Which bard subclasses are best and what are they good at?
There are 4 bard subclasses in the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Unlike some classes, the bard’s subclasses are capable of drastically changing how a bard plays. Some can become solid melee warriors, others lean heavily into buffs and debuffs while others still pull heavily from the spells of other classes to fashion themselves into whatever kind of spellcaster they want.
The current bard subclasses for D&D 2024 include:
- College of dance: Use their rhythmic training in dance to perform unarmed strikes and maneuver round the battlefield.
- College of glamour: Highly charismatic bards that can charm and frighten enemies, bending them to their will.
- College of lore: Studious bards capable of gaining great training in skills and spellcasting.
- College of valor: Bards trained in the art of martial combat.
Below I’ve taken a deeper dive into each of the bardic subclasses. You can find advice on what they are, who they’re for and I’ve also rated each subclass to give you an idea of how strong they are.
College of dance
What are they?
Bards trained in the arts of dance. This gives them enhanced capabilities as unarmed warriors. They also happen to be great team players and quite maneuverable.
Key abilities
- Unarmored defence that makes your AC 10+ your ability modifiers for dexterity and charisma.
- Enhanced damage on unarmed strikes and the ability to use dexterity instead of strength for these.
- The ability to make additional unarmed strikes when using your bardic inspiration
- Use your reaction and a use of your bardic inspiration to move when an opponent ends their turn next to you. This also means you can make an extra unarmed strike. You can also bring an ally with you and don’t invoke opportunity attacks.
- Use your bardic inspiration die to enhance yours and your allies’ initiative rolls.
- Half damage on failed dexterity saving throws and no damage on successes. This benefit can be given to a nearby ally too.
What are they good at?
Making unarmed strikes, going earlier in combat, moving around the battlefield a lot, grappling, shoving and enhancing allies.
How effective are they?
Other than monks, dance bards are the only dedicated unarmed specialist in the game so far. Their damage per hit is able to be the same as a monk meaning it exceeds what other classes can do, but they won’t attack as often. Of course, they have other tricks up their sleeves like spells and bardic inspiration.
One of the challenges for the dance bard is they’re quite reliant on their bardic inspiration to be effective. Once it runs out, you’re down to a single attack per round Vs the possible (and reasonably likely) 3 attacks you can get from using bardic inspiration for your bonus action and reaction.
Having said that, you will likely find spells a better focus for your action due to the lack of extra attack. But this does create a bit of a conflict in approach. Diving into combat and danger while casting spells can mean more breaks in concentration, more damage taken and so on to try and get a couple of extra hits in per round.
They also diminish in effectiveness when unable to work with allies. You’ll want to fight close to an ally for maximum effectiveness (and to protect your relative fragility).
This does lead to another challenge as to get the most out of your attacks, you need to be in attack range of at least one melee enemy and likely take a hit or 2 from them. While better than being stuck on the front lines, this is weaker than a monk that can more easily get away and still does some decent damage.
This means that compared to something like the valor bard, it is capable of making more attacks under the right circumstances, and at higher levels, can hit harder, but the Valor bard has much more reliable attacks and can replace an attack with a cantrip for better damage scaling and can dual wield for more attacks if wanted.
For me, the dance bard is a fun, quirky melee bard, but if I want to go for a highly effective melee bard, I’d lean towards a valor bard.
Score: 3/5
College of glamour
What are they?
Glamour bards have been touched with fey magic. They are enigmatic and incredibly charming individuals capable of invoking both adoration and fear in equal measure. Primarily, they function as support casters with a plentiful supply of buffs and debuffs.
Key abilities
- Have charm person and mirror image always prepared
- Can attempt to charm or frighten an enemy when they cast enchantment or illusion spells.
- Can use their bardic inspiration to grant temporary hit points to several allies and allow them to move with their reaction.
- They can cast command using a bonus action and without expending spell slots with creatures charmed by them automatically obeying their instructions.
- At level 14, you can become very hard to hit, forcing a charisma saving throw whenever you are hit. On a fail, the attacker automatically misses.
What are they good at?
Buffs and debuffs. Glamour bards are great at providing lots of temporary hit points to allies while their debuffs have lots of synergy with each other. If you focus on enchantment and illusion spells, you can easily have multiple enemies charmed and frightened of you and can then command them to do dangerous things like dropping prone or moving into a group for an AoE spell.
How effective are they?
There’s loads of synergy with the glamour bard’s features and they really are very effective. Mantle of inspiration grants a potentially large pile of temporary hit points, and probably to each member of your party.
Applying extra conditions on top of your spell’s effects is really powerful as it doesn’t demand the use of your bonus action (which is already under significant demand). The main issue you have is ensuring a plentiful enough supply of bardic inspiration.
Although there are high demands on your bardic inspiration, you should be able to get 4-5 uses per combat fairly quickly. By level 5, you also have font of inspiration letting you restore bardic inspiration on a short rest and letting you swap a spell slot for a use of bardic inspiration. With this, you should be able to use your bardic inspiration almost as often as you’d want.
Command as a bonus action is great especially with charmed making the effects guaranteed. You can give you allies the upper hand while still having your action available for whatever you need.
I think the glamour bard is probably one of the best support casters in the game and has incredible control of the battlefield, providing loads of support from the back lines for your martials.
Score: 5/5
College of lore
What are they?
The most studious of bards. Their dedication to the academic pursuits leads them to greater skill, verbal acumen and spells from other classes earlier.
Key abilities
- Proficiency with 3 more skills.
- Reduce the score for damage, an attack roll or an ability check of an enemy by a roll of your bardic inspiration die.
- Take 2 spells from another class list as prepared spells.
- Add a bardic inspiration roll to a failed attack roll or ability check.
What are they good at?
Spells, skills and scathing words. They are the most skillful of any bard subclass. They get other class spells the earliest and can reduce the effectiveness of enemies.
How effective are they?
If you’re looking for an absolute skill master, there’s probably no better subclass. If you also want to fashion your bard more into another form of spellcaster (like a damage dealer or healer), then this is also the subclass you’ll want.
They’re also pretty good at reducing the impact of enemy attacks too.
Broadly speaking, they’re a reasonably strong subclass. You might argue that with jack of all trades and other skill related features, the bard was hardly crying out for more skill proficiencies, or that other bards also get magical secrets, just a bit later on. I’d also say their level 14 feature is a little weak as lore bards shouldn’t be making powerful attack rolls very often and they’re already so good at skills that ability checks aren’t often an issue for them.
For me though, I think they’re pretty competent at what they do and a pretty good subclass.
Score: 4/5
College of valor
What are they?
Bards adept at combat. Valor bards literally embody the tales of the heroic knights they sing of. Wielding sword, shield, spell and song, they are a very versatile subclass that turns normal bard weaknesses into strengths.
Key abilities
- Gives more options for allies to use the bardic inspiration received to either enhance AC or increase damage from an attack.
- Is proficient in medium armor, shields and martial weapons. They can also use their weapon as a spellcasting focus.
- Gains the extra attack feature and can use a cantrip in place of one of those attacks.
- Can cast a spell as an action and then get to make an attack as a bonus action.
What are they good at?
Martial combat. But they mix this with their natural bardic spellcasting acumen to become a true sword and sorcery type of character.
How effective are they?
I’d say Valor bards are very effective at what they do. Their armor proficiency means that they have the AC to mix it with the martials in the party. Their weapon proficiency and extra attack let them deal enough damage. They can also mix cantrips with attacks in combat. This is excellent as cantrips generally outperform single attacks from mid to high levels.
As you hit higher levels, you can even cast a spell with your action and still have space to make an attack with your bonus action.
In my opinion, the college of valor is a very strong subclass capable of fitting multiple roles, and importantly, can survive on the front lines with your martial characters.
Score: 5/5
Which bard subclass is best?
As quirky and unique as the college of dance is, it doesn’t hold up mechanically as a frontline warrior nearly as well as the valor bard. And while the lore bard is a good spellcasting option, the glamour bard does this better in my opinion, with multiple effects synergizing as they cast spells.
This means that the very difficult choice for me is between the college of glamour and the college of valor.
I think it’s quite close, but the college of valor edges it for me. Their ability to combine swordsmanship and spellcasting is just very versatile and they should be able to out-damage any other bard subclass.
If you’d prefer to go for a more spellcasting focused bard though, the college of glamour is also an excellent option, especially if you want to focus on battlefield control as well as buffs and debuffs.
Which bard subclass do you think is the best? Let me know which one and why in the comments below.
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