Sadly had a character death last session. Our group could benefit from the addition of a Bard, but I would like to have a character who is capable of dishing out enough DPR to be viable with our other martial characters. Coming in at level 9, and no multiclass to start. Can I make a College of Swords or Valor Bard that is built to be a viable combatant?
First idea would be to go sharpshooter with elven accuracy and use Greater Invisibility. You can use your blade flourishes on ranged attacks. If you crit, which with Elven Acc 3x advantage you have a reasonable shot at, stack the blade flourish as a mini smite.
I would recommend one of the newer elves from SJ or Monsters of the Multiverse (Astral, Shadar-Kai, Eladrin). If you need a PHB race then go with High Elf or Drow. Half Elf could also work if you can rearrange your stats as allowed in Tasha's because you will want an 18 Dex. High elf gets you a Longbow, and a wizard cantrip but if you can't move the intelligence bonus you will have a 15 Charisma (shortbow works fine with this build). Drow has the right bonus to Charisma and Faerie Fire is nice to have but Sunlight Sensitivity can be a pain. The original Eladrin had a +1 to charisma if you need to go there.
In general you use faerie fire and greater invisiblity to get advantage and then do sharpshooter things.
If you want to be a melee combatant, it will be tough to keep up with the martials, but there are builds that can be a lot of fun. The natural choice is one level of Hexblade to get shield proficiency and Hex Warrior, which allows you to use CHR for melee attacks and gives access to Shield, Armor of Agathys and Eldritch Blast spells. Focusing on CHR will help with spell casting as well as more Bardic Inspirations, which will be in short supply as a Blade until you reach 14th. Two levels gets you two Invocations.
If you find Hexblade dips too cheesy - I do - or you don't want to be bound to a patron, which I think should be a serious consideration for Warlocks, it can still be done as a straight Blade, albeit with more difficulty. Focus on DEX, maybe take Custom Lineage with Moderately Armored (for +1 DEX and shield proficiency) and then Fey Touched at fourth to hopefully bring CHR to an even number and consider Hex as your spell option. Your choice at eighth. You should have at least an 18 DEX and 16 CHR at this point. With the second level Aid spell for the temporary hit points, and the occasional Flourish, you can be reasonably durable, have an okay AC and okay DPR with Extra Attack, Hex and the Duelling Fighting Style. And, of course, you are a full caster with a fantastic spell list.
Depending on how you want to play your Bard, College of Swords could make for a pretty interesting setup, though it is a far higher risk than being a ranged combatant.
Eladrin, Variant Human, or any other race that lets you gain proficiency with a Glaive is going to let you use Great Weapon Master. Combined with Polearm Master and you have a chance for 2x1d10+5 + 1d4+5 + 30 damage. 48-69 damage if they all hit.
Add in Blade Flourish and you can increase the damage by an extra d8. <This also allows you to deal this damage to an adjacent target or (better yet) increase your armor rating by the same amount.
At level 10, you want to invest in Shield and Steel Wind Strike. Shield and Defensive Flourish can get you an additional 6-13 to your AC. This setup will practically ensure that you can have a solid 20AC if needed. Steel Wind Strike because it is one heck of a damage-dealing spell.
The cheat combo of Sentinel can also be tied in to stop the enemy from ever reaching you in the first place... Though if I were to personally use this build, I would definitely invest in getting Plate Armor proficiency at level 12. 18 + 5 (from shield) + 1-8 (from Defensive Flourish) = 24+AC
The hit to Stealth Checks might seem bad but being a Bard, you can easily make up for the disadvantage with Expertise.
Oh, almost forgot:
Spells would depend on if your Charisma score is high enough. If so, you can do anything any other Bard can do. If not, invest in combat utility.
Greater Invisibility, Heat Metal, Freedom of Movement, Wall of Force and other such spells to cut-off enemies and control their movements, anything to heal and/or revive party members, etc.
As stated above, Sharpshooter and ranged combat is the safer alternative, but you can definitely make a Frontline Bard using this setup.
You can build a pretty good damaging bard if you take the Crossbow Expert feat and use a Hand Crossbow. You do the same damage at range and in melee (no disadvantage from being up close and personal with your target, and that applies to spellcasting as well). If you take College of Valor or College of Swords, that's three attacks (1d6) per round having the same potential as a character as Two Weapon Fighting style.
You can also stack this with Sharpshooter for even more damage.
Note. At level 8 to go with crossbow expert/sharpshooter you are almost certainly using variant human or custom lineage to keep your DPR up. That is fine. I would recommend variant human so that you can round off your Charisma to 16.
At level 10 take a good Summon Spell (Shadowspawn, Construct, Fae) and upcast it. You can get attacks for every 2 levels of those spells. So a level 8 Summon Shadowspawn will attack 4 times per round. That's a lot of damage and will work with any bard.
Throw in Mordy's watchdog and you got enough damage to make you happy and you can then throw out any non concentration spells you want or even jump in with your valor/swords attacks to add to the fun.
At level 10 take a good Summon Spell (Shadowspawn, Construct, Fae) and upcast it. You can get attacks for every 2 levels of those spells. So a level 8 Summon Shadowspawn will attack 4 times per round. That's a lot of damage and will work with any bard.
Throw in Mordy's watchdog and you got enough damage to make you happy and you can then throw out any non concentration spells you want or even jump in with your valor/swords attacks to add to the fun.
Thank you. These will help my bard a lot.
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Sadly had a character death last session. Our group could benefit from the addition of a Bard, but I would like to have a character who is capable of dishing out enough DPR to be viable with our other martial characters. Coming in at level 9, and no multiclass to start. Can I make a College of Swords or Valor Bard that is built to be a viable combatant?
First idea would be to go sharpshooter with elven accuracy and use Greater Invisibility. You can use your blade flourishes on ranged attacks. If you crit, which with Elven Acc 3x advantage you have a reasonable shot at, stack the blade flourish as a mini smite.
I would recommend one of the newer elves from SJ or Monsters of the Multiverse (Astral, Shadar-Kai, Eladrin). If you need a PHB race then go with High Elf or Drow. Half Elf could also work if you can rearrange your stats as allowed in Tasha's because you will want an 18 Dex. High elf gets you a Longbow, and a wizard cantrip but if you can't move the intelligence bonus you will have a 15 Charisma (shortbow works fine with this build). Drow has the right bonus to Charisma and Faerie Fire is nice to have but Sunlight Sensitivity can be a pain. The original Eladrin had a +1 to charisma if you need to go there.
In general you use faerie fire and greater invisiblity to get advantage and then do sharpshooter things.
If you want to be a melee combatant, it will be tough to keep up with the martials, but there are builds that can be a lot of fun. The natural choice is one level of Hexblade to get shield proficiency and Hex Warrior, which allows you to use CHR for melee attacks and gives access to Shield, Armor of Agathys and Eldritch Blast spells. Focusing on CHR will help with spell casting as well as more Bardic Inspirations, which will be in short supply as a Blade until you reach 14th. Two levels gets you two Invocations.
If you find Hexblade dips too cheesy - I do - or you don't want to be bound to a patron, which I think should be a serious consideration for Warlocks, it can still be done as a straight Blade, albeit with more difficulty. Focus on DEX, maybe take Custom Lineage with Moderately Armored (for +1 DEX and shield proficiency) and then Fey Touched at fourth to hopefully bring CHR to an even number and consider Hex as your spell option. Your choice at eighth. You should have at least an 18 DEX and 16 CHR at this point. With the second level Aid spell for the temporary hit points, and the occasional Flourish, you can be reasonably durable, have an okay AC and okay DPR with Extra Attack, Hex and the Duelling Fighting Style. And, of course, you are a full caster with a fantastic spell list.
Depending on how you want to play your Bard, College of Swords could make for a pretty interesting setup, though it is a far higher risk than being a ranged combatant.
Eladrin, Variant Human, or any other race that lets you gain proficiency with a Glaive is going to let you use Great Weapon Master. Combined with Polearm Master and you have a chance for 2x1d10+5 + 1d4+5 + 30 damage. 48-69 damage if they all hit.
Add in Blade Flourish and you can increase the damage by an extra d8. <This also allows you to deal this damage to an adjacent target or (better yet) increase your armor rating by the same amount.
At level 10, you want to invest in Shield and Steel Wind Strike. Shield and Defensive Flourish can get you an additional 6-13 to your AC. This setup will practically ensure that you can have a solid 20AC if needed. Steel Wind Strike because it is one heck of a damage-dealing spell.
The cheat combo of Sentinel can also be tied in to stop the enemy from ever reaching you in the first place... Though if I were to personally use this build, I would definitely invest in getting Plate Armor proficiency at level 12. 18 + 5 (from shield) + 1-8 (from Defensive Flourish) = 24+AC
The hit to Stealth Checks might seem bad but being a Bard, you can easily make up for the disadvantage with Expertise.
Oh, almost forgot:
Spells would depend on if your Charisma score is high enough. If so, you can do anything any other Bard can do. If not, invest in combat utility.
Greater Invisibility, Heat Metal, Freedom of Movement, Wall of Force and other such spells to cut-off enemies and control their movements, anything to heal and/or revive party members, etc.
As stated above, Sharpshooter and ranged combat is the safer alternative, but you can definitely make a Frontline Bard using this setup.
You can build a pretty good damaging bard if you take the Crossbow Expert feat and use a Hand Crossbow. You do the same damage at range and in melee (no disadvantage from being up close and personal with your target, and that applies to spellcasting as well). If you take College of Valor or College of Swords, that's three attacks (1d6) per round having the same potential as a character as Two Weapon Fighting style.
You can also stack this with Sharpshooter for even more damage.
Note. At level 8 to go with crossbow expert/sharpshooter you are almost certainly using variant human or custom lineage to keep your DPR up. That is fine. I would recommend variant human so that you can round off your Charisma to 16.
At level 10 take a good Summon Spell (Shadowspawn, Construct, Fae) and upcast it. You can get attacks for every 2 levels of those spells. So a level 8 Summon Shadowspawn will attack 4 times per round. That's a lot of damage and will work with any bard.
Throw in Mordy's watchdog and you got enough damage to make you happy and you can then throw out any non concentration spells you want or even jump in with your valor/swords attacks to add to the fun.
Thank you. These will help my bard a lot.