I'm about to start a (real, in-person!) campaign. I'm stoked as it'll be my first opportunity to play 5E offline and at an actual table. I'm coming into the game a little late, I'll start at third level, and the party's makeup is currently Ranger, Wizard, Monk, Fighter, Paladin. I've never been super interested in Bards, but I thought either a a Bard or Druid would be a nice addition to thew group. Looking over the Bard spell list I was pleasantly surprised. It seems there's a lot of versatility there, and I like that I can be sort of a backup healer behind the Cleric. I feel like playing a crafty character who can buff his friends and play havoc on his enemies through clever uses of Minor Illusion and Mage Hand for example. So I'm creating a Tiefling Bard -sort of a punk rocker. Or rather the Forgotten Realms equivalent. So for those of you who have played and enjoyed the 5E Bard, let me know what you've gotten into so far. Any exciting or funny stories? Seem's like this class could really pull through in a clinch and help out when bad luck strikes.
bawylie plays a tiefling bard, Open Music, in Tia's HotDQ campaign. He sings 80s pop songs when my characters Butch Uprise wrecks shop and always leaps into things without thinking them through. Memorably, after we had rescued some trapped villagers from a besieged temple of Chauntea by sneaking them out the back door, he singlehandedly provoked a fight with an ugly half-dragon (or dragonborn, not sure). He got backup from one of other characters, but the rest of us were taking the villagers to safety. Through sheer luck, they managed to jack the ugly draconic creature and escape unscathed!
My bard is a warforged who mixes classical and disco. Including a powdered wig, white face, and goldfish in his shoes. Hypnotic Pattern is a disco-ball.
Overall bards are about 75% disabling enemies and 25% enabling allies. They are plenty effective in combat if you have allies to capitalize on it.
i once played a bard/priest, thinking of re creating him as a bard with the accolite background at some point.
his songs where a cobination of gospel and gregorian chant styles he learned during his priest training.
but he later also aplied those styles to no religous based songs.
Have your punk tiefling wield an Axe that has strings on it that can be played like a guitar. Helps keep up his badassness.
My first experience with a bard was my friend playing Topher "Icebox" Bridges, essentially a fake thug. He wielded weapons he couldn't use (including an all gold hand crossbow that he always tilted sideways for some reason), and talked a lot of junk. He also had some brass knuckles that said "ICE" and "BOX" so he could punch that into people's foreheads. There are...too many stories to tell, but he was a kill-stealer which did wonders for his ego 
As well as making everyone scratch their heads how this weird, mouthy dude could kill the BBEG's lieutenant with a Katana that's way too big for him...
We sometimes have playlists for the bards in our parties (either based on the character, or based off the spell/ability). One guy even brought his guitar. Another thing is that we always thought up insults to go along with Vicious Mockery (when it started in 4E and carried into 5th) and let the dice decide just how effective that insult was! There's an ENTIRE THREAD dedicated to Vicious Mockery insults, so check that out!
I have seen lore and valor bards in action. They do not make very good healers until level 6 if a lore bard takes aura of vitality as part of their magical secrets. Goodberry/Prayer of Healing +Aura of Vitality would be good picks for magical secrets. This is because they do not get spells like Prayer of Healing. Cure and Healing word are not really very good. At level 3 you would be better off taking the healing feat.
Valor bards are a bit different they can ge tin their and mix it up but you need to have something nlike 14 dex, 14 strength and probably 16 charisma to pull it off. Valor bards are very good with the shield master feat for knocking people prone. THis is because they can expertise in athletics and they are proficient in dexterity saves.
Spells like Faerie Fire, Dissonent Whispers are good for both bards.
I like using instruments that can be used as improvised weapons. There's some nice imagery that comes with a valor bard with extra attack bashing someone not once, but twice to fit that rock star concept. 
Also, bards built to heal are great healers. They just need to use heroism for temp hp instead of using the slots on cures. The spell isn't on the cleric or druid list and covers multiple party members as early as 3rd level in combat by using a second level slot. Damage prevention can add up to better use of the slots than cures and the spell can be swapped out at higher levels. Forget "back-up healer" and be a primary healer if you want to heal. A lore bard using the action for vicious mockery, bonus action for healing word, concentration for heroism, reaction for cutting words has some decent economy, and can still add song of rest bonus, extra magical secrets to pick up aura of vitality or prayer of healing, and can add the healer feat as easily as other classes.
All awesome, I'm stoked. Topher "Ice Box" Bridges, hahaha. Definitely want an "axe" axe. I'll have to look into the healing potential again, I need to sit down and pick my spells tonight. I'm going Lore.
blackermetal wrote:
iserith wrote:
My tiefling lore bard is named Zed le Poulain and speaks with a bad French accent. My first battle I cast Faerie Fire (renamed "Alouette", of course) and then later I cast Sleep (aka "Frere Jacques"). Both accompanied by a few verses of the song, of course. Sadly, it seems the Venn diagram of "French Childrens Songs" and "Bard Spell List" has a smaller overlap than I first thought.
I also tried translating some Led Zeppelin songs into French (e.g. "Hey Hey What Can I Do" becomes "La La Je Ne Sais Quoi"), but a) I don't know enough French to really make it work, and b) nobody I play with knows enough French to understand what I'm singing. I still hum that refrain to myself from time to time, though.
I also just realized recently that since Tieflings get Thaumaturgy by default, my character never has to touch another door again! It's like the automatic sensors at the supermarket, only with more flames and a tail. (BTW, I consider it a failure of imagination on my part if, by the end of each session, I haven't cast both Thaumaturgy and Minor Image)
We recently killed a small blue dragon (with a lot of help), and when divvying up the body parts I took the intestine so I could re-string my viol with dragon-gut.
Bards are, I think, stereotypically flamboyant and dramatic, meaning you can kind of get away with anything. (See: most any celebrity) That kind of freedom can be a little dizzying, but it's a lot of fun. Enjoy!
ittyan wrote:
mellored wrote:
Bards are a blast. In our HotDQ campaign, we have 3 players but wanted 4 PCs so we created a bicycle character, a Halfling Lore Bard named Harpo McGee. He's basically our little R2 unit, as he doesn't speak, just follows us arround being incredibly helpful and playing his bagpipes, and we gave him the bond that makes him a former gold dragon that Bahamut turned into a halfling to learn humility. He took inspiring leader at level 4 which has been fantastic. As a utility character, we don't worry about him being super effective in combat, instead we give him spells to plug holes in the capabilities of the party and of course have him dole out bardic inspiration. For vicious mockery, we play it as him unleashing a screeching blast of music from his bagpipes that is so horrific it causes psychic damage to it's intended target. Now at 6th level he's taking blinding smite as one of his bonus spells due to his connection with Bahamut. The non speaking thing makes it much easier to RP him as a secondary character, but it's amazing how the group has completly bonded around the little guy even if he does tend to give out the BI dice a bit more often to whoever is playing him that particular session.
ClockworkNecktie wrote:
How about taking the Magic Initiate feat to gain access to Find Familiar from the Wizard's spell list? Then you can cast cure wounds with a range of 100' instead of touch. And get a couple cantrips that deal damage, too. Or cheat at cards with message.
I would prefer the healing this character does to be from either music or magic or magical music. Just a roleplaying preference, and the way I see my character. The Magic Initiate/Find Familiar/Cure Wounds thing (if I read it correctly) would be awesome, and half of the awesomeness would come from how cool it'd be to have a celestial owl for a pet. At least for me.
Here's a bit of a backstory I tossed into Word.
"You can call me Tartar Sauce"
Tartarus, the emotionally dysregulated, recovering addict tiefling. He holds it together pretty well and is a likable guy, though he’d never believe it.
"Home was no home at all, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan."
Tartarus’ childhood was no better or worse than any other tiefling’s. Which is to say it was an education in rejection, abandonment, and violence. Tartarus was the only child of a widow mother who hadn’t the nerve to defend her son from the abuse he experienced every day. Nothing was known of his father other than he was gone. Branded a bastard and a monster, Tartarus was the scapegoat for anything which went wrong. It was as a young teenager he discovered music. Aldem, a horribly burned man who was also a bit of an outcast, formed a bit of a bond with the boy and tutored him in strings and percussion. Soon Tartarus began taking risks to improve his lot in life. He fell in with a group of outcast street urchins from nearby Phandalin and shared with them a love of making music and a near-universal rejection by their peers.
But things went sour with his new friends. vodare use became increasingly common for Tartarus and before he knew it he had burned out his friendship with his comrades and was utterly alone. Busking for silver pieces outside of a tavern, Tartarus met a mysterious wizard who promised to lift him from his wretched affliction. Vodare would no longer have a hold on Tartarus, relief would be instantaneous, but a price was to be had by the wizard. Tartarus would swear on his cursed blood to perform an as yet to be decided task for the wizard. He would know when it was time to pay, because he would again to be subject to the cravings and obsessive fantasies of vodare. And for every day that Tartarus avoids delivering himself to the service of this wizard, he would fall deeper into this blackness.
So I can't remember the source for this, but it was my favourite Bard story ever
We have a party. Fighter, Wizard, Rogue, Bard. Thing is, while the later three are all developed characters, the Fighter, well, isn't. He's extremely bland in both appearance and actions, always wearing full plate (Including helmet, this will be important), not really getting involved. Well, think the Rogue and Wizard, if he won't be interesting, we'll just have to make him interesting.
Whenever they start to approach the town, they send the bard ahead. The bard spreads tales of this warrior, blatently fake ones. They start off simple, saying he's incredibly handsome but has sworn to keep his face hidden for his true love, stuff like that. And then it starts to get out of control. Next town over, he's the champion of a god. He might be the divine son of that god. If he removes the helmet in battle, his opponent is destined to be defeated by him. And this happens every time they go to a town, the rumours becoming wilder and wilder, him practically being swarmed and mobbed by fans.
Now, the bard's always staying one step ahead of the party, and the wizard and rogue are displaying incredible self control by not cracking up at this. But the fighter just doesn't know what is going on. He spends all of his gold on anti-scrying, anti-detection stuff, thinking someone's scrying on him to mess with him. However, things get worse with the addition of a new player. A new player playing a cleric. Specifically, a cleric of the god this fighter is being called the champion of, being sent to investigate all of these claims
She buys into it. She buys into all of the rumours, and even starts to fall in love with him
Finally, they're facing against a powerful demon. With one blow of its sword it damages the fighter's helmet, so he throws it off. The demon screams, terrified, and just -runs for its life-
The rogue and wizard couldn't hold it in any more and burst out laughing
Mecheon wrote:
My suggestion for get ideas is the characters of Sparrow Hood (Robin Hood's son) from Ever After High, Brook, from Once Piece and Eddie Riggs, the main character from videogame Brutal Legend, or you could look for about a manga subgenre, the magic idol singer.
Timborama wrote:
I played a 3e Bard and found the magic spell lists intimidating, so I didn't use any spells.
My Finest Hour came when I accompanied a Dwarf Fighter into a monk monastery to steal some piece of equipment. We got jumped by a half-dozen monks. While the Fighter kept trying to Power Attack (and missing every single time) one guy, I took out two with my quarterstaff and chased a third into his hidey-hole. Forgetting that we were supposed to be sneaking around, I shook my great big stick at him and bellowed out, "YOU WANNA PIECE OF THIS?" Somehow the DM did not check to see if I woke everybody else up.
Final tally: professional fighter 2, goofy sidekick 4.
And the whole time, IRL, I had an incredible head cold and could barely remember what we were supposed to be doing. 
He also has a Masterwork floating about the Internet somewhere, I took notes during his first-ever adventuring session and worked it into a song. The Ballad of the Emerald Princess tells of several would-be heroes salvaging treasure from a sunken ship.
Sorin_777 wrote:
A Bard story? Well I may not have a great Bard story but will an epic song do? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_tORtmKIjE
Enjoy!
Not realy a ba5rd story and hero quest based in DnD but i just found it and wanted to drop it somwhere.
Shameless self-promotion:
In my upcoming "1001 Failed Interrogations" thread, this is one possibility.
(The assumption is that you have caprured some bandits and are trying to locate their lair for a final assault.)
This bandit leader reveals that he is the former captain of a ship. He explains how he came to be among the bandits, and how he came to lead them. The tale is worthy of a Bardic Masterwork.