Valor Bard 101:shot an arrow from your bow then throw a bardic inspiration die at an ally. This gives you the freedom of stacking social or defensive spells like crazy.
"They shall come all for violence. Their faces shall sup up as the East Wind, and they shall gather the capacity as the sand." "Lo, as a wild ass go I forth about my work." - Gurney Halleck. "One day I will find him without a quotation and he will feel undressed" -Leto Atreides I after the above quote.
If you want to make a truly awesome grapple bard, consider the lizardfolk. With the 1d6 racial bite attack (which you can use as a bonus action until you hit with it once per rest to gain some temp hp) you can grapple with one hand, hold a shield in the other, and never be without a decent weapon! Nothing inspires your allies like the bard jumping onto their quarry, forcing them to the ground,and ripping out their throat all in one turn. Plus, you get natural armor to keep you upright until you can cop breastplate at level 3.
Great vid. Was thinking of doing a Gish Valor Bard with a glaive for self defence - buffed with Warcaster and Polearm Expert. Theorycraft is that I could cast spells and skewer anyone who charges me with reach/attacks if opportunity.
My Valor bard is a total Gish. Her highest stat is a three way tie between Str, Dex, and Con, while Cha is her second highest. I took variant human and got the tough feat, am going war caster, and I might even multiclass into fighter for dat action surge. She's the defecto-tank of the party since the other two members are also bards. My bardic inspiration is just handouts at the start of the fight, and from then on she just sits in the frontline wrecking shit while keeping some emergency spells on hand just in case.
Just wanted to comment on your video after I saw it back in October. Thanks to it I made a bard/sorcerer/bladelock and I went from being the "support" character to being the party's top DPR character. They stopped making fun of me when I was doing 100+ damage on average per round haha.
I accidentally made a gnome V bard gish and the pure value of making the front line wacky hard and using a combination of illusions and divination spells is silly, also Faerie Fire is a valor bards good buddy for easy advantage.
I made a level 6 character, who is a strongman and a grappler, but also really strong caster. Circus / Charlatan Background. I ended up with fighter 1 / College of Swords 5. I thought of a Barbarian 5 / Rogue 1 multiclass, but the party already has a barbarian. I know that my build isn't optimal, but IMHO this build can be so much fun.
When you said you would do a video on this I was not expecting it to be so soon. I really love the commando bard build the most. I try to utilize grappling with my barbarian, but since I'm currently doing more damage than the druid and rogue it has been more beneficial to just attack in most situations. While I love my barbarian I can't wait to put him on the sidelines so I can roll up a valor bard. I'm just imagining grappling one creature while I cast hold person on another.......I wonder if that is possible? I certainly hope so. Anyway thank you for doing my video request. That was a really kind gesture.
It was a really kind request, I'm happy you like something in it. Any other ideas, just shout them out, I consider all ideas an pick any that interest me. And yes, you can cast and grapple. you only need one hand to grapple, you only need one hand to perform the somatic components of a spell. War caster is an excellent choice for a feat if you want to do this because you can grapple you target and if your other hand has a weapon in it then you can still use spells with somatic components even if you are armed.
Just remember if your using, enhance ability then you have to drop that to cast hold person. also you can't do both in the same turn. other than that, yeah grappling and casting is fine.
A single level dip into Draconic Sorcerer can add a lot of firepower to a Valor Bard. Your AC is 13 + Dex. You get four cantrips (and Sorcerer have all the damage cantrips except Eldritch Blast). You get two level 1 spells (I went Shield and Magic Missile). I'm the party Tank. That says more about the shortcomings in our party unfortunately. I have a dex build. I can see the strengths of a strength build, pardon the pun, but even Medium Armour wants a minimum of 14 points in Dex, and if you're building up your Charisma for Bardish things, and you need 14 in Dex, and you want at least a +2 in Con there's not a lot of points to spend on Strength.
Bard: I have a question. If you grapple a creature and then shove it to the ground, is it still grappled? If that is the case, then even if the creature used its movement to stand back up, would it still be grappled?
Grappled creatures remain grappled until you release them or they break it. A grappled creature's speed is ZERO pg290. Standing up requires movement. Grappled + Shoved = Zero speed = Stuck prone. They have to break it with actions like ability checks and the unconventional bard in this video has double proficiency and sometimes advantage from enhance ability. Good luck getting out of that without spells or some outside help.
Trying to wrap my head around the commando bard. Str based, what feats are absolutes and what order would you go in? Race? I'm new-ish to 5e so could use an early level breakdown of choices, and how to do the action order too, if someone doesn't mind.
QuiteGoneJin I would go human. Using the variant rules in the PHB, you can take a +1 to all ability scores and 1 feat at 1st level as a Variant Human, allowing you to pick up tavern brawler straight from character creation. This would allow you to grapple targets as a bonus action, so you still get your attack and can force the grapple condition with expertise in athletics. After the target is grappled, you have advantage against it, and on your next turn could use the shove action to knock it prone. Once you hit 4th level pick up Shield master. This allows you to shove as a bonus action, meaning that you could forgo your first attack, grapple, shove, and if all goes well you now have a prime target with 0 speed to stand up with, and advantage for days. Hope this helped!
You know holding an enemy in one arm and having shield in one arm you can still use unarmedstrike with tavernbrawler for 1d4+str dmg yes? You can Kick or headbut dealing 1d4 dmg or use shield 1d4... Little False that you have to use your action to brake grapple-> enemy can take Shove action to push you 5ft away from you instead of spending action trying to brake the grapple -> the enemy has multi attack it can also make other attacks normally. Having 2 attacks enemy can attempt to shove you 5ft away braking the grapple, stand up, move 5ft and attack you or on fail roll attack you with disadvantage not westing it's action trying to brake the grapple. Yes, you can attempt to escape the grapple OR you can try to shove the enemy. Question more in this is are you strong? or are you nimble? If your higher stat is str you should try to shove but if your dex is better then you would use your whole action. In my understanding as Shove is an ability check it is not made with disadvantage while prone
I’m loving the idea of the grappling focused valor bard, but how do you get to grapple, shove, and attack in one turn? Extra attack can only be used if you take the attack action previously, so first you would have to grapple, then bonus action shove, and then you can’t use extra attack right? Unless you attack unarmed w/ tavern brawler, then bonus action grapple, then attack again w/o shoving them prone?
It’s been awhile, but I can answer your question. The shove action replaces one of your attacks, and works similarly to a grapple. You make an athletics check vs the targets choice of acrobatics or athletics. If you beat the opponents roll you can either push it 5 ft, or you can make it prone. If it wins the skill challenge, there’s no penalty other than wasting your action. With shield master feat you can shove as a bonus action whenever you take the attack action. Attacks against a prone creature have advantage, so it really helps your allies do a lot of damage to whatever you’ve grappled.
@@Tiragron99 Unless you're within 5 feet of the target, in which case the disadvantage from being up close, and the advantage from hitting a prone target, cancel each other out. The prone creature itself has disadvantage on it's attack rolls, so getting up close isn't as dangerous as it otherwise would be, and if the caster in question happens to have a melee attack spell (such as Inflict Wounds) then they'd be able to get that sweet advantage on the cast since it's a melee attack spell. I know it's an old post, but just throwing that out there for anyone else who stumbles across this like I did: unless your party is made up of a lot of ranged people, pinning someone down like this is a pretty solid choice. Your melee folks get to pound on the poor thing, and it has to fight back with disadvantage until it can break the grapple and stand up, which wastes its turn anyway.
@@AllThingsFascinate Overall Swords is a better fighter but Valor is more versatile. The build didn't work so well for me because I kept dying cos I was so close to the enemy, they just punched me and at times it was just better to faerie fire or dimension door other PCs. Valor is great if you wanna be able to do some combat but still be able to fluidly alternate with spells. Swords seems like a choice for a more warrior bard that focuses on just being a solid fighter (magical secrets into Pally or Ranger stuff is great for this).
Valor Bard 101:shot an arrow from your bow then throw a bardic inspiration die at an ally. This gives you the freedom of stacking social or defensive spells like crazy.
Two words for why to play a Valor bard: Gurney Halleck
I wish I has Patrick Stewart's vocals. it would make the videos way more awesome ;)
"They shall come all for violence. Their faces shall sup up as the East Wind, and they shall gather the capacity as the sand."
"Lo, as a wild ass go I forth about my work." - Gurney Halleck.
"One day I will find him without a quotation and he will feel undressed" -Leto Atreides I after the above quote.
That is an absolutely perfect analogy. Well done sir!
Huzza i just started reading that book!
If you want to make a truly awesome grapple bard, consider the lizardfolk. With the 1d6 racial bite attack (which you can use as a bonus action until you hit with it once per rest to gain some temp hp) you can grapple with one hand, hold a shield in the other, and never be without a decent weapon! Nothing inspires your allies like the bard jumping onto their quarry, forcing them to the ground,and ripping out their throat all in one turn. Plus, you get natural armor to keep you upright until you can cop breastplate at level 3.
I’m making a Drow Valor Bard. My reasoning for doing this is I wanted the flavor of a Drow Favored Consort.
Valor Bards are amazing. Underappreciated. Loving the fact that if you want to play a non-religious paladin,Valor bard is so much better :P
Omg I can't believe I missed this the video is to good.
your love for the class shines in this video
It would be cool if there was a video like this for the new whisper bard
Whisper bard, whats the expansion? if people want that kind of content then I could consider looking into expanding my 5e a little bit.
Drow Bard yea it's in xanatars guide to everything
Cool, i'll have a look and see what I like in it. thanks for mentioning it.
I would like to congratulate the Bard for having best build videos IMHO. I keep coming back to your videos. Thanks, mate 🎶🙏
Great vid. Was thinking of doing a Gish Valor Bard with a glaive for self defence - buffed with Warcaster and Polearm Expert. Theorycraft is that I could cast spells and skewer anyone who charges me with reach/attacks if opportunity.
My Valor bard is a total Gish. Her highest stat is a three way tie between Str, Dex, and Con, while Cha is her second highest. I took variant human and got the tough feat, am going war caster, and I might even multiclass into fighter for dat action surge. She's the defecto-tank of the party since the other two members are also bards.
My bardic inspiration is just handouts at the start of the fight, and from then on she just sits in the frontline wrecking shit while keeping some emergency spells on hand just in case.
2 levels in paladin
1 level in hexblade warlock
The rest in valour bard
The ultimate Gish
Just wanted to comment on your video after I saw it back in October. Thanks to it I made a bard/sorcerer/bladelock and I went from being the "support" character to being the party's top DPR character. They stopped making fun of me when I was doing 100+ damage on average per round haha.
Build?
Build please sir!!!
Valor Bard is still the best full caster archer.
That was amazing, i play lore but some of that advice ill use
Thanks man, that's what they're for. Let me know how it goes.
I accidentally made a gnome V bard gish and the pure value of making the front line wacky hard and using a combination of illusions and divination spells is silly, also Faerie Fire is a valor bards good buddy for easy advantage.
Gnomes for the win.
Drow Bard Truly
I made a level 6 character, who is a strongman and a grappler, but also really strong caster. Circus / Charlatan Background. I ended up with fighter 1 / College of Swords 5. I thought of a Barbarian 5 / Rogue 1 multiclass, but the party already has a barbarian.
I know that my build isn't optimal, but IMHO this build can be so much fun.
When you said you would do a video on this I was not expecting it to be so soon. I really love the commando bard build the most. I try to utilize grappling with my barbarian, but since I'm currently doing more damage than the druid and rogue it has been more beneficial to just attack in most situations. While I love my barbarian I can't wait to put him on the sidelines so I can roll up a valor bard. I'm just imagining grappling one creature while I cast hold person on another.......I wonder if that is possible? I certainly hope so. Anyway thank you for doing my video request. That was a really kind gesture.
It was a really kind request, I'm happy you like something in it. Any other ideas, just shout them out, I consider all ideas an pick any that interest me.
And yes, you can cast and grapple. you only need one hand to grapple, you only need one hand to perform the somatic components of a spell. War caster is an excellent choice for a feat if you want to do this because you can grapple you target and if your other hand has a weapon in it then you can still use spells with somatic components even if you are armed.
Just remember if your using, enhance ability then you have to drop that to cast hold person. also you can't do both in the same turn. other than that, yeah grappling and casting is fine.
Once you reach level 14 you could do both on the same turn since you need to use your attack action to preform a grapple.
A single level dip into Draconic Sorcerer can add a lot of firepower to a Valor Bard.
Your AC is 13 + Dex.
You get four cantrips (and Sorcerer have all the damage cantrips except Eldritch Blast).
You get two level 1 spells (I went Shield and Magic Missile).
I'm the party Tank.
That says more about the shortcomings in our party unfortunately.
I have a dex build. I can see the strengths of a strength build, pardon the pun, but even Medium Armour wants a minimum of 14 points in Dex, and if you're building up your Charisma for Bardish things, and you need 14 in Dex, and you want at least a +2 in Con there's not a lot of points to spend on Strength.
So you could make a flashy pro wrestler? Maybe a tortle who shoves dudes and claws them on ground while yelling out epic one liners?
Bard: I have a question. If you grapple a creature and then shove it to the ground, is it still grappled? If that is the case, then even if the creature used its movement to stand back up, would it still be grappled?
Grappled creatures remain grappled until you release them or they break it. A grappled creature's speed is ZERO pg290. Standing up requires movement. Grappled + Shoved = Zero speed = Stuck prone. They have to break it with actions like ability checks and the unconventional bard in this video has double proficiency and sometimes advantage from enhance ability. Good luck getting out of that without spells or some outside help.
Excellent! Thank you.
A grung grappler is great because it poisons them so that they can not escape
Trying to wrap my head around the commando bard. Str based, what feats are absolutes and what order would you go in? Race? I'm new-ish to 5e so could use an early level breakdown of choices, and how to do the action order too, if someone doesn't mind.
QuiteGoneJin I would go human. Using the variant rules in the PHB, you can take a +1 to all ability scores and 1 feat at 1st level as a Variant Human, allowing you to pick up tavern brawler straight from character creation. This would allow you to grapple targets as a bonus action, so you still get your attack and can force the grapple condition with expertise in athletics. After the target is grappled, you have advantage against it, and on your next turn could use the shove action to knock it prone. Once you hit 4th level pick up Shield master. This allows you to shove as a bonus action, meaning that you could forgo your first attack, grapple, shove, and if all goes well you now have a prime target with 0 speed to stand up with, and advantage for days. Hope this helped!
Ty, just a heads up VHumans have +1 to 2 stats only, thats the trade off for getting a feat at lvl 1.
You know holding an enemy in one arm and having shield in one arm you can still use unarmedstrike with tavernbrawler for 1d4+str dmg yes? You can Kick or headbut dealing 1d4 dmg or use shield 1d4...
Little False that you have to use your action to brake grapple-> enemy can take Shove action to push you 5ft away from you instead of spending action trying to brake the grapple -> the enemy has multi attack it can also make other attacks normally. Having 2 attacks enemy can attempt to shove you 5ft away braking the grapple, stand up, move 5ft and attack you or on fail roll attack you with disadvantage not westing it's action trying to brake the grapple.
Yes, you can attempt to escape the grapple OR you can try to shove the enemy. Question more in this is are you strong? or are you nimble? If your higher stat is str you should try to shove but if your dex is better then you would use your whole action. In my understanding as Shove is an ability check it is not made with disadvantage while prone
I’m loving the idea of the grappling focused valor bard, but how do you get to grapple, shove, and attack in one turn? Extra attack can only be used if you take the attack action previously, so first you would have to grapple, then bonus action shove, and then you can’t use extra attack right? Unless you attack unarmed w/ tavern brawler, then bonus action grapple, then attack again w/o shoving them prone?
It's up to the DM as to whether or not you can break up your attacks with extra with stuff other than movement
Awesome video! Gave me great inspiration
Hope it helps, I'm working on a series of these for most classes. I'm just pleased you got something out of it.
Drow Bard please do
Would you speak towards using the push action to cause a grappled target to go prone? I wasn't aware that was an option.
It’s been awhile, but I can answer your question. The shove action replaces one of your attacks, and works similarly to a grapple. You make an athletics check vs the targets choice of acrobatics or athletics. If you beat the opponents roll you can either push it 5 ft, or you can make it prone. If it wins the skill challenge, there’s no penalty other than wasting your action. With shield master feat you can shove as a bonus action whenever you take the attack action. Attacks against a prone creature have advantage, so it really helps your allies do a lot of damage to whatever you’ve grappled.
Ranged attacks and spells have disadvantage on prone targets
@@Tiragron99 Unless you're within 5 feet of the target, in which case the disadvantage from being up close, and the advantage from hitting a prone target, cancel each other out. The prone creature itself has disadvantage on it's attack rolls, so getting up close isn't as dangerous as it otherwise would be, and if the caster in question happens to have a melee attack spell (such as Inflict Wounds) then they'd be able to get that sweet advantage on the cast since it's a melee attack spell.
I know it's an old post, but just throwing that out there for anyone else who stumbles across this like I did: unless your party is made up of a lot of ranged people, pinning someone down like this is a pretty solid choice. Your melee folks get to pound on the poor thing, and it has to fight back with disadvantage until it can break the grapple and stand up, which wastes its turn anyway.
Love the choice of music. \m/
FFX is awesome ;) great tune!
Very helpful, thanks a lot
Hello Bard! Love your unconventional stuff as well as the class analysis ones. Are you going to be doing the other classes with Unconventional Builds?
I second this. As written, it seems pigeon holed into the narrative of the Whisper School. I'd love to see some ideas to transform this.
What do you think about going simic hybrid instead of taking tavern brawler for the commando?
i'm not familiar with it, i'll have to do some research.
Shield master only works after an attack, not a grapple
Valor bards get extra attack
Grappling is an attack, and Shield Master requires the Attack action, not specifically an attack.
Pardon my wrongdoing. I played this build the other day. Quite fun, but overall slightly worse than Swords imo
@@quiensera9947 I'm necroing the thread I know, but would you be willing to expound on your thoughts? Trying to pick swords vs valor myself
@@AllThingsFascinate Overall Swords is a better fighter but Valor is more versatile. The build didn't work so well for me because I kept dying cos I was so close to the enemy, they just punched me and at times it was just better to faerie fire or dimension door other PCs. Valor is great if you wanna be able to do some combat but still be able to fluidly alternate with spells. Swords seems like a choice for a more warrior bard that focuses on just being a solid fighter (magical secrets into Pally or Ranger stuff is great for this).
if you're a a drow bard how is your profile pic the pastiest adc in the league?
Cos I haven't had the time to create a new avatar, I'm a busy bard ;)