Bladesinger Wizard: D&D 2024 Subclass Optimisation Guide

Combine martial prowess and spellcasting with this weapon wielding wizard.

The bladesong is an elegant form of combat that appears almost like a dance. A very deadly dance. It combines combat finesse with magical acumen into a deadly art.

The first Bladesingers were Elven in origin, and even now, they are the most usual wielders of the bladesong. But other cultures have adopted the bladesong.

If you want a weapon wielding wizard that can combine arcane magic with deadly strikes, then a bladesinger makes a great option (in fact it’s about your only choice).

The bladesinger was originally published in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and then Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything for D&D 5e. It’s now been updated for D&D 2024 in Heroes of Faerun. This is the version I’ve tackled in my guide below, diving into tactics, optimisations and how good the subclass is.

At a glance

A wider range of spells than any other class
Capable of casting more spells than any other class
Weave weapon attacks with spellcasting

5/5 – Bladesingers certainly have their drawbacks (low HP for a melee warrior as well as a high need for ability scores and feats), but if you can work around those limitations, they can be a hugely effective and versatile subclass. With some pretty strong damage output and the flexibility of spellcasting, they’re well-suited to many situations and really quite effective.

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

While the bladesinger largely works in a similar way to its 2014 counterpart, there are quite a lot of small changes that just balance things out a little better, including the convenience of a weapon as a spellcasting focus and a rebalancing for armor and AC.

Subclass at level 3: Like all subclasses in D&D 2024, the bladesinger features now kick in at level 3 rather than level 2.
Different proficiencies: You no longer gain proficiency in light armor (in fact the bladesong no longer allows the use of light armor). You also get proficiency in all non-two handed or heavy martial weapons. You’re also not limited to just performance proficiency.
Weapon as spellcasting focus: You can now use your weapon as a spellcasting focus.
Bladesong uses changed: Your bladesong can now be used a number of times equal to your intelligence modifier (rather than proficiency bonus) and a use is recovered when you use arcane recovery. You also can’t use light armor while using your bladesong.
Intelligence for attacks: You can now use intelligence for your attack and damage rolls with weapons.
Song of victory: Now let’s you make a bonus action attack when casting a spell with your action. Previously would add your intelligence modifier to damage with weapons.

Related articles

Bladesinger features

Bladesong (Lv3) – 5/5

So you get a sort of unarmored defense here. Your AC will be 10 + dexterity modifier + intelligence modifier. It doesn’t combine with armor or shields, and importantly it is worded differently to unarmored defense features. Because it’s a straight addition to AC, mage armor will combine (as it doesn’t say it physically places armor on you, just makes your AC 13 + Dex modifier).

Natural armor will stack too. This doesn’t affect any 2024 species at the time of writing, but it does affect things like a tortle, autognome and warforged. Tortles have a base AC of 17, autognome have 13 and warforged get a +1. This makes for some powerful AC interactions which don’t work for things like the monk and barbarian’s unarmored defense.

Being able to focus your attack ability score into intelligence is great as this will be your primary ability score anyway. You should invest in dexterity anyway for the improved AC, but this way you can focus on intelligence more thoroughly.

Improved concentration saving throws is going to be important while you’re diving into melee combat and combining spellcasting. You can also combine this with things like the war caster and the resilient feat to grab advantage on concentration saving throws, and/or proficiency in constitution saving throws making you really tough to break concentration.

Training in war and song (Lv3) – 4/5

Pragmatically, this is important. You won’t be using two-handed weapons or a shield, but this does free you up for two weapon fighting. Having a weapon as a spellcasting focus lets you easily weave spells while attacking and wielding 2 weapons will help bring your attacks beyond cantrip damage.

You can lean into this more heavily by grabbing the weapon master feat or by multiclassing into a class with weapon mastery (like a fighter). Martial weapon training means you can grab something like a scimitar for two weapon fighting which is better than daggers.

Extra attack (Lv6) – 5/5

Not only is this greater damage output on its own, you can also cast a cantrip in place of one of these attacks. This is usually your best option as cantrips scale in damage with your level and already at this point, they can be more potent than a single weapon attack. Your best option here is likely to be true strike which gives an enhanced weapon attack letting you add your intelligence modifier to the weapon damage while also scaling as other cantrips do.

I’d usually look to use a cantrip for one of these attacks.

Song of defense (Lv10) – 4/5

This is some really decent damage reduction and while potentially a little pricey in terms of spells slots, you may find yourself casting less spells anyway while you weave melee attacks into your combat. At this level, you may also find that 1st and 2nd level spell slots just aren’t as worth using, especially in combat when weapon attacks will be equalling or exceeding their damage output making them great fodder for damage reduction.

Song of victory (Lv14) – 4/5

Don’t miss out on attacks completely when casting spells which is a nice little damage boost.

How good is the bladesinger?

Really good. They make the reality of a weapon-wielding wizard a reality in a fairly elegant way. Your damage output from level 6 with weapon attacks/cantrips should be better than most, though other classes can catch up later. You also have the versatility of ordinary spellcasting too.

With a high potential AC, and some not too difficult ways to make it extremely high, they can be quite tough to hit. Especially if you’re using spell slots on damage reduction too.

Bladesingers do face a couple of challenges though. You won’t be nearly as durable as proper martials or even monks and rogues. You don’t naturally possess easy hit and run capabilities either like those 2 classes unless you grab something like the speedy feat.

Which brings me onto the other challenge. To really optimise this build, you may want to consider buffing ability scores a lot as well as several feats, but doing both is problematic making a balance a little tricky. Bladesingers are probably the epitome of a glass cannon subclass for this reason. But one that’s incredibly fun and versatile to play.

5/5

Building an optimised bladesinger

soulknife rogue — Wizard: Wizards of the Coast

While Bladesingers possess the spells of a wizard, their tactics and build completely change as they now have a melee focus alongside their vulnerable spellcaster approach.

Below I’ve pieced together loads of advice on how you can build an optimised bladesinger.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Intelligence: This will not only affect your spellcasting and your knowledge skills, but will also be crucial for your weapon attacks and your AC.
Dexterity: You’ll need this as well as intelligence to get your AC high enough. You can’t rely on high HP to survive so upping your AC is your best line of defence.
Constitution: More than most melee characters, you’ll need the bonus HP from constitution as well as the improved constitution saving throws to keep your concentration going on spells.

Options to avoid

Strength: You’ve got almost no use for strength.
Wisdom: Only useful for some skills and saving throws, otherwise, not worth investing in.
Charisma: This is mostly for face skills which wizards aren’t that great at and you don’t have the space for.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	8
Dexterity	15	14
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	15	15
Wisdom	8	12
Charisma	8	10

Skills

Recommended options

Arcana: Common knowledge skill and you have the intelligence to back it up.
History: Another common intelligence skill.
Investigation: Investigation comes up a fair bit and as one of the few intelligence based classes, you’re in a good place to help here.
Nature: This feels like the domain of rangers and druids, but as an intelligence skill, this is another that a wizard is well placed to focus on.
Religion: Unless you have a cleric in the party, religion proficiency can be useful for all that religious lore you need to know.

Species/race

I’d look for species with the following qualities:

Resilience: You could use your species to make you more durable. Things like extra HP, damage resistances, flight and teleportation will all help you either survive more damage, or get away from danger which will be really helpful for this glass cannon.
Innate spellcasting: The more spells you have in your repertoire, the more situations you can aid your party with. Innate spellcasting will help you fulfill that role more and often give you free castings of spells too.

Recommended options

Aasimar (2024): Damage resistances make you more durable. Some bonus action healing helps you play backup healer (an area of spellcasting wizards happen to be quite poor at). But you’re mainly here for temporary flight which will keep you a lot safer in nasty battles, especially if you’ve been battered a bit and need to revert to spellcasting at a safe distance.
Dwarf (2024): The extra durability from resistances and the extra HP could be really valuable for a bladesinger who badly needs more durability.
Elf (2024): An extra skill and darkvision are both helpful but innate spellcasting is the most useful aspect for a wizard. High Elf is a good option for misty step and an extra cantrip. Drow are good for buffs and debuffs with the likes of faerie fire and darkness. Wood Elves are more about speed and stealth.
Human (2024): If you need to boost your skill proficiencies to take full advantage of all those knowledge skills, then Human’s a good option. The consistent supply of heroic inspiration is useful too. I’d use the extra origin feat on the kinds of feats that can be difficult to grab through a compatible background. Things like tough are good for this, especially as this is a subclass that really benefits from lots of feats.

I normally only recommend options specifically published for D&D 2024 for these guides, but it’s well worth mentioning that some 2014 species (which are compatible with D&D 2024) make really good options for a bladesinger. The likes of tortles, warforged and autognomes all have AC boosts that stack with a bladesinger to get AC even higher.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 with ability score increases, origin feats and skills all now linked to your background.

For a bladesinger, I’d prioritise intelligence and then one of dexterity or constitution with the below being your best options:

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Artisan	Strength, dexterity, intelligence	Crafter	Investigation, persuasion	One kind of artisan’s tools
Criminal	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Alert	Sleight of hand, stealth	Thieves’ tools
Merchant	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Lucky	Animal handling, persuasion	Navigator’s tools
Mulhorandi tomb raider (HoF)	Dexterity, constitution, intelligence	Lucky	Investigation, religion	Mason’s tools
Sage	Constitution, intelligence, wisdom	Magic initiate (wizard)	Arcana, history	Calligrapher’s tools
Scribe	Dexterity, intelligence, wisdom	Skilled	Investigation, perception	Calligrapher’s tools
Shadowmasters exile (HoF)	Dexterity, intelligence, charisma	Savage attacker	Acrobatics, stealth	Thieves’ tools
Spellfire initiate (HoF)	Constitution, intelligence, charisma	Spellfire spark	Arcana, perception	One kind of gaming set

Feats

Origin feats

I’d say the below are your best origin feats for a bladesinger:

Lucky: Invoking advantage and disadvantage is always handy. Consider using this for something like an upcast chromatic orb to increase the accuracy.
Magic initiate: Grab some extra spells known from another spell list (or from your own). Wizards need a good range of spells and grabbing them from a other class list can help you fill any spellcasting gaps in the party (like becoming a backup healer with healing word for instance).
Musician: A generally excellent origin feat for helping your allies out with some heroic inspiration (kind of like a slightly better lucky, you give to your friends).
Skilled: If the party needs a bit more proficiency in knowledge skills, you’re a good candidate for that. This can bump up your number of skill proficiencies a decent bit.
Spellfire spark (HoF): Some damage reduction against spells and a bonus action cantrip if you don’t want to dual wield (or even if you do but you’d rather just use nick and keep your bonus action for other things). The damage scales with your level too so it’s better than a weapon attack.
Tough: Really valuable extra hit points for a subclass with few hit points that will likely take a bit of a bruising.

General feats

At level 4, you can start picking up general feats. These are some of the better options for a bladesinger:

Dual wielder: Get another attack when dual wielding and if you have the nick weapon mastery.
Fey touched: Misty step is great for staying safe. Plus you get more spells known. You can read my fey-touched guide for more advice
Mage slayer: Great for disrupting spellcasters and gives you something similar to legendary resistance. You should expect to be dealing damage most turns which gives you regular opportunities to disrupt concentration spells.
Purple dragon commandant: Increase your dexterity, dish out temporary hit points and get advantage on attack rolls when bloodied. You’ll get bloodied quicker, but also last less long while bloodied.
Resilient: You don’t naturally have proficiency in constitution saving throws, but these are important for maintaining your concentration. You could grab the constitution increase to help here.
Ritual caster: If you feel like you’re struggling to have enough of the spells you want available to you, then this is the best way to boost your utility with more spells gained through this feat than any other. You can check out my full guide to ritual casting for more tips.
Shadow touched: Invisibility and an illusion or necromancy spell are great for a caster class.
Speedy: You’ll likely want to use hit and run tactics and this is the easiest way to access this. It’s only disadvantage for opportunity attacks now, but that will still help keep you safe when ducking in and out of combat. Plus there’s the extra speed.
War caster: Mainly great for better concentration, but you’ll also be able to use spells for opportunity attacks and better cast spells with both hands occupied.
Weapon master: Grab nick for dual wielding attacks that don’t require your bonus action or grab a different weapon mastery property.
Zhentarim tactics: Easier opportunity attacks is nice. Combined with war caster, this will let you cast spells as opportunity attacks. Plus you get a skill expertise.

Weapons

There’s a limited number of weapon approaches that work for a bladesinger. Two handed weapons and a sword and shield build are out of the question as they don’t work with your bladesong. Because most ranged weapons are two handed, they’re also out of the question. Be aware that the bladesong also ends if you use two hands to make a weapon attack, so you can use versatile weapons, but if you use two hands to do so for the extra damage, your bladesong ends. Below are your other approaches:

One weapon: If you need a free hand for your spellcasting and don’t want the faff of drawing and stowing weapons, then you can go this route. It doesn’t matter if you use finesse weapons or not, it all works with your intelligence so things like a longsword or rapier are both great. You’ll want something with 1d8 damage, but your choice may depend on whether you have weapon mastery and which property you take for that.
Dual wielding: If you want to go all out on weapon attacks, this is the way to go. You’ll likely need at least the weapon master feat (or multiclass into a class with weapon mastery) so you can grab the nick property. This will let you take your offhand attacks with your action. You can merge this with dual wielder for another offhand attack with your bonus action. War caster can help with some of the weapon juggling but that’s a high feat investment so you may need to prioritise a bit.
Thrown weapons: You can dual wield these too if you grab daggers and can even use true strike for them for your attack cantrip. You could go for single weapon throwing instead like javelins or tridents. This will keep you safer if you’d rather stay out of melee range of enemies.

Armor

You can’t wear armor and use the bladesong which is the entire reason for taking this subclass in the first place. This means armor isn’t any good for a bladesinger. You can cast mage armor though, and you can use the natural armor of a species as well.

For a decent AC, which you’ll definitely want, you can increase your intelligence and your dexterity.