“Tomorrow will take us away
The Bard’s Song, Blind Guardian
Far from home
No one will ever know our names
But the bard’s songs will remain”
Sing of legends! Speak of heroes! Make joyful noise on lyre, lute, and fiddle! Now is the time of the Bard. As storytellers and masters of lore, Bards have many abilities that are of little use in many adventuring scenarios. How does a Bard, equipped with powers of persuasion and song, hold their own when faced with hostile ooze, or man-eating plants? It is time to study the legend of the bard.
This is part of a how-to-play class guide series. You may want to check out this introduction first. Following the common character levels from this discussion, this series will focus on levels 3-12.
Tell Their Story
The Bard is a jack of all trades and master of none. Unlike the proverb, this is not better than a master of one. D&D is a party-based game, and works best when different PCs have different strengths. Everyone gets a moment to shine, because everyone has unique talents. Being merely mediocre at everything means the bard is almost always overshadowed.
Bards gain more skill proficiencies than most classes, but not as many as rogues. The Bard’s spell list is not as flexible as the wizard’s. They know more spells than the Sorcerer, but cannot use metamagic to strengthen them. They have the same weapon and armour proficiencies as Rogues, but lack sneak attack, so have a lower damage output. In all these things, the Bard is just…not as good as other classes.
Find Your Skill
These challenges are not insurmountable — fun and effective Bards are still possible. To get there, we must identify the features that do distinguish Bards from the norm, and use them effectively.
The College of Valor fails to do this. In fact, it does the opposite. The bonus proficiencies make them better in melee than other Bards, but still nowhere near as good as martial classes. Combat Inspiration’s defensive option is less effective than Cutting Words. Cutting Words can reduce damage, which is useful against extremely accurate monsters that can hit even after Combat Inspiration. The offensive form of Combat Inspiration gives a small boost to damage on a hit. It is more important to hit in the first place, so it will often be better to use the inspiration on attack rolls instead — especially against high AC, high HP enemies that will take multiple hits to kill regardless.
The College of Lore is more promising. The bonus proficiencies give them more skill proficiencies than anyone else — finally a unique strength!. Cutting Words is not only versatile and effective, but uses your reaction — combining this with regular use of inspiration lets you use more in a single round. Bringing more power to bear more quickly will end fights sooner, decreasing the attrition cost. Features that change the action economy like this are always valuable.
Ability Scores
The Bard’s core ability score is Charisma — this determines spell DCs and Inspiration uses. Dexterity follows. Even for melee builds, Medium Armour users will want a modifier of +2, so it is more efficient to double down on Dexterity and ignore Strength, especially as Dexterity is used with more Skills. Constitution is important for concentration checks and hit points. Wisdom is perhaps slightly more useful than Intelligence due to saves and the frequency of Perception checks, but there are enough Intelligence skills that this is a very close tie.
Spells
The final important choice Bards make is their choice of spells. As fits their theme of being highly flexible, Bards know a large number of spells, and can replace them fairly easily. This leaves more room for experimental and whimsical choices without crippling your PC.
Choosing spells is never trivial, as there are so many choices. Rather than giving a detailed breakdown of all spells, here is a list of one per spell level (up to 6th). Some are good. Some are bad. The discussions for each spell should help you see the kinds of things to consider so that you can make your own informed decisions.
Vicious Mockery is a cantrip. Compared with other damage cantrips, it is weak, but raw damage is never the Bard’s strength. The real strength of this spell is the debuff. In general, the martial enemies that rely on attack rolls will have poor Wisdom saves, so will reliably take the penalty. Disadvantage on their next attack will cripple monsters with a single strong attack, and is a significant penalty for those with multiple attacks. With a reasonable range, this could also be used to shut down hard-to-reach archers until your friends can close the distance. This spell becomes more powerful later in fights, as it will effect a greater proportion of the opposition’s remaining attacks.
Faerie Fire is a fantastic debuff. For maximum effect, you should cast this before any of your allies make attack rolls, then everyone should focus fire on the easy targets. Reliably hitting and frequently criting (not to mention getting sneak attack) in the first few rounds will swing the balance of combat in your favour, as you will quickly kill enough enemies to gain a numbers advantage. Unfortunetly, Dexterity saves are often strong, so this is unreliable against a single target — focus on hitting as many targets as possible.
Shatter is our first bad spell example. Damaging spells are frequently the least effective. This is counter-intuitive, as the point of a fight is to deal damage. However, specialisation is our bane once again: Rangers, Rogues, and Fighters are designed to deal damage above all else. Spells like Faerie Fire make that specialisation even more effective (even more so the more party members there are). Spells that deal damage must compete with this. Shatter’s damage output is likely lower than a Fighter’s attack unless it hits multiple targets. However, Constitution saves are often high, so many monsters will take reduced damage, and clustered enemies are already candidates for Faerie Fire. Effective damaging magic is possible, but requires features like the sorcerer’s metamagic — more on that in a future post.
Hypnotic Pattern is an area of effect debuff, like Faerie Fire. However, where Faerie Fire makes it easier to gain a numbers advantage, Hypnotic Pattern grants you one immediately, giving you the opportunity to take out the remaining foes before targeting the Charmed ones. As mentioned, Wisdom saves are often low for martial monsters, and the area is large enough that you can reliably stop at least a few. However, it does have corner cases. Corner cases are increasingly an issue for more complex spells. — read the text carefully to be aware of them. Hypnotic Pattern will not work on creatures immune to Charmed, and will be negated if there is a damaging environmental effect, so you must be on guard against these risks before using it.
Dimension Door showcases the versatility of magic — you can: cross unbridged chasms; break into an unseen room at a known location; make a hasty escape; escape a grapple and withdraw from melee; or quickly airlift your Fighter into an unreachable part of the battlefield. This spell creates a huge number of possibilities. Creating new possibilities is not only powerful and flexible, but also exciting in play. That makes spells like this very good, even if their direct application is less clear.
Hold Monster is a potent way to target one enemy. Like Hypnotic Pattern, it takes them out of the fight. Unlike Hypnotic Pattern, it remains in place if they take damage — which they will due to Paralyzed’s advantage on attack rolls and guaranteed criticals. To stop the target escaping before your allies have the opportunity to attack, you can pull interesting Initiative stunts, like readying an action cast the spell after the target’s turn, or having your allies ready actions to attack after you cast.
Hero’s Feast is introduced as a possible Bard spell in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. The spell is excellent, but costly. With a 24 hour duration, it can be cast the day before a tough encounter, allowing the Bard to rest and recover the spell slot. The extra hit points are not temporary, so can be recovered. The immunities are nice, but the bonus to Wisdom saves is incredible — this protects from paralysis, mind control, and a host of other problematic effects. However, each casting has a 1000gp cost.
I have many thoughts spells with costly material components, and sense a post about them coming soon. For now, it will suffice to say this: if your campaign provides the gold, use this spell, but if treasure is tight, the cost may be too high, so you should favour other options.
Battle of the Bands
Out of combat, the Bard’s strategy is simple: exploit Expertise and Jack of All Trades by making lots of skill checks, with the occasional spell to solve specific problems.
Combat is a little more complex. Bardic Inspiration will be helpful for ensuring Rogues hit when they can deal Sneak Attack, and for making sure Barbarians pass Wisdom saves against mind control. However, it is a limited resource, especially before 5th level. Certainly use it in the first round, but beyond that you must judge how the fight is going.
Countercharm is a costly use of actions to give only an improved chance of resisting an effect. It is unlikely to be a good move, unless it is clear that the entire party will make saves this round within range.
For most actions, Bards will want to use spells. However, these are another limited resource. It will almost always be a good idea to cast something on your first turn — this will shape the outcome of the battle the most. Once the party is winning, you can switch to weapon attacks or Vicious Mockery to mop up remaining monsters.
Rate My Bard
How does the Bard compare to other classes?
Complexity: 4
Bards are spellcasters, and have many concentration spells. They must track spell slots, inspiration uses (and who has it currently), remember concentration checks, and know enough about their spells to identify which ones are relevant in a particular moment.
Strategy: 5
An effective Bard must not only consider their own tactical options, but also those of every other party member, and each enemy in order to work out whom to buff and whom to debuff. In addition to understanding the maths of the game, they must make judgements about the likely strong and weak saves of their targets. At the same time, the Bard’s contributions to a fight will appear small. They are strategic masterminds rather than action heroes.
Versatility: 5
One cannot have an ability called Jack of All Trades without being versatile. In addition to being above average at everything and having a good list of skill proficiencies, several spells create new options for problem solving. This is what Bards do best.
Flavour: 3
There are plenty of Bards in fiction from which to draw inspiration. However, the D&D Bard does not look like any of them. Their significant spellcasting powers draw more from mages than musicians. The space to create a story-telling entertainer is still there, but they are not as flavourful as the Barbarian.
Diversity: 1
By choosing different spells, Bards can differ one from the next. However, all will fulfill a similar role, and will benefit from the same kind of spells.