D&D Bard 5e Guide

D&D 5e Bard Overview

Playstyle

Most people who have seen a bard played correctly will agree that bards are one of the most powerful 5e classes, but they are also one of the most difficult to play. The bard’s spell list demands that you think outside the box, and their high CHA modifier pushes you to interact with people constantly. The bard class wants you to be gregarious, and it was designed this way on purpose. If you want to be silly, clever, and powerful, the bard might be the class for you.

Strengths

The 5e bard is a bit of a jack of all trades. Depending on how you want to play your bard, you can flaunt the combat prowess of a fighter, the dexterous skill set of a rogue, or the magical power of a wizard.

Bards also get a feature called Bardic Inspiration which allows them to give any party member an extra die to roll on an attack or skill check. This ability by itself is amazing on its own, but when accompanied by the bards’ powerful spellcasting, comfortably provides them the title of the best support class in 5e.

Weaknesses

This is an interesting discussion as it is quite a common opinion that bard’s are a very powerful 5e class. A weakness for bards, which would be a strength for some people, is the amount of roleplaying that is necessary for the character.

When DMs are asked about players that don’t like to roleplay or take the lead in NPC conversations, most will reply with, “that’s okay, no one needs to play an extroverted character”. While this is true for most classes, a bard’s strengths are really only maximized when that player is interacting with other party members and NPCs.

If you do not feel comfortable being the face of your party, choosing a bard may be a tough go.

Best Races for Bards

Selecting a race that complements a bard’s musical mastery and spellcasting prowess can significantly enhance your performance both on and off the stage. For an in-depth breakdown of the best race options, head over to our Guide to Bard Races.

If you’re playing with the Basic Rules or Player’s Handbook and want a no-brainer choice, Half-Elves are your best option. Their +2 bonus to Charisma boosts your spellcasting and bardic abilities, while the additional +1 bonuses to two other ability scores provide flexibility for diverse builds. On top of that, their extra skill proficiencies can amplify your bard’s already impressive versatility.

Best Backgrounds for Bards

Acolyte: Insight and Wisdom aren’t great for bards.

Charlatan: Proficiency with the Disguise and Forgery kits is nice. Deception and Sleight of Hand are great skills, Deception more so.

Criminal: Not a lot of useful tool proficiencies, but Stealth and Deception are great.

Entertainer: Useful tool proficiencies in Disguise kit and musical instrument. Acrobatics and Performance certainly leave a lot to be desired from skill proficiencies.

Folk Hero: Not very useful tool proficiencies or skills.

Guild Artisan: Artisan’s tools aren’t very exciting but Insight and Persuasion are very useful here.

Noble: Gaming set isn’t useful. History and Persuasion is alright.

Sage: No tools and Arcana and History. No thanks.

Sailor: Navigator’s tools and water vehicles is nice. Athletics and Perception are both great skills.

Solider: Gaming set and land vehicles aren’t doing us any favors. Athletics and Intimidation are alright.

Spy: Gaming set and thieves’ tools are solid. Deception and Stealth are great.

Urchin: Disguise kit and thieves’ tools are awesome. Sleight of Hand and Stealth are decent, especially if you are replacing a Rogue in your party.

Ability Scores

Ability Score Increases (ASI) at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level.

Bards need CHA and nothing else is critically important, which gives us the ability to dip into DEX and CON to increase AC and hit points. If you are going for a Valor or Swords build, your DEX will be more important than your CON.

STR: Just no.

DEX: High DEX helps survivability by boosting your AC and giving you a stronger chance to succeed against DEX Saves, which are very common. If you are going for a melee bard this is crucial.

CON: More hit points and better CON saves make the bard less squishy.

INT: Dump this stat for sure.

WIS: Can help with WIS saves and Perception.

CHA: This is the most important stat for the bard because it is your spellcasting modifier and increases your ability to succeed on social skill checks. Pump this as high as you can.

Bard Class Progression

1st Level

Hit Points: Bards have a decent d8 hit dice. Better than the sorcerer and wizard, on par with the druid and cleric.

Saves: Proficiency with DEX and CHA are pretty great. DEX is the most important save in the game. CHA saves will likely come up at higher levels.

Weapon/Armor Proficiencies: Light armor, simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, and shortswords is a great list to choose from, especially for a full caster class.

Skills: Bards are an amazing skill monkey class. They get proficiency with any 3 skills and can get expertise in the chosen skills easily at higher levels.

• Acrobatics (DEX): Unfortunately, Acrobatics doesn’t seem to come up as often as the bard would like. It is useful for avoiding grapples.
• Athletics (STR): Athletics checks are quite common while doing dangerous adventuring stuff. Getting proficiency with this could help offset a dumped STR score.
• Arcana (INT): Arcana is one of the more important INT-based skills, but INT skills are usually lower priority.
• Deception (CHA): The bard is usually the go-to pick to be the party face. Getting proficiency and expertise in CHA skills will be important for your social interactions.
• Insight (WIS): Insight is great for social interactions since it can give you a ton of information on the person you are trying to convince or manipulate.
• Intimidation (CHA): Probably the least important CHA skill for bards as they can either Deceive or Persuade their ways out of situations.
• Investigation (INT): Investigation isn’t bad, but prioritizing other skills is better for the bard.
• Nature (INT): Nature is another important INT skill.
• Perception (WIS): We’ve said it before, Perception is the best skill in D&D. Getting proficiency and expertise in this can help make up for your low WIS score.
• Performance (CHA): Bards are built around their performances, this may not be crucial for high stake situations but can help earn money and warm people up to you.
• Persuasion (CHA): Persuasion is probably the best of the social interaction skills.
• Religion: Depends on your campaign, but this is usually much less likely to come up than Arcana or Nature.
• Sleight of Hand (DEX): Sleight of Hand can be called for in a number of bard performances. It can also be very helpful if you lean into a more roguish bard.
• Stealth (DEX): With their versatile spell list and a high DEX, the bard class can sneak as good as any Rogue.

Spellcasting: Bards are a full caster class and use their CHA modifier for casting, similar to Warlocks and Sorcerers. Also, they use the Spells Known method of learning spells just like Sorcerers. They are on the lower end of the spectrum for the number of known cantrips but can make up for that with Ritual Casting. The bard’s spell list is lacking in straight damage and focuses on buffing, debuffing, and utility. The lack of damage spells is heavily mitigated at 10th Level because of the Magical Secrets class feature. Bards can use any musical instrument as their spellcasting focus.

Bardic Inspiration: Bardic Inspiration is one of the best methods of buffing party members in the entire game. As a bonus action, you can provide your ally with an extra dice roll to add to their ability check, attack roll, OR saving throw. It also scales as you level up becoming a d8 at 5th level, a d10 at 10th level, and a d12 at 15th level.

2nd Level

Jack of All Trades: This is a great tool for rounding out any ability check you will have to make. This also applies to your proficiency bonus to initiative rolls which is a huge plus.

Song of Rest: Certainly going to be helpful on those crazy adventuring days where you are fighting more than 3 or 4 times before taking a long rest. If your DM throws the recommended 5-6 medium to hard encounters per day at you this will prove to be even more potent.

3rd Level

Expertise: Doubling your proficiency bonus for two Skills is great. You can do this again at 10th Level.

Bardic College: A bard’s choice of College shapes their approach to weaving magic, music, and inspiration into the world. As with every class archetype, the bard’s subclass offers a variety of unique features that evolve with your character. What makes bards stand out is their versatility—each College gives you a specialized way to amplify your bardic talents, whether through combat prowess, social manipulation, or magical innovation.

For a closer look at the strengths and abilities of each College, check out our Guide to Bard 5e Subclasses.

4th Level

5th Level

Font of Inspiration: Get your Bardic Inspirations back on a short rest. You know the saying, “mo’ Bardic Inspiration, less problems”.

6th Level

Countercharm: This is a very situational feature but will come up big at least once or twice in a campaign.

10th Level

Magical Secrets: Bards have a great list of spells but it does have a fair few gaps in it, especially if you are the party’s main caster. For the best spells to pick for your Magical Secrets, see the section Magical Secrets Spells.

You can do this again at 14th and 18th level.

20th Level

Superior Inspiration: Starting every encounter with a Bardic Inspiration is nice, but not a super exciting capstone feature.

Best Feats for Bards

Check out our Guide to Bard Feats.

Best Spells for Bards

Check out our Guide to Bard Spells.

Best Multiclass Options for Bards

Multiclassing is always an opportunity cost, you have to determine if taking a level of another class is worth what you will lose from the original class. Many factors come into this decision, with the main factor being how long your campaign will run and, ultimately, what level you will be playing until. With bards and other full casters, you want to avoid taking more than 3 multiclass levels, or else you won’t be able to get access to 9th-level spells.

Another thing to take into consideration is the additional class’ primary ability scores. Bards are CHA-based casters and you want to be able to use their high CHA to synergize with the additional class.

Cleric: Clerics are awesome multiclass options because they get their domain at the 1st-level. The most common cause for this multiclass is to make a healing-focused bard, so picking up the Life Domain is the best choice. This one level dip provides tons of great healing spells, heavy armor proficiency, and a bonus to healing spells.

Paladin: A two-level dip into paladin allows your bard to get access to armor/shield/weapon proficiencies, Lay on Hands, and smites. If you’re going for a Valor or Swords bard, you already gain the proficiencies but the smites are definitely worth it.

Sorcerer: The sorcerer is the only other typical full caster using CHA as a spellcasting modifier. The sorcerer gets their Origin at 1st-level and each Origin has its own benefits. Out of all the available options, the two best options are Divine Soul and Clockwork Soul. Divine Soul can provide a great spell in bless and also has a solid feature for helping in succeeding on a saving throw. Clockwork Soul gets you protection from good and evil and the Restore Balance ability which can negate any advantage or disadvantage. The Restore Balance feature is particularly nice because it scales with your proficiency bonus, rather than your sorcerer level. If you want to commit three levels to the sorcerer multiclass you get access to Metamagic which is extremely strong on bards.

Warlock: Warlocks get access to a ton of stuff at 1st-level. First off is the amazing damage cantrip eldritch blast, next up is the ability to restore warlock spell slots on a short rest, and finally is the Pact feature. The Celestial Pact has some healing features, but by far the best choice would be the Hexblade for access to Hexblade’s Curse, proficiency in medium armor/shields, a great expanded spell list, and the ability to melee attack using your CHA modifier.