bard easy or hard to lvl

[Darkvoid87]

is the bard hard to level or easier with multi class

[Vinnolo]

pure bard isnt bad, but multi classing greatly benefits bard, like some warlock levels for caster bards, or rogue levels for sword bard

[Darkvoid87]

oh

[dolby]

level 3 or 6... are the norm i would say, you can get all sorts of dips and other classes from paladin, warlock, sorcerer, thief, figther. depanding on what you want.

[Fitness Lauch]

When taking a swordsbard it's not really a multiclass. When I play bard I usually stay mono class until level 12 and then respec with 1 level in fighter, 1 in wizard and 10 bard. Multiclassing before level 12 delays your important stuff like level 5 spells at level 9, magical secrets at level 10, 6th level spell at level 11, it kinda never feels worth it.

[Balekai]

Yep for example Warlock dips for a bard caster especially if you go 5ish levels, gives you:

- Eldritch Blast augmented at Warlock level 2 by Agonizing Blast invocation (added CHA bonus to EB damage), to give your bard a much needed offensive cantrip spell attack option. One that happens to be the best for ranged spell attack (force damage which gains up to 3 rays that count as different attacks rolls). This way you also don't have to wait for late Bard levels to pick this up and without the invocation augmentation(s).

- Two other Invocations like Devil's Sight (akin to Darkvision but better because you can see in magical darkness thus being able to hide and shoot from Darkness spell). Then pick up say Repelling Blast at level 5 Warlock so your blast pushes back enemies and triggers various pushback/fall effects in the game (or just pushing people off cliffs to their deaths).

- Allows you to cast your level 1-3 bard spell selections as level 3 warlock spells in the two warlock short rest spell slots. So now your Bard can cast their spells on short rest and in combination with Song of Rest, means you're getting tons more spells per day.

Note with Bard level 5 your bardic inspirations are also short rest so your Bardlock is a short rest master. You might as well take Bard to level 6-7 here. For my caster Bardlock I like starting with 1 (Draconic) Sorcerer dip at level 1 for CON proficiency, 5 levels of warlock, 6 levels of Bard, getting you a level 4 spell slot too but with no spell level 4 spells (use for upcasting stuff like Hold Person).

Edit:

Two examples of my saved caster/utility Bardlock builds with tons of ritual spells, crowd contro, damage and dialogue/sneak/theft skill:

Gold Draconic Lore Archfey Bardlock (1 Sorc, 4 Bard, 7 Warlock. Gains access to Greater Invis to be used with stealth skill): https://eip.gg/bg3/build-planner/?buildId=cm9s1skd71qo2m73vw4p2shby

Gold Draconic Glamour Archfey Bardlock (1 Sorc, 5 Warlock, 6 Bard. Has level 4 spellslot due to Larian multiclass mechanics but no level 4 spells for it. Upcast time :p ): https://eip.gg/bg3/build-planner/?buildId=cm9s1wtns1qo3m73vormgzdfw

[armyissue69]

On Normal Difficulty, fairly easy to level. You need to approach the RPG aspect as a Party Diplomat with varying skills.

1. I feel that you would not want to multiclass as level 6 spells are very nice. I like the drow bard dualling handXbows (my version of DnD Cowboy :) ). I always make one the utility fix for situations, need to throw down some water? need to do some situational combat? I employ one person to fill that role and the bard is super suited.

2. You can definitely choose sleight of hand as a proficiency and do traps/locks, so you can take astarion out and put in someone else. Shadowheart provides a proficiency buff anyhow. Simply, this slots you into the rogue and lets you pull in a tank (Lazyiel/Karlach/Withers) and a caster (I like Gale - since hits evoker spells won't hurt the team + utility).

3. The bonus action of buffing is very nice.

[Perception312]

In terms of combat ability, Bards hit their main power spike at level 6. You wouldn't want to multiclass before then if ease of leveling is your concern. Some bard builds want to start in a class like Fighter or Paladin for their proficiencies, but those are builds that you respec into at character level 7 or 8.

[Riley]

Arguably the 2 most powerful builds in the game have 10 levels in bard and 2 in other stuff, but sticking to one class is better if you want leveling up to be simple and easy.

[alanc9]

I like Swords Bard 10/ Paladin 2 for Smites. Could be SB 8/ Paladin 4, but I really like Magical Secrets. If playing this instead of respeccing to it, I would hold off on Paladin levels until you get the second attack at B6.

But yeah, pure Bard is quite viable on its own.

[pirate135246]

hard to level???? i dont understand this question, but bard is the best class in the game by far though

[Lovecraft]

Bard is a very cool class. The Lore Bard subclass is imo the superior subclass coz you get "secrets." These are spells that you choose to add to your spellbook, from any other class's spellbook; its a pretty op thing.

[Balekai]

Oh and just to add to the "hard to level or not thing:" Whether multiclass or full, Bard has a lot of tools to deal with encounters early, while also boosting party members with inspirations etc. if need be. So it's an easy class to smoothly progress regardless of what you do.

But multiclassing can at times feel *bad* when you're waiting or having to juggle multiclass levels to optimize when you get delayed class features. Figuring out what's best for you and when level wise, is a good thing to figure out beforehand when multi-classing.

For example with the above builds I posted, I start with:

- Sorcerer at character start.

- Then Bard (For Bard proficiency skills right at the beginning on beach start)

- Then take Warlock at level 3 that I reach before 1st Goblin attack (Due to killing extra Intellect Devour (I kick "Us" temporarily and leave him far away from fight, then re-recruit after) + all Cambions/Illidthid on Nautiloid + exploring the Crypt via lower Beach entrance (not the looters or looter area) + stomping the illithid head/3 intellect devours on beach + lastly triggering the +10XP from entering the above crypt entrance area by statue in sneak mode, before leaving again (I don't fight/alert looters yet so I can get optimal approval here later for the encounter).

That makes the start of Druid Grove and other stuff a lot easier. The hardest part about early game is trying to get all the kills on Nautiloid for the exp and loot. If you can pull that off then the rest of the early game should be easy and very doable whatever class you take. :p

After that I'm just doing dialogue quests and easy combat quests to get to level 4 (Warlock for Agonizing Blast mainly and Devil's Sight).