Valor Bard Griffon Knight

[GoldenDuck]

I really love the idea of playing a Griffon Knight character, but I'm struggling a bit to come up with a decent build. I'm thinking of going Valor Bard and taking the spell Find Greater Steed at level 10 for one of my magical secrets and going Variant Human for the Mounted Combatant feat, but I'm not certain where to go from there. Mostly, I'm struggling with what spells to take and how to make the character good in melee without getting too MAD. I know I could go Paladin, but that means getting the mount 3 levels later and I'd like to get it as soon as possible. Any ideas or advice would be greatly appriciated.

[Man_Over_Game]

I really love the idea of playing a Griffon Knight character, but I'm struggling a bit to come up with a decent build. I'm thinking of going Valor Bard and taking the spell Find Greater Familiar at level 10 for one of my magical secrets and going Variant Human for the Mounted Combatant feat, but I'm not certain where to go from there. Mostly, I'm struggling with what spells to take and how to make the character good in melee without getting too MAD. I know I could go Paladin, but that means getting the mount 3 levels later and I'd like to get it as soon as possible. Any ideas or advice would be greatly appriciated.

You don't really need much of a build.

Go straight Bard, get Mounted Combatant and Sharpshooter. Get your Steed spells as early as you can. Make sure to keep Featherfall in case things go south. That's it. That's the build.

If you wanted to be a melee combatant, you'll probably do a lot more being able to defend your allies and soak damage for them, rather than flying around for them to take hits for you. Mounts are generally only useful for running away, since they're a liability otherwise.

But if you're really big on melee, I'd go Paladin until you get your mount, then dip a bit into Cavalier. It'd offer the control elements you'd want out of that extra mobility, as well as some extra usage for your pet. As far as feats go, Shield Master will do well, and Sentinel can be used when chasing down weaker targets (like mages or archers). Valor Bard just doesn't have the durability I'd want to keep a mount safe, and is caster-heavy (meaning you'd be more divided into Charisma than other stats).

Without using ranged weapons or spells, most of the benefit of a flying mount for a Valor Bard could be replaced with just the Mobile feat for a lot less work.

[LudicSavant]

Valor Bard is less a melee character and more a caster that happens to not be squishy. Swords Bard is better at actually going into melee.

[KOLE]

Is Find Greater Familiar a new spell, or homebrew?

[LudicSavant]

how to make the character good in melee


Sharpshooter.

:smallconfused:

[Man_Over_Game]

Is Find Greater Familiar a new spell, or homebrew?

He means Find Greater Steed.

[KOLE]

He means Find Greater Steed.

That makes A LOT more sense.

[GoldenDuck]

He means Find Greater Steed.

I did, thank you xD I've corrected it.

[LudicSavant]

I really love the idea of playing a Griffon Knight character, but I'm struggling a bit to come up with a decent build. I'm thinking of going Valor Bard and taking the spell Find Greater Steed at level 10 for one of my magical secrets and going Variant Human for the Mounted Combatant feat, but I'm not certain where to go from there. Mostly, I'm struggling with what spells to take and how to make the character good in melee without getting too MAD. I know I could go Paladin, but that means getting the mount 3 levels later and I'd like to get it as soon as possible. Any ideas or advice would be greatly appriciated.

You could try something like Half-Elf Hexblade 1 / Swords 10 / Paladin 2 / Swords X with Elven Accuracy (bumping an odd Cha stat) and Mounted Combatant. If you want your third ASI earlier, you could do Hex 1 / Swords 12 / Pal 2 / Swords X.

You would then basically be a SAD unkiteable smite critfisher with a 27.1% critrate (with MC+EA+HBC), flourishes, a very high AC (medium armor + shield + Shield spell + flourish), and near-full casting. Or you could fit in an extra feat with VHuman at the cost of losing out on EA.

The reason I don't recommend Valor for a melee build is because Swords is better suited for personally being the one to go on the front lines and whack people. For instance, a Valor Bard's AC inspiration is granted to allies, while a Swords Bard's flourishes directly buff themselves. And Swords will actually get a Fighting Style to boost their damage.


You don't really need much of a build.

Go straight Bard, get Mounted Combatant and Sharpshooter. Get your Steed spells as early as you can. Make sure to keep Featherfall in case things go south. That's it. That's the build.

The OP said they wanted to go into melee. That said, you're not really going to hit much with Sharpshooter without raising your stats, and Mounted Combatant won't help your accuracy there (it only provides Advantage for melee attack rolls).

As for your edit 15 minutes after I responded to you:


If you wanted to be a melee combatant, you'll probably do a lot more being able to defend your allies and soak damage for them, rather than flying around for them to take hits for you. Mounts are generally only useful for running away, since they're a liability otherwise. On the contrary: Your mount can dramatically increase your melee engagement range, make you a lot harder to wall out with CC, and they can also split up and fight on their own in melee if you're in a situation where you don't need that mobility. And of course, Mounted Combatant benefits melee attacks. Find Greater Steed is just kinda all-around good.