D&D 5.5E: New Bard College of “Dance” is Actually All About Punching
Of the three new subclasses introduced in the D&D 5.5E Player’s Handbook, the Bard College of Dance is the most (unarmed) striking.
College of Dance? More like School of Hard Knocks. But you’re the one delivering the hard knocks in this case. That’s how I’d describe the new subclass for Bards. In the new D&D 5.5E Player’s Handbook, Bards have a grand total of four subclasses, the College of Lore, College of Valor, taken originally from the PHB, and the College of Glamour from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. But instead of the College of Swords from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Bards get a new subclass: the College of Dance.
This dazzling new Bard is all about the majesty of movement. The Dance here refers to the whirling cosmos that dance across the heavens. It is the movement of Creation itself. And that celestial, cosmic majesty that universal language that requires no mouth to speak or sing, translates for Bard into punching someone really hard, right in the face. Just all the time.
Fosse would never.
Bards Can Dance, and If They Want to, They Can Punch Someone’s Behind
But how does it work? It’s an interesting subclass for Bards. Because Bards in 5.5E are first and foremost spellcasters, as they were in 5th Edition. They’re also Inspiration machines. And like the other Bard subclasses, the College of Dance gives you new options to use when doling out those dice of friendship.
At level 3, the feature Dazzling Footwork grants you four key abilities. The first is a little ribbon, you get advantage on Performance checks involving dance. But more importantly you get a Bardic Unarmored Defense, which means you get to add your Dex and your Charisma modifiers to your AC when not wearing any armor. Because you’ll look just too pretty and graceful to be hit.
Most importantly of all, you get Agile Strikes and Bardic Damage. These two abilities make it so that you can hit people with inspiration. Literally. Bardic Damage lets you use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of Unarmed Strikes, in addition to dealing damage equal to whatever your Bardic Inspiration die is (starting at 1d6 and working up to 1d12). And, critically, this doesn’t use up one of your Bardic Inspirations. Which is good, because Agile Strikes means whenever you use your Bardic Inspiration you get to make one Unarmed Strike as part of using the Inspiration.
In other words, you can punch people real good. And any time you use Bardic Inspiration, which you can do as a bonus action, you can punch people real good for free. It’s a strange mechanic, but one that means you want to be in there, mixing it up in melee, as well as casting Bard spells.
At level 6 Inspiring Movement lets you take a Reaction to spend a Bardic Inspiration (triggering a free unarmed strike, thanks to Agile Strikes) whenever an enemy ends their turn within five feet of you, letting you move up to half of your speed without provoking Opportunity Attacks, and then an ally within 30 feet can spend a Reaction to move half their speed as well, likewise, not provoking attacks. So you become a master of positioning as well as punching.
You also get Tandem Footwork at level 6, which lets you spend Bardic Inspiration when you roll Initiative (this doesn’t trigger your agile strikes) and your Bardic Inspiration die gets added to every party member’s initiative, if they’re within 30 feet of you.
Finally at level 14, Leading Evasion gives you and anyone within five feet of you Evasion, meaning you take no damage instead of half damage when succeeding on a dexterity save.
All in all this is a fun new way to play Bards. I think the fact that your Unarmed Strike is primarily used in conjunction with your Bardic Inspiration is great because that frees up your Action and, especially once you get to 6th level, your Bonus Action, for casting spells. Because the Dance Bard is ultimately a spellcaster who can also punch things. And being able to cast spells like Heat Metal or Fount of Moonlight will enable you to do even more in the midst of a combat, while still also punching things. It’s an interesting take on the melee caster.
Will you try the College of Dance from the new PHB due out September 17th?
