So, that said, what are some of your favorite applications for the different options? My personal favorite is a rapier-wielding, valor college, gladiator-style bard. I try to emulate the main characters from the movie The Road to El Dorado for maximum fun and shenanigans.
The Road to El Dorado is a great way to show what fun and shenanigans bards could pull off. My favorite bard I have ever made was a rapier-wielding, lore college, story telling bard. He would prefer to use his voice over his blade, rarely getting into melee but rather talk through his problems. Either through diplomacy or mocking, either works for this bard.
We are running through the Horde of the Dragon Queen campaign and it has provided me with many uses of coercion. The added damage is ok, but I tend to hand out inspiration more than use it. The ability to shift your image to a recently killed leader has been fun when working with hordes of mindless cultists.
My current game, the player is going with College of Swordplay (not what it's called, but that one about sword flourishes and the like). I'm interested to see how it goes.
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The last bard I ran was a lore bard, with Spell Sniper dipping into the Warlock's list for Eldritch Blast. So had a stable, super long range damage cantrip to use on top of the base utility.
For his inspiration I would draw out black and white cards from a Cards Against Humanity deck to determine what his song was about.
I've playing a Valor Bard and looking to multiclass, thought about the Ranger class but that comment about the Warlock with Eldritch blast sounds interesting...
Oh. Cards Against Humanity as song inspiration that is HILARIOUS.
You speak of the College of Swords from the Kits of Old Unearthed Arcana [here]
I played that during our Out of the Abyss campaign, as a sword dancing drow follower of Eilistraee. I enjoyed it a lot, going from cutting down foes and blasting them with spell, to healing my allies when they were in need.
College of Valor and Lore are both equally amazing in my eyes. Lore edges out with magic versatility though, while Valor makes the Bard a great bring to Adventurers League style character (Which I use).
I actually like each of the College of Glamour and the College of Whispers individually more than Lore and Valor combined. I hope they take playtested versions of those UA Colleges and put them in an "official" book one of these days, but as is they're so much more attractive conceptually to me that I just default allow them in games I run (and would play a Mastermind Rogue in a game that didn't let me do Glamour Bard, and just dual-class with Lore Bard and play it like a Glamour Bard lmao).
I am a great fan of the college of lore. I like how Cutting Words works. I just like the idea of saying things like "Look someone wrote gullible on the wall" can save you from getting punched in the face.
But the last bard I played was a College of Lore Bard of the Hobo variety. He had a INT of 7 so he got himself to trouble fairly often. But he was the parties healer so they sadly all had to look after him. Even when he drank some Giant's moonshine which would have killed him if it wasn't for a natural 20. His other hijinks included getting wasted and Vicious Mockerying everything in sight, nearly losing his important area when a slime caught him with his pants literally down (he was urinating in a pond which was full of slimes) and generally drinking anything anyone put in front of him. Ah I was surprised he survived so long haha.
My current archetype has to be a metal version, like Jack Black in that video game Brutal Legend.
However, some of my favorite bards have been a Goliath War Caller who had a spear in one hand and a drum stick in the other, a large drum riding his hip in service of his barbarian tribe named Krauk Thundersohn and my first character ever, Zak Flourish, the human bard swashbuckler / magician / fast talker. Good times.
As for Colleges themselves. I tend towards the College of Valor... but I'd really like to see a College of Musical Mystery or some such thing: something let allows Bards to focus in on the mysteries of musical magic.
You speak of the College of Swords from the Kits of Old Unearthed Arcana [here]
I played that during our Out of the Abyss campaign, as a sword dancing drow follower of Eilistraee. I enjoyed it a lot, going from cutting down foes and blasting them with spell, to healing my allies when they were in need.
Wow, I came into D&D with 4th ed and never knew too much about the older stuff. The College of Swords looks crazily fun! I'll definitely have to use that at some point in the future.
I'm currently playing with a College of Glamour bard and Mantle of Inspiration is super useful (facing one enemy? Run away and call the party.) Also, too many times have I used Enthralling Performance to distract some baddies while the rogue snuck in. Glamour is great.
My last bard was from the College of Valor. I really like them - every battle can be a new song with them focused on 'singing deeds of the mighty' and 'travelling the land to witness events first hand'. It fits an adventurer perfectly.
This bard wanted to be more like the heroes in the songs he was writing, so he ended up multi-classing into (Revised) Ranger. Melee focused, single weapon + shield, sort of a fighter-lite - throwing out Bard's Healing Word or a Bardic Inspiration on every bonus action he doesn't need to use his Hunter's Mark. Super enjoyable.
I'm currently playing with a College of Glamour bard and Mantle of Inspiration is super useful (facing one enemy? Run away and call the party.) Also, too many times have I used Enthralling Performance to distract some baddies while the rogue snuck in. Glamour is great.
Glamour Bard+Assassin Rogue would be such a good combo to have in one party.
I've yet to select my bard's college and just multi-classed into warlock (part of saving the character from death in our group's first session). I've loved the combo so far and am only struggling with what order to take levels / whether to go for the college or pact selection first.
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In the book presently there are only the two, College of Lore and College of Valor. However, the unearthed arcana colleges (http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/unearthed-arcana/bard-colleges) added some pretty cool options.
So, that said, what are some of your favorite applications for the different options? My personal favorite is a rapier-wielding, valor college, gladiator-style bard. I try to emulate the main characters from the movie The Road to El Dorado for maximum fun and shenanigans.
The Road to El Dorado is a great way to show what fun and shenanigans bards could pull off. My favorite bard I have ever made was a rapier-wielding, lore college, story telling bard. He would prefer to use his voice over his blade, rarely getting into melee but rather talk through his problems. Either through diplomacy or mocking, either works for this bard.
I am currently running with the College of Whispers and it has been quite the fun experience so far.
We are running through the Horde of the Dragon Queen campaign and it has provided me with many uses of coercion. The added damage is ok, but I tend to hand out inspiration more than use it. The ability to shift your image to a recently killed leader has been fun when working with hordes of mindless cultists.
My current game, the player is going with College of Swordplay (not what it's called, but that one about sword flourishes and the like). I'm interested to see how it goes.
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+ A Table of Contents That's Better Than Nothing (hundreds of creative, storied items that are "better than nothing")
+ A Table of Contents To Worry Your Players With (dozens of weird, storied traps to make your players nervous)
We're doing our own book on Kickstarter! It's going to be amazing--300 pages, art, and so much high quality content you'll be drownin' in it... Click here to check it out and sign-up!
The last bard I ran was a lore bard, with Spell Sniper dipping into the Warlock's list for Eldritch Blast. So had a stable, super long range damage cantrip to use on top of the base utility.
For his inspiration I would draw out black and white cards from a Cards Against Humanity deck to determine what his song was about.
I've playing a Valor Bard and looking to multiclass, thought about the Ranger class but that comment about the Warlock with Eldritch blast sounds interesting...
Oh. Cards Against Humanity as song inspiration that is HILARIOUS.
A tauren in a big Browncoat.
I"m a college of valor bard, drawing inspiration from the 300 spartans. Magic Initiate is pretty crucial, along with war caster.
You speak of the College of Swords from the Kits of Old Unearthed Arcana [here]
I played that during our Out of the Abyss campaign, as a sword dancing drow follower of Eilistraee.
I enjoyed it a lot, going from cutting down foes and blasting them with spell, to healing my allies when they were in need.
College of Valor and Lore are both equally amazing in my eyes. Lore edges out with magic versatility though, while Valor makes the Bard a great bring to Adventurers League style character (Which I use).
I actually like each of the College of Glamour and the College of Whispers individually more than Lore and Valor combined. I hope they take playtested versions of those UA Colleges and put them in an "official" book one of these days, but as is they're so much more attractive conceptually to me that I just default allow them in games I run (and would play a Mastermind Rogue in a game that didn't let me do Glamour Bard, and just dual-class with Lore Bard and play it like a Glamour Bard lmao).
I am a great fan of the college of lore. I like how Cutting Words works. I just like the idea of saying things like "Look someone wrote gullible on the wall" can save you from getting punched in the face.
But the last bard I played was a College of Lore Bard of the Hobo variety. He had a INT of 7 so he got himself to trouble fairly often. But he was the parties healer so they sadly all had to look after him. Even when he drank some Giant's moonshine which would have killed him if it wasn't for a natural 20. His other hijinks included getting wasted and Vicious Mockerying everything in sight, nearly losing his important area when a slime caught him with his pants literally down (he was urinating in a pond which was full of slimes) and generally drinking anything anyone put in front of him. Ah I was surprised he survived so long haha.
"Toss a coin to your [Insert class here]"
I LOVE BARDS!
My current archetype has to be a metal version, like Jack Black in that video game Brutal Legend.
However, some of my favorite bards have been a Goliath War Caller who had a spear in one hand and a drum stick in the other, a large drum riding his hip in service of his barbarian tribe named Krauk Thundersohn and my first character ever, Zak Flourish, the human bard swashbuckler / magician / fast talker. Good times.
As for Colleges themselves. I tend towards the College of Valor... but I'd really like to see a College of Musical Mystery or some such thing: something let allows Bards to focus in on the mysteries of musical magic.
Twitter @berlingsbeard
blog berlingsbeard.com
I'm currently playing with a College of Glamour bard and Mantle of Inspiration is super useful (facing one enemy? Run away and call the party.) Also, too many times have I used Enthralling Performance to distract some baddies while the rogue snuck in. Glamour is great.
My last bard was from the College of Valor. I really like them - every battle can be a new song with them focused on 'singing deeds of the mighty' and 'travelling the land to witness events first hand'. It fits an adventurer perfectly.
This bard wanted to be more like the heroes in the songs he was writing, so he ended up multi-classing into (Revised) Ranger. Melee focused, single weapon + shield, sort of a fighter-lite - throwing out Bard's Healing Word or a Bardic Inspiration on every bonus action he doesn't need to use his Hunter's Mark. Super enjoyable.
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My homebrew: [Subclasses] [Races] [Feats] [Discussion Thread]
I've been looking for a campaign/one-shot to run a College of the Maestro bard (Matthew Mercer's homebrew) to see how effective that is.
I've yet to select my bard's college and just multi-classed into warlock (part of saving the character from death in our group's first session). I've loved the combo so far and am only struggling with what order to take levels / whether to go for the college or pact selection first.