Mechanically I would chose half elf or satyr if I had to pick one purely on the bases of being 'the better ones'. However that's not in the spirit of the game - play what you think is interesting.
Half-elves are literally designed to be bards. They're arguably the best. Swordcoast Adventurer's Guide has the option to swap out some things for drow magic too, which is pretty attractive. Mordenkeinen's Tome also comes with the Eladrin elf subrace, which has a rather interesting way of using the high-elf teleport that works awesomely with Bard. Drow make decent bards if you stick with Vicious Mockery and avoid weaponry, but generally they're considered worse than variant tieflings, half-elves or eladrin.
If you get your hands on Mordenkeine's Tome of Foes, there's a pair Tiefling subraces that are good for bards. I believe there's a tiefling variant in Swordcoast book as well that's decent as well. Mostly picked for the extra spells, or sometimes wings.
Volo's Fallen Aasimar make decent valor bards, though I'm personally not a fan. Same book, Tritons and Yuan-ti, have good stats, spells, and skills. That said, the Yuan-ti are grossly overpowered as a race, especially an antagonist race, so don't be surprised if your DM says no. Same with Satyrs.
Variant humans are always a solid choice, especially if you go Inspiring Leader, but I personally prefer a race with Darkvision so you can try being a scout with your skills. I personally feel like Inspiring Leader is the best feat to take for a starting bard, but YMMV.
Halflings focusing on the various luck feats can make some rather interesting support bards, but do note that your early levels will usually focus on +CHA, so this comes into its own really late game.
Satyrs have good stats and skills, but, like the Yuan-ti, they suffer a couple of problems might be banned. As fey, for instance, you're immune to Hold Person, but can be Banished to the feywilds, effectively removing your character from the game for a long period of time.
Changelings from Eberron make good Whisper-type bards, if being sneaky infiltrators is your thing. I presume you're not in Eberron, so I'll skip dragonmarks.
TL;DR - Of the different races, Yuan-ti and Satyrs might be the most powerful, but they come with various problems and might cause IC and OoC friction. After that, I recommend Half-Elf (if you want skills), Eladrin (if you want nifty teleports with different effects), Tiefling (extra spells), or Variant Human (if you don't mind no Darkvision and want a feat).
In the end, the best race is going to depend on your individual build, but I feel that these are the best of the best options.
It really depends what you want to get out of it. There are so many great choices. If, however, your primary goal is to get your Charisma modifier as high as possible, then the answer is Changling. Changling has a +2 to CHA and a +1 to any other stat. It is the only race in the game that can get a +3 to a single stat at character creation because it's +1 doesn't say that it's a plus to a different stat. It can be applied to your CHA.
That depends on what you mean by 'best'! Are you playing the game to min/max and get the most out of the stats alone? Are you playing for creative storytelling and roleplaying? Are you playing for something that's easy and cliche or something that's 'outside the box' and different?
Perhaps a good starting point as a writing prompt is to think about what kind of bard you want to be. Does your character play an instrument? Tell fortunes with tarot cards? Paint pictures? Tell stories with the assistance of a mechanical bird that projects images??? Why and how did your character come to be a performer in this craft? Are they well known or is this a talent they've kept hidden because it's a seen as a lesser skill among their people?
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What is the best race to play a bard as?
I've been wanting to play a bard for some time now but I don't know what race is best for it.
Gunnar Snorri Svanþórsson
Mechanically I would chose half elf or satyr if I had to pick one purely on the bases of being 'the better ones'. However that's not in the spirit of the game - play what you think is interesting.
Half-elves are literally designed to be bards. They're arguably the best. Swordcoast Adventurer's Guide has the option to swap out some things for drow magic too, which is pretty attractive. Mordenkeinen's Tome also comes with the Eladrin elf subrace, which has a rather interesting way of using the high-elf teleport that works awesomely with Bard. Drow make decent bards if you stick with Vicious Mockery and avoid weaponry, but generally they're considered worse than variant tieflings, half-elves or eladrin.
If you get your hands on Mordenkeine's Tome of Foes, there's a pair Tiefling subraces that are good for bards. I believe there's a tiefling variant in Swordcoast book as well that's decent as well. Mostly picked for the extra spells, or sometimes wings.
Volo's Fallen Aasimar make decent valor bards, though I'm personally not a fan. Same book, Tritons and Yuan-ti, have good stats, spells, and skills. That said, the Yuan-ti are grossly overpowered as a race, especially an antagonist race, so don't be surprised if your DM says no. Same with Satyrs.
Variant humans are always a solid choice, especially if you go Inspiring Leader, but I personally prefer a race with Darkvision so you can try being a scout with your skills. I personally feel like Inspiring Leader is the best feat to take for a starting bard, but YMMV.
Halflings focusing on the various luck feats can make some rather interesting support bards, but do note that your early levels will usually focus on +CHA, so this comes into its own really late game.
Satyrs have good stats and skills, but, like the Yuan-ti, they suffer a couple of problems might be banned. As fey, for instance, you're immune to Hold Person, but can be Banished to the feywilds, effectively removing your character from the game for a long period of time.
Changelings from Eberron make good Whisper-type bards, if being sneaky infiltrators is your thing. I presume you're not in Eberron, so I'll skip dragonmarks.
TL;DR - Of the different races, Yuan-ti and Satyrs might be the most powerful, but they come with various problems and might cause IC and OoC friction. After that, I recommend Half-Elf (if you want skills), Eladrin (if you want nifty teleports with different effects), Tiefling (extra spells), or Variant Human (if you don't mind no Darkvision and want a feat).
In the end, the best race is going to depend on your individual build, but I feel that these are the best of the best options.
It really depends what you want to get out of it. There are so many great choices. If, however, your primary goal is to get your Charisma modifier as high as possible, then the answer is Changling. Changling has a +2 to CHA and a +1 to any other stat. It is the only race in the game that can get a +3 to a single stat at character creation because it's +1 doesn't say that it's a plus to a different stat. It can be applied to your CHA.
That depends on what you mean by 'best'! Are you playing the game to min/max and get the most out of the stats alone? Are you playing for creative storytelling and roleplaying? Are you playing for something that's easy and cliche or something that's 'outside the box' and different?
Perhaps a good starting point as a writing prompt is to think about what kind of bard you want to be. Does your character play an instrument? Tell fortunes with tarot cards? Paint pictures? Tell stories with the assistance of a mechanical bird that projects images??? Why and how did your character come to be a performer in this craft? Are they well known or is this a talent they've kept hidden because it's a seen as a lesser skill among their people?