Input: Level 6 Magical Secrets (Lore Bard)

[Alejandro]

Other PCs:

Monk 5, Sun Soul/Cleric 1
Rogue 5, A. Trickster/Cleric 1
Fighter 6, Champion
Barbarian 6, Berserker
Wizard 6, Diviner

I am Bard 5/Cleric 1. We do fine on healing, with plenty of Healing Word to go around if someone goes down, and have magic items that cast some other things, like Lesser Restoration. The party wizard has Haste, Counterspell, and Fly, so I felt alright with not duplicating those.

I have and use Hypnotic Pattern, Shatter, Suggestion, Phantasmal Force, etc. Of my two magical secrets choices, one is going to be Spiritual Weapon (partially for incharacter reasons, although it is a good spell) and the other was going to be Conjure Animals, for all the options (summoned battle allies, summoning a flying or swimming thing when needed, etc) but the GM has informed me that she hates that and other summoning spells, and strongly implied I should not pick it.

Suggestions for a different selection welcome! :)

[Specter]

Spiritual Weapon is fine for helping with damage.

The rest depends on what you want, but I tell you, you can't go wrong with Counterspell. Lore Bards are the second best spellcounters.

[Alejandro]

I get that. But we already have a wizard with that spell, and he has a great INT and is a Diviner, so he can sometimes even affect the dice roll for the counterspell. And we encounter very few hostile spellcasters, at least so far. That could change later. But it seems the wizard has it well in hand.

[anonymsly]

I know my party's wizard was super-excited to get Slow, so that seems like a decent possibility?

For a lower-level option our party druid has used Entangle in almost every single encounter I've thrown at them and it's always been helpful to a greater or lesser extent.

[Specter]

I get that. But we already have a wizard with that spell, and he has a great INT and is a Diviner, so he can sometimes even affect the dice roll for the counterspell. And we encounter very few hostile spellcasters, at least so far. That could change later. But it seems the wizard has it well in hand.

In that case, I'll give you a spell for everything you might desire:

- At-will damage: Shillelagh/Green-Flame Blade/Eldritch Blast
- Area damage: Fireball/Call Lightning
- Battlefield control: Sleet Storm
- Buffing: Crusader's Mantle/Haste
- Debuffing: Slow/Stinking Cloud
- Defense: Mirror Image/Blur
- Healing: Aura of Vitality
- Minionmancy: Animate Dead
- Mobility: Fly/Misty Step

[Alejandro]

In that case, I'll give you a spell for everything you might desire:

- Area damage: Fireball/Call Lightning
- Battlefield control: Sleet Storm
- Buffing: Crusader's Mantle/Haste
- Debuffing: Slow/Stinking Cloud
- Defense: Mirror Image/Blur
- Healing: Aura of Vitality
- Minionmancy: Animate Dead
- Mobility: Fly/Misty Step

Some good choices. Definitely not Animate Dead, as I am a cleric of Lathander :)

[RipTide]

your rogue, fighter and barbarian can all benefit pretty well from haste, so it might not be a terrible idea to have a second application of that.

If you don't want to overlap Crusaders mantle could get some good value if you don't mind staying kind of close to the action.

Grabbing fireball might not be bad, you don't have a lot of AOE and fireball is pretty good at any level.

Sleet Storm is a pretty effective battlefield control spell. I've been in a few fights that went form deadly to trivial because of this spell.

Those would probably be my suggestions

[agnos]

I'd strongly recommend Aura of Vitality. You say you're fine on Healing, but AoV allows for more stretching. In mid tier, you can feasibly bring 3 people from less than half to full. In combat, you can keep people up and topped off with little issue. It's a great answer to the AoE effects that becom more common. Fireball on average is 28/14 damage over 3-4 people; that's effectively 6 ticks of AoV and you can prioritize as needed. It especially shines in situations where you can't afford to short or long rest (like much of AL).

Hypnotic Pattern works for your AoE "damage" spell because it's so strong at isolating enemies. Conjure Animals is relatively DM dependent plus, Animate Objects tends to replace it in effectiveness.

[Alejandro]

I'd strongly recommend Aura of Vitality. You say you're fine on Healing, but AoV allows for more stretching. In mid tier, you can feasibly bring 3 people from less than half to full. In combat, you can keep people up and topped off with little issue. It's a great answer to the AoE effects that becom more common. Fireball on average is 28/14 damage over 3-4 people; that's effectively 6 ticks of AoV and you can prioritize as needed. It especially shines in situations where you can't afford to short or long rest (like much of AL).

Hypnotic Pattern works for your AoE "damage" spell because it's so strong at isolating enemies. Conjure Animals is relatively DM dependent plus, Animate Objects tends to replace it in effectiveness.

I love Aura of Vitality, but I intend to be using Spiritual Weapon a lot, and those two spells don't go together, since they both want your bonus action.

[Specter]

I love Aura of Vitality, but I intend to be using Spiritual Weapon a lot, and those two spells don't go together, since they both want your bonus action.

Oh no, only fools use Aura of Vitality in combat. The magic of it is giving 20d6 of spreadable healing in one minute, like a mini-short-rest. Add that yo Life Cleric's bonus hp per heal... and the party loves you.

[Aaron Underhand]

As mentioned Counterspell and Fireball is always a strong base package, however given you have a wizard you could look at Bard weaknesses. Normally I'd say mirror image, but the cleric dip has solved your AC issues, so (as mentioned before) Misty Step.

You might also consider eldritch blast if you want at-will damage - you could even pair it with hex, which might out perform your spiritual weapon (but competes for concentration). If you're more melee than ranged then can you get Booming blade or Green flame blade?

Or revivify, if you're missing the higher level clerical goodies...

[Specter]

You might also consider eldritch blast if you want at-will damage - you could even pair it with hex, which might out perform your spiritual weapon (but competes for concentration). If you're more melee than ranged then can you get Booming blade or Green flame blade?

Yeah, forgot at-will damage. Will edit my above post.

[wilhelmdubdub]

I am currently playing a lore bard level 9. At first I took spriritual weapon, and when I got 4th level spell slots regularly use it to do 2D8 + 5 on my bonus action. At first I had conjure animals, but it trivialized 3 encounters in a row so I asked my DM to swap it out for guiding bolt. It scales well and gives advantage, which helps me as a buffer. That being said, I am not multi-classed into cleric. I wanted to take counterspell at 10 because we had a wizard and haven't really missed it.

With my load out if its close quarters combat I use spiritual weapon and VM on my first turn, then hypnotic pattern or dissonant whispers. If its ranged combat I guiding bolt then use inspiration. Using your bonus for spritual weapon helps with DPR and frees you up in your action economy to save the inspiration for cutting words.

Also take a look at fear its a cone and the enemies drop their weapons and run I have to pick that up next level up.

[RSP]

I like picking spells that don't overlap. Depending on your play style, here's a few options:

Crusaders Mantle - with lots of attackers in that group this will rock adding d4 to every hit (within range)

Sanctuary - personal favorite of mine. Bonus action, non-Concentration spell that can really save someone. Has a range of 30' so if you see one melee PC get swarmed, feel free to cast on them to prevent a lot of damage over the next round and allow them to get away. Particularly effective if cast right after the PC target just went. Great first level spell: like Shield you can cast on someone else. Also, can cast Crusaders Mantle and stay within 30' of other PCs with less worry of getting hit/losing Concentration. Essentially you're doing like 5-10d4 radiant damage a round with this combo.

Spirit Guardians - if for whatever reason you like being in the thick of things.

Aid - adding 5hp (or more with higher slots) to 3 PCs for 8 hours is fantastic. Also, great for countering HP max draining abilities.

Beacon of Hope - will up everyone's ability to stay alive and maximize all that healing everyone dishes out (which makes in-combat healing actually worthwhile).

Goodberry - if wanting to capitalize a bit more on that Life Cleric dip.

Revivify - someone should be able to get PCs back to living, if worried about that kind of thing (some DMs don't kill).

Blink is good too if on the front lines regularly.

[Alejandro]

Thanks, wilhelm, rsp, etc!

I kind of expected to hear that Conjure Animals would be brokenly strong. It looked awesome to me, which is why I wanted it, and I guess I would have been right. My GM is also probably right to not want me to take it, for the same reasons.

I do have access to Guiding Bolt, and any other 1st level Cleric spell, so that helps immensely. Taking 1 level of Cleric has been an immense boost to being a Lore Bard, especially Life Cleric. Having heavy armor and having access to Healing Word, Shield of Faith, Bless, etc has been of great value, even with the slight slowing of Bardic spell progression.

I'm actually one of the party's only tanks; the Monk hits and runs, the Rogue stays back and uses a crossbow, the Wizard does not tank, and the Barbarian doesn't have a great AC/often attacks Recklessly, so the enemy has an easier time hitting her (fortunately she has a lot of HP!) The Dwarf Fighter is the one tough tank, and I often help him do so, since I wear heavy armor and use a shield. Starting to sound like Spirit Guardians might be handy..

[Gtdead]

It's a shame that you don't want conjure animals. It's a super strong spell that the DM has to actively counter.
I'd say spirit guardians since you spend so much time in melee range. Blur is also good against tougher fights.

[Alejandro]

It's a shame that you don't want conjure animals. It's a super strong spell that the DM has to actively counter.
I'd say spirit guardians since you spend so much time in melee range. Blur is also good against tougher fights.

I do want Conjure Animals. As I explained, the GM basically told me not to pick it.

[Squeeq]

Summoning spells are fun bu they do absolutely grind the game's flow down to a standstill, which isn't particularly fun and makes encounters take a long time.

Bard's big weaknesses are at-will damage, and having lots of things they kinda wanna concentrate on, like faerie fire, heat metal, hypnotic pattern, etc. Spiritual weapon is perfect because it doesn't take concentration so you can have it AND a control spell like slow or status like faerie fire or haste up without much trouble. Since you ARE a melee tank, spirit guardians could be fun, but with those two you're just playing a Cleric.

Spike Growth can be fun to slow down and hurt monsters if you find yourself in tight positions a lot. Call Lightning takes your action but you can double that up with spiritual weapon (And graduate to Sunbeam at higher levels to REALLY start slinging the pain if you need to go on the offensive). People are absolutely correct in that Haste is a great spell to be able to throw up multiples of. Vampiric touch can be fun too! If you find you have lots of spell slots because you usually just use a single concentration spell, grab a one-shot damage spell like fireball or something. You could double up with the Wizard that way! Aura of Vitality is still a really good bet, though, just because of its utility in OR out of battle - keeping people up in a tough fight is really useful, especially with your life cleric bonus. Any of the spells from the half-casters tends to be REALLY good for arcane secrets, because usually you aren't supposed to have them for a while.

[Gtdead]

Call Lightning is pretty strong and it could be your goto spell until you get animate objects.
However, since you spend so much time in melee, I wouldn't recommend it. One thing to consider tho is that as you gain levels, you will want to stay a bit further back.