Hi, I am playing a Fey Wander Ranger/Bard currently level 7/2 and I am wondering what college to go with. I have no prior experience playing Bard, even a multiclass one.
The character has 16 Wisdom, 16 Dex, 14 Charisma. The character has proficiency in Deception and Persuasion which gives him a +9 in both of those.
In combat he is kind of a Gish, the rest of the party is a moon Druid, Hexblade, PAM/GWM-Berserker who are melee-oriented and a Celestial Warlock. Sometimes I go into melee with shilaleagh (and the DM house ruled to let me use my lute as a shillaleagh), sometimes I use a longbow and sometimes I am casting. He uses his reaction on Beguiling twist A LOT (because he has dragonfear feat and another party member has a mace of terror and for some reasons a lot of enemies try to frighten us). So his reactions are usually tied up.
One other thing, the character can't lie do to a side effect of a magic item he is attuned to (and it is a great magic item worth this limit). This means the Deception proficiency is largely useless.
I was thinking of eloquence, but with him not being able to use deception I am wondering if Glamor or maybe something else would be better? I am not considering Lore because he is reaction starved already.
Eloquence would still be useful as it also works with Persuasion. That said, just because you can't lie doesn't mean you can't deceive someone; I've been playing a neutral evil character who was cursed into his current form, but hates liars and lying, and I've been taking great delight in dodging questions while technically always telling the truth, so he's never been properly revealed for what he truly he is …yet. 😈
Glamour would double down on the fey aspect, though its early abilities may be a bit situational; Mantle of Inspiration isn't bad for general use (as a few temporary hp rarely hurts) but getting the most out of it is quite situational as it'll work best when your group is bogged down and needs to relocate (e.g- to focus on a necromancer). Enthralling Performance can be great, but you may need to fish for opportunities to make the most of it.
You might consider College of Spirits; ranged guidance is nice, and while the tales are random there's only really one that's properly situational (the first one that grants a bonus to INT/WIS/CHA checks). If you get to 6th you can use the Spiritual Focus to bolster damage and/or healing. You could talk to your DM about tweaking the theming to count as fey spirits specifically, and discuss what your Spiritual Focus might be (could maybe just modify the lute?).
I also quite like College of Whispers, Words of Terror is like Enthralling Performance in that you may need to fish for opportunities to use it, but Psychic Blades lets you deal extra damage in a kind of Rogue-like (but actually more Paladin Divine Smite-like) way, which could combine well with the Ranger's ability to do quite heavy damage already, ideal for finishing something off? You'd probably want at least 5th-level in Bard though so the Bardic Inspiration resets on short rests.
Whispers really works thematically. the character is more of an unseelie dark-Fey so whispers actually works better than glamor in general.
I probably won't make it to Bard 5 though. The campaign will likely end before that. So with a 14 charisma whispers means an extra 4d6 per day in damage. That is probably not better than the normal use of inspiration. Then add that Words of Terror is really difficult to use means my college won't give me much at all.
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Hi, I am playing a Fey Wander Ranger/Bard currently level 7/2 and I am wondering what college to go with. I have no prior experience playing Bard, even a multiclass one.
The character has 16 Wisdom, 16 Dex, 14 Charisma. The character has proficiency in Deception and Persuasion which gives him a +9 in both of those.
In combat he is kind of a Gish, the rest of the party is a moon Druid, Hexblade, PAM/GWM-Berserker who are melee-oriented and a Celestial Warlock. Sometimes I go into melee with shilaleagh (and the DM house ruled to let me use my lute as a shillaleagh), sometimes I use a longbow and sometimes I am casting. He uses his reaction on Beguiling twist A LOT (because he has dragonfear feat and another party member has a mace of terror and for some reasons a lot of enemies try to frighten us). So his reactions are usually tied up.
One other thing, the character can't lie do to a side effect of a magic item he is attuned to (and it is a great magic item worth this limit). This means the Deception proficiency is largely useless.
I was thinking of eloquence, but with him not being able to use deception I am wondering if Glamor or maybe something else would be better? I am not considering Lore because he is reaction starved already.
Eloquence would still be useful as it also works with Persuasion. That said, just because you can't lie doesn't mean you can't deceive someone; I've been playing a neutral evil character who was cursed into his current form, but hates liars and lying, and I've been taking great delight in dodging questions while technically always telling the truth, so he's never been properly revealed for what he truly he is …yet. 😈
Glamour would double down on the fey aspect, though its early abilities may be a bit situational; Mantle of Inspiration isn't bad for general use (as a few temporary hp rarely hurts) but getting the most out of it is quite situational as it'll work best when your group is bogged down and needs to relocate (e.g- to focus on a necromancer). Enthralling Performance can be great, but you may need to fish for opportunities to make the most of it.
You might consider College of Spirits; ranged guidance is nice, and while the tales are random there's only really one that's properly situational (the first one that grants a bonus to INT/WIS/CHA checks). If you get to 6th you can use the Spiritual Focus to bolster damage and/or healing. You could talk to your DM about tweaking the theming to count as fey spirits specifically, and discuss what your Spiritual Focus might be (could maybe just modify the lute?).
I also quite like College of Whispers, Words of Terror is like Enthralling Performance in that you may need to fish for opportunities to use it, but Psychic Blades lets you deal extra damage in a kind of Rogue-like (but actually more Paladin Divine Smite-like) way, which could combine well with the Ranger's ability to do quite heavy damage already, ideal for finishing something off? You'd probably want at least 5th-level in Bard though so the Bardic Inspiration resets on short rests.
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Whispers really works thematically. the character is more of an unseelie dark-Fey so whispers actually works better than glamor in general.
I probably won't make it to Bard 5 though. The campaign will likely end before that. So with a 14 charisma whispers means an extra 4d6 per day in damage. That is probably not better than the normal use of inspiration. Then add that Words of Terror is really difficult to use means my college won't give me much at all.