The Bard-Paladin multiclass in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons brings to life the fantasy of a storyt🀅elling adventurer who travels from town to town regaling folks with the details of their journeys. Whereas your typical bard might prefer to share the stories of others or their entire party, the bard-paladin lends its🍨elf more towards a self-centered individual who is the hero of their own story.

That being said, players interested in this build should beware of the depredations of main character syndrome. As a charisma-based caster, frontline melee combatant, and expertise skill monkey, the Bard-Paladin truly can do it all. Consequently, you'll need to make a conscious effort to leave some spotlight for your fellow players.

Best Multiclass Bard-Paladin Species

Due to the overwhelming power of feats, your 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:best species options are either Tasha's Custom Lineage or Variant Human. Both of these species give you access to a free feat at first level which is better than any other featur𝕴e or benefit other s൩pecies provide.

Nonetheless, there are some other species to consider if you play at a table with the homebrew rule that everyone gets a free feat or if you're interested in trying something new. Dragonborn, Half-Elves, and Tieflings from the original Player's Handbook are fine choices thanks to the Charisma bonuses they offer.

As far as newer publications are concerned, Satyr and Yuan-Ti are both great thanks to magic resistance since it combines well with the paladin's aura of protection. In addition, the Shadar-Kai, Astral Elves, and Eladrin have bonus action teleport abilities that are incredibly useful for melee characters looki꧋ng to close the distance.

Lastly, the Hobgoblin's fortune from the many ability provides an additional benefit for having other player characters stand nearby you thanks to your paladin auras.

Best Multiclass Bard-Paladin Ability Scores

While many players believe paladins should focus on Strength, Charisma is actually their most important ability score.

This goes doubly so for a bard-paladin multiclass where you gain access to clutch bard spells as you'll want your spell save DC to be as high as possible.

Of course, Strength is a close second. You'll need a decent Strength score to make certain your smite attacks land though you can also rely on your bardic inspirations in a pinch. The goal line should be to reach a Strength score of 16. I🌌fﷺ you can manage to pump it higher without sacrificing a 20 in Charisma, even better.

Finally, a decent Constitution score is important for any character. The extra health that a minimum of 14 in Consitution provides will allow you to survive an exไtra attack or area of effect spell thrown✅ your way.

This is especially important for paladins as your lay-on-hands ability can easily serve as a second hit point pool as long as you avoid going unconscious first.

Multiclassing Level Progression For A Multiclass Bard-Paladin

Although this character will eventually end up with more levels in Bard, we want to start with Paladin levels so that we gain access to heavy armor. One of the biggest benefits of playing a Strength-based character is the extra AC (Armor Class) that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:heavy armor affords. Unfortunately, we only gain proficiency in heavy armor if we start off as a Paladin.

You will remain a single-classed Paladin until level six to unlock extra attack and aura of protection. This aura is one of the most powerful abilities in the game as it provides a bonus to saving throws equal to your Charisma ability modifier to yourself and all allies within 10 feet of you. It's also another reason why Charisma is more important to our build than Strength.

Once you hit Paladin six, you will switch over to Bard. This multiclass truly comes online around levels 10-12 as by this point your multiclassing spellcasting progression will allow you higher-level spell slots than a single-classed Paladin. Not only that, but you'll also gain access to more spell slots as well. This makes for more frequent and more powerful smites that will obliterate adversaries of all kinds.

You can stay picking up Bard levels for the remainder of your character's career, however, you may want to pick up one extra level in Paladin at level 12 to unlock your seventh-level Paladin subclass ability.

Multiclass Bard-Paladin Spells And Smites

Above is a comprehensive list of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:all of the spells you should consider taking at specific levels during your progression. A funny thing about multiclassing is sometimes you have higher-level spell slots than you do spellcasting.

For example, the 11 to 12 level Bard-Paladin has fourth-level spell slots but can only cast second-level Paladin and third-level Bard spells. Thankfully, this isn't an issue for a Paladin multiclass as you can use these higher-level spell slots to smite.

It's also worth considering that you can use these spell slots to upcast other lower-level spells you have such as Invisibility, Hold Person, Heat Metal, and more.

Another often overlooked ability that Bard spellcasting allows you is the option to cast certain spells as rituals. When you cast a spell as a ritual, the casting time increases by 10 minutes but the spell doesn't cost you a spell slot. This is a great way to ch🐻eat out some extra spellcasting every adventure.

While the spell list above will serve you well in a ge♌neral sense, there are soꦫme niche choices not mentioned here that can be useful depending on your campaign setting. For example, Dominate Person is a great spell in a campaign that features mostly humanoid enemies.

Best Multiclass Bard-Paladin Subclasses

Your Paladin subclass choice is largely up to you as there isn't any one subclass that fits extremely well with a Bard multiclass. This means the run-of-the-mill 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Paladin subclasses that stand out are all good options. These include the Oath of Vengeance, Oath of Conquest, and Oath of the Ancients.

While not good enough to force your decision, there are a couple of particularly cool interactions worth mentioning. The Oath of Conquest subclass gives you access to the armor of agathys spell which you can upcast using your higheꦰr level multiclass spell slots.

Besides that, the Oath of Redemption has a channel divinity ability called Emissary of Peace which gives you a +5 bonus to Persuasion checks. Paired with bard expertise, this ability will make it nearly impossible to fail a persuasion attempt.

While your Paladin subclass choice is largely up to you, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:your Bard subclass should almost certainly be the College of Swords. This subclass gives you the dueling fighting style which increases your damage by 2 on every attack for the rest of your career as well as the ability to use your bardic inspirations as blade flourishes.

These flourishes give you additional damage equal to your bardic inspiration die, another 10 feet of movement, and your choice of cranking your AC up by the number rolled on your bardic die until your next turn or pushing your target up to 10 feet away from you and even more movement.

As always, you can build your Bard-Paladin however you like. That being said, it's impossible to deny that the abilities the College of Swords offers naturally complement one of the best smite builds in the game.

Bard Vs. Warlock Or Sorcerer Multiclassing

Some players may argue that there's no reason to multiclass Bard-Paladin because Paladin-Sorcerer, Paladin-Warlock, and Paladin-Warlock-Sorcerer multiclasses are better. While these multiclasses are better in some ways, we would argue that the Bard-Paladin blows them out of the water in others.

From a purely combat-oriented viewpoint, Sorcerer and Warlock multiclasses do offer a little more in the way of defensive and offensive tools. However, there's a lot more to Dungeons & Dragons than just combat.

A Bard multiclass gives your character access to the incredibly powerful expertise ability which turns a number of your skills into checks that are nearly impossible to fail. Additionally, you also gain the aforementioned ritual casting and some uniquely useful Bard spells including Dissonant Whispers, Hideous Laughter, and Heat Metal.

Dissonan🐓t Whispers triggers opportunity attacks that you can choose to smite on if you so desire.

Lastly, bardic inspiration gives you a reliable use of your bonus action which is an action that many Paladin builds fail to exercise regularly. For all of these r𝓰easons, the Bard-Paladin stands tall as a great, albeit underused, multiclass that deserves its time in the limelight every bit as much as other more popular Paladin multiclass builds.