Help your allies and hinder your enemies with a Bard build for buffs and debuffs
Bards are often thought of as silver-tongued performers; exceptional as party faces and negotiators. With the right mix of Hope abilities, domain cards, and subclass choices, the Bard can also become a powerful battlefield controller, bolstering allies and unravelling enemy defenses.
This guide walks you through building a Level 1 Bard in Daggerheart focused on enhancing allies, debuffing foes, and managing Hope and stress to support the entire table.
Concept: The Inspiring Disruptor
This Bard thrives in the heart of the fight, most of their best abilities are keyed at close range. The most important part of its role isn’t dealing damage but supporting allies and disrupting enemy plans.
So this is a build for players who like enabling the rest of the party to shine, while still having tools to step into the spotlight in a pinch.
Starting Choices
Class: Bard
- Rally (Class Feature):
- Once per rest, grant yourself and all allies a Rally die (1d6 at Level 1)
- Rally dice can be rolled to boost actions, reactions, or damage, or to clear stress equal to the roll
- Rally dice last until the end of a session
- It’s a must-have tool for boosting party performance and keeping everyone going during longer encounters.
Hope Feature: Make a Scene
- Spend 3 Hope to distract a close-range enemy, making their difficulty to hit -2
- No checks or rolls to make!
- Great for allowing the party to focus on a single target and create openings for a key attack
Subclass: Troubadour
- Once per long rest, choose one of the following songs to play:
- Relaxing Song: You and all close allies clear 1 hit point
- Epic Song: Make a target in close range Vulnerable
- Heartbreaking Song: You and close allies gain 1 Hope
- Highly flexible depending on the situation. Expect to switch between them based on party needs, all of them will have applications fairly often. Just make sure to save it for when it’s really needed.
Ancestry: Mixed (Faerie + Goblin)
Choose a mixed ancestry, allowing you to choose the best ability from each. I’ve focussed on dice manipulation.
- Luckbender (Faerie Ability):
- Spend 3 Hope to let yourself or a close ally reroll a duality die once per session
- Great for turning the tide on crucial checks or spellcasting rolls
- Danger Sense (Goblin Ability):
- Mark 1 stress to force an enemy to reroll an attack against you or a close ally
- Probably best kept back for what would be a mortal blow to an ally
Community: Orderborn
- Dedicated (Community Feature):
- Choose three values when you create the character, you make them up yourself. Once per rest, when you embody one of them in making an action, roll a d20 instead of a d12 for your Hope die.
Suggested values could be based on; Compassion, Kindness Loyalty or Support, perfect for a character focused on uplifting others.
Attributes
| Stat | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | -1 | Not relevant for this support-focused Bard |
| Presence | +2 | Your spellcasting and social stat. Essential for Bard abilities |
| Agility | +1 | Helps with reaction rolls and dodging |
| Knowledge | 0 | Also neutral not really needed for this build |
| Finesse | 0 | Neutral for now |
| Instinct | +1 | Being aware or you surrounding could be useful for a bard in a tricky social situation |
Domain Cards
Inspiring Words
- Once per long rest, place tokens equal to your Presence on the card (2 at level 1).
- Spend these tokens to let an ally:
- Clear 1 stress
- Clear 1 hit point
- Gain 1 Hope.
- Another powerful way to keep allies moving and smooth out the wrinkles in battle.
Book of Ava
While none of these are highly synergistic with buffing, Tava’s Armor is excellent for shoring up frontliners.
Choose one of the following effects each time you use this card:
Power Push: Push a melee-range enemy to far range and deal 1d10+2 damage (on a spellcasting roll).
Tava’s Armor (Recommended): Touch an ally to grant +1 to Armor until next rest or until this is cast again.
Ice Spike: Make a spellcasting roll to deal 1d6 damage, by greeting an ice spike within far range.
Equipment
Weapon: Rapier – A good choice as it keys off the bard’s primary stat (presence), for bonus fun you can mark a stress when making an attack to target a different enemy within range.
Armor: Gambeson – Adds a +1 to the evasion stat, our agility is the second highest stat available, that makes evasion our best route to staying alive, rather than damage mitigation.
How it all comes together
This Bard is a tactical backbone for the party, boosting allies’ actions with Rally dice, clearing stress, handing out Hope, and making sure enemies have a harder time connecting with their attacks. It’s a very reactive build, able to tailor your songs and domain card uses to the situation at hand, and constantly shifting the momentum in your party’s favor.
Key strengths:
- Hope Management: You spend and restore Hope effectively to control the battlefield.
- Support Versatility: Heal, buff, clear stress, and manipulate initiative, all without needing to land a hit.
Things to watch out for
- Low direct damage: Your primary role is support and disruption, not dealing damage
- Hope cost: Your strongest features rely on spending Hope, so be mindful of replenishing it
- One-off songs: You can only play one song per long rest, so choose carefully based on the situation
- Choice paralysis: WIth so many options for what you could do in a turn, a player could find themselves with a lot to think about when their turn rolls around
