D&D 5E Xanathar's Bard: Blade Flourish with a Bow?

[TenkayCrit]

Title says it all. Can the bard subclass from Xanathar's use the blade flourish feature with a bow?

RAW seems to support it, but RAI seems a bit more iffy.

Thoughts?

 

[jaelis]

As written, yes, nothing limits it to melee weapons or melee attacks. Personally I have no problem with defensive flourish, but slashing flourish wouldn't make much sense. Mobile flourish would potentially give you a lot of movement, but I guess you don't usually want to move next to your target when you're an archer.

So at my table, probably defensive yes, slashing and mobile no.

Does seem like the rules were designed for melee, and they left that restriction out.

 

[Staffan]

As written, yes. There are some issues that make it sub-optimal though (unless you're multi-classing or something):

• Bards generally aren't proficient in good ranged weapons: only shortbows (because they're simple weapons) and hand crossbows.
• Blades get either the dueling or two-weapon fighting fighting style. Neither of these aid in ranged combat.
• Blades can use a simple or martial melee weapon as a spellcasting focus - not a ranged weapon. That's a lesser issue though - if the bard is using a bow, I have a hard time seeing a DM not allowing them to use one hand for material and somatic components on a round in which they don't attack.

All taken together, this makes ranged-focused blades a bit of an oddity. They would work very well for someone who mixes in an occasional thrown dagger with melee fighting though.

 

[ArchfiendBobbie]

I don't see why not. There are fancy, flourishy ways to move a bow and arrow. Just not as impressive as the blade, so generally just not worth the effort.

It's just not a good choice. That alone should keep most players from trying it more than once.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Jeremy Crawford's answer:

https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/930575467974860800