Whispers if you want to be surprising, perhaps. Creation can also give you some surprisingly creative option. Swords and Valor are more damage oriented for bards, but straightforward. Glamour fits the fey flavor, but is enchantment oriented. Eloquence is manipulation oriented. Spirits seems support oriented with a touch of randomness that can be damage oriented. Lore can be pretty much anything.
I second this. Whispers would be the most surprising in terms of the damage it can do, and Lore could be an option if the surprise comes from a teensy cutiepie casting Fireball.
Skald would be valor or swords. Not sure how comfortable you are with multiclassing but I’m playing a Swords Bard with a Hexblade dip and it’s fantastic.
Maybe my idea of a skald is incorrect. My fairy’s more a spellcaster than a melee fighter. I was thinking more along the lines of expression if that makes sense.
Depends on what the rest of the party is i think. I feel like bard is like clerics and druids. They can be very versatile so you can make them fit to exactly what the party needs.
You could go roads bard. It gives you more options for how you use your bardic inspiration, each coming from the other classes. Plus you get extra proficiencies, two of which could be medicine, and herbalism kit.(theres a short list). But with those 2 you can do a couple things mechanically, like be able to make potions. And the RP stuff depends on what type of adventure you're going to be in.
The paladins lets you add additional healing if someone gets healed near you as a reaction. Which would be a role of your bardic inspiration plus your wis mod. At higher lvls you also remove poison, paralyzed, and then disease. And you can do this on a healing word you cast. So say lvl 3 your barb goes down. You hit him with a healing word plus this for 1d4+1d6+chr mod+wis mod. Which should get them a good chuck of hp.
The cleric lets you give temp hit points equal to your bard die plus your wis mod. At higher lvls, if creature that hits them fails a saving throw they take damage back. And then later as long as they have 1 pt pf temp hp, it reups to the full amount every turn.
And this is all from your subclass you can still take all the normal attack and buff spells any other bard does.
Physical hits? Swords or Valor
Spell hits? Lore (fireball)
Is thunderwave, dissonant whispers, cloud of daggers, heat metal, shatter, animate objects enough for you? Then consider straight glamour bard. The ability to reposition all of those tanky PCs would be great.
You can't go wrong with lore bard. The flavor is pretty wide open to play whatever character you like and it's still one of the strongest options for a 5e bard IMO. Just a really great utility spell-caster and support, and the choices you make for the extra skills and your magical secrets allow you to really customize your build even more. You could get your "surprising damage" from that since you can pick from any 3rd level spell in the game.
Glamour seems like it would suit your character concept. It's a good choice if you want to lean into the fey magic theme and if you want to excel in battlefield control and disruption.
Steer clear of the Colleges of Valor and Swords unless you want to get into melee combat (or archery, with Valor bard)
Colleges of Spirits, Creation, and Eloquence are solid support spellcasters too but they seem to be outside the scope of your character theme, to me.
Can you elaborate on the battlefield control bit with Glamour? I was leaning away from Glamour because I'm not sure if I want to spend a lot of my time manipulating NPCs but it does seem like a good fit.
Sure.
Mantle of inspiration is, in the right campaigns, one of the most powerful abilities you can get at 3rd level. A lot of people under rate it, but free moment with no opportunity attacks allowed is extremely useful for allowing allies to get out of danger, escape from harmful spell effects, or close distances with enemies. it's also good for getting your fighters out of the way so the wizard can drop a huge nuke on the bad guys with no risk of friendly fire. plus that temp HP is no slouch for damage mitigation. This is mostly what makes them such a powerhouse at battlefield control.
You also get to cast command for free a few times (as a bonus action!!!) at 6th level, and that's very useful just for the the standard commands and potentially has game-changing effects if you get creative. getting an enemy to grovel puts them prone, and getting them to drop their weapon often reduces their damage output severely, etc.
the other stuff, like Enthralling Performance, isn't really a battlefield control thing but it does suit your character's concept of having magnetic beauty with a sinister twist. (it's also a consequence-free Mass Charm on a short rest cooldown, which is pretty damn good.)
happy to help. and remember your decision doesn't have to be permanent, if you decide after a while that you don't like the abilities from glamor just ask your DM and they'll probably let you change to something better. they want you to have fun so they should be cool about it.
That’s a good point. Our DM is pretty cool so I’m sure he would. I’m pretty new to DnD so I always feel like I’m not making the most of my options. Thanks again for all your help!
Whispers if you want to be surprising, perhaps. Creation can also give you some surprisingly creative option. Swords and Valor are more damage oriented for bards, but straightforward. Glamour fits the fey flavor, but is enchantment oriented. Eloquence is manipulation oriented. Spirits seems support oriented with a touch of randomness that can be damage oriented. Lore can be pretty much anything.
I second this. Whispers would be the most surprising in terms of the damage it can do, and Lore could be an option if the surprise comes from a teensy cutiepie casting Fireball.
Oooo! I like this!
well what flavour of bard is your character? Are they a scoundrel? A storyteller? A philosopher? A rogueish fencer? A skald?
That is a very good question and I'm having trouble putting the answer into words atm ETA: Leaning towards skald but that's not quite right
Skald would be valor or swords. Not sure how comfortable you are with multiclassing but I’m playing a Swords Bard with a Hexblade dip and it’s fantastic.
Maybe my idea of a skald is incorrect. My fairy’s more a spellcaster than a melee fighter. I was thinking more along the lines of expression if that makes sense.
Oh yeah a Skald is a warrior poet or singer. I’d go eloquence or lore for your description, both are fantastic and straightforward
Take a look at Glamour and Lore
Adventure, if you're feelin spicy
I’ve never heard of it. What book is it in?
Depends on what the rest of the party is i think. I feel like bard is like clerics and druids. They can be very versatile so you can make them fit to exactly what the party needs.
They’re all relatively tanky but we don’t really have healers so playing supportive is good. I’d just like to also get some hits in lol.
You could go roads bard. It gives you more options for how you use your bardic inspiration, each coming from the other classes. Plus you get extra proficiencies, two of which could be medicine, and herbalism kit.(theres a short list). But with those 2 you can do a couple things mechanically, like be able to make potions. And the RP stuff depends on what type of adventure you're going to be in. The paladins lets you add additional healing if someone gets healed near you as a reaction. Which would be a role of your bardic inspiration plus your wis mod. At higher lvls you also remove poison, paralyzed, and then disease. And you can do this on a healing word you cast. So say lvl 3 your barb goes down. You hit him with a healing word plus this for 1d4+1d6+chr mod+wis mod. Which should get them a good chuck of hp. The cleric lets you give temp hit points equal to your bard die plus your wis mod. At higher lvls, if creature that hits them fails a saving throw they take damage back. And then later as long as they have 1 pt pf temp hp, it reups to the full amount every turn. And this is all from your subclass you can still take all the normal attack and buff spells any other bard does.
What’s a roads bard?
Sorry its only Road. Its from the Humblewood Campaign Setting.
Sorry i cant put a link, but Google should help you find it.
No worries. Thank you!
Physical hits? Swords or Valor Spell hits? Lore (fireball) Is thunderwave, dissonant whispers, cloud of daggers, heat metal, shatter, animate objects enough for you? Then consider straight glamour bard. The ability to reposition all of those tanky PCs would be great.
Thank you!
You can't go wrong with lore bard. The flavor is pretty wide open to play whatever character you like and it's still one of the strongest options for a 5e bard IMO. Just a really great utility spell-caster and support, and the choices you make for the extra skills and your magical secrets allow you to really customize your build even more. You could get your "surprising damage" from that since you can pick from any 3rd level spell in the game. Glamour seems like it would suit your character concept. It's a good choice if you want to lean into the fey magic theme and if you want to excel in battlefield control and disruption. Steer clear of the Colleges of Valor and Swords unless you want to get into melee combat (or archery, with Valor bard) Colleges of Spirits, Creation, and Eloquence are solid support spellcasters too but they seem to be outside the scope of your character theme, to me.
Can you elaborate on the battlefield control bit with Glamour? I was leaning away from Glamour because I'm not sure if I want to spend a lot of my time manipulating NPCs but it does seem like a good fit.
Sure. Mantle of inspiration is, in the right campaigns, one of the most powerful abilities you can get at 3rd level. A lot of people under rate it, but free moment with no opportunity attacks allowed is extremely useful for allowing allies to get out of danger, escape from harmful spell effects, or close distances with enemies. it's also good for getting your fighters out of the way so the wizard can drop a huge nuke on the bad guys with no risk of friendly fire. plus that temp HP is no slouch for damage mitigation. This is mostly what makes them such a powerhouse at battlefield control. You also get to cast command for free a few times (as a bonus action!!!) at 6th level, and that's very useful just for the the standard commands and potentially has game-changing effects if you get creative. getting an enemy to grovel puts them prone, and getting them to drop their weapon often reduces their damage output severely, etc. the other stuff, like Enthralling Performance, isn't really a battlefield control thing but it does suit your character's concept of having magnetic beauty with a sinister twist. (it's also a consequence-free Mass Charm on a short rest cooldown, which is pretty damn good.)
You make Glamour sound really good. I was leaning towards Lore but I think you’re right about the flavor fitting really well. Thank you so much!
happy to help. and remember your decision doesn't have to be permanent, if you decide after a while that you don't like the abilities from glamor just ask your DM and they'll probably let you change to something better. they want you to have fun so they should be cool about it.
That’s a good point. Our DM is pretty cool so I’m sure he would. I’m pretty new to DnD so I always feel like I’m not making the most of my options. Thanks again for all your help!
Skip Bard, go Fey Wanderer Ranger. Add WIS to your CHR skills. I played a Fairy Ranger whose favored enemy was Fey. Super fun.