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Bards are one of the most versatile spell-casting classes inDungeons & Dragons, being able to focus on offense, defense or support. Their class feature, magical secrets, adds to that, allowing you to take spells from any list at the tenth, 14th, and 18th level.
RELATED:Dungeons & Dragons: The Best Species For A Bard Character
Their other staple feature, bardic inspiration, allows you to gift a creature an extra die that they can add to one roll. Between these two features you’ve already got a lot to work with in providing support to your party, but you can still take it even further by gearing your bard completely towards support.
The Best Subclasses For Support Bards
The best subclasses for support bards share one key feature: they take what the bard class is already good at and emphasize it more.
College Of Lore
Thecollege of lorebard’s main selling point isgetting more spells from other lists and getting them earlier.
Thanks tocutting words,you’ll also be ableto use bardic inspiration offensively,being able to subtract it from a creature’s rolls instead of adding it to an ally’s.
Additional magical secretsnets you two extra spells at sixth level thatdo not count against the number of bard spells you know already.
When you take this college at third level you also get to choose a proficiency in three skills of your choice,leading to even greater customizability.
College Of Eloquence
Alternatively, you can choose to be a college of eloquence bard. What it lacks in spells, it makes up forin supercharging your bardic inspiration.
Unsettling wordsallows you to roll a bardic inspiration and force a creature to subtract that from their next saving throw. Unlike cutting words, Unsettling Wordsonly works on saving throws,but you can do it in advance of the creature having to make the save.
Unfailing inspirationallows a creature tokeep their bardic inspiration die when they fail a roll, ensuring that it won’t be wasted because of bad luck.
Withinfectious inspiration, after a creature succeeds a roll using a bardic inspiration die, you can use your reaction to give a die to another creature who can hear you within 60 feet of youwithout expending a use of bardic inspiration.
You can use this a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier. This effectivelydoubles the amount Bardic Inspiration dice you can hand out per long rest.
Best Support Spells For Bards
Bards have access to a lot of spells.However, if you want to focus on support spells, here are some good ones that focus on healing, beneficial conditions, or buffing allies and debuffing enemies.
Guards and Wards
Guiding Bolt
Best Species For A Support Bard
Whilethis build can work with any species,some will give you extra benefits. These bonuses can seem small, but they can be lifesaving when you least expect it.
Benefits
Elf
Advantage on saving throws against being charmed and can’t be put to sleep by magic. The dark elf and high elf subspeciesboth give you extra spells.
Gnome
Gnome cunning grants advantage on Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma saving throws.
Halfling
Get the lucky feat for free, allowingyou to re-roll failsa set number of times.
Human
Flat increase to your stats, if your Dungeon Master allows variant humans the extra feat will come in handy.
Dragonborn
Increase to your Charisma and breath weapon means you have an extra non-magical attacking option.
Tiefling
Access to Thaumaturgy and Hellish rebuke as well as resistance to fire damage.
Best Feats For A Support Bard
One final option to customize your Support Bard is taking certain feats.
Metamagic Adept
Metamagic adeptallows you to use metamagic from the sorcerer class and gives you two sorcery points.
Quickened spell is a good one to use for a support sinceit lets you get more heals in a single turn.
Inspiring Leader
You can gift up to six friendly creatures within 30 feet of youtemporary hit points equal to your level + your charisma modifier.
Although you can use this feat as many times as you want, a creature canonly benefit from it once per short or long rest.
You need a charisma score of 13 or more to take this feat.
Healer
The Healer feat allows you to use a healer’s kit to stabilize a dying creature andbring them back to one hit point.
You can also use an action and one use of your healer’s kit to restore a creature’s hit pointsequal to 1d6+four+the number of hit dice the creature has.
Magic Initiate
Magic initiate is for people who want even more non-bard spells. You can taketwo cantrips and one first levelspell from either the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, wizard, or warlock list.
You can cast the first level spellonce per long rest.
Unlike spells from Magical Secrets, these will not count as Bard spells, so the spell-casting stat is tied to the original class.
Best Stats For A Support Bard
The only stat that a bard should always attempt to invest in is Charisma,as that is the main spell-casting stat and affects your abilities.
You’re free to invest in your other stats as you’d like according to your character, which spells you want to take from other lists, which weapons you want to use, and more.
Here’s a guide to the benefits of investing in each stat.
Benefits of Investing
Charisma
Main spell casting stat, modifier is used for most Bard abilities. Also spell casting ability for paladin, sorcerer, and warlock spells.
Strength
No direct use for spells or bard abilities, but used for melee weapon or other forms of physical contact or ability checks.
Dexterity
No direct use for spells or bard abilities, but determines AC, so you’ll be harder to hit. Also, good for taking ranged weapons, traversing terrain, and making saving throws.
Constitution
No direct use for spells but helpful for surviving the illness, resisting poisons, and determines your maximum hit points.
Wisdom
Spell casting stat for cleric, druid, and ranger spells. A common saving throw and improves your perception.
Intelligence
Spell casting stat for artificer spells. A common saving throw and good for history checks and role playing.
