Blind, hypnotize, and insult your enemies into submission while your tank goes in for the easy kill.
Hold Person or Crown of Madness?
How should you spend your precious Bardic Inspiration??
Words are your weapon more than a song is.
This is primarily represented withthe Cutting Words subclass feature, which allows you touse a reaction to hinder enemies.
Beyond that, you’ll also be given access toadditional spells otherwise unavailable to the Bard class.
Species
Because there areno stat differences between species, none play amajor influence in your class.
For this reason,we recommend playing as a human.
Their Human Versatility means more skills to be proficient in, supporting the all-arounder style they’re good for.
Cantrips And Spells
Start withVicious MockeryandMage Hand.
This is a great way to debuff enemies from the start.Mage Hand is useful in the overall game.
Sleep
Its an early-game spell that can potentially disable multiple targets, with limitations, though.
Stats And Skills
The recommended stats for a Bard are close but not quite ideal.
With that in mind, we recommend the following starting stats.
you’re able to then increase your charisma morewith a featlater on.
As for Skills, this willmostly depend on playstyle, but we recommend the following skills.
Stay in the background instead of on the front lines, and choose spells that complement that playstyle.
Don’t dish out Bardic Inspiration.
Instead, save it for Cutting Words.
This can be the difference between life and death in some moments.
This pairs very well with your Song of Rest ability, which is essentially an extra short rest.
College of Lore Bards also getan extra instance of Magical Secrets.
For how to make the most of that, consult our Best Spells section below.
Already dealing 1d8 damage, the finesse quality means you could stilluse dexterity as your attack modifier.
It also comes with two debilitating weapon skills and Flourish.
Flourish lets youmake an attack as a bonus actionand potentially inflict yet another debuff.
For ranged attacks, we recommend aLight Crossbow.
It deals more damage than the starter Hand Crossbow, hitting for 1d8.
This, combined with the gloves, make most spell attacks give the effect.
Off Hand/Shield
Instrument
Wood Woad Shield
Can cast Ensaring Strike (may conflict with concentration needs).
It’s common to weartheBlazer of Benevolencesince it gives Temp HP when you give someone bardic inspiration.
But since this build focuses on using Cutting Words instead,we don’t recommend this armor.
But if you like how fancy it looks, don’t let us stop you.
But given the heavy potential of the Coldbrim Hat in this context, we recommend sticking to that.
Every Level Up Choice For A College Of Lore Bard
Wanta level-by-level guide for accomplishing this build?
Here’s how to do that.
Each table will represent reaching that level, citing the new things unlocked andwhat spells we recommend taking.
Note that it will skip level one since that is covered above.
Bestow Curse (Magical Secrets)
A powerful debuff.
Level 9
Level 5 spell slots
Dominate Person
Great control spell.
Further diversify your spell selection with ones that won’t eat up spell slots.
It’s one of the funnier debuffs to apply, especially against big dramatic enemies.
