The music. I'm on an android phone. And it sounds great. I'm nitpicking a lot. But if anything can be improved you should have less progression in your music. Keep it muzak simple. The flavour is perfect though.
This build is perfect for the little old lady I want to make, lol. A grandmother from a small village who only has 1 level of cleric because as the oldest person in the town, she sorta just performs all the marriages. She heals people by licking her finger and wiping their wounds off and kissing them on the forehead. She's a bard though because she tells thrilling stories to inspire people and has amazing charisma checks. Persuasion especially. It's hard to say "no" to granny. ^_^ But she can also scold enemies for debuffs and psychological damage, and can be very intimidating when she's berating you.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Counterspell. Not only cancelling a spell from an enemy can save a lot of damage, the Lore Bard is the best at doing it since it can add its Jack of All Trade bonus when a spell casting ability check is required to counter spells of higher levels.
This is a very different build than your others and I love to see it. Talking about damage is an important and easy thing but optimizing for other styles of play is fun as well. I look forward to seeing more of your videos.
@@danieljames7629 I just find this whole comment section hilarious in retrospect because D4 ended up doing a twilight cleric, stars druid multi-class build.
Holy cow this is EXACTLY the class I'm trying to build, a support healing Bard! I always play Cleric because I LOVE being the tie that keep my party members from death, but I have always wanted a Bard, so I was looking for a way to marry the role to the Bard of Lore. I can't wait to watch through and see what you came up with!
1. I like the music. I didn't know I was missing it till it was there. 2. Magical secrets I would take over some of the heals (you only need so many healing spells): A) Counter spell - preventing damage is the best heal after all B) Simulacrum - now you have 2 healers! C) I'm not sure how I don't take Wish with magical secrets...it's every spell of 8th level or lower in the game once per day. SO MUCH UTILITY.
Not to mention the Jack of All Trades bonus adds to Counterspell, making bards the second best counterspellers in the game (second only to Abjuration wizards)
@@kori9779 Sorcerer is always the best at counterspell, due to a Subtle Spelled Counterspell being un-Counterspell-able. Doesn't matter how good your ability to counter higher level spells is if the BBEG just counters your counter, which they can do by RAW>
i know this is late to your reply, but you are really lucky..im fortunate if i can get my group of 3 people to show up once a sunday..at most ill get 2 out of the 3. which is fine, i can dm for 2 people, throw in a dmpc but...still not ideal
I'm playing in one group rotating between four games of dnd and one of planet mercenary. We play every Tuesday and Friday. And if too many drop out we play board games instead. On a Sunday I play in a separate group rotating two dnd campaigns. And on a Monday I play pathfinder. I'm probably a good target for hate. Far too lucky. Very grateful to my dms and fellow players.
Leomunds Tint Hut is a must when you get 3rd level spells. can be (and probably will be) cast as a ritual so you can provide shelter for your party every night that you are away from a town.
Thanks! Finally someone gave me feedback on the music! And yeah, I'm just pulling stuff from RU-vid's free library and crediting in the vid description where required. Glad you liked it!
Love the content! Could you optimize a melee spell caster that buffs itself with magic, if that’s arcane trickster, melee cleric, blade singer, ek, etc. ?
check out my episode 7 - Bladesinger. I think you'll like it - it seems to be my most popular vid so far, and is definitely *my* favorite character to play so far :).
@@DnDDeepDive Is the upcoming (awesome) change to Bladesinger worth talking about? Does the attack/cantrip combo indicate a move away from Shadow Blade or not? Would love to know what you think.
@@DrBeerface Definitely worth discussing. I think I'm either going to have to have an entire episode on the way Tasha's changes all of my previous episodes, or (more painful) go in and edit every single video to account for the changes :). As for the Bladesinger, I see this as a straight buff, and would keep Shadow Blade (unless I'm misreading it), since there's no reason you couldn't Booming/Green Flame blade as your cantrip, which just gives you even more damage per round. The bad news for Bladesingers is that they won't get to use their Bladesong as often (unless you're taking frequent long rests) - especially at early levels. And the slight nerf to the Warcaster/Booming/Green Flame blade combo, which admittedly was more of a "nice to have when you actually get an opportunity attack" as opposed to something the build was heavily dependent on...
If you go Half Elf is a great chose for Lore Bard you can start with a 16 16 14 12 10 8 stat array and still pick up Half Drow Variant to get a free casting of fairy fire or High for a free wizard cantrip.
Cutting Words can debuff ability checks. Initiative is an ability check. Winning initiative keeps your front liners from taking damage and using resources. In TCE bards get Aid now. At 3rd level with an 18 charisma and inspiring leader and Aid is super helpful
I always prefer proactive play over reactive. There is more value in giving temporary hit points, increasing hp (Aide), and giving a Bless/Bane/Farie Fire all to increase the team's overall lethality or damage/effect mitigation, rather than waiting to be in a pinch and spending the whole time doing some form of just trying to get back in a neutral state, before finally turning the tide in the team's favor. A good video game example is Darkest Dungeon; things go down hill fast, and terribly, if just a few things or one big thing goes wrong for the party.
same. i take it a step further, and subscribe to alpha strike philosophy in my builds. the goal is to always kill or incapacitate the enemy on round 1-2 before they can do anything to threaten you.
You didn’t mention Hypnotic Pattern among the third level Bard spells. It offers some fantastic control for just a 3rd level slot and is well worth considering if you want to reduce damage by controlling the battlefield. Also, Forcecage is very strong and is a Bard spell. Kind of expensive since it’s a 7th level spell, but the control is stupid good. No save, doesn’t require concentration, have to make a Charisma saving throw to be able to teleport or planar travel out, crazy stuff.
If you splash life cleric, healing spirit is better than aura of vitality for the following reasons: yes it's only five times healing (with 18 cha, six with 20 cha) but is a second level spell, has meaningful upcast, triggers for free freeing your bonus action the turn after you cast it and can trigger multiple times per turn if your companions move in the sphere. Also, literally frees up your aura of life if the spirit is sharing the space of the party member going down. Thus, 5d6+20 effective healing for a second level spell slot and only a single bonus action assuming you place it correctly, 10d6+25 if upcast to level 3.
Great video! One suggestion, it would be great to see an example character sheet in D&D beyond of the build, or have a list of the spells chosen in the description. Thanks and well done!
Thanks! Yeah, I definitely need to up the production value and content... the challenge is finding the time for all the little things. Will add this to the list of ways to improve :).
Bards Cutting Words is an amazing "heal" especially when you do your math&feel right. Cumulated with Bane with high DC. Just Wow. I loved playing Grave Cleric for Bless and crit-cancel and Max-heal-on-unconscious. Both are outstanding. I have yet to try many more =]
Ah, I used a divine soul sorcerer dip instead of cleric for my bard. Mainly for bless and better damage cantrips that scale off charisma (and shocking grasp), the 2d4 to saves for extra durability and medium armor from dwarf was good enough for AC, for me personally, but great build! Appreciate the breakdown of spells from level to level
I'm starting my first campaign in over a decade tomorrow. This looks like such a great and fun build! I'm going to be heavily influenced by this guide.
re 1st level spell choices (20:30): I'm a big fan of Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire, Healing Word, and Silvery Barbs. Dissonant Whispers with 3d6 psychic (scalable) damage and triggering attacks of opportunity is awesome imo...especially in a pally and melee rogue party. Faerie Fire in a party that rolls to hit a lot (I'm in a near all caster party with my druid, so don't use this one there). Silvery Barbs is bonkers imo and makes use of the bards reaction. For Bard 2 I normally go with Sleep; no concentration (only Faerie Fire is) and no save. As Sleep can be overcast and takes into account the enemy's remaining HPs, it is often a combat ender in the right hands...
Only issue with sleep in the long run is you want to retrain it over time (every 4 lvls I believe there's an optional feature at ASI milestones). Reason being is sleep gets less useful as you lvl due to growing hp pools (less armies of low hp enemies). Albeit sleep can be used to down a low hp enemy so theres some use to it.
I think simulacrum is an amazing option for the high level magical secrets spell and wish is always awesome,even if you save it for the clone/resurrection & I was wandering about 2 levels in grave domain cleric for better heals on downed allies & the path to the grave giving an Allie a massive boost in damage when you need it.
The grave cleric and the life cleric are very even at this. Personally I'd love to see you both, a life cleric and a grave cleric both running support with an understand that the GC heals.thw downed party and the LC heals the ones who are almost down
A sorcerer that has goodberry as a class spell (most likely through multiclassing druid or bard) would be able to heal (out of combat) 5 hp per spell point plus 10 hp per 1st and 2nd level slot. And unused spell slots from the previous day can be converted into berries that last 24 hours, so you could heal twice that amount every other day.
"Damit Jim, I'm a flautist, not a doctor!" (Kirk takes 1D4 psychic damage.) I did 1 lv Life Cleric first, then went Lore Bard. You get the heal spells first, plus heavy armor. Then you go all Bardy and be an insult comic. You can RP looking/acting like the foulest-mouth cleric they've ever seen with an awful bedside manner.
I think an interesting change to this build would be to base it on the Mark of Hospitality Halfling. In exchange for giving up the Custom Lineage feat, you get several things: - You get Goodberry right from level 1, instead of level 7. And the free 1/day Unseen Servant can deliver goodberries as a bonus action. - You get an extra ability +1. Since Resilient Con is in the build, the best option might be Wis 14, which gives you an extra Cleric prepared slot. - Taking Goodberry early frees up a magical secret. The support Bard might want to look at Revivify or Counterspell. In fact, although it wouldn't juice our TCH numbers, Revivity+Counterspell at Bard level 6 is tempting. - Halflings' Luck trait is nice, and Bountiful Luck is a very support-y feat option. - A d4 bonus to Persuasion checks.
With mass suggestion I would suggest: “Stay where you are, close your eyes, and cover your mouth with both hands.” Then you have the ability to deal with them one at a time. And because they can’t see they would be attacked with advantage at least on the first round and without being able to speak or use their hands for somatic components of a spell or the verbal ones.
I agree this is an excellent option. If a additional party member also has this spell it alleviates their need to save a spell slot for counterspell. Very versatile. Using a 3rd level spell to have the possibility of negating a spell of level 4 and above.
Tbh the character i have in mind probably won't multiclass that early, for role-playing purposes. But. Maybe a couple levels in. Besides that this is awesome
Like you mentioned at the beginning of the video, healing is overrated, but you leaned into it so heavily. Healing word and leomund’s tiny hut are more than enough. I know Tasha’s came out after this video, but 1 level of peace domain cleric for emboldening bond and bless and you’re already the best support character in the game because the majority of your party can now add 2d4 to all attacks and saving throws. That’s so big it’s broken. You could even take one more cleric level for balm of peace, a get-out-of-tpk-free card. Then, I’d go college of eloquence all the way. Finally, consider 3 levels of rogue for the soulknife. You’ll have near limitless telepathy with psychic whispers, and with psi-bolstered knack plus emboldening bond and guidance, you’ll never fail an ability check again.
Found you through dungeon dudes and you are great. Getting rdy to start a new campaign and was looking for a good bard support guide. Thanks so much!!!
I would have a hard hard time not taking wall of force at bard 10, i used it in a diffrent camp... by keeping consentration on the wall so that it remains perminent... it was totally like vandalism in my wake haha. stick it on the back of a door we go through... and just leave it.... those comming behind after us go crazy trying to open the door and never get to. Aura of life seems good but i play healer very well... seems that your animate objects can do a better job beating down stuff it was too good.
I used a 2 level Hexblade dip for my support Bard. Hexblade 2/ Lore Bard 18. I took Agonizing Blast and Devil's Sight. Along with the Armor & Shield proficiency, the Shield Spell as well as the Hex feature and the spell. This character was effective at all levels. Great support caster with the Dependable souped up Eldritch Blast for offense when needed. (I use the Life Cleric Dip in conjunction with a Divine Soul Sorcerer for my Battle Mage / reluctant Healer)
Great video, really inspiring (+1d12 )! I was always hesitant of playing a healer/support as it felt too weak compared to damage dealers, but this video gave me some great ideas. Really excited to try them out, thanks! Keep making more videos please!
Heroes’ Feast is a great candidate for a late level magical secrets pick. It is one of the best support spells in the game if you have a party of at least 4 or more IMO. 2D10 max hit points (not temporary; real hit points), advantage on WIS saves (amongst the most common to face) and immunity to poison for everybody in your party (upto 12, so you can give it to some NPCs too). The only drawback is 1,000GP material component which limits value for very small parties, otherwise it is a great use of a level 6 spell slot.
I think that dip in 1 lvl cleric, the order domain is better, and the lvl 1 feat of maneuvers of the battlemaster for the maneuver that let a companion atack in your turn. is almost like a warlord in 5e
Looked it up cuz this sounded great but unfortunately this would use up your action and bonus action on the same turn. It's not bad but maybe not as good as I first thought
Something I like to do when I'm the bard and the party healer is to take find greater steed (griffon) as a magical secret. What I then do, is if a gang of baddies bully a squishy to death, I then heal them, and tell the griffon to pick them up and fly them further away from the battle. For 14th level, Plane shift both boosts our defense and our offense, allowing us to just send someone poor sap to the elemental plane of water (make them drown), fire (make them burn to death), air (make them fall for a VERY long time), or earth (make them die of boredom). Lastly, for final level, I would take animal shapes. It's the same thing as polymorph, but when their new shape is about to die, you just turn them into a new beast.
One spell I recommend is Silvery barb. Being able to stuff an attack (AFTER the attack roll. Make your DM re roll that crit!), and then giving an ally advantage is HUGE.
My current character, the support healer and de-buffer: Lore Bard 4/Divine Soul Sorcerer 1. I picked up Bane instead of Bless (Paladin in group has it covered). Combat Medic to say the least.
Peace cleric + Glamor bard ..... killer to-hit Bonus for your allied & insane saving throws (emboldening bond + bless + bardic inspiration) + constant repositioning (Mantel of Inspiration) during the fights.... and you run arround unhitable ( Sanctuary + Mirror image, both no concentration thus combinable with bless) ...
Polymorph suggestion (semi-situational) As big of a whale as you can manage. The sheer size means you might be able to ping down an additional enemy or two plus they are air breathers, no suffocation damage and they have a ton of hit points. A few days later they may die of dehydration or starvation unless you care, the situation seems pretty handled at that point. ;)
This is how i handle polymorph as well. it's a combat ender. well this or the whole polymorph into a small turtle and put into the 2 bag of holding combo.
And what about a bard lore level 6, a cleric life level 1 and sorcerer divine soul 6? You have metamagic and have empowered healing to reroll bad healing dices
If I'm playing a Bard, my Magical Secrets at level 10 will always include Steel Wind Strike or Conjure Volley. Too cool and too good not to take at least one of them.
I'm running a Sorlock Support/Blaster hybrid rn. Having access to 3 class' spell list is awesome, and having Eldritch Blast to spam between concentration spells and heals is awesome.
Magical Secrets * (Slow)... it'll stop more attacks than you could ever have healed. The Wis save is one of the better saves in the game so its moderately reliable. Even if you only slowed them for a couple of turns at the start of the fight that's pushing the action economy in your groups favour at a pivotal point in the battle. * (Mass Cure Wounds)... You can't heal the party in combat more quickly than this. It's a total fight momentum changer. * (Counterspell)... a spell countered is a spell you don't have to heal for.
You sell Otto’s Irresistible Dance a little short. There is no save to resist it (the first turn happens automatically) and it’s an action to try to save against it. The first turn they can’t move at all unless they dash (and even that is debatable). Do at worst the enemy can’t move for one turn and wastes one action breaking out. It’s basically budget Maze. Speaking of Maze, possibly best control in the game (especially if the monster has a negative Int mod in which case they’re gone until your concentration breaks) so could be a great pick for Magical Secrets.
I actually played a lore bard healer in a campaign that ended a little over a year ago and it was awesome to see how similar we built it. I went with a lot more control with things like hypnotic pattern which allowed us to really spread out the damage by taking on a lot few enemies at at time. Counterspell was another one that got A LOT of use. Great video, I have enjoyed many that you have put out and can't wait to try out the Armorer in my next campaign. Cheers!
Mass suggestion idea: "you are all REALLY tired, you all should go to sleep for a few hours." Enough time to either get away, bound all the enemies, or have everyone attack each enemy one at a time.
@@TheRobversion1 not quite that strict. Look at the RAW example in the Suggestion spell. A knight would never do that "normally" especially considering the cost of their warhorse +barding and other costs and their status symbol.
@@gmorf33 again this is up to the DM. Going to sleep for a few hours in the middle of a battle is not as reasonable (this is life threatening) compared to asking someone to give their horse to someone else and leave the battle. The latter could be seen as beneficial as it saves them from possible death.
I really enjoy having a music background. I would like it turned up a little - it's at that strange point where I keep thinking I hear something and looking for it, forgetting it's on the video
Hi. I’m very late to the table, I know. But, I’ve recently made a character that is inspired by this build. I’d like to point out a few observances that work for me. 1) Life Domain Clerics automatically get Bless and Cure Wounds as domain spells. This allows you more spell choices for known and prepared spells. 2) At a point, you recommended Cure Wounds and Healing Word as bard spells only because of the greater ability mod added to healing. I argue that this (at most) will be 4 points, assuming a 20 Cha vs 13 Wis. But, you get Cure Wounds free with Life Domain, and taking Healing Word as a cleric frees up your precious spells known for Bard for something more versatile. I opted to learn Healing Word as a cleric. (This let me pick up Faerie Fire and Feather Fall as a bard. Moreover, I can drop either/both those spells and repurpose them for higher level spells in the future if I choose. I also had a 14 Wisdom, granted, which gives me an extra prepared spell, so I could still grab Detect Magic, Healing Word and alternate between Purify Food & Drink and Sanctuary.) 3) Speaking of cleric, consider Sanctuary. Sure, the DC is based on your cleric spell save DC, but Sanctuary lasts a minute with no concentration providing you’re not attacking or affecting enemies with your spells. This can run the whole combat while you’re healing and buffing others. If/when enemies target you, they still need to pass a saving throw, which will increase in higher levels due to your proficiency mod increasing. 4) As for feat choices, I am lucky. Our DM started everyone off with a free feat at L1, and I took the half-elf race and Inspiring Leader here. My L4(L5) choice is most likely going to be Fey Touched, which will round out my odd-numbered CHA score and give me wonderful mobility options with Misty Step. I expect, at L8(L9), I’ll be picking Resilient-Constitution (over War Caster. Though both are attractive, I can keep a hand free for somatic components [my shield becomes a drum in combat, which I slap rhythmically and I use as a spell focus, thanks to a liberal DM who liked the idea. My reaction can be devoted to Cutting Words over the opportunity-cast of a spell I might get from the WC feat.] At L12(L13), I’m looking at Alert, and I will deal with other options later. But, an increase in Wisdom is tempting (skill use, saving throws, cleric spell DC for Sanctuary, an extra prepared spell, and +1 healing for Cure Wounds & Healing Word.. seem collectively worth the boost in Wisdom!) (Btw, I was introduced to your channel after your collaboration with Treantmonk and the Dungeon Dudes. I enjoyed your rp and playstyle.)
Really like this build. Did you consider going grave domain rather than life domain? At the beginning you had talked about the value of healing an unconscious ally.
Thanks! I did, but ultimately, I like the bonus to all healing from Life for this build a little better, especially once you pick up Aura of Vitality. The bonus to healing for a downed friend from Grave is nice, but at player level 2, comparing, say, a lvl 1 healing word on a downed friend from a Life Cleric (2.5 average plus 3 for Charisma plus 3 for Life Cleric for a total of 8.5) to a Grave Cleric (4 plus 3 for Charisma for a total of 7) the Life Cleric comes out ahead even in that scenario. Granted, if you're using higher level spells to get downed friends back up, the Grave Cleric would pull ahead, but not by enough to warrant it imo.
I think having the peace domain cleric and being able to have a constant bless on people aswell as being able to just run past people and give 2d+ modifier to everyone as an action with no spell slots or concentration for either at JUST LEVEL 1 is insane I’d love to see a build around this
I already play a Bard/Life Cleric and it was amazing. My character was an Priest that like singing during is ceremony (like Gospel in american church). With my DM, I got the idea that I will create sacramental bread instead of Good Berry with the spells. So my character always have a bag full of sacramental bread to help the poor or help is ally. I really like the mix between Cleric and Bard as a religious character that speak a lot and sing instead of playing an instrument. He was really fun to Roleplay, have a lot of potential and really strong as a character.
It is worth pointing out that Irresistible Dance does not allow for a saving throw when the spell is cast. You get a saving throw only if you take an action to do so.
Feel you should have considered counterspell and fireball here. Dead enemies do no damage, and lore bard with counterspell is huge. It is an ability check so peerless skill can be added to your counterspell. Also, it sound like the people you play with don't like to kill off downed players so they can't bounce back up with a heal. Might be an idea to take two to three warlock levels for eldritch blast, that way you always have something useful to cast.
Disagree on PW: Stun. It's a spell that 'might' work with a CON save that's very common with opponents. If it works then you're probably already at the point of a fight when you're going to win. It'd be better to save the slot or do something else.
a multiclass option at high level that could be interesting would be to multiclass 11rogue, and 9 lore bard for a counterspell monster. as the rogue ability, the jack of all trades stack, to interact with the counterspell mechanic to allow you to just say no to spells upto 8th level without even having to roll. but I am sure that it could be improved on.
Could be useful to calculate how much damage mitigation can be done if they use their cutting words to cause attacks to miss and add that to the healing. Set it against player ac of 12, 15, 18 and against an enemy with a +5 and a +7?
The music is well mixed in, offering a suitable background to your voice. Mic placement and gain is well considered, though halving the distance would enrich the tonality of your voice even more... not that it needs it, but if you can enhance what you've got, then why not?
Thanks for the feedback! Part of me would really like to get that mic closer but I feel like it casts too much shade ... maybe I need to play around with setting/lighting...
Aura of vitality seems like a really bad pick. Counterspell, stopping a fireball will do more 'healing'. You should already have fear or hypnotic pattern, and disable several enemies with your concentration. Since these are area spells, usually at least 1 enemy will fail the save. Do you think 1 enemy will do more or less than 2d8+5 damage on average in a turn? I would guess more, and this way you don't have to spend your bonus action each turn. Aura of life seems like an even worse pick. This will work exactly one round, then the enemy will down your one hit point ally, and using their multiattack they will kill them. Maybe your DM is too nice to do such things, but since revivify and raise dead are spells that exists, it isn't even cruel by the DM. This concentration spell buys you a turn, at most. Compare to wall of force, that just traps a bunch of enemies so they don't do damage for most of the fight, that will buy you way more than 1 turn. For regular spell selection, Synaptic static has to be mentioned, it is one of the best debuffs in the game that doesn't require concentration. It grants a save each round, but lots of creatures have terrible intelligence saves.
what you described basically is a controller and not a support healer anymore. that's why you don't see the spells you mentioned. It goes against the purpose of the build. having said that i agree that a controller approach is the better way to mitigate dmg over tanking or healing. the only other archetype that compares are alpha strikers.
@@TheRobversion1 I guess it is a question of how you define a support, in my mind control is an important part of being a support. But if you define support as someone who focuses on healing and buffs, then sure. I feel like in the start of the video, he does a very good job of describing why healing spells cannot be your entire focus, but then he goes on to make a build, where healing spells are the main focus. Almost all of the bards best spells are concentration, then he goes on to add concentration based healing spells with his magical secrets, meaning he actively opts out of using all the good concentration stuff there is on the bard list. The series is called D&D: Optimized, I guess this just doesn't feel very optimized to me.
@@peterrasmussen4428yeah healing is suboptimal..the moment you start healing in combat, it means you are losing. Indeed, control is its own archetype. Spells like hypnotic pattern are control while spells lets say like bane are debuffs (and imo is in the support's wheelhouse). I would've also picked other spells as a bard with my magical secrets. I dont see anything wrong with picking more concentration spells as long as they are superior to what's on the bard spell list. For example, in a low magic campaign with a martial/summon heavy party crusader's mantle is very very good. I would however definitely steer clear of healing spells. What the bard has on its list is enough.
Hey, loved your video. Would love your suggestions: Our DM is giving us a free feat at level 1 which opens me up for choosing Protector Aasimar but open to others. I rolled 10/11/11/13/14/16 for stats. Our DM is also allowing us to relocate one of our racial ability score increases to an ability of our choice. My thought was choosing Inspiring Leader for a feat. Im thinking of putting my stats like this: STR-10, DEX-11(+1), CON-14, INT-11, WIS-13, CHA-16(+2). I just dont see why I should prioritize dex over con at all. Our party will consist of Rogue (wiz multiclass), Monk and Vengeance Pally. Also we will be starting with no equipment or belongings what so ever.
I think you've got it right! No need for weapon attacks with this build, so just stand behind your beefcake companions and toss out insults every round :). Gonna be a blast to play!
Hey Colby, I've watched this video recently. I was really curious on your take of a build with the idea of optimizing the manipulation of dice rolls for yourself, allies, and enemies throughout combat. The easiest race option is Halfling for the lucky race feature, and the easiest feats possible are the Lucky and/or Bountiful Luck feat for Halfling. With classes like battlemaster fighter, mastermind rogue, divination wizard, and lore bard and spells like bless, bane, hex, vicious mockery, and mind sliver, it's been tough making a build to optimize this.
You neglected the effect of Inspiring Leader, which is in effect healing that happens before the battle. Also, I took Aid with my magic secrets which also adds hit points before the battle but ALSO can be healed AND stacks with Inspiring Leader's temporary hit points. This adds up to a LOT of HP at all levels...
I'm currently playing a Cleric 1 (Peace)/ Bard 7 (Lore) in Storm King's Thunder and I'm a support GOD! Emboldening Bond is incredible! I picked up Doss Lute and now Hypnotic Pattern just ENDS combats (I honestly feel bad using it). Oh yeah, my AC is 21 (+1 Shield and +1 Half Plate)! I picked up Counter Spell and Conjure Animal as my first magical secrets, and I've yet to use them. Highly recommend the build, super fun.
I joined a game of new/newer players run by a new DM (who was inspired to run his own campaign after I got them all started in my home brew world). And I realized they needed a support/healer. But I wanted to try a Creation Bard. So we just leveled up to 7. I’m playing a Mark of Healing Halfling 6 Levels of Creation Bard 1 Level of Divine Soul Sorcerer Between: -the Motes of Inspiration from Creation College -Fey Touched feat -Bonus once a day spells from Mark of Healing -Bardic Inspiration -A half dozen other class/racial abilities And the added bonus of the full Cleric Spell list… I think I broke the game. I just need a workout to get my AC up to par (it’s a 15).
Goodberries and aura of vitality are your magical secret? Healing spirit (Druid/ranger spell from Xanathar) healing for 1d6 per turn just by touching hte spirit (no action required your melee group can simply run around the target, each passing through the spirit every turn for 1d6 healing. Then when combat ends 4 round later, the entire party can stand around the spirit and get heal for an other 6d6 EACH.and for every upcast it heal an additional 1d6 per player per turn. Their is a reason why every DM of the world cried when they released the spell. It's also a great HoT, it's sutainable (as a spell level 2, by the time you are level 7... you can cast level 2 spell often. You still have your bonus action free for bardic inspiration, and you still have your action free for more vicious mockery reducing the chance that reckless barbarian will get hit. Sure it's not has broken as many claims. Yes it has the POTENTIEL to heals for an average of 100d6 so 350 HP as a spell level 2... If 10 persons sit around it for the full minutes... and that 350 healing is split into those 10 players so 35 HP maximum each (the sorcerer who only received 4 damage from an arrow, will only be healed for 4 and the remaining 29 HP cannot be given to the barbarian who is missing 40 HP and will also receive only 35HP. It's not as if you were casting Mass Heal and spreading healing as needed for 700HP in one round. It's great for out of combat (putting praying of healing to shame) sure. During combat it will help the melee survive (sure a range could run in melee to get heal, but then need to use a disengage (or other ability like misty step) to go back at range, or risk an attack of opportunity which would defeat the purpose. and 1d6 healing even on a barbarian who is getting pummeled, is nice, but far from game breaking (as said previously heroism will give this barbarian 5 HP per turn, compare to heaing spirit average of 3.5) an with your disciple of life, that extra +4 per turn per player is effectively interesting. So even if it's not broken AF as many DM cries about, it's still much better then good berries (still great if you are playing a survival campaign like Tomb of Annihilation or Out of the Abyss, where your food ration are very important) and aura of vitality IMHO And like I said on your barbarian video. the DPR of your support is also a form of support. A sorcerer who cast fireball and kill 6 goblins, prevented 6 goblins attacks, permanently. Way more efficient then vicious mockery which give 1 disavantage to 1 target for 1 attack. SO it might be interesting to see the DPR of your support build. Obviously it would be unfair to compare the DPR of the support to the DPR of the PAMlock but comapring the DPR of my support sorcerer who fireballed the goblins, and twin cast polymorph to transform the fighter and the barbarian into T rex might be interesting to your Bard might help a little bit. To piggy back on the team idea, some support cannot exist in the vacuum. Support exist only in the context of a party. You did build (barbarian/fighter) who could solo an adventure. solo kill a dragon etc... But I really doubt your bard here could solo a dragon. If we would give a numerical value to a caracter (your fighter/barbarian being a 7, your assesserer being a 6) and calculating the effectiveness of a party by adding those number togeher (so your fighter/assesser team would be a 13) the support character would be a multiplier (my sorcerer when I haste my rogue friend I double his effectivenss in combat so my sorcerer would be like a x2, so in the fighter/assesserer team, add my sorcerer and that team is now a 26, between casting haste on them, and twin polymorph when they are almost dead and casting fireball to clear out the weak minion allowing them to focs on the BBEG, etc... and greatest boon, while a lot of player complain when the paladin solo kill the BBEG dealing 500 damage on it, no one ever complained about the sorcerer who heightenen cast hold monster the BBEG alloying that paladin to auto crit on all his attack to deal that 500 damages). The drawback is if you have a team of "bad character" each doing less damage then the previous one, casting haste on the rogue using a greatsword (so no sneak attack damage) because he thinks it's cool, well multiply 0 by any number and it remains 0) or that you use your support spell wrong (cast polmorph on the wizard who still had all his spell or cast haste on the fighter instead of the rogue, sure the fighter does more damage overall, but that single extra swing, the rogue is the character with the most devastating single attack swing, unless you can build a silly build for it?) And some support will be stronger to support some type of character. For example a healing focus support might be better to heal the barbarian (with resistance basically doubling the value of each heal) compare to giving disavanage to the enemy attacking the barbarian low AC, might not help that much, compare to healing your paladin tank might not be as effective, but giving disavanage to the enemy attacking his already high AC will make him virtually untouchable. So maybe for comparing the value of support, we could look at 3 diffrents stats. Number of round added to the survivibility of your bear barbarian Number of round added to the survivibility of your tankadin Amount of damage added to the party within a standardise party composition (1 fighter, 1 rogue, 1 offensive spell caster and the support) and what is that about Power Word kill being good? no bad optimizer (joke) But seriously, Power word kill do in best case scenario 100 HP damage+instant kill or nothing. If we take Disintegrate (a spell level 6) upcast it to level 9 (so we compare 2 level 9 spell) disintegrate deal 19d6+40 force damage (rarely resistance/immune) and if the target reach 0, it's disintegrated (so instant kill) 19d6+40 on average will deal 106.5. So on average you deal 6.5 more damage then Power Word Kill. If you misscalculated your target HP and he had 101, he's still dead and disintegrated compare to PWK which did nothing. If he had 107, sure he's not dead, but he still took the entire 106.5 damage, compare to PWK that did NOTHING. And sure disintegrate got a dex saving throws or nothing whichi si similar to evaluate the target HP or nothing mechanic of PWK, except if the target is restrained (where is that giant frog ranger build?) the target will have disavantage on his dex savign throws. If the target is stunned or paralyzed he automatically fail the saving throws, and if the target is petrified (into a nonmagical object)... then it's instant kill no matter how much HP it had, even if the target is huge+, missing a 10ft cube of his body will most probably be fatal. So disintegrate save or noting mechanic can be help and boosted in the caster favor. Compare that to PWK which only way to "help evaluate the target HP) is asking a a level 7th+ battle master to study the target for 1 minute to determine if the target as less, equal or more current HP then him. If the fighter at 100 HP, then 10 round later (1 minutes) he will know if the target at 100HP or less) but I don't see this to be effective in most combat, compare to simply restraining or stunning the target and disintegrate it which would work in most situation. (without considering how metagaming the concept of HP is)
Hey what about 1 or 2 builds based on high or low stat rolls. So a build for if you roll like 4 17/18s and then another for if you roll nothing higher then a 12. Would be a cool resource for those outlier rolls. Also have you thought about reviewing Tasha's from a min/maxers perspective when it comes out. You could probably get a short video out of each subclass of you wanted to.
I'll have to add the low/high stat rolls to the queue :). Yeah, I think I'll do at least one episode post-Tasha's just updating all my previous builds. I'm sure the subclasses will slowly filter in too as we go along!
I like mass suggestion I hate how fickle SOME DMs can be about it though. Like It's always "Oh WeLl ThAtS not WiTh In ReAsOn BecAuSe iTs nOt ReasOnaBle." like no bro, you are just mad I ended your encounter with this spell by telling them to take a hike, or to count grains of sand on a beach, or go stack rocks. But because they even seem remotely drastic as a response, the spell always manages to fail. Those while drastic don't break the whole "injuring themselves."
Im really considering this build w/ changes that i cant decide on. I saw this build and then i saw dnd daily the conductor build. both builds gave amazing points and features. I plan to heal and support w/ this build as the team consists of a barbarian/fighter, gloomstalker ranger, homebrew monk, a homebrew warlock, and a time wizard(damage set): Order ('extra attack') Or Life (better heals) And Glamor (movement and temp hp) Or Lore (more magic secrets and a psuso bane as reaction)
Divine soul with twin Healing Word/Heal/Polymorph seems to be a better healer. Twin Polymorph turns a TPK around. Twin Heal because massive damage is often dealt as an AoE.
The challenge with Sorcerer is the smaller number of spells known which limits flexibility (12 at level 10, and 16 maxed at level 17 - including the free spell from divine magic). The extra two sorcery points you can pick up from the feat in Tasha’s help sustainability for lower level sorcerers massively - variant human with metamagic adept is a must for optimising any sorcerer. I’d be interested to see another video theory crafting the optimal spell list for this build to go head to head with the Lore Bard.
I don't think Dex is that good of a proficency to have, in my mind the ranking is: -Con (For spell concentration and you will be makeing alot of these, plus there are alot of deadly Con saves, mummies, banshee, basalisk, gorgon, medusa, chasme, catoblepas, etc not to mention poison is really common and you might have to make saves against exhaustion fairly often depending on the campaign) -Wis (Really deadly effects, succubus, vampires and aboleths, all have 24 hr mind control abilities and depending on what they do you might not even get a repeat save, add to that things like dominate person/monster and frighten effects that can also cripple you pretty hard and you are looking at a bad time if you fail yur Wis saves) -Dex (there are alot of Dex saves in 5e but almost none of them are as deadly as Con or Wis most of them simply avoid Elemental damage and that is not super relevant specially if you have access to something like absorb elements) - Int and Cha (I would aregue are tied alot of deadly Int saves devour intellect, feeblemind, hydroloths steal memeory and alot of deadly Cha saves magic jar, plane shift, ghost/demon possession, very deadly but very rare) - Str (at the bottom of the barrel I would put Str not only are their very few Str saves in 5e but most of them don't have that dire consequences it usually just knows you prone or pushes you 10 ft back or something) Just my 2 cents in the topic.
a bit late but a DS sorc lvl 1/19 lore bard really put in work too, con prof is huge, saves a feat for resilient (con). plus DS sorc gives 2d8 on failed saves and attacks...including death saves at lvl 1, plus you still get the cleric spells. get moderately armored asap and be reeeeal smart for tier 1 play.
I wanted to say, thanks for the video. I am currently playing my first bard in CoS. I did take lore bard, I am a support but I opted for the warlock approach. I found that using Blindness/Deafness is so powerful. More often than not I find myself casting it almost every combat. Another person suggested counterspell. I agree with them 100% the best way to heal a party is to stop the damage from ever happening.
My rogue/fighter just died in last night's campaign (sacrificed to save the wizard, only at lvl 5 so not terribly sad at the loss.) I went Halfling on your build here because I seem to roll a lot of 1s. Excited to test your build out!
You know looking at all these optimization builds (not just d4's btw) I don't think I have seen the infamous satyr or Yuan-ti. Is this b/c you expect they'll be banned, or are they not that optimized to begin?
Unfortunately, I'm a year late to this question. I like the music idea so far (2 minutes in). It was REALLY loud in the intro and I was worried that it would stay louder, but you got it at a perfect volume, at least for me.
