Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Zardnaar Sep 30, 2014 15:53:44	This is my first attempt at writing a guide and is based on actual in game experiences with a bit of theory craft thrown in for good measure. I will be using the following system to rate things for the College of Lore Bard. This will cover the 1st 6 levels at this point.     Selling Points
#2 Zardnaar Oct 01, 2014 11:02:50	Colour guide indicates the relative power of the various lore bard features, not what you should pick.     Spells In 5E the bard is a primary caster and this means spells are your major and most powerful class feature. And the bard has some powerful spells indeed. Individual spell selection will be covered later. Bardic Inspiration  Part of the bread and butter of the Bard class. The key part of using this ability is knowing when you give the dice to your allies. Practice makes perfect is the best advice I can give. Gets a lot better at level 3 and 5 Level 2 Jack of All Trades At level 2 you can add half your proficiency bonus rounded down on all ability checks that you are not proficient in. Not really a major class feature in terms of the bard power but a decent enough ability and it can get crazy at higher levels. Note this also applies to initiative rolls.  Song of Rest Another level 2 ability. When your allies spend a hit dice they regain an extra 1d6 hit dice. Short rests may be hard to come buy though so it is somewhat DM dependent. If you get multiple short rests in a day you are better off using HD based healing 1 dice at a time to maximise the amount of bonus d6's you can get. Bard College (Lore)  You pick your career path here. For purposes of this guide I assume you pick the lore college. Expertise More or less identical to the Rogue ability you get delayed access to this ability compared to the Rogue. Unlike the Rogue you cannot pick Thieves tools. I recommend picking stealth and perception as your skills. When combined with Jack of All Trades, and the bonus proficiencies you could make the argument the bard is better at skills than the Rogue.  Bonus Proficiencies You gain an extra 3 skills of your choice. More skills are always great. You do not have to pick skills on your class list either. Cutting Words How good is cutting words? Put it this way you are probably better off not using bardic inspiration any more as you can debuff enemies using your reaction. Really feeds into the controller part of the the College of Lore Combines with Vicious Mockery and can make the DM cry, I should know I am one. Font of Inspiration Up until 5th level you may struggle with the amount of inspiration dice you have. Now they refresh on a short rest. Hard to rate higher due to short rests being hard to measure to to specific adventure, play styles, and the DM. The more short rests you get the better this ability is.   Additional Magic Secrets  You can pick 2 spells of any class and add them to your spells know list. The obvious choice is wizard spells but you can also take ranger and paladin spells before members of the actual Paladin and Ranger classes. I would recommend Aura of Vitality, Fireball, Fly, Slow or Haste depending on what you want to do. THese seplls tend to reinforce the control/buffing aspect of the lore Bard.      Skills
#3 Zardnaar Sep 30, 2014 15:55:02	reserved
#4 Zardnaar Sep 30, 2014 15:55:12	reserved
#5 Zardnaar Sep 30, 2014 15:55:23	reserved
#6 Zardnaar Sep 30, 2014 15:55:41	reserved
#7 Timborama Oct 01, 2014 8:09:45	Pssst, you have Deception as purple...   (thanks for this, by the way!)
#8 whitishknight Oct 01, 2014 10:22:31	Lore Bards get a high ranking for a grappler build so maybe Strength could be important in certain cases?
#9 Zardnaar Oct 01, 2014 11:05:19	Timborama wrote: