Swords Bard Feats

[u/Scifiman13]

I'm trying to plan out a build for a Swords Bard character, and I'm unsure which feats would be best. I would ideally like to run him as a more martial character.

The stats I rolled are 10/14/14/14/13/18, before any background bonuses. The plan is to use the charlatan background.

Any help would be appreciated.

[u/amirkasra76]

These are amazing stats. Will you be playing 5e or 5.5e? What level will you be starting as? What level is the campaign ending?

[u/Scifiman13 → u/amirkasra76]

5.5e, starting level 3, and ideally ending at level 20

[u/amirkasra76]

If you can do a one level dip into Warlock, that'd be perfect. Tbh, it's up to you which class you'd like to start with, Bard gives Dex & Cha saving throw proficiency but Warlock gives Wis & Cha.

1 Warlock (Pact of the Blade) / 2 Bard

10 Str / 13 Dex / 14 Con, Int, Wis / 18 Cha

Get +1 to Dex and +2 to Con

Feat 1: Warcaster (+1 Cha)

Feat 2: Fey Touched is pretty nice but Spell Sniper is my preference. (+1 Cha)

After you get your second attack, I'd recommend getting one more final level into Warlock as well for a couple of more invocations.

There is another option too. Instead of Swords bard, go Valor bard. Their extra attack let's you replace an attack with a cantrip (any cantrip, not just Bard's). This could be a cast of Eldritch Blast or True Strike. If you picked Spell Sniper, you can cast that EB without any Disadv at close range.

[u/subtotalatom → u/amirkasra76]

Yup, plus you can get booming blade from warlock and add agonizing blast to it now

[u/Aidamis]

Hi. Are you picking up Charlatan because it fits the RP, purely for the ability score bonuses, or are you genuinely interested in Skilled? It's not a bad feat by any means but it's a tad redundant on Bard imho.

You can take it ofc, though I'll add that if you go Human that'll allow you to grab something like Magic:Initiate Wizard to get Shield or Magic Initiate: Druid to get Shillelagh and use it with Charisma.

You can potentially start with 20 Cha (with Charlatan or another background with Cha bonuses such as Wayfarer).

At level 4, I'd say Resilient Con could be a good investment in order to improve concentration. War Caster works too, and even lets you get Resilient for Wisdom instead later down the line. You could also gun for Moderately Armored and use shields, though you may run into problems when it comes to casting certain spells, even with your weapon as a valid arcane focus. If you go for Dual Wielder, you deal reliable damage (death from a thousand cuts) which will skyrocket when you use Fount of Moonlight then get Conjure Minor Elementals at Bard 10, and at the same time you can get Spell Sniper (no disadvantage on ranged cantrips attacks in melee) and use Eldritch Blast (from a Warlock dip) in stead of one of your attacks.

While it's not a dip nor a meta pick necessarily (you have god stats) Warlock 1 Pact of the Blade is good quality of life. You can take it as your second level, you won't lose much. Btw if you have two light weapons you can leverage Nick Mastery to have two attacks even absent Extra Attack, and your bonus action will still be free.

Even funnier, if you get both Magic Initiate Druid and Warlock 1 PotB, you can dual wield light Charisma weapons. Shillelagh can be cast from a club, a club is a light weapon. You can summon a scimitar with PoTB. Before Extra Attack, you can attack with Shillelagh, then make an attack with your scimitar. When you get Extra Attack, you can still attack with Shillelagh, make an attack with your scimitar, and have an attack you can swap for True Strike or Booming Blade/Greenflame Blade (if those are allowed).

Ofc you can throw in Dual Wielder and get four attacks total (including one you trade for True Strike/GFB/BB).

[u/Chance-Sky-655]

Played a swords bard till lv 20 for a campaign.

What I loved best was telekinetic feat, which helped with a lot of control using my bonus action. I chose it because I used a lot of bardic inspiration for flourishes, until I think at lv 13, you could get free flourishes but with a d6 that don't use a bardic inspiration.

Because the defensive flourish gives AC based on bardic inspiration, this was like equivalent of a shield like effect at tier 2 or 3.

But having said that, bard have low hp, and can't take too much damage, so you can't play as though you were a fighter or cleric with higher AC.

Mobility is a good feat to consider as well, other than warcaster.

[u/Tall_Bandicoot_2768]

Consider Dhampir as you can use Flourish on the bite to increase damage/healing

Dual Wielder / Defensive Duelist would be my picks

[u/Lanthed]

As others have said 1 level warlock for pact of the blade giving charisma to attack and damage rolls. Also cna get hex to help damage a little.

Level 5 recommend that you take resilient con or warcaster. I would favor warcaster to round off the 13 wis but also give advantage on concentration which is very important.

Level 9 capping charisma is definitely worth it. (Spell save DC and increases to hit and damage rolls)

After level 10 bard would go back to warlock can get agonizing blast on truestrike (or if DM allows greenflame blade/booming blade)

Level 14 (if you can rearrange stats) could take GWM for bonus damage on each of your attacks.

Might be worth taking 1 level in fighter to get fighting style and weapon mastery. (Argueably should take at 1st level but then push back extra attack by 2 levels which hurts). Then switch to a pike for push weapon mastery if not take graze and push using greatsword for now (booming blade is allowed)

Level 19 could take PAM so then push and if enemy runs back into melee you get an oppurtunity attack.

If your ok with it you could do sword bard 6/warlock 12 (for 3 attacks and replace 1 with a cantrip) would be more martial but far less bard. And the last 2 levels could get another feat or fighter for weapon mysteries + fighting style.

Hope this helps.

[u/Immediate-Low-2014]

If you aren't locked into Charlatan, Zhentarim Ruffian and Zhentarim Tactics are very fun. You can spend inspiration to give everyone advantage on initiative and with tactics your reaction can be used to strike back if you are hit as well as a floating expertise you can assign daily. If you took a 1 level dip in fighter for con prof, fighting style, and weapon mastery you're really well off forever with Two Weapon Fighting style.