Jack of Every Trade (Bard with Hexblade dip build)

[Ryunosuke]

Getting around to rebuilding my old Bard Jack and wanted to make him suck a lot less on non-spellcaster turns/in melee combat so I'm gonna start him as a Hexblade first then become a Bard til the end. He's a half elf and I'm mostly trying to make him more flexible as a whole and channel the whole 'Jack of all trades yet master of none is better than master of only one' thing. I think my biggest concern is my Magical Secrets and magical items but second opinions are always welcome to make him better overall.

Also, magic item's i'll be aiming for include ring of spell storing (Harper perk) and a Scimitar of Speed (trading if i can)

Hexblade 2/Bard of Swords 18 (final build plan)

Hexblade 1-2: Cantrips-Eldritch Blast, Prestidigitation
1st-level-Comprehend Languages, Hex, Shield
Invocations-Agonizing Blast and Devil's Sight

Bard 1-3: College of Swords
Cantrip-Mage Hand, Mending;
1st-level-Detect Magic, Dissonant Whispers, Fearie Fire, Featherfall;
2nd-level-Silence, Suggestion
Expertise-Deception and Persuasion

Bard 4-6: Cantrip-Message
2nd-level-Hold Person
3rd-level-Dispel Magic, Leomund's Tiny Hut
Extra attack
War Caster feat (can't technically use sword and shield and cast spells before this)

Bard 7-10 Cantrip-Minor Illusion
4th-level-Polymorph, Greater Invisiblity
5th-level-Synaptic Static, Hold Monster, Teleportation Circle
Magical Secrets (Haste, Wall of Force)
Expertise-Investigation, Perception
Resilient (Constitution) feat

Bard 11-14 6th-level-Mass Suggestion
7th-level-Forcecage, Regenerate, Teleport
Magical Secrets (Steel Wind Strike, Simulacrum)
Infinite flourishes
Elven Accuracy feat (Cha 18)

Bard 15-18
8th-level-Dominate Monster
9th-level-Foresight, Power Word Kill, True Polymorph
Magical Secrets (Wish, ???)
Charisma +2 (Cha 20)

[Petrocorus]

I'm not sure about your choice of spells.

Mending and Featherfall, for instance, are very situational.

Is Devil's Sight so valuable if you don't combine it with Darkness and already have darkvision?

I think one of your expertise should go to Stealth or Perception early on.

[CTurbo]

I'm curious, are you planning on taking College of Swords, but NOT TWF? I saw you mentioned sword and shield and Scimitar of Speed. In which case wouldn't Valor be more appropriate?

And no Vicious Mockery???

[JeffreyGator]

Oddly enough Swords lets you use weapons as implements and Valor doesn't, not that this matters as much with warcaster.

Since you are taking warcaster and it has the cantrip Opportunity attack option would you consider taking a melee attack cantrip? OTOH you may be in AL and so either get SCAG or XGtE.

I somewhat prefer GFB/BB attacks to dual attack.

This would let use an alternate college such as Lore to really be Jack of ALL trades.

[Ryunosuke]

I'm not sure about your choice of spells.

Mending and Featherfall, for instance, are very situational.

Is Devil's Sight so valuable if you don't combine it with Darkness and already have darkvision?

I think one of your expertise should go to Stealth or Perception early on.
Mending is a Cantrip for lols since at that point none of the other ones seemed super important.

As for the expertise, i chose the social skills to sell the bard/charlatan identity thing and work through situations but i can settle with just deception for that at first i think.

Dark Sight is admittedly not as important without Darkness but few other Invocations are useful at the get go. I'll have medium armor so Mage Armor is a waste, and the False Life one is just 5-8 temp HP which I guess is fine but seems useless late game?


I'm curious, are you planning on taking College of Swords, but NOT TWF? I saw you mentioned sword and shield and Scimitar of Speed. In which case wouldn't Valor be more appropriate?

And no Vicious Mockery???
Scimitar of Speed does with no feat or style the same as TWF and the Feat and lets me have more AC and doesnt force me to get a second magical weapon. Also the Hexblade feature only let's me effect 1 weapon for using my Charisma, not two, so just using Dueling for +2 damage makes more sense. Valor also doesn't let me get a Fighting Style or the Flourish options to let me fight better in melee either and only *really* stands apart from Swords at lv 14 imo and i feel the unlimited flourishes out values getting a single melee attack after a spell cast but I could be wrong.

As for Vicious, so many creatures just get multi-attack after T1 that VM giving 1 disadvantage seems pretty lame as opposed to simply getting in damage with Agonizing Blast. Also a lot of monsters get magic resistance later too anyways.


Oddly enough Swords lets you use weapons as implements and Valor doesn't, not that this matters as much with warcaster.

Since you are taking warcaster and it has the cantrip Opportunity attack option would you consider taking a melee attack cantrip? OTOH you may be in AL and so either get SCAG or XGtE.

I somewhat prefer GFB/BB attacks to dual attack.

This would let use an alternate college such as Lore to really be Jack of ALL trades.
This is indeed an Adventures League character so once I learn XGE spells, those SCAG cantrips are no longer permitted for my use as nice as they are. Then again I think Synaptic Static and Steel Wind Strike were the only Xanathar's spell I was planning to get anyways...?

Taking Lore instead *would* get me more flexibility for Magical Secrets and I'd likely be able to consider taking Haste and one of the melee cantrips for lv 6 (keeping wall of force and something new at lv 10) since the only reason I wanted Synaptic Static (bard spell) was for a bit of aoe damage/minor crowd control and the other spell Steel Wind Strike I only wanted because it's hella anime which seemed showy and something Jack would want to do as a finisher or something.

I've played a Lore Bard before (got to lv 5 before season 6 ended) and the one issue I always had was on any turn I didn't cast Dissonant Whispers (even without securing multiple AoO) my turn's felt really lackluster as a whole since VM is a rather weak damage cantrip and I only had my 1 rapier attack each round. He did use an off hand short sword as well but I sometimes forgot i had it on hand (cuz teh mini has 1 big sword) and even then the damage was usually relevant anyways which was why I thought a Hexblade dip would help me fix the problem with being bad at melee and only good at magic/support.

[sophontteks]

The best bard spells don't do damage. You don't need to do damage to be the most effective member of the party. You just won't get the glory of being a DPS.

[Ryunosuke]

The best bard spells don't do damage. You don't need to do damage to be the most effective member of the party. You just won't get the glory of being a DPS.
I know that damage isn't their strong suit but at least being able to put up some semi good sustained DPR for normal combat (Hence incentive for Dueling or a Melee cantrip) and I'd like to steal at least one nuke spell so the option is there since bard spells can't always fix a problem.

[sophontteks]

I know that damage isn't their strong suit but at least being able to put up some semi good sustained DPR for normal combat (Hence incentive for Dueling or a Melee cantrip) and I'd like to steal at least one nuke spell so the option is there since bard spells can't always fix a problem.

Bard spells can always fix the problem, but their use can be tricky. So many of their spells are open-ended where their power isn't a number, rather its left to the creativity of the user.

[Ryunosuke]

Bard spells can always fix the problem, but their use can be tricky. So many of their spells are open-ended where their power isn't a number, rather its left to the creativity of the user.
I know. Hell expertise on Deception alone helped my party bypass all the Druegar in the Forge of Fury by making them think we were allies. I've also negotiated some pay raises with Persuasion too.

My gripe was that Bards are 'jack of all trades' but their own sustained dps/non spell related performance didn't really seem to even be semi-decent without me focusing on it in the build harder.

[Petrocorus]

Mending is a Cantrip for lols since at that point none of the other ones seemed super important.

Given the very few you get, you'd rather take a cantrip that is usable really often, IMHO. Like Minor Illusion.



As for the expertise, i chose the social skills to sell the bard/charlatan identity thing and work through situations but i can settle with just deception for that at first i think.

My point was that you don't need Expertise in both social skills. Expertise in one and normal proficiency in the other is enough and Expertise in Stealth or Perception is a real game changer.



Dark Sight is admittedly not as important without Darkness but few other Invocations are useful at the get go. I'll have medium armor so Mage Armor is a waste, and the False Life one is just 5-8 temp HP which I guess is fine but seems useless late game?

It's true that you won't be able to change them. I was thinking about Eldritch Sight, for instance. Or maybe Beast Speech.



This is indeed an Adventures League character so once I learn XGE spells, those SCAG cantrips are no longer permitted for my use as nice as they are. Then again I think Synaptic Static and Steel Wind Strike were the only Xanathar's spell I was planning to get anyways...?

You're using the College of Sword, so you're using the XGE anyway.

[Ryunosuke]

Given the very few you get, you'd rather take a cantrip that is usable really often, IMHO. Like Minor Illusion.

My point was that you don't need Expertise in both social skills. Expertise in one and normal proficiency in the other is enough and Expertise in Stealth or Perception is a real game changer.

It's true that you won't be able to change them. I was thinking about Eldritch Sight, for instance. Or maybe Beast Speech.

You're using the College of Sword, so you're using the XGE anyway.
I suppose I could grab Minor Illusion sooner yea.

As I mentioned above, I can settle for Deception being expertise and then perception first I think since that's more relevant to the party getting caught off guard most.

Beast Speech I did consider for an interesting sort of utility for info and such.

If I end up changing back to Lore, I'd be able to grab either Booming or Green Flame Blade if the cantrip enhanced melee attack is better than a full extra attack. However it would restrict me from Elven Accuracy, not just the 2-3 Xanathar spells I was planning on using.

[sophontteks]

This all depends on the team. If someone else can stealth and if someone else has great perception, then why not take expertise in all the social skills. Making the best character is about being what the team needs.

Sure one can take perception and insight and it would be enough, but why settle for enough when you can be the best?

[Ryunosuke]

This all depends on the team. If someone else can stealth and if someone else has great perception, then why not take expertise in all the social skills. Making the best character is about being what the team needs.

Sure one can take perception and insight and it would be enough, but why settle for enough when you can be the best?
Well since I'll be playing with him for AL I can't just build around the same team levels 1-20, another reason I want to have a wide range of pure versatility for any and all situations possible.

[sophontteks]

Well since I'll be playing with him for AL I can't just build around the same team levels 1-20, another reason I want to have a wide range of pure versatility for any and all situations possible.

Thats fair, sorry, it was more a general statement then one directed at you.

[Ryunosuke]

Thats fair, sorry, it was more a general statement then one directed at you.
No yea I understand that much and I'd like to build around the party normally but sadly I don't have that luxury. I am however very annoyed with the PHB+1 rule for AL. It isn't like it prevents any especially overpowered combinations (I mean Simulacrums and True Poly already exist) and it's almost always just annoying spell casters for spell access...

[sophontteks]

No yea I understand that much and I'd like to build around the party normally but sadly I don't have that luxury. I am however very annoyed with the PHB+1 rule for AL. It isn't like it prevents any especially overpowered combinations (I mean Simulacrums and True Poly already exist) and it's almost always just annoying spell casters for spell access...
Its a very stupid rule. Its like they don't trust their own official content. Or... something?
It really makes no sense.

[Ryunosuke]

Its a very stupid rule. Its like they don't trust their own official content. Or... something?
It really makes no sense.
I think the biggest potential concern was Volo's monster races, but even that is invalidated by the fact that the only really strong race was Yuan Ti and there are in game rituals in both an HC and AL module to get the race anyways without using Volo's as your +1...