Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Character Builds & Optimization
[GUIDE] A party without music is lame: A Bard Guide
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Flididdle" data-source="post: 6804237" data-attributes="member: 6807532"><p>Loving this bard guide, thanks alot Mellored.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Bard 17/Rogue 3</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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</p><p></p><p>Oh yeah, look at all that Expertise <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Diviner 2/Lore Bard 18</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Evoker 2/Valor Bard 18</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Notable is </p><p></p><p>Necromancer 2/Bard 18</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Flididdle, post: 6804237, member: 6807532"] 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. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Character Builds & Optimization
[GUIDE] A party without music is lame: A Bard Guide
Top