D&D 5E Bard's Powers

[abirdcall]

Rests vary. But I would say probably 2-3 medium or 1 hard encounter/s before long rest.

I think we have found the issue.

The game assumes 6-8 encounters and 2 short rests for every long rest.

You don't have to go that far but you should certainly try to have more encounters per long rest and throw in some short rests. I would talk to your players about it and see if you can come up with a fair solution.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

We play a session every 1.5 to 2.5 months. On average the PCs will level up each session of 8 hrs, if this helps.
The other PCs are a Druid and Ranger of level 6 as well. Comparing the powers at hand at the new level 6, the Bard seems to be rather, amazing.

Fortunately, Moon Druid and Ranger are also amazing at level six. You have a powerful party. Just wait until the ranger starts abusing Sharpshooter, Pass Without Trace, and Spike Growth and the druid starts abusing Conjure Animals. You'll wish you had more Magical Secrets so you could steal them too.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

We play a session every 1.5 to 2.5 months. On average the PCs will level up each session of 8 hrs, if this helps.
The other PCs are a Druid and Ranger of level 6 as well. Comparing the powers at hand at the new level 6, the Bard seems to be rather, amazing.

Fortunately, Moon Druid and Ranger are also amazing at level six. You have a powerful party. Just wait until the ranger starts abusing Sharpshooter, Pass Without Trace, and Spike Growth and the druid starts abusing Conjure Animals. You'll wish you had more Magical Secrets so you could steal them too.

 

[Jaelommiss]

Sounds like you took three Magical Secrets instead of two. So no, you're not reading the rules correctly. Drop one of those spells until you hit level ten.

At level 6, bards gain an additional spell. Bestow Curse is a bard spell. I think that Aura of Vitality and Fireball came from Magical Secrets, and Bestow Curse came from leveling up.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

At level 6, bards gain an additional spell. Bestow Curse is a bard spell. I think that Aura of Vitality and Fireball came from Magical Secrets, and Bestow Curse came from leveling up.

In that case no problem.

 

[crashtestdummy]

The constraint on the bard is that they only have a limited number of spells. The Wizard has a lot more available, as has been pointed out. The lore bard can pick any two 3rd spells (not three) at 6th level, but it's only two. There are a lot more good 3rd level spells out there...and there will be lore bards that won't pick 3rd level spells, anyway. Bards suffer from a very restricted set of cantrips, so it's very tempting for one of those Magical Secrets to be a cantrip (eg. Eldritch Blast), not a third level spell.

Magical Secrets is another way Bards can be made unique, in that each bard will be different to another bard. I've got two lore bards designed (one I'm playing and one for when/if the first one dies) and you just can't compare them -- they're too different. That includes their Magical Secrets spells. Not every bard will pick the same spells. For example, because we have a Sorcerer in the party, I'm unlikely to pick Fireball as part of my 6th level Magical Secrets.

Magical Secrets is great, but because it's only two spells at each point where it can be taken, it's not super-powerful. The bard will always be stressing about which spells to pick -- there's too many to choose from!

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Magical Secrets is better, the newer you are to 5E. If you've only discovered Sharpshooter + Swift Quiver and Aura of Vitality, then those look like the no-brainer choices for Magical Secrets, and bards look overpowered. But then you realize that Wall of Force exists, and Conjure Animals, and Death Ward, and Web, and Spiritual Guardians, and Find Steed, and Bless, and... pretty soon you realize that all the spell lists have a lot of pure awesome built into them, and bards just get to tinker around the margins a bit. Bards start looking a lot more balanced at that point.

Since I refuse to play clerics for RP reasons, my Magical Secrets often go towards duplicating or excelling clerical powers, and Aura of Vitality is therefore my go-to pick. Beyond that it's a tossup full of agonizing tradeoffs: Counterspell, Spike Growth, Conjure Animals, Bless, Death Ward, Fireball, Evard's Black Tentacles, Web, Circle of Power are all attractive in different ways. Of course you always want to save one slot for Wish, for obvious reasons.

 

[Arcshot]

The bard will always be stressing about which spells to pick -- there's too many to choose from!

Yes, the bard player was actually complaining headache checking through the entire list of spells. A happy problem for him. Haha

 

[Arcshot]

Thanks for the insight guys! We will see how the Bard performs in the next game, I can see that it will be interesting.

 

[Vicaring]

I think we have found the issue.

The game assumes 6-8 encounters and 2 short rests for every long rest.

Which is a completely crap assumption, at least from any sort of non- munchkin/murderhobo dungeoncrawl. I mean, it's what 1 long rest per 24 hours, something like that? So this game expects you to get into 8 fights over the course of every single day your characters are out there walking around.

Right. That sounds perfectly reasonable.