I've made a Tiefling College of Glamour bard for a fight night we're doing within our Dragon Heist campaign. His background is the Entertainer/Gladiator one, big entrance music for the Enthralling Performance, flashy costume, etc. Going to go very WWE with it, can't wait! It's going to be a last man standing match and I don't imagine he'll win, I just think he'll be really campy and fun to play.
Bit late to the party here, but created an interesting (to me) bard character recently that I played in a one-shot and worked so well I'm taking them into an upcoming campaign.
The backstory is that they are an inventor, and travelling salesman. Guild Artisan background gives you proficiency in certain tool sets, and my performance abilities came with a sales pitch for my latest crazy invention. DM let me use this background and story combo for some interesting homebrew style actions, like modifying a pair of glasses into 'light enhancing eyewear' aka night vision goggles (successful DC20 roll and mandatory payment to replenish materials from my toolset)
Bardic inspiration came in the form of cheesy sales manager/office buzzwords style pump up talks, either done one at a time in combat, or in a group huddle before entering a location.
I have a valor bard the is mixed with Battle master fighter for commanding strike and maneuvering strike. He inspires through speeches, like the ones you see in action movies just before the big fight/war/battle/chase scene. Quoting movies at the table in character is fun.
" ... tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!" " ... We're going to survive! Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!" " ... Today, we face the monsters that are at our door and bring the fight to them! Today, we are cancellin' the apocalypse!""
I have a College of Whispers Bard who is an assassin for the Zhentarim, and has one level of Celestial Warlock because he wants to protect his son. He has a rock star alter ego, and uses his concerts to disguise assassinations. (Invites them backstage alone, stabby stab).
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“Basically, if you tell anyone, we’ll kill you. We’re pretty good at that sort of stuff”-Salros Viper, Whispers Bard, paid assassin
I was thinking about being a College of Swords Bard who is a Hibachi Chef, Verdan who grew an extra arm to help him cook and entertain those he is serving.
I have come up with a Bard character that I've enjoyed very much. I started him in waterdeep is background is a sailor with the option to be a pirate. So he's a Bard by class and a pirate by profession. As a pirate he has the bad reputation skill which I have called, "the handyman" . My Bard travels around telling tall tales of the dread handyman a man who is both beast and Shadow Man and myth. A creature that can seep into the minds of his foes and know all of their worst most humiliating secrets. soon after the tales of the handyman spread a plague of mass mutilations follow. People start losing hands left and right all over town with no explanation. No one can confirm nor deny my bards affiliation with these crimes because no one can ever really seem to remember where he's been. Now there is some truth to the tail my character specializes in mind reading and mind altering Magic he's at the College of satire which lets him scan thoughts and then he focuses on charm and other such telepathic and mine controlling spells. And again no one can confirm nor deny that any hands have been cut off by my character. No one ever really suspects him because he tumbles and bumbles around like a drunken fool suffering from what he calls ocean Madness and most people don't even remember they heard the story from him in the first place. And while the town is whipped up into a mass Hysteria my bar is jumping from rooftop to Rooftop like the old Fiddler on the Roof sneaking down people's chimneys and robbing them blind. Then it's back off into the sea. Yo. Ho.
I have a half-elven Whispers Bard who is tone deaf. He’s an actor who covers for his tin ear by explaining how much he “loathes musical theater.” He has learned that he has a penchant for playing villains on stage. He recently gained a level of Divine Soul Sorcerer with an evil divinity, adding further intrigue as to why he is so good at playing villains.
I have an idea for a Bard for if i ever get to play (forever dm ;( ) It's a Changeling Bard, who was once famous across the land for their one man theater performances, but something happened that caused them to hide their identity and leave that life behind.
Hey! I was wondering/had this idea of a Full Performance Bard, where she would dance and sing while playing either a hand drum or tambourine (you know, something super portable) or wearing ankle bells. She would cast spells based on how she moved, her vocal pitches (doesn’t even need to be words, just notes and tones), and rhythm beats to weave the world magic into what she wants; not just to enchant and charm enemies or inspire and buff her party mates, but also cast elemental magic as she danced across water or swept up an earth spike. High Dex/Char would be a must. Maybe an un-armed strike here and there as she kicks an enemy while backwards flip dodging out of melee range?
(Edit: now that I’m thinking about it, would this be achievable if I multi class bard with monk? Or wizard and monk, using the dancer’s own body as a spellcasting focus?)
I can't help but picture Burt (dick van dyke) from Mary Poppins.
I think you may be getting into the weeds with unarmed strikes. You also don't necessarily need to flip out of melee range with some kind of mobility build. You have spells like Tasha's Hideous LaughterVicious Mockerypsychic screamotto's irresistible dance that would reduce the need for mobility, because of how they affect the enemy.
I would stick to one class and avoid too many competing options
A little late to the conversation but I have a human Bard named Bainbridge. He's College of Whispers and doesn't know how to play a single instrument or even sing. He is a master of Psychological Warfare, Guerilla tactics and Propaganda, and he uses his skills to spread disinformation and fear among the populace he is hired to target.
When I see the typical "drunk seducer bard" I call each and every one of them Flynn, like the Bard from The Gamers II: Dorkness Rising
Model - like Zoolander and uses poses to cast spells "Bluesteel!"
Meme bard - uses memes "That feeling when _________"
“Movie” Director Bard: One of your teammates rolls a natural 1 on an attack or check “No no no, all wrong! lets take it from the top and put some more EMOTION into next time!” I will inspire so and so.
So, i've gotten, over the course of the last 6 months grown a lvl 18 Lore Bard. lvl 2 war cleric formerly blue, now platinum dragon-born
may I present, Stuttering Steve the Singing Spell Slinger
A pan flute playing bard with a stutter that uses insults and jokes to attack, inspire/demoralize. young 20 something year old male, learned bard-tactics from a dragon marked half-elf with the goal of becoming the Minstrel for Bahamuts court. will go for the joke over anything, uses a str. based dragon-killer bow, has over time and travels acquired a robe or the arch-magi and a staff of the magi. through a fortunately rolled wish spell(rolled a 98) is also in possession of all of the instruments of the bards. the un/fortunate dragon was modified with magic and technology from a blue dragon to a dragonborn with an inherent draw from and to dragons, to be used to hunt the fabled dragon song, also known as the song of creation.
through the learning of said dragon-song Steve is able to manipulate the elements, currently a master of earthshaping, and novice in the others, is able to shape a 100ftx100ft cube of earth at will to the degree of making small figurines of diamond that dance in his hands, to a pit 100 ft deep dropping discs of earth down 1 at a time, like a horrible Indiana Jones trap.
blessed by bahamut in his endeavour to collect a menagerie of tales for the deity's enjoyment, he is imbued with a once a day mirror attack in which an enemies attempt to damage him is reflected back at the attacker and its damage is replaced with 6D8 radiant damage. recently around lvl 17 had sacrificed many magical items, artifects, spells of his own, as well as other magical abilities givien to him throughout his adventures Steve was given an instance of reincarnation, modified slightly in that when Steve dies, he will be reincarnated, as a platinum dragon, which transformed him from a blue dragonborn to a platinum one.
(i had a hand of vecna which last session i lopped off, killing myself to start the reincarnation, as we're trapped in the feywild(of our DM's own imagining) and time is sped up here, it's supposed to take us months to get to the end, and time is thousands of times faster the further in you go. so im currently scouting ahead of the party so as to age up faster.
and perfect timing too as we've missed the last 2 sessions due to corona, so hopefully in another week when we get together again, God/Satan will have a nice adult platinum dragon stat block for me.)
I've loved just about all the concepts I've read in this thread so far. Kudos to all my fellow bardic inspirations!
Now...my bards!
Poozer, the valiant and mighty Goblin valor bard. He's pretty much the embodiment of the Dio music video "Rainbow in the dark." And I'll either sing or quote 1980's hair metal lyrics when casting spells with him. His lute is his axe. He rides a mangy dog, has a simulacrum that looks like a little big planet version of him, and summons his "stabby boys" (Quicklings) to fight alongside him in battle. (Seriously, summon 4 of them and have the gang up on the enemy wizard. It's almost an insta-kill.)
Reynholm, a lascivious human glamour bard based on Matt Berry's characters in 'What we do in the Shadows', 'The IT crowd' and 'Toast of London'. He's an over the top, paunchy actor with a failed career in theatre so he takes odd jobs around Waterdeep (Such as voice acting in puppet shows and posing in store windows as a live mannequin. Sometimes adventuring on his agent's advice.) so that he can continue to pay rent for the couch that he sleeps on in his friend's flat. Sometimes he has a magnificent mustache, sometimes he doesn't. I need to get a cloak of the bat for him so I can shout, "Bat!" and polymorph into one during sessions.
Soren, the former Bregan Dairthe Drow swords bard and swashbuckler. He's 400 years old, a terrible drunk (Waterdeep Season 8 Tavern Regular background) who has holes in his memory from a curse. The songs he sings are of his past heroic deeds but he's only able to vaguely remember that the ballads are about him when he's blackout drunk.
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I've got a half-orc bass player! She's got something that's a bit like marceline from adventure time's bass-axe. She's super badass I want to be her.
Howz about a Necromanctic Wizard/Bard who animates the corpses of her enemies to make a 5-skeleton band? The music is so good, it kills!
Ouch.
I've made a Tiefling College of Glamour bard for a fight night we're doing within our Dragon Heist campaign. His background is the Entertainer/Gladiator one, big entrance music for the Enthralling Performance, flashy costume, etc. Going to go very WWE with it, can't wait! It's going to be a last man standing match and I don't imagine he'll win, I just think he'll be really campy and fun to play.
Bit late to the party here, but created an interesting (to me) bard character recently that I played in a one-shot and worked so well I'm taking them into an upcoming campaign.
The backstory is that they are an inventor, and travelling salesman. Guild Artisan background gives you proficiency in certain tool sets, and my performance abilities came with a sales pitch for my latest crazy invention. DM let me use this background and story combo for some interesting homebrew style actions, like modifying a pair of glasses into 'light enhancing eyewear' aka night vision goggles (successful DC20 roll and mandatory payment to replenish materials from my toolset)
Bardic inspiration came in the form of cheesy sales manager/office buzzwords style pump up talks, either done one at a time in combat, or in a group huddle before entering a location.
I have a valor bard the is mixed with Battle master fighter for commanding strike and maneuvering strike. He inspires through speeches, like the ones you see in action movies just before the big fight/war/battle/chase scene. Quoting movies at the table in character is fun.
" ... tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!!!"
" ... We're going to survive! Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!"
" ... Today, we face the monsters that are at our door and bring the fight to them! Today, we are cancellin' the apocalypse!""
I have a College of Whispers Bard who is an assassin for the Zhentarim, and has one level of Celestial Warlock because he wants to protect his son. He has a rock star alter ego, and uses his concerts to disguise assassinations. (Invites them backstage alone, stabby stab).
“Basically, if you tell anyone, we’ll kill you. We’re pretty good at that sort of stuff”-Salros Viper, Whispers Bard, paid assassin
I was thinking about being a College of Swords Bard who is a Hibachi Chef, Verdan who grew an extra arm to help him cook and entertain those he is serving.
I have come up with a Bard character that I've enjoyed very much. I started him in waterdeep is background is a sailor with the option to be a pirate. So he's a Bard by class and a pirate by profession. As a pirate he has the bad reputation skill which I have called, "the handyman" . My Bard travels around telling tall tales of the dread handyman a man who is both beast and Shadow Man and myth. A creature that can seep into the minds of his foes and know all of their worst most humiliating secrets. soon after the tales of the handyman spread a plague of mass mutilations follow. People start losing hands left and right all over town with no explanation. No one can confirm nor deny my bards affiliation with these crimes because no one can ever really seem to remember where he's been. Now there is some truth to the tail my character specializes in mind reading and mind altering Magic he's at the College of satire which lets him scan thoughts and then he focuses on charm and other such telepathic and mine controlling spells. And again no one can confirm nor deny that any hands have been cut off by my character. No one ever really suspects him because he tumbles and bumbles around like a drunken fool suffering from what he calls ocean Madness and most people don't even remember they heard the story from him in the first place. And while the town is whipped up into a mass Hysteria my bar is jumping from rooftop to Rooftop like the old Fiddler on the Roof sneaking down people's chimneys and robbing them blind. Then it's back off into the sea. Yo. Ho.
College of Eloquence gave us public speaking bards. College of Swords gave us sword swallowers and knife jugglers.
Bards are performers. Actors, poets, circus performers, street performers, magicians, and griots could all make for non-musical bards.
I have a half-elven Whispers Bard who is tone deaf. He’s an actor who covers for his tin ear by explaining how much he “loathes musical theater.” He has learned that he has a penchant for playing villains on stage. He recently gained a level of Divine Soul Sorcerer with an evil divinity, adding further intrigue as to why he is so good at playing villains.
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I have an idea for a Bard for if i ever get to play (forever dm ;( ) It's a Changeling Bard, who was once famous across the land for their one man theater performances, but something happened that caused them to hide their identity and leave that life behind.
Hey! I was wondering/had this idea of a Full Performance Bard, where she would dance and sing while playing either a hand drum or tambourine (you know, something super portable) or wearing ankle bells. She would cast spells based on how she moved, her vocal pitches (doesn’t even need to be words, just notes and tones), and rhythm beats to weave the world magic into what she wants; not just to enchant and charm enemies or inspire and buff her party mates, but also cast elemental magic as she danced across water or swept up an earth spike. High Dex/Char would be a must. Maybe an un-armed strike here and there as she kicks an enemy while backwards flip dodging out of melee range?
(Edit: now that I’m thinking about it, would this be achievable if I multi class bard with monk? Or wizard and monk, using the dancer’s own body as a spellcasting focus?)
🤪
I can't help but picture Burt (dick van dyke) from Mary Poppins.
I think you may be getting into the weeds with unarmed strikes. You also don't necessarily need to flip out of melee range with some kind of mobility build. You have spells like Tasha's Hideous Laughter Vicious Mockery psychic scream otto's irresistible dance that would reduce the need for mobility, because of how they affect the enemy.
I would stick to one class and avoid too many competing options
Jesus Saves!... Everyone else takes damage.
A little late to the conversation but I have a human Bard named Bainbridge. He's College of Whispers and doesn't know how to play a single instrument or even sing. He is a master of Psychological Warfare, Guerilla tactics and Propaganda, and he uses his skills to spread disinformation and fear among the populace he is hired to target.
When I see the typical "drunk seducer bard" I call each and every one of them Flynn, like the Bard from The Gamers II: Dorkness Rising
Clown
Model - like Zoolander and uses poses to cast spells "Bluesteel!"
Meme bard - uses memes "That feeling when _________"
“Movie” Director Bard: One of your teammates rolls a natural 1 on an attack or check “No no no, all wrong! lets take it from the top and put some more EMOTION into next time!” I will inspire so and so.
Mime Bard?
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Epic Boons on DDB
Thats a good one. When I think of bards I just think of entertainers, literally anything to do with entertainment can be a Bard in my eyes.
So, i've gotten, over the course of the last 6 months grown a lvl 18 Lore Bard. lvl 2 war cleric formerly blue, now platinum dragon-born
may I present, Stuttering Steve the Singing Spell Slinger
A pan flute playing bard with a stutter that uses insults and jokes to attack, inspire/demoralize. young 20 something year old male, learned bard-tactics from a dragon marked half-elf with the goal of becoming the Minstrel for Bahamuts court. will go for the joke over anything, uses a str. based dragon-killer bow, has over time and travels acquired a robe or the arch-magi and a staff of the magi. through a fortunately rolled wish spell(rolled a 98) is also in possession of all of the instruments of the bards. the un/fortunate dragon was modified with magic and technology from a blue dragon to a dragonborn with an inherent draw from and to dragons, to be used to hunt the fabled dragon song, also known as the song of creation.
through the learning of said dragon-song Steve is able to manipulate the elements, currently a master of earthshaping, and novice in the others, is able to shape a 100ftx100ft cube of earth at will to the degree of making small figurines of diamond that dance in his hands, to a pit 100 ft deep dropping discs of earth down 1 at a time, like a horrible Indiana Jones trap.
blessed by bahamut in his endeavour to collect a menagerie of tales for the deity's enjoyment, he is imbued with a once a day mirror attack in which an enemies attempt to damage him is reflected back at the attacker and its damage is replaced with 6D8 radiant damage. recently around lvl 17 had sacrificed many magical items, artifects, spells of his own, as well as other magical abilities givien to him throughout his adventures Steve was given an instance of reincarnation, modified slightly in that when Steve dies, he will be reincarnated, as a platinum dragon, which transformed him from a blue dragonborn to a platinum one.
(i had a hand of vecna which last session i lopped off, killing myself to start the reincarnation, as we're trapped in the feywild(of our DM's own imagining) and time is sped up here, it's supposed to take us months to get to the end, and time is thousands of times faster the further in you go. so im currently scouting ahead of the party so as to age up faster.
and perfect timing too as we've missed the last 2 sessions due to corona, so hopefully in another week when we get together again, God/Satan will have a nice adult platinum dragon stat block for me.)
I've loved just about all the concepts I've read in this thread so far. Kudos to all my fellow bardic inspirations!
Now...my bards!
Poozer, the valiant and mighty Goblin valor bard. He's pretty much the embodiment of the Dio music video "Rainbow in the dark." And I'll either sing or quote 1980's hair metal lyrics when casting spells with him. His lute is his axe. He rides a mangy dog, has a simulacrum that looks like a little big planet version of him, and summons his "stabby boys" (Quicklings) to fight alongside him in battle. (Seriously, summon 4 of them and have the gang up on the enemy wizard. It's almost an insta-kill.)
Reynholm, a lascivious human glamour bard based on Matt Berry's characters in 'What we do in the Shadows', 'The IT crowd' and 'Toast of London'. He's an over the top, paunchy actor with a failed career in theatre so he takes odd jobs around Waterdeep (Such as voice acting in puppet shows and posing in store windows as a live mannequin. Sometimes adventuring on his agent's advice.) so that he can continue to pay rent for the couch that he sleeps on in his friend's flat. Sometimes he has a magnificent mustache, sometimes he doesn't. I need to get a cloak of the bat for him so I can shout, "Bat!" and polymorph into one during sessions.
Soren, the former Bregan Dairthe Drow swords bard and swashbuckler. He's 400 years old, a terrible drunk (Waterdeep Season 8 Tavern Regular background) who has holes in his memory from a curse. The songs he sings are of his past heroic deeds but he's only able to vaguely remember that the ballads are about him when he's blackout drunk.