This Bardadin Build Smites BETTER Than Any Paladin: The Greek Hero 

🤯 mind blown! Can’t believe I missed that. That significantly changes the build as you can take whatever spells you want past level 5. Thanks mate!

@@DnD_Daily what would you change?

​@@DnD_Dailysorry for re-open the topic almost a year later, but you can't cast every thing. The spell with both S and M component can't be casted with both hand full. The focus replaces the M or the S components.

@@killer44339 Is that really like that? I just double checked the spellcasting as decribed in D&D Beyond and I got this: A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components -- or to hold a spellcasting focus -- but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components. I get it that the focus replaces material components but the same hand used to hold it can be used for S components. am i missing something?

​@@leosakata1165 you are correct.

WotC says otherwise

I like that a lot!

Old times Victorian Police officer?

Sword bard can you use its weapon as a focus.

Bard is actually pretty weak on Battlefield Control spells, though (unless you consider Hypnotic Pattern battlefield control; personally, I think of it more as a mass debuff). But other than that one weakness, you're absolutely right. 😉

I am playing this build in a party rn. You are absolutely right :D

If you go Paladin 6 (for Aura of Protection) and lorebard (as much as possible) you get a true Jack of All Trades. Not as overwhelmingly fantastic on the offensive in combat as taking levels in Swords bard (you don't get flourishes and the extra fighting style and can't use your weapon as your focus) but you get more spells, more skills and more survivability. If you go fo rOath of Vengeance you also get Armour of Agathys and Spiritual Weapon and you'll be a monster. :D

@@morganpetros9635 by "battlefield" you mean the ground? They have plant growth for example(can't remember atm any other), but as a creature/s Control caster Bards can do a lot: faery fire, bane, tasha's laugh, suggestion, silence, plant growt, slow, psichic lance, polymorph, etc etc...these are just examples till level 4th, there's a lot more(charms, illusions with a creative DM...), bards are a big pain in the ass for the dm's monster my friend. :)

​​@@morganpetros9635 magical secrets wall of force

Putting a new meaning to "Face-Tank"

This is my build! Valerie the trainee Valkyrie:). It ain’t over till the fat lady sings!

U could raise str and cha and forget con, using aid to bump your hp possibly...

Yes, but you'd still only have two ASIs available for actual ability score increases. This would mean you'd never get to max out either your weapon attacks or your spell attacks/DCs ... unless you take that single Hexblade level.

Actually, screw that. Five minutes of basic arithmetic tells me the average damage of Spear + Shield + Dueling fighting style gives you *average* damage equal to the d10 weapons for your Attack action, and BETTER damage with your bonus action attack. It would seem that if you want to be *REALLY* effective with a polearm build, you need GWM ... which probably means dipping barbarian for Reckless Attack and just relying on paladin for spell slots ... Hmmm ... barbarian 4/paladin X, maybe ...? 😉😈

That’s really cool of them!

@@DnD_Daily They are amazing. I started as their DM and then they took over so I could play once in a while but I think the student has outdone the Teacher.

Epic

@@DnD_Daily thenks

I made a mistake on this video. Swords bard allows us to use our weapon as a arcane focus so it’s good to go 👍

"When you take the Attack action and attack with only a glaive, halberd, quarterstaff, or spear, you can use a bonus action to make a melee attack with the opposite end of the weapon" -the pike is also an option for the reaction part of the feat

Thanks! The main cost of going fighter 2 is we delay our spell advancement by two levels and our extra attack. That’s a pretty high cost for getting a fighting style, action surge, and second wind. I personally wouldn’t go that route but I think your character could still be quite good. Especially if you wait to take fighter until after you get paladin 2 and bard 6.

I think a lot of people would give you flack for that choice but I have a lot of respect for it 🫡

I believe you can also look at it from a design vs thematic perspective. The 5e multiclassing design doesn't make much thematic sense, but you can imbue it despite the shortcomings. If you look at parallel systems, like PF2E, they don't allow multi-classing, but you have so much more variety within any given class. Unfortunately, without multiclassing, 5e doesn't offer you any option to play thematically nuanced characters with a good mechanical foundation. How are you supposed to play a Skald? Or a priest that's tricked into a pact with an unholy creature. Or a divine warrior that doesn't believe in using anything but his fists to deliver divine justice. What other systems allow through customization through out-of-class specific skills and feats, 5e can only do so through the currently designed multiclassing system. And it shouldn't be looked down upon for that. In the end, we all want to play a fantasy character, and if the mechanics are wonky but kinda allow it, shoot for the stars.

Nothing says you can't. EK can get all the abjuration goodness but it is severely lacking on it's own for other kinds of spells. Maybe combined with Artificer to make your equipment magical or Wizard since EK is an Intelligence caster. Hoplite is just a category of weapons and tactics. Anyone proficient with martial weapons and medium armor could be one, I guess, to varying degrees.

@@ericpeterson8732 if I had to choose a class to MC it would be War Magic, maybe 2- 5 levels for Haste. But EK has a lot of baked in features that I like

Good question as I wasn’t clear. I adopted the oaths and flavor of the oath of glory paladin without actually taking it. The build does start out as paladin, if you start out as bard we don’t get heavy armor which we need because we’re dumping dex to be able to multi class with paladin.

@@DnD_Daily Ah thank you, sorry for not getting that it was the flavor that was on me

Nevermind, you address this later.

I could have a very long discussion on this topic but I'll keep it brief. Going Aura of protection then multiclassing out is perfectly viable. Its just a completely different build. You would want to choose a different bard subclass or even better go Divine soul sorcerer. You don't need the bards multiattack afterall. The 1 level dip in hexblade is overrated. It's far more costly and gives far less in return than you would think once you get into the weeds of it (for bardadins and sorcadins specifically. Its perfectly viable for a palylock.) The strength of this build is it's near a full caster in strength and near a full martial in strength. We delay our spell slot progression by 1 level. A single level. To get heavy armor and smites. When compared to the build your suggesting this build is a massively more powerful spellcaster. To put it in perspective at 8th level (1 warlock, 6 paladin, 1 either bard or sorc) your highest level spell slot is level 2. The same level with this build we have 4th level spells. Thats huge. Every other build I've mentioned here could not be considered a full caster while this build can... A full caster with heavy armor and smites that can flatten enemies. This divide gets bigger when magical secrets comes online and heaven forbid we compare them at 20th level. Turns out wish and prismatic wall are real damn good. All this being said I think your build suggestion is going to be stronger between levels 3 and 8.

@@DnD_Daily Amazing break down! After seeing this build few months ago I really want to try it, but im torn because aura of protection is such a good feature. But as you've mentioned it having a 4th level or even 3rd spells at that point is absolutely amazing. I'm excited to try this out in our Descent into Avernus campaign.

@@DnD_Daily also i suggest taking double bladed scimitar to get that bonus action attack to off set the lack of extra attack. You are 3 levels behind from a normal extra attack, and with your of plan taking PAM it would be at 6th level, that too far away. After taking PAM at bard 4 you can drop the double bladed scimitar and live your spear and shield dream.

Nice idea!

So my thinking at the time was that war caster covers somatic but not material components. We don’t have a hand free with a shield and spear to use material components. What I’ve since learned though, thanks to a viewer, is that swords bards allow us to use our sword as our material component. This means war caster is unnecessary. We can cast all bard spells while holding a shield and spear. Great question!

@@DnD_Daily if the spell has a material component it can be cast but if it has a somatic component and no material component you need a free hand , which means if you have war caster you can cast spells with verbal, somatic and material all with a weapon and a shield with the feat

“Material (M) Casting some spells requires particular objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a component pouch or a spellcasting focus (found in chapter 5) in place of the components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell. If a spell states that a material component is consumed by the spell, the caster must provide this component for each casting of the spell. A spellcaster must have a hand free to access these components, but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components.” The exception is holy symbols. They just have to be visible on your person or shield. I interpret all this to say that you still need a free hand to use material components while you have the warcaster feat.

@@DnD_Daily There are two ways around that, though. First, if the spell has material components that aren’t consumed by the spell and don’t have a gold cost, can’t you just use your Swords Bard ability to use your spear as a magical focus to do the material components, since an arcane focus can be used that way normally? Second, be a Thri-Kreen. Spear in one main hand, shield in the other main hand, and play the flute with your mouth and one or both secondary hands. Or a set of small drums with your secondary hands. Or any number of other small instruments.

Start like a paladin, invest like a bard

@@DnD_Daily didn't think I'd get a reply this fast, big thanks ;)

Depends what level. Sorc admin doesn’t leave paladin until 6 while this build leaves at 2. So for tiers 1 and 2 this build wins on the weight of smites cast alone. Tiers 3 and 4 though metamagic catches up and takes the edge.

This build can add a bardic dice to the smite....