Are Archery Valor Bards any Good?

[stoutstien]

To clarify, unlike a +1/+2 magic weapon, the +1/+2 from Elemental Weapon is an attack bonus only. You don't get to tack on that +1/+2 to damage as well. So Elemental Weapon gets you +1 to attack and +1d4 damage with a 3rd or 4th level slot, or +2 attack and +2d4 damage from a 5th or 6th level slot.



It's a perk for a Swords Bard fighting with TWF or a 1H weapon and shield, but not useful to someone like an Archer Bard with a 2H Bow or Crossbow (or a 1H hand crossbow). Any archer will already have a free hand for casting whenever needed.

Just like someone with a 2H melee weapon, you can freely remove one hand from the bow as a non-action before casting, and then re-grasp the 2H weapon with both hands again as another non-action.

(And Swords Bards aren't proficient with shields anyway, without dipping into another class. So there's no mechanical benefit from using a weapon as a focus on non-TWF and non-multiclassed Swords Bards.)

Depends. The item juggling can get annoying and sword bards can have a spell focus for only 5 cp.