First-time DnD player and poster looking for advice. Currently a Level 3 College of Lore Bard. A relatively small party with me, a Twilight Domain Cleric and Hexblade Warlock. We're still low level, but noticing combats have been a slog as I've been playing mainly buff and leaving it to the other two.
I know it goes against "standard" bard practices but was thinking of trying to find ways to take some more combat-focused spells vs party buffs. At Level 4 I was wondering about taking the Magical Initiate Sorcerer feat instead of ASI or a buff feat since there would be some nice overlap between charisma-based spellcasting while not stepping on the toes of our Warlock. What do you guys think?
In addition what cantrips and spells would you recommend if I do take this feat. My bard currently has Mage Hand, Message, Vicious Mockery, Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word, Heat Metal and Suggestion.
I love the way you are thinking! With the appropriate build a bard can cover any position. I believe that College of Lore bards have potenital to be combat oriented thanks to early magical secrets and cutting words.
Now it depends on how you interpret combat focused spells and you roll in combat. Thankfully many of your bard spells have a casting time of bonus action (mainly healing word and the subsequent use of heat metal). I will suggest two cases.
Case 1: Board control magic and damage dealing cantrips to finish off your enemies. With the Magic Initiate feat go with sorcerer as you suggested and take a damage dealing cantrip (fire bolt), a damage and utlity cantrip (ray of frost) and for the 1st level spell Mage armor for value (you can cast it once per long rest but mage armor lasts for 8 hours) or grease to give your opponents a rough time moving towards you. Grease and Ray of Frost can work nicely together. As you progress in bard you will get more board control spell like plant growth and you can steal some spell from other classes at level 6. The only drawback is that you delay your ability score progression.
Case 2: Take the weapon master feat and get right into the heart of the battle. Depending on what is higher, your STR or DEX allocate the +1 accordingly. Get prof with better weapons than those you already have and smash some faces. You can always go with weapons that have reach like halberd or whip to keep your distance. Unfortunately in that case you will truly shine at level 6 were you can take booming blade and shield with your magical secrets. You can also just buff your CON and CHA with the ASI and at level 6 steal Vampyric Touch to "unlife" your opponents and keep you fresh. Or even take Shadow Blade and play both melee and range.
Case 1 is exactly what I was thinking. Also kind of works thematically - my character just went through a part of the campaign where he realized his love for magic, being denied access to it previously.
I play straight up Lore Bards, so if you want to MC this won't work for you. I think Bards are great without MC, but they could use some armor.
So I always ask the DM to tell me how to acquire Elven Chain Shirt armor. The Elven Chain is a medium armor that you do not have to have proficiency with medium armors to benefit from. It is also +1 so it has that going for it, which is nice. Being a medium armor, it allows you to leverage +2 from dexterity to boost your AC. Getting Elven Chain Shirt is a top priority for me.
From there, let's look at some of the class features of Lore Bards. Bardic Inspiration needs a high Charisma ability to give you an extra BI to use each (short) rest. Song of Rest gives your party free HP every short rest, which should happen once or twice per adventuring day. Cutting Words(!!!) is one of your very best ways to use your Bardic Inspiration as a Reaction too. Deduct a BI die roll from an opponents To-Hit roll. It is free AC for one of your party members every round as long as you have BIs to throw around. Expertise can help you but it is mostly out of combat. Your first ASI is almost always used to boost your Charisma score because your spellcasting and BI are worth gold. Then at level 5 you get Font of Wisdom that gives you your Bardic Inspiration back every short rest. At this point you start to become a real High Gear support player while still having options for your action.
For Cantrips I select Vicious Mockery and Prestidigitation with Mending later.
For Spells I select ...
LvL 1: Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word (Bonus Action Spell), Bane and Charm Person (with Sleep as a 1st level spell when I add a spell at second level)
LvL 2: Heat Metal, Phantasmal Force, Invisibility, Silence (any two you like, and I drop Sleep at third level so I am getting two second level spells)
Lvl 3: Dispel Magic, (Sending) You may well pick up something else, I just like Sending for OOC reasons, but it can help in combat at the right time. Leomund's Tiny Hut is also great!
Additional Magical Secrets (Lvl 3): Counterspell, Thunderstep (Thunderstep allows me to get a squishy ally out of a tough spot)
Lvl 4: Dimension Door, Polymorph
Handing out Bardic Inspiration is a bonus action, so you can use your action for something else. You could end up doing three things in a turn when the conditions are right.
Action: Shoot a Crossbow, Stab with your Rapier, cast VM, cast DW, cast Bane (usually round 1)
Move:
Bonus Action: give out Bardic Inspiration, cast HW, cast HM (note: if you cast a Spell as an Action you can't cast these spells as a Bonus Action)
Reaction: Use Cutting Words, cast Counterspell, make an opportunity attack
Interact with an object:
So there are many options you will have most turns and you will often have the opportunity to do two of these things (such as an Action and a Bonus Action, or an Action and a Reaction). Of course, I am mostly only showing the lower level spells and as you advance you get access to the higher level spells. If you can control the terrain of the engagement and not too exposed, you can help your other players quite a bit. My sad stories with my Bard happened when he was "Molly-Womped" by a tough monster in a single round because the monster got around to an undefended position. My DM usually took out the casters whenever possible.
Any way you go, enjoy the game and good luck.
Now if you take a dip in another class, that only means these higher abilities will be delayed. But I always enjoyed the core Lore Bard path.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
First-time DnD player and poster looking for advice. Currently a Level 3 College of Lore Bard. A relatively small party with me, a Twilight Domain Cleric and Hexblade Warlock. We're still low level, but noticing combats have been a slog as I've been playing mainly buff and leaving it to the other two.
I know it goes against "standard" bard practices but was thinking of trying to find ways to take some more combat-focused spells vs party buffs. At Level 4 I was wondering about taking the Magical Initiate Sorcerer feat instead of ASI or a buff feat since there would be some nice overlap between charisma-based spellcasting while not stepping on the toes of our Warlock. What do you guys think?
In addition what cantrips and spells would you recommend if I do take this feat. My bard currently has Mage Hand, Message, Vicious Mockery, Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word, Heat Metal and Suggestion.
Thanks!
Greetings!
I love the way you are thinking! With the appropriate build a bard can cover any position. I believe that College of Lore bards have potenital to be combat oriented thanks to early magical secrets and cutting words.
Now it depends on how you interpret combat focused spells and you roll in combat. Thankfully many of your bard spells have a casting time of bonus action (mainly healing word and the subsequent use of heat metal). I will suggest two cases.
Case 1: Board control magic and damage dealing cantrips to finish off your enemies. With the Magic Initiate feat go with sorcerer as you suggested and take a damage dealing cantrip (fire bolt), a damage and utlity cantrip (ray of frost) and for the 1st level spell Mage armor for value (you can cast it once per long rest but mage armor lasts for 8 hours) or grease to give your opponents a rough time moving towards you. Grease and Ray of Frost can work nicely together. As you progress in bard you will get more board control spell like plant growth and you can steal some spell from other classes at level 6. The only drawback is that you delay your ability score progression.
Case 2: Take the weapon master feat and get right into the heart of the battle. Depending on what is higher, your STR or DEX allocate the +1 accordingly. Get prof with better weapons than those you already have and smash some faces. You can always go with weapons that have reach like halberd or whip to keep your distance. Unfortunately in that case you will truly shine at level 6 were you can take booming blade and shield with your magical secrets. You can also just buff your CON and CHA with the ASI and at level 6 steal Vampyric Touch to "unlife" your opponents and keep you fresh. Or even take Shadow Blade and play both melee and range.
Case 1 is exactly what I was thinking. Also kind of works thematically - my character just went through a part of the campaign where he realized his love for magic, being denied access to it previously.
I play straight up Lore Bards, so if you want to MC this won't work for you. I think Bards are great without MC, but they could use some armor.
So I always ask the DM to tell me how to acquire Elven Chain Shirt armor. The Elven Chain is a medium armor that you do not have to have proficiency with medium armors to benefit from. It is also +1 so it has that going for it, which is nice. Being a medium armor, it allows you to leverage +2 from dexterity to boost your AC. Getting Elven Chain Shirt is a top priority for me.
From there, let's look at some of the class features of Lore Bards. Bardic Inspiration needs a high Charisma ability to give you an extra BI to use each (short) rest. Song of Rest gives your party free HP every short rest, which should happen once or twice per adventuring day. Cutting Words(!!!) is one of your very best ways to use your Bardic Inspiration as a Reaction too. Deduct a BI die roll from an opponents To-Hit roll. It is free AC for one of your party members every round as long as you have BIs to throw around. Expertise can help you but it is mostly out of combat. Your first ASI is almost always used to boost your Charisma score because your spellcasting and BI are worth gold. Then at level 5 you get Font of Wisdom that gives you your Bardic Inspiration back every short rest. At this point you start to become a real High Gear support player while still having options for your action.
For Cantrips I select Vicious Mockery and Prestidigitation with Mending later.
For Spells I select ...
LvL 1: Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word (Bonus Action Spell), Bane and Charm Person (with Sleep as a 1st level spell when I add a spell at second level)
LvL 2: Heat Metal, Phantasmal Force, Invisibility, Silence (any two you like, and I drop Sleep at third level so I am getting two second level spells)
Lvl 3: Dispel Magic, (Sending) You may well pick up something else, I just like Sending for OOC reasons, but it can help in combat at the right time. Leomund's Tiny Hut is also great!
Additional Magical Secrets (Lvl 3): Counterspell, Thunderstep (Thunderstep allows me to get a squishy ally out of a tough spot)
Lvl 4: Dimension Door, Polymorph
Handing out Bardic Inspiration is a bonus action, so you can use your action for something else. You could end up doing three things in a turn when the conditions are right.
Action: Shoot a Crossbow, Stab with your Rapier, cast VM, cast DW, cast Bane (usually round 1)
Move:
Bonus Action: give out Bardic Inspiration, cast HW, cast HM (note: if you cast a Spell as an Action you can't cast these spells as a Bonus Action)
Reaction: Use Cutting Words, cast Counterspell, make an opportunity attack
Interact with an object:
So there are many options you will have most turns and you will often have the opportunity to do two of these things (such as an Action and a Bonus Action, or an Action and a Reaction). Of course, I am mostly only showing the lower level spells and as you advance you get access to the higher level spells. If you can control the terrain of the engagement and not too exposed, you can help your other players quite a bit. My sad stories with my Bard happened when he was "Molly-Womped" by a tough monster in a single round because the monster got around to an undefended position. My DM usually took out the casters whenever possible.
Any way you go, enjoy the game and good luck.
Now if you take a dip in another class, that only means these higher abilities will be delayed. But I always enjoyed the core Lore Bard path.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt