The grumpy valor bard.

[Spacehamster]

So afb but how functional would a valor bard mountain Dwarf that leaves CHA on 14 and focuses on combat and spells that boosts combat and spells that are not save/attack based be?

Don’t remember how many good spells they have in their own list that does not need attacks or saves.

With this idea the start stats with racials would probably look like this: 17/8/17/8/10/14, start with one level of Paladin for heavy armor. First ASI up STR and CON to 18, 2nd pick great weapon master, 3rd max STR.

[nickl_2000]

What I see in the lower levels.

Level 1: Longstrider, Healing Word, Sleep, Feather fall, Detect Magic
Level 2: Enhance Ability, Heat Metal, Invisibility, Lesser Restoration, See Invisibility, Cloud of Daggers,
Level 3: Catnap, Dispel Magic, Tiny Hut
Level 4: Freedom of Movement, Greater Invisibility, Polymorph
Level 5: Animate Objects, Skill Empowerment, Greater Restoration, Mass Cure Wounds, Raise Dead
Level 6: True Seeing
Level 7: Forcecage, Regeneration, Resurrection, Mordenkainen's Sword, Teleport
Level 8: Glibness, Mind Blank
Level 9: Foresight, Mass Polymorph, Power Word Heal, True Polymorph

Combine that with magic secrets and you can steal things like Haste and you certainly make it work. Although if your goal was just heavy armor I would take 1 level in Fighter to get a fighting style that will boost your melee abilities (but that is just my opinion)

[Spacehamster]

What I see in the lower levels.

Level 1: Longstrider, Healing Word, Sleep, Feather fall, Detect Magic
Level 2: Enhance Ability, Heat Metal, Invisibility, Lesser Restoration, See Invisibility, Cloud of Daggers,
Level 3: Catnap, Dispel Magic, Tiny Hut
Level 4: Freedom of Movement, Greater Invisibility, Polymorph

Combine that with magic secrets and you can steal things like Haste and you certainly make it work. Although if your goal was just heavy armor I would take 1 level in Fighter to get a fighting style that will boost your melee abilities (but that is just my opinion)

True and CON save would be neat for the concentration saves. And thanks for the spell suggestions. :)

[Aett_Thorn]

If you're going to do this, might as well take Paladin to 2 to get access to Smites.

And while you probably won't be BAD, it's definitely not great. You'll only ever have two Bardic Inspirations since your Cha will be stuck at 14, so you'll have less chances to use them. You can definitely pick up spells that don't require saves or spell attacks, but on the Bard spell list, those that deal with combat and also meet those criteria are few, so you'll be very limited. You could focus on heals and the few buffs that you do get, but you'll have whole level ranges of spells where you don't get many options at all.

[Specter]

Pretty functional, even without multiclass.

You'd be focusing on attacking, obviously, so eventually you'll want Great Weapon Master for heavy hammering. Couple that with G. Invisibility and you'll do some murder damage.

If you do want to multi, I'd suggest Fighter because of the CON save, fighting style and second wind. Paladin's first level is straight up garbage.

[Spacehamster]

If you're going to do this, might as well take Paladin to 2 to get access to Smites.

And while you probably won't be BAD, it's definitely not great. You'll only ever have two Bardic Inspirations since your Cha will be stuck at 14, so you'll have less chances to use them. You can definitely pick up spells that don't require saves or spell attacks, but on the Bard spell list, those that deal with combat and also meet those criteria are few, so you'll be very limited. You could focus on heals and the few buffs that you do get, but you'll have whole level ranges of spells where you don't get many options at all.

Won’t fighter 1 bard 19 be better due to the general lateness of 2nd attack for valor bards and CON save and 1 more feat to play in the strengths of the build do more than 2 pal? Tho I agree that smite would be a great use of spell slots when limited in the type of spells to pick.

[Aett_Thorn]

Won’t fighter 1 bard 19 be better due to the general lateness of 2nd attack for valor bards and CON save and 1 more feat to play in the strengths of the build do more than 2 pal? Tho I agree that smite would be a great use of spell slots when limited in the type of spells to pick.

Yeah, either go Fighter 1 (which was a great recommendation by others) or take Pally to 2. But Pally 1 is kind of pointless.

[Unoriginal]

Have you considered making a Sword Bard rather than a Valor one?

[Spacehamster]

Have you considered making a Sword Bard rather than a Valor one?

Does sword function with 2 handed STR weapons?

[Aett_Thorn]

Have you considered making a Sword Bard rather than a Valor one?

Probably not a great call, since you'd only ever have two flourish dice per short rest until higher levels. Not horrible, again, but not ideal, either.

[Unoriginal]

Does sword function with 2 handed STR weapons?

Function? Yes.

Function well? That's another debate.

No Bard subclass is going to do its best with 14 CHA and two-handed weapons. Doesn't mean it'll do bad, just not its best.

Still, the College of Sword let you use your two-handed weapon as a spell focus, give you an additional 10ft of movement when you take the Attack Action, let you use useful all of the Blade Flourishes, and give you an Extra Attack at lvl 6. Only issue are that the Fighting Styles don't benefit you directly, but still, I get the impression it'd benefit you more than Valor.

If you want to go around that, you could use a Versatile weapon, like, say, a Battleaxe, take the Dueling fighting style, and alternate behind two-handed and one-handed with shield (when you need the +2 bonus to damage and AC)


Probably not a great call, since you'd only ever have two flourish dice per short rest until higher levels. Not horrible, again, but not ideal, either.

Same problem with the Valor Bard, no?

[Aett_Thorn]

Same problem with the Valor Bard, no?

Well, yes you'd only have two uses of Bardic Inspiration per short rest, but Blades' main ability (the flourishes) are directly tied to having Bardic Inspiration to use. Valor Bards certainly have uses for their BI, but they're not as dependent on them, I would say.

[Spacehamster]

Always forget the CHA amount uses of bardic insp, 16 CHA would probably be alot better then cus 3 per short rest is so much better.