3 levels of Rogue, Arcane Trickster then go into Bard, College of Swords. You want spells? You got spells. You want a second attack? You got a second attack. Tons of uses for your inspiration and bonus action
Warlock is always an S tier. And here's why. It honestly doesn't matter which Warlock you go into, if you're going to pick up 2 levels of warlock you're going to get some nice features. "Warlock does nothing for our defenses unless you go Hexblade." Incorrect. We have Invocations! Armor of shadow gives us Mage Armor which isn't the best defensive ability but it is a defensive ability added. We also could take Eldritch Mind which gives us Advantage on constitution saving throws to maintain concentration which is a defensive ability. Both of these are available with 2 levels of a dip. Armor of shadow is mediocre but Eldritch mind is premium. Specific subclasses do have some defensive abilities. Genie pact gives you a magic bottle that's basically like a bag of holding you can enter as an action. Although you'll never gain full use of it as a bard you could concentrate on a spell, enter the bottle and maintain full awareness of a battlefield while an ally carries you. We've actually had a player in the game which used that to their advantage. There is also some spells on your spell list which do give some bonuses which are worth while. I won't deny Hexblade is the best but Armor of Agathys is still a pretty strong spell for a bit of extra bulk. You also can fill your action economy with Hellish rebuke although I'd say that's not a great spell but it is fun. Warlock does more than that though. We have to think about how it aids with control. Repelling blast and the Tentacle of the Deep from Fathomless can control movement. Which is valuable. Movement control can be vital for party synergy... Maybe I think of these a bit different. I also think you were a bit too harsh on cleric. I would say Twilight isn't even the best choice. But that strongly depends on your style. Peace domain is the one I'd say is the best. Emboldening bond is almost a concentration-less Bless. Not quite as good as bless but lasts 10 minutes which is gravy. Their channel divinity is also absolutely nuts. Get free movement that doesn't provoke opportunity attacks and pick up multiple allies that are downed without using something like mass healing word? Very strong. There are some other nice features other subclasses do give, like Order Domain which can allow you to give allies a reaction attack but others aren't that great for putting more than 1 level into it. Still Cleric is better than you're giving it credit for. Not B tier... Still probably C tier because it is mad. I would never put more than 13 or 14 in wisdom if I'm dipping Cleric. Although a Peace Bard does sound super fun.
The deadliest multiclass I ever came up with was a college of whispers bard that had the sharpshooter feat, take a few levels in rogue and pick assassin as your rogue subclass. Yeah, that bard became the biggest threat the gm pit his encounters against. Because he could go into stealth, ignore most cover, and deal a crazy amount of burst damage with his crossbow ( To put it in perspective his light crossbow did more damage than a fireball spell due to all the damage I stacked onto it with psychic blades, sneak attack, and the sharpshooter feat.) The only weakness is they have low ac so if enemies manage to close the distance you are gonna have a rough time. I hung onto a few control spells like sleep to knock out swarms of enemies that got too close and focused all my damage on boss encounters with a lot of health using my crossbow. At one point he almost singlehandedly killed an entire pirate crew. Everyone on that ship was dead after they failed to pay the piper.
Rouge assassin with 3-5 level whisper bard… = spells and expertise to make infiltration easy and ad extra damage from inspiration dices ( 2d6 or 3d6 / 4 / 6 on Critical roles ) If 5 levels reset on a shot rest.
it's very nice to know my bard sorcerer was a good idea I made it before watching the video we're starting lvl 3 and there's another bard in the group so i saw no issue multiclassing this early
Bard-Cleric works pretty well. Both full casters so no loss in slot progression. Tasha's minimized the benefit by granting some cleric spells to the bard, but it only adds one necessary ability score. Significantly better than either barbarian or artificer mixes.
Hello Sage!!! 👋😄 Thank you soooo much for making this video. I'm about to start playing Baldur's Gate 3, and I'm playing as a bard. (No surprise there) Your channel Treasure Trove of incredible information. I hope you have been well, my friend. 🥰
You mentioned getting saving throw proficiencies from multiclassing. We don't get save proficiencies from multiclassing sadly. EDIT: Sage was referring to starting level 1 in the dip class, edited for my mistake. I'm planning to go Eloquence 18 / Clockwork 2 and take Metamagic Adept. Clockwork adds some spells known and Restore Balance. I think a lot of people sleep on Restore Balance because they think about it in combat. I want to use it for skill/ability checks outside of combat. Metamagic Adept for Heightened and Subtle spells. My table is strict about spell components. Casting spells in public is risky because people will see/hear you casting and potentially turn hostile.
If I mentioned saving throws it means I’m considering going into the dip first. Sorcerer at 1 for example to get con saves. Out of the big 3 (Dex, Con, wis) our choice is between con and dex most often. I usually choose con because concentration saves are so valuable and we can somewhat buffer our dex saves with absorb elements. Your table and character sound like a lot of fun! Cheers mate.
I agree with the Paladin/Bard multiclass, but I took Paladin to 6 before going Bard the rest of the way. Paladin of Redemption/Bard of Eloquence is a ridiculous combo. I'm the best at persuasion/deception by far. I love the build. 😎
Bard warlock should be S tier, lore bard with dao genie with changeling for the race basically breaks the game when it comes to combat support, utilities, and in town rpg dialogue play.
@@willliftsweights9870 a defensive build made for support and utility. A one handed instrument like jingles, a shield with shield master proficiency, and Eldridge blast for offense. A ring as my genie lamp, that way I can touch the ring with my finger and the whole group teleports inside the ring, which a flying familiar can carry and travel long distance while hp and AC buffed and invisible, making group travel very trivial and safe. High cha, high con. Heavy persuasion/seduction/manipulation for RP dialogue in town, being a changeling helps that immensely.
I have to disagree with you in the part that the fighter multiclass doesn't give any ofensive improvements, at level two you get Action Surge which can make you able to cast 2 leveled spells and 2 cantrips in one turn, which is crazy strong in combat either for double damage output or for extra support. I would personally give that multiclass an A rating just below the rogue
Don't the rules especify that you can only cast one leveled spell per turn? Although even if i'm correct. You can still cast one leveled spell and three cantrips so it's still pretty strong.
@@emanuelseibert3790 You can only use a leveled spell per turn, but the action surge doesn't give you an extra action an bonus action, it gives you an extra turn. So you can use a leveled spell in each turn.
@@jetsteamgray In the ability description it says "On your turn, you can take one aditional action". So it's still the same turn. So three cantrips, and one leveled spell. Unless your DM rules it differently, which could be cool
Very confused as to how we got to 3 cantrips. On an action surge turn we get 2 actions and a bonus action. Let's assume we use our bonus action to cast a levelled spell that leaves our 2 actions open for cantrips... where does the third cantrip come from?
Great video! Thank you for this and I agree with it entirely. Fun thought exercise. What is the most powerful character one can build in D&D 5E? Right now I'm on a Turtle. Prioritize Cha and Con. Start Paladin. Go 2 levels. This gives you Smite and a fighting style. Choose Defensive. This gives you a starting ac of 19 that goes up to 20 at 2nd level. 3rd level go Hexblade Warlock. This allows you to use Cha for attacks and damage rolls. No longer needing to use that weak strength from the start. Hexblade curse is also powerful as a healing effect and the extra damage isn't bad. This level dip also gives you Shield. You can now raise your ac to 25! Not bad for a level 3 character that dumped Dex. Level 4 is where it get complicated. I haven't crunched the numbers, but you either go Hexblade level 2 or start your Bard levels. Bard doesn't give you much until you level it up, as you know, but is very powerful mid and late game. I like the idea of going Bard from 4th level to level 8. Take Valor Bard. With this option you can use Defensive flourish when in danger and combined with the Shield spell to boost your AC up to 31. Also you can take the Dueling fighting style for an extra 2 damage per hit. At this point you are Smiting for extra damage. Using your Bard spells to control the battlefield and being really hard to hit. Occasionally gaining a bit of life on a kill too. At level 9 you take Warlock 2. We had to wait for this because the Invocations we wanted come online at level 9. The 2 to pick up here are Ascendant Step and Minions of Chaos. With Ascendant Step we can cast Levitate on ourselves at will and doesn't use a spell slot. This effectively gives us a flight speed for the rest of the game. Minions allows us to use 1 warlock spell slot to create an Elemental. Only once per short rest. When you factor in your flying, high con, high AC you should rarely lose concentration. You also pick up an extra casting of Shield, but you'll probably use that slot at least rest interval to throw a powerful elemental at the enemy. The rest of your levels go into Bard. This maximizes your Smite potential, gives you extra attack, while also increasing your flourishes to a d10. Allowing you to have an AC of 35.
Gee, bards multiclass well with other CHA-based caster classes. Who'd'a thunk it? 😜🤣😉 I do love the idea of a two-level Hexblade dip for bards ... or *ANY* warlock subclass if you're going to go with either Valor or Swords ⚔️ bard. But Hexblade is probably best in any case because ... Shield.
Cleric and Artificer should be A, dipping on casters is all about defense. Just getting medium armor/shields and Wis or Con saves is worth it because you don’t have to take moderately armoured later. Dipping is also the only way for bard to get prof in Wis and Con saves (with resilient). Cleric and Artificer gives you the same benefits for dipping as a fighter and you retain your spell slot progression. That said, Hexblade 1-2 Bard X is still the best bard build imo
Hard disagree with the Cleric spot, Peace Cleric 1 is probably one of the strongest Bard multiclass options and its not that hard to fit the 13 Wisdom imho. It's not S, but is an A tier atleast
Interesting. I respect having different opinions and if that’s where we want to leave it we can. I’m analyzing it and I’m just simply not coming to the same conclusion though. Would you mind educating me? I’ll list my thoughts: 1: For a class that primarily wants dex, con, and Chr, the 13 wisdom is not cheap. Look at point buy. Your sacrificing multiple modifiers. What would be your best stat array? 2: Peace 1’s offensive contribution is sacred flame, guiding bolt, and toll the dead. I would consider this a moderate improvement compared to EB, FireBolt, and in some cases the longbow. 3: defensive contribution primarily includes medium armor, shields, and wisdom saves. Not bad but nothing crazy. 4: the strongest contribution is the feature. Concentrationless bless prof bone times /day. 5: further cost is delaying your spell levels 1 level. When I weigh the pros and cons I’m not getting a bad build, but it’s not great. Around B or C tier for me. I would say the twilight build is significantly stronger but remains in B. Final thoughts: even if a single subclass stands out (as with hex blade) I’m still doing a general rating first then making exceptions. So all these cons stay but many pros leave when we look at say, the nature domain cleric. Those are my thoughts but I’m certainly no pillar. What are your thoughts? Edit: didn’t account for shields. Corrected.
@@DnD_Daily will answer your points carefully asap, but you have some pretty good points too. I don't think Cleric is better than Sorc, Pally or Warlock btw, but i think is in the same ballpark as the next best thing.
@@DnD_Daily Ok, let’s take a look at what every Cleric gives you as a Bard. Then I will address your points one by one. First - Medium Armor and Shields proficiency, which is a big deal for Bard, not the best class to pick this up from though. Second - Wisdom saving throw proficiency, arguably better than Dexterity saves. Third - The Cleric spell list has some very nice support options, some that even save you preparations as a Bard, for example: Guidance; arguably the best cantrip in the game. Healing Word; doesn't really care for your spell casting ability. Bless; decent option for upcast with your extra spell slot of a higher level until you get Aid as a Bard. Shield of Faith; not as good as Bless most of the time but a decent concentration spell none the less. You can also change your preparations every day. Fourth - Subclass, the standouts are: Peace - Life - Order - Twilight - Forge (Not in any particular order). And some niche ones: Arcana - Knowledge. Peace - I don't think i need to sell you on Emboldening Bond, this is simply bonkers. Life - Disciple of Life makes you a pretty mean healer as a Bard. Order - Voice of Authority makes your buffing even more potent, especially if you have a Rogue in your party. Twilight - Advantage on initiative is the best thing about this one, unless you want to spend 2 levels which i don't think is very worth it. Forge - +1 to AC or to hit with a weapon for you or one of your allies, not bad Arcana - Magic Missile, 2 wizard cantrips that use your not very good wisdom, meh Knowledge - Expertise with 2 intelligence skills, also meh. Now to your points: 1 - With 27 point buy you can afford: 9 - 14 - 13 - 8 - 13 - 15, after racial bonuses (assuming +1 +2) you can have a 14 dex, 14 con and 17 charisma for a half feat at Bard 4. 14 dex gives you the best AC with medium armor so no need to have 16 here besides skills, but you have expertise anyway, so who cares? 2 - Agreed, Cleric doesn’t solve your offense problem. That’s why it’s not the best Bard dip. What it does is boost your support capabilities even further and give you better defense; still not the best (Sorcerer and Warlock are better in both cases). 3 - Also correct. Moderately Armored gives you the same level of defense if you’re Vuman or C. Lineage at level 1 and boosts your dex too. 4 - I think you’re undervaluing Emboldening Bond. It scales very well and it boosts both your and your party’s defense and offense significantly + stacks with your concentration spells!!! 5- You have decent options to upcast as a Bard/Cleric, standouts being. Bless, Command, (1st level); Aid (!!!!!!), Blindness/Deafness, Invisibility (2nd level); Polymorph (4th level); Hold Monster (5th level). So yeah, you’ll find plenty of use for that extra slot I think So yeah, I believe Cleric overall deserves at least a B with Peace and Life deserving A, Not the standout class to multiclass into, but a very solid one. But I respect that your opinion differs. Love the content man, keep it up! (Sorry for the long ass answer lol). Edit: Named the wrong feat, it's moderately armored, not medium armor master.
Great answer! Love hearing your thoughts and think your take is just as reasonable as mine at the end of the day. I could be swayed to go B. Thanks for breaking it down
I agree with you that the author of this video is completely wrong about a Bard multiclassing with Cleric. A dip into Cleric strengthens a Bard in many ways. I like the Arcana Cleric dip as your character gets 2 extra wizard cantrips, arcana proficiency, and always ready access to magic missile, and detect magic. A level 4 Bard with a 1 level dip into Arcana Cleric will have 8 cantrips. With a dex of 14 with breastplate and shield, he will have an AC of 18 and still have no penalty to move silently.
I'm late to the party but a half-elf lore bard taking two levels of Warlock for devil's sight and agonizing blast coupled with Darkness from his magical secret at level 6 who also took elven accuracy and resilient constitution ? Sure Darkness prevent from casting some of the most powerful control spells since it uses concentration but that's a high defense and high attack mode for 10 minutes with a single Level 2 spell slot if concentration is maintained. Cutting words and Shield make it that much harder for creatures to hit the bard during he's inside a Darkness spell, thereforce reducing the probability of losing concentration on the spell by a lot.
well on the surface I mostly agree with your list. but...... I feel it depends on the build. subclass X comboed with subclass Y ( sometimes m.a.d. Z) by the numbers your right.
Very fair. I’m definitely taking some broad strokes here. Despite having this information I would also encourage people to play a bard monk. Sure the synergy is low but… who cares? Let’s do something dumb and have some fun! I’m a “know the rules so you can break them” type of fellow.
@@DnD_Daily so am I. Lol for me it's those unorthodox/outside of the box builds that are the most rememberable. But that falls on the RP side of DnD. You could make the similarities to dnd as a coin. The coin being the game as a whole. But heads being the builds and mathematical gymnastics. Tails being the RP.
Hey, gotta disagree with the cleric part. Yes it's a MAD build but i'd argue it's one of the most optimized ones for bards when you single level dip cleric. There's the unique build life cleric - lore bard that gives you very potent healing at level 7 when you get magical secrets. You could then take goodberry and aura of life and become a full healer. It's a really unique build as no single class builds can really do the same. The option of going 1 level peace cleric is also very good here as it would give you a strong tier 1 leveling where you just cast bless + bond and benefit from an additional 2d4 when trying to hit. Also the bond and bless naturally scale through late game. Finally, clerics get healing word which means you could free a bard spell at higher levels by taking bless + healing word for your cleric spell and use the free'd up space for higher level spells.
Clerics were definitely the most interesting to analyze. It really shouldn’t work on paper. Full casters don’t multiclass well in general not to mention the MAD stats. Despite that though there are perfectly viable builds from the multiclass. Just goes to show that a powerful level one feature that is built around can go a long way. Can’t say it’s optimized, can’t say there are a plethora of synergies. So at best it gets a B from me. C is fair too because it is bad BUT some of the level one features open up interesting builds.
Take a lvl 1 peace cleric, amd The go X in any bardo subclass, and you get a terrifing optimal support. Whit emboldening Bond+ bless( a spell The bard did not learn) you are at least 1 per turn giving a 2d4 bonus to attack roll or saving throws, add then a bardic inspiration, and you get an amount of bonus that can make you pass almost every check
Great question! My hot take here: the second level of fighter shouldn’t be rushed. Action surge is good sure but it’s not delay your spells another level good. At least not right away. Action surge, at its best, represents another spell, those spells get better with time. I would say the first level I would consider taking action sure is level 7. That way we get the amazing third level spells that we can now combo with. Though I think there is a very real argument to delay it until 9 or even later. Until that level fighter is all defense. After that level you have one turn per rest of increased offense and then you’re back to all defense. While you’re correct that my statement was technically false I think the core message of my analysis holds true.
@@DnD_Daily cool, I would actually wait until I hit Bard 10 before dipping into the 2nd level of fighter, magical secrets can make this much better. Picture this: turn one you rush into a mob, casting destructive wave knocking some enemies prone, then use action surge to cast steelwind strike, any enemy that is prone you have advantage against. Consistent damage is not a thing with this build, it's burst damage. Either way, you are 100% correct with your response. Defensive 1st level, offensive 2nd level.
Guys our dm allowed a system of if a spell suits your character but it is under another class i will allow you to have it and now that i am lvl10 as a bard im confused on what to do any ideas?
I think Pally is being overrated here. Well, sort of. I think Pally 6/Bard X is a fantastic build, and up to you if you consider that a dip. But Pally 2/Bard X? Not so much. Imo it's a more expensive (due to the STR requirement) and significantly worse Hexblade dip. You don't get any ranged options. You get armor, but there's tons of options for that. You get Divine Smite, yes. Divine Smite is a fine feature, no doubt. It has its niche, and it's valid. But I think people *vastly* overestimate how often dumping a few d8s on a hit is gonna be better than using your slots on actual spells. Divine Smite is not where a Paladin's power lies. It's Aura of Protection. If you're not getting Aura of Protection, Paladin is a B tier dip at best imo
I’m currently a bardbarian (mostly barbarian) and it’s definitely worth it especially if you’re looking for some cool roleplay abilities.. but it’s probably more worth it to be mostly barbarian as you get a lot of perks at a high level that you don’t really get switching the two :/ I came to this video to create my next character which I set up to be a bard and maybe a second class.. they’re going to be related to my current character and inherit her greataxe guitar + amp (custom weapon) so I wanted to make them a bard type character but it may change
Warlock S or A but i would say S Warlock 2 level invocation Agonizing Blast -> allmost 90% of a full Ranger Archer Hex vs Huntersmark is better. Armor of Agathys, more HP and extra Damage in Melee if hit -> nice! Hellish Rebuke (Reaction) 2d10 Fire Dam +1d10/Spell level above 1, save 1/2 damage 60 Feet (kills a sneaky Goblin with 7 HP most of the time at level 1 ) Second Invocations: (NOT Patron dependent!) Devil's Sight 120Feet Vision even in magic darkness OR Eldritch Mind Advantage on Concentration saves OR Mask of Many Faces disguise self at will OR Mage Armor self at will (AC 13+Dex) Level 1 Spell Slots are not that super powerfull BUT Warlock Spell Slots are EXTRA to the normal List (level 2 Warlock) -> 6 level 1 Shields (Hexblade or Fey touched feat), Silvery Barbs, Healing Word, Dissonant Wispher, Command, Hex The short rest option gives with 2 short rests per adventuring day -> 10! thats insane vs a Sorcer, Wizard, Clerics 4!
You’ve brought up solid points. I considered the power of EB + AB but I didn’t take into account the defensive potential of the second invocation with adv. on con saves or false life for the bonus HP. However what really sold me is the potential of casting silvery barbs a bunch of extra times per day. Moving to A, considering S
@@DnD_Daily Also, warlock subclass spell access has a lot to say about boosting the bard's defense; to wit, Shield on the Hexblade list, not to mention Wrathful Smite, which you just exalted in your most recent video. I'm thinking of taking 1 or 2 levels in Hexblade before embarking on a long College of Spirits career. This gives me access to two terrific spells (plus two invocations if I take it to L2), the benefits of the Moderately Armored feat, WIS proficiency, Hexblade's Curse, and even CHA-based proficiency with a weapon I'm proficient with (choose any with something like Shadar-Kai or Eladrin) if I ever need to hit something.
Currently running Glamour Bard/Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. Aberrant Mind's bonus spells are nearly all Bard Spells, and none of them count toward your number of known spells. So with a single-level dip in AM Sorc, suddenly my list of known spells gets much longer and the available variety increases drastically. Plus many more spells are on both spell lists, so taking multiple levels in Sorc (say, 3 to get Font of Magic and Metamagic) nets you a ton of flexibility for using spells you're already familiar with.
I know you said ranger was bad for bard but hear me out gloomstalker bard picture how cool that background could be doing dances or performances where they dip in and out of the shadows appearing in places across the stage rapidl6
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #1 НАЧАЛО ПУТЕШЕСТВИЯ [Новый сезон] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/380Q7gLWGvk/mqdefault.jpg)
3 levels of Rogue, Arcane Trickster then go into Bard, College of Swords. You want spells? You got spells. You want a second attack? You got a second attack. Tons of uses for your inspiration and bonus action
Warlock is always an S tier. And here's why. It honestly doesn't matter which Warlock you go into, if you're going to pick up 2 levels of warlock you're going to get some nice features.
"Warlock does nothing for our defenses unless you go Hexblade."
Incorrect. We have Invocations! Armor of shadow gives us Mage Armor which isn't the best defensive ability but it is a defensive ability added. We also could take Eldritch Mind which gives us Advantage on constitution saving throws to maintain concentration which is a defensive ability. Both of these are available with 2 levels of a dip. Armor of shadow is mediocre but Eldritch mind is premium.
Specific subclasses do have some defensive abilities. Genie pact gives you a magic bottle that's basically like a bag of holding you can enter as an action. Although you'll never gain full use of it as a bard you could concentrate on a spell, enter the bottle and maintain full awareness of a battlefield while an ally carries you. We've actually had a player in the game which used that to their advantage.
There is also some spells on your spell list which do give some bonuses which are worth while. I won't deny Hexblade is the best but Armor of Agathys is still a pretty strong spell for a bit of extra bulk. You also can fill your action economy with Hellish rebuke although I'd say that's not a great spell but it is fun.
Warlock does more than that though. We have to think about how it aids with control. Repelling blast and the Tentacle of the Deep from Fathomless can control movement. Which is valuable. Movement control can be vital for party synergy...
Maybe I think of these a bit different. I also think you were a bit too harsh on cleric. I would say Twilight isn't even the best choice. But that strongly depends on your style. Peace domain is the one I'd say is the best. Emboldening bond is almost a concentration-less Bless. Not quite as good as bless but lasts 10 minutes which is gravy. Their channel divinity is also absolutely nuts. Get free movement that doesn't provoke opportunity attacks and pick up multiple allies that are downed without using something like mass healing word? Very strong. There are some other nice features other subclasses do give, like Order Domain which can allow you to give allies a reaction attack but others aren't that great for putting more than 1 level into it. Still Cleric is better than you're giving it credit for. Not B tier... Still probably C tier because it is mad. I would never put more than 13 or 14 in wisdom if I'm dipping Cleric. Although a Peace Bard does sound super fun.
The deadliest multiclass I ever came up with was a college of whispers bard that had the sharpshooter feat, take a few levels in rogue and pick assassin as your rogue subclass. Yeah, that bard became the biggest threat the gm pit his encounters against. Because he could go into stealth, ignore most cover, and deal a crazy amount of burst damage with his crossbow ( To put it in perspective his light crossbow did more damage than a fireball spell due to all the damage I stacked onto it with psychic blades, sneak attack, and the sharpshooter feat.) The only weakness is they have low ac so if enemies manage to close the distance you are gonna have a rough time. I hung onto a few control spells like sleep to knock out swarms of enemies that got too close and focused all my damage on boss encounters with a lot of health using my crossbow.
At one point he almost singlehandedly killed an entire pirate crew. Everyone on that ship was dead after they failed to pay the piper.
I’m doing a bard rogue multi class right now. College of glamor bard and swashbuckler rogue.
Rouge assassin with 3-5 level whisper bard… = spells and expertise to make infiltration easy and ad extra damage from inspiration dices ( 2d6 or 3d6 / 4 / 6 on Critical roles )
If 5 levels reset on a shot rest.
it's very nice to know my bard sorcerer was a good idea I made it before watching the video we're starting lvl 3 and there's another bard in the group so i saw no issue multiclassing this early
Bard-Cleric works pretty well. Both full casters so no loss in slot progression. Tasha's minimized the benefit by granting some cleric spells to the bard, but it only adds one necessary ability score. Significantly better than either barbarian or artificer mixes.
Hello Sage!!! 👋😄
Thank you soooo much for making this video.
I'm about to start playing Baldur's Gate 3, and I'm playing as a bard. (No surprise there)
Your channel Treasure Trove of incredible information. I hope you have been well, my friend. 🥰
You mentioned getting saving throw proficiencies from multiclassing. We don't get save proficiencies from multiclassing sadly. EDIT: Sage was referring to starting level 1 in the dip class, edited for my mistake.
I'm planning to go Eloquence 18 / Clockwork 2 and take Metamagic Adept. Clockwork adds some spells known and Restore Balance. I think a lot of people sleep on Restore Balance because they think about it in combat. I want to use it for skill/ability checks outside of combat. Metamagic Adept for Heightened and Subtle spells. My table is strict about spell components. Casting spells in public is risky because people will see/hear you casting and potentially turn hostile.
If I mentioned saving throws it means I’m considering going into the dip first. Sorcerer at 1 for example to get con saves. Out of the big 3 (Dex, Con, wis) our choice is between con and dex most often. I usually choose con because concentration saves are so valuable and we can somewhat buffer our dex saves with absorb elements.
Your table and character sound like a lot of fun! Cheers mate.
Though i agree with the Ranger's positioning as a whole, there is one subclass that can help or be helped by the bard, the fey wanderer
I agree with the Paladin/Bard multiclass, but I took Paladin to 6 before going Bard the rest of the way. Paladin of Redemption/Bard of Eloquence is a ridiculous combo. I'm the best at persuasion/deception by far. I love the build. 😎
Definitely a solid build
Actually that was probably one of the most accurate assessments I have seen on UA-cam as of yet.
Bard warlock should be S tier, lore bard with dao genie with changeling for the race basically breaks the game when it comes to combat support, utilities, and in town rpg dialogue play.
What build are you thinking with lorebard/genie warlock
@@willliftsweights9870 a defensive build made for support and utility. A one handed instrument like jingles, a shield with shield master proficiency, and Eldridge blast for offense. A ring as my genie lamp, that way I can touch the ring with my finger and the whole group teleports inside the ring, which a flying familiar can carry and travel long distance while hp and AC buffed and invisible, making group travel very trivial and safe. High cha, high con. Heavy persuasion/seduction/manipulation for RP dialogue in town, being a changeling helps that immensely.
I have to disagree with you in the part that the fighter multiclass doesn't give any ofensive improvements, at level two you get Action Surge which can make you able to cast 2 leveled spells and 2 cantrips in one turn, which is crazy strong in combat either for double damage output or for extra support. I would personally give that multiclass an A rating just below the rogue
Don't the rules especify that you can only cast one leveled spell per turn? Although even if i'm correct. You can still cast one leveled spell and three cantrips so it's still pretty strong.
@@emanuelseibert3790 You can only use a leveled spell per turn, but the action surge doesn't give you an extra action an bonus action, it gives you an extra turn. So you can use a leveled spell in each turn.
@@jetsteamgray In the ability description it says "On your turn, you can take one aditional action". So it's still the same turn. So three cantrips, and one leveled spell. Unless your DM rules it differently, which could be cool
You can cast two leveled spells if you action surge raw only stops you if want use your action and bonus action from casting leveled spells
Very confused as to how we got to 3 cantrips. On an action surge turn we get 2 actions and a bonus action. Let's assume we use our bonus action to cast a levelled spell that leaves our 2 actions open for cantrips... where does the third cantrip come from?
Great video! Thank you for this and I agree with it entirely.
Fun thought exercise. What is the most powerful character one can build in D&D 5E?
Right now I'm on a Turtle. Prioritize Cha and Con.
Start Paladin. Go 2 levels. This gives you Smite and a fighting style. Choose Defensive. This gives you a starting ac of 19 that goes up to 20 at 2nd level.
3rd level go Hexblade Warlock. This allows you to use Cha for attacks and damage rolls. No longer needing to use that weak strength from the start. Hexblade curse is also powerful as a healing effect and the extra damage isn't bad.
This level dip also gives you Shield. You can now raise your ac to 25! Not bad for a level 3 character that dumped Dex.
Level 4 is where it get complicated. I haven't crunched the numbers, but you either go Hexblade level 2 or start your Bard levels. Bard doesn't give you much until you level it up, as you know, but is very powerful mid and late game.
I like the idea of going Bard from 4th level to level 8. Take Valor Bard. With this option you can use Defensive flourish when in danger and combined with the Shield spell to boost your AC up to 31. Also you can take the Dueling fighting style for an extra 2 damage per hit. At this point you are Smiting for extra damage. Using your Bard spells to control the battlefield and being really hard to hit. Occasionally gaining a bit of life on a kill too.
At level 9 you take Warlock 2. We had to wait for this because the Invocations we wanted come online at level 9. The 2 to pick up here are Ascendant Step and Minions of Chaos.
With Ascendant Step we can cast Levitate on ourselves at will and doesn't use a spell slot. This effectively gives us a flight speed for the rest of the game.
Minions allows us to use 1 warlock spell slot to create an Elemental. Only once per short rest. When you factor in your flying, high con, high AC you should rarely lose concentration.
You also pick up an extra casting of Shield, but you'll probably use that slot at least rest interval to throw a powerful elemental at the enemy.
The rest of your levels go into Bard. This maximizes your Smite potential, gives you extra attack, while also increasing your flourishes to a d10. Allowing you to have an AC of 35.
Gee, bards multiclass well with other CHA-based caster classes. Who'd'a thunk it? 😜🤣😉
I do love the idea of a two-level Hexblade dip for bards ... or *ANY* warlock subclass if you're going to go with either Valor or Swords ⚔️ bard. But Hexblade is probably best in any case because ... Shield.
Cleric and Artificer should be A, dipping on casters is all about defense.
Just getting medium armor/shields and Wis or Con saves is worth it because you don’t have to take moderately armoured later.
Dipping is also the only way for bard to get prof in Wis and Con saves (with resilient).
Cleric and Artificer gives you the same benefits for dipping as a fighter and you retain your spell slot progression.
That said, Hexblade 1-2 Bard X is still the best bard build imo
Hard disagree with the Cleric spot, Peace Cleric 1 is probably one of the strongest Bard multiclass options and its not that hard to fit the 13 Wisdom imho. It's not S, but is an A tier atleast
Interesting. I respect having different opinions and if that’s where we want to leave it we can.
I’m analyzing it and I’m just simply not coming to the same conclusion though. Would you mind educating me? I’ll list my thoughts:
1: For a class that primarily wants dex, con, and Chr, the 13 wisdom is not cheap. Look at point buy. Your sacrificing multiple modifiers. What would be your best stat array?
2: Peace 1’s offensive contribution is sacred flame, guiding bolt, and toll the dead. I would consider this a moderate improvement compared to EB, FireBolt, and in some cases the longbow.
3: defensive contribution primarily includes medium armor, shields, and wisdom saves. Not bad but nothing crazy.
4: the strongest contribution is the feature. Concentrationless bless prof bone times /day.
5: further cost is delaying your spell levels 1 level.
When I weigh the pros and cons I’m not getting a bad build, but it’s not great. Around B or C tier for me. I would say the twilight build is significantly stronger but remains in B.
Final thoughts: even if a single subclass stands out (as with hex blade) I’m still doing a general rating first then making exceptions. So all these cons stay but many pros leave when we look at say, the nature domain cleric.
Those are my thoughts but I’m certainly no pillar. What are your thoughts?
Edit: didn’t account for shields. Corrected.
@@DnD_Daily will answer your points carefully asap, but you have some pretty good points too. I don't think Cleric is better than Sorc, Pally or Warlock btw, but i think is in the same ballpark as the next best thing.
@@DnD_Daily Ok, let’s take a look at what every Cleric gives you as a Bard. Then I will address your points one by one.
First - Medium Armor and Shields proficiency, which is a big deal for Bard, not the best class to pick this up from though.
Second - Wisdom saving throw proficiency, arguably better than Dexterity saves.
Third - The Cleric spell list has some very nice support options, some that even save you preparations as a Bard, for example: Guidance; arguably the best cantrip in the game. Healing Word; doesn't really care for your spell casting ability. Bless; decent option for upcast with your extra spell slot of a higher level until you get Aid as a Bard. Shield of Faith; not as good as Bless most of the time but a decent concentration spell none the less. You can also change your preparations every day.
Fourth - Subclass, the standouts are: Peace - Life - Order - Twilight - Forge (Not in any particular order).
And some niche ones: Arcana - Knowledge.
Peace - I don't think i need to sell you on Emboldening Bond, this is simply bonkers.
Life - Disciple of Life makes you a pretty mean healer as a Bard.
Order - Voice of Authority makes your buffing even more potent, especially if you have a Rogue in your party.
Twilight - Advantage on initiative is the best thing about this one, unless you want to spend 2 levels which i don't think is very worth it.
Forge - +1 to AC or to hit with a weapon for you or one of your allies, not bad
Arcana - Magic Missile, 2 wizard cantrips that use your not very good wisdom, meh
Knowledge - Expertise with 2 intelligence skills, also meh.
Now to your points:
1 - With 27 point buy you can afford: 9 - 14 - 13 - 8 - 13 - 15, after racial bonuses (assuming +1 +2) you can have a 14 dex, 14 con and 17 charisma for a half feat at Bard 4. 14 dex gives you the best AC with medium armor so no need to have 16 here besides skills, but you have expertise anyway, so who cares?
2 - Agreed, Cleric doesn’t solve your offense problem. That’s why it’s not the best Bard dip. What it does is boost your support capabilities even further and give you better defense; still not the best (Sorcerer and Warlock are better in both cases).
3 - Also correct. Moderately Armored gives you the same level of defense if you’re Vuman or C. Lineage at level 1 and boosts your dex too.
4 - I think you’re undervaluing Emboldening Bond. It scales very well and it boosts both your and your party’s defense and offense significantly + stacks with your concentration spells!!!
5- You have decent options to upcast as a Bard/Cleric, standouts being. Bless, Command, (1st level); Aid (!!!!!!), Blindness/Deafness, Invisibility (2nd level); Polymorph (4th level); Hold Monster (5th level). So yeah, you’ll find plenty of use for that extra slot I think
So yeah, I believe Cleric overall deserves at least a B with Peace and Life deserving A, Not the standout class to multiclass into, but a very solid one. But I respect that your opinion differs. Love the content man, keep it up!
(Sorry for the long ass answer lol).
Edit: Named the wrong feat, it's moderately armored, not medium armor master.
Great answer! Love hearing your thoughts and think your take is just as reasonable as mine at the end of the day.
I could be swayed to go B.
Thanks for breaking it down
I agree with you that the author of this video is completely wrong about a Bard multiclassing with Cleric. A dip into Cleric strengthens a Bard in many ways. I like the Arcana Cleric dip as your character gets 2 extra wizard cantrips, arcana proficiency, and always ready access to magic missile, and detect magic. A level 4 Bard with a 1 level dip into Arcana Cleric will have 8 cantrips. With a dex of 14 with breastplate and shield, he will have an AC of 18 and still have no penalty to move silently.
I'm late to the party but a half-elf lore bard taking two levels of Warlock for devil's sight and agonizing blast coupled with Darkness from his magical secret at level 6 who also took elven accuracy and resilient constitution ?
Sure Darkness prevent from casting some of the most powerful control spells since it uses concentration but that's a high defense and high attack mode for 10 minutes with a single Level 2 spell slot if concentration is maintained. Cutting words and Shield make it that much harder for creatures to hit the bard during he's inside a Darkness spell, thereforce reducing the probability of losing concentration on the spell by a lot.
well on the surface I mostly agree with your list. but...... I feel it depends on the build. subclass X comboed with subclass Y ( sometimes m.a.d. Z)
by the numbers your right.
Very fair. I’m definitely taking some broad strokes here.
Despite having this information I would also encourage people to play a bard monk. Sure the synergy is low but… who cares? Let’s do something dumb and have some fun!
I’m a “know the rules so you can break them” type of fellow.
@@DnD_Daily so am I. Lol for me it's those unorthodox/outside of the box builds that are the most rememberable.
But that falls on the RP side of DnD.
You could make the similarities to dnd as a coin. The coin being the game as a whole. But heads being the builds and mathematical gymnastics. Tails being the RP.
Hey, gotta disagree with the cleric part. Yes it's a MAD build but i'd argue it's one of the most optimized ones for bards when you single level dip cleric. There's the unique build life cleric - lore bard that gives you very potent healing at level 7 when you get magical secrets. You could then take goodberry and aura of life and become a full healer. It's a really unique build as no single class builds can really do the same. The option of going 1 level peace cleric is also very good here as it would give you a strong tier 1 leveling where you just cast bless + bond and benefit from an additional 2d4 when trying to hit. Also the bond and bless naturally scale through late game. Finally, clerics get healing word which means you could free a bard spell at higher levels by taking bless + healing word for your cleric spell and use the free'd up space for higher level spells.
Clerics were definitely the most interesting to analyze. It really shouldn’t work on paper. Full casters don’t multiclass well in general not to mention the MAD stats.
Despite that though there are perfectly viable builds from the multiclass. Just goes to show that a powerful level one feature that is built around can go a long way.
Can’t say it’s optimized, can’t say there are a plethora of synergies. So at best it gets a B from me. C is fair too because it is bad BUT some of the level one features open up interesting builds.
Take a lvl 1 peace cleric, amd The go X in any bardo subclass, and you get a terrifing optimal support. Whit emboldening Bond+ bless( a spell The bard did not learn) you are at least 1 per turn giving a 2d4 bonus to attack roll or saving throws, add then a bardic inspiration, and you get an amount of bonus that can make you pass almost every check
used this video for my sorcerer-bard in baldurs gate 3. So funny to play on that game.
i play a bard Cleric and it's a very good supportive build when paired with Life Cleric(the party has a fully twilight cleric)
hold up, fighter gets action surge at 2nd level. Action surge can be used for some killer spell combos. So why would there be no offensive abilities?
Great question!
My hot take here: the second level of fighter shouldn’t be rushed. Action surge is good sure but it’s not delay your spells another level good. At least not right away.
Action surge, at its best, represents another spell, those spells get better with time. I would say the first level I would consider taking action sure is level 7. That way we get the amazing third level spells that we can now combo with. Though I think there is a very real argument to delay it until 9 or even later.
Until that level fighter is all defense. After that level you have one turn per rest of increased offense and then you’re back to all defense.
While you’re correct that my statement was technically false I think the core message of my analysis holds true.
@@DnD_Daily cool, I would actually wait until I hit Bard 10 before dipping into the 2nd level of fighter, magical secrets can make this much better. Picture this: turn one you rush into a mob, casting destructive wave knocking some enemies prone, then use action surge to cast steelwind strike, any enemy that is prone you have advantage against.
Consistent damage is not a thing with this build, it's burst damage. Either way, you are 100% correct with your response. Defensive 1st level, offensive 2nd level.
That’s a sick as hell combo! Nice thinking!
Guys our dm allowed a system of if a spell suits your character but it is under another class i will allow you to have it and now that i am lvl10 as a bard im confused on what to do any ideas?
I love Sage! ❤️🤗
Great analysis.
I think Pally is being overrated here. Well, sort of. I think Pally 6/Bard X is a fantastic build, and up to you if you consider that a dip. But Pally 2/Bard X? Not so much. Imo it's a more expensive (due to the STR requirement) and significantly worse Hexblade dip. You don't get any ranged options. You get armor, but there's tons of options for that. You get Divine Smite, yes. Divine Smite is a fine feature, no doubt. It has its niche, and it's valid. But I think people *vastly* overestimate how often dumping a few d8s on a hit is gonna be better than using your slots on actual spells. Divine Smite is not where a Paladin's power lies. It's Aura of Protection. If you're not getting Aura of Protection, Paladin is a B tier dip at best imo
Personally i think bard wizard is fairly good well at least eloquence bard div wizard is as its got really good control
I’m currently a bardbarian (mostly barbarian) and it’s definitely worth it especially if you’re looking for some cool roleplay abilities.. but it’s probably more worth it to be mostly barbarian as you get a lot of perks at a high level that you don’t really get switching the two :/
I came to this video to create my next character which I set up to be a bard and maybe a second class.. they’re going to be related to my current character and inherit her greataxe guitar + amp (custom weapon) so I wanted to make them a bard type character but it may change
Warlock S or A but i would say S
Warlock 2 level invocation Agonizing Blast -> allmost 90% of a full Ranger Archer
Hex vs Huntersmark is better.
Armor of Agathys, more HP and extra Damage in Melee if hit -> nice!
Hellish Rebuke (Reaction) 2d10 Fire Dam +1d10/Spell level above 1, save 1/2 damage
60 Feet (kills a sneaky Goblin with 7 HP most of the time at level 1 )
Second Invocations:
(NOT Patron dependent!)
Devil's Sight 120Feet Vision even in magic darkness
OR
Eldritch Mind
Advantage on Concentration saves
OR
Mask of Many Faces
disguise self at will
OR
Mage Armor self at will (AC 13+Dex)
Level 1 Spell Slots are not that super powerfull BUT
Warlock Spell Slots are EXTRA to the normal List (level 2 Warlock) -> 6 level 1 Shields (Hexblade or Fey touched feat), Silvery Barbs, Healing Word, Dissonant Wispher, Command, Hex
The short rest option gives with 2 short rests per adventuring day -> 10! thats insane vs a Sorcer, Wizard, Clerics 4!
You’ve brought up solid points. I considered the power of EB + AB but I didn’t take into account the defensive potential of the second invocation with adv. on con saves or false life for the bonus HP.
However what really sold me is the potential of casting silvery barbs a bunch of extra times per day.
Moving to A, considering S
@@DnD_Daily Also, warlock subclass spell access has a lot to say about boosting the bard's defense; to wit, Shield on the Hexblade list, not to mention Wrathful Smite, which you just exalted in your most recent video. I'm thinking of taking 1 or 2 levels in Hexblade before embarking on a long College of Spirits career. This gives me access to two terrific spells (plus two invocations if I take it to L2), the benefits of the Moderately Armored feat, WIS proficiency, Hexblade's Curse, and even CHA-based proficiency with a weapon I'm proficient with (choose any with something like Shadar-Kai or Eladrin) if I ever need to hit something.
Couldn't decide between playing a bard or a paladin. Guess I just found the solution.
With regards to multiclassing with sorcerer which sorcerous origins helps the most?
Any work but draconian ancestry and clockwork soul stand out to me as really strong for bard.
Currently running Glamour Bard/Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. Aberrant Mind's bonus spells are nearly all Bard Spells, and none of them count toward your number of known spells. So with a single-level dip in AM Sorc, suddenly my list of known spells gets much longer and the available variety increases drastically. Plus many more spells are on both spell lists, so taking multiple levels in Sorc (say, 3 to get Font of Magic and Metamagic) nets you a ton of flexibility for using spells you're already familiar with.
I know you said ranger was bad for bard but hear me out gloomstalker bard picture how cool that background could be doing dances or performances where they dip in and out of the shadows appearing in places across the stage rapidl6
Yeah, that’s dope!
what happend to tiers "D" and "E"?
D and E tier lists are F tier
....Monk bards? Perhaps?
Monk is dexterity based. Bard is charisma based. Too much sacrifice of one for the other.
The only time wizard is described as worse than a sorcerer
BardMonk is F tier?
I mean, okay ... X to doubt.
Bard is charisma based. Monk is dexterity based. Chemistry is not there.