It’s so cool to see you building around the capoeira concept. I’m Brazilian and this fighting style is iconic here because it was created as a way to slaves gather around and practice in order to revolt from there “”owners””, without rising suspicion. So they came up with a martial school that looks like a dance. With is a perfect fit for the subclass. Also, the history of capoeira on its on would be one of the greatest background ever for a character!
As a Brazilian that has researched quite a bit about Capoeira, let me suggest something different: Rogue Swashbuckler (I thought about this back on 5e). Capoeiras (the name given to people who practice Capoeira) didn't only use their feet and hands to attack. Some of them used to hold razors in between their toes to slash people with their kicks. Some also tied ropes around razors or knives to be able to throw them with their hands and pull it back to them. With that in mind, Swashbuckler fits perfectly. Capoeira is all about waiting for the right time to strike (what we would call "malícia"), so that's Sneak Attack and Swashbuckler's Rakish Audacity. Capoeira fighters also don't stay put in one place, they move around a lot with their "dance", which we call "ginga" or "gingado", so that's Cunning Action to disengage and move or Swashbuckler's Fancy Footwork. Capoeira came from the time of slavery in Brazil, and the fight was disguised as a dance so people could practice it without police suspecting, so that's the reason of your high Charisma as a Swashbuckler. Capoeiras also had to be charismatic to be able to recruit people for their cause of ending slavery, even against all odds. For the razor between the toes, just reflavor a dagger or shortsword as it. If you want to be crazier, reflavor a crossbow as the knife tied to a rope. Another thing that I find cool and interesting, is that back in the day, capoeiras used to wear some sort of scarf of satin around their necks, to protect it against other razors and flying knives, because it's really hard to cut satin with these things. That's it, hope it sparked a desire to try something different!
The deep belly laugh that I got out of the 10:33 "This is a dance bard build, we're not starting fighter! .... We're starting sorcerer..." was incredible, Thanks Colby! EDIT: First!!!
Don't forget: The Dance Bard gets to do an unarmed attack as part of any action, bonus action, or _reaction_ that expends a Bardic Inspiration. This includes the reaction from Inspiring Movement, so you don't just get to add another instance of Cloud of Daggers damage whenever someone ends their turn next to you, you get to punch (and thus potentially grapple) again as well, for free!
24:07 Brazil mentioned 🥳🥳 But yeah, I instantly thought of making a "capoeirista" when I saw this subclass. It fits nicely, specially since music is pretty attached to that fighting style anyway
DM: The orc Captain stands before you, glowering. DB: I want to intimidate him DM: Okay, how do you do that? DB: I look at the orc captain and say, "You want to battle," then I bust some badass dance moves.
So I realized Star Lord (Peter Quill) from Guardians of the Galaxy is a Collage of Dance Bard. He specifically dances and plays music to inspire himself and his companions in combat specifically effecting their movement, has a high charisma, and uses some unarmed combat. I suppose Colby mentioned footloose which Peter references as a personal inspiration. I would say if you want to build a Star Lord inspired build in D&D a college of Dance bard is the way to go.
I love that you still use the cute swarm that attacks you whenever you even dare to mention silvery barbs you also missed that inspiring footwork also lets you punch that enemy so you can drag them out, give them a face slap and drag them back in which seems so fun i wish i could convince my dm to play dance bard in his games (he doesnt use 2024 rules)
I just stumbled upon your channel in the last few weeks through the dungeon dudes, and I just want to say that that I love this channel. Thank you for making these videos!
Even if it's not the strongest, College of Dance feels like it'll be so fun to play. But if there's anyone I trust to make it strong, it's Colby. I'll definitely be taking notes on this one!
Ashardalon's Stride is the perfect choice for the Dancer Bard (that picks wizard). Like the other spells you mentioned , the off turn movement just synergies so well with it. Plus, unlike the others, A.S. Has always worked like that, so it feels less cheesy. So at bard 10, Ashardalon's Stride and Wall of Force are easily my go toos
@piranhaplantX don't get me wrong, won't put up same numbers as Spirit Guardians (does about 7 less damage on average, and a much smaller AoE), but I think it's rider effect is better for a Dancer as, Dancers/Bards are not tanks. So you don't want a bunch of enemies surrounding you. So the extra movement+no opportunity attacks, lets the Dancer whip around the battlefield and escape a bind; this is especially true and combos nicely with the level 6 feature.
@voodoophil Wow, I think you just gave everyone who likes playing Necromancers a very creepy way to interact with the Dance Bard and/or a secret campaign goal to cast Animate Dead on said Bard's corpse. Then again, it might be more fun for the Dance Bard to pull Animate Dead for one of their Magical Secrets to show the Necromancer how Thriller is properly done.
It feels like a lot of your builds go really well and often surprise you. Statistically that can't happen ALL the time. I would be interested to get a single video where you talk about the "cutting room floor", discussing builds you started working on and abandoned, with the reason they didn't make it.
It could be interesting but he gave a hint in this video. Pick an overpowered feature to build around. Go get a variety of the typically powerful features that fit with the one thing which inspired the build and a failed design is unlikely.
Thank you for your videos! You’ve inspired me to make some off-brand builds with your dual-wielding Paladin build. I started mine as a Charlatan. I’ve made a Farmer Halfling Barbarian, a Forest Gnome Sailor Elemental Monk, a Black Dragonborn Guard Thief Rogue, a Dwarven Scribe Gloomstalker Ranger, and a Hermit Orc Draconic Sorcerer. True, the background feats I chose aren’t always the best, but I chose them for the storytelling aspects.
That movement ability would make for a really cool team up build with a Cleric using Spirit Guardians or a Wizard using Yolande’s Regal Presence or such. Call it Two to Tango or in honor of Wicked: Dancing through Life.
Colby, technically Lore Bard should be an AMAZING grappler! So long as they manage to stop the initial saving throw, any successful Athletics or Acrobatics check to escape can be stopped with Cutting Words! Furthermore, you get the magical secrets at lvl 6... it could be a basis for a really interesting build as well!
@@ynedd the challenge would be having a good strength score AND charisma in order to use cutting words frequently as you need. Still probably want a monk dip so you can grapple with Dex instead.
@@DnDDeepDive So Colby, I've "stolen" a bunch of your ideas from past videos, but this has somehow become the highest damage build I've ever come up with! Race: Thri-Keen Background: Go for an older one, grab "tough" origin feat and pick up a +2 in strength and a +1 in charisma. Ability Scores: 15 Strength, 13 Dex, 12 Con, 8 Int, 8 Wis, 15 Charisma Class and levels: First level: Sorcerer (con save proficiency, mind sliver, blade ward). In the early levels, it will be nice to have blade ward as protection! Pick your exact level progression as you like, but the end division of levels will be: 1 Sorcerer 7 Bard (Lore) 12 Paladin (Oathbreaker) Fighting Style: Two Weapon Fighting Masteries: Scimitar + PYF ASI: First: grappler feat (Strength) Second: dual wielder (Strength) Third: Strength & Dexterity Fourth: Charisma & Charisma Equipment: Half-plate, shield (big arm), scimitar (small arm), short sword (small arm). Once you reach bard 6, pick up shillelagh cantrip through magical discoveries and switch out your offhand for a club. You'll be upcasting "spirit shroud" to the highest level you're able to and concentrating on it, hence the con save proficiency. After your last ASI, you'll be adding a +9 ability modifier to every damage roll. You'll be upcasting spirit shroud at 7th level for 3d8 to every weapon attack. You'll have blessed strikes, another 1d8 bonus for every attack. You attacks will look like this: Spells running: shillelagh, divine favor ( 2024, no concentration), Spirit Shroud. (divine favor isn't critical, just a nice damage bump) 1. 4d8+1d6+1d4+9 2. 4d8+2d6+1d4+9 3. 4d8+2d6+1d4+9 4. 4d8+2d6+1d4+9 You can use innate sorcery and then cast mind sliver for a nice boost in save DC and reduction in later saving throw to set up a grapple. Mind sliver will force a reduction in their next saving throw, to prevent your grapple. On your next turn, your first attack will be an unarmed strike to grapple them. If they fail the save, you can now keep them grappled really easily. Anytime they make a successful athletics or acrobatics check, you can take a reaction, expend one of your bardic inspirations, and have them subtract it. By bard 5, your inspiration die is a d8. If you run low on inspiration, you can expend a spell slot, no action required, to restore one. While you have someone grappled, just attack them as often as possible. Don't bother with smite, spirit shroud is giving you lots of damage dice together with your blessed strikes! You're better off saving spell slots to convert those into bardic inspiration if you can't take a short rest restore inspiration dice! On a 10 AC enemy, you'll be doing 152.5 DPR on average! On an 18 AC enemy, you'll be doing 140.1 DPR on average! You'll obviously only have one 7th level spell slot, so this is your "hardest fight of the day" DPR. For up to 3 more fights you can rock the following DPR with 5th and 6th level spell slots: 10 AC: 133.1 DPR 18 AC: 121.9 DPR You could also achieve something awesome just picking up Eldritch blast, agonizing blast, and Jim's Magic Missile or Scorching Ray, but I've been working with Martial Characters a lot in the past few months, so I wanted to see what would come of a melee fighting build. Very happy with how it came out! If I could change one thing, I'd find a way to boost con saves more! Although if you force the enemy prone before grappling them, they'll already have disadvantage on attacks against your 17+ AC, so hopefully you'll be fine. I haven't chosen a full spell list, but this is a good start: www.dndbeyond.com/characters/137714431 I just noticed Shadow Blade would also be an option... a good one at that... So many choices! In all honesty, I still like spirit shroud better though! Cheers!
I didn't disagree, but I was ok with it level 6 because it's a subclass feature. Inspiring Movement being moved to level 6, on the other hand, I am a bit salty about. I really liked the idea of having a low-level, reliable reaction attack.
Just by reading "Capoeira" in the thumbnail I already knew it was Dance Bard, for any non-Brazilian fan, capoeira is a mix of martial art, dance and music, it was how slaves fought against the colonizers and we used dance and music as a way for the slave owners not to see that we were training a martial art. Although nowadays it is not as effective in self-defense as Brazilian jiu-jitsu and is not good in closed spaces, it was very effective against Portuguese soldiers and would require more than one dragão (basically an elite troop) to capture a single capoeirista.
BJJ guy here, I think BJJ is more popular - but I wouldn’t say it’s more effective. BJJ has no striking techniques; no kicks, no punches, no clinching. By that standard alone I’d say capoeira is more effective. There is a huge problem in BJJ where practitioners feel BJJ is “more effective”, and are under the false belief they are fighters. Do I prefer BJJ? Of course. I’ve done it for close to 10 years. Have I come to the realization that there are flaws in it that can be supplemented by other arts, that is true as well.
Have you considered doing a build around the new armour of agathys seeing as now you can replace the temp hp and there are new ways of getting more temp hp?
I’ve been playing a dancer bard for 2 months now in adventurer’s league and I’ve really enjoyed it, ended the year at level 11. Our regular DM ALWAYS rolls low for his NPCs and monsters so while it does sorta suck to use my limited inspirations on it, I used Tandem Footwork at least once a session, speeding up boss fights quite a bit as it pretty much guaranteed that the party went first. I took the new entertainer background meaning I could give out free heroic inspirations once a session. My stat array was 18 charisma, 16 dex, 14 con and wisdom, 10 intelligence and 7 strength, + 2 charisma for 20 with entertainer + 1 dex with entertainer for 17. I had an amulet of health bringing my con to 19, a + 3 rhythm maker’s drum for 20 DC and + 12 spell attack by the end and bracers of defence meaning that once I also maxed out my dex my AC was 22. I took expertise in stealth, sleight of hand, acrobatics and performance and I was a Halfling (2024) which meant I could use other people as human shields.
I think the best way to help/fix the College of Dance Bard is to make Agile Strikes read like this: When you expend a use of your Bardic Inspiration or cast an Abjuration or Enhancement spell as part of an action, a Bonus Action, or a Reaction, you can make one Unarmed Strike as part of that action, Bonus Action, or Reaction.
Simulacrum is also a solid pick once you reach bard 13 or higher. Having a dance partner that’s also you is strong and fun. Understandable not using it; it can be a somewhat problematic spell. Every time I’ve used it on a build, I always note how the build performs without it, but it can function as a 2x multiplier in the best cases.
It's a true shame the Dance Bard doesn't have Extra Attack. Somthing akin to the Valor Bard extra attack would have made the Dance Bard stand out and be a lot more appealing. Alas, Multiclassing exists atleast.
There is one little thing that lets you get an extra punch with your reaction as a dance bard. College of Dance's 3rd and 6th level interact because since you spend bardic die as a reaction you can also punch in that same reaction. If only you could sneak attack with a punch for crazy rogue milticlasses
Havent watched it all yet,but i think you forgot a key thing about how dance bards 6th level feature interacts with their 3rd. Because you're spending a bardic inspiration die, you get to make an attack as part of that reaction as well
Back in Pathfinder 1e there is a "battle dancer bard" the Dervish of Dawn He don't buff the team, but have the double power only for him using the "Battle Dance" (Bardic Inspiration) and lvl 6 have a free Haste Spell when dance, so is a good melee Fighter
Looks like a fun build! I will say that while I'm not a part of the silvery barbs mob, I am a part of the silvery-barbs-mob mob. I normally listen to the podcast and the clip you use for it sounds awful when channeled directly through my headphones. Maybe its better with the video though! And I do appreciate all the interesting builds you put out.
I'm going to make a vampire based on this build that charms people into dancing the Salsa with him and while they're dancing a giant whirlwind of roses fills the air (cloud of daggers that the vampire is immune to) to escape the dance you can either make the wisdom save at the start of your turn or you can make a contested performance check against him and if you win, you take over the dance, grappling him in return amd becoming immune to the CoD while he stops being immune.
A character concept I’ve had in mind is a dance bard with a level 1 paladin dip for better single target damage from smites, divine favor, and shield of faith. Taking grappler feat and being focusing on athleticism etc abilities rather than just being able to seduce the dragon makes it seem like a really fun build for being a freak athlete performer or martial artist.
@ after looking at the subclass features at level 3, I agree that the peerless athlete feature is both great for flavor and function, but I think it would have to wait till at least 6 levels in bard. Definitely worth considering though!
Cool to finally see your take on the Dance Bard! When I was thinking for a build with this subclass, I ended up taking 4 levels in Warlock (2 levels would be enough but I wanted a subclass for some free misty step) mainly for Eldritch Blast and picking up the Spell Sniper feat to flavour it as magically empowered punches, giving the whole build a very spell-casting Monk feel. It would be less reliant on a concentration spell for damage so it'd be easier to use come classic bard control spells and dish out inspiration for your allies, though I haven't done any damage calculations for this build. I'm still not entirely sure about this build and if it wouldn't be better to actually go Monk and maybe multiclass into a WIS caster if you really want some magic, though. But I do really love the flavour of a dancing combatant coupled with good charisma skills. The build: Wood Elf (extra spells without overlap from Warlock subclass), Entertainer background, 15+1 DEX, 14 CON, 15+2 CHA, 10 WIS Bard 1 Warlock 2: Agonising blast, Eldritch Mind, Lessons of the First Ones taking Alert Bard 4: Dance subclass, Spell Sniper Warlock 4: Archefey subclass, War Caster feat, replace Eldritch Mind with Pact of the Tome or honestly any other invocation you prefer Bard X: Inspiring Leader at Bard 8 (or any other feat that gives CHA) to max out Charisma Spells: Mostly PYF but obviously Eldritch Blast, and I would recommend Armor of Agathys as well.
I was so excited for Dance Bard when it came out in the playtest, my first D&D character was a dancing bard and was so excited to finally have an official archetype. The grappling strats aren't all that encouraged at our table though, and the final product is... Well. I guess I'm back to re-flavoring Lore.
40:04 WAIT! Dance bards can make an unarmed strike as a part of inspiring movement since their level 3 feature says they can make an unarmed strike as a part of their reaction if they expend a bardic die in that reaction which we do in inspiring movement. I checked the linked math and the number of hits stayed at 2 while it should have been 3, due to the reaction attack! That means the damage should go up by at least 4 to 8 points!
Great video Colby! was dabbling with the idea of a grappling bard/monk but was really hating the redundancies of dazzling footwork + martial arts. The combo with cloud of daggers is something I haven't thought of and really makes me reconsider it
Not an optimized build, but a fun way to do a dance bard would be to use True Strike. Use like a dagger for a thrown weapon too or maybe a hand axe (that I would want to flavor as a chakram). You would have the AC and could use charisma for main attacks that scale without extra attack. And you could still use your dance attacks as needed with inspiration with dex. Can take that a one level monk dip too and still use bardic inspiration at times so you can inspire AND punch when needed to not lose out on that attack. Plus you would have monk weapons for at least a d6 on daggers or whatever. Alternatively maybe a different dip or a feat for Nick mastery for more attacks. But then you aren't using true strike. But a dancing flurry of blades with a dagger dagger kick, while inspiring and moving allies around sounds fun 😁
I would love to see a build that tries to use both the eldritch knights war magic and bladesinger/valor bard extra attack to fire two eldritch blasts with their action and another one with their bonus action! If tried to do some thinking myself, but I just couldn’t fit a way to get that including CME and agonizing Blast by lvl 17, as that would require Wiz 7, fighter 7, sorc 2, warlock 2 (Damn agonizing blast for having a lvl 2 requirement, otherwise eldritch adept would work)
So excited to see this breakdown! I had finally got to play in a game recently using 1DnD stuff and picked the Dance Bard for its fisticuffs and spells. My two favorite things. The bardic die as the scaling for the hands is cool but does feel a little weird when the demigod monk is technically not punch as hard as a bard. Far from a perfect class but if you had asked me to build my own classes based on all my favorite things I wouldve described the Dance Bard and the New Fey warlock teleporter so I am eatinnn For real need these in BG3 ASAP althought we are getting more subclasses officially which killed my series covering mods lol
Tandem Footwork I think might be the most slept on new ability/spell in the 2024 rules. Yes, Dance Bards seem like they want to be Melee but it's almost a misnomer. Adding anywhere from 3-5 to your entire Party's initiative every combat is low key bonkers. Add at least 1 person with the Alert origin feat, and you will be able to get your most important person to go first nearly every time. And that could turn entire campaign ending encounters into a cake walk. Such an amazing support feature on what is already arguably the best support class in the game
When we still had surprise rounds, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly. But with the weakening of surprise, it's really not enough to make a build purely around that when all of the other Bard subclasses offer more immediately.
Never said that was it. But that ability alone, even without surprise rounds, is still better most abilities any character of any class gets. In many fights, it’s gonna essentially mean your team gets one more turn than the opponent. Action economy is the single greatest resource you can almost ever have in most DnD games. Action Surge was considered by many to be the strongest single feature in the game and that only gave 1 character a single extra action. This will feel like more than that in most combats. Next time you role initiative at your table, write everyone’s down, then add an extra 4 or so to your entire team’s initiative, most of the time you will see a measurable change in the economy and that makes fights easier by itself. Its only problem is that it’s a “boring” feature. But I’ll take it over any single subclass feature the valor bard gets any day of the week and I don’t think it’s close 🤷🏻♂️. Cool, you can cast an extra cantrip every turn instead of a melee attack doing a whole extra 12 damage., I can make it so the wizard is able to end the fight with Wall of force. I can make sure my Barb goes early to engage the hard hitting monster. I allowed my rogue to go first so he could nuke the enemy mage in the back ranks.
i always feel inclined to take counterspell as magical secrets, specially if i can somehow grab sorcerer 2 for a "subtle" uncounterable counterspell and on our build also allows to quicken spells while not losing the attack action for a free grapple
Hi I think a sustained damage build that's about abusing draconic sorcerer's elemental affinity trying to trigger it as much as possible per turn would be pretty cool
I agree that Capoeira is an absolutely beautiful martial arts and it’s the first thing I thought of when they announced the dance bard, but have you seen the video of a capoeira fighter vs a marine? Super funny 😂
Ha ha - the way it works is YT has you add 3 thumbnails, then they randomly change what they show the viewer, and track which thumb gets the most clicks. Usually, after a day or so I'll pick the one that has the highest click through percentage and make it permanent :).
Built a Dance Bard for a political/party Infiltration one-shot, and I went looking for every spell without verbal components that I could find, because the idea of causing a bunch of chaos while doing a tap routine was fun. Also Common Sign Language as a language choice (spoke for the session for ease of play though, mind).
My player is about to play a lvl 20 dance bard for my Throne of Bloodstone campaign. They are using the 2014 DMG Gnoll for the fun of it. I can’t wait to see how the subclass plays.
How come not even an honorable mention of Spike Growth? 😀 I mean, with all of the movement shenanigans we are already doing, I was totally expecting it's going to come up 😀 Sure, it does not scale, but dragging the poor grappled soul along the edges sounds like a lot of fun for a level 2 spell slot 😅
Just started a new campaign with a Tabaxi Dance Bard and we were allowed to grab a magic item so naturally I went with the Dancing Rapier. I have *options* lol
37:02 I think the triple cloud of daggers is a bit cheeky. The feature says "when an enemy ends there turn" so I would guess the process of turn ending would be halted for the movement and its still their turn. At least the not the next person's turn, right?
I was waiting for the dance bard build! Amazing as usual 😊 Switching from cloud of daggers to wall of fire after magical secrets would increase the damage quite a lot right?🤔
It would take it from 20, on average, to 22.5, per application. So a little bump, yeah! It doesn't scale *quite* as nicely, but still - a *massive* area by comparison, that can potentially harm a lot more enemies. Good catch - I need to remember Wall of Fire and others like it now that everything is "when they enter and when they end their turn"...
Spike growth at bard 10 with magical secrets? With grappler feat allowing full movement while grappling it might be optimal in some cases to drag the target along the edge of that, and since no upcast it always costs a level 2 slot saving those higher slots for other grapple bard chicanery.
I dunno it feels to me like this subclass’ best feature is unarmed defense, and it’s useful only for a three level dip on a sorcerer build. Or perhaps on a pact of the blade build. This build seems interesting but far too convoluted for a build that has kinda mid dpr and not much else.
It’s so cool to see you building around the capoeira concept. I’m Brazilian and this fighting style is iconic here because it was created as a way to slaves gather around and practice in order to revolt from there “”owners””, without rising suspicion. So they came up with a martial school that looks like a dance. With is a perfect fit for the subclass.
Also, the history of capoeira on its on would be one of the greatest background ever for a character!
Você já assitiu aquele vídeo do cronosesfera sobre capoeira?
@@rafaelprudencio6096 assisti agora q tu falou, muito foda!!
Ah, my next character. A sweet-souled bouncer who travels the world, named Swayze. Also known by others as… The Dirty Dancer.
I feel you'll have the time of your life with that
Noone puts Bardy in the corner
Will he always tell people "I want you to be nice" ? 😂 Dude your comment made me laugh.
m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTU1MTE2Mjk2OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTUzNjYzNA@@._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg. I was thinking the wrong movie but same guy.
As a Brazilian that has researched quite a bit about Capoeira, let me suggest something different: Rogue Swashbuckler (I thought about this back on 5e).
Capoeiras (the name given to people who practice Capoeira) didn't only use their feet and hands to attack. Some of them used to hold razors in between their toes to slash people with their kicks. Some also tied ropes around razors or knives to be able to throw them with their hands and pull it back to them.
With that in mind, Swashbuckler fits perfectly. Capoeira is all about waiting for the right time to strike (what we would call "malícia"), so that's Sneak Attack and Swashbuckler's Rakish Audacity.
Capoeira fighters also don't stay put in one place, they move around a lot with their "dance", which we call "ginga" or "gingado", so that's Cunning Action to disengage and move or Swashbuckler's Fancy Footwork.
Capoeira came from the time of slavery in Brazil, and the fight was disguised as a dance so people could practice it without police suspecting, so that's the reason of your high Charisma as a Swashbuckler. Capoeiras also had to be charismatic to be able to recruit people for their cause of ending slavery, even against all odds.
For the razor between the toes, just reflavor a dagger or shortsword as it. If you want to be crazier, reflavor a crossbow as the knife tied to a rope.
Another thing that I find cool and interesting, is that back in the day, capoeiras used to wear some sort of scarf of satin around their necks, to protect it against other razors and flying knives, because it's really hard to cut satin with these things.
That's it, hope it sparked a desire to try something different!
This was so interesting to read, thanks for sharing! Love from italy
análise foda irmão, imediatamente fiquei inspirado pra colocar capoeira na minha campanha
Wouldn't mind seeing a swashbuckler/dancer multi-class!
this is so cool!! also could even put a thematic reason for the Cloud of Daggers spell with the razor blades and rope knives!!!
The deep belly laugh that I got out of the 10:33 "This is a dance bard build, we're not starting fighter! .... We're starting sorcerer..." was incredible, Thanks Colby!
EDIT: First!!!
3:13
"If you want to play a bard to buff your friends and debuff your allies"...
You bet I do, good sir
Dammit! If I had a nickle for every time...
Don't forget: The Dance Bard gets to do an unarmed attack as part of any action, bonus action, or _reaction_ that expends a Bardic Inspiration. This includes the reaction from Inspiring Movement, so you don't just get to add another instance of Cloud of Daggers damage whenever someone ends their turn next to you, you get to punch (and thus potentially grapple) again as well, for free!
Yep - I've added that in to the damage calculations.
24:07 Brazil mentioned 🥳🥳
But yeah, I instantly thought of making a "capoeirista" when I saw this subclass. It fits nicely, specially since music is pretty attached to that fighting style anyway
As a fan of the all blacks and Māori culture in general… I made mine a hooligan, whose dancing and bardic inspiration are Haka war dances
DM: The orc Captain stands before you, glowering.
DB: I want to intimidate him
DM: Okay, how do you do that?
DB: I look at the orc captain and say, "You want to battle," then I bust some badass dance moves.
Breakdance Battle FTW!
Star Lord vs Ronan at the end of Guardians 1!
So I realized Star Lord (Peter Quill) from Guardians of the Galaxy is a Collage of Dance Bard. He specifically dances and plays music to inspire himself and his companions in combat specifically effecting their movement, has a high charisma, and uses some unarmed combat. I suppose Colby mentioned footloose which Peter references as a personal inspiration. I would say if you want to build a Star Lord inspired build in D&D a college of Dance bard is the way to go.
I always figured he was a Warlock.
Hold me closer, Tony Danza
This is correct.
I thought it was "Hold me close, young Tony Danza?" Like Taxi or early Who's the Boss Danza.
I love the idea of mind slivering to make them fail a grapple. I'm reminded of the Jungle book with the snake hypnotizing then constricting.
The not-so tiny dancer.
The breathing edits in the bloopers get me every time.
I love that you still use the cute swarm that attacks you whenever you even dare to mention silvery barbs
you also missed that inspiring footwork also lets you punch that enemy so you can drag them out, give them a face slap and drag them back in which seems so fun
i wish i could convince my dm to play dance bard in his games (he doesnt use 2024 rules)
@@finalfantasy50 I actually put it in the numbers but didn’t really discuss it :)
a video about bards, released right on my birthday? hell yeah
Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday!
Happy Bardthday
I just stumbled upon your channel in the last few weeks through the dungeon dudes, and I just want to say that that I love this channel. Thank you for making these videos!
Yay! Thanks and welcome :)
What I love about this chanel. Greatly put together. Time stamps. Links to video that are mentioned.
Even if it's not the strongest, College of Dance feels like it'll be so fun to play. But if there's anyone I trust to make it strong, it's Colby. I'll definitely be taking notes on this one!
Dammit UA-cam give this man some more cards!!!
Ashardalon's Stride is the perfect choice for the Dancer Bard (that picks wizard). Like the other spells you mentioned , the off turn movement just synergies so well with it. Plus, unlike the others, A.S. Has always worked like that, so it feels less cheesy. So at bard 10, Ashardalon's Stride and Wall of Force are easily my go toos
Less cheesy, but really not particularly strong. It's just so little damage per turn at the cost of your concentration.
@piranhaplantX don't get me wrong, won't put up same numbers as Spirit Guardians (does about 7 less damage on average, and a much smaller AoE), but I think it's rider effect is better for a Dancer as, Dancers/Bards are not tanks. So you don't want a bunch of enemies surrounding you. So the extra movement+no opportunity attacks, lets the Dancer whip around the battlefield and escape a bind; this is especially true and combos nicely with the level 6 feature.
"A dead Dance Bard does zero dancing" someone forgot about the Monster Mash
@voodoophil Wow, I think you just gave everyone who likes playing Necromancers a very creepy way to interact with the Dance Bard and/or a secret campaign goal to cast Animate Dead on said Bard's corpse.
Then again, it might be more fun for the Dance Bard to pull Animate Dead for one of their Magical Secrets to show the Necromancer how Thriller is properly done.
It feels like a lot of your builds go really well and often surprise you. Statistically that can't happen ALL the time. I would be interested to get a single video where you talk about the "cutting room floor", discussing builds you started working on and abandoned, with the reason they didn't make it.
It could be interesting but he gave a hint in this video. Pick an overpowered feature to build around. Go get a variety of the typically powerful features that fit with the one thing which inspired the build and a failed design is unlikely.
This brings to mind Fabien seacaster 💚 spring break, I believe in you 🤣
I JUST started watching Fantasy High, but now I'm INCREDIBLY interested to see where, specifically, this comes into play! 😂
@robbieabel9053 you are in for such a treat my friend, enjoy the ride! 😁
Thank you for your videos! You’ve inspired me to make some off-brand builds with your dual-wielding Paladin build. I started mine as a Charlatan. I’ve made a Farmer Halfling Barbarian, a Forest Gnome Sailor Elemental Monk, a Black Dragonborn Guard Thief Rogue, a Dwarven Scribe Gloomstalker Ranger, and a Hermit Orc Draconic Sorcerer. True, the background feats I chose aren’t always the best, but I chose them for the storytelling aspects.
That movement ability would make for a really cool team up build with a Cleric using Spirit Guardians or a Wizard using Yolande’s Regal Presence or such. Call it Two to Tango or in honor of Wicked: Dancing through Life.
Time to give a whole new meaning to dance dance revolution
Colby, technically Lore Bard should be an AMAZING grappler! So long as they manage to stop the initial saving throw, any successful Athletics or Acrobatics check to escape can be stopped with Cutting Words!
Furthermore, you get the magical secrets at lvl 6... it could be a basis for a really interesting build as well!
@@ynedd the challenge would be having a good strength score AND charisma in order to use cutting words frequently as you need. Still probably want a monk dip so you can grapple with Dex instead.
@@DnDDeepDive Oh for sure! You know, I'm accepting this challenge. Check back in a few days and I'll update here with a build for it!
@@DnDDeepDive So Colby, I've "stolen" a bunch of your ideas from past videos, but this has somehow become the highest damage build I've ever come up with!
Race: Thri-Keen
Background: Go for an older one, grab "tough" origin feat and pick up a +2 in strength and a +1 in charisma.
Ability Scores: 15 Strength, 13 Dex, 12 Con, 8 Int, 8 Wis, 15 Charisma
Class and levels:
First level:
Sorcerer (con save proficiency, mind sliver, blade ward).
In the early levels, it will be nice to have blade ward as protection!
Pick your exact level progression as you like, but the end division of levels will be:
1 Sorcerer
7 Bard (Lore)
12 Paladin (Oathbreaker)
Fighting Style: Two Weapon Fighting
Masteries: Scimitar + PYF
ASI:
First: grappler feat (Strength)
Second: dual wielder (Strength)
Third: Strength & Dexterity
Fourth: Charisma & Charisma
Equipment:
Half-plate, shield (big arm), scimitar (small arm), short sword (small arm).
Once you reach bard 6, pick up shillelagh cantrip through magical discoveries and switch out your offhand for a club. You'll be upcasting "spirit shroud" to the highest level you're able to and concentrating on it, hence the con save proficiency. After your last ASI, you'll be adding a +9 ability modifier to every damage roll. You'll be upcasting spirit shroud at 7th level for 3d8 to every weapon attack. You'll have blessed strikes, another 1d8 bonus for every attack. You attacks will look like this:
Spells running: shillelagh, divine favor ( 2024, no concentration), Spirit Shroud. (divine favor isn't critical, just a nice damage bump)
1. 4d8+1d6+1d4+9
2. 4d8+2d6+1d4+9
3. 4d8+2d6+1d4+9
4. 4d8+2d6+1d4+9
You can use innate sorcery and then cast mind sliver for a nice boost in save DC and reduction in later saving throw to set up a grapple. Mind sliver will force a reduction in their next saving throw, to prevent your grapple. On your next turn, your first attack will be an unarmed strike to grapple them. If they fail the save, you can now keep them grappled really easily. Anytime they make a successful athletics or acrobatics check, you can take a reaction, expend one of your bardic inspirations, and have them subtract it. By bard 5, your inspiration die is a d8. If you run low on inspiration, you can expend a spell slot, no action required, to restore one.
While you have someone grappled, just attack them as often as possible. Don't bother with smite, spirit shroud is giving you lots of damage dice together with your blessed strikes! You're better off saving spell slots to convert those into bardic inspiration if you can't take a short rest restore inspiration dice!
On a 10 AC enemy, you'll be doing 152.5 DPR on average!
On an 18 AC enemy, you'll be doing 140.1 DPR on average!
You'll obviously only have one 7th level spell slot, so this is your "hardest fight of the day" DPR. For up to 3 more fights you can rock the following DPR with 5th and 6th level spell slots:
10 AC: 133.1 DPR
18 AC: 121.9 DPR
You could also achieve something awesome just picking up Eldritch blast, agonizing blast, and Jim's Magic Missile or Scorching Ray, but I've been working with Martial Characters a lot in the past few months, so I wanted to see what would come of a melee fighting build. Very happy with how it came out! If I could change one thing, I'd find a way to boost con saves more! Although if you force the enemy prone before grappling them, they'll already have disadvantage on attacks against your 17+ AC, so hopefully you'll be fine.
I haven't chosen a full spell list, but this is a good start: www.dndbeyond.com/characters/137714431
I just noticed Shadow Blade would also be an option... a good one at that... So many choices! In all honesty, I still like spirit shroud better though!
Cheers!
Leading Evasion was moved from 6 to 14 because everyone complained that it was way too good to be level 6.
People didn't like that they got a better version of a monk abikity a level earlier than monks.
@@sjhsoccerthat also gave it to the rest of the party
I didn't disagree, but I was ok with it level 6 because it's a subclass feature.
Inspiring Movement being moved to level 6, on the other hand, I am a bit salty about. I really liked the idea of having a low-level, reliable reaction attack.
Just by reading "Capoeira" in the thumbnail I already knew it was Dance Bard, for any non-Brazilian fan, capoeira is a mix of martial art, dance and music, it was how slaves fought against the colonizers and we used dance and music as a way for the slave owners not to see that we were training a martial art.
Although nowadays it is not as effective in self-defense as Brazilian jiu-jitsu and is not good in closed spaces, it was very effective against Portuguese soldiers and would require more than one dragão (basically an elite troop) to capture a single capoeirista.
BJJ guy here, I think BJJ is more popular - but I wouldn’t say it’s more effective. BJJ has no striking techniques; no kicks, no punches, no clinching.
By that standard alone I’d say capoeira is more effective. There is a huge problem in BJJ where practitioners feel BJJ is “more effective”, and are under the false belief they are fighters.
Do I prefer BJJ? Of course. I’ve done it for close to 10 years. Have I come to the realization that there are flaws in it that can be supplemented by other arts, that is true as well.
I almost want to skip to the end to see the outtakes are just you singing Elton John for 7 minutes straight
9:38 love the fam showing up.
16:00 more fam!
I mean, it's not 7 minutes... but...
Capoeira is the perfect martial art for a dance bard
Have you considered doing a build around the new armour of agathys seeing as now you can replace the temp hp and there are new ways of getting more temp hp?
I’ve been playing a dancer bard for 2 months now in adventurer’s league and I’ve really enjoyed it, ended the year at level 11. Our regular DM ALWAYS rolls low for his NPCs and monsters so while it does sorta suck to use my limited inspirations on it, I used Tandem Footwork at least once a session, speeding up boss fights quite a bit as it pretty much guaranteed that the party went first. I took the new entertainer background meaning I could give out free heroic inspirations once a session. My stat array was 18 charisma, 16 dex, 14 con and wisdom, 10 intelligence and 7 strength, + 2 charisma for 20 with entertainer + 1 dex with entertainer for 17. I had an amulet of health bringing my con to 19, a + 3 rhythm maker’s drum for 20 DC and + 12 spell attack by the end and bracers of defence meaning that once I also maxed out my dex my AC was 22. I took expertise in stealth, sleight of hand, acrobatics and performance and I was a Halfling (2024) which meant I could use other people as human shields.
This whole video I have been waiting for you singing at the end. Although I had hoped it would be "Tony Danza", but one can dream. :)
Forcing my enemy’s head into a metal thresher isn’t what I picture when I think of a dance bard.
I was hoping this would be a small race to really live up to the Tiny Dancer joke.
Thanks Colby! ❤
I think the best way to help/fix the College of Dance Bard is to make Agile Strikes read like this:
When you expend a use of your Bardic Inspiration or cast an Abjuration or Enhancement spell as part of an action, a Bonus Action, or a Reaction, you can make one Unarmed Strike as part of that action, Bonus Action, or Reaction.
Love your vids as always!
As an austrian I must admit that I've never seen Sound of Music - and I guess 90% of all Austrians haven't either 😂
🎵We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance
And if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine 🎶
Simulacrum is also a solid pick once you reach bard 13 or higher.
Having a dance partner that’s also you is strong and fun.
Understandable not using it; it can be a somewhat problematic spell.
Every time I’ve used it on a build, I always note how the build performs without it, but it can function as a 2x multiplier in the best cases.
It's a true shame the Dance Bard doesn't have Extra Attack. Somthing akin to the Valor Bard extra attack would have made the Dance Bard stand out and be a lot more appealing. Alas, Multiclassing exists atleast.
There is one little thing that lets you get an extra punch with your reaction as a dance bard. College of Dance's 3rd and 6th level interact because since you spend bardic die as a reaction you can also punch in that same reaction. If only you could sneak attack with a punch for crazy rogue milticlasses
Havent watched it all yet,but i think you forgot a key thing about how dance bards 6th level feature interacts with their 3rd. Because you're spending a bardic inspiration die, you get to make an attack as part of that reaction as well
41:18
"I cast Hold Monster, with my tiny dancer"
In the tune of the song.
If we don’t get to see Colby’s dance moves this episode im starting a riot
Seems STRONG to me. Excited to see what you do with it!
Back in Pathfinder 1e there is a "battle dancer bard" the Dervish of Dawn
He don't buff the team, but have the double power only for him using the "Battle Dance" (Bardic Inspiration) and lvl 6 have a free Haste Spell when dance, so is a good melee Fighter
Grappling, damage dealing dancer? That is a terrifying tango
16:01 was so cute!
Looks like a fun build!
I will say that while I'm not a part of the silvery barbs mob, I am a part of the silvery-barbs-mob mob. I normally listen to the podcast and the clip you use for it sounds awful when channeled directly through my headphones. Maybe its better with the video though! And I do appreciate all the interesting builds you put out.
I'm going to make a vampire based on this build that charms people into dancing the Salsa with him and while they're dancing a giant whirlwind of roses fills the air (cloud of daggers that the vampire is immune to) to escape the dance you can either make the wisdom save at the start of your turn or you can make a contested performance check against him and if you win, you take over the dance, grappling him in return amd becoming immune to the CoD while he stops being immune.
A character concept I’ve had in mind is a dance bard with a level 1 paladin dip for better single target damage from smites, divine favor, and shield of faith. Taking grappler feat and being focusing on athleticism etc abilities rather than just being able to seduce the dragon makes it seem like a really fun build for being a freak athlete performer or martial artist.
You gotta go 3 pally at some point for Oath of Glory
@ after looking at the subclass features at level 3, I agree that the peerless athlete feature is both great for flavor and function, but I think it would have to wait till at least 6 levels in bard. Definitely worth considering though!
Cool to finally see your take on the Dance Bard! When I was thinking for a build with this subclass, I ended up taking 4 levels in Warlock (2 levels would be enough but I wanted a subclass for some free misty step) mainly for Eldritch Blast and picking up the Spell Sniper feat to flavour it as magically empowered punches, giving the whole build a very spell-casting Monk feel. It would be less reliant on a concentration spell for damage so it'd be easier to use come classic bard control spells and dish out inspiration for your allies, though I haven't done any damage calculations for this build. I'm still not entirely sure about this build and if it wouldn't be better to actually go Monk and maybe multiclass into a WIS caster if you really want some magic, though. But I do really love the flavour of a dancing combatant coupled with good charisma skills.
The build:
Wood Elf (extra spells without overlap from Warlock subclass), Entertainer background, 15+1 DEX, 14 CON, 15+2 CHA, 10 WIS
Bard 1
Warlock 2: Agonising blast, Eldritch Mind, Lessons of the First Ones taking Alert
Bard 4: Dance subclass, Spell Sniper
Warlock 4: Archefey subclass, War Caster feat, replace Eldritch Mind with Pact of the Tome or honestly any other invocation you prefer
Bard X: Inspiring Leader at Bard 8 (or any other feat that gives CHA) to max out Charisma
Spells: Mostly PYF but obviously Eldritch Blast, and I would recommend Armor of Agathys as well.
I was so excited for Dance Bard when it came out in the playtest, my first D&D character was a dancing bard and was so excited to finally have an official archetype. The grappling strats aren't all that encouraged at our table though, and the final product is... Well. I guess I'm back to re-flavoring Lore.
The backstory you made for this one... With some tweaking you could totally make this Raz from Psychonauts
40:04 WAIT! Dance bards can make an unarmed strike as a part of inspiring movement since their level 3 feature says they can make an unarmed strike as a part of their reaction if they expend a bardic die in that reaction which we do in inspiring movement. I checked the linked math and the number of hits stayed at 2 while it should have been 3, due to the reaction attack! That means the damage should go up by at least 4 to 8 points!
Colby: If your reason to play a bard is to buff your friends and debuff your allies... Sounds legit! 3:11
Thank you for sharing your high school picture! Musical theatre Colby 😌
Edit: Watch the outtakes! Hilarious! 🤣
34:11 A rare spicy Colby appears! 😮
Great video Colby! was dabbling with the idea of a grappling bard/monk but was really hating the redundancies of dazzling footwork + martial arts. The combo with cloud of daggers is something I haven't thought of and really makes me reconsider it
20:56 there’s no costume as flashy as the one I was born with!
The Kevin Baconator dance bard; "Everybody cut Footloose!"
Not an optimized build, but a fun way to do a dance bard would be to use True Strike. Use like a dagger for a thrown weapon too or maybe a hand axe (that I would want to flavor as a chakram). You would have the AC and could use charisma for main attacks that scale without extra attack. And you could still use your dance attacks as needed with inspiration with dex.
Can take that a one level monk dip too and still use bardic inspiration at times so you can inspire AND punch when needed to not lose out on that attack. Plus you would have monk weapons for at least a d6 on daggers or whatever.
Alternatively maybe a different dip or a feat for Nick mastery for more attacks. But then you aren't using true strike. But a dancing flurry of blades with a dagger dagger kick, while inspiring and moving allies around sounds fun 😁
You mentioned Brazil i'll automatically subscribe 🇧🇷🥳
great video (as usual). thank you!
I would love to see a build that tries to use both the eldritch knights war magic and bladesinger/valor bard extra attack to fire two eldritch blasts with their action and another one with their bonus action!
If tried to do some thinking myself, but I just couldn’t fit a way to get that including CME and agonizing Blast by lvl 17, as that would require Wiz 7, fighter 7, sorc 2, warlock 2
(Damn agonizing blast for having a lvl 2 requirement, otherwise eldritch adept would work)
8:54 OMG I played Friedrich in high school too haha
The Dance Bard: D&D Ep #194
Level 01 (see above) [sorcerer 1, species & background]
Return of the Silvery Barbarian Mob (@16:04)
Level 02 (see above) [bard 1]
Level 03 (@18:51) [bard 2 & expertise]
Level 04 (@19:24) [bard 3 & subclass]
Level 05 (@23:03) [monk 1]
Level 06 (@25:38) [bard 4 & feat]
Level 07 (see above) [bard 5]
Level 08 (@35:26) [bard 6]
Level 09 (@38:11) [bard 7]
Level 10 (see above) [bard 8 & feat]
Level 11 (@40:58) [bard 9 & expertise]
Level 12 (@41:55) [bard 10 & magical secrets]
Level 13 (@44:53) [bard 11]
Level 14 (see above) [bard 12 & feat]
Level 15 (@49:15) [bard 13]
Level 16 (@49:53) [bard 14]
Level 17 (@50:36) [bard 15]
2:04 still working on my homebrew for the alchemist and artificer in general, I'm really happy with how it's turning out so far!
Love the “breath cuts”. Next one should use them to play a song.
I was so hyped about the dance bard... but it's just another grappling build....
So excited to see this breakdown! I had finally got to play in a game recently using 1DnD stuff and picked the Dance Bard for its fisticuffs and spells. My two favorite things.
The bardic die as the scaling for the hands is cool but does feel a little weird when the demigod monk is technically not punch as hard as a bard.
Far from a perfect class but if you had asked me to build my own classes based on all my favorite things I wouldve described the Dance Bard and the New Fey warlock teleporter so I am eatinnn
For real need these in BG3 ASAP althought we are getting more subclasses officially which killed my series covering mods lol
It is the time in Sprockets when we dance!
Tandem Footwork I think might be the most slept on new ability/spell in the 2024 rules. Yes, Dance Bards seem like they want to be Melee but it's almost a misnomer. Adding anywhere from 3-5 to your entire Party's initiative every combat is low key bonkers. Add at least 1 person with the Alert origin feat, and you will be able to get your most important person to go first nearly every time. And that could turn entire campaign ending encounters into a cake walk. Such an amazing support feature on what is already arguably the best support class in the game
When we still had surprise rounds, I'd agree with you wholeheartedly. But with the weakening of surprise, it's really not enough to make a build purely around that when all of the other Bard subclasses offer more immediately.
Never said that was it. But that ability alone, even without surprise rounds, is still better most abilities any character of any class gets. In many fights, it’s gonna essentially mean your team gets one more turn than the opponent. Action economy is the single greatest resource you can almost ever have in most DnD games. Action Surge was considered by many to be the strongest single feature in the game and that only gave 1 character a single extra action. This will feel like more than that in most combats. Next time you role initiative at your table, write everyone’s down, then add an extra 4 or so to your entire team’s initiative, most of the time you will see a measurable change in the economy and that makes fights easier by itself. Its only problem is that it’s a “boring” feature. But I’ll take it over any single subclass feature the valor bard gets any day of the week and I don’t think it’s close 🤷🏻♂️. Cool, you can cast an extra cantrip every turn instead of a melee attack doing a whole extra 12 damage., I can make it so the wizard is able to end the fight with Wall of force. I can make sure my Barb goes early to engage the hard hitting monster. I allowed my rogue to go first so he could nuke the enemy mage in the back ranks.
Came for the build, stayed for the Christmas Tree chopping.
i always feel inclined to take counterspell as magical secrets, specially if i can somehow grab sorcerer 2 for a "subtle" uncounterable counterspell and on our build also allows to quicken spells while not losing the attack action for a free grapple
Hi I think a sustained damage build that's about abusing draconic sorcerer's elemental affinity trying to trigger it as much as possible per turn would be pretty cool
For inspiration also check out Dimension 20s Fantasy High "Fabian Seacaster", who dabbles in Dance Barding, even before it was in the rules :)
If you've always dreamed of playing Richard Simmons in d&d, congratulations this is your subclass
Love the gasp compilation
I agree that Capoeira is an absolutely beautiful martial arts and it’s the first thing I thought of when they announced the dance bard, but have you seen the video of a capoeira fighter vs a marine? Super funny 😂
A colby build video on my bday? Nice present :3
Woah, two birthdays in the comments!? Happy birthday!
Take a shot every time Colby changes the thumbnail, and you’ll wake up by the time his next video drops lol
Ha ha - the way it works is YT has you add 3 thumbnails, then they randomly change what they show the viewer, and track which thumb gets the most clicks. Usually, after a day or so I'll pick the one that has the highest click through percentage and make it permanent :).
the mob! loved all the cameos this video :)
A Dancing Grappler. Welcome to the Involuntary Tango!
Built a Dance Bard for a political/party Infiltration one-shot, and I went looking for every spell without verbal components that I could find, because the idea of causing a bunch of chaos while doing a tap routine was fun. Also Common Sign Language as a language choice (spoke for the session for ease of play though, mind).
My player is about to play a lvl 20 dance bard for my Throne of Bloodstone campaign. They are using the 2014 DMG Gnoll for the fun of it. I can’t wait to see how the subclass plays.
How come not even an honorable mention of Spike Growth? 😀
I mean, with all of the movement shenanigans we are already doing, I was totally expecting it's going to come up 😀
Sure, it does not scale, but dragging the poor grappled soul along the edges sounds like a lot of fun for a level 2 spell slot 😅
Magic Mike in D&D? Why not😂
Thanks Colby
Just started a new campaign with a Tabaxi Dance Bard and we were allowed to grab a magic item so naturally I went with the Dancing Rapier. I have *options* lol
Called it! Cloud of daggers.
thank you not only for the build guides throughout the years but also for helping me find my girlfriend a christmas gift today xD
The Dance Bard should totally get extra attack. Maybe make it unarmed only for the second attack but still they just feel like they should have it.
37:02 I think the triple cloud of daggers is a bit cheeky. The feature says "when an enemy ends there turn" so I would guess the process of turn ending would be halted for the movement and its still their turn. At least the not the next person's turn, right?
I was waiting for the dance bard build! Amazing as usual 😊 Switching from cloud of daggers to wall of fire after magical secrets would increase the damage quite a lot right?🤔
It would take it from 20, on average, to 22.5, per application. So a little bump, yeah! It doesn't scale *quite* as nicely, but still - a *massive* area by comparison, that can potentially harm a lot more enemies. Good catch - I need to remember Wall of Fire and others like it now that everything is "when they enter and when they end their turn"...
I love this man 🥰
Spike growth at bard 10 with magical secrets? With grappler feat allowing full movement while grappling it might be optimal in some cases to drag the target along the edge of that, and since no upcast it always costs a level 2 slot saving those higher slots for other grapple bard chicanery.
This is how you get your PhD in dance. 😉
And by the way: The Illrigger gets CON and CHA save proficiency, if that helps.
I dunno it feels to me like this subclass’ best feature is unarmed defense, and it’s useful only for a three level dip on a sorcerer build. Or perhaps on a pact of the blade build.
This build seems interesting but far too convoluted for a build that has kinda mid dpr and not much else.