Hello! A rather new player in my local AL asked me for advice on his new character. It will be his first that is not premade. As I do not have experience With bards I thought that I would ask here.
He wants a bard in medium armor, that cast elditch blast with agonizing blast (he got inspired when he saw a sorlock playing), and that "can heal and help". That is the important things. I was thinking a half elf bard that take a 2 level dip into warlock. Half elf as I noticed that he gets excited when he hits in battle, and elven accuracy feat might make things more fun for him later on. However I could use a suggestion of the sublasses. I guess valor bard / archfey warlock (armor and fairy fire, he will hit more) or the lore or glamour bard with the hexblade warlock. Lore bard could give some more interesting spells to be helpful with, and glamour bard gives out temporary hitpoints, very helpful.
Any suggestions? And is glamour bard legal in AL play?
Glamor bard is AL legal since it is in Xanathar's. It just makes Xanathar's your +1 source.
As for bard/warlock choices. There are a lot of good combinations. My personal preference is lore bard X/hexblade warlock 2 since you get medium armor, a shield, the shield and hex spells, 2 short rest level 1 spell slots, agonizing blast and another invocation.
Lore bard gives you lots of skills with expertise which can be fun and with the naturally high charisma the character becomes great at persuasion/deception depending on which they take expertise in.
I play exactly this character in AL, currently level 14, 12 lore bard/2 hexblade warlock and I have had a lot of fun. The character has direct at will damage options not available to most bards plus they are tankier with decent AC. The extra two first level slots are useful for shield and any number of other 1st level spells like healing word.
My choice was variant human with the resilient con feat since con saves are important, especially for a bard. The second invocation was devil's sight for the ability to see in the dark negating the biggest downside (in my opinion) to being human. I started with warlock 1 for wis saves and was 3 lore bard/2 hexblade warlock at level 5. Agonizing blast+hex and second level spells kept the character contributing to the group until level 7 when he acquired 3rd level spells. After that, I never noticed the fact that the spells were running one level behind compared to a straight bard.
Magical secrets at 6th level bard (8 character level) were fireball and counterspell since both are very useful, especially in AL where you don't know what the party composition will be. In various groups, I've played the character as ranged damage, primary healer, controller (with hypnotic pattern/blindness/suggestion), blaster (fireball really comes in handy sometimes). The only role they aren't good at is melee, however the AC is good enough especially with the shield spell, that they can usually avoid being hit too much if they get caught in melee.
So ... I like the bard/warlock multiclass and for AL I've found the lore bard X/hexblade warlock 2 combination to be both fun and effective (though there are folks who would strongly advocate for straight bard and avoid the spells lagging for a level ... I never found this to be a big deal).
My vote actually goes toward Valor Bard mostly because of the added versatility to Bardic Inspiration, since you can use it to let allies deal more damage or even increase their AC in clutch moments. Players are always happy to get some Bardic Inspiration, but they're REALLY happy to get some Valor Inspiration.
From there, the Warlock is mostly a question of which low-level spells/abilities you want access to. Odds are they'll be primarily a bard with just a dip in Warlock. A bard can already learn Faerie Fire on their own, so if that's your motivation for Archfey then it might not be worth the effort. Maybe Celestial would be a better choice? It gives access to Guiding Bolt, which scales well over time and is always a gift to the rest of the party, and gives a bonus action heal which amounts to a better Healing Word that can be cast without consuming spell slots.
Hello!
A rather new player in my local AL asked me for advice on his new character. It will be his first that is not premade. As I do not have experience With bards I thought that I would ask here.
He wants a bard in medium armor, that cast elditch blast with agonizing blast (he got inspired when he saw a sorlock playing), and that "can heal and help". That is the important things.
I was thinking a half elf bard that take a 2 level dip into warlock. Half elf as I noticed that he gets excited when he hits in battle, and elven accuracy feat might make things more fun for him later on. However I could use a suggestion of the sublasses. I guess valor bard / archfey warlock (armor and fairy fire, he will hit more) or the lore or glamour bard with the hexblade warlock. Lore bard could give some more interesting spells to be helpful with, and glamour bard gives out temporary hitpoints, very helpful.
Any suggestions? And is glamour bard legal in AL play?
Glamor bard is AL legal since it is in Xanathar's. It just makes Xanathar's your +1 source.
As for bard/warlock choices. There are a lot of good combinations. My personal preference is lore bard X/hexblade warlock 2 since you get medium armor, a shield, the shield and hex spells, 2 short rest level 1 spell slots, agonizing blast and another invocation.
Lore bard gives you lots of skills with expertise which can be fun and with the naturally high charisma the character becomes great at persuasion/deception depending on which they take expertise in.
I play exactly this character in AL, currently level 14, 12 lore bard/2 hexblade warlock and I have had a lot of fun. The character has direct at will damage options not available to most bards plus they are tankier with decent AC. The extra two first level slots are useful for shield and any number of other 1st level spells like healing word.
My choice was variant human with the resilient con feat since con saves are important, especially for a bard. The second invocation was devil's sight for the ability to see in the dark negating the biggest downside (in my opinion) to being human. I started with warlock 1 for wis saves and was 3 lore bard/2 hexblade warlock at level 5. Agonizing blast+hex and second level spells kept the character contributing to the group until level 7 when he acquired 3rd level spells. After that, I never noticed the fact that the spells were running one level behind compared to a straight bard.
Magical secrets at 6th level bard (8 character level) were fireball and counterspell since both are very useful, especially in AL where you don't know what the party composition will be. In various groups, I've played the character as ranged damage, primary healer, controller (with hypnotic pattern/blindness/suggestion), blaster (fireball really comes in handy sometimes). The only role they aren't good at is melee, however the AC is good enough especially with the shield spell, that they can usually avoid being hit too much if they get caught in melee.
So ... I like the bard/warlock multiclass and for AL I've found the lore bard X/hexblade warlock 2 combination to be both fun and effective (though there are folks who would strongly advocate for straight bard and avoid the spells lagging for a level ... I never found this to be a big deal).
My vote actually goes toward Valor Bard mostly because of the added versatility to Bardic Inspiration, since you can use it to let allies deal more damage or even increase their AC in clutch moments. Players are always happy to get some Bardic Inspiration, but they're REALLY happy to get some Valor Inspiration.
From there, the Warlock is mostly a question of which low-level spells/abilities you want access to. Odds are they'll be primarily a bard with just a dip in Warlock. A bard can already learn Faerie Fire on their own, so if that's your motivation for Archfey then it might not be worth the effort. Maybe Celestial would be a better choice? It gives access to Guiding Bolt, which scales well over time and is always a gift to the rest of the party, and gives a bonus action heal which amounts to a better Healing Word that can be cast without consuming spell slots.
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