Editing Bladesinger (section)

==AD&D==
The very first appearance of the Bladesinger was in [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]], as one of the [[kits]] provided for elf fighter/mages in the Complete Book of Elves.

The AD&D Bladesinger is an [[elf]]- and [[half-elf]]-only kit that requires 13s in Strength and Constitution and 15s in Dexterity and Intelligence, as well as the base class of fighter/mage. A bladesinger chooses a single iconic weapon, which must be a one-handed weapon or a versatile (can be used with one hand or both hand) weapon. They get +1 to attack rolls and damage rolls with this weapon - which stacks with the +1 for being an elf armed with a longsword or shortsword, but not with anything else - but suffer a -1 penalty to '''all''' other weapons, which stacks with normal non-proficiency penalties, and lose their normal elven aptitude with a bow.

Their training manifests in three special ways. Firstly, bladesingers get a +1 bonus per 4 levels to all attempts to perform a special combat maneuver, which mostly serves to negate the normal penalties for trying a disarm attack or whatever. Secondly, they can still defend themselves whilst casting a spell, with an AC bonus to frontal attacks whilst spellcasting equal to level divided by two, plus one, and with fractions rounded down. Finally, they have mastered the art of casting with only one hand, although this still increases all casting times by 2.

For hindrances... first and foremost, they're supposed to advance elven causes and protect elves whenever possible, and failing to help an elf is a huge social blow - thankfully, unlike the [[Paladin]], this doesn't result in direct powers loss. For another major weakness, although they have better martial training than most fighter/mages, they can still only wear elven chain, studded leather, or lighter types of armor without penalty; anything heavier than this inflicts a -2 penalty to their attacks. Finally, they can't use either shields or two-handed weapons; they need at least one hand free to cast with, after all!

The bladesinger tends to be regarded as something of a microcosm of the poor aspects of AD&D design philosophy: that being, downsides that rely on luck, block you from doing already-suboptimal things, have no mechanical impact, or incentivize players to create problems. Sure, you were essentially locking yourself into wearing light armor and using a longsword, but that scarcely matters when that was already the best strategy for an elf fighter/mage: heavier armor penalizes spellcasting, and elves already get racial bonuses with longswords, which is one of the best melee weapons in AD&D as-is (and even if you got disarmed, longswords are common enough that you could easily find a backup). The loss of archery is counterbalanced heavily by the fact that (being mages and all), a bladesinger could simply toss a blasting spell at any opponent they couldn't reach and do considerably better damage in the process. The social drawbacks, in practice, have no mechanical impact and can therefore be wholly ignored by the player, and if they did, then this would often result in an outcast from elven society who proceeds to go full [[murderhobo]], while if they didn't, this would often risk bogging down the campaign. The high stat requirements just ensure that any bladesinger player is also probably going to have a stat edge on their teammates, as well as encouraging erstwhile [[munchkin]]s to "roll at home." All these factors combined made bladesinger a major calling card of elf-focused [[That Guy]]s in its heyday.