A bard in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is a versatile spellcasting class that weaves magic through words, music, and performance to inspire allies, demoralize foes, manipulate minds, create illusions, and heal wounds. Bards are defined by their Charisma as their primary spellcasting ability, which influences their spell save DC and attack bonus. They are proficient with light armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, and shortswords, and they gain proficiency with three musical instruments of their choice.
At 1st level, bards have 8 hit points plus their Constitution modifier and gain 1d8 hit points per level thereafter. They start with two cantrips from the bard spell list and four 1st-level spells, with additional spells learned at higher levels. Bardic Inspiration allows them to inspire allies by granting a d6 die (increasing to d8 at 5th level, d10 at 10th level, and d12 at 15th level) that can be used on ability checks, attack rolls, or saving throws. This feature can be used a number of times equal to their Charisma modifier (minimum once) and is regained after a long rest.
Starting at 2nd level, bards gain the Jack of All Trades feature, adding half their proficiency bonus (rounded down) to any ability check that doesn’t already include their proficiency bonus. They also gain Song of Rest, which grants an extra 1d6 hit points to allies who spend hit dice during a short rest, increasing to 1d8 at 9th level, 1d10 at 13th, and 1d12 at 17th. At 3rd level, bards choose a College (such as College of Lore) that grants additional features, including Expertise in two skills (doubling their proficiency bonus for those skills), and the ability to use Bardic Inspiration to add to spell effects.
Bards gain the ability to cast spells as rituals if the spell has the ritual tag, and they can use a musical instrument as a spellcasting focus. At 4th level, they can increase an ability score by 2 or two scores by 1 (max 20), and they can learn new cantrips or replace existing ones. At 5th level, they gain the Font of Inspiration feature, allowing them to regain all expended Bardic Inspiration uses after a short or long rest. At 6th level, they gain Countercharm, which grants advantage on saving throws against being frightened or charmed for themselves and allies within 30 feet for a turn.
By 10th level, bards gain Magical Secrets, allowing them to learn two spells from any class (including bard) that are of a level they can cast, which count toward their spell known total. At 14th and 18th levels, they learn two more spells from any class. At 20th level, bards regain one Bardic Inspiration use when they roll initiative and have none left.
Bards are considered hybrid support classes, blending elements of rogue and caster roles, and are often described as "all-rounders" who can adapt to various party compositions and situations. They are known for their wide-ranging skills, knowledge, and ability to influence both combat and social encounters through performance and magic.
What is a bard, actually, without those stereotypes?
What is the most fun (DnD 5e) Bard subclass?
What makes a bard a bard?
What is the point of the Bard class?
Videos
I've heard someone say something along the lines of "bards are great without people stereotyping them" which made me wonder, since I'm new, what IS a bard supposed to be?
I will at some point join a party of a WL, Barbarian and Rogue and would maybe like to play a Bard. For Subclass i thought about Spirits, where the randomness is a big plus imo. For Race I thought VHuman or HalfElf. What are your favorites?
In a previous post I was asking how to make an arcane bard, who didn't have to use music or arts or anything like that to do magic, and all the answers have been about him not needing any of that to do magic and not even for his class features.
So, if a wizard needs his wizard studies, a sorcerer his instrinsic magic, a warlock his pact and a cleric his faith.
What makes a bard a bard?
Never played one; never seen one. What does it add to a party?
Edit: Thanks for the very informative replies.
The 5e Bard is a more powerful character than the 3.5e Bard, but not nearly as good at buffing his allies.
To start with, the 5e Bard gets full spellcasting all the way up to 9th level spells, where the 3.5e Bard got 2/3 spellcasting, topping out at 6th level spells. This is, in some ways, the biggest change, and it has a huge impact on the Bard's power and flexibility. Their spell list doesn't have the raw power or versatility of the Wizard, but it's pretty solid. And, of course, they get to add stuff to it. More on that later.
The next thing they get depends on your choice of College. Valour Bards get Extra Attack, and a bunch of proficiencies, that put their fighting ability roughly on par with that of a Ranger. Lore Bards, on the other hand, get bonuses to skills that make them arguably the best skillmonkeys around. This honestly isn't a huge change; the 3.5e Bard was already a pretty reasonable fighter and a great skillmonkey.
What's really different is the Bard's specialty, inspiring allies. This has, in all honesty, gotten substantially weaker. Instead of continual effects that boost all nearby allies, the Bard now has the ability to give a single ally a one-off boost. It's slightly more flexible in that the ally can choose which roll to add it to, and the Colleges add even more uses, but it still amounts to far less of a boost. What's even worse is that, for the most part, the Bard can no longer affect themselves with their inspirations.
Spells can help alleviate this, but buffing spells have also gone under the hammer. For the most part, because of concentration, you can only have a single buff spell active at a time. And, just like your inspiration, most of the good buff spells have been changed to only affect a single target.
What these changes amount to is a character who no longer sits at the back buffing, not just because they have other options, but also because they can't. The dedicated buffer is no longer a valid playstyle. You can give an ally inspiration every turn, but that still leaves your actions free. You can use your first turn to cast a buff, but you won't be able to do that on later turns.
Luckily, there's some good news coming. The 5e Bard has a unique and extremely powerful feature that I haven't talked about yet. Magical Secrets allows a Bard to select a few key spells from any spell list. This ability is incredibly important, because those spells (especially the first 2 you get) can shape your character's playstyle. The most infamous example is Swift Quiver. This is a 5th-level Ranger spell, which means it's normally only accessible at level 17. However, a Bard can learn it at level 10. This allows a Valour Bard to make 4 attacks per round with a bow at level 10, long before a Fighter or a Ranger.
So, what's the takeaway? (Or, if you're that way inclined, tl;dr)
The 5e Bard is a versatile and powerful character who can excel at most things they set their hand to. With a bit of work, so was the 3.5e Bard, but relative to other classes, I think it's fair to say the Bard is more powerful in 5e than it was in 3.5e. On the other hand, the 3.5e Bard is much better at buffing his allies than the 5e Bard.
A bard in 5e is, really, a great all-round, jack-of-all trades class. A 5e bard has more fighting capacity than the bard in 3.5e.
There are some fundamental differences between 3.5e and 5e. Things like:
- Advantage/Disadvantage: Roll and extra d20 and take the higher/lower
- Spells are more flexible: lower spells can be cast in higher slots, often for bonus effects. Take note of this when selecting spells.
- Class specializations: classes in 5e make a choice early on in their leveling where they further specialize their class. These specializations control things like class features, spells, etc. and should be considered when you make a character. In the case of the bard, they are called "colleges"
You'll also find some familiar things, such as:
- Attack Bonus, AC
- Spell levels
- "Bards" being inspired by travelling musicians (paired up with magic).
In 3.5, bards were (initially, anyways) all about skill checks, social situations, and buffing allies. Trying to fight as a 3.5 bard without building for it is difficult: it is not a route to be a spell-slinging warrior. Not so in 5th edition.
5e bards are great at doing many skills. They are a skill monkey class. However, they can also do decently well in combat. Depending on the specialization, you can either do super well with skill checks (college of lore), do better in combat (college of valor, or college of swords), or something much more role-play oriented (college of satire). They will be more skill-heavy and spell-heavy than a fighter going their eldritch knight specialization, and will often not do as much damage.
It should be noted that the college of swords and college of satire comes from "Unearthed Arcana: Classics Revisited," and are considered illegal in Adventure League.
A Guide
There is a detailed guide here by an EvilAnagram, talking about individual aspects of the bard, such as which spells to choose, and a relative ranking of each ability, ability score, and so on.