Hello, I have a bard that I will soon be playing in a campaign and I still have some time for revision. I can’t find a decent build for glamour bards anywhere, hoping I can find some decent ones here. Ozzy Van Urban is a Tiefling Bard with a Rock star complex but strives for a personal mission, but while searching he wants to experience all of what life has to offer since his Succubus mother never got to do that due to her premature murder when he was a child. I want to play a formidable mix between ranged damage and support because of the glamour bards ideal feature set of disruption and a great use of bardic inspiration. I only have 2 levels to spare that I am willing to give up unless a greatly powerful build gets mentioned and more are needed. I thought the Hexblade would be decent since it front loads so much and offers Eldritch Blast, Hexblade’s curse, med armor, charisma melee weapon, and shields. And at level two it buffs Eldritch Blast a lot and offers other utility invocations. Feat inclusion would be ideal if you wish to pitch one, though I have warcaster in mind already if you were going to mention it. So the criteria I ask for is feats, variant (if suggested, and which to choose), The class and how many levels to invest, and maybe a couple spells that would best benefit that build to acquire. Thanks!!
And another comment from elsewhere (had trouble pasting the link):
Mantle of Inspiration is, IMO, finally a use of bardic inspiration that isn't demonstrably worse than cutting words. In a five person party by level 8 you are preventing 40 points of damage per use, plus the free movement. That alone is reason enough to consider the class.
Enthralling Performance is good enough that it should solve a problem for you every time you use it. Once a long rest it can double up with Mantle of Majesty to really lay it on. They require a bit of foresight and cleverness though.
Unbreakable majesty is dope. It refreshes every turn, and even a successful save nets them disadvantage on saves vs you. It's good enough that sometimes you'd probably consider actively courting people to attack you while it's up.
Glamour Bards are excellent at battlefield control and talking. It's 3rd level ability is perfect for maneuvering allies especially when someone is surrounded. It also grants noticeable amount of temporary hit points and I have found myself using it more than normal Bardic Inspirations. Spells like Dissonant Whispers and Hypnotic Pattern can be lifesavers and especially Dissonant Whispers serves as a great damage tool. For avoiding combat I'd suggest Invisibility. You could also try talking yourself out of many situations doubly so if you can perform something for a minute. Remember that performance doesn't have to be music, even a proper speech should suffice. It's sixth-level ability is useful for making one enemy absolutely useless in combat and to intimidate someone out of combat
I 've been playing a Glamour Bard only for a while but it is quickly becoming one of my favourite classes and subclasses.
I have a Dwarven, Female, Glamour Bard named Helga Rumpshaker. She once intimidated a bandit by putting him and his buddies to sleep, stripping him naked, tying him up, and gagging him with his own underwear THEN using sexual denial tactics to get him to give up his hideout. lol
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"It was crazy in there! People were farting everywhere—it was not me. They're building a throne room, there was some locked doors, man I wish you could have been there! It was exciting but ultimately pointless, so let's go down to the mines!" - Scanlan Shorthalt (Sam Riegle - Critical Role)
I'm playing probably my favorite character I have ever played (I am usually a DM) and they are a glamour bard. Rylan the Bard, Half-elf lvl 9 bard. He was born and raised in a brothel, played music and such, eventually made his way to the sea, jumping from ship to ship. And slowly learned more and more instruments and how to do some basic combat, and other skills. But when a big storm destroyed his ship, he was rescued by sea nymphs who took them back to his island, they liked his music but taught him how to pull feymagic into his music.
Inspiring leader seems like a good feat, but I almost always start each battle off with mantle of inspiration, to help my friends move around and get in more favorable positions. It would be a lot of overlap with inspiring leader's temp hp. I have spent both my feats on just straight CHA, to get to 20 and get better and more use out of all my abilities. I am 100% not sure what I want to take next. The desire to do ranged dmg as a bard is hard for me, as I am not really into dipping into other classes, I play him more pure support as each turn support abilities do more than any kind of DMG I could output. I have a Barbarian, Revised Ranger and a Great Weapon Fighter to do all the dmg the party needs. Until now I almost had no DMG spells even, Vicious Mockery for debuff and Dissonant Whispers to get people away from me I guess still do some DMG. Synaptic Static is a great lvl 5 damage spell. I feel if want to be more martial why not just be a Valor Bard?
I have a Dwarven, Female, Glamour Bard named Helga Rumpshaker. She once intimidated a bandit by putting him and his buddies to sleep, stripping him naked, tying him up, and gagging him with his own underwear THEN using sexual denial tactics to get him to give up his hideout. lol
How high do you plan to go with the character? You can go straight bard, and be fine. The only real weakness of that build, is bad defense and weak at will abilities. If you want the medium armor and shields (the rest is just gravy), you can go with a level of hexblade, and probably never regret that. That will also give you some better options when you are out of, or want to conserve, your resources. A level of cleric will also work well. If you want to play the role as a ranged damage dealer, you need two levels of warlock.
Key feats:
Resilent consitution, warcaster, lucky (you will want at least one of these to boost your concentration saves.)
Moderatly armored is good if you end up not multiclassing, but not essential like the above.
Ritual caster and magic initiate leader are good feats to expand your abilites, but not essential like the above. Both will give you a familiar, which can be awesome.
Key spells: 1. Fairy fire, healing word, dissonant whispers + sleep at early levels.
2. Suggestion, shatter, heat metal, invisibility.
3. Hypnotic pattern, tiny hut.
4. Polymorph, dimension door etc.
Also dont neglec't the ritual spells, especially at early levels when you don't have enough resources to cast your normal spells anyway: Detect magic, comprehend languages, tiny hut.
Make sure you have spells that don't require concentration (if you go two levels of hexblade, this is less important). Some good options are dissonant whispers, shatter, blindness/deafness, plant growth.
Old thread, but I have some glamour bard experience, even though it's only three levels in a multiclass warlock. I enjoy the glamour bard part of the class I'd definitely consider playing one. In fact, I have a level 1 ready to go in case I need it at short notice.
The biggest thing I dislike about the bard in general, is the lack of a ranged spell attack option. I think that vicious mockery is completely overrated. It's great in tier 1 play, after that it doesn't scale well. So, I'd solve that problem by making a Levistus Tiefling to get the Ray of Frost cantrip. +2 to charisma, if Tasha's is in play, I will move the +1 con to +1 dex. If not, no big deal.
here's how my bard would probably look at level 5.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
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Hello, I have a bard that I will soon be playing in a campaign and I still have some time for revision. I can’t find a decent build for glamour bards anywhere, hoping I can find some decent ones here. Ozzy Van Urban is a Tiefling Bard with a Rock star complex but strives for a personal mission, but while searching he wants to experience all of what life has to offer since his Succubus mother never got to do that due to her premature murder when he was a child. I want to play a formidable mix between ranged damage and support because of the glamour bards ideal feature set of disruption and a great use of bardic inspiration. I only have 2 levels to spare that I am willing to give up unless a greatly powerful build gets mentioned and more are needed. I thought the Hexblade would be decent since it front loads so much and offers Eldritch Blast, Hexblade’s curse, med armor, charisma melee weapon, and shields. And at level two it buffs Eldritch Blast a lot and offers other utility invocations. Feat inclusion would be ideal if you wish to pitch one, though I have warcaster in mind already if you were going to mention it. So the criteria I ask for is feats, variant (if suggested, and which to choose), The class and how many levels to invest, and maybe a couple spells that would best benefit that build to acquire. Thanks!!
Here's one.
And another comment from elsewhere (had trouble pasting the link):
Mantle of Inspiration is, IMO, finally a use of bardic inspiration that isn't demonstrably worse than cutting words. In a five person party by level 8 you are preventing 40 points of damage per use, plus the free movement. That alone is reason enough to consider the class.
Enthralling Performance is good enough that it should solve a problem for you every time you use it. Once a long rest it can double up with Mantle of Majesty to really lay it on. They require a bit of foresight and cleverness though.
Unbreakable majesty is dope. It refreshes every turn, and even a successful save nets them disadvantage on saves vs you. It's good enough that sometimes you'd probably consider actively courting people to attack you while it's up.
Glamour Bards are excellent at battlefield control and talking. It's 3rd level ability is perfect for maneuvering allies especially when someone is surrounded. It also grants noticeable amount of temporary hit points and I have found myself using it more than normal Bardic Inspirations. Spells like Dissonant Whispers and Hypnotic Pattern can be lifesavers and especially Dissonant Whispers serves as a great damage tool. For avoiding combat I'd suggest Invisibility. You could also try talking yourself out of many situations doubly so if you can perform something for a minute. Remember that performance doesn't have to be music, even a proper speech should suffice. It's sixth-level ability is useful for making one enemy absolutely useless in combat and to intimidate someone out of combat
I 've been playing a Glamour Bard only for a while but it is quickly becoming one of my favourite classes and subclasses.
I have a Dwarven, Female, Glamour Bard named Helga Rumpshaker. She once intimidated a bandit by putting him and his buddies to sleep, stripping him naked, tying him up, and gagging him with his own underwear THEN using sexual denial tactics to get him to give up his hideout. lol
"It was crazy in there! People were farting everywhere—it was not me. They're building a throne room, there was some locked doors, man I wish you could have been there! It was exciting but ultimately pointless, so let's go down to the mines!" - Scanlan Shorthalt (Sam Riegle - Critical Role)
Inspiring Leader works well with Glamour Bard thematically. You're so inspiring that you pump up your teammates both in and out of battle.
I'm playing probably my favorite character I have ever played (I am usually a DM) and they are a glamour bard. Rylan the Bard, Half-elf lvl 9 bard. He was born and raised in a brothel, played music and such, eventually made his way to the sea, jumping from ship to ship. And slowly learned more and more instruments and how to do some basic combat, and other skills. But when a big storm destroyed his ship, he was rescued by sea nymphs who took them back to his island, they liked his music but taught him how to pull feymagic into his music.
Inspiring leader seems like a good feat, but I almost always start each battle off with mantle of inspiration, to help my friends move around and get in more favorable positions. It would be a lot of overlap with inspiring leader's temp hp. I have spent both my feats on just straight CHA, to get to 20 and get better and more use out of all my abilities. I am 100% not sure what I want to take next. The desire to do ranged dmg as a bard is hard for me, as I am not really into dipping into other classes, I play him more pure support as each turn support abilities do more than any kind of DMG I could output. I have a Barbarian, Revised Ranger and a Great Weapon Fighter to do all the dmg the party needs. Until now I almost had no DMG spells even, Vicious Mockery for debuff and Dissonant Whispers to get people away from me I guess still do some DMG. Synaptic Static is a great lvl 5 damage spell. I feel if want to be more martial why not just be a Valor Bard?
Bro what
How high do you plan to go with the character? You can go straight bard, and be fine. The only real weakness of that build, is bad defense and weak at will abilities. If you want the medium armor and shields (the rest is just gravy), you can go with a level of hexblade, and probably never regret that. That will also give you some better options when you are out of, or want to conserve, your resources. A level of cleric will also work well. If you want to play the role as a ranged damage dealer, you need two levels of warlock.
Key feats:
Resilent consitution, warcaster, lucky (you will want at least one of these to boost your concentration saves.)
Moderatly armored is good if you end up not multiclassing, but not essential like the above.
Ritual caster and magic initiate leader are good feats to expand your abilites, but not essential like the above. Both will give you a familiar, which can be awesome.
Key spells:
1. Fairy fire, healing word, dissonant whispers + sleep at early levels.
2. Suggestion, shatter, heat metal, invisibility.
3. Hypnotic pattern, tiny hut.
4. Polymorph, dimension door etc.
Also dont neglec't the ritual spells, especially at early levels when you don't have enough resources to cast your normal spells anyway: Detect magic, comprehend languages, tiny hut.
Make sure you have spells that don't require concentration (if you go two levels of hexblade, this is less important). Some good options are dissonant whispers, shatter, blindness/deafness, plant growth.
Old thread, but I have some glamour bard experience, even though it's only three levels in a multiclass warlock. I enjoy the glamour bard part of the class I'd definitely consider playing one. In fact, I have a level 1 ready to go in case I need it at short notice.
The biggest thing I dislike about the bard in general, is the lack of a ranged spell attack option. I think that vicious mockery is completely overrated. It's great in tier 1 play, after that it doesn't scale well. So, I'd solve that problem by making a Levistus Tiefling to get the Ray of Frost cantrip. +2 to charisma, if Tasha's is in play, I will move the +1 con to +1 dex. If not, no big deal.
here's how my bard would probably look at level 5.
https://ddb.ac/characters/39503099/KUupB6
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha