Bard Feat Guide for D&D 2024 (5.5e)

Evaluating every feat for a bard and finding the best and worst options.

How it works

I’ve evaluated every feat based on how well I think it fits the bard class, scoring each feat out of 5. I’ve also provided some explanation for why I’ve given this score. All builds are different though, so use this as a guide, but not an absolute authority on what feats you should take and which you shouldn’t.

For example, tavern brawler is a great way to get pushes on a dance bard, but no other bard subclass should be making unarmed strikes. I’ve based my assumptions around the idea that you have a build that fits the feat (as long as that build is sensible for a bard). My commentary on each feat should give more explanation here when necessary.

As D&D 2024 expands, so will the feat options. I’ll try to keep updating this guide as this happens. When a feat comes from a source outside of the Player’s Handbook, I’ve also used abbreviations to indicate which source it’s from. These abbreviations stand for:

• HoF: Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerun
• ABoH: Astarion’s Book of Hungers
• LFL: Lorwyn First Light

Bard feats by score

If you just want an at a glance view of how well I’ve scored each feat for a bard, then I’ve included them all in the tables below for each feat type.

Origin feats by score

Score	Feats
5/5	Lucky, magic initiate, musician, spellfire spark
4/5	Alert, tavern brawler, tireless reveler, tough, vampire’s plaything
3/5	Child of the sun, purple dragon rook, savage attacker, skilled, vampire’s plaything, Zhentarim ruffian
2/5	Crafter, Emerald enclave fledgling, savage attacker, Shadowmoor hexer, vampire hunter
1/5	Cult of the Dragon initiate, Harper agent, healer, Lords alliance agent, tyro of the gauntlet

General feats by score

Score	Feats
5/5	Fey touched, inspiring leader, mage slayer, shadow touched, war caster, Zhentarim tactics
4/5	Genie magic, resilient, skulker, speedy, weapon master, Zhentarim tactics
3/5	Actor, bloodlust, charger, chef, crusher, defensive duelist, durable, fairy trickster, light bringer, lightly armored, love bites, moderately armored, mounted combatant, mythal touched, piercer, poisoner, purple dragon commandant, ritual caster, skill expert, slasher, spellfire adept, telekinetic, telepathic, vampire touched
2/5	Athlete, cloying mists, cold caster, crossbow expert, delicious pain, dual wielder, great weapon master, heavily armored, lordly resolve, observant, polearm master, putrefy, rebuke, sentinel, sharpshooter, shield master, spell sniper, street justice, vampire touched
1/5	Bomber, dragonscarred, elemental adept, enclave magic, grappler, Harper teamwork, heavy armor master, keen mind, martial weapon training, medium armor master, order’s resilience, street justice, treacherous allure

Epic boon feats by score

Score	Feats
5/5	Boon of desperate resilience, boon of dimensional travel, boon of fate, boon of fluid forms, boon of recovery, boon of the bright sun, boon of the night spirit
4/5	Boon of fortune’s favour, boon of looming shadow, boon of speed, boon of the soul drinker, boon of truesight
3/5	Boon of combat prowess, boon of communication, boon of energy resistance, boon of exquisite radiance, boon of fortitude, boon of poison mastery, boon of terror, boon of the furious storm
2/5	Boon of blazing dawn, boon of bloodshed, boon of bountiful health, boon of irresistable offense, boon of skill, boon of spell recall
1/5	Boon of misty escape, boon of revelry

Bard origin feats

• Alert (4/5) – Always useful to go earlier in combat and being able to swap initiative with an ally makes for something quite tactical if the dithering wizard wants to fireball your foes before everyone charges into the fray. Bards are naturally good with initiative due to their decent dexterity so this is a particularly good fit.
• Child of the sun (3/5) – LFL – Advantage against blinded for you and nearby allies is situationally decent. Faerie fire is decent too and as a buff specialist and support caster, this is a decent option for a bard at lower levels and gives an option for tackling invisibility. It’s hard to justify concentration faerie fire at higher levels though.
• Crafter (2/5) – Maybe decent if you want to do a lot of crafting, or to buy cheaper gear, but considering the cheaper gear is non-magical, I just don’t feel you get enough from this and crafting isn’t of much value unless you’re making magical things (scrolls and items).
• Cult of the dragon initiate (1/5) – HoF – Causing frightened for a single turn to a single enemy isn’t that great for the whole action it requires, even with the bonus heroic inspiration. Bards don’t even have a good wisdom to make this reliable.
• Emerald enclave fledgling (2/5) – HoF – Speak with animals is OK if your DM’s willing to do something useful with your animal conversation. It does tend to be better on charismatic characters though, which bards usually are. There are much better ways to use your action in combat than using the help action though, even with the movement.
• Harper agent (1/5) – HoF – Ranged help actions are OK, but your action is much better used with spells. Everything else is a ribbon feature. Just not a good feat. It’s maybe decent if you’re playing a hobgoblin with their bonus action help..
• Healer (1/5) – An action to do worse healing than a potion of healing or healing word. These other options also only require a bonus action rather than the action needed here.
• Lords alliance agent (1/5) – HoF – Most bards aren’t making many attack rolls and those that are (like Valor and dance bards) tend to employ hit and run tactics meaning they aren’t sticking near allies enough to gain some of these benefits.
• Lucky (5/5) – Giving yourself advantage and others disadvantage is powerful and really useful for anyone.
• Magic initiate (5/5) – Bards are already spellcasters, but they tend to lack damage dealing and defensive options that can be quite useful. Magic initiate can help fill in for some of this (and more spells and spell castings is always useful anyway). Shield or shield of faith could be quite nice on a melee build, as could shillelagh. Guidance is great for any bard and chromatic orb and guiding bolt give you some improved damage dealing options.
• Musician (5/5) – Heroic inspiration for most or all allies is really useful and can be granted each short or long rest. That’s a lot of rerolls! This works great on any class but there’s no one better thematically than a bard!
• Purple dragon rook (3/5) – HoF – The skills are decent for the charismatic bard. The heroic inspiration you grant is much less than the musician feat so I’d just take that. Technically this is an alright feat, but musician does a similar thing so much better.
• Savage attacker (2/5) – No good on most bard builds as it requires regular weapon attacks (so even dance bards are a poor option). The exception is a valor bard, but even they will likely be casting spells here and there giving you less worth from this.
• Shadowmoor hexer (2/5) – LFL – Hex is better on multiattack characters as the damage increases by each attack. Valor bards and dance bards could get some decent usage out of this, but they also tend to supplement attacks with spells, many of which likely aren’t using attack rolls.
• Skilled (3/5) – Bards are skill masters, but it doesn’t hurt to have a few more skills in your repertoire. This is especially the case if you’re already the party face and filling in roguish scouting and sneaking duties too.
• Spellfire spark (5/5) – HoF – A bit less damage from magic is good for anyone. Sacred flame is a decent cantrip, but being able to cast it as a bonus action is a really useful way to up your damage output in a turn. Cantrips scale in damage with your level so this will get better as you level up. Casting cantrips also won’t get in the way of using levelled spells on the same turn either.
• Tavern brawler (4/5) – Terrible on all bards other than a dance bard who can get a fair bit of benefit here. You don’t need the increased damage die, but rerolling 1s is handy as is pushing a target you hit. This makes hit and run tactics much easier, which will be useful for the typically vulnerable dance bard.
• Tireless reveler (4/5) – ABoH – Lots of heroic inspiration to bounce off one another. Especially good if you have easy ways of replenishing heroic inspiration, like the musician feat or someone else with tireless reveler. A bit more situational if you don’t have that.
• Tough (4/5) – Some decent extra resilience that’s good for everyone. I’d say this is more useful for Valor and dance bards who tend to get closer to the danger.
• Tyro of the gauntlet (1/5) – HoF – Both really situational effects that I just don’t see you getting the benefit of very often.
• Vampire hunter (2/5) – ABoH – Technically 2 situational options, but being grappled or in restraints is reasonably common. Vitality ward is great against necrotic damage, but that’s really situational.
• Vampire’s plaything (4/5) – ABoH – A free healing potion each long rest is really nice and dash and disengage as a bonus action are handy for hit and run builds in particular (but also those wanting to stay out of melee combat).
• Zhentarim ruffian (3/5) – HoF – The initiative boost is quite nice, especially if you have easy access to heroic inspiration (say if an ally has the musician feat). Exploit opening is less useful as bards will rarely make opportunity attacks, even valor and dance bards due to their inclination towards hit and run tactics.

Bard general feats

• Actor (3/5) – If you want to go for disguises and impersonations, then this is great for that. You’ll need to make opportunities where disguises are useful though.
• Athlete (2/5) – The climb speed is the only thing that’s particularly useful here. This will be most useful if you’re the scout of the party, but even then, it’s only OK.
• Bloodlust (3/5) – ABoH – Better on bards making a decent number of attacks rolls. Not all will though. You’ll probably get more use out of this with melee builds too just because they tend to need more healing.
• Bomber (1/5) – ABoH – Making thrown weapon fighting better than other weapon attacks, even for a valor bard, requires a fair bit of feat investment that I just don’t think is worth it for a bard. This would include things like the dual wielder feat and weapon mastery for the nick additional attack. To get bomber on top of that is just too much.
• Charger (3/5) – Good for a hit and run build, especially one that’s a bit faster. Charge up to your enemy, push them away, then move a bit further back, trying to keep the real martials between you and other enemies. Only good on a melee bard though.
• Chef (3/5) – A bit of extra healing on a short rest for the whole party and treats that grant a few temporary hit points. How good this is depends on the length of your adventuring days. I suspect this will feel more impactful at lower levels and less so at higher levels.
• Cloying mists (2/5) – ABoH – Not great for anyone (a single level 1 spell you can’t choose is significantly worse than similar feats like magic initiate, fey touched and shadow touched). At least fog cloud can be useful, but I would rather take magic initiate which is an origin feat.
• Cold caster (2/5) – HoF – Bards don’t get many cold damage spells naturally. That means you either use ray of frost a lot, or grab some cold spells through magical secrets. The saving throw reduction is decent, but you could get this by casting mind sliver. I’m not sure the slightly increased damage and extra debuffs of movement is worth a whole feat.
• Crossbow expert (2/5) – Maybe this can work on a valor bard, but I’m not sure the benefits above what you can do with other weapons is worth it. Perhaps a ranged valor bard using true strike for one attack with a light crossbow and a normal light crossbow attack is the benefit, but I’m not sure that’s enough. Making dual wielding hand crossbows work well enough is probably too much investment in feats like weapon master and dual wielder as well as this to be worth pushing for a bard.
• Crusher (3/5) – Quite good on a dance bard (as unarmed strikes deal bludgeoning damage) and valor bards with a bludgeoning weapon as the push will allow you to easily move in and out of melee range without incurring opportunity attacks. A poor option for other bardic subclasses though.
• Defensive duelist (3/5) – Decent defensive option for a valor bard with a reaction protecting you for the rest of the round. It’s no good on a dance bard who doesn’t use weapons and other bards probably won’t get much use from it due to their avoidance of melee.
• Delicious pain (2/5) – ABoH – A round of resistance to common damage types in bludgeoning, piercing and slashing can be quite decent, but it doesn’t work on the triggering damage. With bards generally being a bit evasive and this having limited uses, I’m not sure it does enough.
• Dragonscarred (1/5) – HoF – A resistance is good and attempting to frighten with a bonus action can be handy, but this requires 2 feats to make work and you need a decent wisdom, which bards don’t have so not worth it.
• Dual wielder (2/5) – To really get the main benefits of this, you need to be using nick mastery. The problem for a bard is only a valor bard might consider this, but even then, you’ll need the weapon master feat as well and this will conflict with bonus actions like bardic inspiration, meaning you’ll have more limited uses of attacks. It can work, but I’m not sure it’s worth such heavy investment.
• Durable (3/5) – The self healing is mainly what you want from this. Decent if you’re after a bit more resilience.
• Elemental adept (1/5) – Not a great feat for anyone and bards aren’t known for being particularly heavy on elemental damage making this a poor option for them.
• Enclave magic (1/5) – HoF – There’s some utility here and it pairs with speak with animals from the Emerald Enclave fledgling origin feat, but this is still 2 feats to accomplish what 1 should. Plus it’s better on characters with pets and those with a higher charisma. Bards do have high charisma and you might be able to grab find familiar with magic initiate, but that’s too much investment for something like this. I’d say play a ranger or druid if you want this kind of capability.
• Fairy trickster (3/5) – HoF – Flustering strike is quite good and because it lasts until the end of your next turn, you can cast a saving throw spell then to benefit from the disadvantage. Bards aren’t known for making loads of attack rolls, but this plays quite nicely into how a Valor or dance bard might play, mixing attacks with spells. You probably won’t disengage much, but even if you did, disengaging into difficult terrain is likely rare.
• Fey touched (5/5) – Misty step is a really handy spells to have available and there’s a free casting of it. Spells like silvery barbs, sleep and Tasha’s hideous laughter all make good 1st level options.
• Genie magic (4/5) – HoF – There’s a lot of flexibility here as you don’t have to pick a spell. The sorcerer list isn’t huge though, but you’ve got some AoE damage dealers like burning hands or thunderwave. Sleep is a pretty good control spell at this level too. It essentially means you’ve got an extra trick up your sleeve every now and again.
• Grappler (1/5) – Strength is not a bard’s forte. Even a dance bard can only use dexterity for the attack element of unarmed strikes, not grappling. Bards just aren’t built to be grapplers.
• Great weapon master (2/5) – Heavy weapons are only possible for a valor bard, and even then, that means investing in strength which is sub optimal because you’ll still need 14 dexterity for your medium armor while also investing in charisma and constitution as well. It means taking a feat like this leads to being spread too thin. A great feat, just for other classes.
• Harper teamwork (1/5) – HoF – There’s rarely a good reason to use help in combat rather than casting a spell or attacking, even with the extra benefit here. Frightened and paralyzed saving throw successes are unlikely to be common enough to benefit much from either when it needs to affect multiple party members, plus you have to pick up a bad origin feat to grab this too. The exception here is maybe if you happen to be playing a hobgoblin, who can use the help action as a bonus action.
• Heavily armored (2/5) – A valor bard could maybe make this work and maybe there’s a case to be made for dumping dexterity by taking this, but it’s just better building into dexterity.
• Heavy armor master (1/5) – You’d need the heavily armored feat first (and only if you’re a valor bard) which is already sub optimal. Not the right feat for a bard.
• Inspiring leader (5/5) – The ability is great for anyone, but best for bards who have high charisma.
• Keen mind (1/5) – Bards generally have poor intelligence so knowledge skills aren’t their strength. Study is rare in the heat of combat so having it as a bonus action is rarely useful.
• Light bringer (3/5) – ABoH – The healing is nice, but bloodlust is better and light is only OK.
• Lightly armored (3/5) – Grabbing shield proficiency could be good for some extra AC. Valor bards already have this and dance bards can’t use a shield or armor and have their other benefits. For other bards, the extra defence can be useful.
• Lordly resolve (2/5) – HoF – An option for decent resilience/recovery against 3 types of conditions and possession is good but you’ll need to use your bonus action to activate it and that can be tricky to anticipate.
• Love bites (3/5) – ABoH – This could stop a creature attacking you for a turn which is interesting for a martial subclass that wants to avoid being damaged. It works automatically on a hit too so no save required. Could be a good way to keep a nasty enemy off your back for a turn, it will take up a bonus action.
• Mage slayer (5/5) – Great for breaking concentration on spellcasters and having basically a use of legendary resistance every rest.
• Martial weapon training (1/5) – Most bards don’t need better weapons and valor bards already have this.
• Medium armor master (1/5) – This will only work on a valor bard and even then, you probably want to be playing a dexterity build, in which case the potential +1AC here is at the expense of stealth. A strength build will struggle to get enough dexterity for this too.
• Moderately armored (3/5) – A decent option if you don’t want to be making weapon/unarmed attacks so don’t want to invest loads in dexterity. Valor bards are already proficient with medium armor and dance bards won’t want it but other subclasses can do well here.
• Mounted combatant (3/5) – If you can regularly have access to a mount, then this could be decent. Many creatures are smaller than the likely large mount you’ll be riding.
• Mythal touched (3/5) – HoF – If you don’t mind some random effects, then this is alright and could be a bit of wild fun. Most effects should be positive.
• Observant (2/5) – Perception is decent for anyone, despite your low wisdom. Search as a bonus action is decent too, but situational. You’re not the best option for this, but it can be OK.
• Order’s resilience (1/5) – HoF – Quicker after being knocked prone feels like a ribbon effect. Advantage on strength saving throws is decent, but you also have to be next to an ally which is often not the case for a bard. This is a kind of situational feat that requires taking a very situational origin feat which isn’t great. I don’t think it’s worth it.
• Piercer (3/5) – Rerolling damage when using a piercing weapon is decent if that’s the kind of weapon you’re using. Improved criticals will be rarer, but the extra damage is welcome too. Only good on a valor bard though.
• Poisoner (3/5) – 2-6 doses of poison for 50gp is alright if you have lots of money. The extra damage and short poisoned condition are decent but your bonus action is under decent demand with bardic inspiration already. Still, you won’t want to use this every turn either. Again, this is only decent on a bard that regularly uses weapons, so primarily a valor bard.
• Polearm master (2/5) – These weapons all rely on a strength build which is only workable for a valor bard, and even then, it’s a challenge.
• Purple dragon commandant (3/5) – HoF – Bonus action temporary hit points to dish out is pretty good and advantage when bloodied is especially good the more attacks you have so decent for Valor and dance bards. The temporary hit points can be applied ahead of combat to keep the strain off your action economy.
• Putrefy (2/5) – ABoH – Even if you can grab some reliable necrotic damage dealing spells to want to use them most combats, this is still quite a small effect. It does work automatically though.
• Rebuke (2/5) – ABoH – The same here. Not a big effect, but it does work automatically. If you have reliable radiant damage (maybe through true strike) then maybe this could be OK.
• Resilient (4/5) – Constitution is probably your best option here. Fortunately, that will help you out with your concentration which is important for a bard.
• Ritual caster (3/5) – If you want some out of combat spellcasting utility, then this can get you a few interesting spells this way.
• Sentinel (2/5) – Bards probably don’t want to be using the tactics that might grant these opportunities. Valor bards might be your best bet, but even they will tend less towards holding the frontline. Dance bards already get easy attacks with their reaction under similar circumstances.
• Shadow touched (5/5) – Invisibility is great on a scout and another spell can be handy too. Disguise self color spray or silent image can be good options.
• Sharpshooter (2/5) – A Valor bard that primarily uses ranged weapons might do well here but no other subclasses will. Even so, it’s possibly a situational feat for a very specific build.
• Shield master (2/5) – Quite a good feat on a strength build with shield proficiency, but that only really includes valor bards and even they tend to struggle with a strength build.
• Skill expert (3/5) – Solid if you want to be an expert at a skill, which many bards will (or at least an expert in more skills).
• Skulker (4/5) – Great on anyone due to the easy blindsight. You won’t get much from improved hiding in combat though as that’s a challenge for anyone other than a rogue.
• Slasher (3/5) – Speed reduction is basically a weapon mastery effect each turn. Improved criticals is decent, but won’t happen loads. It’s decent enough but only for a valor bard.
• Speedy (4/5) – Faster movement is useful for most classes. Disadvantage from opportunity attacks will make it easier for you to use hit and run tactics.
• Spellfire adept (3/5) – HoF – Bards have a couple of radiant spells in their repertoire, but this is limited to the likes of true strike which is fine for this, but really, you want to be using this on AoE damage dealers as the extra damage magnifies per target. This means grabbing the likes of word of radiance, flame strike or Jallarzi’s storm of radiance through magical secrets. With these spells, this works well, but is limited to you casting these spells. Without them, it’s only kind of alright with hit point die expended.
• Spell sniper (2/5) – Bards are more about saving throw spell effects than spell attacks. Even if you are using something like true strike a fair bit, you can just make sure you have saving throw options like mind sliver available for situations where enemies are in cover. Even then, that is technically situational.
• Street justice (1/5) – HoF – Bards aren’t big on grappling. In fact they probably just shouldn’t be doing it at all. You might try to talk down hostile creatures which is the most use you might get here. Probably not worth the feat just for that, especially considering it only affects intimidation checks.
• Telekinetic (3/5) – An invisible, silent mage hand is great on a stealth specialist (if you’ve gone that route for your bard). Telekinetic shove could be a handy way of getting out of melee range with your bonus action or nudging an enemy into the radius of one of your spells.
• Telepathic (3/5) – Telepathy is good on a charisma build and can be quite useful for silent communication.
• Treacherous allure (1/5) – ABoH – I think the idea here is to charm someone and then attack them. It’s a lot of setup for advantage on a single attack though, which I don’t think is great.
• Vampire touched (3/5) – ABoH – Like fey touched but with worse spells. Spider climb is still useful, especially for sneaky bards, and illusion spells can be handy too.
• War caster (5/5) – Great for bards to help maintain concentration on spells. Especially if you’re the kind of bard that doesn’t shy away from a fight.
• Weapon master (4/5) – Valor bards may want to grab this so they get a weapon mastery boost with their attacks like the other martials. Not worth it on the other subclasses though.
• Zhentarim tactics (4/5) – HoF – Another changeable expertise is handy for your party’s skill master. Easier opportunity attacks is good for a melee bard. Dance bards have something similar to this already, but Valor bards can benefit a decent bit here.

Bard epic boon feats

• Boon of blazing dawn (2/5) – ABoH – Most bards are not making weapon attacks and even valor bards are less reliant on something like this because they can combine swordsmanship and spellcraft. Pointless on most bards and even valor bards can often get around these issues a fair bit anyway.
• Boon of bloodshed (2/5) – HoF – The advantage should happen a fair bit which is handy, and advantage is always useful. Extra damage when bloodied is decent, but only a small amount once per turn. Even valor and dance bards are unlikely to be making attacks rolls every turn though (you’ll want to be mixing and matching with spells).
• Boon of bountiful health (2/5) – HoF – The extra temporary hit points are not a lot at this level. It kind of works if you have a regular source of temporary hit points, but it doesn’t feel like enough. The improved healing is great for long adventuring days. A few feats (like bloodlust) will use your hit point dice making this quite good in conjunction with these, but not great without. Add an extra point to this score if you have a feat like bloodlust
• Boon of combat prowess (3/5) – An automatic hit once per round is good for the attack focused bards like the Valor and dance subclasses. They won’t be making attacks every turn though so not as useful as it is for dedicated martial classes.
• Boon of communication (3/5) – HoF – Pretty good on the class that is almost certainly the party face.
• Boon of desperate resilience (5/5) – HoF – Resistance to everything other than force is really good. Combine this with the boon of recovery (if playing at levels beyond 20) to basically have your full hit points while in a state of being bloodied. Bards that like to be in the thick of combat will benefit most here as they’ll be the target of more attacks.
• Boon of dimensional travel (5/5) – Really easy to move around the battlefield to wherever you need to be and there’s no action economy cost either. This will help ranged bards be more evasive and is a great way for melee bards to use hit and run tactics.
• Boon of energy resistance (3/5) – More damage resistances is useful and reaction attacks will be occasionally handy. This could be a bit situational as you only gain the benefits when facing the right enemies but you can change the resistances each long rest.
• Boon of exquisite radiance (3/5) – HoF – Great option for some nova damage from an AoE spell (as the extra damage affects every target). But you’ll need to use magical secrets to grab a decent radiant AoE spell.
• Boon of fate (5/5) – Regular manipulation of d20 rolls is good for anyone and once per rest is definitely nice.
• Boon of fluid forms (5/5) – HoF – Most creatures you could transform into won’t be worth it as they’ll reduce your capabilities (other than some utility). However, a few creatures, like a froghemoth, are worth the transformation. If you pick your forms wisely, this can be really good and a bundle of extra hit points to survive with.
• Boon of fortitude (3/5) – Some decent extra resilience. Especially if you pair this with something like bloodlust, that will let you heal yourself more regularly. Not that it’s a huge amount.
• Boon of fortune’s favour (4/5) – HoF – Reroll a saving throw every round. Really great resilience feature.
• Boon of irresistible offense (2/5) – Bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage are resisted reasonably often making this handy for attack-minded bards (like valor and dance). Problem for them is they will also take turns focused on spellcasting too making this of less value. The extra critical hit damage is fine, but very small compared to the rest of the damage you’ll be dealing and quite infrequent.
• Boon of looming shadows (4/5) – ABoH – The extra reach is nice for hit and run tactics and dodging as a bonus action can be handy for more durability. I’d probably only consider it on bards that engage in melee combat though.
• Boon of misty escape (1/5) – ABoH – Just a terrible feat.
• Boon of poison mastery (3/5) – HoF – The resilience to poison attacks is nice as they are quite common. You’ll need to dip into magical secrets to get good poison damage spells. Cloudkill and an upcast chromatic orb are probably your best options. On a side note, because this only works once per turn, chromatic orb would only get the highest roll on a single roll of the dice, not on subsequent bounces.
• Boon of recovery (5/5) – Loads of extra resilience here. I think this is much better than the boon of fortitude as your hit points will be high enough to recover to more than 40HP, by quite a bit. The healing option is also really handy.
• Boon of revelry (1/5) – HoF – Not a great spell for anyone.
• Boon of skill (2/5) – You probably already have skills you specialise in and others will have the same meaning most skills should be covered. Even then, you have jack of all trades for your other skills and others are likely better at the skills you’ve not taken proficiency in.
• Boon of speed (4/5) – More speed is great, escaping grapples is handy but a little situational. I like the boon of dimensional travel better as the speed is the same but teleportation will get you out of grapples and reach without disengaging. This does have the benefit of being used whenever you like on your turn rather than after you take the attack action though.
• Boon of spell recall (2/5) – This doesn’t do loads as it only works on 25% of spells cast at levels 1-4 but is a little useful I guess. Not that you’ll care so much about your low level spells getting depleted at this level.
• Boon of terror (3/5) – HoF – Immunity to the frightened condition is handy as is expertise in intimidation for the party face. The challenge is stoking fear. If the party has a reliable method for causing the frightened condition, then this could be quite good to consume their turn with fleeing. It only needs a reaction too. Good if you can integrate frightened into party tactics.
• Boon of the bright sun (5/5) – HoF – Loads of extra temporary hit points for the whole party is just excellent.
• Boon of the furious storm (3/5) – HoF – Lightning and thunder damage isn’t common enough to take this for the resistances alone but if you can grab a few thunder and lightning spells, then this can be quite good making those spells more reliable. You’ll probably want to dip into your magical secrets to work this though.
• Boon of the night spirit (5/5) – Invisibility gained quite easily and regularly is great for bards who generally don’t want to be attracting attacks outside of their turns. Be aware this will only work in shadowy places, but if you spend plenty of time in dungeons, then this should be fine.
• Boon of the soul drinker (4/5) – HoF – A couple of decent resistances and some pretty big healing. Creatures dying around you shouldn’t be a problem. Good resilience boon.
• Boon of truesight (4/5) – Really good when you face something you can’t see or illusions but that won’t be all the time. It’s important someone can deal with this stuff and this is the most profound way to do it, just be aware you won’t use it loads.

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