Tonight I tried the Bard, and despite people saying the opposite, I was very much the group's cheerleader. Even my spells, what with all the vicious mocking, inspirational speaches, soothing words of healing...I felt like all I was missing was a pair of pom poms.
Initially, I was hoping for a kind of dashing rogue-spellcaster. It became obvious I wasn't one of them when I was taken out in the second round of the first encounter. Bards are definitely not front-line heroes, and not one of their spells pretends to be.
So now I'm looking for a new spellcaster, and seeking advice from other spellcasters (this is a new realm for me, I'm usually a frontline hero, but I am having fun with spellcasting).
I'd like to contribute to DPS while also handling the utility role (we really need to keep utility on, as the others are a Paladin and a Barbarian, and the reason we won this last fight that was 2CR above us is because of Dissonant Whisper forcing the opponent to flee and provoke OAs).
Mix it with Arcane Trickster and get sneak attacks and other roguey goodness. Valor Bard 7/AT13 looks good on paper.
Bards, even valor bards, are definatly not front line casters. But they certainy can contrute to DPR with OA's from dissonant whispers, crits from hold person, and all the misses you turn into hits via insperation dice.
But yes, they do very little directly.
But if you want a tanky, dpr, and utility, your out of luck. You can't be all of those. At least not all of them very well.
Tanky / DPR = Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Monk
Tanky / Utility = Cleric, Abjure Wizard, Moon Druid
Utility / DPR = Wizard, Sorcerer, Bard, Rogue, Ranger, Land Druid.
If you want all 3, your going to have to multiclass.
Pladain/Warlock or Eldirch Knight/Wizard work well together.
Sounds like you either got the wrong impression of what the Bard is/does, or you just chose the wrong spells...Probably the latter (unless you're level 1 or 2. No time to be a Valor Bard if so).
As for what next? Maybe an Arcane Trickster Rogue, a Cleric (if you want to be on the front line), or, quite honestly, a Wizard or druid!
Eldritch Knight isn't too bad, either.
if you want the archetype spellcaster wizard/cleric/druid are the most versatile full spellcaster.
Support is usually reserved for healer and buffer, if you like the dissonant whisper CONTROLLING the enemy, forcing them to do what you want them to do then you like to be a controller. Druid and Wizard got great controlling spells. The wizard offer great DPR option as well, the druid offer more ccontrolling abilities and if you go moondruid you get the option to go front line tank once you run out of spells.
Cleric can be a controller as well, but require more effort to build him that way. The druid simply choose your spell randomly and you will get some controlling spell lol^^ but if you go druid, your team might expect you to heal a little bit as well.
Bards work great with a party that will set them up for success. 3 melee characters + 1 Bard. The melee don't even have to be awesome, just in melee (like maybe a Cleric). The 3 melee all stand within reach of the same target. Bard casts dissonant whispers. Fun and profit!
Jack-of-All-Trades means you don't suck at anything. Great for any party but especially a small one as you can't cover everything. Guidance (from a cleric or even 1 level dip into Cleric) + Jack-of-All-Trades means you are competent at basically everything.
Lore Bard means that you can shore up whatever the party is missing from spells without having to take another class.
Maybe try Warlock? I too have always been a frontline melee and decided to try a spellcaster for a change of pace. I choose the warlock because he has good constant at-will DPR with EB. I went Great Old One pact which gave me dissonent Whisper and Tasha's and choose Book of shadows for the extra Cantrips and now rituals. Not the utility of most of the other classes since i only get 2 spell slots at the low to mid levels but since they reset on short rests it's pretty good. EB having such nice damage with the invocation let's you continue to dish out damage without running out of resources and you get to stand in the back where it's safer. I am enjoying it.
Dissonant Whispers was fun (it worked as intended last night, allowing us to take down CR+2 with only one character suffering a single 5hp hit). But typically enjoy being the one who's doing the hitting while someone else sets me up.
I'm interested in the Eldritch Knight/Wizard combo mentioned above, as well as the Ranger.
I get how to do the EK/W (though I'm curious about how many levels in which should be focused on), but how would you build a Ranger to be Utility/DPR?
Here are some ideas I came up with. What would be your suggestions on builds for them?
EDIT: Those are fairly specific. The ideas are: a rogue that uses magic to be a tomb raider, a ranger who works the streets of a city instead of the wilderness, or a ranger who uses arcane spells (not sure if the typical ranger has that arcane feel or not).
Dissonant Whispers was fun (it worked as intended last night, allowing us to take down CR+2 with only one character suffering a single 5hp hit). But typically enjoy being the one who's doing the hitting while someone else sets me up.
It sounds to me like the best build (based on reading the thread) for you would be Fighter 1 / Warlock 19 with Pact of the Blade and a Fiendish patron. Tanks and deals damage as well as or better than an Eldritch Knight or Paladin while still allowing access to 9th level spellcasting.
Valor bard with a halberd, polearm master, great weapon master keeps bard utility and adds more damage. Arcane trickster might be an idea. Tome warlock or evoker would be likely options, but won't be any more survivable than the bard.
For clarification, I mentioned tome warlock for rituals and utility cantrips (like guidance). CHA tends to be a better skill stat than INT. Eldritch blast is usually the best option for a standard spell attack if the PC doesn't have weapons and extra attack.
Prescient wrote: