Bard Legacy This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore. Learn More Class Details
Humming as she traces her fingers over an ancient monument in a long-forgotten ruin, a half-elf in rugged leathers finds knowledge springing into her mind, conjured forth by the magic of her song—knowledge of the people who constructed the monument and the mythic saga it depicts.
A stern human warrior bangs his sword rhythmically against his scale mail, setting the tempo for his war chant and exhorting his companions to bravery and heroism. The magic of his song fortifies and emboldens them.
Laughing as she tunes her cittern, a gnome weaves her subtle magic over the assembled nobles, ensuring that her companions’ words will be well received.
Whether scholar, skald, or scoundrel, a bard weaves magic through words and music to inspire allies, demoralize foes, manipulate minds, create illusions, and even heal wounds.
Music and Magic
In the worlds of D&D, words and music are not just vibrations of air, but vocalizations with power all their own. The bard is a master of song, speech, and the magic they contain. Bards say that the multiverse was spoken into existence, that the words of the gods gave it shape, and that echoes of these primordial Words of Creation still resound throughout the cosmos. The music of bards is an attempt to snatch and harness those echoes, subtly woven into their spells and powers.
The greatest strength of bards is their sheer versatility. Many bards prefer to stick to the sidelines in combat, using their magic to inspire their allies and hinder their foes from a distance. But bards are capable of defending themselves in melee if necessary, using their magic to bolster their swords and armor. Their spells lean toward charms and illusions rather than blatantly destructive spells. They have a wide-ranging knowledge of many subjects and a natural aptitude that lets them do almost anything well. Bards become masters of the talents they set their minds to perfecting, from musical performance to esoteric knowledge.
Learning from Experience
True bards are not common in the world. Not every minstrel singing in a tavern or jester cavorting in a royal court is a bard. Discovering the magic hidden in music requires hard study and some measure of natural talent that most troubadours and jongleurs lack. It can be hard to spot the difference between these performers and true bards, though. A bard’s life is spent wandering across the land gathering lore, telling stories, and living on the gratitude of audiences, much like any other entertainer. But a depth of knowledge, a level of musical skill, and a touch of magic set bards apart from their fellows.
Only rarely do bards settle in one place for long, and their natural desire to travel—to find new tales to tell, new skills to learn, and new discoveries beyond the horizon—makes an adventuring career a natural calling. Every adventure is an opportunity to learn, practice a variety of skills, enter long-forgotten tombs, discover lost works of magic, decipher old tomes, travel to strange places, or encounter exotic creatures. Bards love to accompany heroes to witness their deeds firsthand. A bard who can tell an awe-inspiring story from personal experience earns renown among other bards. Indeed, after telling so many stories about heroes accomplishing mighty deeds, many bards take these themes to heart and assume heroic roles themselves.
Creating a Bard
Bards thrive on stories, whether those stories are true or not. Your character’s background and motivations are not as important as the stories that he or she tells about them. Perhaps you had a secure and mundane childhood. There’s no good story to be told about that, so you might paint yourself as an orphan raised by a hag in a dismal swamp. Or your childhood might be worthy of a story. Some bards acquire their magical music through extraordinary means, including the inspiration of fey or other supernatural creatures.
Did you serve an apprenticeship, studying under a master, following the more experienced bard until you were ready to strike out on your own? Or did you attend a college where you studied bardic lore and practiced your musical magic? Perhaps you were a young runaway or orphan, befriended by a wandering bard who became your mentor. Or you might have been a spoiled noble child tutored by a master. Perhaps you stumbled into the clutches of a hag, making a bargain for a musical gift in addition to your life and freedom, but at what cost?
QUICK BUILD
You can make a bard quickly by following these suggestions. First, Charisma should be your highest ability score, followed by Dexterity. Second, choose the entertainer background. Third, choose the dancing lights and vicious mockery cantrips, along with the following 1st-level spells: charm person, detect magic, healing word, and thunderwave.
The Bard Table
Level | Proficiency | Features | Cantrips | Spells | —Spell Slots per Spell Level— | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | |||||
1st | +2 | 2 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
2nd | +2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
3rd | +2 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
4th | +2 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
5th | +3 | 3 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
6th | +3 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
7th | +3 | — | 3 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
8th | +3 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | — | |
9th | +4 | Song of Rest (d8) | 3 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
10th | +4 | 4 | 14 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — | |
11th | +4 | — | 4 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
12th | +4 | 4 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | |
13th | +5 | Song of Rest (d10) | 4 | 16 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
14th | +5 | 4 | 18 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — | |
15th | +5 | Bardic Inspiration (d12) | 4 | 19 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
16th | +5 | 4 | 19 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | |
17th | +6 | Song of Rest (d12) | 4 | 20 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
18th | +6 | 4 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
19th | +6 | 4 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
20th | +6 | 4 | 22 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Class Features
As a bard, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per bard level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per bard level after 1st
Proficiencies
Armor: Light armor
Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords
Tools: Three musical instruments of your choice
Saving Throws: Dexterity, Charisma
Skills: Choose any three
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) a rapier, (b) a longsword, or (c) any simple weapon
- (a) a diplomat’s pack or (b) an entertainer’s pack
- (a) a lute or (b) any other musical instrument
- Leather armor and a dagger
Spellcasting
You have learned to untangle and reshape the fabric of reality in harmony with your wishes and music. Your spells are part of your vast repertoire, magic that you can tune to different situations. See Spells Rules for the general rules of spellcasting and the Spells Listing for the bard spell list.
Cantrips
You know two cantrips of your choice from the bard spell list. You learn additional bard cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Bard table.
Spell Slots
The Bard table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your bard spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.
For example, if you know the 1st-level spell cure wounds and have a 1st-level and a 2nd-level spell slot available, you can cast cure wounds using either slot.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher
You know four 1st-level spells of your choice from the bard spell list.
The Spells Known column of the Bard table shows when you learn more bard spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots, as shown on the table. For instance, when you reach 3rd level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the bard spells you know and replace it with another spell from the bard spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
Spellcasting Ability
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your bard spells. Your magic comes from the heart and soul you pour into the performance of your music or oration. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a bard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier
Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier
Ritual Casting
You can cast any bard spell you know as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag.
Spellcasting Focus
You can use a musical instrument (see the Tools section) as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.
Bardic Inspiration
You can inspire others through stirring words or music. To do so, you use a bonus action on your turn to choose one creature other than yourself within 60 feet of you who can hear you. That creature gains one Bardic Inspiration die, a d6.
Once within the next 10 minutes, the creature can roll the die and add the number rolled to one ability check, attack roll, or saving throw it makes. The creature can wait until after it rolls the d20 before deciding to use the Bardic Inspiration die, but must decide before the DM says whether the roll succeeds or fails. Once the Bardic Inspiration die is rolled, it is lost. A creature can have only one Bardic Inspiration die at a time.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of once). You regain any expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Your Bardic Inspiration die changes when you reach certain levels in this class. The die becomes a d8 at 5th level, a d10 at 10th level, and a d12 at 15th level.
Jack of All Trades
Starting at 2nd level, you can add half your proficiency bonus, rounded down, to any ability check you make that doesn’t already include your proficiency bonus.
Song of Rest
Beginning at 2nd level, you can use soothing music or oration to help revitalize your wounded allies during a short rest. If you or any friendly creatures who can hear your performance regain hit points at the end of the short rest by spending one or more Hit Dice, each of those creatures regains an extra 1d6 hit points.
The extra hit points increase when you reach certain levels in this class: to 1d8 at 9th level, to 1d10 at 13th level, and to 1d12 at 17th level.
Bard College
At 3rd level, you delve into the advanced techniques of a bard college of your choice: the College of Lore detailed at the end of the class description or another from the Player's Handbook or other sources. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th and 14th level.
Expertise
At 3rd level, choose two of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.
Font of Inspiration
Beginning when you reach 5th level, you regain all of your expended uses of Bardic Inspiration when you finish a short or long rest.
Countercharm
At 6th level, you gain the ability to use musical notes or words of power to disrupt mind-influencing effects. As an action, you can start a performance that lasts until the end of your next turn. During that time, you and any friendly creatures within 30 feet of you have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed. A creature must be able to hear you to gain this benefit. The performance ends early if you are incapacitated or silenced or if you voluntarily end it (no action required).
Expertise
At 10th level, choose two more of your skill proficiencies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses either of the chosen proficiencies.
Magical Secrets
By 10th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any classes, including this one. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip.
The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and are included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Bard table.
You learn two additional spells from any classes at 14th level and again at 18th level.
Magical Secrets
At 14th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any classes, including this one. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip.
The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and are included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Bard table.
You learn two additional spells from any classes at 18th level.
Magical Secrets
At 18th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from any classes, including this one. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip.
The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and are included in the number in the Spells Known column of the Bard table.
Superior Inspiration
At 20th level, when you roll initiative and have no uses of Bardic Inspiration left, you regain one use.
Bard Colleges
The way of a bard is gregarious. Bards seek each other out to swap songs and stories, boast of their accomplishments, and share their knowledge. Bards form loose associations, which they call colleges, to facilitate their gatherings and preserve their traditions.
College of Lore Legacy This doesn't reflect the latest rules and lore. Learn More
Bards of the College of Lore know something about most things, collecting bits of knowledge from sources as diverse as scholarly tomes and peasant tales. Whether singing folk ballads in taverns or elaborate compositions in royal courts, these bards use their gifts to hold audiences spellbound. When the applause dies down, the audience members might find themselves questioning everything they held to be true, from their faith in the priesthood of the local temple to their loyalty to the king.
The loyalty of these bards lies in the pursuit of beauty and truth, not in fealty to a monarch or following the tenets of a deity. A noble who keeps such a bard as a herald or advisor knows that the bard would rather be honest than politic.
The college’s members gather in libraries and sometimes in actual colleges, complete with classrooms and dormitories, to share their lore with one another. They also meet at festivals or affairs of state, where they can expose corruption, unravel lies, and poke fun at self-important figures of authority.
Bonus Proficiencies
When you join the College of Lore at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with three skills of your choice.
Cutting Words
Also at 3rd level, you learn how to use your wit to distract, confuse, and otherwise sap the confidence and competence of others. When a creature that you can see within 60 feet of you makes an attack roll, an ability check, or a damage roll, you can use your reaction to expend one of your uses of Bardic Inspiration, rolling a Bardic Inspiration die and subtracting the number rolled from the creature’s roll. You can choose to use this feature after the creature makes its roll, but before the DM determines whether the attack roll or ability check succeeds or fails, or before the creature deals its damage. The creature is immune if it can’t hear you or if it’s immune to being charmed.
Additional Magical Secrets
At 6th level, you learn two spells of your choice from any class. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip. The chosen spells count as bard spells for you but don’t count against the number of bard spells you know.
Peerless Skill
Starting at 14th level, when you make an ability check, you can expend one use of Bardic Inspiration. Roll a Bardic Inspiration die and add the number rolled to your ability check. You can choose to do so after you roll the die for the ability check, but before the DM tells you whether you succeed or fail.
"That's a fine villain you got there, it'd be a shame for someone to seduce them."- Bards, born to cast vicious mockery and epicly ruin the dms life.
One of the most funny things for me as beeinng a Bard in DND is to write sexy and seductive poems like this axempel:
In the midnight hush, where shadows play, Our bodies melt and spirits sway, Your touch, a fire against my skin, Ignites a storm that burns within.
Whispers soft, your breath, a plea, A heated promise meant for me, Fingers trace with fevered grace, Mapping out each hidden place.
Your lips, they wander, hot and slow, Tracing paths that only we know, A trail of heat, a line of fire, Awakening the deepest desire.
Hands explore in hungry flight, Craving more, intensifying the night, Every inch, a new delight, Lost in the rhythm of our plight.
Your gaze, intense, a lover's dare, A silent scream, an urgent prayer, In the space where shadows meet, Our passions raw, our pulses beat.
Moans and whispers, intertwined, Bodies seeking, hearts aligned, In this dance of skin on skin, We lose ourselves, we dive within.
Sweat and sighs, the night is ours, Underneath celestial showers, A symphony of flesh and fire, A crescendo of our wild desire.
In every thrust, in every sigh, A piece of heaven, you and I, Bound together, heart and mind, In ecstasy, we are confined.
The world dissolves, just you and me, In this dance of wild, untamed spree, A love so raw, so pure, so true, In the night, we are renewed.
Just if you want to get Inspired
If you're looking for tips on Bardic Inspiration for the 2024 Bard, this article has a decent write up: https://dungeonsanddragonsfan.com/bardic-inspiration-dnd-5e/
Tip if you don’t want to voice act: play a mute bard
it totally works
I’m gonna cast vicious mockery by playing the womp womp sound effect on my pan flute
make random hand signs that look like they could mean something, then explain in writing that you don’t know csl (common sign language) and you only know the one for your race
That has to be one of the best bards ever
I just found the best homebrew bard college. College of rock
GmBinder
Link here: https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-M6OCGcDVZZFQf8YSZUx
DND beond home brew page
Link Here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/homebrew/subclasses?filter-name=College of rock&filter-author=&filter-author-previous=&filter-author-symbol=&filter-parent-class=1&filter-rating=-40
use GuardingLight's one
It's not a typo. All Spiritual Focus does at 3rd Level is allow you to use the different Spellcasting Focus'. Some class features just unlock another part of the feature at later levels.
Its kind of like how the Monk gets Unarmored Movement at 2nd level, but then at 9th level the feature also allows you to move along vertical surfaces and across liquids.
They should 100% split them into two features though, its definitely a little confusing. I've straight up just missed the Monk Unarmored Movement upgrade before because its only mentioned on the 2nd level feature.
College of Eloquence is in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
I'm trying to understand if there is a typo on Spiritual Focus. You get the ability at 3rd level, but it says under it "Starting at 6th level, when you cast a bard spell that deals damage or restores hit points through the Spiritual Focus". I suspect it should say "Starting at 3rd level..."
Which makes no sense, because the bard spells that restore hit points are:
Spiritual Focus
3rd-level College of Spirits feature
You employ tools that aid you in channeling spirits, be they historical figures or fictional archetypes. You can use the following objects as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells: a candle, crystal ball, skull, spirit board, or tarokka deck.
Starting at 6th level, when you cast a bard spell that deals damage or restores hit points through the Spiritual Focus, roll a d6, and you gain a bonus to one damage or healing roll of the spell equal to the number rolled.
are you saying that to me?
Yes! I play a goofy ah kobold bard with a pet owlbear cub from a circus
also did i do this right? https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/126390383/JSkmZh
clap clap clap clapclapclapclap
bards are good. i havent had a chance to play d&d :( but i want to and bards can have vicous mockery and thats the best thing ever
where can I buy college of eloquence?
go elegant bard
I've played many bards but have never done the stereotypical seducing everyone until now! He's a chicken arakocra and plays southern music. He is pansexual and will seduce everyone
YES
Pretty sure that was a joke. It works on at least two levels so pretty sure it is.
Use proper grammar.😃😃😃