Bard Multiclass Tier Ranking in D&D 5e

A gish bard fighter battlemaster is pretty great. With bait & switch/trip attack and stuff combined with like flourishes it gets very very useful. But I still prefer a bladesinger just having most of that AC by default. Compared to a standard martial, a bladesinger or bard/fighter will still be superior and more flexible as well as having useful concentration options.

I thought about a Lore Bard 6/any sorcerer 1 and metamagic adept taken like at 12-16th level with subtle spell and transmuted spell for taking just fireball with magical secrets and deal with any resistance/immunity. It makes also a cool concept to have many thunder spells and be a human thunderwave, imagine a thunderball😅

Bard/Ranger: Johnny Cash

Right now I am a 10 Lore Bard with a 1 Hexblade Warlock and 1 Forge Cleric.

It took a second watching to realize Kelly dressed like Dante from Devil May Cry

Genie Warlock plus creation bard is a like genie intern who can only grant wishes for minor objects

Take a shot everytime they say arcane trickster 😂

I wouldn't sleep on a Fighter dip, Action Surge is incredibly useful early in an encounter to establish control.

An example for a particularly hard hitting opponent with a Swords Bard / Fighter duelist with a shield / rapier could be Defensive Flourish / Action Surge / Enthrall with Shield spell on and Heavy Armour.

You guys evince a ton of music knowledge but failed to name Robert Johnson. Get yourself some old blues recordings. Treat yourself.

So you dont need to get 3 levels of Sorcerer. Only 2 because Font of magic gives you 2 and the convert ability. So, like me, you can be 18 lore and 2 clockwork with metamagic and still keep you meteor swarm and wish! Honestly Font of magic is cooler than people think! (Can bonus action get more quickend spells >:))

A dwarf eloquence bard with a life cleric dip, massively drawing inspiration from Rasputin (so... another horny bard I guess).

Bard + Monk = Capoeira Fighter

Irish Druid bard? Is that a hosiery reference?

I guess Bard+Warlock provides the best background for a black-metal artist. 😆 Take your lute and go praise dark gods, demons and all this stuff all around the Faerun.

As a Bardbarian, I'm doing this for the proficiencies and the ability to inspire. Colby made a character very close to mine and I felt justified in my choice because I'm a Loxodon Barbarian that found solace in the circus with my other misfit mates. I can perform now, but the Strength allows me to perform some great Athletic feats and I use my trunk to strum my harp while performing. I've got expertise and Advantage on a ton of skills and don't go to Rage for my fist answer anymore, I'm more than that now, but if the time comes I will stomp a B%tch with my Form of the Beast skills.

A few points to make warlock possible C is just talking about 2 levels to get Erdrich invocations to grab things like dark vision, and taking spells like hex and armor of Agathys could be nice to have.

ok, hear me out... Wispers/Divination

I am picturing a Jason Mamoa as a bard barbarian.

A battlesmith eloquence ventriloquist.

I love that when they mentioned Monk they entirely forgot about Gregorian Monk Chanting (I.e. the inspiration for Halo’s main theme) and when they pulled up Paladins they completely forgot about the Deus Volt songs lol

Bard + Cleric = Kansas
Bard + warlock = Black Sabbath

I have dreams of a Kenku Artillerist Artificer/Glamour Bard creating weaponized sound speakers to amp up its performances (with possibly a dip in Divination Wizard to justify) acting as a living meme/fitting song dispenser to all whether they like it or not, but alas I would need a DM willing to let the Artillerist canons deal Thunder damage rather than Force for the best vibes and my my meme/song game is poor, so alas my beloved Kenku dream will either never end up existing or will require a much greater player than I to bring it to reality.

...I really, really want them to exist somewhere out there in the world though XDDDD

Bard Paladin only really works if you are ready to only have the minimum amount of strength required to multiclass into Paladin since unpesd you can get your DM to give you a weapon that acts as an arcane focus meaning you don't need a free hand open for somatic gestures for spell casting all of the worthwhile strength based weapons are useless to you and you might as well just use go Dex based Bard Paladin especially since even if the free hand for spellcasting isn't an issue, too many things rely on on Dex to say that you will focus on strength, Charisma and Constitution and dump Dex. With all this in mind Bard Paladin multiclass is at most a B tier.

as someone whos currently playing a Halfling Divination Wizard 7/Eloquence Bard 5 with the lucky feat called Felix, I can say that the one thing someone whos both intelligent and charismatic can do for days is talk, the dude is a walking good luck charm with the charisma and intelligence to either talk his way out of almost anything or think his way out. Plus it helps having a wonderful mix of healing and buff spells from bard with damaging, abjurative and control spells from wizard. Basically its an underrated combo if you think it out, between Portent, Jack of all trades, Silver Tongue, Lucky and Halfling Luck he'd even make will wheaton succeed.

It really sucks that Druid and Bard doesn’t go together. Because I really wanted to make a playful hippie but also bad bard. And him be a small gnome. So people think they can do something if they get upset or fed up but ohh he can transform. He ain’t such a small gnome now!
And nope can’t do it!…

So then I ask can I be a charismatic Druid who passes most charisma checks and can persuade people..?

I'm so indecisive on my BG3 character, but I think I've settled on a Bard/Warlock wood elf with Archfey patron in the end - can't help but feel I'm sacrificing some raw power for pure theme, but I think she'll still be very useful for control. I love the mischief making witty bard who takes nothing seriously - especially since I can imagine making enemies miss by making a sharp note on a violin - I also love the duality of charming and sinister that is represented by the Fae in folklore - I find it's a perfect match for a bard. I'm guessing a 2 level Warlock dip is best since I won't need to make non-magical attacks with eldritch blast in the toolkit already benefiting from my Cha bonus and I get 4 secrets with a level 10 lore Bard

Hexbard = Alanis Morrissette.

Pali/Bard = S imo

In a current campaign I’m playing in, I have a character that is Trickster Cleric/Eloquent Bard Changling for a Loki inspired build. It’s pretty good

Bard cleric could also be like... Staples singers / Rosetta Tharpe style, or like... the muses from hercules.

Cleric Bard is 80s Death Metal.

hear me out,
Artificer/Bard Kenku DJ
maybe you cant sing (or fight), but you make the best mixtape in the world

That is a cool jacket, bro.

kelly saying the monk class on its own is better than the bard-monk in the way he did is the hardest L i've seen the monk take in a while

Funny, didn't you guys rank the Swords Bard a D tier and yet here, they are ideal for the Martial Classes? XD!!!!

for bard druid, i would say that the hippy music would be musics like strawberry alarm clock, the mamas and the papas, the monkees, the beatles, jefferson airplane, ABBA, maybe some cher, and other 60's and 70's up-beat psychedelic-rockabilly hits. Also plausible is banjo-based or sitar-based songs, depending on what sort of mood or style you are trying to go for.

for bard paladin, i would say the mood music would be things like powerwolf, nightwish (tarja-era), van canto, sabaton, and maybe even some skald, some heilung, and other sorts of 'this would be good for warhammer 40k' songs.

Marty is so hilarious in this series.. you're both fun guys but Marty just cracks me up lately.

"You sold me on Daft Punk but..." And that is my major issue with DnD. When I really want to execute a wacky character concept and the mechanics just won't freaking help.

“Smelly cat, smelly cat, what happened smelly cat??”

OMG! Phoebe Buffay is THE Bard/Ranger! 😂😂😂

I'm super surpised that single class bard is so low, unless you consider all the way up to 20th lvl, cause 20th lvl bard is just horrible. Literally all 12 multiclasses are way better as a dip after 19 lvls of bard than 20 lvls of bard, but I don't consider that really a multiclass option. In all the years I've played D&D (and before that pathfinder) I've only played at lvl 20 for 1 or 2 sessions. Every bard lvl is good all the way up to lvl 19, I've played a multiclass bard myself but it really hurts to have to wait an additional lvl (so like 5-10 sessions problably) to get those awesome bard features, like 4th, 5th, and 6th lvl spells, all of which have absolute S tier spell options in there. I think for most bards, particularly the ones that don't really care about combat (which are most bards probably), multiclassing just hurts so much for the really good stuff. Having to wait longer for spells like scrying, modify memory, mass suggestion, magnificent mansion, and teleport is so hard. Yeah none of these actually do damage, but they are completely story altering spells which matters a lot, especially in a sandboxy campaign (which most high lvl campaigns tend to be). IMHO this is FAR more important than doing 20-40 extra damage per turn. Bard and Wizard (and to a lesser extend the other full casters) are IMO the classes that gain by far the most by staying single class, at least up to lvl 18 (and at or above that lvl is almost never played anyway). That doesn't mean that there aren't good multiclass builds, just extremely surprised to see the community rate the single class bard so low, lower than several other classes, that are IMO far more suited for multiclassing than the Bard. I really don't understand people loving the sorcerer multiclass so much, I'm not saying it's D tier or anything, but 2 lvls of sorcerer is simply a full spell lvl less. I don't really see how that is worth it other than very specific roleplay reasons.

I've played a lore bard with 1 lvl of knowledge cleric in the longest lasting campaign I've played in (well over 100 sessions). I mostly took the cleric level, because in the story he became kind of the head priest of Oghma, but for the absolute skill monkey build that it was, those 2 extra skills with expertise were quite nice. And medium armour + shield instead of just light armour bumbed my armour class up by 5 with 1 lvl, also not bad at all. And I never heared of a bard that doesn't want guidance. Absolute A tier for me, if not S tier, depending on your priorities.

It is very appropriate for the bard video that Kelly went with the most fabulous set of clothing he's ever worn on this channel!

The reliant K and underoath references got me baby. Growing up listening to em and not being religious hits different haha.

KELLY!!!! where'd you get that dope AF jacket????????

The jacket!

If you have the requisite stats, why not a Lore Bard/Diviner Wizard? Talk about a font of knowledge!

Bard + Moon Druid is undeniably Pink Floyd. Bard + Spores Druid is also Willie Nelson/Snoop Dogg.

The Daft Punk realization was absolutely hilarious.

Hear me out : Glamour Bard / Oath of the Ancients paladin = party face.

Bard + Druid = Stoner metal