D&D 5E [GUIDE] A party without music is lame: A Bard Guide

mellored · Nov 15, 2016

Dasem said:
If you're a Rogue looking to dip into bard for whatever reason, at least Venemous Blades doesn't really slow down your Sneak Attack damage. So that's a thing.

It's not the worst, but warlock, sorcerer, or wizard will get you booming blade/green flameblade for better damage.
Or battlemaster 3 for precision strike.

ScuroNotte · Nov 15, 2016

What's your opinion on taking Flesh to Stone for magical secrets so can avoid carrying both Hold Person and Monster. I know Hold spells offer Crit damage, but can save at each round. Flesh to Stone if they fail 1st saving throw they are restrained for atleast 3 rounds?

mellored · Nov 15, 2016

ScuroNotte said:
What's your opinion on taking Flesh to Stone for magical secrets so can avoid carrying both Hold Person and Monster. I know Hold spells offer Crit damage, but can save at each round. Flesh to Stone if they fail 1st saving throw they are restrained for atleast 3 rounds?

While I agree that crits arn't too important, Restrained doesn't stop an enemy from attacking or casting spells, only moving. The single save is nice though as is the ability to target something besides Wis.

But hold monster works on people, is a spell level lower, and scales with higher level slots. So if you only want 1, I would just hold person.

Not a Hobbit · Nov 16, 2016

Could use some help with my Curse of Strahd character's 6th level magic secrets. She is the main healer in the party (Barb., Rogue, Wizard, Veng.Paladin), and I had originally planned on taking Aura of Vitality (the Paladin says she doesn't plan on taking it), but with the Paladin smiting being the only radiant damage against all those undead, I thought perhaps Spirit Guardians would be more helpful. Since both are concentration, I would probably only take one.

I [will] have all of the other bardic healing spells (Healing Word, Cure and Mass Cure Wounds).

I'm thinking of taking Guiding Bolt with my other secret, but am open to other suggestions. Sacred Flame would be appropriate, but probably not effective against dexterous vampire spawn, and Greenflame Blade and Eldritch Blast look great, but don't really fit with the character.

She has really gotten into (re: obsessed) with the whole religion thing since coming to Barovia, and I'd like to give her some payoff on that, without turning her into a pseudo-cleric (a Lite-Cleric, if you will

). Bard spells cover most of my social and control spells, so I'd like something that can help out in a battle aside from insulting monsters to death (which I HAVE done, thank you very much)

Thanks for any help. If you don't want such specific questions on your Guide page, let me know and I'll be happy to move it.

--Scott

mellored · Nov 16, 2016

Aura of vitality is mostly used as out of combat healing, so concentration doesn't overlap much.

Spirit guardian require you to be in melee, something you may want to avoid if you lack AC. Spiritual weapon might be a better choice., or fireball.

What's the rest of your party?

Ovarwa · Nov 16, 2016

mellored said:
Glamour

Interesting that you find this much better than the core subclasses.

Not a Hobbit · Nov 16, 2016

mellored said:
Aura of vitality is mostly used as out of combat healing, so concentration doesn't overlap much.

Spirit guardian require you to be in melee, something you may want to avoid if you lack AC. Spiritual weapon might be a better choice., or fireball.

What's the rest of your party?

Barbarian, Rogue, Paladin, Wizard.

I figured Aura of Vitality as a combat version of Prayer of Healing, since it (AoV) uses bonus actions as opposed to 10 minute casting for Prayer of Healing. Perhaps I'm not thinking of it the right way.

Spiritual weapon was another one I was thinking of (no concentration), but it's force damage which doesn't seem to hurt as much as radiant. I'll probably take something like Flamestrike at 10th level (assuming I live that long).

I kinda wish Magic Stone scaled like other cantrips, since my bard is quite the little slinger. Of course, that is force damage as well, but would still fit story wise.

Thanks for the help.

--Scott

mellored · Nov 16, 2016

Ovarwa said:
Interesting that you find this much better than the core subclasses.

Mantle of majesty is just near broken, especially with the auto-fail feature.
Add to that disadvantage on saving throws and you can literally dominate.

Though before level 6, lore and valor are better.

Most UA articles need a solid balance pass. Sometimes that makes them too good, or bad.

mellored · Nov 16, 2016

Scott Powell said:
Barbarian, Rogue, Paladin, Wizard.

I figured Aura of Vitality as a combat version of Prayer of Healing, since it (AoV) uses bonus actions as opposed to 10 minute casting for Prayer of Healing. Perhaps I'm not thinking of it the right way.

Spiritual weapon was another one I was thinking of (no concentration), but it's force damage which doesn't seem to hurt as much as radiant. I'll probably take something like Flamestrike at 10th level (assuming I live that long).

I kinda wish Magic Stone scaled like other cantrips, since my bard is quite the little slinger. Of course, that is force damage as well, but would still fit story wise.

Thanks for the help.

--Scott

Even against radiant vulnerable enemies, fireball is better than flamestrike.
Though since you have 2 good front line people, and a wizard who can fireball, you could possibly make good use of spiritual guardian.

Aura of vitality heals 2d6 * 10 rounds = 70 HP, spread out however you like it.
Prayer of Healing heals 3d8 (at 3rd level) + 4 = between 17.5 - 87.5 damage, depending on how many are hurt.

If your barbarian and paladin took lots of damage, you took a single hit, and your wizard and rogue took none, then prayer of healing is only giving 52.5 HP, where as Aura of Vitalities flexibility let's you heal up where it's needed most. Though it's also a spell level higher.

If you really want healing, take aura of vitality and a level of life cleric. That makes aura of vitality 120HP, more than enough. Plus it gives you armor to go into melee with spiriutal guardian, along with guidance, sacred flame, and some other good spells. Though that takes 13 Wis.

Still, it's generally better to use hypnotic pattern or similar in order to prevent enemies dealing damage rather than heal it after the fact.

Not a Hobbit · Nov 17, 2016

Thank you for the advice, Mellored. I shall ponder what you said. Luckily, I probably have a couple of weeks before I have to decide. I'm leaning toward my original thoughts of Aura of Vitality and Guiding Bolt.

The only reason I brought up Prayer of Healing was that you had said Aura of Vitality was an out of combat spell, and I had pictured it (AoV) as a combat version of the other (PoH).

Currently I've been using Bane or Heroism as my battle concentration spells. Bane works really well since it's a Charisma save.

Thanks again. Great guide, by the way. As are the ones you've done for the other classes.

--Scott