Advice for a Tabaxi Bard

[Duff]

Hi folks. Looking for advice on how to cover party weaknesses
I’m playing a Tabaxi Bard in a party that has a cleric of light, a dwarvish fighter (Simple. Direct. Sword-and-board type), a monk posing as our rogue (shadow monk) and a halfling who’d also a monk, but more a mobile fighter than sneaky.
We’ve just hit 3rd level

We lack intelligence. We lack other arcane casters We lack an actual rogue

I’m probably going lore bard, which seems like it should help to cover some of our weaknesses.

But are there feats I should particularly look at for next level?
Apparently 6th level is a good time to look at multiclassing?
Any spells I should make sure to pick up?

[JNAProductions]

Boosting Charisma is never a bad idea on a Bard.
Multiclassing can be good if you have a goal, but more Bard levels work just fine.

What kind of stat arrays and sourcebooks do you have access to?

[Leon]

We lack intelligence. We lack other arcane casters We lack an actual rogue


Not things you actually need, if the DM is worth the title they will factor things in to account for "party roles" that may or may not be present in any given group. Try and cover those roles if you really feel like it but its better to play what you want to rather than being a stop gap (been there and done that and its a lot less fun than you think)

[Duff]

Not things you actually need, if the DM is worth the title they will factor things in to account for "party roles" that may or may not be present in any given group. Try and cover those roles if you really feel like it but its better to play what you want to rather than being a stop gap (been there and done that and its a lot less fun than you think)

Thanks. It's players and GM who are new to me, so I don't actually know how well everyone functions, though we are using a published adventure which may mean assumptions have been made.
I've played every other edition of D&D but not 5th ed, and I don't own any 5th ed books to go "window Shopping". But I'm an experienced player who's played all sorts of characters, so while I'm not going to shape my character around covering what the party lacks, I don't have a firm idea about what feats etc I want, so any advice will be taken as things for me to look at


I rolled 2 16s (Dex and Cha, Cha got +2), an 11 (Con, got +1) and a 7 8 and 9. (9 int makes me more intelligent than average in this party)
Not real sure about the rest of the parties stats. I know the Cleric's not very physical

[Derges]

5e is designed with feats as an option, the default assumption is that you'll increase your primary stat. Bumping your main stat is a good plan unless you need something to make your character work. Even when builds require feats to work they often increase stats first.

That said, War caster is good as is fey touched.

[RogueJK]

+2 CHA or +2 CON would be the easy options.

But CHA-based classes like Bards get a lot of mileage out of the Inspiring Leader feat. At your current 18 CHA, you'd be giving every party member 4+Level in Temp HP after every short or long rest. That's a huge amount of HP buffer for the party throughout the adventuring day.

Bards, as full casters, also benefit greatly from boosting their capability to maintain their Concentration on key spells. So something like Resilient CON (if you have an odd CON score) or Warcaster (if you have an even CON score) are never a bad option for a full caster. This is especially true with your just 12 CON.

And since you started with an 18 CHA, you can afford to take a feat like one of those now, rather than bumping CHA first. The average 5e PC will have an 18 in their primary stat by Level 8ish, and a 20 in their primary stat by level 12ish. So with your existing 18, you don't have to rush into a 20 CHA right away at your first ASI.


Personally, with your existing stats, I'd likely go one of two routes:

+2 CON to 14 at 4, Warcaster or Inspiring Leader at 8, and 20 CHA at 12

or

Resilient CON for 13 CON at 4, +1 CON to 14 and +1 INT to 10 at 8, and 20 CHA at 12.

[Duff]

Thanks for the advice. Inspiring leader sounds really handy. "Hi everyone, here's some free not dying"