D&D: Five Bard Spells Almost as Strong as a Power Chord
Nobody can shred through encounters like a bard. And when you need to strike the right chord, here are five spells that prove bards are best.
Bards can be one of the best classes in D&D; they have it all. They can fight, they are good at skills, and they can cast spells. Now in a lot of ways, the other classes can outshine them – Bards aren’t as good at fighting as Fighters or Barbarians, and they only have one spell that does Fire damage.
But their spellcasting can be surprisingly devastating with the right mindset. Sorcerers might blast their foes with fire, and clerics might heal their allies, but Bards find ways to turn their allies into weapons. Here are five spells that every Bard should consider for their list.
Heroism
Heroism is such an underrated spell. Render a creature immune to fear (always helpful when fighting Dragons or other terrifying monsters) but the real reason you’ll use it is it’s the best Temporary hit point spell in the game. Pick a creature, every turn they gain temporary hit points, maxing out at +5 each turn pretty quick. It lasts a minute, protects someone who is getting hit instead of you, and with up to a minute duration, it means up to 50 extra points of “healing” on a 1st level spell. And once you’ve cast it, you can still do other things. Eat your heart out, Cure Wounds.
Faerie Fire
Remember how we said you turned your party into weapons? Faerie Fire is the way to do it. This second level spell outlines enemies in glowing light that prevents them from turning invisible or hiding, and better still, gives your entire party advantage on attacks against them as long as you concentrate on it. And you can pretend you’re cool and edgy, like a Drow.
Dissonant Whispers
Sometimes you might want to do some damage yourself – well Dissonant Whispers lets you damage a creature, and if you set it up right, also lets your party get some extra attacks in. A creature that fails its save on this spell takes some psychic damage, then spends its reaction to move away from you. Cast it when your party is engaged in melee with a powerful foe, and you’re gonna give people attacks of opportunity for days.
Fear
A surprisingly nasty spell if it takes hold. Take up a creature’s entire action every round – affected targets have to take the dash action to move as far away from you as they can (which means they can’t attack your party) and once they’ve failed their save, they can’t try again until you’re not in their line of sight.
Awaken
Turn any beast or plant into your friend. This spell is expensive – it comes with a 1,000gp material component cost – but once you cast it, you not only charm a beast/plant for 30 days, you also give it intelligence. It knows you. It likes you. Come across a T-Rex? Now it’s your intelligent friend who wants to hang around. Best way to get cool sidekicks in the game.
There are plenty of other options out there, but these are five of the best spells on the Bard List, they showcase just how well they fit in with any party.
Got a favorite Bard trick we didn’t mention here? Let us know in the comments! And as always, Happy Adventuring!
