The Bard
What do you get for the man who has everything?
Foreword
The Bard's always held a bit of a contentious spot in 5e. Some adore it for its versatility, others feel it is able to do
too much and infringes on other classes' niches, especially with abundant skill benefits, the ability to poach spells from other classes' spell lists, and martial-leaning subclasses.
As we'll see, being able to do what other classes do was made even stronger in 2024 5e.
Level 1
One thing to note is that, due to simplifying starting weapon proficiencies, Bards no longer get access to a few martial weapons like rapiers or hand crossbows. It's a wholly needless change, and kind of telling of how 2024 5e shifts towards
laziness in design. Was anyone really mystified by the idea that classes could have specific weapon proficiencies rather than blanket categories?
Bardic Inspiration is now used when you fail an ability check, attack roll, or saving throw. This does have some benefit, in avoiding a "wasted" Inspiration when the original roll would have succeeded. It does make the feature unusable for situations where there isn't a strict "failure"—for example, initiative rolls, or other ability checks where the DM grants better success on a higher roll.
Their spellcasting has a bit of an oddity where they get a small boost in spells known early on but lag slightly at higher levels compared to 2014 5e.
I should also known that all spellcasting classes use the language "spells prepared" in 2024 5e, whereas 2014 5e made a distinction between "spells known" for classes that could only change spells at level-up and "spells prepared" for classes that could change on a rest. It's a needless terminology change and makes which rules apply to which classes much less clear.
Level 2
Song of Rest is omitted completely. It's a minor feature, but being minor doesn't make it totally meaningless. (Though with 2024's increased monster damage, the healing it would have provided is very much insignificant.)
Instead, the Bard now gets their first two Expertises at Level 2, along with Jack of All Trades. The latter feature now only explicitly applies to ability checks involving a skill, which plugs a few loopholes like initiative checks and Counterspell/Dispel Magic checks. Getting earlier Expertise, however, makes such easier to get for multiclass builds and diminishes a Rogue's niche in skill checks.
In addition, Magical Inspiration from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is not included. I think that optional feature is a bit unnecessary, and suffers from a caster-favouring problem that became more endemic later in 5e's lifespan (and
heavily defines 2024 5e), but it still would have been nice for the Bard to get some more stuff they could do with Bardic Inspiration rather than
less.
Level 5
Font of Inspiration now lets you burn spell slots to regain Bardic Inspirations. It's perhaps unnecessary, as you get a sufficient number of them regularly and this benefits subclasses with stronger Bardic-fuelled features much more than others, but it's not the worst "burn spell slots to fuel class features" we'll see.
It is, however, questionable that burning higher-level spell slots doesn't give you any more uses of Bardic Inspiration than a 1st-level slot.
Level 7
Countercharm is now a reaction used on a specific creature, and lets them reroll a failed save against being charmed or frightened with advantage. Arguably a side-grade, since it switches the feature from a proactive ability to a reactive one, with lessened effectiveness (since it only works on one person).
Where this gets pretty dumb is when you consider that you can use your music to bolster yourself when you fail at not getting charmed, or the fact that despite the flavour of the feature the target no longer needs to be able to
hear your "
musical notes or words of power to disrupt mind-influencing effects" to benefit from this, or that this feature no longer specifies that it doesn't work if
you yourself are silenced.
Level 9
Your second two Expertises are kicked down to this level, one level earlier. As mentioned in the previous analysis, I'm certain many changes in 2024 5e were made without consideration for other changes, and so I suspect this was done just so that a character could go Bard 9/Rogue 11 to pick up eight Expertises, Jack of All Trades,
and Reliable Talent (before Reliable Talent was changed in 2024).
Level 10
Here is where Magical Secrets comes in, and this is...overhauled. Instead of getting two spells from other classes at certain levels, you can now pick
any of your spells to be from the Cleric, Druid, and Wizard lists as well. You can replace any of your previous spells with spells from these lists as well.
On one hand, this change was done to keep certain "signature" spells from half-caster or more "unique" casters from easy access by the Bard, and I can understand that. But on the other hand, this means that the Bard can mish-mash spells of all levels from
four different spell lists.
As mentioned at the start, blind power creep is not good game design. This is the sort of change that begs the question:
is this necessary? Giving the Bard such massive and easy reach for their spell list just
isn't a needed change. Magical Secrets was already a strong feature with its preexisting limitations.
And on the subject of keeping certain classes' "signature" spells out of the Bard's hands? There's still a way to do so for the Bard or any other class, albeit to a more limited degree. The Cartomancer feat, coupled with a one-level dip—which in 2024 5e doesn't delay your spell-slot progression if done with a half-caster like the Paladin or Ranger. You can still get access to stuff like Destructive Wave or Conjure Volley, along with other benefits of the dip.
(Incidentally, the College of Lore's 6th-level feature is largely unchanged, meaning it amounts to just getting two extra spells known in the long run.)
Level 18
Superior Inspiration is moved here, and gives you two uses if you have less than that. I find these sorts of features awkward, in that they reward you for having used up all of your resource and thus apply less if you don't blow through all of your Bardic uses.
Level 20
The Bard gets a new capstone at Level 20. And it's probably one of the dumbest capstones in the game.
As we've established, the Bard's ability to expand their spell list has been massively improved. So what would be the perfect capstone for such a class?
A capstone that tells you to use your 9th-level spell slot on two specific spells. Namely, Power Word Heal and Power Word Kill. And you can target two creatures within 10 feet of each other.
If you want to use these spells, that's a nice boon. If you
don't, if you
dared to use your Magical Secrets feature to do the thing it allowed you to do and pick a 9th-level spell of your choice, then this capstone is effectively wasted whenever you don't use your 9th-level spell slot on those specific spells.
Trying to force a class to use specific spells when
a major gimmick of the class is being able to access so many different spells is just an absurd choice.
Conclusion
As mentioned, the Bard gets expanded abilities to Be Good At Everything. But as mentioned,
it's not really necessary. The Bard was in a good place previously, and while it may be reasonable to not let them grab 5th-level Paladin or Ranger spells much earlier than those respective classes, that Magical Secrets is the most significant change highlights how 2024 5e values spellcasting as much higher than everything else in the game—even more so than their most unique features.
Building a Better Bard?
- Bardic Inspiration should be more of a class feature. Give a few more ways to use Bardic Inspiration on the base class, rather than fewer. Have Superior Inspiration come online earlier, and have it just be a free use of your Bardic Inspiration feature once per initiative, encouraging more use of it.
- Let Magical Secrets chosen spells be changed, but it's entirely reasonable to maintain a limit on how many spells a Bard can pilfer from other classes. Maybe 9th-level spells should also be off-limits?
- The capstone should not restrict you to specific spells. Or if any spell, the capstone could just be evocative of Wish. Perhaps (in the vein of another capstone questionable for its own reasons) you can ritual-cast Wish once per XdY long rests, using it to cast a spell of 8th- or lower level. It's even flavourful as a feature: think of it as performing a song grand enough to alter reality.
