I have never played a bard and want to find a way to be introduced to the class. Have any ideas, especially ones that make a character that is fun to play?
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Can I have your liver for culinary...ahh, scientific reasons?
The great thing about a bard is that it can be whatever you want it to be. My bard started out as "I'll stand back here away from danger and buff/heal you guys and then tell the tales of your bravery" and then when nobody in the party wanted to be bold became "well, no great tales are ever told about people being cautious" and he became much more brash and bold. He also became fascinate with spells that dealt thunder or lightning damage and stared referring to himself as Xavier Windswallow: Thunderbard. My advice is to consider what personality you want your bard to have, and then make the choices that your bard would make given their personality. My bard has done things like "oh we need a distraction? I'll pull out my bagpipes and start playing...loudly...while using prestidigitation to make it look like flames are erupting from the instrument. Or insulting the guards of the compound we're trying to infiltrate using vicious mockery (I have a list of insults I keep handy for just such an occasion). Bards are great and a lot of fun to play - enjoy!
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"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
I'm thinking keep it simple if you've never played a bard before, and stick with a classic trope like the a cocky roguish bard.
Almost any species works. I'm going to recommend human for the bonus origin feat, though. Having a daily use of heroic inspiration is useful, an additional skill plays into the concept, and the feat I'll recommend is musician so you can hand out heroic inspiration every short or long rest.
The background I would go for is the wayfarer. Wayfarer offers CHA and DEX as ability boosting options. The proficiencies are insight and stealth, and thieves' tools. This also offers the lucky feat. Between bardic inspiration at 1st level, heroic inspiration from the species feature and musician feat, and luck points there's a decent amount to work with immediately.
The other skill proficiencies I would recommend are: perception (goes with stealth), investigation (also goes with stealth), history (you're a bard and knowledge of history, cultures, and notable people is iconic of the class), and sleight of hand (you'll have advantage with thieves' tools on locks and traps).
This is the basis for sneaky, lucky, and inspiring early.
I don't know the ability score generation method, but standard spread mirrors average rolling so 8 STR, 16 DEX, 13 CON, 10 INT, 12 WIS, and 16 CHA works. Point buy lets you even out STR and WIS if you want, or go for that 14 CON, but you can leave it at 13 and raise it later with resilient CON at 12th level.
At 1st level take prestidigitation and minor illusion. Those let you have fun with creativity. Also take dissonant whispers, sleep, unseen servant, and disguise self. You can have fun and be useful with those spells.
At 2nd level take expertise in stealth and perception. Be a sneaky bard. Pick up speak with animals. You can have all kinds of conversations with horses about their riders.
At 3rd level pick up the Lore subclass. Cutting Words gives some self sufficient options with Bardic Inspiration if scouting or separated from the party, and allows for targeting opponents in a way other bards cannot while using bardic inspiration. You can also add persuasion for getting those favors, arcana for referencing and possibly making magic items, and athletics because sometimes you need to climb, jump, or swim and this also helps offset that STR penalty more than jack of all trades does.
Also pick up invisibility at 3rd level. Turning invisible with stealth bonuses is a good combination.
At 4th level add vicious mockery. The damage isn't great but insulting people to death can be fun. Also use the ASI to pump CHA to 18 and build up bardic inspiration uses and spell DC's. Add the suggestion spell to you prepared spells. Suggestion is versatile and can be fun.
At 5th level prepared glyph of warding and bestow curse. It's not a common suggestion or pick, but you can use preparation time and gold to bypass the concentration requirements on invisibility with the spell glyph version of glyph of warding, or make suggestion or bestow curse spell glyphs using stealth to sneak into enemies' living quarters as a stealthy spellcaster. You're turning this into a spell trap concept.
At 6th level you have a very open selection of spells. Use the bard spell preparation to add speak with plants. Like speak with animals, you can have interesting conversations in someone's garden about people who travel it. Use magical discoveries to add pass without trace. It's a large stealth bonus and you can use it as a spell glyph on yourself (it targets a single person, the caster, and emanates it's effect outward) to bypass concentration and then use invisibility. You can also hand out bardic inspiration to party members and upcast invisibility to start working on stealth for the whole party. For your final spell with magical discoveries darkvision is a good choice.
That should give a general idea of my thoughts on it. Build a stealth specialist who can use spell glyphs that will be added over time. You can get a lot out of suggestion spell glyphs that way. Plus some other useful spells and fun spells.
I have a half-elf that plays bagpipes, is a stand up philosopher and starred in the play Grunt Grunt Love untill forced out of town. The looks on the party's face when they are trying to be quiet is priceless. "Fun to play" is only limited to your imagination.
I have an half-elf Lore Bard that I play as a spy sort of character that I really enjoy. Once you get cutting words at level 3 you can really boost a party. Then you get font of inspiration and you regain your bardic inspiration at each short (or long) rest. This allows you to throw out more cutting words each encounter day. When you're in town you have the best opportunity for RP. I bring a small sack full of pouches of spices for barter when we are on the trail. Folks in the wilderness don't need gold and silver as much as they need salt and pepper. As a bard, beg borrow or steal to get an Elven Chain Shirt because you don't have to be proficient with medium armors to wear elven chain shirt without penalty and it also comes with a +1. If you have a Dex score of 14 then this gives you an AC of 16. That is pretty darn good. Now you want a ring or protection and a cloak of protection if you can get them. These improve both your AC and your saving throws. There comes a point where saving throws are crucial. Max out your Charisma Score as quickly as you are able so you have more bardic inspiration and better spell save DCs.
What's not to love?
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Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Spider-Bard, Spider-Bard, Plays the lute while he cheats at cards, Watch him climb walls with ease, Try to catch him as he flees, Hey there, there goes the Spider-Bard....
I recently started a bard as a player. While the classic lyre playing singing bard never resonated with me, I’ve really wanted to try the class after having a PC play one in a campaign l ran. This is what I did:
Mechanically
Variant human, urchin background, the campaign uses rolled stats, so DEX is the current highest score. I started with dual weapon fighting as my variant human feat. My intent was that he progress to sword bard. I’ve been favoring spell selections where DC does not matter.
Story
City orphan/street urchin. He went from petty thievery to busking on the streets, primarily dagger swallowing and story telling. With his charisma and intelligence he does well at this and impresses some of the cities upper class with his skill, wit, story telling and sword swallowing showmanship. In time he wins a short sword as part of a bet while busking - if I can swallow your sword will you give it to me? Eventually he impresses a noble who offers him a place in his kitchen perhaps the same noble he won the sword from. In the kitchen he meets Auntie who begins to teach him the old stories and ancient chants of power- curing wounds, mending and curses. He’s well liked enough that the nobles armsmen take to himletting him spar with them in exchange for stories and the mending of gear and some favored morsels coming out of his kitchen duties. By the time he becomes an adult he is an armsmen for the noble house. His “musical” skill is drums, he sets the marching pace for their armsmen of the noble house.
In this campaign he hides his magic abilities as the campaign is low magic/magic as a taboo. As a resultI’ve chosen spells that are not flashy. Viscous mockery is cursing using the tongue of old. I’ve leaned into the Māori chants and war dances. The sleep spell is a lullaby spoken in the old tongue, that sort of feel.
In many ways a dex based fighter who learned touches of lore and magic expressed as a sword bard. So as far as fun, a great class to express a bunch of ideas/characters
I had a player once play a one armed bard. The back story was it was a botched delivery at birth causing his parents to exile and shun their child. So he tried everything to earn their love, hence the bard. Spell casting was fun and artistic. He played it well, and brought the flavor to role playing to the forefront. Also when we ventured into the leaking cauldron or other unsavory places, he shined. So that’s what fun was for him and we also shared with the interaction.
to give you a different perspective of fun and dnd game play. But if you looking for mechanics and role in adventure that’s not my experience. I tend to play a bard in the future though. But my monk is to much fun to give up.
I have never played a bard and want to find a way to be introduced to the class. Have any ideas, especially ones that make a character that is fun to play?
I have never played a bard and want to find a way to be introduced to the class. Have any ideas, especially ones that make a character that is fun to play?
Can I have your liver for culinary...ahh, scientific reasons?
The great thing about a bard is that it can be whatever you want it to be. My bard started out as "I'll stand back here away from danger and buff/heal you guys and then tell the tales of your bravery" and then when nobody in the party wanted to be bold became "well, no great tales are ever told about people being cautious" and he became much more brash and bold. He also became fascinate with spells that dealt thunder or lightning damage and stared referring to himself as Xavier Windswallow: Thunderbard. My advice is to consider what personality you want your bard to have, and then make the choices that your bard would make given their personality. My bard has done things like "oh we need a distraction? I'll pull out my bagpipes and start playing...loudly...while using prestidigitation to make it look like flames are erupting from the instrument. Or insulting the guards of the compound we're trying to infiltrate using vicious mockery (I have a list of insults I keep handy for just such an occasion). Bards are great and a lot of fun to play - enjoy!
"...at worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
It kind of depends on what your idea of fun is.
I'm thinking keep it simple if you've never played a bard before, and stick with a classic trope like the a cocky roguish bard.
Almost any species works. I'm going to recommend human for the bonus origin feat, though. Having a daily use of heroic inspiration is useful, an additional skill plays into the concept, and the feat I'll recommend is musician so you can hand out heroic inspiration every short or long rest.
The background I would go for is the wayfarer. Wayfarer offers CHA and DEX as ability boosting options. The proficiencies are insight and stealth, and thieves' tools. This also offers the lucky feat. Between bardic inspiration at 1st level, heroic inspiration from the species feature and musician feat, and luck points there's a decent amount to work with immediately.
The other skill proficiencies I would recommend are: perception (goes with stealth), investigation (also goes with stealth), history (you're a bard and knowledge of history, cultures, and notable people is iconic of the class), and sleight of hand (you'll have advantage with thieves' tools on locks and traps).
This is the basis for sneaky, lucky, and inspiring early.
I don't know the ability score generation method, but standard spread mirrors average rolling so 8 STR, 16 DEX, 13 CON, 10 INT, 12 WIS, and 16 CHA works. Point buy lets you even out STR and WIS if you want, or go for that 14 CON, but you can leave it at 13 and raise it later with resilient CON at 12th level.
At 1st level take prestidigitation and minor illusion. Those let you have fun with creativity. Also take dissonant whispers, sleep, unseen servant, and disguise self. You can have fun and be useful with those spells.
At 2nd level take expertise in stealth and perception. Be a sneaky bard. Pick up speak with animals. You can have all kinds of conversations with horses about their riders.
At 3rd level pick up the Lore subclass. Cutting Words gives some self sufficient options with Bardic Inspiration if scouting or separated from the party, and allows for targeting opponents in a way other bards cannot while using bardic inspiration. You can also add persuasion for getting those favors, arcana for referencing and possibly making magic items, and athletics because sometimes you need to climb, jump, or swim and this also helps offset that STR penalty more than jack of all trades does.
Also pick up invisibility at 3rd level. Turning invisible with stealth bonuses is a good combination.
At 4th level add vicious mockery. The damage isn't great but insulting people to death can be fun. Also use the ASI to pump CHA to 18 and build up bardic inspiration uses and spell DC's. Add the suggestion spell to you prepared spells. Suggestion is versatile and can be fun.
At 5th level prepared glyph of warding and bestow curse. It's not a common suggestion or pick, but you can use preparation time and gold to bypass the concentration requirements on invisibility with the spell glyph version of glyph of warding, or make suggestion or bestow curse spell glyphs using stealth to sneak into enemies' living quarters as a stealthy spellcaster. You're turning this into a spell trap concept.
At 6th level you have a very open selection of spells. Use the bard spell preparation to add speak with plants. Like speak with animals, you can have interesting conversations in someone's garden about people who travel it. Use magical discoveries to add pass without trace. It's a large stealth bonus and you can use it as a spell glyph on yourself (it targets a single person, the caster, and emanates it's effect outward) to bypass concentration and then use invisibility. You can also hand out bardic inspiration to party members and upcast invisibility to start working on stealth for the whole party. For your final spell with magical discoveries darkvision is a good choice.
That should give a general idea of my thoughts on it. Build a stealth specialist who can use spell glyphs that will be added over time. You can get a lot out of suggestion spell glyphs that way. Plus some other useful spells and fun spells.
Hope that helps.
Thanks Guys
Can I have your liver for culinary...ahh, scientific reasons?
I have a half-elf that plays bagpipes, is a stand up philosopher and starred in the play Grunt Grunt Love untill forced out of town. The looks on the party's face when they are trying to be quiet is priceless. "Fun to play" is only limited to your imagination.
I have an half-elf Lore Bard that I play as a spy sort of character that I really enjoy. Once you get cutting words at level 3 you can really boost a party. Then you get font of inspiration and you regain your bardic inspiration at each short (or long) rest. This allows you to throw out more cutting words each encounter day. When you're in town you have the best opportunity for RP. I bring a small sack full of pouches of spices for barter when we are on the trail. Folks in the wilderness don't need gold and silver as much as they need salt and pepper. As a bard, beg borrow or steal to get an Elven Chain Shirt because you don't have to be proficient with medium armors to wear elven chain shirt without penalty and it also comes with a +1. If you have a Dex score of 14 then this gives you an AC of 16. That is pretty darn good. Now you want a ring or protection and a cloak of protection if you can get them. These improve both your AC and your saving throws. There comes a point where saving throws are crucial. Max out your Charisma Score as quickly as you are able so you have more bardic inspiration and better spell save DCs.
What's not to love?
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
After obtaining my Slippers of Spider Climbing:
Spider-Bard, Spider-Bard,
Plays the lute while he cheats at cards,
Watch him climb walls with ease,
Try to catch him as he flees,
Hey there, there goes the Spider-Bard....
I recently started a bard as a player. While the classic lyre playing singing bard never resonated with me, I’ve really wanted to try the class after having a PC play one in a campaign l ran. This is what I did:
Mechanically
Variant human, urchin background, the campaign uses rolled stats, so DEX is the current highest score. I started with dual weapon fighting as my variant human feat. My intent was that he progress to sword bard. I’ve been favoring spell selections where DC does not matter.
Story
City orphan/street urchin. He went from petty thievery to busking on the streets, primarily dagger swallowing and story telling. With his charisma and intelligence he does well at this and impresses some of the cities upper class with his skill, wit, story telling and sword swallowing showmanship. In time he wins a short sword as part of a bet while busking - if I can swallow your sword will you give it to me? Eventually he impresses a noble who offers him a place in his kitchen perhaps the same noble he won the sword from. In the kitchen he meets Auntie who begins to teach him the old stories and ancient chants of power- curing wounds, mending and curses. He’s well liked enough that the nobles armsmen take to him letting him spar with them in exchange for stories and the mending of gear and some favored morsels coming out of his kitchen duties. By the time he becomes an adult he is an armsmen for the noble house. His “musical” skill is drums, he sets the marching pace for their armsmen of the noble house.
In this campaign he hides his magic abilities as the campaign is low magic/magic as a taboo. As a result I’ve chosen spells that are not flashy. Viscous mockery is cursing using the tongue of old. I’ve leaned into the Māori chants and war dances. The sleep spell is a lullaby spoken in the old tongue, that sort of feel.
In many ways a dex based fighter who learned touches of lore and magic expressed as a sword bard. So as far as fun, a great class to express a bunch of ideas/characters
I had a player once play a one armed bard. The back story was it was a botched delivery at birth causing his parents to exile and shun their child. So he tried everything to earn their love, hence the bard. Spell casting was fun and artistic. He played it well, and brought the flavor to role playing to the forefront. Also when we ventured into the leaking cauldron or other unsavory places, he shined. So that’s what fun was for him and we also shared with the interaction.
to give you a different perspective of fun and dnd game play. But if you looking for mechanics and role in adventure that’s not my experience. I tend to play a bard in the future though. But my monk is to much fun to give up.
At least 3 levels of bard so that you can take the College of Dance subclass.
At least 1 level of monk.
Musical proficiency with the berimbau.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8zNigU0ChU
Trick or Treat This Faerie Demands Your Candies - Bard - Class Forums - D&D Beyond Forums - D&D Beyond
I've been creating a mono-class for each class every week until all are done.
"Life is Cast by Random Dice"
Burn my candle twice.
I have done my life justice
Against random dice.
I built an entire bard based around insults, it was fun, if a bit limiting.