Editing Bard (section)

===5th Edition===
[[Image:Deekin.jpg|thumb|Deekin the [[Kobold]] is a famous bard from the [[Forgotten Realms]], showing up in [[Bioware|NWN]] and spawning far too much rule 34.  He is also Daaawwww]]

In 5th edition, the Bard Class has gone from a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" to "Master of all trades, Grandmaster of a couple things". Seriously, someone on 5th Ed's development team really must love this class, because this bias is as transparent as Monte Cook's Wizard fetish. An important feature is Jack of All Trades - instead of allowing you to take untrained skill checks without penalty, the bard now gets to use ''half their proficiency bonus on skill checks that they don't have''. In other words, it doesn't matter what situation the party gets thrown into, the Bard can always use the appropriate skill check to solve the problem directly. Need to organize a siege? The Bard can [[Wat|build siege weapons]], manage logistics and draw up strategies. Need some more arrows? The Bard can fletch some more. Do you need to bake an elaborate and complicated cake for a King's birthday, AND construct a poison that kills slowly yet is indistinguishable from a heart attack? The Bard can do that too! This would be a broken enough ability if it were something you gained at something like level 10, or if it were exclusive to one Archetype. It's not. All Bards get this at level 2. The only limiting factor is the "Half Proficiency bonus" thing, but that's hardly an issue since for most of the game the gap's not too wide and the target number parameters of 5th edition are so low anyways, and it doesn't count as being proficient (mainly a problem for tools). At least it catches up with you in the later levels since you don't have a means of providing a bonus to skill checks... unless you play College of Lore in which case you get the ability use Bardic Inspiration on yourself. Which on average will actually give you a ''bigger'' bonus than if you just had the proficiency. Yes, even at level 20. 

Bardic Inspiration works a little differently now. Instead of providing a constant bonus, they bestow a floating D6 upon whomever they inspire. At any time before the next Long Rest, the inspired can expend that D6 and add it to an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw (valor bards also allow you to add it to weapon damage or to your AC in response to a single attack) during or outside combat. As they level up, this expands to higher dice sizes, and eventually the bard can even [[The End Times|anti-inspire]] his enemies, forcing them to take a penalty on any non-saving throw roll of his choosing. It eventually scales up to a d12. The Class Variant Features UA (and the print version in ''Tasha's Cauldron of Everything'') saw the ability to add Bardic Inspiration to a spell's damage (or healing).

Bards can get up to 9th level spells now (because apparently "dabbling in magic" means a better spell progression than the ''[[Warlock]]'', but then again dabbling probably should get you more than simply asking for an eldritch handout) as well as the awesomely broken "Magical [[Keeper of Secrets|Secrets]]" ability which lets them take a spell from any other class' spell list. This would be bad enough on its own, since you can cherry pick all the best spells from everyone else (Animate Dead necrodancer shenanigans anyone?) but it's worth mentioning since the half casters tend to have some pretty potent spells at the 4th or 5th spell levels. The Bard, being a full caster, can take these for themselves as many as 7 levels earlier than when you're supposed to have them. The most infamous choice is the [[Ranger]] spell "Swift Quiver", a spell they added to try and help save that class from becoming completely useless but instead made the Bard into an even greater Munchkin's delight. They get 3 instruments, and they are capable of dealing more damage (in the form of better offensive spells and more weapon proficiencies). 

In terms of subclasses, the Bard was up there with the Druid in getting passed up for subclasses, having only a paltry two in the PHB. It eventually got some really cash ones:<br>
:*'''College of Valor''', which gives him proficiency with medium armor, more weapons, and makes him able to [[Awesome|inspire while stabbing]].
:*'''College of Lore''' is the magical bard, who gets more skills than the Rogue and access to the aforementioned broken-ass "Magical Secrets" ''four'' levels earlier than the base class. Also hilarious is the Bard-only cantrip [[Vicious Mockery]], where the bard literally insults someone so hard they take psychic damage from it. 
:*'''College of Glamour''' are, basically, faerie-taught mentalists, with features based on super-charging their ability to use enchantments. Mantle of Inspiration lets you spend a Bardic Inspiration slot to give allies within 60 feet temporary hit points and let them move up to their speed with their reaction. Enthralling Performance basically lets you cast a Charm Person spell on everyone within 60 feet watching you perform after you spend at least 10 minutes doing a performance; furthermore, unlike the normal Charm Person spell, creatures who resist this effect aren't made aware that you tried to monkey with their minds, though you can only do this once per short rest. Mantle of Majesty lets you envelop yourself in a cloak of glamour for a minute, during which time you can throw out a free Command spell (which auto-hits on your charmed victims) each round as a bonus action. Finally, Unbreakable Majesty lets you cast a Sanctuary spell on yourself once per short rest that also gives you Advantage on Charisma checks and forces Disadvantage against your spells on any creatures that succumb to the sanctuary's effects.
:*'''College of Whispers''' makes bards more creepy and assassin-like with some fairly spectacular illusion & enchantment tricks. Using Bardic Inspiration to conjure poison on your weapon for bonus damage via Venomous Blades not enough? How about Venomous Whispers, which lets you terrify someone AND send them scrambling to find their safest, most secret place just by spending 10 minutes talking to them? Or Mantle of Whispers, where you can capture the shadow of a creature of your size & type that dies within 5 feet and wear it, gaining free access to its appearance and its surface memories for an hour? And then there's Shadow Lore, where you can basically cast an 8-hour-long Charm Person spell on somebody once per long rest.  Admitted inspiration from the [[Dark Sun]] incarnation of the class.
:*'''College of Swords''' does exactly what it sounds like, making you better at putting the pointy end in the other man. In theory, at least; in practice it comes off as a poor man's Battlemaster until level 14 when the final subclass ability kicks in. That's a ''really'' long time to wait to become awesome. Then again, Battlemasters can't cast spells.
:*'''College of Eloquence''' is the one you want to do all that dragon-seducing you hear about on the chatboards. Basically this college takes the baseline Bard features and turbocharges them.
:*'''College of Creation''' exists to take down Artificers a peg or two by allowing weird inventions to come from somewhere other than their smug brains.
:*'''College of Spirits''' turns bards into mediums who contact spirits of the dead in order to learn their stories and use them in battle, drawing randomly from a list of effects which can range from breathing fire to dealing psychic damage with a sanity-breaking tale about some unknowable creature.  

''Exploring Eberron'' added the '''College of the Dirge Singer''', a [[hobgoblin]] tradition based around martial boosting. Rather than fighting itself, the Dirge Singer can inspire two allies at once (at the cost of slowing the growth of his inspiration dice), spend its reaction to grant extra weapon attacks, and eventually boost everyone around it when it activates its Countercharm, which it can do as a bonus action.

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