Loving this bard guide, thanks alot Mellored.
I was looking at the UA 'Blade' subclass and I think that they should drop combat magic at 14, give the bard the shield spell at 3 and at 14 do some sorta thing where the bard can sacrifice spell slots for attacks. A mega action surge ability of some sort, then it looks a truly different flavor than valor. Hopefully we will see quite a few new bard builds, looking at my old 2e bardbook there a few interesting ones. The 'Gallant' could be a fun rebuild, just make him a tank sorta character.
I'm gonna go ahead and speculate on what, I think, are some great multi-class options for Bard that haven't been broached upon as of yet.
Bard 17/Rogue 3
Though you do mention it, it's more in passing. Not sure if it's sky blue but it's a ton of flavor. Traveling from city to city no one suspects the great bard of actually being a killer. Even moreso if Simulacrum is chosen as a 14th lvl magical secret. You mention lightning arrow as a crazy nova, but dropping an 8th -9th level slots are for 9th lvl spells- onto heat blade is also crazy damage. The main point is Simulacrum, the cost for the spell is insignificant as the pay for such a service would be substantial. What worse player to face than someone than this character? You'll be able to give eah other bardic inspiration all the time. If you pick alert as an expertise, have a dex based character, with bardic inspiration and jack of all trades the chances of not having initiative on the next attack are sparse. With assassin comes the ability to have advantage on attacks in the second round, maybe you don't get the auto-crit, but maybe you just wanna teleport outta there.
With this character I think the Symbol spell also becomes pretty important during a mass slaughter. I mean, I could just imagine this character ambushing around 6-8 characters of 13th-16th level and just massacring them. You cast True Polymorph onto your Simulacrum after he/she cast power word kill to dispose of a MU, maybe forecage is in effect or maybe a some spamming of Otto's Dance. This may be the most single dangerous character in the game. I'm not sure if it's sky blue, but dang, the flavor is spot on.
A couple of other quick ones that I'm surprised you didn't cover. Seeing as how the Bardic Capstone is laughably sad, it's almost a neccessity to multi-class as a bard. It's really all about Magical Secrets, keep that since it grants you two 8th or 9th lvl spells of your choice, that will be the capstone for
Oh yeah, look at all that Expertise
Diviner 2/Lore Bard 18
Are you missing that 19th lvl feat or ASI? Don't worry you already pick up the highly useful Ritual caster feat at first level and with the second level you get Portent, one of the top abilities in the game. Plus, if you take the Wizard levels early enough you gain access to spells like Shield for when times get tough. Definitely a spellcasting Bard. In this class I would actually say the Lucky feat turns to Gold here since Portent + Lucky + Cutting Words is a killer, it loses a bit of juice toward the end, but to me this is sky blue all the way. Wish and something else are your accolades to a great run.
Evoker 2/Valor Bard 18
You wanna capstone? You wanna capstone? How about being able to run into the middle of battle, hold your own and then throw down a meteor swarm at your feat? Now that, that's a capstone. Not much needs to be said here, though I think, this would go Valor 6, Evoker 2 then Valor the rest of the way as an optimum. Another character whose Symbol spell is practically fatal, imagine facing this character in their own lair? Uhhhhhhhhh, no thanks. This is THE path for Valor Bard I believe.
Notable is
Necromancer 2/Bard 18
You get Grim Harvest which can be useful and can have some flavor, and like the other two classes you maintain full casting ability. This one isn't sky blue to me except on a flavor level but it can still be very useful. I would say it's more for a Valor Bard though it could certainly work well with a Lore Bard who has chosen attacking spells with Magical Secrets.
All right, that's all I got for now, really enjoyed this thread -the cover picture is exceptional- and hope I was able to add something to it.
I was looking at the UA 'Blade' subclass and I think that they should drop combat magic at 14, give the bard the shield spell at 3 and at 14 do some sorta thing where the bard can sacrifice spell slots for attacks. A mega action surge ability of some sort, then it looks a truly different flavor than valor. Hopefully we will see quite a few new bard builds, looking at my old 2e bardbook there a few interesting ones. The 'Gallant' could be a fun rebuild, just make him a tank sorta character.
I'm gonna go ahead and speculate on what, I think, are some great multi-class options for Bard that haven't been broached upon as of yet.
Bard 17/Rogue 3
Though you do mention it, it's more in passing. Not sure if it's sky blue but it's a ton of flavor. Traveling from city to city no one suspects the great bard of actually being a killer. Even moreso if Simulacrum is chosen as a 14th lvl magical secret. You mention lightning arrow as a crazy nova, but dropping an 8th -9th level slots are for 9th lvl spells- onto heat blade is also crazy damage. The main point is Simulacrum, the cost for the spell is insignificant as the pay for such a service would be substantial. What worse player to face than someone than this character? You'll be able to give eah other bardic inspiration all the time. If you pick alert as an expertise, have a dex based character, with bardic inspiration and jack of all trades the chances of not having initiative on the next attack are sparse. With assassin comes the ability to have advantage on attacks in the second round, maybe you don't get the auto-crit, but maybe you just wanna teleport outta there.
With this character I think the Symbol spell also becomes pretty important during a mass slaughter. I mean, I could just imagine this character ambushing around 6-8 characters of 13th-16th level and just massacring them. You cast True Polymorph onto your Simulacrum after he/she cast power word kill to dispose of a MU, maybe forecage is in effect or maybe a some spamming of Otto's Dance. This may be the most single dangerous character in the game. I'm not sure if it's sky blue, but dang, the flavor is spot on.
A couple of other quick ones that I'm surprised you didn't cover. Seeing as how the Bardic Capstone is laughably sad, it's almost a neccessity to multi-class as a bard. It's really all about Magical Secrets, keep that since it grants you two 8th or 9th lvl spells of your choice, that will be the capstone for
Oh yeah, look at all that Expertise
Diviner 2/Lore Bard 18
Are you missing that 19th lvl feat or ASI? Don't worry you already pick up the highly useful Ritual caster feat at first level and with the second level you get Portent, one of the top abilities in the game. Plus, if you take the Wizard levels early enough you gain access to spells like Shield for when times get tough. Definitely a spellcasting Bard. In this class I would actually say the Lucky feat turns to Gold here since Portent + Lucky + Cutting Words is a killer, it loses a bit of juice toward the end, but to me this is sky blue all the way. Wish and something else are your accolades to a great run.
Evoker 2/Valor Bard 18
You wanna capstone? You wanna capstone? How about being able to run into the middle of battle, hold your own and then throw down a meteor swarm at your feat? Now that, that's a capstone. Not much needs to be said here, though I think, this would go Valor 6, Evoker 2 then Valor the rest of the way as an optimum. Another character whose Symbol spell is practically fatal, imagine facing this character in their own lair? Uhhhhhhhhh, no thanks. This is THE path for Valor Bard I believe.
Notable is
Necromancer 2/Bard 18
You get Grim Harvest which can be useful and can have some flavor, and like the other two classes you maintain full casting ability. This one isn't sky blue to me except on a flavor level but it can still be very useful. I would say it's more for a Valor Bard though it could certainly work well with a Lore Bard who has chosen attacking spells with Magical Secrets.
All right, that's all I got for now, really enjoyed this thread -the cover picture is exceptional- and hope I was able to add something to it.
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lolz.
