What is the best bard subclass now?

[Rebeldad]

Wanting to start a Bard game and see alot of ppl going college of sword for range, but wanted to get the opinion of the esteemed community.

[Angel]

still swords bard

[FunkyMonkey]

If you want to play with weapons, Swords bard. If you want to focus on spell casting, Lore bard.

[Metallicus]

Your question depends on what you enjoy. Personally I prefer Lore Bard for the advanced spell casting and use them in place of a wizard or sorcerer.

[Agony_Aunt]

For the main character definitely Lore bard. Skill monkey, spell money, and can still be decent in combat.

[alanc9]

I gotta go with swords bard too. You can just about cover all of the skills needed. The only downside is that your control spells won't be quite as good until you acquire the Band of Mystic Cheese.

[Mander]

I'm still in love with valor bard.
DAT AC by act 3…
Plus double attack.

[seeker1]

College of Cacophony (homebrew)
College of Spirits
out of vanilla ... College of Glamour

in that order of preference (yeah those first two are mods).

[valium]

In terms of powergaming, Swords Bard is one of the best subclasses in the game, just straight up.

If you want a party face skill monkey CC spellcaster, Lore Bard is a bit unique in that regard. In this instance, I really enjoyed Lore Bard with 2 Warlock as my party face for one of my runs.

[Rebeldad]

Ty for the advice everyone. But yea looking for a face man

[Teddy]

Sword is very powerful, I went 2lvl fighter for action surge as well, titan string bow and pewpew

[The Gunsmith]

my favourite thing about swordbard is being able to uppercut huge creatures across the room as a halfling.

[Lotus86]

College of Healing https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/14588

[Balekai]

As others have said:

1. Sword Bard for meta melee bard builds that are OP in BG3. :P


2, Lore for caster based skill monkey especially if you're making some type of EB blaster multiclass with Warlock one.


3. Glamour for Support which it does ok on it's own but is better multiclassed to really grow into that roll:

Mass crowd crowd, damage mitigation/denial, and healing made even better by multiclassing with 2 Star Druid (Chalice Healing for Healing Words, Dragon Form for CON saves/Breath bonus attack). Made possibly even better with Warlock multiclass (Mantle of Inspiraitons + Chalice Healing + Warlock Short Spell slots + Potion of Angelic Reprieve + EB Blasting + Starry Forms all being based off Charisma if 1st Warlock or Bard level taken after 1st Druid level. Dragon and Archer Forms being bonus actions to be used with blasting off EBs the same way EB blasers could use Sorrow Glaive but better).

I was just experimenting with Druid/Warlock Glamour again, dropping Bard level 6 Mantle of Majesty/Counter Charm for Druid 2, Bard 5, Warlock 5. Level 5 Warlock gives Extra attack if we take Blade Pact, weapon uses CHA modifier, and we can take Vampiric Touch with that Warlock level and combine it's free uses over 10 turns (while concentrating it) with Chalice Healing (works) to self heal + deal damage then use Chalice heal to buff ally as free heal action. You have tons of spells per day (8 just from Warlock slots at spell level 3) + restoring all those slots, level 1-2 slots, all wildshape/inspiration charges and keep that going forever if you farm enough Potions of Angelic Reprieve from mid/late game crafting, stealing and buying them.

Truly a jack of all trades and attack types and a very SAD charisma build. :)

Something like this:
https://eip.gg/bg3/build-planner/?buildId=cmbk1e5tu1c02m75zwounju4o

[Vertigo]

Originally posted by Balekai:

As others have said:

1. Sword Bard for meta melee bard builds that are OP in BG3. :P


2, Lore for caster based skill monkey especially if you're making some type of EB blaster multiclass with Warlock one.


3. Glamour for Support which it does ok on it's own but is better multiclassed to really grow into that roll:

Mass crowd crowd, damage mitigation/denial, and healing made even better by multiclassing with 2 Star Druid (Chalice Healing for Healing Words, Dragon Form for CON saves/Breath bonus attack). Made possibly even better with Warlock multiclass (Mantle of Inspiraitons + Chalice Healing + Warlock Short Spell slots + Potion of Angelic Reprieve + EB Blasting + Starry Forms all being based off Charisma if 1st Warlock or Bard level taken after 1st Druid level. Dragon and Archer Forms being bonus actions to be used with blasting off EBs the same way EB blasers could use Sorrow Glaive but better).

I was just experimenting with Druid/Warlock Glamour again, dropping Bard level 6 Mantle of Majesty/Counter Charm for Druid 2, Bard 5, Warlock 5. Level 5 Warlock gives Extra attack if we take Blade Pact, weapon uses CHA modifier, and we can take Vampiric Touch with that Warlock level and combine it's free uses over 10 turns (while concentrating it) with Chalice Healing (works) to self heal + deal damage then use Chalice heal to buff ally as free heal action. You have tons of spells per day (8 just from Warlock slots at spell level 3) + restoring all those slots, level 1-2 slots, all wildshape/inspiration charges and keep that going forever if you farm enough Potions of Angelic Reprieve from mid/late game crafting, stealing and buying them.

Truly a jack of all trades and attack types and a very SAD charisma build. :)

Something like this:
https://eip.gg/bg3/build-planner/?buildId=cmbk1e5tu1c02m75zwounju4o

But if you're using a bard as your main character, can you get bardic inspiration or only from a 2nd bard?

[Balekai]

Originally posted by Vertigo:

Originally posted by Balekai:

As others have said:

1. Sword Bard for meta melee bard builds that are OP in BG3. :P


2, Lore for caster based skill monkey especially if you're making some type of EB blaster multiclass with Warlock one.


3. Glamour for Support which it does ok on it's own but is better multiclassed to really grow into that roll:

Mass crowd crowd, damage mitigation/denial, and healing made even better by multiclassing with 2 Star Druid (Chalice Healing for Healing Words, Dragon Form for CON saves/Breath bonus attack). Made possibly even better with Warlock multiclass (Mantle of Inspiraitons + Chalice Healing + Warlock Short Spell slots + Potion of Angelic Reprieve + EB Blasting + Starry Forms all being based off Charisma if 1st Warlock or Bard level taken after 1st Druid level. Dragon and Archer Forms being bonus actions to be used with blasting off EBs the same way EB blasers could use Sorrow Glaive but better).

I was just experimenting with Druid/Warlock Glamour again, dropping Bard level 6 Mantle of Majesty/Counter Charm for Druid 2, Bard 5, Warlock 5. Level 5 Warlock gives Extra attack if we take Blade Pact, weapon uses CHA modifier, and we can take Vampiric Touch with that Warlock level and combine it's free uses over 10 turns (while concentrating it) with Chalice Healing (works) to self heal + deal damage then use Chalice heal to buff ally as free heal action. You have tons of spells per day (8 just from Warlock slots at spell level 3) + restoring all those slots, level 1-2 slots, all wildshape/inspiration charges and keep that going forever if you farm enough Potions of Angelic Reprieve from mid/late game crafting, stealing and buying them.

Truly a jack of all trades and attack types and a very SAD charisma build. :)

Something like this:
https://eip.gg/bg3/build-planner/?buildId=cmbk1e5tu1c02m75zwounju4o

But if you're using a bard as your main character, can you get bardic inspiration or only from a 2nd bard?

You can Bardic Inspiration yourself (Edit June 10th: You can't. Just tested after getting access to my computer again after Raz corrected me below lol /edit) with the default version, and you can Mantle of Inspiration yourself also (Edit June 10th: Latter does work on self /edit). No need for a second Bard. Which is quite nice especially with Glamour's Mantles, since each one is multiple target starting at 2 targets, then 3 at mid level bard then 4 at later levels. Meaning you can proliferate mantle charms all over the place.

That build above has 4 total bard inspiration charges, which recharge on short rests after bard level 5 (with song of rest plus one long rest that's 16 uses a day). Each one of those used for mantles target 3 allies including again yourself. They last all day until all the temp hp is removed and can be used to prebuff party and ally npcs for say big battles (great for making enemies leave fleeing allies alone).

Which is why Glamour is such a good healer support, spamming temp hp and possibly charming enemies mid melee actions for that ally. That can prevent a lot of potential melee damage from enemies with two or more attacks. Combined with heals (like spamming healing words and chalice healing), plus healing gear like the gloves that make your healing spells (not mantles) give blade ward, your mantles may actually stay up more than one attack.