then I am afraid that you do not understand the best use of magic for a bladesinger. Clouds are ridiculously powerful and turn a challenging combat to a joke. Freezing Field can utterly debilitate a large group of enemies. Grease is the cheapest battle spell out there. BladeWeave alongside alternating targets against a large group can keep 2-3 combatants dazed every round, meaning less attacks made against you. Wall of Fire, Acid cloud, Incendiary Cloud, Cloudkill can all add damage against large groups of enemies, upping your total DPR considerably. Epic Greater Ruin, Disintegrate, IGMS (empowered, maximized, whatever) applied through Song of Celerity can add as much as ~175 (average) damage to your first strike. Note that a Bladesinger can be built to have DC's around ~34-36 and still be viable combatants. This makes cloud spells and on hit effects through song of celerity quite interesting.

And finally, there is nothing wrong with using a few wards as a Bladesinger which enhances your combat prowess. Again, you need to think like your Bladesinger would. What kind of terrain am I in? What type of enemies, with what types of abilities am I likely to face? Where is my nearest fallback position? What are my allies capabilities? What role will make me most useful in this situation?

After you answer those questions you SHOULD be able to allocate your spellbook choices accordingly.

50% chance for a player to do something using a limited resource is a vastly different story compared to 30% chance for infinite NPCs with infinite collective casts to do something. By virtue of nearing infinity, 30% might as well be 100%.

Not going to lie, there are a couple (not many) area's where I do think dispels occur too often (though to be fair some of them are actually BREACHES and thus effect full CL casters as much as CL24 or whatever). Simply put, the current majority of staff feels they are about right. (We don't always agree on everything, that's why we have debates and you win some you lose some!) This said, I do not believe dispels are completely out of whack. Yes, you can go to an area and get unlucky with 2-4 dispel mobs spawning in the same location. That same area at times can spawn none in a full half hour... That's how random spawns work, they're random. *shrug* D&D is a a game of chance, that's why there's dice. If you don't like chance, D&D is probably not the best RP platform.