College of Swords build guide?

[Solomon]

Anyone have a good level-by-level guide for a bard college of swords build? Looking to try out dual-wielding. Thanks in advance!

[Kamuizin]

I read somewhere a 5 warlock pact of the blade, 6 college of swords bard and 1 draconic sorcerer.

Just don’t do it in honor mode (or do, even without the extra attack, using cha to hit/dmg with the weapon is still very good).

[Murgen]

You'll want to dual wield hand crossbows for sure. Your bardic inspiration is better at giving you extra ranged attacks than extra melee attacks. And once you get two attacks per round you can use bardic inspiration twice per round, plus you get your off-hand attack as a bonus action ... so you get a huge number of ranged attacks, all of which can hit the same target, or which can be spread out among different targets. And you don't have to be stingy with the inspiration uses once you get the perk that refreshes them after every short rest (plus you get a bonus short rest just for being a bard).

[Solomon]

Thanks! I was hoping for a detailed build like this:

https://deltiasgaming.com/best-baldurs-gate-3-college-of-swords-bard-build-guide/

It's dualing and single-class only [not that important]. Not two-weapon fighting.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Solomon:

Thanks! I was hoping for a detailed build like this:

https://deltiasgaming.com/best-baldurs-gate-3-college-of-swords-bard-build-guide/

It's dualing and single-class only [not that important]. Not two-weapon fighting.

I do not recommend such guide.

[Solomon]

Originally posted by アンジェル:

Originally posted by Solomon:

Thanks! I was hoping for a detailed build like this:

https://deltiasgaming.com/best-baldurs-gate-3-college-of-swords-bard-build-guide/

It's dualing and single-class only [not that important]. Not two-weapon fighting.

I do not recommend such guide.

May I ask why? I think it's pretty handy.

[Trolleur_Durden]

College of swords shines with ranged weapons, because the ranged version of Slashing flourish allows you to attack two times the same target, as opposed to the melee version which allows you to perform an AoE melee attack and potentially hit multiple enemies once. From there, the core principle is to combine at least 6 levels of Swords bard and 2 levels of Fighter. Doing that provides you with 2 attacks per action, 4 inspiration die and action surge. When you use everything, it allows you to do 8 attacks (2 actions with Action surge, each action allowing you to attack twice thanks to Extra attack, and one Inspiration dice per attack to hit a target twice) , without counting other buffs like Haste and such.

From there, there's two approaches for ranged damage: the classic two-handed ranged weapon like bows and crossbows, and the dual-wielding approach with dual hand crossbows. Having tried both, I found out that the dual crossbows version has a better "normal damage", when you don't burn out all your resources, whereas the bow/crossbow variant has a better "burst" damage, when you use your limited class resources like bardic inspirations.

If you are going for the dual crossbows route, your build should be Bard 6 (Swords)/Fighter 2/Rogue 4 (Thief). 3 Thief levels gives you another bonus action, which is the equivalent of another attack, resulting in 4 attacks per turn in total.

If you are going the bow/crossbow route, your build should be something like Bard 8 (Swords)/Fighter 4 (Champion), but there are various tweaks available.

Regarding feats, you will want an ASI to raise your Dex to 19 (20 with Ethel's hair) and most importantly, Sharpshooter.

Two things to abuse:
-Fighter gives you shield proficiency, which means that you should switch to your melee setup whenever you finished attacking in order to raise your AC. It's free, albeit a bit tedious in the long run. It also allows you to deal attacks of opportunity, which is marginally useful.
-Fighter gives you medium armour proficiency, which means that you can (and should) use one of the medium armours allowing you to add your full Dex bonus to your AC.

[Duetzefix]

You could take a look at this:
https://eip.gg/bg3/build-planner/?buildId=clr9pj9u20fsmd4yy326ajcgt


A few thoughts:
- I wanted shield proficiency for that sweet, sweet AC, so that left me with either Human or Half-Elf as race. In the end I went with Drow Half-Elf because the spells they get are cast from CHA, but you could just as easily go with Wood Half-Elf (+1.5m movement per turn) or Human (no Darkvision or Fey Ancestry, but an additional skill proficiency and more carry weight).
- Main ability score will be DEX. Bard is still a caster so I invested heavily into CHA, as well. This left CON a bit weaker than I'd like but from Act II forward your AC will be very good (via Yuan-Ti Scale Mail bought in Last Light Inn) so ... well, just don't get hit, alright? ^^ Also, WIS saves are very frequent and you will need STR to jump and carry stuff. INT is pretty much useless on a class that doesn't need it for casting.
- Wherever possible I chose spells that do not require a spell attack roll or a spell save. Because your CHA will not be good enough to make your aggressive spells reliable, at least late game.
- For feats I went for 20 DEX ASAP, mainly so your initiative goes up. If you get something to increase initiative some other way feel free to get Sharpshooter at level 8 and the second increase to DEX at level 12, if you want to.
- Fighting Style should always be Two-Weapon Fighting on Swords Bard. It makes your off-hand attack much stronger.
- 2 Hand Crossbows for ranged attacks, this will be your bread and butter. There aren't many in the game, but you will have a few options. Ne'er Misser and Hellfire Hand Crossbow are both very good choices, the +2 hand crossbow you can find in Act III is also pretty good.
- For melee you will, of course, use a finesse weapon. You have the choice between dual-wielding two light weapons or using any one-handed finesse weapon with a shield. I like Phalar Aluve with a shield like Adamantine Shield (no crits on you!) or Sentinel Shield (+3 initiative!), but if you want to sacrifice the AC from the shield you can use whatever you like.


Here's the wiki where you can look up the spells and items I mentioned:
https://bg3.wiki/

[Trolleur_Durden]

For me, the best melee weapon is by far Rhapsody, because the stacking bonus to attack and damage works even if you kill with your ranged weapons. It basically works as a "stat stick" improving your ranged combat. However it's a late game item (dropped by Cazador).

[Solomon]

I'm guessing there's no easy way to get shield proficiency if I'm a tiefling without multi-classing? Any specific fears I should take if I go the dual-wielding ranged weapon route? I'm guessing only hand-crossbows can be dual-wielded?

[Trolleur_Durden]

Originally posted by Solomon:

I'm guessing there's no easy way to get shield proficiency if I'm a tiefling without multi-classing? Any specific fears I should take if I go the dual-wielding ranged weapon route? I'm guessing only hand-crossbows can be dual-wielded?

There's feats I guess, but I think two fighter levels is a much better choice, since it gives you a ton of good stuff, way beyond the shield proficiency:

-Action surge is a perfect synergy with Ranged slashing flourish, which allows you to basically double your burst potential and spend your 4 inspiration die on the first turn to deal tremendous damage and tip the scales in your favor.

-Second wind is situationally useful, however since both Action surge, SW and your inspiration die (once your are Bard lvl 5+) are recovered on a short rest, and you get a 3rd short rest as a bard with the song of respite or something, it allows you to have your full fighting potential available 4 times between two long rests, which is usually more than enough.

-Medium armour proficiency synergises extremely well with Dex builds, since there's a few completely broken medium armours allowing you to add your full Dex modifier to your AC instead of limiting it to +2. The Armour of agility for example is a 17 + Dex modifier armour. All in all, it's pretty easy to reach around 30 AC and be an excellent tank too.

-Shield proficiency is a free AC and stats bonus since you can switch freely between your melee and ranged setup, without any cost.

-Fighter provides Archery as a Fighting style, something the Bard doesn't have access to, and +2 to hit on ranged attacks is very, very good.


Regarding feats, the most important one is Sharpshooter, since you will have very high hit chance anyway, especially if you use the Risky ring (which you should). A flat damage bonus on each attack when you deal 4 of those per round and potentially more than 10 when you decide to burst is very strong. Besides that, one ASI is enough if you get Ethel's hair to reach 20 dex. And ofc, as a Bard, you should take the two-handed fighting style in order to be able to add your full Dex bonus to your offhand attack, making them equivalent to your main hand attacks.

[OnlyOffensive]

honestly swords bard is extremely mediocre, has few gimmicks, but it makes sense, since without them hed be completely useless. I'd roll swords bard/assassin ranged and would at least have strong surprise round where its possible.

[Zsrai]

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

honestly swords bard is extremely mediocre, has few gimmicks, but it makes sense, since without them hed be completely useless. I'd roll swords bard/assassin ranged and would at least have strong surprise round where its possible.

Swords Bard is one of the strongest subclasses in the game, what are you talking about? You're a full caster and a full martial (just worse at level 5 since you don't get multi-attack until 6).

[Trolleur_Durden]

For me, Swords bard is indeed one of the strongest classes available in the game, especially for the main character. Basically, it can do almost everything extremely well: excellent fighter, very resilient, insane burst potential for tough encounters, a lot of skills, especially speech skills, and a vast array of useful spells.

[OnlyOffensive]

Originally posted by Zsrai:

Originally posted by OnlyOffensive:

honestly swords bard is extremely mediocre, has few gimmicks, but it makes sense, since without them hed be completely useless. I'd roll swords bard/assassin ranged and would at least have strong surprise round where its possible.

Swords Bard is one of the strongest subclasses in the game, what are you talking about? You're a full caster and a full martial (just worse at level 5 since you don't get multi-attack until 6).

idk for me lore and valor bards are way more valuable. Swords bard is selfish class, mostly that will lose in BOTH fields to almost any other martial class as well as lose as spellcaster. Class not bad, i've played it, but imo overrated alot. Cutting words > anything swords bard can offer, and magic secrets on level 6 is insane. That is my opinion ofc.

[mig-77]

I went one of my characters 7 sword bard and 5 thief. Great for everything. You get 3d6 sneak attack every round (4 attacks normally, 6 if hasted), can use those flourishes, high AC