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]

mig-77 lähetti viestin:

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

Sneak Attack apply only 1x per turn, regardless the numbers of attack you have.

[pirate135246]

OnlyOffensive lähetti viestin:

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 the best class in the game by far. It's completely overpowered and destroys the balance of the game.......

[pirate135246]

Just use slashing flourish, that ability is stronger on its own than most other classes. Let alone you also have full spellcasting.

[OnlyOffensive]

pirate135246 lähetti viestin:

OnlyOffensive lähetti viestin:

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 the best class in the game by far. It's completely overpowered and destroys the balance of the game.......

really? I dont think so. How is cleave that good? YOu can get cleave on almost any 2H weapon and cleave in itself isnt that gamechanging, most hard fights it either doesnt matter or doesnt line up, though its possible to setup if you really want to

[OnlyOffensive]

pirate135246 lähetti viestin:

OnlyOffensive lähetti viestin:

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 the best class in the game by far. It's completely overpowered and destroys the balance of the game.......

Can you elaborate how it destroys balance? Im pretty sure berserk or monk with tavern brawler will absolutely annihilate swords bard in term of damage. He has aboslutely nothing that boosts his damage or attack roll or anything really, just some cleave and AC buff, its not bad. but hardly overpowered.

Not counting that bard in general good for exploration and dialogues, only combat wise, hes by far very far from "best class" and best class is very subjective and dependant on party and playstyle. I find EK to be best class, i just love how tanky he is and for me eldritch blast is best ability in game since it basically means you can hit with any spell.

[Trolleur_Durden]

The way Swords bard destroys balance is when you use the ranged version of Slashing flourish. As opposed to the melee version, it allows you to hit the same enemy twice by spending an inspiration die.

Combined with Extra attack at Bard lvl 6 and Action surge at Figther lvl 2, it allows you to deal a total of 8 attacks in a round, without even taking into account extra attacks from haste, offhand attacks and so on. And the best thing about this is that all the resources needed to do that (inspiration dice and Action surge) are recovered on a short rest, which you can do 3 times per day as a bard.

When you add flat damage bonuses to that, like Sharpshooter feat, rings with flat damage bonus and so on, the damage burst is so high that you basically win almost every fight in the game on the first round, or at least tip the scales so much in your favor that all is needed afterwards is mopping up a few loose ends.

[pirate135246]

OnlyOffensive lähetti viestin:

pirate135246 lähetti viestin:

Swords Bard is the best class in the game by far. It's completely overpowered and destroys the balance of the game.......

Can you elaborate how it destroys balance? Im pretty sure berserk or monk with tavern brawler will absolutely annihilate swords bard in term of damage. He has aboslutely nothing that boosts his damage or attack roll or anything really, just some cleave and AC buff, its not bad. but hardly overpowered

slashing flourish isn't a cleave, it is a multi target attack that you can hit the same enemy twice with. each strike does full dmg + dmg riders such as the acid ring and the psychic dmg ring and the titanstring bow. since you get extra attack at lvl 6, you will be attacking 4 times each turn at the cost of 2 bardic inspiration, which comes back on a short rest and you get an extra short rests. this alone is already broken as you can solo every combat with this character. If you add 2 levels of fighter to get action surge you double your 4 attacks to 8. Then there are the 2 best items in the game which combo together and work perfectly with swords bard. Helmet of arcane acuity and ring of the mystic scoundrel. This item combo allows you to have an insanely high spell save dc which means your control spells wont miss, and they will only cost a bonus action. On turn 1 you can kill the boss, or like 4-6 enemies, then cc the rest with hold person/monster or an upcasted command. swords bard with fighter and assassin is the most dmg in the game by a large margin, plus its ranged + you have unmissable aoe cc on the same turn

[OnlyOffensive]

Trolleur_Durden lähetti viestin:

The way Swords bard destroys balance is when you use the ranged version of Slashing flourish. As opposed to the melee version, it allows you to hit the same enemy twice by spending an inspiration die.

Combined with Extra attack at Bard lvl 6 and Action surge at Figther lvl 2, it allows you to deal a total of 8 attacks in a round, without even taking into account extra attacks from haste, offhand attacks and so on. And the best thing about this is that all the resources needed to do that (inspiration dice and Action surge) are recovered on a short rest, which you can do 3 times per day as a bard.

When you add flat damage bonuses to that, like Sharpshooter feat, rings with flat damage bonus and so on, the damage burst is so high that you basically win almost every fight in the game on the first round, or at least tip the scales so much in your favor that all is needed afterwards is mopping up a few loose ends.

Ok thats a good explanation, i honestly never thought about using it like that, so fair point, it does sound strong. I just dont like ranged characters in general. Thought it sounds like a bug, since you supposed to hit 2 enemies not same enemies twice, same crap as with extra attacks stack from warlock or smth, i forgot

[OnlyOffensive]

pirate135246 lähetti viestin:

OnlyOffensive lähetti viestin:

Can you elaborate how it destroys balance? Im pretty sure berserk or monk with tavern brawler will absolutely annihilate swords bard in term of damage. He has aboslutely nothing that boosts his damage or attack roll or anything really, just some cleave and AC buff, its not bad. but hardly overpowered

slashing flourish isn't a cleave, it is a multi target attack that you can hit the same enemy twice with. each strike does full dmg + dmg riders such as the acid ring and the psychic dmg ring and the titanstring bow. since you get extra attack at lvl 6, you will be attacking 4 times each turn at the cost of 2 bardic inspiration, which comes back on a short rest and you get an extra short rests. this alone is already broken as you can solo every combat with this character. If you add 2 levels of fighter to get action surge you double your 4 attacks to 8. Then there are the 2 best items in the game which combo together and work perfectly with swords bard. Helmet of arcane acuity and ring of the mystic scoundrel. This item combo allows you to have an insanely high spell save dc which means your control spells wont miss, and they will only cost a bonus action. On turn 1 you can kill the boss, or like 4-6 enemies, then cc the rest with hold person/monster or an upcasted command. swords bard with fighter and assassin is the most dmg in the game by a large margin, plus its ranged + you have unmissable aoe cc on the same turn

well it does sound like a bug, so idk. I dont think its supposed to work like that. But yes, that is powerful for sure. Though if dig through exploits with other classes im sure its possible to find at least same powerlevel

[Trolleur_Durden]

It's clearly OP and unbalanced, but it's probably a "Larian feature" rather than a bug. Because it's still allowed in Honour mode, whereas stacking Warlock extra attack with Extra attack from other classes doesn't stack anymore in HM.

[OnlyOffensive]

yea, so... swords bard 3, gloom stalker 5, assassin 3 and level in whatever will destroy pretty much anything you can surprise xD Thats probably would be most damage you can output in single round

[Trolleur_Durden]

You need 5 bard levels to get a 4th inspiration die and recover them on a short rest.

Regarding rogue levels, Thief is probably better if you go with dual hand crossbows, because it basically gives you one more attack every round, all the time.

And you need 2 Fighter levels for much more than Action surge: proficiencies, Archery fighting style and so on.

[OnlyOffensive]

Trolleur_Durden lähetti viestin:

You need 5 bard levels to get a 4th inspiration die and recover them on a short rest.

Regarding rogue levels, Thief is probably better if you go with dual hand crossbows, because it basically gives you one more attack every round, all the time.

And you need 2 Fighter levels for much more than Action surge: proficiencies, Archery fighting style and so on.

you get proficiencies and fighting style from gloom though. Can go 5 bard 3 gloom 3 assassin i guess. Or maybe fighter instead of gloom should be kinda the same. Obviously thief is better in general but all those attacks as crits with advantage on attack rolls....oh yes

[mig-77]

Kamuizin lähetti viestin:

mig-77 lähetti viestin:

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

Sneak Attack apply only 1x per turn, regardless the numbers of attack you have.

Yes, I know that. I ment that you always get it because advantage is so easy to get (also with ring that guarantee critical hit it is awesome). That build can do everything extremely well and that’s why it most fun to play from all builds I have (it is not best in any category). Spell I took are utility spells (knock. Detect thoughts, etc) so main spell caster can focus damage.