Bard Subclasses: Creating Homebrew
A couple weeks back I talked about creating subclasses for the fighter, this week I am going to be looking at the bard! See, Chris [the other writer on here] was running a game where I was a kobold bard and I played a few sessions and during that time we got to 3rd level and I looked at the available bard subclasses and wept. All the options were serious and focused on mystery, secrets, and shadows… My kobold, whose name was Kinko, was light hearted and fun. He was also a dumbass that didn’t have much learnin’ and just liked to play music as loud as possible… there isn’t a college for the dumbass in 5e and so I decided I’d create him one.
Bard’s Abilities
So, last time we talked about the different types of abilities based on whether they are meant for combat or are just for flavor. Today, we are going to focus on something that the bard does that very few other classes can do.
Bards are responsible for buffing their party and debuffing the enemies, they aren’t the tank soaking up damage and they aren’t the wizards capable of manipulating the battlefield to their whims. Bards are singularly focused on their party and pushing their party to be better and do better, no other (official) class can claim to be as great a buffer as the bard and that is where the bard shines. If you are trying to make a bard that is focused on murder and tanking large amounts of damage, sure you can probably work something out to do it, but that’s not what bards are designed for. Bards are support and buffing, and while WotC has provided a very good fighter subclass for the bard, they are still focused on buffing… just buffing themselves… greedy jerks.
Bard Class
The bard class is a full spellcaster focused on buffing, debuffing, and being a jack of all trades. A bard can have any skill they desire, can double their proficiency on those skills, and still be a badass fighter with full access too spells. They are incredibly versatile, and so long as you don’t mind the constant playing of instruments, can be great companions to have with you when you go adventuring.
The most important thing a bard gets is their Bardic Inspiration and these should be augmented by their subclass to help provide flavor to the subclass.
Subclasses
A bard subclass provides features at levels: 3, 6, and 14. The subclasses provide the flavor for a bard and, due to how few features a bard subclass gets, must be loaded with flavor.
I will be using the subclasses featured in the Player’s Handbook and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything as examples as we begin building this subclass.
Beginning, let’s go over the basics of a bard subclass.
3rd Level
This level is important for two reasons: the bard gets a new ability to use with their bardic inspiration and they get a ribbon ability that helps provide some flavor. The ribbon ability is often proficiency bonuses, like more weapons they can fight with or additional skill proficiencies. If they don’t get that, they get an ability that provides lots of flavor, like the Whispers bard can frighten people they talk to or the Glamour bard gets to charm people with their performance.
While the ribbon ability is nice and all, the real excitement comes from how a bard can now use their bardic inspiration. For the first 2 levels, a bard has only been able to help their allies in a single way, so now they get a chance to do something unique with their bardic inspiration that no other bard can do , of course, these bardic inspirations still focus on buffing. Lore bards get to protect their allies by shit-talking their enemies, the swords bard gets to augment their attacks with different buffs, while the shadow bard is an outlier as they just end up dealing lots of psychic damage with their attacks and not much else with it.
6th Level
This is a bit of a strange level for a bard, but if you dig down you can start figuring it out. For martial focused bards, they get a second attack which means they are getting a power boost… but what about the others? They range the gamut from two more spells to getting a dope shadow disguise to being able to cast the command spell at will. Well, these abilities are all about versatility and building on the flavor. The bard subclass only gets three features, so you have to make sure you pack as much flavor in as possible.
This level has a bit of freedom for the creator of a subclass, but keep in mind that your feature should have some way of being useful in combat, the only bard subclass that gets a ribbon ability at this level is Whispers bard, but their 3rd level ability actually gives them a power boost at 5th, 10th & 15th level so they get a pass for having a ribbon feature at this level.
14th Level
The last feature for the bard comes pretty late in their lifecycle, and it’s unlikely most bards are actually going to get this powerful before the campaign ends. This last level should provide a bonus to combat, or find some way to use your bardic inspiration… of course, Whispers bard gets to cheat because their 3rd level provides a power boost at 15th level so they get a ribbon ability.
Valor and sword bards get to increase their effectiveness in combat by dealing more damage, valor get a bonus action attack while sword bards get unlimited d6 sword flourishes. Glamour and lore bards get ways to augment their bardic inspirations, giving them more versatility and ability, though the lore bard’s augment of bardic inspiration isn’t as effective in combat as other bard features. I suppose getting two more spells than another bard makes up for it as they have even more versatility in combat when it comes to spells.
College of Cacophony
Now, we have finally gotten to the part where I make the subclass! This bard is focused on being loud and ensuring your enemies hear you!
3rd Level
Cacophony bards get bonus proficiencies and a way to augment their bardic inspiration, so far so good. To help emphasize that these bards are loud, they get additional instruments they are proficient in… except they all have to be loud like a tuba. Fun fact, I played the tuba. I wasn’t that good at it.
After that, they also get their own way of augmenting their bardic inspiration and they do so by buffing their spells. If they expend a bardic inspiration, they can change the spells damage to thunder (on theme) and deal additional damage equal to their bardic inspiration to all creatures targeted. While this isn’t a buff for their allies, this is a small buff for the bard who can more easily overcome damage resistances and they get to deal a bit more damage.
6th Level
Our next feature is 6th level and includes a small boost in combat ability for our bardling. This is the same level that all bards get a countercharm ability, and for Cacophony bards, they can augment that and be so incredibly loud that other creatures (of their choice) are deafened by the noise and act as if they are in a silence spell. This can really screw over enemy spell casters and stays very on theme for just a loud bard.
14th Level
Our final ability for the Cacophony bards is that they can help their parties get pumped during a short rest and they all get a bonus damage die on their attacks. Again, combat focused and provides a power boost for our bard, if they target 5 creatures with this ability they all get to roll the bard’s bardic inspiration die as bonus damage on a hit. At this level its a d10 (next level is a d12), so we are looking at 5d10 bonus damage, which averages out to 27.5 additional damage for a single use of a Bardic Inspiration die.
Wrapping Up
This subclass, while beautiful in my mind, is only missing playtesting and running it through its paces. That’s one of the secrets of homebrew is testing it over and over, fixing any weak spots or pulling back anything too powerful. Eventually, this’ll get refined as it is played more and more, and I’ll update any links on this page as the subclass gets played.
So, there are the basics for creating a bard subclass and I hope this helps pull back the curtain on how to make your own. If you have a class you’d like to see a similar approach too, please let me know down in the comments!
If you liked the College of Cacophony we made today and want a printer-friendly PDF of this subclass, or any tool or subclass we’ve made, consider supporting us at the $1 tier on our patreon! All homebrew that I’ve created or will create in the future will be uploaded to our patreon in printer-friendly versions. We appreciate any and all support!
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