Bard Guide

[Mr.Spastic]

Hello everyone,

I would like to present to you my bard guide. This is my first class guide, so please tell me if I am missing anything or what your thought are.

Rating system bad, mediocre, good, amazing

I also don't explain the abilities, if you don't know what they do read along in the book.


The Bard (Note: Bold does not mean the bard is mediocre, I just use it to distinguish what section of the class I'm talking about)

Hit Dice: d8, Good hit points for a caster/support class

Armor: Light Armor It's armor, better than a sorcerer or wizard, but not by much. Goes to good if you are running a Dexterity based Melee build.

Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords Probably your primary form attack at low levels. They are good mainly because they already fit most of the more Melee archetypes that you can choose later.

Tools: Three musical instruments, Wow, your a bard. Only useful for thematic purposes, but I won't say that their bad because they can add some fun to your character.

Saves: Dexterity & Charisma, Dexterity is always a good save to have as it effects most spell saves. Charisma is okay, tempted to put as red but it's usefulness against banishment keeps it from being horrible.

Skills: pick any three, Great selection that allows you to shape your Bard's theme as you wish. I won't go over all of the skills, but some highly rated suggestions include Persuasion, Perception, and Stealth.

Abilities

Spellcasting: It's good, but not great. Somewhat limited spell selection. Overall, the base bard spell class is not the best. Ritual casting makes it better.

Bardic Inspiration: Decent at lower levels but gets better over time. A lot of you probably would have this as gold. I only think it gets there because it gets enhanced by other abilities at higher levels.

Jack of all Trades I think a lot of people don't realize how much this affects. It increases all non-proficient ability checks by 1. This includes initiative and rolls for spell that require a spellcasting ability check. This includes dispel magic and counterspell(if you take it through magical secrets). All around great ability.

Song of Rest: Good at low levels, scales poorly.

Expertise: Expertise is one of those abilities that you want as much as possible. I don't think I really have to explain my ranking that much.

Font of Inspiration: One of the abilities I mentioned that makes Bardic Inspiration better. This is one of the best, as now you don't have to worry as much about wasting Bardic Inspiration. Depends a little on how liberal your DM is with rests.

Counter Charm: Situationaly good, which makes it not bad. It's good when you know what your about to fight, or half your party fails against frightful presence.

Magical Secrets: Hands down the best ability the class gets. Allows for so much optimization and fun builds. Also good for thematic spells. It also makes you one of the three casters with access to Wish.

Superior Inspiration: The worst capstone in the game by far. At level twenty, you would probably have 5d12 anyways and use maybe 2-3 in a fight. Most DM's won't give you more than two combats between rests which makes this useless.

Bardic Colleges:

Lore: Overall, probably the best subclass for spellcasting and being the skill monkey of the group.

Bonus Proficiencies: Yay, more skills! Amazing for making a more versatile character out of combat.

Cutting words: Saves lives by preventing potentially lethal damage. Great for support. Competes with other uses though.

Additional Magical Secrets: Amazing! More spells from any spell list, sign me up. Allows the bard to fill any roll they want to.

Peerless Skill: Great for out of combat. It really solidifies you as the skill monkey of the party.

Valor: Allows for a combat focused build. At the cost of having only verbal spells available without warcaster. Pairs well with certain picks for magical secrets. Lags at low levels, better at mid-high.

Bonus Proficiencies: Better armor and the shield option. Sadly if you grab the shield you already had two of the weapons you would most likely wield. Allows for a ranged option as well.

Combat Inspiration: Can add damage and let whoever has it buff their AC. Best when used before getting into a fight.

Extra Attack: Good, but it comes later than desired. Pairs well if you grab weapon buffing spells with magical secrets.

Battle Magic: Allows for a spell and an attack. Great for when you need to heal somebody or cast a buff spell.

Glamour: Oh the fun that this subclass allows you to get up too. Really cements the charm spells as good picks. Also adds one of the best support abilities in the game.

Mantle of Inspiration: Best Inspiration use ever. Allows for party repositioning and gives temp hp at the same time. The higher your charisma the better.

Enthralling Performance: Really fun and helpful outside of combat. Gold because charming somebody usually makes them know about it afterward, this doesn't. This ability works well with other subclass abilities as well.

Mantle of Majesty: Great ability except for the rule about spells as bonus actions. Really good out of combat if you use Enthralling Performance first.

Unbreakable Majesty: Your so pretty now! Great ability for big fights. Giving disadvantage on saves is always amazing.

Swords: The best melee bard. The only thing missing is a shield proficiency. Great combat abilities as well as good compatibility with bonus action spells

Bonus Proficiencies: Good armor. Scimitars are... okay. The best part is using weapons as spellcasting focuses.

Fighting Style: I'm going to rank both. These ranks are in comparison to each other.
Dueling: Best fighting IMO, but in this case it is the best. Pairs well with action attack, bonus action spell.
Two Weapon Fighting Bit extreme, but I think two weapon fighting on a Bard is wasted. It competes for the bonus action with spells like healing word. It's better to just grab Spiritual Weapon and up cast it.

Blade Flourish: Extra Movement is nice. At low levels, it is not that good. It's basically a worse version of Superiority Dice. Font of Inspiration takes it to green, and Master's Flourish takes it to gold. I will also rank each Flourish in comparison to each other.
Defensive Flourish: Great for defense, duh. And extra damage.
Slashing Flourish: Never useful. At higher levels, it sucks even worse.
Mobile Flourish: Good to shove around enemies. Reaction movement is terrible, but never underestimate the power to push somebody.

Extra Attack: Same thing as the valor bard.

Master's Flourish: You basically have a permanent d6 added to your ac.

Whisers: I really wanted to like this subclass, but it is really bad except for one or two things. It works better as a rogue multi-class option. Overall, it's better is in an evil campaign.

Psychic Blades: Extra Damage is nice and the "on hit" part is good. Why I think it is better as a rogue multi-class

Words of Terror: It's fun and thematic, but not good. Fear just doesn't have practical applications outside of combat.

Mantle Of Whispers: Why I think this is meant to multi-class with rogue. Really useful for infiltration but not much else.

Shadow Lore: Why did they make this so bad? It functions like a charm spell. Once per long rest. As your level 14 ability. It's so bad.

Overall Thoughts:
I really like the Bard. It lags a little at the earlier levels but takes off around level 6. The best roles that it fills are Caster for the lore bard, Support for Glamour, Combat for Valor and Swords, and more roguish for whispers. All bards make great out of combat support classes with their wide variety of skills. It is a very versatile class that can fill any gaps in the party. The key is not to spread yourself too thin trying to fill too many rolls.


Edit: I'll probably add a spell list sometime in the next few days.

[dmteeter]

I would change your color scheme it's kind of hard to read on the blue background

[Guy Lombard-O]

This is my first class guide, so please tell me if I am missing anything or what your thought are.

Valor: Allows for a combat focused build. At the cost of having only verbal spells available without warcaster. Pairs well with certain picks for magical secrets. Lags at low levels, better at mid-high.

Bonus Proficiencies: Better armor and the shield option. Sadly if you grab the shield you already had two of the weapons you would most likely wield. Allows for a ranged option as well.

Combat Inspiration: Can add damage and let whoever has it buff their AC. Best when used before getting into a fight.

Extra Attack: Good, but it comes later than desired. Pairs well if you grab weapon buffing spells with magical secrets.

Battle Magic: Allows for a spell and an attack. Great for when you need to heal somebody or cast a buff spell.

Hi. First and foremost, Thanks and congratulations on your bravery! Always nice to see another guide!

So I'm very partial to Valor, and it's the only one I've played. So I'll limit my suggestions mostly to Valor. Also, my post may well be deleted if these suggestions become redundant to your actual guide.

First, I'd second the other poster who mentioned the colors being hard to see on that background, although I'm not sure about the fix.

Second, I'd make the college headings easier to discern from the features. Currently, it's the same script size and type, and doesn't stand out.

Third, I'd actually say "medium armor". Just as concise, more accurate and helpful.

Fourth, I'd specifically point out that "with magical secrets" comes at 10+ levels (in Extra Attack). Don't want confusion.

Fifth, I'd point out that Battle Magic is good for way more than just buffing. Great for debuffs, battlefield control...really whatever spells you've got. This is generally considered one of the absolute best gish abilities (you even still get to bonus action, unlike quickened). So the only reason to maybe not rate it pure gold is that it doesn't come until 14th level. Other than that, I think it's definitely better than merely blue.

Again, awesome start! Keep going!

[Mr.Spastic]

Hi. First and foremost, Thanks and congratulations on your bravery! Always nice to see another guide!

So I'm very partial to Valor, and it's the only one I've played. So I'll limit my suggestions mostly to Valor. Also, my post may well be deleted if these suggestions become redundant to your actual guide.

First, I'd second the other poster who mentioned the colors being hard to see on that background, although I'm not sure about the fix.

Second, I'd make the college headings easier to discern from the features. Currently, it's the same script size and type, and doesn't stand out.

Third, I'd actually say "medium armor". Just as concise, more accurate and helpful.

Fourth, I'd specifically point out that "with magical secrets" comes at 10+ levels (in Extra Attack). Don't want confusion.

Fifth, I'd point out that Battle Magic is good for way more than just buffing. Great for debuffs, battlefield control...really whatever spells you've got. This is generally considered one of the absolute best gish abilities (you even still get to bonus action, unlike quickened). So the only reason to maybe not rate it pure gold is that it doesn't come until 14th level. Other than that, I think it's definitely better than merely blue.

Again, awesome start! Keep going!

Thanks for the critique. I'll probably change the color scheme eventually.

For your fourth thing, your right. The way I wrote it is confusing. I meant that getting the extra attack at level 6 is painful at lower levels. Specifically at level five.

[Lunali]

Not completely. You and your familiar can have a secret deal that when you’re about to fight each other that the winner of initiative immediately forfeits and that the loser immediately accepts. So when out of normal combat, pull your kitty from her pocket dimension and challenge her to a fight. Then make your check with BI. Of course your DM needs to rule that initiative is rolled. All of my DMs thus far have agreed that the capstone is underpowered, so it hasn’t been a problem.

Claiming that the capstone isn't weak because all your DMs agree with you that it is weak doesn't make for a very strong argument.

[Genoin]

I think the "not completely" part was referring to the capstone being useless, not it being weak. As in, he is stating that it is weak, but not completely useless.

[Aett_Thorn]

So it’s a good start, but I think that you’re adding way too much subjective analysis in here and not enough objective. Basically, you’re viewing this as to what would be best at your table, based on how it operates, and not enough on how they could work at other tables as well.

Some examples: Whisper Bards are great in certain campaigns where combat might not be a major focus, such as a palace intrigue campaign. Even in normal campaigns their skills and features can be highly useful if you ever need to interrogate someone.

Valor Bard: don’t know why you think that they are restricted to Verbal-only spells until later. You can take a hand off of your two-handed weapon and cast spells just fine. Or sheath your sword for a round if your spellcasting is needed.

Extra Attack: You day it comes later than you’d want, but it’s only a single level after martial classes get it. So it’s really not a problem, especially since you got third-level spells at level 5 anyways.

Capstone: Sure, if your DM is only giving you two encounters between short rests, this won’t come up much. However, notice that I said encounters and not combats. Bards can be using their Inspiration out of combat, too, and might have needed them to help out in a non-combat encounter and have few or none left. It’s not a great capstone, but not useless.

Taking your table out of the picture can help when writing up a guide that you want others to view objectively. If their table plays differently than yours, a guide like this isn’t useful for them.

[Mr.Spastic]

So it’s a good start, but I think that you’re adding way too much subjective analysis in here and not enough objective. Basically, you’re viewing this as to what would be best at your table, based on how it operates, and not enough on how they could work at other tables as well.

Some examples: Whisper Bards are great in certain campaigns where combat might not be a major focus, such as a palace intrigue campaign. Even in normal campaigns their skills and features can be highly useful if you ever need to interrogate someone.

Valor Bard: don’t know why you think that they are restricted to Verbal-only spells until later. You can take a hand off of your two-handed weapon and cast spells just fine. Or sheath your sword for a round if your spellcasting is needed.

Extra Attack: You day it comes later than you’d want, but it’s only a single level after martial classes get it. So it’s really not a problem, especially since you got third-level spells at level 5 anyways.

Capstone: Sure, if your DM is only giving you two encounters between short rests, this won’t come up much. However, notice that I said encounters and not combats. Bards can be using their Inspiration out of combat, too, and might have needed them to help out in a non-combat encounter and have few or none left. It’s not a great capstone, but not useless.

Taking your table out of the picture can help when writing up a guide that you want others to view objectively. If their table plays differently than yours, a guide like this isn’t useful for them.

Thanks for the critique. I will try to take this into accounts in future guides and edits.