D&D 10 Best 5e Feats For Bards Ranked

D&D: 10 Best 5e Feats For Bards, Ranked

Due to the class’ broad focus, a bard can make use of most of the feats in the game.

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It’s widely agreed Bards are one of the most powerful classes in Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, and in particular, the most versatile. With immense utility, powerful spellcasting, some of the best skills in the game, and even some combat ability, it’s a rare situation when a Bard isn’t useful.

Some players want to improve their character even further. Feats are the primary means of character customization in 5e, allowing a player to make their bard different from all others. Due to the class’ broad focus, a bard can make use of most of the feats in the game, but there are some that stand out above the others.

10 Healer Provides Some Non-Magical Aid

Despite being Arcane casters, Bards in 5e get access to plenty of healing magic, something more commonly associated with Divine casters like the cleric. It’s one of the many, many tools in their toolkit, and one of the most useful. However, using spells to heal uses up spell slots that could be spent elsewhere.

The Healer feat can serve to supplement a bard’s healing to save their spell slots for later. It does require an action, a healing kit, and the bard to be within melee range with the ally they’re healing, but saving a potentially-vital spell slot can be worth it. Alternatively, it can serve as a last-ditch effort when a bard is tapped out on resources.

9 Skill Expert Makes The Bard Even Better At What They Do

A core part of the bard’s identity is their skill versatility. They have proficiency or Expertise in more skills than any class besides the rogue. Certain bard subclasses can have as many as six skill proficiencies even before accounting for race or Background: four of which can have their Proficiency Bonus doubled by Expertise.

However, some players may want even more versatility than this, letting them do almost anything in the game with some level of effectiveness. The Skill Expert feat obliges, giving another skill proficiency and Expertise in a skill the character knows. For players who want to shine outside of combat, this feat can serve them well.

8 Magic Initiate (Sorcerer) Gives The Bard Some Fangs

Pretty much the only area the bard class isn’t always effective in is dealing damage. The bard class lacks particularly damaging at-will cantrips and instead focuses on disrupting enemies or buffing allies, and they only get a single weapon attack at base.

Some subclasses make the bard more effective with a weapon, but some leave them relatively poor for at-will damage. The Magic Initiate feat – taking spells from the sorcerer spell list – can alleviate this, letting the bard use their high Charisma to cast cantrips like Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, and more. Alongside this, they can take a single first-level sorcerer spell, increasing their magical capabilities.

7 Lucky Ensures A Bard Almost Never Fails

Few feats in 5e are universally-beneficial, but one of those few is the Lucky feat. It has a simple effect: players can reroll up to three ability checks, attack rolls, or saving throws a day, potentially turning a failure into a success, or they can force enemies to reroll successful attacks.

The benefits of this for any character are clear, but it may benefit a bard even more than other classes. Due to having Expertise in many of their skills, a bard needs to roll very low to fail most ability checks. With the Lucky feat and a reroll in their back pocket, they can make the chances of failure almost impossible when it matters.

6 Ritual Caster Lets The Bard Replace A Wizard

Although they go significantly further than a Jack-of-all-Trades, a bard is rarely as effective in a given role as a class that specializes in it. As such, while the bard is a perfectly capable caster, it falls down against classes like the wizard, particularly in ‘Ritual casting.’ Ritual casting lets a player cast certain spells without expending resources, at the cost of drastically increasing its casting time.

Although bards can ritual cast, they can only do it with the spells they know; unlike wizards, who are able to do it with any spell in their spellbook, or the cleric and druid, who are able to prepare new ritual spells every day. The Ritual Caster feat lets a character learn to cast any ritual spell another class gets access to, bolstering the bard heavily in this area; however, it can be redundant with other casters in the party.

5 Shadow Touched Improves Spellcasting Further

The bard is a very good spellcaster, being capable of casting the highest-level spells in the game and having a high number of spells known. However, there’s no such thing as too many spells known or spell slots, and the Shadow Touched feat improves both of these, making the bard even more versatile.

Letting them learn the Invisibility spell and a 1st-level spell of their choice, as well as cast them for free once per day, the feat can be used to give bards very useful spells from outside their spell list and simply make them an all-round better caster. That said, the limitation on Illusion or Necromancy spells may not suit all characters.

4 Fey Touched Gives Widely-Useful Spells

The Fey Touched feat is another designed to improve spellcasting, letting a character learn the spell Misty Step and another 1st-level spell of their choice, as well as giving a free casting of each per day. As such, it also serves to create a more effective and versatile spellcaster.

Misty Step is a valuable bonus action teleportation spell that bards can use to escape tight situations or melee combat. It’s a widely-recommended spell for almost any character. The 1st-level spell can be from any spell list as long as it’s a Divination or Enchantment spell, two schools that are very useful for the bard to draw from.

3 Resilient (Constitution) Improves A Bard’s Best Spells

Lacking direct combat spells, a bard’s focus in combat tends to be supporting and buffing allies or debuffing and disrupting enemies. Due to their power, a great many of these spells have the ‘Concentration’ rule, meaning a player can only cast one of them at once and has to make a Constitution saving throw to maintain them when they take damage.

Bards lack proficiency in Constitution saving throws by default, and so by the late game can be likely to fail these. The Resilient feat gives proficiency in one save of the player’s choice, and choosing Constitution makes these powerful spells last that bit longer and go that bit further.

2 Inspiring Leader Makes A Party Much More Sturdy

Bards often find themselves in the role of support characters, and there are few feats better for those than the Inspiring Leader feat. Once a short rest, the character can give a speech and offer each party member temporary hit points equal to the bard’s level, plus their Charisma modifier.

This may not seem like much, but it scales throughout the game. Furthermore, when given to an entire party multiple times a day, it results in a large number of temporary hit points that are lost before any of a character’s regular hit points. With this feat, a bard can prevent huge amounts of damage to their party, potentially saving themselves a lot of spell slots on healing.

1 War Caster Improves Any Caster, Particularly In Combat

With access to armor, a d8 hit die, and some weapon-focused subclasses, the bard is more likely to find themselves stuck in melee than casters like the wizard or sorcerer. This comes with its downsides, but also with its opportunities, and the War Caster feat makes it much more viable.

The feat gives a character advantage on Concentration saving throws, making the bard less likely to lose their powerful spells from combat damage. Furthermore, it lets a character cast with an item in either hand, meaning dual-wielding or sword-and-shield bards can still make use of their spells. Lastly, it lets a character cast a spell in place of making an Opportunity Attack, giving bards another chance to cast their most devastating spells on foes.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/dnd-best-feats-bards-ranked/

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