I'm kinda surprised nobody mentioned the spell Sickening Radiance (from XGE). This is perhaps the most powerful 4th-level spell in the game.
Nevertheless, here are my picks for the Lore Bard:
6th: Counterspell, Spiritual Weapon (other choices are Revivify, Healing Spirit, and Haste) Counterspell is the go-to spell for most bards at this level and is almost a must-have with Jack of All Trades. Spiritual Weapon is a great use for a bonus action and lasts a full minute (no concentration)
10th: Sickening Radiance, Banishment (other choice is Wall of Force) If you haven't read Sickening Radiance yet, do it - 4d10 Radiant and a level of exhaustion per round for 10 minutes (!!!). After the exhaustion levels stack, the odds of them making saves reduces drastically. At 6 levels of exhaustion, I don't care if you're the Tarrasque or an Ancient Red Dragon, you're an ex-member of the Still Alive club. Make sure to befriend your party wizard or similar, because Wall of Force is stupidly powerful with this spell. Banishment because the ability to completely remove a powerful opponent from the fight is just too good.
14th: Disintegrate, Magic Jar Disintegrate works great against powerful opponents with the force damage, and works well with Wall of Force too. Magic Jar if you want a powerful body to accompany your mind, and your proficiency with Charisma saves and high Charisma make it far less lethal than a Wizard. You can also use it to intimidate or subvert a kingdom's ruler.
18th: Foresight, Wish Foresight gives so many advantages in combat that it's almost a no-brainer. I was going to say Clone to stay alive and/or Demiplane to have your own private plane, but Wish will allow you to cast those and do so much more...
I'll often Multi into one level of Life Cleric for the armor and bonus to healing, as healing is a great ability of a Bard's support spells. Also, I often take Magical Secrets Druid for Guidance, Shillelagh, and Goodberry. And RAW, Life Cleric doesn't boost Goodberry, as the spell only creates the berries, and Disciple of Life augments spells that heal.
If you haven't read Sickening Radiance yet, do it - 4d10 Radiant and a level of exhaustion per round for 10 minutes (!!!). After the exhaustion levels stack, the odds of them making saves reduces drastically. At 6 levels of exhaustion, I don't care if you're the Tarrasque or an Ancient Red Dragon, you're an ex-member of the Still Alive club. Make sure to befriend your party wizard or similar, because Wall of Force is stupidly powerful with this spell. Banishment because the ability to completely remove a powerful opponent from the fight is just too good.
While Sickening Radianceis good I'd point out that all an enemy has to do to avoid taking more exhaustion is leave the area; they also lose any exhaustion it caused if they manage to break your concentration or if you recast the spell after they move (as the exhaustion ends with the spell).
To insta-kill something with this spell you'd need to force the enemy to remain within the spell's area, or stack with something else that causes exhaustion; you can't even stack this spell using multiple party members casting it, as multiple castings of the same spell don't stack. For smaller enemies grappling at least is an option, since they'll have disadvantage on ability checks after only one level of exhaustion, but you'd need the grappler to stay just outside the spell's radius.
If you haven't read Sickening Radiance yet, do it - 4d10 Radiant and a level of exhaustion per round for 10 minutes (!!!). After the exhaustion levels stack, the odds of them making saves reduces drastically. At 6 levels of exhaustion, I don't care if you're the Tarrasque or an Ancient Red Dragon, you're an ex-member of the Still Alive club. Make sure to befriend your party wizard or similar, because Wall of Force is stupidly powerful with this spell. Banishment because the ability to completely remove a powerful opponent from the fight is just too good.
While Sickening Radianceis good I'd point out that all an enemy has to do to avoid taking more exhaustion is leave the area; they also lose any exhaustion it caused if they manage to break your concentration or if you recast the spell after they move (as the exhaustion ends with the spell).
To insta-kill something with this spell you'd need to force the enemy to remain within the spell's area, or stack with something else that causes exhaustion; you can't even stack this spell using multiple party members casting it, as multiple castings of the same spell don't stack. For smaller enemies grappling at least is an option, since they'll have disadvantage on ability checks after only one level of exhaustion, but you'd need the grappler to stay just outside the spell's radius.
Turn 0: Hold Action for Force Cage (20X20 version with gaps) when target reaches 120 feet. Turn 1: Sickening Radiance, move away. Turn 2 - X: Laugh Turn X+1: Loot.
Turn 0: Hold Action for Force Cage (20X20 version with gaps) when target reaches 120 feet. Turn 1: Sickening Radiance, move away. Turn 2 - X: Laugh Turn X+1: Loot.
Yeah, but you could pretty much get a similar (if weaker) effect with any of several spells of the same level or less: Hunger of Hadar, Evard's Black Tentacles, Moonbeam, Flaming Sphere, even Call Lightning, or a well-placed Wall of Fire.
Stronger spells such as Blade Barrier or Maddening Darkness do even more damage, and might kill the targets before exhaustion even factors in.
It's Forcecage that's the MVP in that combo, not Sickening Radiance; it even turns Blade Barrier from a small nuisance to a meat grinder.
(Not that Sickening Radiance isn't good. But I personally just don't see it being that potent.)
I'm kinda surprised nobody mentioned the spell Sickening Radiance (from XGE). This is perhaps the most powerful 4th-level spell in the game.
Nevertheless, here are my picks for the Lore Bard:
6th: Counterspell, Spiritual Weapon (other choices are Revivify, Healing Spirit, and Haste)
Counterspell is the go-to spell for most bards at this level and is almost a must-have with Jack of All Trades. Spiritual Weapon is a great use for a bonus action and lasts a full minute (no concentration)
10th: Sickening Radiance, Banishment (other choice is Wall of Force)
If you haven't read Sickening Radiance yet, do it - 4d10 Radiant and a level of exhaustion per round for 10 minutes (!!!). After the exhaustion levels stack, the odds of them making saves reduces drastically. At 6 levels of exhaustion, I don't care if you're the Tarrasque or an Ancient Red Dragon, you're an ex-member of the Still Alive club. Make sure to befriend your party wizard or similar, because Wall of Force is stupidly powerful with this spell. Banishment because the ability to completely remove a powerful opponent from the fight is just too good.
14th: Disintegrate, Magic Jar
Disintegrate works great against powerful opponents with the force damage, and works well with Wall of Force too. Magic Jar if you want a powerful body to accompany your mind, and your proficiency with Charisma saves and high Charisma make it far less lethal than a Wizard. You can also use it to intimidate or subvert a kingdom's ruler.
18th: Foresight, Wish
Foresight gives so many advantages in combat that it's almost a no-brainer. I was going to say Clone to stay alive and/or Demiplane to have your own private plane, but Wish will allow you to cast those and do so much more...
I'll often Multi into one level of Life Cleric for the armor and bonus to healing, as healing is a great ability of a Bard's support spells. Also, I often take Magical Secrets Druid for Guidance, Shillelagh, and Goodberry. And RAW, Life Cleric doesn't boost Goodberry, as the spell only creates the berries, and Disciple of Life augments spells that heal.
Just my 2 cp.
While Sickening Radiance is good I'd point out that all an enemy has to do to avoid taking more exhaustion is leave the area; they also lose any exhaustion it caused if they manage to break your concentration or if you recast the spell after they move (as the exhaustion ends with the spell).
To insta-kill something with this spell you'd need to force the enemy to remain within the spell's area, or stack with something else that causes exhaustion; you can't even stack this spell using multiple party members casting it, as multiple castings of the same spell don't stack. For smaller enemies grappling at least is an option, since they'll have disadvantage on ability checks after only one level of exhaustion, but you'd need the grappler to stay just outside the spell's radius.
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Turn 0: Hold Action for Force Cage (20X20 version with gaps) when target reaches 120 feet.
Turn 1: Sickening Radiance, move away.
Turn 2 - X: Laugh
Turn X+1: Loot.
Yeah, but you could pretty much get a similar (if weaker) effect with any of several spells of the same level or less: Hunger of Hadar, Evard's Black Tentacles, Moonbeam, Flaming Sphere, even Call Lightning, or a well-placed Wall of Fire.
Stronger spells such as Blade Barrier or Maddening Darkness do even more damage, and might kill the targets before exhaustion even factors in.
It's Forcecage that's the MVP in that combo, not Sickening Radiance; it even turns Blade Barrier from a small nuisance to a meat grinder.
(Not that Sickening Radiance isn't good. But I personally just don't see it being that potent.)
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