Bard/Rouge Charismatic Duelist

[Pamparampampamparam]

I like the idea of playing as a Bard of Swords for the whole 'charismatic duelist' angle, but so far its been pretty underwhelming at level 3. I just can't dish out meaningful damage and I never feel comfortable using my special attacks due to the lack of Bardic Inspiration charges. Bardic Inspiration itself feels like a letdown, I thought you could buff the whole party with it not just one person.

I think taking a level or 2 (or 3) in Rouge for Sneak Attacks will does the trick. Thoughts?

PS: Dunno if I missed it somewhere, but it seems a lot more difficult to plan out builds in the long run since you can't see your classes progression. I had a hard time even trying to figure out what Skill Proficiencys came with my starting class. Compare that to Pathfinder where you can see the entire progression for every class right from the start : P.

[Selttus]

Honestly I think the two other subclasses are better but you could take the levels in rogue it does end up helping. I think Valor might perform better than Swords though because the combat inspiration skill they get is pretty good. You could also try going with warlock and doing the whole hex blade thing. Maybe rush Hexblade then put 7 in Bard and that would be like 10 then do two levels in warrior for action surge? you would lose out on two feats, but you would gain action surge and have the blade pact from warlock and good spells from the bards list.

[Pamparampampamparam]

God, I hope we get the Swashbuckler sublass at some point. Hexblade / Swashbuckler is my favorite multi-class ever by a country mile.

[Selttus]

Originally posted by Pamparampampamparam:

God, I hope we get the Swashbuckler sublass at some point. Hexblade / Swashbuckler is my favorite multi-class ever by a country mile.

Yeah that'd be nice but from what I hear they won't be adding anything? So let's hope for them modders to be all awesome and stuff.

[Muscarine]

r o g u e

[Pamparampampamparam]

If you go Pact of Blade into Rogue, do you still need to invest into Dexterity heavily or can you dump everything into Charisma?

[AltPlusF4]

Originally posted by Pamparampampamparam:

If you go Pact of Blade into Rogue, do you still need to invest into Dexterity heavily or can you dump everything into Charisma?

Attacks with your pact weapon use CHA for their modifier, so DEX would only give you AC and initiative.

[Sesto]

Honestly I'd probably recommend just going a dex-based battlemaster fighter, so you have access to Action Surge / Extra Attack. The battlemaster maneuvers fit the charismatic swordsman flavour, in tabletop I ran a Swashbuckler / Battlemaster and it was very fun.

You can then multiclass into something like Bard for the expertise/sword flourishes or hexblade if desired.

[Lou the Lou]

Bards can only wear light armor, so getting into melee is always going to be somewhat of a risky proposition. Going Swords might let you do more damage in melee, but it's not going to make you any safer.

I play my bard as a ranged physical attacker (2x hand crossbows) that has very useful and occasionally deadly spells with decent melee as a backup if it's needed. As opposed to a wizard who literally only has spells, can't ranged, can't melee, can't Slight of Hand, etc. Personally, I like the extra spells (from other classes!) of Lore bards.

Bardic Inspiration is an emergency usage ability. You spend them on extremely difficult rolls or when an enemy roll is within 1 or 2 of missing (make sure you set your reactions to Ask (press L with a character selected)).

[RhodosGuard]

Rogues are most valuable through sneak attack. Almost everything they do is in Services on getting Sneak Attack.

But you need to commit to serious levels of rogue to at least get the archetype.
Thief gets you a second Bonus action (at least in this game, in 5eRAW it doesnt)
Assassin let's you attack from out of combat for a surprise round during which you get a guaranteed crit sneak attack.
Arcane Trickster is the least valuable since you already have spellcasting.

I think Fighter is the better choice if you want to go for sheer frontline activity.
YOu could go Paladin/WL with PotB for some variety.

Here is what you could do for each Multiclass:
Multiclass 4 or 8 levels or you miss out on an ASI/Feat.
Focus on DEX if you go Rogue/Fighter/Paladin/Ranger(Duelling Fighting Style)
Go for CHA>DEX on Warlock because you attack with CHA

Apart from that, Battlemaster gives you more damage if you use a Maneuver, Rogue gives you additional damage for attacking enemies that are already in melee, Warlock gives you just the ability to attack using CHA as well as Eldritch Blast and it's relevant invocations, Paladin gives you Divine Smite.

[BigRockWall]

Originally posted by Lou the Lou:

I play my bard as a ranged physical attacker (2x hand crossbows) that has very useful and occasionally deadly spells with decent melee as a backup if it's needed. As opposed to a wizard who literally only has spells, can't ranged, can't melee, can't Slight of Hand, etc.

This was my conclusion as well. Bards get both the extra attack at level 6 as well as the greater invis spell. Invis provides advantage on every shot allowing for full use of sharpshooter +10 damage. 8 bard 4 thief is 6 shots a turn whlie hastened, all at +10 damage each and with advantage.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

When you hit level 5(?) your bardic inspiration changes to short rest.

at level 3 my sword bard had 16 dex, duelist, and a +1 rapier so they were dishing out 7-14 damage per melee hit. Plus all the utility of Bard spells.

[Pamparampampamparam]

So I've kinda given up on Bards and decided to try Pact of Blades / Rogue instead. I'd like to start as a Warlock until I get my Pact at level 3 then start doing Rogue levels.

Again, its really hard to plan out a build in this game since you don't get any information on class progression.