The Best Bard Archetypes in Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition (5E)
Ranking the Bardic Colleges
Creating the perfect Bard is hard work, between creating the right backstory and choosing feats and spells to fit your character. But, the most important part of making any character is choosing the perfect Archetype. A bard’s power is tied to their Bardic College, the way their power has been schooled, not unlike a wizard. This is what determines how your individual character is going to differ from the Bard as a base class. The List below will rank the Bardic Colleges by how strong their potential is. Let’s get started!
8. College of Swords
One thing bards are not often known as, is legendary swordsman. The College of Swords seeks to change that. Instead of finding prowess in singing and playing instruments, the Bard that pursues the College of Swords focuses on becoming epic weapon masters, powerful enough to fight other martial NPCs and monsters alike in combat. The focus of the College of Swords is on their martial ability and prowess, focussing on precise attacks and using finesse over strength. College of Swords gets a fighting style similar to Fighters and Rangers, they also gain speed and benefits to damage rolls equal to their bardic inspiration. Unlike other bards they also get the Extra Attack feature, befitting of their martial ability.
However, Bards excel because of their spellcasting ability. In 5e, Bards are a Tier 1 caster, on par with Clerics and Wizards for the first time in D&D history. Because of this, putting your bard in melee and attacking with a sword is simply put, a huge waste of your talents for the most part. College of Swords bards can be fun to play, but as far as an optimal archetype, this one sits at the bottom of the list.
7. College of Whispers
College of Whispers bards are spies, infiltrators, masters of espionage. Bards being a Charisma based caster and a class with a higher number of skills are born for intrigue. More than that, the bard always has an excuse to wander far away lands or infiltrate an event. They are, after all, an entertainer. College of Whispers combines magic and stealth, learning magical abilities that allow them to instill terror into their foes, control their worst fears and charm their enemies. In addition they gain the ability to do a not insignificant amount of Psychic damage with their “Psychic Blades” ability. College of Whispers, however, is fairly limited in their abilities compared to a great deal of the other subclasses on this list. Their specialty remains in disguise and intelligence gathering, but their combat and party buffs are more limited than other archetypes, which puts them lower on this list.
6. College of Valor
Similarly to the College of Swords, the College of Valor stylize themselves as great heroes and fighters, a bard who can fight alongside the frontline and bring back epic stories. Unlike the College of Swords, however, College of Valor actually stands up a little better at fighting. Going into this archetype nets the Bards proficiency in Medium armor, shields and martial weapons, which ensures they actually have a usefulness on the frontline and the AC to not get immediately pummeled by their enemies. The College of Valor’s Combat Inspiration is useful to the frontline and just like College of Swords they also receive Extra Attack. In addition to this, Valor Bards act not unlike the Fighter archetype Eldritch Knights, increasing in their ability to both fight and use their spellcasting abilities simultaneously for spectacular effects.
5. College of Lore
The College of Lore is for seekers of ancient secrets and those who root out the truth. While these bards can be scholars, they are more likely some of the most powerful bards out there, casting magic beyond that which most are capable of, all the while imbued with more knowledge than most could dream of. These bards immediately gain 3 skills, which should be put towards increasing your knowledge, such as Arcana, History and Religion, so that you might better understand your enemies. Combining this with Cutting Words allows the Bard to save themselves or their allies from attacks, or lower the damage they receive. College of Lore’s most powerful ability comes from their Magical Secrets, which gives them access to spells across spell lists at a low level, increasing the limited number of spells a Bard knows.
4. College of Glamour
The College of Glamour is for bards whose powers come from the Feywild, who are masters of the illusory and enchanting. They have beauty, presence and grace and are masters of charming their foes. They mix charisma and fear in order to win over friends and enemies alike. Their Mantle of Inspiration ability allows them to provide disguises and bonuses to speed and hp to their allies instead of using Bardic Inspiration, and is one of their most powerful abilities right at the start. Enthralling Performance is good for humanoids, but can be situational depending on your DM. The Mantle of Majesty ability allows you to cast Command as a bonus action, but takes up your concentration on possibly more powerful spells, the College of Glamour is quite powerful, but still falls short of some of the most powerful Colleges.
3. College of Spirits
Newly introduced in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, the College of Spirits power comes from their necromantic ability to call upon the wisdom of the dead. Pulling knowledge from deceased spirits, they have gathered information and stories from those who have long since passed. College of Spirits bards are creepy, and in some campaign settings they might be looked at as no better than an evil Necromancer, in others they might be a gateway to speaking with one’s loved ones. College of Spirits allow the Bards to gain all kinds of magical powers, and in this way, the College of Spirit is quite powerful, its Tales from Beyond ability grants the Bard a range of unique abilities, at 6th level you can use a short or long rest to gain a spell from any class that is Necromancy or Enchantment. In addition, you gain a continual bonus to your damage and healing. It is hard to place this College any lower on the list due to its strength.
2. College of Eloquence
College of Eloquence Bards are famous Orators, Diplomats or Actors whose ability to speak and to convince and enthrall is simply unparalleled. In battle, their ability to cause their enemies to fail against their spells places them high on this list. Within the bounded accuracy rules of 5e D&D, the ability to reduce a saving throw makes College of Eloquence Bards one of the most dangerous enemies in D&D period. A college of Eloquence Bard never rolls lower than a 10 on Persuasion and Deception checks, and one with the right Expertise should essentially never get a total lower than 20 on every Persuasion and Deception roll by level 5. Unfailing Inspiration allows creatures that use your Bardic Inspiration to keep that inspiration if they fail the check, meaning your bardic inspiration always ends in a success eventually. Furthermore, you gain the ability to make any creature able to understand you. Finally, you can use your reaction to give inspiration at level 14, without even spending your Bardic Inspiration uses, making you nearly the epitome of Bardic Power.
1. College of Creation
Bards of the College of Creation believe that music is the creator of all. Through music one can craft anything, can create anything, and that the Cosmos was formed by the first song. Drawing from that primeval magic, Bards from the College of Creation can literally create almost any item they want. They can grant motes of inspiration that offer them extra abilities with more options than most bards. This Note of Potential can be used for utility, combat or for saving throws to keep your allies safe. The Performance of Creation can create any non magical item of up to a certain gold piece value, and you can continue to do so if you spend additional spell slots. At higher levels your creation can become large or huge, and at 14th level the GP value disappears altogether, meaning you can simply create a Catapult or a Rowboat with a song. Your Animating Performance ability means you can turn inanimate objects into fighting creatures to help you and your companions out. College of Creation requires some creativity, but is my top pick for Bards, though admittedly only barely above College of Eloquence.
If you're looking for other articles about Bards, check out the links below! If you love this article, or any of my other articles, consider tipping or pledging here on Vocal to buy me an extra coffee or two! Thanks again for reading!
- Backstories for Bards
- Backstories for Bards Pt. 2
- Magic Items for Bards
- Best Spells for Bards
- Best Feats for Bards
About the Creator
Theo James Taylor
Writer, MCU lover, and HUGE RPG nerd (but especially D&D). I have been a ghostwriter for blogs and other publications for 5 years now, but love the freedom Vocal gives me. You can find me DMing an outrageous Homebrew Campaign every Monday!
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.