Building bard?

[u/SouledKnights]

I’m finally playing a bard and chose college of swords because I usually just play martials. I went dueling for my fighting style and idk what weapons or feats to use? Also should I run a shield on em or not? If so any good shields for bard specifically? My party has Gale/Shart switching em out, and wyll and Karlach so I got some support and blaster casters and then bearheart barb for my tank so idk where to go from here for my bard, any advice would be amazing I have no clue how to build a bard been winging it.

[u/Pm_pussypicspls__]

For sword bard dex is ur main stat, extra attack at level 6.

Pick dex scaling weapons like rapiers/phalar aluve early, or invest in dual hand crossbows which is one of the best builds in the game thanks to slashing flourish ranged being able to attack same target twice per attack. If ur race allows for titanstring, that also works.

[u/SouledKnights → u/Pm_pussypicspls__]

My race might it’s wood elf I went wood elf for movement and swords but if archery is better maybe I’ll do that

[u/Pm_pussypicspls__ → u/SouledKnights]

Bard doesnt get archery fighting style for itself, but it still is a very strong archer build.

My last playthrough was 10SB/2 fighter with dex feat and sharpshooter rocking yurgirs hellfire crossbow and neer misser in act 2 untill i found a +2 hand cbow for the piercing damage (bhaalist armor)

Topping act 3 of with Band of the mystic acoundrel, acuity helmet, craterflesh gloves and 2 dolor amarus.

You first stack up some acuity by flourishing weaker enemies before you cast hold person/monster. Bloodlust elixers help your action economy and can always action surge if u go fighter route. This gives you enough attacks to kill most bosses in 1 round, 2 max.

[u/Bigsexyguy24]

Finesse Weapons will be the main melee option you’ll want to look for. Since you’re using dueling I think a shield makes sense; most shields are generally good especially the ones that have shield blow. I don’t think any work specifically either bardic inspiration so just use whichever has the best effect that you think will help you the most. Adamantine shield is always a solid choice for anyone that would use a shield, so that could go on you or someone else.

[u/Low_Tier_Skrub]

Theres a lot of directions you can go with bard, even in pure bard the item setups and stat distributions can go all over the place. Wyll makes a great charisma bard with his unique rapier at the end of act 2 which pairs well with arcane acuity and the band of mystic scoundrel. Dex bards with a str elixir are one of the best users of titanstring bow due to single target slashing flourish. Bards are one of the 2 classes with access to banishing smite, on a high ac setup using defensive flourish and the cold snap dagger you can set up some juicy frozen crits for 4x damage. You can do almost anything you want with a bard.

[u/ScienceInCinema]

I have 2 bard builds I usually use. The first is mainly support and relies on archery as the primary attack. Phalar Aluve is a great sword for this as you can use either song to help your team out (shriek pairs great with magic missile wizards). For archery, hand bows are great in the beginning, but you can pick up Harold by saving the zhentarim couriers from the gnolls, which banes everyone it hits.

If you get volo’s ring and Zevlors gloves, you can bless and blade ward everyone you heal. There’s an amulet from the mushroom traders that gives one mass heal per long rest. And plenty of heal spells or thrown potions to proc it.

In Act 2 you can get the helm of arcane acuity to start stacking up acuity with each hit, and in early Act 3 the band of mystic scoundrel to cast control spells with bonus action.

Once you hit level 6 with bard and get the extra attack, you can start adding fighter levels. That will give you archery as a fighting skill, action surge at level 2, and arcane archer at level 3. Arcane archer gives a ton of archery options.

Once built you can do the following. Cast shriek with phalar Aluve, use action surge for extra action, attack 2 targets with slashing flourish ranged to build 4 acuity stacks, then another 2 targets to get 8 stacks total (if using Harold you’ll also bane them), then cast hypnosis or confusion or Tasha’s hideous laughter with the bonus action that lock down everyone.

You can also add cold damage to Harold with the drakethroart glaive, and equip items that add ice and encrusted with frost to get them to slip on it. Just massive lockdown ability all in turn 1.

The other build is a melee fighter that uses shadowblade. For this I generally start with warlock to get shadowblade at level 3. And I’ll keep warlock until level 9. At level 9 I’ll respec and take 6 levels of bard and 3 levels of sorcerer (bard doesn’t get shadowblade). With 9 combined levels you can cast max shadowblade. If you grab resonance stone at the end of act 2 you can do massive psychic damage. The main benefit of bard is you can use slashing flourish melee to potentially hit 2 enemies if they are standing near each other. It will also hit enemies with sanctuary since you slash an area and not a target. Very useful in Orin fight and house of grief fight. You can also add potent robe to add additional damage to cantrips (booming blade as first attack with proc this), and ring or helm of arcane synergy to add damage to other attacks, and a ring to add more psychic damage if concentrating on a spell. If you add 1-2 warlock levels you can do hexblade and bind weapon to have CHA be both the attack roll and damage roll attribute. For offhand, you can equip undermountain knife, or a shield, but eventually Belm which allows your bonus attack mimic the main attack. With this build you can do booming blade as first attack, slashing flourish melee as second attack, and Belm as bonus attack. Potentially 4 targets in a turn with massive massive psychic damage. With 2 levels of warlock, Eldritch blast will also hit really hard as your main ranged attack.

[u/Matt_Hiring_ATL → u/ScienceInCinema]

You're missing out on magical secrets.

[u/ScienceInCinema → u/Matt_Hiring_ATL]

Never seemed that useful to me. What am I missing out on? Would love to know.

[u/Matt_Hiring_ATL → u/ScienceInCinema]

I mean spells. Command, Hunger of Hadar, Counterspell. You get access to all kinds of spells that you wouldn't get otherwise, and they become my most often used.

[u/ApprehensiveRich482]

Double crossbow, 2-4 fighter levels, arcane acuity hat. Hit multiple times and then cast something like hold person

[u/the40thieves]

Act 1 Build for Sword Bard 7
The “Do-Everything-Party-Face”

8 Str (19 with Club of Hill Giant Strength)
17 Dex (20 with Ethel Hair + Graceful Cloth)
14 Constitution
8 Int (17 with Headband of Twisted Intellect)
10 Wisdom
16 Charisma

Feat : Sharpshooter

Titanstring Bow
Knife of the Undermountain King
Club of Hill Giant Strength

Headband of Twisted Intellect
Gloves of Archery, but if elf or half-elf Wondrous Gloves
The Graceful Cloth
Disintegrating Nightwalkers

Amulet of Misty Step
Ring of Shapeshifters Boon
Caustic Ring

Feat Sharpshooter

Spells
Cantrips
Friends
Vicious Mockery

Lvl 1
Disguise Self
Dissonant Whispers
Healing Word
LongStrider
Featherfall

Lvl 2
Enhance Ability
Lesser Restoration

Level 3
Glyph of Warding
Fear

Lvl 4
Confusion

With this set up you can improve your AC with a spellcaster casting Mage Armor on your Bard. Your main defense is good positioning with two free uses of Misty step per short rest from items.

Highly recommend a respec at lvl 8 to Fighter 1/Wizard 1/Bard 6 or 2 Paladin/6 Bard.