Bards and Warlocks compliment each other well

[KalkiKrosah]

Warlock spells hit very hard but the drawback is that they only come with 2 spell slots. They need to constantly short rest in order to replenish their spell slots.

Bards do not have a lot of damage in their kit but do come with lots utility, one of which is an out of combat spell that grants you a third short rest and inside of combat is more likely to lock down enemies with non-damaging zone control and damaging debuffs spells.

They also have some overpowered combos inside of combat. The Bard's Wild Growth spell severely limits enemy mobility. The Warlock's Hunger of Hadar spell blinds and damages anyone who remains in it's area of effect. Both spells last exactly 10 turns. And the Warlock's Eldritch blast can knock enemies back into the black mist ensuring they get whittled down to an inevitable end while the Bard with dual hand crossbows spreads damage around and speeds up the process.

Then there is the Warlock's fiend ability which allows him to see perfectly inside of darkness. Bards learn the darkness spell. Wizards can learn darkness too but Wizards generally have 6 better spells they could be casting instead. The Warlock can essentially beat enemies up inside a cloud of darkness without exposing himself to any risk.

I just really like this party pairing. Lots of synergy between the two.

[PinkPanther]

I just hope bard gets better later, or more satisfying... it feels so akward, coming from 3.5 and ddo, to only have limited inspires and only for one person :(

[Mander]

Bards in bg3 are the ultimate crowd controllers, imo. They synergize quite well with every damage dealer, really.
Especially College of the Lore bards, because they can learn up to 4 more spells.
Having Command (which is a level 1 spell), on top of Fear, Silence, Hold Person, Hold Monster… add Misty Step, Counter Spell and a direct damage option (I’m partial to Lightning Bolt Upcasted to level 6 after having lured the enemy in a chokepoint…)
It’s the kind of a setup that makes a bard a monster in the field.
Yeah, you’ll not deal much direct damage (until act 3 at least, where some loot change that too), but heck, warriors and wizards are there to pick up the slack. And your clothes are too fabulous to dirt them, anyway.

[PinkPanther]

Hmm, sounds nice, seems I just gotta stick to it and level.
I'm used to a wizard from my first playthrough, so that's that.
Thanks :)

[Maxx_Crowley]

And don't forget, bards can give a 3rd short rest. Recharging the warlock further

[Moonbane]

Cutting Words is really where it is at for a bard, debuffing enemies.

Also, bard synergizes with fighters as well as Action Surge is reset on a short rest.

[Malus]

You go 2 or 3 lock for this?

[KalkiKrosah]

Originally posted by Malus:

You go 2 or 3 lock for this?

Its 2 separate characters: Wyll being the full Fiend Warlock & the player character being the full Lore (ranged caster) Bard. I haven't multiclassed this setup yet and it is already pretty strong to the point where it's practically cheesing the AI. You can effectively shut down a whole flank or the entire battle field with this combo which really makes fights very manageable.

I'm in act 2 on my Bard playthrough and my party was level 7 at the time and I wandered into a fight where the enemies were level 9 and had 5 fighters in their group. I still won the fight and they never even damaged any of my party members. It can be that oppressively strong if you can group enemies up in a bottleneck. The one downside is what are the other 2 party members going to be able to do? mages and archers cannot see into the darkness and warriors and berserkers have disadvantage on their attacks and take damage too if they enter the mist. So they generally focus on any unaffected enemies but once they are killed off you essentially gotta wait out the effect before they can get involved in any action.

[KalkiKrosah]

Originally posted by Moonbane:

Cutting Words is really where it is at for a bard, debuffing enemies.

Also, bard synergizes with fighters as well as Action Surge is reset on a short rest.

Originally posted by Maxx_Crowley:

And don't forget, bards can give a 3rd short rest. Recharging the warlock further

Yes, I originally wrote that the Bard gets an ability which grants a 3rd short rest but I guess I erased it when I rewrote it. But that is a very strong reason for Bard synergy with both Warlocks and Fighters. Also Barbarians to a lesser extent, I think that their rage refreshes on short rest. Sadly, Wizards need to long rest to get their spell slots back. And as a Rogue Astarion could care less about short resting, but if you multiclass him into a shadow monk his ki charges will benefit from the short resting. Gale and Shadowheart are really the only 2 companions who don't benefit in a special way from the extra short rests.

[Moonbane]

Rage is per long rest, not short. You get 5 rage charges by lvl 12.

[Schizoid_Warlock]

Multiplayer and warlock and bard have great sinergy

[Moonbane]

Also Devil's Sight is a generic Eldritch Invocation, all warlocks can take it.

[info]

Originally posted by KalkiKrosah:

Warlock spells hit very hard but the drawback is that they only come with 2 spell slots. They need to constantly short rest in order to replenish their spell slots.

Bards do not have a lot of damage in their kit but do come with lots utility, one of which is an out of combat spell that grants you a third short rest and inside of combat is more likely to lock down enemies with non-damaging zone control and damaging debuffs spells.

They also have some overpowered combos inside of combat. The Bard's Wild Growth spell severely limits enemy mobility. The Warlock's Hunger of Hadar spell blinds and damages anyone who remains in it's area of effect. Both spells last exactly 10 turns. And the Warlock's Eldritch blast can knock enemies back into the black mist ensuring they get whittled down to an inevitable end while the Bard with dual hand crossbows spreads damage around and speeds up the process.

Then there is the Warlock's fiend ability which allows him to see perfectly inside of darkness. Bards learn the darkness spell. Wizards can learn darkness too but Wizards generally have 6 better spells they could be casting instead. The Warlock can essentially beat enemies up inside a cloud of darkness without exposing himself to any risk.

I just really like this party pairing. Lots of synergy between the two.

I love that multiclass combo with a 1 lvl fighter for a true dual wield spec.

[KalkiKrosah]

Originally posted by PinkPanther:

I just hope bard gets better later, or more satisfying... it feels so akward, coming from 3.5 and ddo, to only have limited inspires and only for one person :(

This is gonna sound bad but I rarely use the inspire ability... my Bard essentially hogs all the spotlight for dialogue options so no need to inspire anyone else because the Bard can overcome nearly every dialogue option on raw skill alone. If you hate failing skill checks Bards give you the best chance to pass all the dialogue ones.

In a fight is where they feel lackluster. They will not rack up a high kill count and when they do get kills its cherry picking kills that the Warlock or the Barbarian or the Wizard softened up for them. What the Bard excels at is controlling the battlefield. The spells a Bard has access are there more for setting up other party members to get kills: Hold Person, Wild Growth, Tasha's Hideous Laughter, etc. They also have access to counter spell which is a superb defensive spell that saves your wizard from having to expend one of their spell slots to cast it. Bards are the offensive support version of the Cleric. They debuff the enemy very well and set up everyone else in the party to have free reign to deal max damage with little risk of enemy retaliation. They are invaluable in that regard.

[info]

Originally posted by Mander:

Bards in bg3 are the ultimate crowd controllers, imo. They synergize quite well with every damage dealer, really.
Especially College of the Lore bards, because they can learn up to 4 more spells.
Having Command (which is a level 1 spell), on top of Fear, Silence, Hold Person, Hold Monster… add Misty Step, Counter Spell and a direct damage option (I’m partial to Lightning Bolt Upcasted to level 6 after having lured the enemy in a chokepoint…)
It’s the kind of a setup that makes a bard a monster in the field.
Yeah, you’ll not deal much direct damage (until act 3 at least, where some loot change that too), but heck, warriors and wizards are there to pick up the slack. And your clothes are too fabulous to dirt them, anyway.

The bit on the clothes is so absolutely on point!...thank you.

[victorvnv]

Bards done need warlocks to compliment, they are solo machines on their own. No need for some stinky warlock to try steal my glory