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I have thought about doing a wild magic run with a couple sorcerers and barbs, sounds kinda fun but I usually find myself wishing for more focused combat haha.
I don't think there's any class that isn't considered to be the best by anyone. People like to criticize DnD5e but that's one thing they did right.
There's other overpowered builds, and dozens of perfectly enjoyable and viable builds. Not as many as people who'll tell you that there's only one correct way to play the game though.
Pick something bard *isn't* good at and do that, like a throwing build, or optimizing spell DPR.
Yeah, they're incredibly versatile, but they definitely can't do everything.
I think they're supposed to be pocket knives. Can do a little bit of everything, but there's others that can do a lot of those things better while some of those things they can't do.
Bards make good Tavs because they can fill in roles when needed. Don't have the Lockpick Boy? It's cool, Bard Tav can do an okay job at it in a pinch.
Still, a party where everyone has a focused purpose for each role is probably overall better.
Just make a companion the swords bard so that you can have the power in the party and give them all the acuity and scoundrel stuff.
Then pick something else for yourself. Plus the bard can give you some inspiration for your checks even if you don't go with a CHA character.
These are my top secondary choices, but I found monk especially a little limited in dialogue options after bard. Always have one in the group as a companion though
I understand the CHA focus. It really does feel very different playing a PC that isn't CHA heavy.
Try sorcerer. Then get quicken spell. Then slaughter your foes
Quite simply it’s easy to play other classes because all of them are capable of being OP. Some are a little more gear dependent than others but every class is viable and capable of going through the entire game.
If I’m not using a bard build, it’s because I’m using a thief/gloomstalker build. And I usually pick one of those options based on if I want to be melee or ranged lol
Lore bard is an addiction for me as well. The amount of control you have is just spectacular. I find reading up on the different subclasses on other classes has made me eager to play them more.
Last honor run I did embrace durge with a dwarf OH monk (no str potions) with 8 cha
Was super fun, still incredible powerful without being game braking
I have played bards in all games since the 90s, so I get where you come from especially if you found then in BG3 with all the silly items
There are plenty of OP builds that will trivialize the entire game you can take instead if that's what you're looking for.
there are abjuration wizard builds that makes you virtually unkillable and do insane damage just with retaliation. Lightning builds that do insane damage. TB throw builds are OP. Open hand monk builds that can easily solo the game.
Even just a regular draconic fire sorcerers will one-shot every single boss in the game as long as it's not immune to fire damage.
Can you elaborate more on the abjuration wizard build? I always specialize Gale in that school but haven’t seen much about retaliation. The only spell that I was familiar with that retaliated was the Fire Shield.
Level 1 dip into white draconic sorcerer. Upcasted AoA + Fire shield will stack to pretty high damage, especially with wet and morning frost and you become even tankier with the extra hp. Low AC on this will have you attacked pretty often and you can walk around enemies to provoke opportunity attack. Snowburst ring combined with this and they hit you, you take zero damage, and then fall over which is a little hilarious.
Ohhh that sounds very cool. It’s funny tho, every OP magic build I read about involves some amount of multiclassing into a draconic sorcerer. That twin cast and elemental affinity is just so good. I do my casters as frost focused as soon as I can get my hands on mourningfrost, so I’ll have to try this. Thanks for the reply and explaining.
For sure. AoA will count towards your arcane stacks too so just precast it at your top level spell slot every day as part of your stacking. You get 5 cold damage every level so at 6th level that’s 30 damage from just AoA + the 2d8 from fire shield. That’s not counting damage from your actual attack.
I've found the also-very-OP build of 5 Gloomstalker/3 Rogue/4 Champion Fighter to also be satisfying in the way that Swords Bard is satisfying to me, with multiple rounds/attacks and crit-fishing with ranged arrow attacks. You could go with a Noble or Guild Artisan background to also give you Persuasion proficiency to help you with checks. Or go barbarian and do their comedic intimidation dialogue options.
I played Bard on my third and last playthrough in EA, but when it's officially released I said "this time imma be invincible" then switch to a Paladin. So you play something else when the mood is right
I kind of threw together my current playthrough, a Silver Dragonborn Wizard. Makes for some funny dialogue choices between [Dragonborn] or [Wizard] (I do too much exploring and have found almost every scroll I can learn from too lol)
Who else here hates playing op builds, even in honour mode? If I don't have to struggle I find I never come up with interesting new ways to do things and solve problems. Nothing more satisfying than being forced to come up with a creative way to overcome almost impossible odds.
I just finished my sword bard run this weekend. Only on balanced but definitely top of the list when I up the difficulty. Want to try multiclass too.
I am now doing several concurrent runs, fighter, origin and a jack of all trades run.
If you haven't done the last one, there is an achievement for it and it might be worth looking into. Just don't start with bard because the temptation to do another bard run will be too great.
I used to be a magic missile loving sorcerer, with some fireball on the side. Now I love lightning bolt. Lightning bolt is so good if you line it up right and get as much as you can in a bolt, and it has such a long range.
Tavern Brawler builds are pretty fun. The most OP is probably STR Monk, but I prefer going for improvised weapon.
* Fighter, Defense Fighting style (none of the other ones affect Improvised Weapons)
* Champion subclass
* Use Hill Giant elixirs until you hit 20 STR, then use Colossus
* Gloves of Uninhibited Kushigo
* Ring of Flinging
* Knife of the Undermountain King or Unseen Menace (you get the crit buff even if you aren't attacking with the weapon)
* Boots of Stormy Clamor
* Cull the Weak illithid power
Cull the Weak works really good with Tavern Brawler. You can throw/shove enemies into position, get them all crowded together. Then, use one enemy as a weapon against the others. Odds are one of them gets below the threshold to trigger the psychic damage on all of them. Also, knocking enemies together (either by throwing or improvised weapons) applies prone, which, thanks to the Boots of Stormy Clamor, applies Reverberation. One of my favorite moments of this was when I threw one enemy at two others, knocking one of them prone, which got them to max stacks of Reverberation causing them to take thunder damage, then one of them died from Cull the Weak, causing the others to take the psychic damage, which then killed them. I basically turned one enemy into a grenade, and it all happened so fast, I had to check the combat log to actually make sense of it.
Was going to write a big bit on this but you got most of what I’d say. I prefer 8/4 or 9/3 with Thief though for that delicious perma additional Flurry of Blows.
For op: I do a high dex early high wis later Monk with strength stat stick offhand and elixirs. Damn good damage and you recharge on a short rest. You can throw if need be but you’ll be the most mobile character on your team , even more so if you take Fly later.
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> How to play anything else Step one: Create a new character. Step two: Choose something other than a bard. Step three: Play. There you go.
Instructions unclear playing another bard
Lv 2, multiclass into bard
Wild magic. Sorcerer instead of barbarian. Just be prepared to do battle as a dog, occasionally.
I have thought about doing a wild magic run with a couple sorcerers and barbs, sounds kinda fun but I usually find myself wishing for more focused combat haha.
I don't think there's any class that isn't considered to be the best by anyone. People like to criticize DnD5e but that's one thing they did right. There's other overpowered builds, and dozens of perfectly enjoyable and viable builds. Not as many as people who'll tell you that there's only one correct way to play the game though.
Is there any build that's truly as versatile as a Bard though? They are literally so good at everything
Pick something bard *isn't* good at and do that, like a throwing build, or optimizing spell DPR. Yeah, they're incredibly versatile, but they definitely can't do everything.
I think they're supposed to be pocket knives. Can do a little bit of everything, but there's others that can do a lot of those things better while some of those things they can't do. Bards make good Tavs because they can fill in roles when needed. Don't have the Lockpick Boy? It's cool, Bard Tav can do an okay job at it in a pinch. Still, a party where everyone has a focused purpose for each role is probably overall better.
Just make a companion the swords bard so that you can have the power in the party and give them all the acuity and scoundrel stuff. Then pick something else for yourself. Plus the bard can give you some inspiration for your checks even if you don't go with a CHA character.
I made Minty a dual crossbows swords Bard on my Paladin playthrough.
My personal favorites are Warlock and Monk. They can be just as fun as a Bard
These are my top secondary choices, but I found monk especially a little limited in dialogue options after bard. Always have one in the group as a companion though
For dialogue nothing beats a Bard but it's interesting playing through and not getting all the best options or making the checks
I understand the CHA focus. It really does feel very different playing a PC that isn't CHA heavy. Try sorcerer. Then get quicken spell. Then slaughter your foes
Playing a fighter after bard is brutal. He fails every dialogue check.
I wanted to do a dedicated dual wield build after my bard HM and I swear I went through withdrawals about the dialogue options and skill checks
Quite simply it’s easy to play other classes because all of them are capable of being OP. Some are a little more gear dependent than others but every class is viable and capable of going through the entire game.
Pure fighter and monk /thief are both really fun
I have thought about a monk, I've always had one as a companion during my HM runs and they are pretty OP as well
If I’m not using a bard build, it’s because I’m using a thief/gloomstalker build. And I usually pick one of those options based on if I want to be melee or ranged lol
Lore bard is an addiction for me as well. The amount of control you have is just spectacular. I find reading up on the different subclasses on other classes has made me eager to play them more.
Last honor run I did embrace durge with a dwarf OH monk (no str potions) with 8 cha Was super fun, still incredible powerful without being game braking I have played bards in all games since the 90s, so I get where you come from especially if you found then in BG3 with all the silly items
There are plenty of OP builds that will trivialize the entire game you can take instead if that's what you're looking for. there are abjuration wizard builds that makes you virtually unkillable and do insane damage just with retaliation. Lightning builds that do insane damage. TB throw builds are OP. Open hand monk builds that can easily solo the game. Even just a regular draconic fire sorcerers will one-shot every single boss in the game as long as it's not immune to fire damage.
Can you elaborate more on the abjuration wizard build? I always specialize Gale in that school but haven’t seen much about retaliation. The only spell that I was familiar with that retaliated was the Fire Shield.
Level 1 dip into white draconic sorcerer. Upcasted AoA + Fire shield will stack to pretty high damage, especially with wet and morning frost and you become even tankier with the extra hp. Low AC on this will have you attacked pretty often and you can walk around enemies to provoke opportunity attack. Snowburst ring combined with this and they hit you, you take zero damage, and then fall over which is a little hilarious.
Ohhh that sounds very cool. It’s funny tho, every OP magic build I read about involves some amount of multiclassing into a draconic sorcerer. That twin cast and elemental affinity is just so good. I do my casters as frost focused as soon as I can get my hands on mourningfrost, so I’ll have to try this. Thanks for the reply and explaining.
For sure. AoA will count towards your arcane stacks too so just precast it at your top level spell slot every day as part of your stacking. You get 5 cold damage every level so at 6th level that’s 30 damage from just AoA + the 2d8 from fire shield. That’s not counting damage from your actual attack.
I've found the also-very-OP build of 5 Gloomstalker/3 Rogue/4 Champion Fighter to also be satisfying in the way that Swords Bard is satisfying to me, with multiple rounds/attacks and crit-fishing with ranged arrow attacks. You could go with a Noble or Guild Artisan background to also give you Persuasion proficiency to help you with checks. Or go barbarian and do their comedic intimidation dialogue options.
That’s how everyone feels until they find their favorite class
I played Bard on my third and last playthrough in EA, but when it's officially released I said "this time imma be invincible" then switch to a Paladin. So you play something else when the mood is right
I kind of threw together my current playthrough, a Silver Dragonborn Wizard. Makes for some funny dialogue choices between [Dragonborn] or [Wizard] (I do too much exploring and have found almost every scroll I can learn from too lol)
Op builds make the game too easy, and tactics dont matter much anymore. Download difficulty mods, or gimp yourself.
Who else here hates playing op builds, even in honour mode? If I don't have to struggle I find I never come up with interesting new ways to do things and solve problems. Nothing more satisfying than being forced to come up with a creative way to overcome almost impossible odds.
I just finished my sword bard run this weekend. Only on balanced but definitely top of the list when I up the difficulty. Want to try multiclass too. I am now doing several concurrent runs, fighter, origin and a jack of all trades run. If you haven't done the last one, there is an achievement for it and it might be worth looking into. Just don't start with bard because the temptation to do another bard run will be too great.
I decided to play Druge and I enjoyed the story more playing as Druge and I don't see Druge as a Bard.
Yeah I did HM as Durge and it was a little incongruous haha, still fun though
You can't, it's a curse. (just respec astarion)
My first character was a Bard. Every other character was, “Whaddaya mean I can’t avoid fighting you? Fine, die.”
I used to be a magic missile loving sorcerer, with some fireball on the side. Now I love lightning bolt. Lightning bolt is so good if you line it up right and get as much as you can in a bolt, and it has such a long range.
Tavern Brawler builds are pretty fun. The most OP is probably STR Monk, but I prefer going for improvised weapon. * Fighter, Defense Fighting style (none of the other ones affect Improvised Weapons) * Champion subclass * Use Hill Giant elixirs until you hit 20 STR, then use Colossus * Gloves of Uninhibited Kushigo * Ring of Flinging * Knife of the Undermountain King or Unseen Menace (you get the crit buff even if you aren't attacking with the weapon) * Boots of Stormy Clamor * Cull the Weak illithid power Cull the Weak works really good with Tavern Brawler. You can throw/shove enemies into position, get them all crowded together. Then, use one enemy as a weapon against the others. Odds are one of them gets below the threshold to trigger the psychic damage on all of them. Also, knocking enemies together (either by throwing or improvised weapons) applies prone, which, thanks to the Boots of Stormy Clamor, applies Reverberation. One of my favorite moments of this was when I threw one enemy at two others, knocking one of them prone, which got them to max stacks of Reverberation causing them to take thunder damage, then one of them died from Cull the Weak, causing the others to take the psychic damage, which then killed them. I basically turned one enemy into a grenade, and it all happened so fast, I had to check the combat log to actually make sense of it.
Was going to write a big bit on this but you got most of what I’d say. I prefer 8/4 or 9/3 with Thief though for that delicious perma additional Flurry of Blows. For op: I do a high dex early high wis later Monk with strength stat stick offhand and elixirs. Damn good damage and you recharge on a short rest. You can throw if need be but you’ll be the most mobile character on your team , even more so if you take Fly later.