Making Your Own Bard Subclass
You may decide that you want to create your own bard subclass that best fits your campaign. Before embarking on this task, you want to be sure that no existing bard subclass meets your design goals. One of the greatest flexibilities offered in 5e class design is how open it is to reflavor the features. If there is a subclass that can meet your mechanical needs and stylistic vision, it is best to simply use that and save a lot of time in designing, writing, and playtesting.
If, however, you find that no existing subclass achieves the fantasy or has the mechanics to match your vision, this section will guide you toward making a ranger subclass that fits the 5e D&D model. The guidelines will help you create the features for your subclass and detail how you should balance the class to fit within the official options and those offered by Therin Creative and similar content creators.
Please note that despite the guidance offered herein, your subclass may need further tuning. Be certain to spend the time to playtest your subclass.
Class Chassis
The bard is commonly called a jack-of-all-trades, but this categorization is a misnomer. The bard is a full spellcaster, capable of casting 9th-level spells. On its own, the bard specializes in enchantment and utility spells, and has a mix of other options, including healing spells. Bards desire high Charisma, but can benefit from Dexterity and Constitution. Some bards may prefer to incorporate higher Strength or Intelligence than normal at the expense of ability scores.
Hit Dice
The bard has a d8 Hit Dice, just like the rogue, and the bard’s baseline in on par with the rogue, but unlike its peer, the bard doesn’t receive features to augment its survivability in its class. A bard’s subclass might provide it more defenses to participate in melee combat for the duration of an encounter.
Proficiencies
The bard is the second strongest class in skill proficiencies, and the most flexible since it can pick from any skill. Its musical instruments are mainly for narrative functions (though instruments do work as spellcasting foci, but this applies to any instrument, not just ones the bard has proficiency).
The bard has proficiency with light armor as well as simple weapons and a few sword types and the hand crossbow from the martial list. This gives the bard plenty of flexibility with weapons. A subclass might enhance this.
Ability Score Improvement
The bard uses standard progression for the Ability Score Improvement (ASI) feature (4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level). Bards shouldn’t gain additional ASI features as that is the domain of the fighter and rogue classes and not something a subclass generally grants.
Spellcasting
Bards are full spellcasters, capable of using the highest level of spells. The bard spell list is reasonably versatile with options for the combat, exploration, and social pillars. The primary weakness of the bard spell list is it lacks damage dealing spells (including the powerful summoning spells), but higher level bards can access these spells via the Magical Secrets Feature. Despite this weakness, bards are capable of controlling enemies with various charm effects, or aiding their allies.
Bards do face some limitation in their choices as a spellcaster that has known spells instead of prepared spells. Bard players benefit from carefully selecting its spells to cover its role and periodically replacing outdated spells. This can make it hard for the player to justify choosing more than a couple of niche utility spells.
Bardic Inspiration
Despite having strong spellcasting, this is the bard’s signature feature. Bardic Inspiration is used to empower the bard’s allies. Until 5th level, this resource is fairly limited, but with the Font of Inspiration, the bard gains great benefit from short rests.
A bard’s subclass will always include a feature that expands, enhances, or at least consumes uses of the Bardic Inspiration feature. The critical challenge of creating a Bard College is to design a unique way to use or enhance Bardic Inspiration.
Skills
The bard class is one of the few classes to get the Expertise feature, which makes it a strong skill user. Paired with the class choosing from any skill or tool, the bard can become the best character for any given skill or tool proficiency. The bard also has the Jack of All Trades feature, which makes them better at skills they lack proficiency with than their similarly lacking peers.
Versatile Spellcasting
One of the strongest aspects of the bard is the Magical Secrets feature. This allows the bard to choose a number of spells from any spell list, enabling it to pick the strongest spells for its role in the party, and possibly a couple other useful spells. This feature is why bard subclasses don’t grant expanded spell lists, and rarely include extra spells.
Remember that the bard is a full spellcaster and will have access to many fantastic spells. This directly impacts how you choose what kinds of features you add and how powerful those features can be. Most Bard Colleges focus on horizontal power growth to make other aspects of the kit on par with the stronger parts, such as how the Colleges of Swords and Valor enhance the bard’s weapon prowess.
Bard College Features
Bard Colleges grant features at 3rd, 6th, and 14th level. This makes bard the only class to only have three subclass feature levels. Furthermore, the bard has a large gap between its 6th and 14th level feature. While this may tempt you to add extra to your subclass, it isn’t necessary (and likely unbalancing); Bardic Inspiration continues to increase in power, which should automatically make earlier features better in those levels.
Building a Bard College
Once you understand the class chassis, you’re one step closer to building a subclass. You’ll also want to review existing subclasses to get a feel for their design and balance. This section will aid you in understanding what your subclass features should accomplish.
Before starting on the formal work to build your subclass, devise its theme and role. What is your subclass’s purpose? What roles does it fill in an adventuring party? How are its mechanics interesting and unique? Why would a player choose your subclass?
Let’s start by looking at some existing bard subclasses.
Lore. With the College of Lore, the bard becomes ever stronger as a spellcaster, getting to pick spells from other spell lists as early as 6th level, exposing spells like fireball, spirit guardians, and summon fey to the bard. Players choose this college because they want to play the most versatile spellcaster and back it up with even more skill proficiencies, becoming truly the master of knowledge.
Valor. The College of Valor is the most martially inclined of the bard subclasses, gaining access to all weapons, medium armors, and shields. This is the bard that best mixes weapons and magic. Players choose this college to create a warrior poet, whether as a ranged attacker or one classing with weapon and shield while casting support spells to see its party to victory.
Swords. Inspired from the Blades bard kit of 2nd edition, the College of Swords is an alternative to Valor for melee-oriented bards. It has some flexibility into how it uses its Bardic Inspiration. Players choose this college in order to excel in melee combat as a bard, tapping its flourishes to maximize its attacks.
Eloquence. Specializing in the social pillar, the College of Eloquence takes the bard’s panache for speaking to another level. Charisma checks usually succeed for this subclass, and its Bardic Inspiration uses rarely go to waste. Players choose this college to be the party’s face and to use words for more than conveying messages.
Hexes. The College of Hexes adds curses to the bard’s repertoire. It leans heavily into its spellcasting, picking up a few extra tricks to support those roles. Players choose this college because they want a bard that doubles as a witch in feel, often picking enchantment spells and illusions to create a more social hexer.
Each bard subclass expands what it means to be a bard, adding new tools to its kit, but at its core, each is a bard, tapping the bard’s support and debilitating spells and its knack for skills.
Building the Subclass
This guide covers building a Bard College consistent with official published material. Each Bard College has a certain flavor that differentiates it from its peers. While each is a bard, the way the character feels and how it plays are distinct.
Subclass features are granted at 3rd, 6th, and 14th level. Except for 3rd level, each Bard College feature should only grant one subclass feature. Consult the Bard Subclass Features table for when you should grant features.
There are exceptions for the rule of only granting a single subclass feature:
- Ribbon features are frequently weak on their own, so in certain cases you may grant a second, minor feature, which could be another ribbon feature.
- The feature has some complex interactions that are much clearer when separated. Often this is indication that something should be cut, but in rare cases, it makes sense to split a feature for comprehension.
- You are expanding an existing feature in a minor way. Sometimes it’s better to include the enhancement in the core feature, and at other times it could be a note in another feature.
Bard Subclass Features
| Bard Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Inspiration Feature, Utility Feature |
| 6th | Enhancement Feature |
| 14th | Enhancement or Expansion Feature |
Inspiration Feature
3rd-level [Your Bard Subclass] feature
The core feature of a Bard College, the Inspiration feature will do one of two things: enhance the existing mechanic of Bardic Inspiration or expand what the bard can do with uses of the Bardic Inspiration feature. It is important that the mechanic you select is unique to your bard subclass. Most bards expand the kit of the Bardic Inspiration feature because there aren’t an many enhancements you can make when it already can modify ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws.
Consult the Inspiration Features table to see how existing bards utilize this feature.
Inspiration Features
| Bard College | Type | Inspiration Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Bombast | Expansion | taunt target and reduce damage |
| Creation | Enhancement | adds a rider effect that improves each option |
| Eloquence | Expansion | reduce target’s saving throw |
| Forgotten Echoes | Enhancement | grants extra effect buff with inspiration die |
| Glamour | Expansion | grants temporary hit points to select targets and allows them to move |
| Hexes | Expansion | curse target |
| Lore | Expansion | reduce ability check, attack roll, or damage roll as reaction |
| Motion | Enhancement | can increase AC and move |
| Swords | Expansion | can use Flourish on a hit when taking Attack action |
| the Planes | Expansion | limited damage resistance |
| Valor | Enhancement | increase damage or AC |
| Whispers | Expansion | extra psychic damage on a hit with a weapon |
Utility Feature
3rd-level [Your Bard Subclass] feature
For a bard, you want a Utility feature that helps to define its theme. Often, you can accomplish this by granting it bonus proficiencies or even an extra cantrip or two. You can also use this feature to enhance the bard’s ability to use skills, such as how the Colleges of Eloquence and Motion raise the floor for skill checks of their specialties.
Another, more challenging option, is to grant the bard a special function that could tie into a skill, such as performance. The Colleges of Forgotten Echoes and Whispers have features that do something special for performing for 1 minute.
Enhancement Feature
6th-level [Your Bard Subclass] feature
Typically with the 6th-level subclass feature, you want to expand part of the bard’s core kit or the Inspiration feature from its subclass kit. Extra Attack is a decent option for a martially inclined bard. A spellcasting bard could gain additional spells with this feature, but you should only do so if that matches the theme for the subclass. For instance, the College of Lore is about expanding the bard’s knowledge, so it gets two spells from any spell list, while the College of the Planes is a summoner, and therefore, thematically gains access to select conjuration spells.
In certain cases, you may find that an Expansion feature is more fitting, such as done with the Colleges of Glamour and Creation. This can be a preferable option to simply granting the bard bonus spells, and allows you greater control.
While this feature can add power to the bard, it frequently adds that power horizontally. Horizontal power means increasing a sub-facet of the bard’s power to make it as good as the bard’s spellcasting option (under routine use). Of course, spellcasting will (and should) provide better spikes in what the bard can accomplish, but in between the major spells, the bard should see more flexibility in what is viable. Extra Attack typically moves the bard’s Attack action to a point that is better than using a bard cantrip. Do note that this doesn’t mean the bard’s power won’t indirectly increase. Often, more combat-focused subclasses will see their other features improved, creating an indirect boost to its damage potential. This is another reason bard subclass design uses horizontal expansion.
Enhancement or Expansion Feature
14th-level [Your Bard Subclass] feature
With the final feature, you will either want another enhancement feature or an expansion feature. Recall that Enhancement features improve upon an aspect of the class kit, such as actions like the Attack action, the spellcasting feature, or a feature granted through the subclass itself. An Expansion feature adds a new mechanic or facet to the class kit — something it couldn’t do before in any capacity.
For the bard, this feature should tie into its core theme. Since a bard subclass only has four features, you really need to focus those features to create the best play experience. As such, you can be fairly flashy with this feature. Try to be creative with this feature if it expands, especially if expanding the bard’s utility options. If enhancing a feature, do it in a way that fits with the bard’s role. For instance, the College of Swords improves the bard’s ability to combat foes, the College of Valor allows the bard to weave spells and weapon attacks, and the College of Eloquence makes Bardic Inspiration able to spread through success, reflecting their respective roles as skirmish attacker, magic warrior, and wielder of words.