magical secret for lore bard

[Xaryo]

i'll soon have to chose my first magical secrets spells ( lore bard).
il the party, we have a paladin, arcane trickster and a storm sorcerer.
which spells should be nice to look at for that type of party?

[Amdy_vill]

any spell you other magic uses have and use a lot. also any spell the complements you role in the party. if you are healer pick up a healing spell...ect.

[Dr. Cliché]

Depending on your character, Toll the Dead could be quite thematic as well as giving you a more damaging Cantrip.

[Vogie]

Just shore up whatever your team is missing.

From the ranger List, Conjure Barrage or Healing Spirit for AoE or absurd healing
From the Druid List, Faerie Fire to give all attacks advantage or Conjure Animals to have a swarm of minions
Call Lightning to make your Storm Sorcerer jealous
Find Steed so you can keep up with your Paladin


Depending on your character, Toll the Dead could be quite thematic as well as giving you a more damaging Cantrip.

Toll the dead is already a Bard spell.

[sophontteks]

Just shore up whatever your team is missing.

From the ranger List, Conjure Barrage or Healing Spirit for AoE or absurd healing
From the Druid List, Faerie Fire to give all attacks advantage or Conjure Animals to have a swarm of minions
Call Lightning to make your Storm Sorcerer jealous
Find Steed so you can keep up with your Paladin



Toll the dead is already a Bard spell.

Toll the dead is not a bard spell, but faerie fire is :smallbiggrin:

[Snivlem]

Counterspell is the one choice most people seem to agree you should go for if you are optimising.

If your DM lets you pick the summons yourself, i'll argue that conjure animals is equally obvious as the 2nd pick if you want the in general strongest option.

[Dr. Cliché]

Toll the dead is already a Bard spell.

No it isn't.

[nickl_2000]

Counterspell is the one choice most people seem to agree you should go for if you are optimising.

If your DM lets you pick the summons yourself, i'll argue that conjure animals is equally obvious as the 2nd pick if you want the in general strongest option.

These are both solid choices.

Healing Spirit and Counterspell would also be a good combination, in fact given that party this would be my choice.

[Vogie]

No it isn't.

My bad, it was listed as one on the Wiki.

I'm AFB so I couldn't verify.

[KillingTime]

Optimally....
Counterspell +1

The +1 can be almost anything.
Healing Spirit or Aura of Vitality
Pass Without Trace
Fireball
Spirit Guardians

There seems to be a lot of love for taking a high damage cantrip such as Toll the Dead or Eldrich Blast, but I think this is a waste. Lore Bards shouldn't be trying to maximise damage but instead aid the rest of the party, which makes Viscious Mockery the best cantrip they'll ever need.

[nickl_2000]

Optimally....
Counterspell +1

The +1 can be almost anything.
Healing Spirit or Aura of Vitality
Pass Without Trace
Fireball
Spirit Guardians

There seems to be a lot of love for taking a high damage cantrip such as Toll the Dead or Eldrich Blast, but I think this is a waste. Lore Bards shouldn't be trying to maximise damage but instead aid the rest of the party, which makes Viscious Mockery the best cantrip they'll ever need.

Why would you take Aura of Vitality? It's a third level spell that does 2d6 per round with the use of a bonus action, and take 1 action to cast and can't be upcast
Healing Spirit, even when houserule nerfed still does 1d6 per round as a second level spell, or 2d6 as a third level spell and doesn't always require the use of a bonus action and costs 1 bonus action to cast. Plus you can upcast it as high as you like.

Being able to choose the level seems vastly superior to me, am I missing something?


EDIT: I guess if you are playing AL and don't have Xanathar's available it would be one reason.

[Marvnmartian]

Played quite a few bards and counterspell is almost a must with jack of all trades.

and conjure animals is far in above the best option if you get to choose your summons... cause 8 Elks, giant owls or wolfs can make almost any situation better, need to stow away all of your treasure you have gotten back to town Elks. Need to fly or have some ranged characters who like the idea of shooting from the back of a beast doing flyby attacks mhm thanks. and wolves for every other situation imo

[KillingTime]

Why would you take Aura of Vitality? ...

EDIT: I guess if you are playing AL and don't have Xanathar's available it would be one reason.

I know a few players who won't take Healing Spirit on principal.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Counterspell and Revivify if your Paladin does not have it.

Other than that, Counterspell and whatever. A damaging Cantip is nice if you can't decide. Most Ranger and Paladin spells that scale work really well for Bards.

Can anyone else in your party fly?