College of Creation 5e Guide

Published on April 11, 2023

Looking to unleash your creative side? Discover the College of Creation bard, where you can harness the Song of Creation!

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What is the College of Creation Bard?

The College of Creation bard is a subclass introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. They gain access to abilities that allow them to create objects and creatures out of nothing, as well as manipulate reality in creative ways.

Their core feature, Performance of Creation, allows them to create a non-magical item of their choice, such as a ladder or bridge. They also gain access to a buffed version of Bardic Inspiration, which improves upon the vanilla bard’s ability in almost every way.

Strengths

The College of Creation makes the already versatile bard class even more multifaceted and creative, able to improvise solutions to problems with their unique abilities. Their creation powers make them great for crafting, building, and solving puzzles, while their improved Bardic Inspiration and impressive spell list give them solid support and combat options.

In addition, their Animating Performance ability allows them to temporarily bring objects to life, creating a powerful ally in combat and significant upping their damage output. It even gets around the bard’s already packed lineup for bonus actions by allowing you to command the object with the same bonus action that you use for Bardic Inspiration.

Weaknesses

While the College of Creation bard has plenty of utility and support options, their class features don’t provide any additional defensive options, which can make these builds feel squishy.

The only real limitations to what this class can do is how far your imagination can stretch. The College of Creation’s subclass features take an already non-linear class and make it even more open-ended. If you’re hoping to have a character that has any sort of formulaic playstyle, you’ll want to look elsewhere.

College of Creation 5e Guide Rating Scheme

This guide is meant as a deep dive into the College of Creation Bard subclass. For a full overview of the Bard class, check out our bard 5e Guide.

For our full class guides, we use the following color rating scheme:

  • Red isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
  • Orange Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
  • Green is a good option
  • Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
  • Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

For our subclass guides, we focus mainly on the Blue and Sky Blue options, because the other options are discussed in the parent guide or other subclass guides. We also discuss options that normally would be good for a typical build, but underperform when used in a subclass.

College of Creation Bard Features

3rd Level

Mote of Potential: You create a tiny mote of potential when you use your Bardic Inspiration that provides additional uses when it’s expended. All three of these options are awesome bonuses to your Bardic Inspiration and come at no additional cost:

  • Ability Check: Rolling Bardic Inspiration die spent on ability scores with advantage. Typically this option will be used outside of combat.
  • Attack Roll: Not only can your Bardic Inspiration turn a miss into a hit, but it can apply thunder damage to any creature within 5ft. Your martial party members will love this one.
  • Saving Throw: Free temp hit points after making a save. Yes, please.

Performance of Creation: You can create non-magical items that are Small or Medium sized and cost less than 20 gp x your bard level.

This is one of the most open-ended class features ever published. The only limitations of this feature are your imagination and the relatively high cost for using the ability. You can use it once for free per long rest, but have to expend a 2nd-level (or higher) spell slot to use it again.

Even at 1st-level, you can create things like a halberd, brewers supplies, smiths tools, or a sled. By the 2nd-level, you can create vials of acid and gunpowder, as long as the DM approves.

You’ll definitely want to familiarize yourself with the Equipment section of the Basic Rules, as this provides a solid baseline as to what you can and cannot summon based on gp.

9th Level

Animating Performance: You can animate an object and use it as an ally in combat! This feature follows the formula of the other Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything summon spells by using your proficiency bonus and bard level to scale the creature as you level up. It’s got pretty good survivability because of the decent AC and hit points, has a fly speed, Darkvision, battlefield control, and an attack the deal force damage.

You need to use your bonus action to command the dancing item, but the caveat that you can use the same bonus action as your Bardic Inspiration prevents any conflict it could have with your primary class feature. Seeing as there isn’t a range on this effect once it’s been activated, you can create a keg of gunpowder with your Performance of Creation feature, animate it, and float it into a baddy’s lair and tell it to run into a fire for 7d6 fire damage.

You can use it once per long rest for free and will have to spend a 3rd-level spell slot (or higher) to use it again.

14th Level

Creative Crescendo: This takes Performance of Creation and dials it to 11. You can create up to 5 items, depending on your CHA modifier, and are no longer limited by gp value. By the time you get to this level you can create one Huge item, though the rest still have to be Small or Tiny. There are an uncountable amount of possibilities here but the baseline is 1 powder keg and 4 gunpowder horns for a whopping 19d6 fire damage.

The Basics of Playing an College of Creation Bard

There’s not much ‘basic’ about this class. This is one of the most involved subclasses you can play and will need some decent investment into learning what is possible to be played optimally.

As a bard, you’re going to sit back from the fray, cast spells, and use Bardic Inspiration to disrupt enemies and support allies.

Bringing the College of Creation’s features into this takes your options to a whole other level. Your Performance of Creation ability can be used to always have the right item at hand outside of combat. In combat, you can use it to deal damage (spawning a keg of gunpowder in a fire near enemies) or to control the battlefield (drop a 5×5 crate between you and an enemy that’s aiming a bow at you).

Once you get Animating Performance, you’ll always want to have your dancing item active in combat as it’s pure action economy and doesn’t require concentration. What’s better is you can animate a Tiny item that you keep in your pocket or choose something larger that’s on the battlefield.

College of Creation Bard Playstyles

Support

College of Creation bards take an amazing support class and make it even better. Mote of Potential is a huge upgrade to your Bardic Inspiration and something you can use to deal extra damage and heal your allies in combat.

Animating Performance allows you to support your martial party members as well. You can get your dancing item within range to help your rogue get Sneak Attack or just have it divert attacks away from your fighter buddy.

College of Creation bards that want to go this route will take the classic bard buff/debuff spells like hideous laughterenhance ability, and hypnotic pattern.

Summoner

If you want to lean into the idea of creating objects out of thin air and giving inanimate objects life by channeling the Song of Creation, look for transmutation and conjuration classics like mage handcloud of daggers, and animate objects.

Maxing for College of Creation Bard

Armor Class

Bards aren’t known for their defensive abilities and, unfortunately, that remains true for College of Creation bards.

  • You start with light armor proficiencies, which means studded leather is your best bet.
  • If you don’t have studded armor, you could summon it using Performance of Creation at 3rd level, though it will only last a number of hours equal to your prof modifier. So it’s best to pony up the 45 gp and have done with it.
  • Starting off, you should have a DEX of around +2, giving you a decent 15 AC. If you max your DEX with studded leather, you’ll have an AC of 17. Unfortunately, this will come online at the earliest at 16th level if you’re focusing on CHA (which you should). At this point, your AC will won’t matter much because monsters will have insane bonuses to hit.

Damage Output

Early Game

Bards aren’t known for their damage output and the College of Creation subclass doesn’t change that. In the early game, you’ll be relying on vicious mockery as your damage cantrip when you aren’t spending your 1st-level spell slots on dissonant whispers.

When you get to 3rd level, you’ll gain access to heat metal, which is always a great choice when you’re facing enemies with metal armor or weapons. If you’re not lucky enough to run into metal-wielding enemies, shatter is your next best bet.

Mid Game

After you get access to Animating Performance, you’ll pretty much always want your dancing item around to net you an extra 1d10 + prof bonus force damage per turn. Even if you’ve used your free casting, spending a 2nd-level spell slot for a solid body and continuous damage is almost always worth it.

This means you’ll have to drop heat metal and run a damage spell that doesn’t require consistent bonus actions.

Late Game

Once you get access to 5th-level spell slots at 9th level, you can cast your bard’s favorite spell, animate objects. Not only is this totally on theme, but it’s one of the best damage output spells in the game. You can animate 10 tiny or small objects that each get their own hit points, AC, and attacks each round. You’ll want to go for Tiny objects because they deal just as much damage but are more likely to hit:

  • Small: +6 to hit for 1d8+2 (avg 6.5)
  • Tiny: +8 to hit for 1d4+4 (avg 6.5)

Ability Scores

College of Creation bards gain Ability Score Increases (ASI) at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level. Because their class and subclass features rely on CHA, they will want to pump this first.

After CHA has been looked after, you’ll want to pump either DEX or CON. DEX factors into your AC, with every 2 increases giving you a +1 (as long as you’re wearing light armor). It can also be useful for sneaking, dodging big AoE attacks, and attacking with a weapon (either rapier or a hand crossbow).

CON, on the other hand, provides hit points and improves your chances for successful CON saving throws if you’re hit while concentrating on a spell.

Bards also get access to Jack of All Trades at 2nd level, which allows you to add half your proficiency bonus to checks that don’t already include your proficiency bonus. This gives bards a bit more leeway in terms of min-maxing.

STR: No need for STR when you have magic to back you up.

DEX: Important for AC, stealth and DEX saving throws.

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

INT: Because of Jack of All Trades, you can afford to dump INT and still do alright in any INT checks that come up.

WIS: Can help with WIS saves and Perception.

CHA: On top of influencing your spellcasting ability, social checks, and how many times you can use Bardic Inspiration, CHA factors into the temp hit points you provide when allies use your Mote of Potential to aid their saving throws. Also, your Creative Crescendo ability at 14th level allows you to create a number of items using Performance of Creation equal to your CHA modifier. Pump this as high as you can as early as you can.

Best Races for College of Creation 5e

Standard Races

If you’re using the Player’s Handbook to create your College of Creation bard, consider the following options:

Half-Elf: +2 to CHA and 2 ASIs allows you to pump all your necessary bard ability scores. Skill Versatility can help you become the skill monkey your bard was born to be.

Halfling:

  • Lightfoot: +2 DEX and +1 CHA is a decent starting array, Brave and Lucky can help with survivability, and Naturally Stealthy can help you be more sneaky. All in all, not a bad start for a Creation bard.

Human:

  • Variant: +1 DEX and +1 CHA is a decent base for College of Creation bards. The free feat is amazing as it can allow you to pick up Magic Initiate, War Caster, or Fey Touched at 1st level.

Non-Standard Races

If you’re looking for more options for your College of Creation bard outside of the standard ones offered in the Player’s Handbook, or if you’re using the Customize Your Origins optional rule from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, here are some solid options:

Aarakocra: If you want concentration-less flight without having to spend a spell-slot, this is one of your best options. It allows you to distance yourself from enemies while you use your animated objects and dancing item to do damage.

Air Genasi: Shocking grasp, feather fall, and levitate are are a good mix of damage, utility, and buff/debuff for your College of Creation bard. Lightning resistance, Darkvision, and an increased walking speed are the cherries on the cake.

Astral ElfSacred flame and misty step are both great spells to add to your repertoire, as is the extra skill/tool proficiency. Sacred flame will certainly be a huge uptick in your damage output as it deals a d8 as opposed to vicious mockery‘s d4.

Auto Gnome: Being skill monkeys, Creation bards will love the extra tool proficiencies and d4 that Built for Success offers. They also don’t get access to medium armor, which makes the auto gnome’s Natural Armor a good AC boost. They also learn the mending cantrip, which can allow you to self-heal outside of combat.

Changeling: Bards are the perfect choice for changelings. The CHA is perfect for spellcasting, and bards are naturally the big talkers of the group so they will love the free CHA skill proficiencies.

Fairy: The Small creature size, flight, and ability to shrink yourself even further with enlarge/reduce can lead to interesting stealth options as an College of Creation bard. It’s also pretty par-for-the-course for a fairy to show up and start animating objects.

Harengon: Creation bard will love the initiative boost to drop a hypnotic pattern, or use Animating Performance before their enemies gets a chance to act. They will also be able to make great use of the Rabbit Hop ability in order to avoid getting into melee combat with tankier enemies.

Kender: A fast-talking bard that throws insults at their foes is what kender do best and they already buff CHA for their spellcasting. That said, their Taunt ability may get in the way of your Bardic Inspiration or commanding your dancing item because they both use bonus actions.

Satyr: Perfect ASI array, synergistic skill proficiencies, magic resistance, and extra movement. This race is one of the best available for Creation bards.

Yuan-ti Pureblood: INT is the biggest dump stat for Creation bards, but the +2 CHA is just what they need. Combined with some more spells at their disposal and of course Magic Resistance, a yuan-ti pureblood is a good choice for a College of Creation bard.

Best Backgrounds for College of Creation Bards

  • Charlatan: Proficiency with Deception and Sleight of Hand, as well as  forgery and disguise kits, will add a lot of tricksy utility to your Creation bard.
  • Criminal: Proficiency with Stealth and Deception can help your ability to sneak around and lie, which can further extend the College of Creation bard’s usefulness. Proficiency with thieves’ tools is a big plus because it allows you to pick locks if you’re lacking for a rogue.
  • Noble: History is a decent INT skill, and Persuasion is a must for bards.
  • Urchin: Sleight of Hand, Stealth, disguise kits, and thieves’ tools are all solid proficiencies that will easily pay off in a typical campaign.

Best Spells for College of Creation 5e

We cover all of the bard’s spells over at our bard guide. Picking up the College of Creation subclass doesn’t really change any of the ratings, so we’re just going to highlight some spells that your Creation bard will definitely want to take a look at based on your playstyle.

The only thing Creation bards should be careful of is concentration spells that require bonus actions to activate their effects. Your bonus action will be tied up with Animate Performance and Bardic Inspiration. This means that heat metal is unfortunately a no-go but, luckily, animate objects only requires one bonus action once it’s been cast.

Support

You want spells that debuff your enemies while also supporting your allies on the battlefield. You’ll also regularly use your Animating Performance and Mote of Potential to give support to your allies where the fighting is thickest.

  • Cantrip
    • Vicious Mockery: This is THE bard cantrip. It deals psychic damage and provides a strong debuff on a failed save.
  • 1st level
    • Cure Wounds: Healing is important so pick it up if you think you’ll need it.
    • Dissonant Whispers: One of the best 1st-level spells in the game. Verbal only components, good range, psychic damage, and can cause an enemy to move away from an ally. Not only does this provide support on the battlefield, but it can also cause an opportunity attack which makes the spell even more powerful.
    • Faerie Fire: Giving your allies advantage is really good, especially if you have a rogue or paladin in the party. Invisible creatures can also be a nuisance, so having a way to deal with them as extra value is sweet.
    • Healing Word: Great option even if you have a dedicated healer as it can be useful for resetting death saving throws from a distance and only requires a bonus action.
    • Heroism: Great buff effect, scales nicely as well.
    • Tasha’s Hideous Laughter: Poor man’s hold person. Still a great spell but the fact that they get to make saves after each time they take damage drastically reduces its effectiveness. If you can, save this for non-humanoids and use hold person on humanoids.
    • Silvery Barbs: Probably one of the more broken spells in 5th Edition. Silvery barbs allows you to automatically grant disadvantage to any creature when they succeed on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw. This may seem innocent enough, but when used in higher-level play and when noted that there is no saving throw to resist the effect, it can make short work of a legendary monster’s Legendary Resistances when saving against powerful spell effects. Essentially, silvery barbs acts like a second casting of a high-level spell, for the low price of a 1st-level spell slot and a reaction. Yes, using your reaction means you won’t be able to counterspell. But in most circumstances, especially when fighting a non-caster legendary monster, it can begin to trivialize encounters. The secondary effect, wherein you grant another creature advantage on the next attack roll, ability check, or saving throw is simply icing on top of the extremely powerful cake.
  • 2nd level
    • Blindness/Deafness: Very effective debuff that doesn’t require concentration. The only downside is that it targets CON.
    • Enhance Ability: Decent buff before you go into combat. Also has a fair amount of utility for just about any out-of-combat situation.
    • Hold Person: This can be encounter-breaking against humanoids. Scales well with levels.
    • Lesser Restoration: Diseases and conditions do come up from time to time, so you’ll be happy to have this when they do.
    • Suggestion: Never underestimate the power of suggesting a course of action to an NPC. Yes, Mr. Scary Guard, why don’t you give us the keys to your king’s treasure vault?
  • 3rd level
    • Dispel Magic: Always make sure at least one of your party members has this.
    • Fear: Amazing crowd control spell. Particularly good because they don’t get to retry the save until they break line of sight.
    • Hypnotic Pattern: Good range, good AoE, and its effect are potent. Incapacitating multiple enemies is a fantastic tactic to passively flee from the situation or do massive damage with automatic crits. The effect can be ended by a friendly creature taking an action to wake the affected creature from its stupor, but that will eat up a lot of action economy. Either way you slice it, hypnotic pattern is one of the best crowd control spells at this level.
  • 4th level
    • Freedom of Movement: It’s nice to give extra movement options to allies, but there are better buff spells and this one is pretty situational.
    • Greater Invisibility: Being able to attack or cast spells while invisible is a huge upgrade from regular invisibility. Give it to a melee party member and watch them get advantage on every attack and disadvantage on attacks against them, bonus points if it’s a paladin or rogue for extra crit + Divine Smite / Sneak Attack potential.
    • Polymorph: The best save or suck spell at this level. The hour duration makes transforming a hostile creature and running away a viable option or will give you more time to finish of its friends before it transforms back. This also allows you to shape-shift a friendly party member into a beast for combat or exploration purposes. The sheer utility this spell offers makes it an incredibly effective spell to keep in your arsenal.
  • 5th level
    • Dominate Person: Amazing spell when fighting humanoids. Taking over the mind of an enemy can completely swing the direction of the encounter. While spells like hold person can take an enemy of the fight, dominate person can make that enemy into an ally essentially creating a two for one. If you are fighting against humanoids a lot in the late game, this is a simply outstanding spell.
    • Geas: Not for use in combat but has extremely potent effects if you can cast it. The max damage this can do is 5d10 a day, so it’s best used on a particularly influential commoner.
    • Hold Monster: Spell that can take a creature out of the fight. Allows for a save after each turn which makes it worse than banishment for consistently keeping a monster out of the fight, but the monster can be attacked with advantage which will make quick work of it after it fails a save or two.
    • Mass Cure Wounds: Range, multiple targets, and decent healing power. One of the best bang-for-your-buck spells if you have multiple party members down.
    • Raise Dead: A more powerful resurrection spell than revivify because it has a 10 day time span and can cure Poisons and Diseases. Unfortunately, if you resurrectee is missing their head or other body parts, you’ll have to wait until you get resurrection.
  • 6th level
    • Mass Suggestion: Amazing charm effect. No saving throws, target up to twelve creatures, and a duration of 24 hours.
  • 7th level
    • Etherealness: This spell allows you to fly or move through solid objects, while not being affected or able to affect creatures not on the Ethereal Plane. You can only target yourself but there is no concentration. Pretty middle of the road all around.
    • Forcecage: No save and no way to get out once you get put in. This spell is a great way to contain a scary melee creature.
    • Regenerate: Not much more healing than mass cure wounds, but it does have the advantage of growing limbs.
    • Resurrection: Death is temporary when you’ve got resurrection. Because there is no time limit like revivify, this can be stocked when required.
  • 8th level
    • Dominate Monster: Extremely good option to help swing the tides of battle in your favor. If you manage to dominate one of your enemies, you’re 2-for-1ing the opponent by adding an ally to your side while subtracting an enemy from your enemy’s side.
    • Feeblemind: Encounter ending debuff if you hit a spellcaster with it. Usually, spellcasters at this level will have a very strong INT save or Legendary Resistance.
    • Power Word Stun: You can auto-stun a creature that has less than 150hp, but they get to make a save at the end of each of their turns.
  • 9th level
    • Foresight: Insane buff and it’s not concentration.
    • Mass Polymorph: Take up to 10 creatures out of the fight or turn your entire party into T-rexes.
    • Power Word Heal: “Overkill” for most situations but can really help turn the tide in the massive battles you’ll be having at 18th-20th-level.
    • True Polymorph: This can be a crazy buff, or an extremely effective way to permanently get rid of a creature. For the buff portion, you can turn a creature into another creature whose challenge rating is equal to or less than the target’s. If the creature you’re transforming is a player character, the CR matches the character’s level. Seeing as challenge rating is meant to match a party of four to five players of that level, you can get a huge power boost by turning into a creature that has a CR equal to your level. For example, a 20th-level character can be turned into an ancient dragon, which would typically take a party of 20th-level adventurers to defeat. On the other hand, if you target an enemy and manage to concentrate successfully for an hour, the effect can be permanent. Therefore you could turn the big bad into a rock or something. Forever.
    • Psychic Scream: Great damage, targets an uncommon save (INT), stuns on a failed save, and explodes your targets head if they die from the damage.

Summoner

You want spells that will put more bodies on the battlefield to get an action economy and numbers advantage over your opponents. Out of combat, these spells can be used to give the impression of conjuring effects using the Song of Creation, which is very flavorful for the College of Creation bard’s whole schtick.

There are obviously less of these spells than the Support playstyle, so you’ll have to intersperse these with other bard spells.

  • Cantrip
    • Mage Hand: Mage hand provides a lot of utility for a caster, allowing them to extend the range they can grab or interact with objects, with little combat benefit.
    • Prestidigitation: Extremely versatile, even if the effects are small this cantrip can do a lot.
  • 1st level
    • Unseen Servant: Not really much more effective than a mage hand at the end of the day.
  • 2nd level
    • Cloud of Daggers: If you can get this into a chokepoint you can do amazing damage.
  • 5th level
    • Animate Objects: Turn your trash into treasure. Send an army of pebbles at your opponents for 1d4 + 4 damage with +8 attacks.

Best Feats for College of Creation 5e

  • Fey Touched: An amazing half-feat that allows you to pump your CHA and get a free cast of misty step once per long rest. For the 1st-level spell, hex is probably your best bet as it provides a debuff on top of added damage.
  • Shadow Touched: A free casting of invisibility and picking up a damage spell like inflict wounds or ray of sickness can help your Creation bard diversify.
  • Magic Initiate: Choosing the warlock spell list will give you access to eldritch blast as a cantrip, and hex as a 1st-level spell. This combo will go a long way to upping your bard's damage output. If you wanted to lean into the Summoner playstyle, you could also go with the wizard spell list and pick up find familiar and minor illusion.
  • Resilient: Providing +1 CON can help with boosting your hit points because of your lackluster hit dice. Proficiency in CON saving throws will help with maintaining concentration on your spells.
  • War Caster: You don't need this for the somatic components ability and likely won't be making a ton of Opportunity Attacks. That said, the advantage on CON saves to maintain concentration will go a long way to help keep your spells up when you get hit.

Multiclass Options for College of Creation Bard

When multiclassing with a College of Creation bard, there are a couple things you should keep in mind. First, bards multiclass best with classes that require CHA or DEX prerequisites.

Second, you should take into consideration what level you’re starting at and what level your campaign plans to run till. If you’re playing to 20th level, you’ll want to make sure not to dip more than three levels or you won’t get access to 9th level spells.

Last, you’re looking for things that your bard doesn’t already have access to, which is actually pretty difficult for a build as versatile as Creation bards. This could be ways to produce consistent damage, ways to expand their magical repertoire, or even defensive capabilities. Here are some classes that provide interesting options for Creation bards.

Wizard

Dipping one level into wizard gives you some spells that you can cast with your INT that aren’t limited by school. The most common pickup here is find familiar. Dipping two levels into wizard gives you a subclass of your choice. Divination gives you Portent, making it by far the best option.

You could also go for the Order of the Scribes, which gives you a sentient spellbook and magic quill that help add to the flavor of your bard that can animate objects with the Song of Creation.

Warlock

A one-level dip gives you an Otherworldly Patron and Pact Magic, both of which are very good for your bard. Each Otherworldly Patron nets you some good abilities and spells but the best choice is probably the Hexblade, which gives you access to shield, proficiency with medium armor and shields, Hexblade’s Curse, and the ability to attack with your CHA modifier.

Pact Magic gives you 1st level spells that recharge on a short rest and access to the eldritch blast cantrip. You can also take a 2nd level dip into warlock for the Agonizing Blast cantrip, which is a massive power boost to your already stacked eldritch blast.

College of Creation 5e Build Example

In this build, we’re going to play to the College of Creation bard’s strengths. We’ll stack up on skill proficiencies, utility spells, and throw in some combat classics to keep your damage and battlefield control on pace.

Seeing as we have an odd CHA score after character creation, our first priority is going to be Fey Touched at 4th level. From there, we’re going to max CHA and then focus on other fun Summoner stuff, like Magic Initiate for find familiar and minor illusion.

Our late game is going to be using concentration for animate objects while we sling other, non-concentration spells for added buffs, debuffs, and damage.

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View Character Sheet

1st level
  • Race: Half-elf
    • Skill Versatility: Acrobatics, Perception
    • ASIs: +2 CHA, +1 DEX, +1 CON
  • Class: Bard
    • Proficiencies: Lute, flute, bagpipes, Persuasion, Deception, Performance
  • Ability Scores (Point Buy): STR 8 (-1), DEX 16 (+3), CON 16 (+3), INT 8 (-1), WIS 8 (-1), CHA 17 (+3)
  • Background: Urchin
    • Proficiencies: Sleight of Hand, Stealth, disguise kits, and thieves' tools
  • Equipment: Rapier, entertainer's pack, a lute, leather armor, a dagger
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add cantrips: mage handvicious mockery
    • Add spells: disguise self, dissonant whispers, healing word
  • Bardic Inspiration
2nd level
  • Jack of All Trades
  • Song of Rest
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: Tasha's hideous laughter, faerie fire
3rd level
  • Bard College: College of Creation
    • Mote of Potential
    • Performance of Creation
  • Expertise: Persuasion, Stealth
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: cloud of daggers, shatter
4th level
  • Feat: Fey Touched
    • +1 CHA (CHA 18)
    • Add spells: misty step, hex
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add cantrip: minor illusion
    • Add spells: enhance ability
5th level
  • Font of Inspiration
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: hypnotic pattern
6th level
  • Animated Performance
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: dispel magic
7th level
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: polymorph
8th level
  • ASI: CHA +2 (CHA 20)
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: greater invisibility
9th level
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: animate objects
10th level
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add cantrip: prestidigitation 
    • Drop spell: Tasha's hideous laughter
  • Expertise: Deception, Sleight of Hand
  • Magical Secrets:
    • Add spells: summon construct, bigby's hand
11th level
  • Spellcasting:
    • Drop spell: cloud of daggers
    • Add spells: mass suggestion
12th level
  • Feat: Magic Initiate
    • Add cantrips: chill touch, fire bolt
    • Add spells: find familiar
13th level
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: forcecage
14th level
  • Creative Crescendo
  • Magical Secrets:
    • Add spells: disintegratecrown of stars
15th level
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: dominate monster
16th level
  • ASI: +2 CON (CON 18)
17th level
  • Spellcasting:
    • Add spells: foresight
18th level
  • Magical Secrets:
    • Add spells: wish, shape change
19th level
  • ASI: +2 CON (CON 20)
20th level
  • Superior Inspiration

Sources Used in This Guide

  • BR: Basic Rules
  • GotG: Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
  • SotDQ: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
  • ERLW: Eberron: Rising from the Last War
  • EEPC: Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
  • EGtW: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
  • FToD: Fizban's Treasury of Dragon
  • GGtR: Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica
  • MotM: Monsters of the Multiverse
  • MToF: Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
  • MOoT: Mythic Odyessys of Theros
  • PAitM: Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
  • PHB: Player's Handbook
  • SAiS: Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
  • SCoC: Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
  • SCAG: Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
  • TCoE: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
  • TTP: The Tortle Package
  • WBtW: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight
  • VRGtR: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
  • VGtM: Volo's Guide to Monsters
  • XGtE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Other Bard Guides

Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Adamantine best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.

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