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The basics of building your first DnD Bard:
- Max Charisma
- pick skills that focus on something your party needs; probably social skills, but not always
- Use Bardic Inspiration, but don’t waste it
- Rely primarily on spellcasting in combat
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Let's build your first D and D bard. The
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bard is the quintessential support class
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and jack of all trades. They can do
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quite literally everything that a party
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can typically do. But while they can do
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everything, you're really rewarded for
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specializing. So you'll be okay at a ton
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of things and really good at like one or
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two things depending on what you pick.
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You are still primarily a spellcaster.
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So really focus on charisma and charisma
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based skills. like that is the most
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natural niche for the bard. So, maximize
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your charisma and then split your points
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between dexterity and constitution
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because AC and hit points always matter
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for everybody and those are two really
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important saves. Most bards will only
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have light armor, so you really need
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that dexterity to pump up your AC. If
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you go for valor bard, you'll get medium
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armor and shields, which helps a ton,
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but you don't have options like shield
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like the wizard does. So, most bards are
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relatively frail and have pretty bad AC.
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In combat, focus primarily on your spell
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casting. Pick some good combat cantrips.
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Vicious mockery is a classic and it is
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sincerely very, very good. True strike
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is also amazing. Make sure you pick up
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essential healing spells like healing
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word. Even if you take literally no
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other healing in your party, healing
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word is the most important healing spell
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in the game because it can rescue dying
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allies without taking away your action.
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And you can still use your action to
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cast cantrip, attack with a weapon, do
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whatever else you need to do. Make sure
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that you're using BIC inspiration, but
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also watch the resource pool until you
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get to level five. It's a pretty scarce
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resource, so you want to save it for
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things that are actually important.
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Encourage your party members to use it
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for saving throws because that's where
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you're going to get the most impact from
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the extra die. Outside of combat, you
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get more skills than anybody except the
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rogue, and you also get expertise. So,
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you can really choose something that you
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want to specialize in. Most likely, it's
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going to be face skills like persuasion,
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deception, intimidation, but it doesn't
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necessarily have to be that. And
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depending on who else is in your party,
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you may want to focus on other things.
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If your party doesn't have a rogue,
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having good dexterity and then expertise
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in slight of hands so you can pick locks
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and disarm traps like that will do a ton
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of great things for your party. So, that
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might be what you do instead of just
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focusing on those charisma skills. And
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if you need some help once you're level
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three, you can cast enhance ability to
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give yourself advantage on ability
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checks of one type for an hour, which is
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absolutely fantastic in social
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situations or if you need to spend a lot
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of time disarming traps or something. If
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you need help, especially with picking
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spells, check out our spell list guide
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on rpgbot.net and check out our Bard
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class guide. If you have any specific
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questions, leave them in the comments.
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I'm always happy to help where I
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