Everything you need to know about the new bard for D&D 5e 2024 including rules and tactics
Wizards of the Coast have revealed the 2024 revised version of the bard. It’s more of a tweak than a full rework (unlike other classes like the monk and ranger). However, this wasn’t really necessary as the bard worked well in D&D 5e anyway. Instead we get some nice quality of life improvements.
You can expect; more opportunities to use bardic inspiration, more using of other classes’ spells, an improved version of countercharm, a much more powerful level 20 feature and improved subclasses including a brand new subclass.
Below I’ve gone through everything that’s changing for the new bard as well as how this might change the way you play and what tactics you can employ.
If you want to see the original reveal, you can check out the video below:
Why are we getting changes to the bard?
The core of the 2014 bard class works really well, but some features weren’t as useful as they should be (looking at you countercharm) or didn’t go far enough or provide enough versatility.
Mainly what we’re seeing in terms of improvements includes:
- More versatile bardic inspiration
- More ways to ensure you have uses of bardic inspiration
- A countercharm ability that’s actually useful
- More opportunities to use spells from other classes’ spells lists
- A really powerful level 20 ability that can heal or destroy in equal measure
- Epic boons, like all the other classes
- Reworked subclasses including the brand new, college of dance
Below I’ve unpicked exactly what these changes are and how they work.
What changes have been made to the 2024 bard?
The bard isn’t changing in any major ways, but it’s features do get a bunch of quality of life improvements. One thing to be aware of is that song of rest has been cut from their repertoire. Partly to accommodate other improvements, and partly to shift away from the song focus of bards (as there are other ways to perform, like through dance as you’ll see in the brand new subclass).
Spellcasting – lv1
Spellcasting remains largely the same but one small change means that you’re no longer tied to options you pick when creating your character and can change as you grow in experience. You can now change a cantrip known whenever you level up. An important theme for a lot of spellcasting classes as often the tactics you employ at level 1 change at higher levels or as you evolve your play style.
Bardic Inspirtation – lv1
Bardic inspiration is very much here to stay and gets some nice quality of life improvements including:
- 1 hour to use the bardic inspiration you’ve received rather than 10 minutes (for those players that always forget they have it available).
- You can now use it once you’ve found out you’ve failed a test rather than having to guess when it might be needed making it more reliably useful.
- Bardic inspiration can be granted to someone that can hear or see you (previously they had to hear you), perhaps to accommodate those bards that inspire through dance (more on that later). Not a huge change, but an occasionally useful one.
Expertise – lv2
This remains a core feature of the bard, keeping them as skill masters, but now comes a whole level earlier each time they receive it (at level 2 instead of level 3 and level 9 instead of level 10).
Font of Inspiration – lv5
To allow you to have more uses of bardic inspiration if you need them, a new element to font of inspiration has been added. Now you can exchange spell slots for uses of bardic inspiration.
Doing this doesn’t require an action so you can simply do it when you want to use bardic inspiration.
Countercharm – lv7
The 2014 countercharm was pretty rubbish! Expending an action to anticipate charmed or frightened being inflicted on an ally was just poor action economy and would likely be a waste of your action.
The 2024 bard works to resolve this issue. Now you can use countercharm as a reaction if an ally fails a charmed or frightened saving throw. The ally can then retake the saving throw with advantage.
This not only makes countercharm more reliable, but means a better use of your reaction and you only have to use it when it’s necessary to do so. Preventing one of these conditions is definitely a great use of a reaction!
Magical Secrets – lv10
Magical secrets gets some changes (for better and worse). The big improvement is that once you get magical secrets, you can access the spell lists of other classes whenever you add spells to your spell list. This is huge for those indecisive bards (like myself) that struggle to pick which spell to take (and often just end up with fireball).
However, there is a downgrade too (though I’m not convinced it’s a big one). You can now only pick from the spell lists of the cleric, druid and wizard. This is because the spells of other classes are supposed to be tailored to those classes (like smites for paladins or Hunter’s mark for rangers).
I’ve not worked out how impactful this really is yet. I’m not sure smites were going to be the best option for a bard anyway (except maybe a valor bard). And between the 3 available classes, you have a load of excellent spells anyway.
Superior Inspiration – lv18
Superior inspiration was a bit of a tame ability at level 20 so shifts to level 18. Plus, you can now ensure you have at least 2 uses of bardic inspiration at the beginning of combat instead of just 1.
Epic boon – lv19
Like all classes at lv19, you get an epic boon (kind of like a super feat). This will allow you to increase an ability score (even beyond the normal maximum of 20, allowing you to potentially go up to 30 in an ability score). You’ll also get an ability alongside that feat too.
To make things juicer, when you gain levels beyond lv20, you’ll get an epic boon each time making you even gnarlier (there are 12, presumably 1 geared towards each of the 12 classes, though any class can take any epic boon)!
The epic boon recommended for the bard is the boon of spell recall which lets you roll a d4 whenever you cast a spell of levels 1-4. If the die roll equals the spell level, you don’t expend a spell slot giving you a 1/4 chance of not using a spell slot.
Some other epic boons fit nicely with the versatile bard. These include the boon of skill which makes you proficient in all skills and gives you expertise in one more. There’s also the boon of speed that gives you an extra 30ft of movement speed and let’s you disengage as a bonus action.
Words of Creation – lv20
Bards tap into the magic of creation, and to emphasise this, their level 20 feature gives them mastery over this. You now know power word heal and power word kill and can use these spells on 2 targets in the same casting! Essentially doubling the power of 2 level 9 spells!
Bard 2024 subclasses
Some solid changes come in for the 2024 bard subclasses. The first of these is that you now get the choice of 4 bardic subclasses (known as bard colleges) rather than the 2 in the 2014 PHB. The lore and valor bards remain from the previous PHB, but we also get a reworked version of the glamor bard from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything along with a brand new subclass called the college of dance.
Below I’ve outlined the changes coming to each subclass:
College of Dance
This is one of the few brand new subclasses revealed for the 2024 Player’s Handbook and it explores a new way of expressing your magical performances through the medium of dance! It’s not just about dazzling footwork and inspiring rhythm though; the dance bard uses their dance to quickstep into the action, tango with great beasts and step up to glorious combat! OK, I promise I’ll stop with the puns! But essentially, these bards can kick and flick both on the ballroom and on the battleground.
At level 3, you get an ability called dazzling footwork forming the core feature of the subclass. With this, you’ll get:
- An unarmored armor class (like the monk) allowing you to dance with unrestricted movement
- Can make an unarmed strike when using bardic inspiration as a bonus action
- To make this more appealing, your unarmed strikes deal an amount of damage equal to your bardic inspiration dice + your dexterity modifier (similar to a monk too). And remember, for flavour, unarmed strikes don’t need to be punches, they can be kicks, headbutts or even a shimmy… maybe…
- In fact, at a certain point, unarmed strikes may be the best kind of melee damage you can produce with those powerful dancing legs
- It’s also worth remembering that unarmed strikes can also be used for grapples or shoves instead of damage
At level 6, your dancing becomes infectious allowing you to aid allies in this dance too. At this point, you can use a reaction to move up to half your speed without provoking an attack of opportunity, bringing an ally with you, if an enemy ends their turn within 5ft of you.
Later, you’ll get access to the tandem footwork feature which will allow you to roll your bardic inspiration die and add the number to yours and your allies’ initiative rolls.
At level 14, you get evasion like a rogue, but because you’re a bard and apparently dancing is infectious, you can share the benefits with a nearby ally. I guess this means you’ll never put a ‘footloose’ (sorry, not sorry).
College of Glamor
The college of glamor bard gets a bit of a spruce up with some reworked features. You now get beguiling magic (which replaces enthralling performance). This allows you to have charm person and mirror image as prepared spells. It also means that whenever you cast an enchantment or illusion spell, you can also attempt to charm or frighten someone (so make sure you grab a load of these types of spells for bonus effects).
Mantle of inspiration has been made a little worse by reducing the number of temporary hit points you get. While mantle of majesty gets a little better by giving you the command spell and allowing you to restore this feature with a level 3 spell slot or higher.
Unbreakable majesty also gets completely changed. Now it causes the first hit an enemy makes on you on their turn to have to pass a charisma saving throw or miss. Apparently you’re too dazzling to punch!
College of Lore
Magical discoveries is the new name for additional magical secrets, but it also gets the same kinds of limitations as the new magical secrets ability (limited class spell lists you can pull from) but also allows you to replace those spells as you level up.
Cutting words can now be used against any creatures and doesn’t exclude creatures that are immune to the charmed condition (and there are a decent number of those). Finally, peerless skill gets a nice upgrade meaning that if you use your bardic inspiration with this feature to turn a failure into a success and still fail, your bardic inspiration isn’t expended.
College of Valor
The college of valor largely stays the same as it was already a solid subclass. Now though, when you attack, you can use one of your attacks to cast a cantrip instead. You can also use a simple or martial weapon as you spellcasting focus, freeing up your hands to fluidly switch between magic and combat.
Tactics
Below are a few interesting, new ways you can approach playing as a bard with the 2024 update:
Always be prepared: Bards can now do their best boy scout impression and be prepared. Bardic inspiration lasts for an hour, so no need to spend so many bonus actions dishing it out in combat. Instead, you can regale your party with heroic songs before you enter that dragon’s lair knowing that your bardic inspiration will last a whole hour now. You shouldn’t need to top up your allies’ inspiration as often either as they can just use the bardic inspiration die when they fail a roll rather than guessing when they might need it.
So many secrets: With more magical secret spells available than ever (especially if you take a lore bard), you can fashion your spell list in a much more versatile way. You can even fit your spell list to the needs of the party. Need more of a healer, dip into the cleric’s spell list and get a load of healing spells. Need to deal AoE damage, grab fireball and spirit guardians. Need some crowd control, grab web and so on. It shouldn’t be underestimated just how versatile the bard’s spell list now is.
So there you have it. Everything changing for the bard in the 2024 PHB. At their core, bards remain generalists, capable of fitting just about any role in a party. They also remain team players too, but some subtle changes to how these abilities work make them even more useful for keeping the party topped up with a steady stream of buffs.
What do you think of the changes to the bard? Let me know in the comments below.
Spotlight on the D&D 2024 revision
All the latest updates on what’s changing with the 2024 rules revision.
Did the college of eloquence not get an update? Im playing a legal expert bard in my campaign.
Sadly not, but old subclasses are supposed to be compatible with the updated classes. I’ve not looked at how well this works in practice yet. But love the idea of this character! A worthy foil to a devil.