CoS first time playthrough. Glamour Bard bad idea?

[Snig]

Hey guys, my group is getting ready for our first run through CoS. I had an idea I really liked about a Glamour Bard who is connected to the dream realm and focuses on a lot of Enchantment and illusion spells like sleep, phantasmal killer, etc. But I've been told that my character will be next to useless with all of the enemies and their resistances?

I don't need to be god tier, but I don't want to be hobbled and useless either. Is this a really suboptimal theme to go with?

[RogueJK]

Unfortunately, yes.

Without getting into spoilers, if you focus on things like Charm and Fear effects, and the Glamour Bard's Command ability, you're going to have A Bad Time in CoS.


About as bad as a rolling up a fire-based blaster caster for a Descent into Avernus campaign. :smallwink:



However, you could very likely take that "connected to the dream realm" character concept and easily apply it to a different caster type, without the enchantment/illusion/Command focus. A Circle of Dreams Druid seems to be the obvious choice. Or perhaps something like a Twilight Cleric for a God of Sleep/Dreams.

[solidork]

Note that you can play a glamour bard that doesn't go all in on the things that don't work well - you can be a very potent support character. My level 4 Bard added 70 extra HP to our party/allies in the last combat we were in.

But facing a lot of undead will be rough since it makes your level 6 ability not super useful, since you can't Command them.

[Damon_Tor]

Your powers will mostly be limited to trolling the random peasants and assorted NPCs unfortunately.

Now, a "face" is useful up to a point; being socially apt can absolutely reduce friction: depending on how certain randomized elements play out you can have important and/or powerful items gated behind NPCs whose cooperation a high-cha individual could secure, and jump the party ahead in the adventure without swinging a sword or casting a spell.