u/testiclekid

I did the almost classical thing. I went Magic Initiate: Wizard for Shield and Warcaster. I basically went True Strike with a Great sword all the time. I did bump wisdom to 18. I know that optimizers would go shield and 1h for increased defense for Spirit Guardians. You'll soon see why it didn't matter.

My take

The gameplay is fun for two reasons. You have both the spell slot of a fullcaster and you also have a resources that recharges fully on a Short Rest. Bards can understand this feeling. The result is that you feel like you're a Battle master or a Monk resource-wise but luckily you're not as effective in melee as them. It's addicting taking a Short Rest after every fight.

What keeps this class in check are a bunch of reasons:

• You don't have a Fighting style, so therefore you don't have Defense or other good fighting styles

• You don't have weapon mastery so there is that.

• The attack is not extra attack therefore you can't combo with Spiritual Weapon for even more attacks.

• the bonus action attack uses your physical ability so if you bump wisdom for Warcaster, this attack will have a lower score than your average 18 wisdom.

What is good however :

• You can both True Strike and Bonus Action attack. This means you have 1d6 extra damage from the cantrip. It's also true that you can leverage blade cantrips.

• Having the bonus action attack means you can for example cast an action spell and also have the attack. where normally you would go attack and Healing word, here instead you can even go Cure Wounds and Bonus Action attack. That is especially good when Upcast because you can basically refill half your hp in one go.

I didn't try the level 6 feature because I was level 5

The sad part is that I didn't even end up casting Spirit Guardian for this one-shot. I was saving the Spirit Guardian for the final boss fight.we realized only at the end that there was no final boss fight and that was a bummer. I did however cast a Dispel Magic to help the party go through an obstacle. I did a few Shield of Faith and it helped me tank better the incoming hits. I did have splint armor

For the sake of this one-shot I did have Gauntlets of Ogre power, so the physical attack and the True Strike attack had the equivalent amount of bonus

Funnily enough, in this one-shot, the highest damage dealer was the rogue because he kept high rolling the sneak attack damage EVERY SINGLE TIME

Tldr: having the bonus action attacks recharging after a short rest is addicting. Makes you wanna use them all and then short rest after every fight.

Think about this. Normally you wanna take a Short Rest very often. However other characters don't have that much to gain unless they're really hurt. It's true that you can recharge one of your features like Wildshape and Channel Divinity and Rage but some party prefer to not Rest (especially the freaking Rogue)

However everyone wants Heroic Inspiration and they use it often when they know you have Musician.

Musician makes it so others also gain a lot by taking a Short Rest and they're incentivized even more because an Heroic Inspiration is good basically always.

• a martial may use it to land an important attack
• a caster may use it to maintain concentration
• everyone could use it on a save or skill

Anyway, Heroic Inspiration is really strong and Musician is indeed a super strong feat.

When you take Musician as a Warlock or Monk you can secure yourself more easily a Short Rest because others have to gain something as well.