Feeling overwhelmed building my first character. I chose bard because my friends say I should play Satyr since it matches my personality. Seeing that I get to choose an instrument as a satyr https://getappvalley.com/https://vlc****, i assumed bard was a natural and safe pick.
What would you recommend for a first time player that is ok with filling just about any role, but whose party is made up of mostly if not entirely melee characters?
I'm in a group of first timers and one of them plays a Bard. They are exactly the sort of thing I want to see from a bard at a table: bursting with vim and vigour, and liberally using their spells and Bardic Inspirations. Their only tabletop experience before this game is wargaming, which didn't really lend itself to roleplay, so it's evident that this person has a lot of energy and has found a medium to let it spill out in the medium of roleplay.
The role itself is a great complement to a physical fighting force. Bardic buffs are always useful in any scenario, and their spell list heavily emphasises control. They're one of the best spellcasters you could ask for in that setup.
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Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
Feeling overwhelmed building my first character. I chose bard because my friends say I should play Satyr since it matches my personality. Seeing that I get to choose an instrument as a satyr, i assumed bard was a natural and safe pick.
What would you recommend for a first time player that is ok with filling just about any role, but whose party is made up of mostly if not entirely melee characters?
Ehhh... there's no class that really is very bad. I suspect that the problem is the game - it's complex. There is a lot to learn. You'll get the hang of it soon though, and things will make sense soon.
For beginners, I generally suggest Paladins, though. They can do most things reasonably well. They can cast spells, so you can learn that mechanic. They are also capable at physical combat, so if you screw up your spells, oh well! You still have a fall back, unlike say a Wizard. You have no spells slots as a Paladin? Absolutely no biggie, thump 'em with your sword. You can tank. You can do social interactions. You can heal. Might be a problem with a party full of melee attackers (Paladins are all about melee fighting), but maybe someone who is more experienced can swap roles.
That said, my wife's first character was a Bard. Once you get used to the game, it should be fine. Just remember that your primary role is to use your spells to help the party by making them stronger or to heal them. Each turn, see if there's someway you can do that.
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Want to play D&D? Try the following resources first (each section withing vertical bars is a clickable link to find the resource).
The tough thing about playing a bard is that they have so many options. But the great thing about playing a bard is... that they have so many options! Bard is a complex class that requires a great deal from the player. You need to have a steep learning curve and be able to make difficult decisions on the fly.
In a party of mostly melee characters, you'll likely be playing the support and healer role. So make sure you select a handful of good healing spells (Healing Word, Heroism, Aid, Lesser Restoration, Mass Healing Word, Mass Cure Wounds, Greater Resto are all great choices). Also be sure to pick a few good battlefield control spells (Bane, Fear, etc). When you get your Magical Secrets at level 10 (or 6), be sure to grab a big heal spell, like Heal, and a big boomer, like Fireball. Revivify is also a solid choice.
When combat starts you'll use your action to cast Bane on the enemies and your bonus action to give someone Bardic Inspiration. Second round you'll throw a big boomer to do some damage. Third round and onward you'll start throwing heals and rebuffing Bardic Inspiration. You'll probably never score the killing blow against a big bad guy, but you'll make your teammates better at everything they do. And when a party knows that a solid healer has got their backs, they're willing and able to take some bigger risks and to really throw everything they have downrange at the enemy.
After a few fights you'll find a rotation of spells that works best for your party, depending on each circumstance. Don't try to use every spell you have in combat. Just use what you need to keep the party alive.
But while you help your team shine in combat, it's you who will really shine outside of combat. Be sure to lean into your role as the face of the party! Use your Charisma skills to lead the party to victory in the "outside of initiative" arena of social interactions. The information you gather, the friends you make, and the doors you open will propel your party toward its goals at least as much as any combat-based skill.
As a beginner you can play any class but playing a bard is really throwing yourself in at the deep end. With barding inspiration and spells there is a lot of resource management. Most of the spells are support spells, reading a spell it is easy to tell how much damage it will do but until you have played the game quite a bit it is difficult to tell how effective a spell will be. Bards currently learn spells so if you choose spells you then find you don't like it is hard to change them if you play strictly to the rules (you can swap out one spell for another one every time you level up ).
I wouldn't look at one D&D it is play test material so the final release (in 2 years time) is likely to be quite different, as we do not yet have a full set of rules for one D&D (and the rules we do have are subject ot change) I would leave the play testing to experanced players.
I think the best spell casting option for a new player is cleric. While they can heal that does not have ot be their primary focus. I played a light cleric that was primarily about dealing damage with ranged spells. Clerics can change their spells every day if if one doesn't work out it isn't a problem.
If you do stick with bard talk to your DM about whether he will allow you be be a bit more flexible with spells, not necessarily changing all your spells every night but being able to replace a spell that isn't doing what you had hoped should be allowed for a new player.
Playing a spellcaster, at first, will force you to make several decisions. We can help you with building your character, but you will need to learn the D&D action economy system better than your mates.
But, I (we) love Bards. They are the most for class for me.
Initially, your bard will not be strong, but if your friends are bold, you will be able to help them. Later, your friends will feel they are invincible, and you can make them even more.
A bard gets to begin with 2-1st level spell slots, but gets to select a list of four first level spells to choose from. You also get two cantrips, which are considered level 0 spells you may cast as much as you like.
I recommend Prestidigitation and Vicious Mockery as your first cantrips. Vicious mockery isn't great, but it fits with the theme of the bard. Prestidigitation is an out of combat (mostly) thing that flavors well with the bard. It allows you to clean you and your buddies up after a fight, or after wading through a swamp, or ... and also allows you to light candles from a distance, flavor food and drink, warm or cool food and drink, and a lot of other things.
For the Four spells on your Spell List, I like ...
Bane, Charm Person, Dissonant Whispers and Healing Word.
Bane creates a hinderance for 4 enemies.
Charm Person can get you into a place, or out of a difficult situation. The only problem with Charm Person is the "victim" knows you charmed them and they might not like it when they snap out of it.
Dissonant Whispers is your go-to offense spell. Pick a target that is fighting one of your mates, and if they fail their save they take full psychic damage and have to spend their approaching turn fleeing from you. This gives your mates a free opportunity attack using their reaction when the enemy "breaks contact" with them. It often leads to a kill that round.
Healing word allows you to give a teammate a few HP so they can stand back up and not have to roll a death save. But, if you cast HW and then other "monsters" take their turns, they can put your mate back down again, so sometimes it doesn't work well.
The bard also gets some uses of Bardic Inspiration, which help your mates land a hit, or defend against a spell with a better save. If your mate has a one off weapon, like a javelin, then giving them Bardic Inspiration (as a Bonus Action) might allow them to get a hit with that javelin. Your mate doesn't have to use the Bardic Inspiration until after they roll their own attack. Before the DM says Hit-or-Miss, they may choose to use the bardic inspiration you gave them. Bardic Inspiration begins at d6, and increases over time.
Your Bard will begin lightly armored. Try to get Elven Chain Shirt as soon as you can.
Your bard will be better built with a 14 dexterity than a 14 strength. The dexterity helps your AC and gives you a bonus to-hit on finesse weapons, like the rapier, short sword and dagger.
God luck! Have Fun! And welcome to one of the largest hobby groups in the US.
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Dissonant whispers is awesome in a melee party. Toss out inspiration as a bonus action improving party hits. Bane gives the party an AC boost of 1-4 by lowering attack rolls, and increases the failures on their vicious mockery, dissonant whispers. Just have to remember you'll never be the hero (damage leader), but you'll make everyone else better.
I don't think Bard is any harder for a new player than any other full caster; mechanically the trick is balancing your resource usage so you don't burn through everything too fast, after that it's about getting a feel for when to use your support abilities, though that depends on the type of Bard.
Otherwise it's just about what kind of character they want to play, and if they want to be the party's face, as you usually will be as a Bard. When I started playing 5e I never intended to play as a Bard first time, because I'm not usually all that confident, but due to a miscommunication (I thought someone else was going to play a Dragonborn, so shelved my Dragonborn idea), so pulled out a Tiefling Bard idea (Habard Ashery) I'd toyed with and ended up having a blast with it after a shaky start. Played him as more of a con artist than a musician, which I think helped.
The sub-class you choose can help a lot; originally I built Habard with College of Lore, but that sub-class really needs more of a plan going in. After a brief hiatus (during which I actually played my shelved Dragonborn for a bit) I brought him back as College of Eloquence which I think would be a very good sub-class for a first time "classic" Bard (as it just straight up makes deception and persuasion a lot easier, and at higher levels your Bardic Inspiration doesn't expire if it doesn't help). I've also played a Swords Bard (Chortle the Tortle) and that was a lot of fun for a Bard/Fighter cross, though going a Tortle made the build a lot easier.
But yeah, I don't think Bard is especially difficult for a first time player; it's not the simplest, but not the hardest either, and it gives you a lot of license to be silly while supporting your party and/or being the face. And when you let a player really customise it they can have a lot of fun with it; e.g- let them use speech rather than music/song if they're not comfortable with that element.
Feeling overwhelmed building my first character. I chose bard because my friends say I should play Satyr since it matches my personality. Seeing that I get to choose an instrument as a satyr https://getappvalley.com/https://vlc****, i assumed bard was a natural and safe pick.
What would you recommend for a first time player that is ok with filling just about any role, but whose party is made up of mostly if not entirely melee characters?
Mechanically for the player playing the bard, it isn't terribly difficult. For melee heavy, faerie fire is welcome, and sleep can be among a melee group of elves is very effective. Spell choice is a challenge as what to pick. Spell/ability timing is another one; When to cast that healing word and on whom as Haravikk mentions takes some practice. Giving inspiration to the next character in the initiative order usually works better than the last one, and really works better if that character is going to act before the monsters. Lost a number of them because the monsters knocked down the player before they could use them.
But it is a matter of expectation setting though that it is designed to be a support class for everyone in the party.. So that means explaining to your peers how to use the inspiration die to help them, and a bit of learning on the bard's side when to give one (I think D&D One has an interesting idea to help there). Another is you aren't going to be a source of damage output OR healing output without some planning. I was with a player recently who was very non-plussed being the support type as a lore bard in low levels, because they felt like they couldn't contribute to the large swarms of opponents. Lastly; spell choice. You aren't a replacement for a Sorcerer/Wizard/Warlock for damage options. The lore bard I mentioned, never got to use their early arcane secret to learn fireball. Great control options though (as long as your melee friends don't accidently hit one :) ). It does take a bit of planning, and I would ask the DM to be a bit forgiving on someone learning the ropes of any spell caster to avoid trap spells like true strike.
But Bards are very flexible. After I played with my friends failed lore bard, I decided to play a bard, with a goal of being more combat capable at low levels (1-5). An elven bard was the result, who could use short/longbows and stay out of melee. Now with the piercer feat on a single shot, she contributes a lot. ( Lyanna Creation bard )
Bard isn't the worst in terms of complexity and time to learn. But expectations are a big part of getting what you want from it.
Feeling overwhelmed building my first character. I chose bard because my friends say I should play Satyr since it matches my personality. Seeing that I get to choose an instrument as a satyr https://getappvalley.com/ https://vlc****, i assumed bard was a natural and safe pick.
What would you recommend for a first time player that is ok with filling just about any role, but whose party is made up of mostly if not entirely melee characters?
I'm in a group of first timers and one of them plays a Bard. They are exactly the sort of thing I want to see from a bard at a table: bursting with vim and vigour, and liberally using their spells and Bardic Inspirations. Their only tabletop experience before this game is wargaming, which didn't really lend itself to roleplay, so it's evident that this person has a lot of energy and has found a medium to let it spill out in the medium of roleplay.
The role itself is a great complement to a physical fighting force. Bardic buffs are always useful in any scenario, and their spell list heavily emphasises control. They're one of the best spellcasters you could ask for in that setup.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
Ehhh... there's no class that really is very bad. I suspect that the problem is the game - it's complex. There is a lot to learn. You'll get the hang of it soon though, and things will make sense soon.
For beginners, I generally suggest Paladins, though. They can do most things reasonably well. They can cast spells, so you can learn that mechanic. They are also capable at physical combat, so if you screw up your spells, oh well! You still have a fall back, unlike say a Wizard. You have no spells slots as a Paladin? Absolutely no biggie, thump 'em with your sword. You can tank. You can do social interactions. You can heal. Might be a problem with a party full of melee attackers (Paladins are all about melee fighting), but maybe someone who is more experienced can swap roles.
That said, my wife's first character was a Bard. Once you get used to the game, it should be fine. Just remember that your primary role is to use your spells to help the party by making them stronger or to heal them. Each turn, see if there's someway you can do that.
Want to play D&D? Try the following resources first (each section withing vertical bars is a clickable link to find the resource).
|The free Basic Rules.|
|Some free short adventures| and |some more here too.| |Here is a series of encounters, some of which link together form a mini-adventure|.
You've played a few games and now want to buy materials? |Here's my guide on what to buy next|.
There are Some spells that are nice for a back row support bard.
Farie fire for advantage to your team.
Healing word if one goes down.
Even vicious mockery can help the team by causing disadvantage on one attack.
I think bard is a great idea. Check out the new One D&D playtest doc for some stuff on the upcoming changes to bards if your DM lets you use them.
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they.
The tough thing about playing a bard is that they have so many options. But the great thing about playing a bard is... that they have so many options! Bard is a complex class that requires a great deal from the player. You need to have a steep learning curve and be able to make difficult decisions on the fly.
In a party of mostly melee characters, you'll likely be playing the support and healer role. So make sure you select a handful of good healing spells (Healing Word, Heroism, Aid, Lesser Restoration, Mass Healing Word, Mass Cure Wounds, Greater Resto are all great choices). Also be sure to pick a few good battlefield control spells (Bane, Fear, etc). When you get your Magical Secrets at level 10 (or 6), be sure to grab a big heal spell, like Heal, and a big boomer, like Fireball. Revivify is also a solid choice.
When combat starts you'll use your action to cast Bane on the enemies and your bonus action to give someone Bardic Inspiration. Second round you'll throw a big boomer to do some damage. Third round and onward you'll start throwing heals and rebuffing Bardic Inspiration. You'll probably never score the killing blow against a big bad guy, but you'll make your teammates better at everything they do. And when a party knows that a solid healer has got their backs, they're willing and able to take some bigger risks and to really throw everything they have downrange at the enemy.
After a few fights you'll find a rotation of spells that works best for your party, depending on each circumstance. Don't try to use every spell you have in combat. Just use what you need to keep the party alive.
But while you help your team shine in combat, it's you who will really shine outside of combat. Be sure to lean into your role as the face of the party! Use your Charisma skills to lead the party to victory in the "outside of initiative" arena of social interactions. The information you gather, the friends you make, and the doors you open will propel your party toward its goals at least as much as any combat-based skill.
Just have fun with it! Perform!
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Tayn of Darkwood. Human Life Cleric. Lvl 10.
The bard is a great class, but if it's your first time playing, I'd recommend a class without spells.
As a beginner you can play any class but playing a bard is really throwing yourself in at the deep end. With barding inspiration and spells there is a lot of resource management. Most of the spells are support spells, reading a spell it is easy to tell how much damage it will do but until you have played the game quite a bit it is difficult to tell how effective a spell will be. Bards currently learn spells so if you choose spells you then find you don't like it is hard to change them if you play strictly to the rules (you can swap out one spell for another one every time you level up ).
I wouldn't look at one D&D it is play test material so the final release (in 2 years time) is likely to be quite different, as we do not yet have a full set of rules for one D&D (and the rules we do have are subject ot change) I would leave the play testing to experanced players.
I think the best spell casting option for a new player is cleric. While they can heal that does not have ot be their primary focus. I played a light cleric that was primarily about dealing damage with ranged spells. Clerics can change their spells every day if if one doesn't work out it isn't a problem.
If you do stick with bard talk to your DM about whether he will allow you be be a bit more flexible with spells, not necessarily changing all your spells every night but being able to replace a spell that isn't doing what you had hoped should be allowed for a new player.
Playing a spellcaster, at first, will force you to make several decisions. We can help you with building your character, but you will need to learn the D&D action economy system better than your mates.
But, I (we) love Bards. They are the most for class for me.
Initially, your bard will not be strong, but if your friends are bold, you will be able to help them. Later, your friends will feel they are invincible, and you can make them even more.
A bard gets to begin with 2-1st level spell slots, but gets to select a list of four first level spells to choose from. You also get two cantrips, which are considered level 0 spells you may cast as much as you like.
I recommend Prestidigitation and Vicious Mockery as your first cantrips. Vicious mockery isn't great, but it fits with the theme of the bard. Prestidigitation is an out of combat (mostly) thing that flavors well with the bard. It allows you to clean you and your buddies up after a fight, or after wading through a swamp, or ... and also allows you to light candles from a distance, flavor food and drink, warm or cool food and drink, and a lot of other things.
For the Four spells on your Spell List, I like ...
Bane, Charm Person, Dissonant Whispers and Healing Word.
Bane creates a hinderance for 4 enemies.
Charm Person can get you into a place, or out of a difficult situation. The only problem with Charm Person is the "victim" knows you charmed them and they might not like it when they snap out of it.
Dissonant Whispers is your go-to offense spell. Pick a target that is fighting one of your mates, and if they fail their save they take full psychic damage and have to spend their approaching turn fleeing from you. This gives your mates a free opportunity attack using their reaction when the enemy "breaks contact" with them. It often leads to a kill that round.
Healing word allows you to give a teammate a few HP so they can stand back up and not have to roll a death save. But, if you cast HW and then other "monsters" take their turns, they can put your mate back down again, so sometimes it doesn't work well.
The bard also gets some uses of Bardic Inspiration, which help your mates land a hit, or defend against a spell with a better save. If your mate has a one off weapon, like a javelin, then giving them Bardic Inspiration (as a Bonus Action) might allow them to get a hit with that javelin. Your mate doesn't have to use the Bardic Inspiration until after they roll their own attack. Before the DM says Hit-or-Miss, they may choose to use the bardic inspiration you gave them. Bardic Inspiration begins at d6, and increases over time.
Your Bard will begin lightly armored. Try to get Elven Chain Shirt as soon as you can.
Your bard will be better built with a 14 dexterity than a 14 strength. The dexterity helps your AC and gives you a bonus to-hit on finesse weapons, like the rapier, short sword and dagger.
God luck! Have Fun! And welcome to one of the largest hobby groups in the US.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Dissonant whispers is awesome in a melee party. Toss out inspiration as a bonus action improving party hits. Bane gives the party an AC boost of 1-4 by lowering attack rolls, and increases the failures on their vicious mockery, dissonant whispers. Just have to remember you'll never be the hero (damage leader), but you'll make everyone else better.
I don't think Bard is any harder for a new player than any other full caster; mechanically the trick is balancing your resource usage so you don't burn through everything too fast, after that it's about getting a feel for when to use your support abilities, though that depends on the type of Bard.
Otherwise it's just about what kind of character they want to play, and if they want to be the party's face, as you usually will be as a Bard. When I started playing 5e I never intended to play as a Bard first time, because I'm not usually all that confident, but due to a miscommunication (I thought someone else was going to play a Dragonborn, so shelved my Dragonborn idea), so pulled out a Tiefling Bard idea (Habard Ashery) I'd toyed with and ended up having a blast with it after a shaky start. Played him as more of a con artist than a musician, which I think helped.
The sub-class you choose can help a lot; originally I built Habard with College of Lore, but that sub-class really needs more of a plan going in. After a brief hiatus (during which I actually played my shelved Dragonborn for a bit) I brought him back as College of Eloquence which I think would be a very good sub-class for a first time "classic" Bard (as it just straight up makes deception and persuasion a lot easier, and at higher levels your Bardic Inspiration doesn't expire if it doesn't help). I've also played a Swords Bard (Chortle the Tortle) and that was a lot of fun for a Bard/Fighter cross, though going a Tortle made the build a lot easier.
But yeah, I don't think Bard is especially difficult for a first time player; it's not the simplest, but not the hardest either, and it gives you a lot of license to be silly while supporting your party and/or being the face. And when you let a player really customise it they can have a lot of fun with it; e.g- let them use speech rather than music/song if they're not comfortable with that element.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
Mechanically for the player playing the bard, it isn't terribly difficult. For melee heavy, faerie fire is welcome, and sleep can be among a melee group of elves is very effective. Spell choice is a challenge as what to pick. Spell/ability timing is another one; When to cast that healing word and on whom as Haravikk mentions takes some practice. Giving inspiration to the next character in the initiative order usually works better than the last one, and really works better if that character is going to act before the monsters. Lost a number of them because the monsters knocked down the player before they could use them.
But it is a matter of expectation setting though that it is designed to be a support class for everyone in the party.. So that means explaining to your peers how to use the inspiration die to help them, and a bit of learning on the bard's side when to give one (I think D&D One has an interesting idea to help there). Another is you aren't going to be a source of damage output OR healing output without some planning. I was with a player recently who was very non-plussed being the support type as a lore bard in low levels, because they felt like they couldn't contribute to the large swarms of opponents. Lastly; spell choice. You aren't a replacement for a Sorcerer/Wizard/Warlock for damage options. The lore bard I mentioned, never got to use their early arcane secret to learn fireball. Great control options though (as long as your melee friends don't accidently hit one :) ). It does take a bit of planning, and I would ask the DM to be a bit forgiving on someone learning the ropes of any spell caster to avoid trap spells like true strike.
But Bards are very flexible. After I played with my friends failed lore bard, I decided to play a bard, with a goal of being more combat capable at low levels (1-5). An elven bard was the result, who could use short/longbows and stay out of melee. Now with the piercer feat on a single shot, she contributes a lot. ( Lyanna Creation bard )
Bard isn't the worst in terms of complexity and time to learn. But expectations are a big part of getting what you want from it.