Bard Multiclass Options?

[Chanczo]

Can anyone more familiar with D&D ruleset recommend some multiclass options viable for Bards wanting to hold their own in a melee fight?

I've seen people recommending 10 Bard / 2 Paladin multiclass, the issue is that paladins are probably the most restrictive class in terms of roleplaying due to their oath, and I'm not looking to play an oathbreaker either.

Is 10 Bard / 2 Fighter the best build for bards looking to deal some melee damage? Any other options?

[jambong]

Mechanically, paladin is best, and you can still RP as a bard. Otherwise 3 warlock, pact of the blade, let's you use Cha for atks (bg3 only, not TT) and you can lower dex to 14 and wear medium armor

[Foolswalkin]

I am probably 90% of the posts about Swordadins, don’t let the fact that I spam it everywhere confuse you into thinking there is anything like consensus.

I will say, Vengeance is likely going to be a bit more congenial to many gamers than what EA Paladins gave us in terms of RP, but I also don’t mind playing through with some restrictions for one of my playthroughs. YMMV.

Fighter is fine but nothing special for bard.

[Ephemerant]

Bardlocks are really strong, especially now that Pact of Blade is letting you use Charisma for Weapon attacks.

A Swords Bard/Pact of the Blade Warlock would be strong.

[Yojo0o]

The Valor and Swords subclasses already enable melee combat quite well for a bard, you don't NEED to multiclass to be a martial bard in 5e.

I certainly wouldn't multiclass before level 6, when these subclasses get their extra attack feature. Past that point, if you're really interested in sacrificing spell progression for martial prowess, a couple levels of paladin would get you Divine Smite. Warlock is also always a good option, though you're looking at level 9 before you can get both Extra Attack and charisma-scaling weapons from Pact of the Blade, so I wouldn't use the warlock multiclass as an excuse to min/max your physical stats.

[[Heretic]Rivga]

Originally posted by Ephemerant:

Bardlocks are really strong, especially now that Pact of Blade is letting you use Charisma for Weapon attacks.

A Swords Bard/Pact of the Blade Warlock would be strong.

It is a great mix the only shame is that if you choose 3 Warlock to get Pact of the Blade and you can have 9 Bard max. Which is painful as 10th level gives the single best Bard feature in game, Magical secrets. But that is the off side of being able to use your Cha for weapon attacks.

[Foolswalkin]

I’m planning on MCing at 3 (Paladin 2 1 Bard), also take 4 as Bard, respec to Paladin at 5 and play pure Paladin through 7 to see what I think of their auras and such, then respec Paladin 2 Bard 6 at CL 8 and play out the rest of my days as Bard. Sometimes I got more vengeance in my heart, sometimes I got more song, you know how it is. I’m hoping for story reasons it will coincide with Astarion slaying his master and being able to close that chapter in his life, but if not I’ll live.

[Edstyles]

Id prefer to see the highest level spells before i go deeper into multiclass because 2 points into something else gimps your spell progress too much. So at most ill multiclass 1 level

[Choosing WHeel]

Two levels of Paladin gives you heavy armor and martial weapon proficiencies, as well as smite, a few spell slots and a fighting style.
2 levels in Sorcerer can get you metamagic and more spell slots.
1 level in warlock can get you a couple spell slots which recharge on short rest and for two more levels you can grab a bladepact weapon (which uses Charisma for attack rolls instead of Dex or Str. One of Larian's changes.)

2 levels in Fighter does pretty much the same thing as Pally except instead of Smite and magic you get action surge, for when you want to attack and cast a spell on the same turn.

[Bisexual Offender]

My current bard build is going to be Bard Swords 9/ Rogue Thief 3.
My goal is to pick up 2 weapon fighting stile and dual wield and create a sort of galant swashbuckler duelist with 2 rapiers.
On level 9 this build comes up with 2 attacks with both weapons each round, which is not much and a bit late but looks kewl in my head.

[Jekko]

I'm going for 6 devotion pally/6 sword bard: you get 2 fighting styles, aura of protection, extra spell slots for smiting and lot's a RP flavour

[Edstyles]

Lv 10 magical secrets too nice to pass. Sorry but multiclassing bard more than 2 points makes little sense to me. One of Main perks is magical secrets ....why even play a bard without it. At least on a 1st playthrough

[Major Horrigan]

wasnt there some post about how they changed multiclass spell progression so it doesnt force u to give up spell levels?

[Foolswalkin]

Originally posted by Major Horrigan:

wasnt there some post about how they changed multiclass spell progression so it doesnt force u to give up spell levels?

Spells slots are cumulative across spellcaster classes in 5e, cept for Warlocks. Doesn’t help spells learned tho.

So if you have 6 levels of wizard and 6 sorcerer, because they are both full casters you’ll have the same slots as a 12th level of either single class. But you’ll have spells known and prepared as a 6th level wizard and also spells known as a 6th level sorc, so you’ll top out knowing 3rd level spells, whereas a 12th level of either would know spells of levels all the way up to 6.

Some spells can be “upcast” to get more effect out of a higher level spell slot than usual being used to cast the spell, but they generally aren’t as good as higher level spells. Exceptions exist tho.

[Ephemerant]

Originally posted by Foolswalkin:

Originally posted by Major Horrigan:

wasnt there some post about how they changed multiclass spell progression so it doesnt force u to give up spell levels?

Spells slots are cumulative across spellcaster classes in 5e, cept for Warlocks. Doesn’t help spells learned tho.

So if you have 6 levels of wizard and 6 sorcerer, because they are both full casters you’ll have the same slots as a 12th level of either single class. But you’ll have spells known and prepared as a 6th level wizard and also spells known as a 6th level sorc, so you’ll top out knowing 3rd level spells, whereas a 12th level of either would know spells of levels all the way up to 6.

Some spells can be “upcast” to get more effect out of a higher level spell slot than usual being used to cast the spell, but they generally aren’t as good as higher level spells. Exceptions exist tho.

They were mentioning a change Larian alluded to that they added in BG3.

[Foolswalkin]

Originally posted by Ephemerant:

Originally posted by Foolswalkin:

Spells slots are cumulative across spellcaster classes in 5e, cept for Warlocks. Doesn’t help spells learned tho.

So if you have 6 levels of wizard and 6 sorcerer, because they are both full casters you’ll have the same slots as a 12th level of either single class. But you’ll have spells known and prepared as a 6th level wizard and also spells known as a 6th level sorc, so you’ll top out knowing 3rd level spells, whereas a 12th level of either would know spells of levels all the way up to 6.

Some spells can be “upcast” to get more effect out of a higher level spell slot than usual being used to cast the spell, but they generally aren’t as good as higher level spells. Exceptions exist tho.

They were mentioning a change Larian alluded to that they added in BG3.

I’m only aware of a really weird quote via translation from an Italian article, where they insert something about spells in the middle of a conversation about dropping stat requirements to multiclass.