why did you give the bladesinger extra attack, and on the same page suggest it should take green-flame blade? sage advice compendium states they *dont’* work together? Hi there! I'm not sure what page you're referring to. The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide does present 4 spells that bladesingers are fond of, but it doesn't single out green-flame blade for consideration.
As for Extra Attack, no spell works with it, unless a rule says otherwise.
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) September 27, 2019
Anyway, I was just curious if there was a reason both mutually exclusive options were included, or why the blade singer didn't get war magic, or something like that. Thanks again!
— Elle Burgess (@develleoper) September 27, 2019
Bladesingers and Eldritch Knights mix martial and wizardly might. Eldritch Knights lean toward the martial, whereas bladesingers lean toward the wizardly. If you want many martial options, I recommend the Eldritch Knight. If you want more spellcasting, Bladesinging is juicy. #DnD https://t.co/BKFp289EGk
— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) September 27, 2019
Both options seem like a let down compared to 4e’s swordmage and pathfinders magus.
(Original poster here!) Just wanted to note that my question (the “why” of the design) was never technically answered.
The Bladesinger is recommended to take cantrips from page 142 of the SCAG, which if you do so, their Extra Attack class feature becomes (effectively) useless.
That said, spells like Shadow Blade work with it quite well, so unless you really like changing it up, you mostly have to just pick one and go with it.
The problem is they like each class to feel ‘unique’ and a lot of other classes already came in with features that fit far better.
Eldritch knights war magic for instance, or scouts skirmisher. (their whole thing is dancing through the battlefield)
Hell they could have leaned into the “dancer” part of it and given them something like “Deceptive Dance” while bladesinging, as a bonus action you can attempt to mislead your opponent, make a performance check against their insight. On a success, the next attack roll against the enemy is at advantage. (or) the target has disadvantage on their next saving throw. Once an enemy succeeds this skill check they understand your dance and it cannot be used against them again.
GFB doesn’t render Extra Attack “useless”. GFB can’t damage two different enemies unless they are within 5 feet of each other. Extra Attack can damage two different enemies that are farther apart. Different tactical trade-offs. It’s actually good design to have a more powerful ability within narrow conditions, but also have a weaker ability that can be used as a fallback outside those narrow conditions.