Introduction
Bard subclasses are a significant factor in determining your character’s role in the party. Your choice of subclass will emphasize different core aspects of class, allowing you to specialize in one capability while still remaining a jack of all trades.
For legacy subclasses, see our 2014 DnD 5e Bard Subclasses Guide.
Table of Contents
Disclaimer
RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.
The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.
Bard Subclasses
(PHB)
Both thematically and mechanically fantastic, College of Dance adds unarmed combat to the bard, turning them into a viable martial threat in a way that nicely complements the Bard’s core capabilities. But it’s not just dancing and slapping people: College of Dance also provides some excellent Support options.
College of Dance Bard Subclass Guide
- : This ability has four clauses and they’re all incredible. Permanent Advantage on any Performance check involving Dancing is going to feel super satisfying, getting Charisma to AC rewards you for leaning into your spellcasting ability, Bardic Damage is required for the subclass to function, and Agile Strikes is going to do some heavy lifting immediately and then ramp into overtime come level seven.
- : If this ability had no synergy, it would still be worth rating blue. As it is, it’s also a reliable way to punch something before waltzing away and saving your friend the other squishy for good measure.
- : I honestly don’t understand why they thought printing this was fine. Thanks to the edition update, you’re already getting four d8 dice every short rest and the ability to generate more easily. Giving your whole party an initiative bonus of 4.5 (which will keep increasing over time) is going to provide incredible consistency for whatever opening volley you’ve put together. Admittedly, this only leaves you three or four Bardic Inspiration dice for the rest of the fight, but that’s still enough for one per turn if you don’t burn them on Reactions.
- : Evasion didn’t really need to be better, but here we are.
(PHB)
Glamour focuses on spellcasting, support, and debuffing enemies with mental effects. While the features are often fantastic, the subclass suffers from resource starvation, depending on Bardic Inspiration or on your spell slots to use most of your subclass features more than once per day.
- : Charm Person is fine.
Mirror Image is a great defense, though it can be hard to cast in combat.
The ability to charm or frighten an enemy when you cast an enchantment or illusion spell is a great boost to your spellcasting. Charmed enemies can’t attack you, andm outside of combatm you can use it to charm other creatures in social situations without the target knowing that you charmed it like the target does with Charm Person and similar spells. The Frightened option is more useful in combat, as it prevents enemies from moving toward you and debuffs their ability checks and attacks.
Unfortunately, resistance to Charmed/Frightened is common.
- : Great if your party finds themselves in a bad situation. The temporary hit points aren’t huge, but they’ll still have an impact, and moving as a Reaction will get your allies out of dangerous positions without cutting into their turns.
- : This will occupy your
Bonus Action for an entire encounter, but it’s absolutely worth doing so.
Command can disarm enemies using weapons, force melee enemies to move away,
force ranged enemies to move closer, or force enemies to waste their turns
groveling. The effects only last one turn, but trading your Bonus Action to
rob an enemy of their whole turn is a good trade in encounters where your
party outnumbers your enemies.
Against powerful enemies with Legendary Resistances, this is a great way to burn through their Legendary Resistance charges. On a failed save, the target is forced to make a horrible choice between losing an entire turn or burning a Legendary Resistance to save against a level 1 spell that only cost you a Bonus Action to cast, and which you’re going to cast again.
Remember that Mantle of Majesty does not cast a spell with a spell slot. This means that it doesn’t trigger Beguiling Music, but it also means that you can cast a spell with a spell slot on the same turn, leaving your Action free for you to do whatever you like.
- : This is a great defense if you’re drawing a lot of attacks. It may be enough for you to wade into melee just to draw and then waste your enemies’ attacks. However, you’re still a bard in light armor with d8 hit dice, so attacks that get through will be a problem. Strongly consider casting Mirror Image to further protect yourself.
(PHB)
College of Lore emphasizes and expands the Bard’s core capabilities: skills, spellcasting, and using Bardic Inspiration to support your allies and hinder your enemies. The features are fantastic and really play to the Bard’s function as a jack of all trades, and, while it’s only two more spells, Magical Discoveries allows the Bard to fill in for basically any other spellcaster that you might have in the party so that your party never needs to worry about you choosing to bring a Bard instead of a Cleric or a Wizard.
- : 3 more skills of your choice brings your total number of skill proficiencies up to 6 (not including those from your Background and possibly from your Species), allowing you to cover multiple skill-based rolls with ease.
- : This excludes saving throws, so you can’t force enemies to fail save-or-suck saves, but you can use it to protect allies from attacks which barely hit, mitigating potentially huge amounts of damage as a Reaction.
- : Bards can start selecting spells from the Bard, Cleric, Druid, and Wizard spell lists at level 10, but this gets you a taste of that capability earlier than anyone else. Powerful level 3 spell options include Fireball, Revivify, Spirit Guardians, and many others.
- : You won’t be using this
for attacks, but you can use it to rescue failed skill checks, which will
only be useful outside of combat (with very rare exception). By this level
you have Expertise in 4 skills and access to Advantage from Enhance Ability,
making your skills extremely reliable. Adding the ability to rescue a failed
ability check with a Bardic Inspiration die makes it very difficult for you
to fail ability checks.
Unfortunately, you can’t use this with checks that you can’t fail, so you can’t apply this to initiative rolls.
(PHB)
A martially-minded Bard may prefer College of Valor. By improving the Bard’s ability to wade into melee safely, the Bard can fill nearly every role in a party. If you’re in a small party, this is an exciting option. However, in a full-sized, the Valor Bard’s lackluster martial capabilities will be frighteningly apparent.
Valor faces three glaring problems: Valor’s focus on weapons makes the Bard MAD for little benefit, the Bard’s existing features are better than those offered by College of Valor, and a single level of Fighter provides everything that you really need from the subclass.
- Combat Inspiration: Two new uses for Bardic Inspiration.
- : This can block an attack which just barely beat your ally’s AC. It may not be as impactful as turning a failed save into a successful one, but not every encounter involves saving throws.
- : A profound waste of a powerful resource.
- : Medium armor and a
shield will significantly improve your AC. With 14 or more Dexterity, a
breastplate, and a shield, you’re looking at a respectable 18 AC, enough to
match a fighter in full plate (without a shield). Half-plate will get you
more AC, but you might prefer to avoid Disadvantage on Stealth checks. If
you eventually get to 18 Dexterity, consider switching back to light armor.
You also get access to all martial weapons, which makes weapons marginally more impactful. Grab a rapier for melee and a musket for range.
- : This needs a different name because there is almost no circumstance under which you should actually make two attacks. In nearly every case you will make one attack and cast a cantrip. This doesn’t limit you to Bard cantrips, so strongly consider options like Eldritch Blast or True Strike if you can get them from feats or from multiclassing.
It’s more helpful to think of this as getting a free attack when you cast a cantrip. As a full caster, there may be entire encounters where you never once use this because you’re too busy casting level 1+ spells and using your Bonus Action for Bardic Inspiration.
- : An excellent use of your
Bonus Action, but your Bonus Action is also used for Bardic Inspiration and
many spells, so there will frequently be turns where you can’t use Battle
Magic. Unfortunately, without True Strike to make the Bonus Action attack
use your Charisma, it’s likely to be a Dexterity-based attack, so it’s going
to run into MAD issues.
I’m not entirely certain how this interacts with the Valor Bard’s version of Extra Attack. This triggers when you cast a spell that has an Action casting time, but when you use Extra Attack you’re modifying the spell’s casting time much like a Sorcerer using Quickened Spell. In my opinion, this does not work with Extra Attack, but discuss the matter with your DM.
