Feedback Wanted on my Bard/Cleric/Wizard

[VividSteel]

Hello,

I'm looking for feedback on a lore bard build I've been tweaking for a few months now. I’ll start with some backstory to make it clear where I’m coming from and what my hopes are with this build. We’re hoping that this campaign will go all the way from 2nd to 20th level. So in terms of the party, we currently have a circle of the moon druid, horizon walker ranger, arcane trickster rogue, and an oath of conquest paladin.

I’m playing a winged tiefling lore bard who originally started as an RP concept but I’m now working to optimize her as much as possible within her concept. The concept started as a bookworm who wanted to either be a professor of illusion or enchantment magic. Now, I’m trying to pull off a magical factotum sort of build where she covers some of the bases of the wizard and cleric we don’t have. What I’m asking is what tweaks could I make to my bard to help her to be more effective in covering the gaps in the party while keeping within her concept?

Race: Winged Tiefling
Background: Urchin
Class: Lore Bard 18 / Knowledge Cleric 1 / Wizard 1

Str: 8
Dex: 12
Con: 10
Int: 16
Wis: 13
Cha: 20

Levels 1-6: Lore Bard
Level 7: Knowledge Cleric
Level 8: Wizard

Feats/ASI
4th: Ritual Caster Feat (Wizard)
8th: +2 Cha
12th: +2 Cha
16th: Infernal Constitution (Warcaster/Resilient (Con)?

Skill Selection: acrobatics, arcana (exp), insight (exp), investigation, perception (exp), performance (exp), persuasion, religion (exp), sleight of hand, stealth (exp)

Spell Selection (All levels are bard)

Cantrips: Minor Illusion, Vicious Mockery, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Mending (Cleric), Sacred Flame (Cleric), Guidance (Cleric)
1st: Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire, Healing Word, Hideous Laughter, Thunderwave, Identify (Cleric Domain), Command (Cleric Domain), Feather Fall (Wizard), Magic Missile (Wizard), Charm Person (Wizard), Absorb Elements (Wizard), Disguise Self (Wizard), False Life (Wizard)
2nd: Enhance Ability, Phantasmal Force, Heat Metal (replace healing word at 7th), Alter Self (MS6)
3rd: Sending, Major Image, Counterspell (MS6)
4th: Greater Invisibility, Polymorph, Finder Greater Steed (MS10)
5th: Raise Dead, Synaptic Static (replace thunderwave at 9th), Circle of Power (MS10)
6th: Mass Suggestion, Mental Prison (MS14)
7th: Resurrection, Prismatic Spray (MS14), Teleport (replace raise dead at13th)
8th: Glibness, Mind Blank ( replace polymorph 15th)
9th: Foresight, Wish (MS18), True Polymorph (MS18), Psychic Scream (replace hideous laughter at 18th)

[Chad.e.clark]

Instead of Cleric and wizard dip, a two level Celestial dip will get you Masknof Many Faces and Misty Visions for unlimited Disguise Self and Silent Image, very fitting for a professor of Illusion magic. Celestial will also get you Cure Wounds and 2d6 worth of bonus action heals per long rest.

Edit: I too am starting a winged tiefling, my plan for Tehmann is to use Mask of Many faces while having wings out and flavoring the wings as appropriate for another form of humanoid. E.g.disguise self as a really tall gnome with clockwork wings, or a tall dwarf whose wings look like its made of thick beard. Dragonborn with draconic wings, half-orc wings with prominent ivory tusks.

[Bobthewizard]

Lore bard 19 and 20 are relatively uninteresting so adding a level each of wizard and cleric adds a lot to the character. I'd drop some of the 1st level bard spells to add some of the better high level ones. I'd add hypnotic pattern or fear, animate objects, and forcecage.

If you are dipping wizard, I'd take shield as my first choice. Keep absorb elements but change out any of the other spells for shield.

You could drop INT some and increase your CON. You could use more HP more than an extra point on an arcana check. You could even dump INT completely and take sorcerer instead of wizard, just taking shield and absorb elements as your spells. You wouldn't get as many 1st level spells and it might not fit your character concept, but it would give you attack cantrips based on charisma and more points to put towards constitution.

You might want to dip cleric earlier in order to get armor and a shield to help you survive to level 8.

[VividSteel]

Lore bard 19 and 20 are relatively uninteresting so adding a level each of wizard and cleric adds a lot to the character. I'd drop some of the 1st level bard spells to add some of the better high level ones. I'd add hypnotic pattern or fear, animate objects, and forcecage.

If you are dipping wizard, I'd take shield as my first choice. Keep absorb elements but change out any of the other spells for shield.

You could drop INT some and increase your CON. You could use more HP more than an extra point on an arcana check. You could even dump INT completely and take sorcerer instead of wizard, just taking shield and absorb elements as your spells. You wouldn't get as many 1st level spells and it might not fit your character concept, but it would give you attack cantrips based on charisma and more points to put towards constitution.

Thanks for the inspiration, I think it would actually fit her character concept as well. The DM was uncertain about letting her have wings, so we negotiated that they're growing and she'll have flight at level 5. In character, this is explained by her going through an 'infernal puberty' in her early adulthood, which is further supported by the infernal constitution feat. I think that draconic bloodline's features are VERY hard to pass up and you've certainly given me some food for thought as to sorcerer vs wizard. Thank you for your response.

EDIT: Feather fall has to be chosen by either bard, wizard, or sorcerer levels imo as a safety feature for flight. There is the ring of feather fall, so perhaps as a bard spell that can be replaced later?

[Aaron Underhand]

I played a vHuman lore bard with a one level wizard dip, which I took at second level. I had a blast...

I would suggest the following:


Forget the ritual caster feat - there are much better feats, given that wizard 1 and cleric 1 will give you a lot of first level rituals, and bard will give you tiny hut at third. There are some nice rituals, but nothing essential
Wizard 1 only allows you to prepare 4 spells with int 16 - if you can get a headband of intellect that will help. Charm person I would drop, but consider scribing scrolls for others from your spell book, and get as many spells in your spellbook as you can
Forget all the 1st level Bard spells - shield, absorb elements and feather fall have priority, get healing word from cleric, and now those slots are spoken for. The Bard spells are great, but you can only concentrate on one thing, once you have polymorph, hypnotic pattern and animate objects it wont be a faerie fire or hideous laughter! I would Strongly recommend Hypnotic Pattern and Animate objects as completely stand out spells on the Bard's list
Higher level spell scrolls - with Jack of all trades, guidance (from druid) and enhance ability you should have a good chance to cast most scrolls - this can fill in for the lack of high level wizard.
Given you have druid and paladin you might actually want to skip cleric and put that 13 wis into con... because
You need to improve your Con save, or half your spells will be gone as soon as you are hit. Also your hit points are very low - I'd seriously consider resilient Con at 4th. Now you can forget false life, get Healing word back as a bard, and still have all the utility you need..

Remember the skills from cleric are less dramatic given you have jack of all trades

[Bobthewizard]

Given you have druid and paladin you might actually want to skip cleric and put that 13 wis into con... because
You need to improve your Con save, or half your spells will be gone as soon as you are hit. Also your hit points are very low - I'd seriously consider resilient Con at 4th. Now you can forget false life, get Healing word back as a bard, and still have all the utility you need..
[/LIST]
Remember the skills from cleric are less dramatic given you have jack of all trades

Cleric also gets them medium armor and a shield for +4 to AC which helps with concentration by avoiding hits. If they skip cleric, how would you recommend they get the armor proficiency or would you just stick with light armor?

[Aaron Underhand]

Cleric also gets them medium armor and a shield for +4 to AC which helps with concentration by avoiding hits. If they skip cleric, how would you recommend they get the armor proficiency?

Ever the problem with Lore Bards... you need concentration, you need to shore up AC, and you have no at will damage to speak of. But being two levels behind as a bar will hurt much more than one... because with a single level dip you are casting at the same level as everyone else on even levels.

For this character the option to fly helps with getting hit - coupled with dodge or ideally being at long range (at least against thrown weapons) will help, as will shield and cutting words. Depends how tactical you are and how the table is - I always play with miniatures, and you do seem to get a very different situation with "theater of the mind".

My own character had AC 14 and no wings... shield is nice, but mainly it was crouch behind the (minor illusion of a) 5ft high large barrel that was conveniently placed. I took moderately armored at 8th level bard, but actually was in the middle of an extended adventure, and never even found a shield, let alone a breastplate. The universe ended at 11th, and for those three levels I was very aware I had no armor, but I cant actually remember getting hit while concentrating - I was playing cautious when that was happening. If I was at the same table I would happily have taken Cha +2 at 8th...

[VividSteel]

Something important I just remembered, my dungeon master has ruled that because my strength score is so low, I will not be able to fly in medium armor unless it's mithril.

Edit: What about a bard 19 /sorcerer 1 build to get that extra ASI for resilient (con), make more of a purpose to ritual caster, etc?