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 individuals 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, Third Edition had so many classes) of D&D 3.5, to D&D 4e’s beloved Swordmage. And, not to be outdone, D&D 5e has picked up the slack.

It’s difficult to get the balance between martial and casting right to fit just the right class flavour for a D&D 5e gish build (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.

D&D 5e‘s Hexblade Warlock is perhaps the most consistent gish class in D&D 5e. It blends melee and casting well while using the Charisma stat for both. This leads to many gish builds in D&D 5e 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 game’s spellcasting.

Everyone enjoys building a Hexblade Paladin as their D&D 5e gish multiclass build. Nonetheless, there are many other options available for players looking to multiclass.

Updated Saturday 13th of April by Artificial Twenty: This is an old article, from when I had a very different style and format for this blog. I’ve updated it to bring it in-line with newer material, due to its ongoing popularity.

Eldritch Knight and War Wizard Are Unbreakable

Eldritch Knights are a perfectly viable Fighter subclass in D&D 5e. Abjuration spells like Shield, Absorb Elements, and Blur give them a unique niche as magical tanks.

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. An Eldritch Knight and Wizard multiclass build in D&D 5e 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 D&D 5e Booming Blade cantrip.

Yes, Booming Blade is power creep-y over the Player’s Handbook cantrips, and definitely over-used, but it enables a lot of melee builds (melee Tempest Cleric, for one). This keeps your damage competitive from that point on, 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 there, you take your levels in the D&D 5e Wizard’s War Magic subclass. This improves your casting and boosts the already-impressive tankiness of the Eldritch Knight (an at-will +2 to AC as a reaction that 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, this D&D 5e Fighter Wizard multiclass build also gets you spells outside the Eldritch Knight’s two-school restriction. It also allows you to learn and cast more spells than that subclass does.

The D&D 5e Fighter Wizard gish build’s spell slots outpace a single-class Eldritch Knight by level 9, you get your third-level spells a level earlier than the Eldritch Knight. From there you run far ahead of it.

Thus, you get more varied and 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 heck of a warrior at high levels? It can be done with this D&D 5e gish multiclass build.

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 D&D 5e gish multiclass allows for a more all-round character. It’s even tankier and has better spellcasting, allowing you to stick in your opponent’s face, deal vicious damage, and absolutely refuse to be budged.

Battle Smith and Arcane Archer Can Solve Anything (That Can Be Sh0t)

I did some googling on the matter, and the internet seems to largely agree that archers count as gishes in D&D 5e. 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 theme it as casting through the use of mechanical devices. But from the standpoint of ‘warrior that uses magic’, it fits the bill.

We’ve all seen the character in fiction. The archer with a bag (or quiver) of tricks who can always pull out the right arrow at the right moment.

The D&D 5e Arcane Archer subclass attempts to be this. It’s fundamentally fine balance-wise (and it is, trust us). Nonetheless, for many people, it falls down with the low number of Arcane Shots it gets (even if they are powerful). It’s further hampered by its reliance on Dexterity and Intelligence compared to the D&D 5e Battlemaster Fighter subclass, which uses the same stat for attacking and Saving Throw DCs.

The D&D 5e Artificer can’t give your Arcane Archer more Arcane Shots, but it does solve one of those problems. It makes your attacks use your Intelligence, allowing you to have the minimum 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 for a D&D 5e gish build.

From there, once you’ve got your stat dependency sorted out, you can have a lot of fun with this D&D 5e gish multiclass’ options. I’d recommend taking the Battle Smith to five before anything else, to get your Extra Attack (and second-level spells), take three in Arcane Archer to get your Arcane Shots, and then take the rest in the Battle Smith Artificer subclass.

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. With an Artificer and Arcane Archer D&D 5e multiclass, you actually get other magic to supplement it.

This gish build 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, and act as a utility caster and tool specialist. When you combine Arcane Shots with Arcane Jolt, you get impressive burst damage as well.

In general, this archer gish build in D&D 5e makes you a very flexible marksman who can flick between offence and support at a whim

Fighter and Hexblade Warlock Melts Foes

This is the D&D 5e gish 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? It’s just for dealing as much damage in D&D 5e as possible. And the way I’d prefer to do this, you don’t actually use magic for a lot of the game. 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 D&D 5e campaigns or one-shots that start at a high level.

The concept behind this build is simple. The D&D 5e Warlock (especially the Hexblade), gets features that reward attacking a lot. The Fighter gets more attacks than anything else. Of course, so does an Eldritch Blasting Warlock, but weapons have various advantages over that.

For one thing, D&D 5e‘s Fighting Styles exist (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).

For another, magical weapons are probably more likely to be found than a Rod of the Pact Keeper, if only for their sheer ubiquity.

For a third, Eldritch Smite. This leads to another choice I would personally make when playing this D&D 5e gish build: Champion Fighter. While Hexblade’s Curse also gives the 19-20 crit range, it does so on one enemy per short rest. This bigger crit range is always on for the D&D 5e Champion Fighter, 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).

Champion isn’t required. The core of this build is that you’re a D&D 5e Fighter gish build, making three or four attacks with your loadout. You stack Hexblade’s Curse and Hex on attacks and wait for crits 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 Fighter’s missing fourth attack (which you wouldn’t get until level 20 anyway). 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 a Fighter and Warlock multiclass in D&D 5e, just to watch your DM’s face go pale.

Paladin and Swords Bard Gets Martial and Magical Flexibility

Now, I will admit, by a pure definition of the word ‘gish’ in D&D 5e, 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 D&D 5e.

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 I’m going to insist it’s a D&D 5e gish build until I die.

The crux of this Paladin Bard D&D 5e multiclass build is fairly clear from 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. Regardless of your choice, you can make at least two attacks by 6th Level. Making one attack at that level hurts, seriously. Dual-wielding also lets you double down on the crux of this D&D 5e gish build, the smites.

It’s not as powerful as the Sorcerer/Paladin (or ‘Sorcadin’) or the Hexblade/Paladin (‘Hexadin’ or ‘Padlock’). However, these builds are the gold standard for D&D 5e multiclassing. You don’t need to match them to be effective or fun.

This D&D 5e Bard Paladin multiclass build gives you many attacks, more spell slots earlier for smiting than a singleclassed Paladin, and plenty of magic to buff yourself between these two classes.

Going Paladin gives you more than just Divine Smite, of course. Two levels give several things that can improve a Swords Bard build in D&D 5e.

You get another Fighting Style, which should either be Defense to patch up your Armor Class, or Blessed Warrior to give you even more D&D 5e cantrips. Nobody has ever said no to a Guidance, trust us. First-level Paladin spells also include some nice picks for a Swords Bard, including Divine Favour (to help buff damage), and Shield of Faith (to further boost Armour Class).

This gish multiclass build in D&D 5e does take some time to get off the ground. Nonetheless, before long you’ll be making three attacks a turn, smiting on all of them, and buffing yourself with some of the best Bardic magic has to offer. Even better, this build is functional before then.

These have been just four of the many gish multiclass builds in D&D 5e. Try them out and put your own spin on them if the ever-reliable Warlock Paladin starts to grow old.

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For more build tips, particularly for D&D 5e spellcasting, ‘The Best (and Worst) Warlock Eldritch Invocations in D&D 5e‘ is the article for you.

If you want to double down on power, try ‘The Five Best Races and Lineages in D&D 5e‘.