Hello everyone, this is my first time creating a barbarian bard. The concept of the character is that he will be a mountain dwarf with a passion for creating "heavy music". Is the barbarian Path of the Beast in combination with the bard College of Swords a good solution? I want to give the first 3 levels in a barbarian, and then I don't know what to give up so that it would be optimal to cram these 3 levels of a bard. Maybe you have any other suggestions for the combination of a barbarian and a bard?
Hello everyone, this is my first time creating a barbarian bard. The concept of the character is that he will be a mountain dwarf with a passion for creating "heavy music". Is the barbarian Path of the Beast in combination with the bard College of Swords a good solution? I want to give the first 3 levels in a barbarian, and then I don't know what to give up so that it would be optimal to cram these 3 levels of a bard. Maybe you have any other suggestions for the combination of a barbarian and a bard?
The prevailing wisdom is that you shouldn't stop with your Barbarian levels until at least level 5.
If you have taken 3 barbarian levels, your next level is an ASI. This is likely to be very beneficial, boosting one of your most important modifiers and giving you a major improvement.
After this, your next level gives you both an extra attack, doubling your DPR, and an extra 10ft movement.
You need to balance that against low level spellcasting and bardic inspiration. It may be that you consider those more important for various reasons (including roleplay), but mechanically it is hard to see that beating an ASI or feat plus extra attacks and faster movement.
There is no rule anywhere that states a character must be a bard to be a musician. There is no need to take a whole class to get a bit of flavor when feats and backgrounds can accomplish the same thing. If you want your barbarian to be metal, just be metal.
Like Waddingsly said. You can pick up things like Musical instrument proficiencies and such other ways than simply adding bard into the mix. There are several ways to go about such things and not all of it has to be through official class levels.
And while Classes are fairly front loaded in some respects. When it comes to things like Spell Casting, Certain class abilities and things like that. Just 2 or 3 levels just doesn't really mean a lot overall. I know people like to argue that you get a lot of things by taking even one level in a class. And To an Extent that is true. But your also giving up things in another class to do it. And your often getting weakened versions of some of those things. So there are Pro's and Cons to different approaches and you shouldn't let somebody push you towards multiclassing just because they are big on it or that's what you see people doing everywhere.
It's a choice more often meant to be done because it reflects a change in your character, and it's something that you want to do and reflect in that capacity as opposed to some other method such as through feats, background, race, or whatever else.
Bard is in a weird spot as you need good CHA to get the most out of the features as your BI die correlate to your CHA bonus...however you can still get some good spells from the combo if you really want to go with it.
Basically target those that do not rely on DC. Longstrider, Comprehend Language, etc...
It is not optimized by any means but its still going along with what you want.
I'm also of the mindset that, if your main goal is to be a musically-inclined Barbarian, you just need to pick a Background that gives you instrument proficiency. But if you've got more ideas that require a bard multiclass, let's break down what that means.
The biggest problem is that, while raging, you cannot cast spells or maintain concentration. Swords Bard is a good compromise on that front... it gives you Blade Flourishes, which aren't spells so you can still use them while raging, or even give out Inspiration to your allies. The biggest problem, though, is that the efficacy of your flourishes depends on your inspiration die... as well, you're only going to have as much Inspiration as your CHA mod... so to get any use out of it, you'll need to do one of two things... either make sure you have the highest possible CHA so you'll be able to actually use your inspiration to fuel your flourishes, or take Bard to level 5 so that you can recover Inspiration on a Short Rest. That would also bump up your inspiration die to a d8... it's just a pretty steep investment for a multiclass combination.
The main benefit of going Swords Bard, though, is that it also gives you a Fighting Style, although the only two options you get (Dueling or Two-Weapon Fighting) don't pair ideally with Beast Barbarian, depending on how strict your DM is with the rules. Dueling only gives a bonus if you're holding a single weapon and have no other weapons, which is overridden by the beast natural weapons. Two-Weapon Fighting makes more sense, since you can pair this with the Claws to effectively get 3 attacks before even gaining the Extra Attack feature... but the claws might not qualify for two-weapon fighting. The rules state that your Melee Weapon needs the Light feature in order to qualify for Two-Weapon Fighting... but the Claws don't have the Light feature. A lot of DMs will probably let you still use them that way, since, y'know... why would attacking with two daggers be any easier than attacking with both clawed hands? But still, there's a chance that it won't be allowed.
So... yeah. To really take advantage of this combo you've gotta put 5 levels into Bard, and even then you're gonna be dealing less damage per round than you would just going pure barbarian.
If you're dead-set on this idea, my recommendation would actually be just to invest only 2 levels into Bard... don't even worry about Subclass options. Two levels gives you 5 known spells, two cantrips, and 3 spell slots... nothing that's going to set the world on fire, but smart spell choices can drastically change how your character gets through problems. Most importantly, though, is level 2 gives you Jack of All Trades and Song of Rest... Jack of All helps you with general skill checks, and Song of Rest gives you an actual mechanical use for your musical skills. This all gives you enough to pull off some cool musician stuff, but still lets you focus primarily on being a Barbarian.
Hello everyone, this is my first time creating a barbarian bard.
The concept of the character is that he will be a mountain dwarf with a passion for creating "heavy music".
Is the barbarian Path of the Beast in combination with the bard College of Swords a good solution?
I want to give the first 3 levels in a barbarian, and then I don't know what to give up so that it would be optimal to cram these 3 levels of a bard.
Maybe you have any other suggestions for the combination of a barbarian and a bard?
The prevailing wisdom is that you shouldn't stop with your Barbarian levels until at least level 5.
If you have taken 3 barbarian levels, your next level is an ASI. This is likely to be very beneficial, boosting one of your most important modifiers and giving you a major improvement.
After this, your next level gives you both an extra attack, doubling your DPR, and an extra 10ft movement.
You need to balance that against low level spellcasting and bardic inspiration. It may be that you consider those more important for various reasons (including roleplay), but mechanically it is hard to see that beating an ASI or feat plus extra attacks and faster movement.
There is no rule anywhere that states a character must be a bard to be a musician. There is no need to take a whole class to get a bit of flavor when feats and backgrounds can accomplish the same thing. If you want your barbarian to be metal, just be metal.
Like Waddingsly said. You can pick up things like Musical instrument proficiencies and such other ways than simply adding bard into the mix. There are several ways to go about such things and not all of it has to be through official class levels.
And while Classes are fairly front loaded in some respects. When it comes to things like Spell Casting, Certain class abilities and things like that. Just 2 or 3 levels just doesn't really mean a lot overall. I know people like to argue that you get a lot of things by taking even one level in a class. And To an Extent that is true. But your also giving up things in another class to do it. And your often getting weakened versions of some of those things. So there are Pro's and Cons to different approaches and you shouldn't let somebody push you towards multiclassing just because they are big on it or that's what you see people doing everywhere.
It's a choice more often meant to be done because it reflects a change in your character, and it's something that you want to do and reflect in that capacity as opposed to some other method such as through feats, background, race, or whatever else.
Bard is in a weird spot as you need good CHA to get the most out of the features as your BI die correlate to your CHA bonus...however you can still get some good spells from the combo if you really want to go with it.
Basically target those that do not rely on DC. Longstrider, Comprehend Language, etc...
It is not optimized by any means but its still going along with what you want.
I suppose the more important question is: what do you want this Dwarf to be able to accomplish mechanics wise?
I'm also of the mindset that, if your main goal is to be a musically-inclined Barbarian, you just need to pick a Background that gives you instrument proficiency. But if you've got more ideas that require a bard multiclass, let's break down what that means.
The biggest problem is that, while raging, you cannot cast spells or maintain concentration. Swords Bard is a good compromise on that front... it gives you Blade Flourishes, which aren't spells so you can still use them while raging, or even give out Inspiration to your allies. The biggest problem, though, is that the efficacy of your flourishes depends on your inspiration die... as well, you're only going to have as much Inspiration as your CHA mod... so to get any use out of it, you'll need to do one of two things... either make sure you have the highest possible CHA so you'll be able to actually use your inspiration to fuel your flourishes, or take Bard to level 5 so that you can recover Inspiration on a Short Rest. That would also bump up your inspiration die to a d8... it's just a pretty steep investment for a multiclass combination.
The main benefit of going Swords Bard, though, is that it also gives you a Fighting Style, although the only two options you get (Dueling or Two-Weapon Fighting) don't pair ideally with Beast Barbarian, depending on how strict your DM is with the rules. Dueling only gives a bonus if you're holding a single weapon and have no other weapons, which is overridden by the beast natural weapons. Two-Weapon Fighting makes more sense, since you can pair this with the Claws to effectively get 3 attacks before even gaining the Extra Attack feature... but the claws might not qualify for two-weapon fighting. The rules state that your Melee Weapon needs the Light feature in order to qualify for Two-Weapon Fighting... but the Claws don't have the Light feature. A lot of DMs will probably let you still use them that way, since, y'know... why would attacking with two daggers be any easier than attacking with both clawed hands? But still, there's a chance that it won't be allowed.
So... yeah. To really take advantage of this combo you've gotta put 5 levels into Bard, and even then you're gonna be dealing less damage per round than you would just going pure barbarian.
If you're dead-set on this idea, my recommendation would actually be just to invest only 2 levels into Bard... don't even worry about Subclass options. Two levels gives you 5 known spells, two cantrips, and 3 spell slots... nothing that's going to set the world on fire, but smart spell choices can drastically change how your character gets through problems. Most importantly, though, is level 2 gives you Jack of All Trades and Song of Rest... Jack of All helps you with general skill checks, and Song of Rest gives you an actual mechanical use for your musical skills. This all gives you enough to pull off some cool musician stuff, but still lets you focus primarily on being a Barbarian.
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