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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 6387864" data-attributes="member: 6716779">This is my first attempt at writing a guide and is based on actual in game experiences with a bit of theory craft thrown in for good measure. I will be using the following system to rate things for the College of Lore Bard. This will cover the 1st 6 levels at this point.Selling PointsAKA why play a College of Lore Bard. Bards have a reputation as sucking as a class. This is not a view I agree with as I found the 2E bard quite powerful and we kind of broke the 3.5 Bard. The 5E bard however is a very good class IMHO and the College of Lore bard is likely one of the top tier classes in 5E. Do not expect to deal massive damage as the bard or even a moderate amount of damage. The Lore Bard excels as a controller in 4E terms buffing and debuffing friends and enemies and it makes a decent skill monkey as well along with a great support PC. It is probably the best class to take as a 5th person and if you need to replace a traditional role in a 4 man party I would suggest replacing the Rogue 1st followed by the wizard. Red: Garbage, or completely overshadowed by another option.Purple: Situationally useful, but overall pretty meh.Black: OK. You could do worse than pick this.Blue: Good stuff. You probably want this.Sky Blue: You want this. Period.Gold: Why haven't you taken this yet? A defining choice for a build, or even the whole class. Ability ScoresThis is assuming you use point buy or the default stat array. If you are rolling the dice this still gives you an indication of where to place your ability scores.Strength: Well something has to be the dump stat and for the Bard it may as well be strength. Short of some sort of multi class build strength is a dump stat.Dexterity:At low levels you may actually wade into combat dual wielding or using a bow. To many bard skills are keyed off this along with dexterity saves, initiative and AC. You want at least a 14 in this score or start the game with a 16. Constitution: Good for every class in the game. A 12-14 score is very good.Intelligence: Not a bad stat for a bard but you can get by with a 10. Intelligence saves are rare. You can switch it with wisdom if you like.Wisdom: Perception is based off wisdom and wisdom saves are common. Charisma: Your spell DCs, attack rolls, inspiration dice are all based off charisma along with several bardic skills. Put your highest score here the only exception I can thing of is perhaps some sort of gish multi class. Buff this stat if you do not take a bonus feat.RacesDwarfHill Dwarf: This race lacks a bonus to dexterity or charisma and none of its racial abilities really scream out as good bard choices. Probably best just avoided.Mountain Dwarf: Better than the hill Dwarf and you may be able to play some sort of gish type Dwarf bard due to medium armor, the strength boost and better weapons than the bard starts he game with. Could be fun at the lower levels and the medium armour could be useful. Could be fun but fun doesn't mean good.Elf:Drow: Would be rated as sky blue but the daylight sensitivity thing is a big drawback. Also you are a Drow which can have some in game downsides as well depending on your DM and setting. An extra Faerie Fire is always nice to have as a bard and you can mitigate the daylight penalty to some extent by casting spells that have no attack rolls. Superior darkvision allows things like surprise rounds in dungeons and larger caverns as your foes will not even see you coming.High Elf: A bonus cantrip is nice along with perception as a trained skill and the elven weapons. Nothing is really appealing as such in regard to most of its racial abilities but you do get a dexterity boost.Wood Elf: The wood elf offers most of the advantages as a high elf but the 35 movement rate and the mask of the wild can be useful for bards. The wisdom bonus is also nice. Not a great race as such but better than the High Elf IMHO.HalflingLightfoot: The light foot gets +2 dexterity and +1 charisma and the rest of the racial abilities are decent for bards. Would be sky blue but there are better races for the College of Lore Bard.Stout The stout could make an OK Bard I suppose but you have better options.Human: +1 to all stats can be very good for a bard and could be abusable with rolled stats and point buy. Boring perhaps but you can have something like 11,12,12, 14,14,16 or 10,11,14, 14,14, 16 or 10.10,11, 14,16,16 for ability scores which means no dump stats and when combined with the jack of all trades bard ability you are a great skill monkey outside of combat. Also no dump stats and bonuses to all saves actually matters in 5E. Theory crafters may not rate this that high but in game you are very versatile outside combat and having no dump stats on saves is very good. Can be the best multiclass race in the game and can be abused with rolled stats. Also useful for some jack of all trades multiclass skill builds. And by that I mean you are proficient in all of the skills.Human (variant) +1 to 2 stats, +1 skill and most importantly +1 feat makes for a great Bard. Having 12,14,14,16 for your 4 highest stats and a bonus feat works very well. The best Bard race and really the only competitive alternative to the half elf bard.Dragonborn: More suited to the Valorious bard the Dragonborn still make a good bard as resistance to an energy type is useful and the breath weapon is kind of like a free level 1 AoE spell. You probably want to have red or gold scales as well. The strength bonus is a little bit useless as you do not really want to be using strength based weapons anyway.GnomeForest Gnome Marginally better than the Rock Gnome. The ability scores mostly do not matter and the racial abilities do not really help with anything the bard should be doing. Rock Gnome: The Rock Gnome really offers very little to the Bard class. Half Elf: More or less the best bard race bar none. Only the variant humans bonus feat can really compare. I would almost rate this race as gold. If your DM doesn't allow the variant human into the game this race is rated as gold. +2 charisma, +1 to two stats of your choice, +2 skills and darkvision the rest of the racial package doesn't matter. You can have 16/16/14/12 as your best 4 stats for example. The half elf is just good.Half Orc: None of the half orc racial traits or ability score boosts matter that much for the college of Lore Bard. The Half Orc can make a good Valorious Bard though. Tiefling: The tiefling can make a good bard as it has decent attributes for the class and its racial spells. It is not as good as the human or half elf however hence its dark blue rating instead of sky blue.</blockquote>

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