4th edition bard guide

Metallic : The breath weapon is nice and provides a good direct damage option, but the foot cone is dangerous for a class as frail as the Bard. The damage resistances are still nice, and of course your can handle rushing into near-melee occasionally to deliver a breath weapon.

Retrain the weapon proficiencies into tools. The Palid Elf subrace is addressed under Races of Wildemount , below. Flight in light armor is excellent for the Bard. Firbold Magic offers some utilities, including Detect Magic which is absolutely essential if no one else in your party can cast it. Default Rules : Everything works except the ability increases. If you just want medium armor, I could consider the Mountain Dwarf first. Customized Origin : Darkvision and Gnome Cunning are great on any character.

Fury of the Small works with spells, and Nimble Escape it will keep caster bards out of trouble. Nimble Escape duplicates most of Cunning Action, which gives you one less reason to take a class dip. Default Rules : Decent for a Strength-based Valor Bard, but you can do a lot better with other races. An extra skill, Hare Trigger helps you go early and get crowd control spells in place, and Rabbit Hop lets you escape melee safely without eating your action.

Brave and Lucky are good on literally any character. Default Rules : Dexterity is helpful since Bards have light armor and typically use Finesse weapons, and Lucky is always good to have. The Kobold is a hard choice.

Default Rules : Good, but lacking a Charisma increase is hard. Note that errata has corrected the multiple versions of the Orc to all provide the same traits.

The Intelligence decrease has been removed, and the Primal Intuition now allows selecting two skills from a list. Flight, Darkvision, and an extra skill. Default Rules : Good ability increases, two free skills, and some other fun traits.

Perfect for a bard of any kind. The Infernal Constitution racial feat is really tempting for a melee bard, as it gives you three damage resistances and makes you able to withstand a great deal of damage.

With so many Tiefling subraces to choose from, you have a ton of room to really customize your character. Good on land, but great underwater. Default Rules : Fantastic ability increases for a martial bard, plus some innate spellcasting and some other stuff. Default Rules : Constitution and Charisma is a perfect combination for a Charisma-based spellcaster, and getting Persuasion for free is great. Magic Resistance and Poison Immunity make the pureblood very durable to common threats.

Setting-specific races are address below. Talk to your DM about what races are allowed in your game. Default Rules : Charisma and a free increase work for any bard build, and you get two skills of your choice and one more language than most races. Where the Changeling shines is their Shapechanger ability, which is similar to Disguise Self at will. In a game that involves a lot of social interaction or intrigue, this could be a significant asset.

Also keep in mind that while it changes your body, it does not change your clothing like Disguise Self does, so you may need to combine this with a more mundane disguise in some circumstances.

Mind Link neatly solves the problem of language barriers, which is a huge asset for a Face character. No more worrying about Comprehend Languages or Tongues. But those capabilities come at the cost of skills, darkvision, or other benefits provided by other races, and those other capabilities are more consistently useful than resistances to uncommon problems and a solution to language barriers which you could already overcome with spells.

Default Rules : The Charisma increase is great, but nothing else here is especially exciting. Temporary hit points are mostly useful for front-line martial characters, so the Shifter is mostly an option for bard subclasses built to use weapons. Default Rules : Darkvision is always a good base, but only one subrace works for the Bard. You can move the Constitution increase around, but increasing Constitution is still the best way to use that increase.

Default Rules : Constitution and a free increase means that you can get the crucial Charisma increase, the extra AC is always great, and you get some helpful resistances.

While the design intent for Dragonmarks was that they would offer some innate spellcasting for everyone, every dragonmark includes an expanded spell list which is arguably a more significant benefit than most of the provided racial traits. Dragonmark traits replace some of your normal racial traits, as described in the entry for each Dragonmark.

You might be able to make a Strength-based valor bard work, but it will be difficult. Trunk and Keen Smell are neat, but not especially impactful.

The creature can even wait until after the roll but before the outcome is announced to use the die. A bard can inspire as many times as their charisma modifier. They are regained after a long rest. The die goes up as you level.

At Level 5 it becomes a d8. At level 10 it is a d Finally, Level 15 gives a d12 inspiration die. The Song of Rest is another feature that increases as you level. At level 2, you can heal your allies during a short rest. Any friendly creature that can hear your performance can roll a die to regain hit points.

At level 2, you grant 1d6 HP. This increases to 1d8 at level 8, 1d10 at level 13, and 1d12 at level Any bit of healing is nice, even when it is limited to a short rest. This choice is important, as the subclasses vary dramatically. We will do an in-depth review of the colleges below.

With expertise, you can choose two of your skill proficiencies. Any ability check results in your proficiency bonus doubling when using either skill. This is fantastic, especially since you have free reign to choose skills as a bard. You gain expertise in two more skills at level Until level 5, you only regain your uses of Bardic Inspiration after a long rest. After Font of Inspiration, it now refreshes following a short or long rest. Countercharm allows you to use words or song to disrupt certain mind-influencing effects.

When you take an action to begin performing, you and all friendly creatures within 30 feet get advantage on saving throws against attempts to frighten or charm you. The friendly creature has to be able to hear you for this to be effective. Fairly situational, countercharm is not usually worth the cost of an action outside of fights against creatures who make heavy use of fear or charming. Magical Secrets grants you access to any two spells of a level you can cast.

They can be from any class, and they count as bard spells for your purposes. They count toward your number of known spells. You gain two more spells at level 14, and again at level Bards already have a fantastic selection of spells, but there are plenty of good spells elsewhere.

When you hit level 20, you gain an additional bardic inspiration die any time you roll initiative and have spent all of them. This is a nice little bonus that benefits running out of inspiration dice immediately before a fight. These features include an expanded list of bard spells, a new twist on bardic inspiration, and some flexibility when you level. Like with most caster classes, the Bard gained several new additions to its spell list.

This spell list mostly focuses on illusion spells and some healing options. These spells include:. This additional feature is quite powerful, as it lets anyone you give a bardic inspiration die to use it for dealing damage or healing HP through a spell. This scales well, as it can add a lot of oomph to low-level healing spells especially. Starting at level 4, you gain some flexibility each time you gain a new Ability Score Improvment.

When you add an ability point, you can also either swap your Expertise skill to a different proficiency or change from one bard cantrip to another. When it comes to bards, spellcasting is at the forefront. For more help, see my Practical Guide to Summoning Spells. In many situations, Hold Monster will be just as effective, if not more so.

What are they smart enough to do in combat? Remember that the spell becomes permanent if you keep it running for an hour, so you can also use this to permanently turn yourself or someone else into a monster or a dragon or something. Turn them into a flower pot, then either drop them from high enough to deal maximum fall damage the extra damage carries over to their regular hit points when they revert , throw them into a demiplane, plane shift them somewhere unpleasant, or dispose of them in some other permanent and irrevocable fashion like a bag of devouring.

You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Thread starter Nibelung Start date Sep 20, Nibelung First Post. So why play a Bard? Last edited: Sep 24, Brenthias First Post. Thank you very much! Everything I needed to see, and the combos where a lovely bonus! I want more detail about Bard Taxis ,could you give me some passage?

I cant find it online ,plz. Zathris First Post.