Ever since the Elf racial class appeared in the vaunted days of Original Dungeons and Dragons, the idea of the ‘gish’ build has fascinated people, and consumed the lives of many, many optimisers. Blending magic and swordplay has always been a popular character trope (used by people such as Geralt of Rivia, Gandalf, and the Jedi and Sith of Star Wars), and thus of course it appears in the world’s most popular roleplaying game. From Elves (the original Fighter/Magic-User, even if the term ‘gish’ is actually a Githyanki word), to dual-classed Fighter/Wizards, to the Eldritch Knights and Duskblades (and many others, 3.5 had so many classes) of 3.5, to 4e’s beloved Swordmage. And 5e has picked up the slack.

But in 5e, while there are an increasing number of gishes Jeremy Crawford made earlier, a lot of people feel like they don’t hit the spot. The Valour Bard, Bladesinger and Eldritch Knight are all perfectly viable classes, and all combine spellcasting and martial power, but they still miss the mark for many. Valour Bards in general aren’t the most beloved subclass (although we do defend in them in Five Underrated Subclasses That Are Better Than You Think), and for many lack any real martial oomph. Eldritch Knights are one of the best subclasses for Fighter, but their magic tends to be straightforward and not very flashy, being saved for the spell ‘Shield’ as often as not. Bladesingers are the most impressive and flashy caster of the lot, but being in melee on a d6 hit die is rough. Your armour class is high, but one crit or one Con save and you’re toast.

Two of the issues are getting the balance between martial and casting right to fit just the right class flavour (although many seem to want Fighter-level fighting and Wizard-level casting, which perhaps misses the point of trade-offs), and also solving the issue of Multi-Ability Dependency. Which is why the Hexblade is perhaps the most consistent gish. Needing only Charisma for its attacks and spellcasting, and then a minimum of Dex for some armour class, it is the least stat-needy of the singleclassed gish builds, and it has a good blend of martial and magical features once Pact of the Blade is taken. However, this leads to a lot of gishes being Hexblades or Hexblade multiclasses (the Hexadin or the feared Sorlockadin rearing their heads), when there is so much variety to be had with the spellcasting of 5e. Thus, in this article below, we will be discussing some multiclass Gish builds you can make that don’t rely on the Hexblade, each of which occupies a nice little niche.

Eldritch Knight/War Wizard – The Bulwark

Their bullets cannot harm you. Your spells are like a shield of steel.

As discussed earlier, Eldritch Knights are a perfectly viable single-class, and in fact are the single tankiest Fighter subclass, thanks to Abjuration spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, and Blur. While perfectly solid, they can sometimes disappoint in terms of spellcasting thanks to limited spell slots, limitations on their spells known, and lower Intelligence than Strength. This build doesn’t help the last of those, but it can very much help the first two.

The idea is that you go up to Level 7 in Eldritch Knight, and get the all-important War Magic feature, alongside the Booming Blade cantrip. Yes, this cantrip is power creep-y over the PHB cantrips, and definitely over-used, but it enables a lot of melee builds (melee Tempest Cleric, for one). This allows your damage, from that point on, to stay fairly competitive, allowing you to hit with the scaling Booming Blade, and then make an attack as a bonus action. While not as good as attacking four times, it’s still some of the better at-will damage in the game. From then on, you take your levels in the Wizard’s War Magic subclass. This improves your casting, and gets you features that boost the already-delicious tankiness of the Eldritch Knight (an at-will +2 to AC as a reaction which restricts you to cantrips – which you’re already using, and +2 AC when you concentrate on a spell). It also gets you near-unbreakable concentration (if you forgo the at-will +2, you can instead get +4 to a concentration check as a reaction).

More importantly, it also gets you spells outside of the Eldritch Knight’s two-school restriction, and allows you to learn and cast more spells than that subclass does. Its spell slots outpace a single-class Eldritch Knight by level 9, you get your third-level spells a level earlier than the Eldritch Knight, and from there you far outpace it. Thus, you get more varied and more flat-out fun spellcasting than the single-class Eldritch Knight. Want both Shadow Blade and Mirror Image at Level 8, but find that difficult with the Eldritch Knight’s spell limitations? You can do it with this multiclass. Want to cast Tenser’s Transformation, turning you into one fuck of a warrior at high levels? Can be done with this multiclass.

So, while the Eldritch Knight is better on the offensive front, and gets some still very nice abilities (more Action Surges, an Action Surge teleport, Indomitable), this multiclass allows for a more all-round gish, even tankier and with better spellcasting, allowing you to stick in your opponents face, deal still perfectly high damage, and absolutely refuse to be budged.

Battle Smith/Arcane Archer – The Trick Shot

You’d be surprised how much one arrow can do

I did some googling on the matter, and the internet seems to largely come down that archers count as gishes. As long as they shoot things with mundane weaponry, and also use magic, they count. Where this might come into question is whether the Artificer’s flavour counts as a gish, given you’re recommended to flavour it as casting through the use of mechanical devices. But from the standpoint of ‘warrior that uses magic’, I’d personally say that this fits the bill.

We’ve all seen the character in fiction. Hawkeye is perhaps the most prominent version at the moment. The Archer with a bag (or quiver) of tricks, always able to pull out the right arrow at the right moment. Arcane Archer attempts to be this, but whereas it is fine balance-wise (and it is, trust us), for many people, it falls down in the low number of Arcane Shots it gets (even if they are powerful), and its reliance on Dexterity and Intelligence, compared to the Battlemaster which uses the same stat for attacking and Saving Throw DCs.

The Artificer can’t give you more Arcane Shots (although it would be beautiful if it could), but it does solve one of those problems. It makes your attacks use your Intelligence, allowing you to have the minimum of Dexterity to use medium armour, and focus on your intelligence for your spellcasting, arcane shots, and attacks. It’s the sort of single ability dependency that only Hexblades attain, in terms of gishes.

And from there, once you’ve got your stat dependency sorted out, you can have a lot of fun with your options. I’d recommend taking the Battle Smith to five, before anything else, to get your Extra Attack (and second-level spells), and then take three in Arcane Archer, to get your Arcane Shots, and then take the rest in Battle Smith. As far as class fantasy for the Archer goes, two Arcane Shots is all you’d get from Arcane Archer for a long time anyway, and you actually get other magic to supplement it. And this gives you plenty of variety. You can buff yourself and allies, act as an off-healer (especially with Arcane Jolt), debuff and crowd control your enemies, act as a utility caster and tool specialist, and, when you combine Arcane Shots with Arcane Jolt, you can even do some pretty decent nova-ing. In general, this makes you a very versatile, SAD marksman, with some beautiful versatility.

Fighter/Hexblade Warlock – The Eldritch Striker

Pictured: This build hitting somebody

This is the build for people who want to hit, and hit hard. The other builds suggested in this article tend to give you something else besides just damage, whether it’s tankiness, utility, or healing. This one, however? You just deal as much damage as possible. And the way I’d prefer to do this, you don’t actually use magic for a lot of the game, but it has variety. One thing I will say, though, is that given I’d recommend going to Fighter 11 before multiclassing in this build, it’s probably best reserved for campaigns that start at a high level, or those high-level one-shots.

The concept behind this build is simple. The Warlock (especially the Hexblade), gets features that reward attacking a lot. The Fighter gets more attacks than anything else, to better stack these. Of course, so does an Eldritch Blasting Warlock, but weapons have various advantages over that. For one thing, Fighting Styles (I’d personally play this build as another archer, for the Archery fighting style, but you could easily go for polearms, dual-wielding, or even the Eberron dual-scimitar), and for another, magical weapons are probably more likely to be found than a Rod of the Pact Keeper, if only because multiple party members tend to be able to use them.

For a third, Eldritch Smite, which folds into another choice I would personally make when playing this: Champion Fighter. While Hexblade’s Curse also gives the 19-20 crit range, it does so on one enemy per short rest, whereas it’s always on for the Champion, maximising the crits you can smite on. Another reason to go archer – the mental image of shooting a flying Dragon and Eldritch Smiting it prone so it falls out of the sky). But Champion isn’t required. The core of this build is that you’re a Fighter, making three or four attacks with your loadout, and you stack Hexblade’s Curse and Hex on attacks, waiting for crits (or an enemy you really need prone or dead) to use your Eldritch Smite. Stacking your buffs (as well as the utility you can get from Pact Magic and Eldritch Invocations) can make up for the missing fourth attack (which you wouldn’t get until level 20 anyway), and magic weapons and Fighting Styles should lead to more damage than using Eldritch Blast (or at least more reliable hits) – but this may be game dependent.

In short, if you want to absolutely evaporate the toughest enemy on the battlefield, you could do worse than multiclassing a Fighter – any sort – with a Hexblade Warlock past a certain level, just to watch those numbers pour down.

Paladin/Swords Bard – Magical Duelist

It’s totally a gish, guys

Now, I will admit, by a pure definition of the word ‘gish’, this doesn’t count. A gish specifies that the magic used should be entirely Arcane, rather than Divine. This mattered somewhat more back in older editions, where your spellcasting in these two schools was kept entirely separate, but the distinction still exists in 5e. But, the spellcasting in this multiclass is primarily Arcane, with only two levels of Paladin used, and that’s largely for Divine Smite. Ask your DM if you can call it Arcane Smite. Make puppy-dog eyes. But the point remains that the majority of this build is the Bard, an Arcane class, and so it fits a lot of the definitions of ‘gish’.

The crux of it is somewhat stated in the previous paragraph. A Swords Bard, with two levels of Paladin. Whether you take these Paladin levels first, or after some levels in Bard is up to you, but it may change the focus of your build. In general, I would recommend going for dual-wielding with this build, if only so, regardless of your choice, you can be making at least two attacks by 6th Level, just because making one attack at that level hurts, seriously. Plus, it lets you do more of what the focus of this build is, which is the smites. It’s not as powerful as the Sorcerer/Paladin (or ‘Sorcadin’) or the Hexblade/Paladin (‘Hexadin’ or ‘Padlock’), but seeing as these are the gold standard for 5e multiclassing, perhaps it doesn’t need to be. You’re still making plenty of attacks, you’ve got more spell slots earlier for smiting than a singleclassed Paladin, and you have plenty of magic to buff yourself between these two classes.

Going Paladin gives you more than just Divine Smite, of course. Two levels gives several things that can improve a Swords Bard. You also get another Fighting Style, that could either be Defense (to patch up potentially low AC), or, if your DM uses the latest variant rules UA, the Divine Warrior style, to give you even more cantrips. Nobody has ever said no to a Guidance, trust us. Even first-level Paladin spells also include some nice picks for a Swords Bard, such as Divine Favour (to help buff damage), and Shield of Faith (to further boost Armour Class).

It takes a while to get off the ground, but by Level 8 at the very latest (and it works perfectly fine before then, once you have the Two Weapon Fighting style), you’ll be making three attacks a turn, smiting on potentially all of them, all while buffing yourself with some of the best Bardic magic has to offer (go for a Haste – risky in the frontline, but maybe worth it – and you’ll be making four attacks). Perfect for a lightly-armoured, scimitar-wielding duelist who uses magic.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article, and that it’s inspired some potential gish multiclass builds you can make, for when the Hexblade Paladin starts to get old. As always, if you’ve enjoyed this post, please like us, check out some other posts we’ve done, like this post, let us know any of your thoughts in the comments, and tell your friends.

If you’re looking for more UA material for some interesting multiclasses, check out Four UA Subclasses That Look Pretty Good to Go