Bard Class & Subclass Detailed Overview for Baldur's Gate 3

bards are everyone's favorite jack of all  trades and master of getting the party into   as much trouble as possible especially with all  the fun skill proficiencies you'll have access to   in Baldur's Gate 3. in this video today we're  going to be doing a deep dive on another one   of our classes for bg3 this would be a 12 part  Series where I hope to give you a better idea   about each of the classes ahead of the launch of  The Game come August 3rd today we'll be focusing   on The Bard I'll be pulling information from the  5th edition player's handbook and I'll show off   the Early Access character select screen there  won't be a ton of visuals because I don't want   to spoil anything from the game for myself or  you how I'll do this videos by talking about   the base kit without any subclasses then go into  the three subclasses we know are coming at launch   it's worth noting that almost I'm sorry that most  subclass abilities go up to level 20 in d d but   the cap for bg3 is 12. so we'll talk about the  high-end abilities because we still aren't sure   if they're coming into the game in a modified  form or what have you but that's just a bit of   transparency first also keep in mind you can fully  respect both your character and companions for the   exception of their race so I encourage you to  try out every class you're curious about when   the game launches and please as always play how  you want not how the internet tells you I'm also   not a DND expert just want to let that be known so  not even slightly so I apologize if I missed the   mark on any of these descriptions you can quickly  navigate to any part of this video that interests   you the most using the chapters above the timeline  in the description don't forget to swing on by my   twitch where I will be streaming Baldur's Gate  3 on launch Linked In the description and pin   comment as well let's get started here on my Bard  class and subclass detailed breakdown for Baldur's   Gate 3. moving over to The Bard we see a very fun  character that can pull from tons and tons and   tons of different things in the game I would say  that The Bard if we're not talking about combat   and we're talking about just like kind of the  interact with the game world they're all about   skills and proficiencies and getting skill  proficiency bonuses and just really chalking   them up they have a lot of really fun  different abilities so you can see here   um I've got the chart here for all of the stuff  that you get for your Bard at whatever levels   and so on so forth so Bard is a spellcaster not  in the same way that maybe you say a wizard or a   sorcerer are that they dedicate 100 of their time  to it but they do have access to a limited number   of spells now those spells typically pull  from illusion or divination or enchantment   um and there's some conjuration in there here and  there but if I go ahead and press customize your   own spells I can see all of those first level  spells that I get access to this is this is all   that I'll get access to all 15 of these spells  then I'll get access to more the second third   fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth and Ninth level  spells um again our cap though is level 12 in this   game so we'll probably tap out at the sixth level  of spells for our bard now I can it's it's not   I don't want to say I can use wizard spells  because it doesn't really work like that but   all the Spells a wizard can cast a Bard can too  but a Bard cannot cast all the Spells a wizard   cannot that makes it if that helps you in any way  because I mean I still have like healing abilities   here like your wounds which is an evocation  spell I mean I I get plenty of other spells   that you would not think that are like oh okay  well I'll cure wounds a wizard no that's not the   way it works in D and D um you just have a bunch  of different pools that you're pretty much pulling   through uh again so evocation transmutation here  illusion where's the Divination one ah there's   a definition one so speak with animals um Tasha  is a really cool enchantment spell so you have a   lot of these really cool spells that you can pull  from with this character you also get can trips as   you can pull from as well these are all going to  differ too depending upon what subclasses you have   what race you select stuff like that you also get  your starting instrument this has no bearings on   the game you choose whatever you want and you  can just simply choose a different one at any   point in the game it's just what you'll be using  for your bardic inspiration which is really the   Hallmark of this class you start a level one with  that ability and bartic inspiration will change   depending upon which Bard College or subclass  you decide to go with I don't know if you come   combat inspiration you might get different types  of Inspirations whatever it is Bardock inspiration   is really the Hallmark of this class so I think  it's on here right yeah action at the very bottom   I can press T and remember if you at any point you  could press T in the game lock the screen and look   at any tool tip so Inspire an ally to go beyond  their capabilities with your performance they add   a one D6 bonus to their next attack roll ability  to check or saving throw don't think of this   as something that has to be used in combat this  is also a bonus action in case you do use it in   combat but your bardic inspiration will pop up  whenever something like okay I'm gonna go do   a conversation role role for intimidation or  do an intelligence check or an investigation   check in the middle of a conversation whatever  it is you'll see a little dice pop up with this   character's face on it and you can use their  Bardock inspiration to get a bonus on that   ability check ability checks like I said are not  strictly happening only in combat so just to kind   of kind of put that into a bit of perspective for  you and as you progress through the character you   get stuff like um counter charm which allows  you to pretty much give an additional saving   throw to anyone who's doing like fear or Charm  checks so that you can kind of help out the party   a little bit more but like I said too you get  a lot of bonuses towards your skills and your   proficiencies I've explained this on my other  videos but I'm just going to keep do this again   really quick for you if you have a proficiency  hover over this a proficiency bonus is a bonus   added to attack roles and ability checks if you  are proficient with a weapon tool or skill it's   different for armor but armor allows you there  we go to wearing light armor will not impose   disadvantage on your attack rolls or prevent  the casting of spells remember a disadvantage   is when you're going to take two dice and take  the Lo roll both and take the lower of the two an   advantage you'd roll both and take the higher of  the two I say roll dice you're going to see it in   the game you'll see the actual physical dice roll  first a lot of these things and it's pretty cool   um but those are important to kind of get an  idea for because this character's proficiency   or uh expertise allows you to choose multiple  skill proficiencies at level three so you get   two more and you can actually kind of double  things up so like I said you are all about   skills and proficiencies and getting big bad  rolls out of them that's the biggest focus of   this character also you're in a dexterity and  Charisma primarily focused class with strength   or decks depending upon how you want to go about  maybe your combat or how you want to approach it   even though you're casting spells you're not using  your intelligence to cast those spells much like a   sorcerer you are using your charisma to cast those  spells and what I mean by that is whenever you   cast a spell it will look at your charisma role to  do any of those ability checks and whatnot There's   an actual equation in the um in the rule book and  it's your proficiency bonus plus your charisma   modifier that's how that works so um Charisma  is how you'll be using that not the typical like   oh I gotta put my my points into intelligence  because I'm casting spells nay that is Wizards   so it's important to know those things because  we're going to go over here into oh well you   know what class features we have light armor  simple weapons so you'd be looking at rapiers   here short swords uh staves clubs swings  quarter stabs uh things that are well simple   um martial weapons would be any of your I'm  sorry Rapier is its own proficiency outside a   simple weapon sorry about that martial weapons  would be stuff like bastard swords long swords   um flails Morningstar stuff that it's not  just simple there's a whole list of them   I'm just trying to make it really like easy to  understand but you also get hand crossbow long   sword and Rapier proficiency as well as short  sword proficiency some of that might be coming   from a race no I didn't think that I thought it  might have been but not um this is basically the   character I will be personally making and like  this is going to be what my character looks like   and everything we also get a musical instrument  proficiency of course because this all pulls us   into our skills so as you can see if you've seen  my other videos here or maybe one on Ranger you've   seen that we get a ton of skill proficiencies  to choose from at level two you get Jack of all   trades you can add half of your proficiency bonus  rounded down to any ability check you make that   doesn't already include your proficiency  bonus so you basically what that means is   all of your um ability checks get a even  further bonus because of your jack of all   trades having tons of skill proficiencies your  focus and if that's what you want when you play   through the game a ton of different skills to  be this character that pulls from all these   different things this is really going to be  the one for you because you have pretty much   I I think you've got all skills to pull from um  at the bottom would tell you skills you do not   have proficiency with I think we can pull from  every single one someone by all means correct   me if I'm wrong there but anytime we click this  we would add two to that role of course that's   how proficiency works but then at level three  we get that expertise right choose two of your   skill proficiencies your proficiency bonus is  doubled for any ability check you make that   uses either of the chosen proficiencies so it's  massive right we're layering so much stuff into   our skills to be this character that can really  help out do I want to be a character that sneaks   around and intimidates people and maybe uses  my perception to spot traps and whatnot like   and spot uh hidden walls and traps and stuff like  that this is the character I'm Gonna Make Or you   know what maybe we're not that round maybe we're  all about the performance and we're all about   um let's go like perception no no no persuasion  that's what I'm going to look for persuasion here   and and and maybe like survival or something  we're having a different role of character   altogether or maybe we want to really lean  into um Arcana and history to kind of make   an investigation to make for a character that is  particularly good at divulging the Arcane secrets   and stuff or the anthropological secrets of of  the world of faerun whatever it is you make that   with your Bard it is so much a dealer's Choice  type of character that I really want you to lean   into those when you're building one out create  in your mind how this character interacts with   the world because that's the skills you want to  go for there I'm sure yeah you could probably   like yeah I'm gonna go with Athletics because it  helps me out in making like certain jump rolls   and stuff like that or maybe acrobatics and you  know what I'm gonna get medicine don't think of   what's good think of what you want because you've  got so many things to take advantage of as this   character it's what makes that Bard so God damn  fun and then once you push up to level 10 you get   access to magical Secrets where you pull spells  from every other class or however they're really   going to be doing that now of course we do stop  at level 12 because that's our our cap here so I'm   not sure how that scales Out song of rest which  helps you recover hit points and such like that   um or no it's helping you recover something  else when you regain hit points um if you are a   friendlier creature who can hear your performance  or gain hit points at the end of the short terms   by spending one or more hit dies each of those  creatures regains an extra hit point so that you   get more Health whenever you take a uh rest if you  can hear the performance of your bardic companion   but um again this is a class where you will  be choosing a lot of different Avenues and I   think that once you choose your bardic college  you will be able to get a feeling for how those   Avenues are going to play into each other because  the bardic colleges The Valor swords and lore   will then dictate kind of a little bit how these  skill proficiencies will probably play into your   character and your abilities too like I've said  before you're going to be focusing mainly here on   your dexterity and on your charisma as you can see  that's your big Focus for your character but then   maybe you know what we are going to be a character  that goes really heavily into Arcana and history   and stuff like that so I want these bonuses online  for intelligence so you'd put points into that but   primarily if you're thinking just strictly like  hey what are my skills probably uh scale with uh   like my actual character like strength because  of the close combat capabilities dexterity and   Charisma is probably what you'd be looking at the  most your general saving throws and what have you   but let's now pivot into a discussion here about  some of those subclasses well the College of lore   is all about well lore tapping more into the  studious nature of The Bard hanging out with   Wizards in libraries and talking all about those  sorts of things that they do and with this you   get a character that is going to focus a  lot more on those proficiencies going to   focus on the magical secrets that you get at  level um 10. you're gonna get more of them now   because that's that's the route that you've  taken with this character and I think lore   and I I don't know if they're going to  be changing it here for bg3 is probably   I'm just I'm gonna be transparent it seems to  be the slimmest of the two of the three options   here for subclass yeah you get additional magical  secrets you get Peerless skill which is going to   help you out with your bardic inspiration  ability check roles you're going to get   um an additional proficiency whenever you shoot  when you choose the College of lore which is great   right because remember like I said at level  um three when you get that expertise you get   those two more proficiencies well now you get  three more proficiencies which is very cool uh   and and you get the ability to distract confused  so on and so forth with cutting Words which is   another ability that you get at level three but  again if I'm being honest it's really all you get   from as far as what it looks like in the book now  the game might choose a different route for that   and that's okay too like don't think that hey you  know what I'm going to choose lore because I want   to go this but it's it's not a good option I'm  gonna not gonna have fun you're still gonna have   fun because you're still going to be a Bard at  the end of the day who has access to all these   things you're just getting more access to those  things that your character already does right   you get more stuff for your Bardock Inspirations  you're going to get more expertise you're gonna   get more magical secrets so you're better at  barting as you currently were so that's your   kind of over encompassing for the College of lore  let's now talk about the College of Valor so Valor   and swords coincidentally are both very focused  on combat swords in a different way swords is   very similar to the old blades uh subclass we'll  talk about in a bit but Valor allows you to be a   little bit heavier of a hitter you go from just  simply having light armor proficiency to gaining   medium armor proficiency Shields and martial  weapons so rather than just having access to long   swords rapiers and short dwell my shorts I think  isn't simple but long swords and rapiers you now   have access to the whole entire martial weapon  category so a lot more options are open to you   if you want to be in close combat you want to make  this character use the Buffs that he gets innately   from his Bardock inspiration in close combat then  definitely you want to go with Valor because Valor   gets the combat inspiration which makes it so  that your Bardock inspiration which was previously   only but benefiting our ability checks our saving  throws and our um what's the other one a a attack   rolls you now add it to the weapon damage which is  very nice so yeah sure you're using it on attack   rolls if you so wish but now it does a little bit  more so a creature that has a Bardock inspiration   die from you can roll that die and add the number  rolled to a weapon damage role it just made   alternatively when an attack roll is made against  the creature it can use its reaction to roll the   Bardock inspiration die and add the number roll  to its AC against that attack so this is to kind   of break that out and what that really means is  you're adding more damage here into the character   you're allowing them to do more or you're allowing  them to defend better because you're helping out   with their their their AC their Armor class and  that is the role of your Valor the College of   Valor Bard you get access to to extra attacks  you make more attacks whenever you fight things   um battle magic I don't know if we'll  get because that unlocks at level 14.   for our College of Valor Bard but this  allows you basically to cast a spell   um and rather than uh well here I'll just read  I'll read the damn thing for you when you use   your action to cast a Bard spell you can make one  weapon attack as a bonus action whereas otherwise   this would not be a bonus action allowing you to  almost always be able to cast a spell and also   attack with your weapon which is a very very  cool thing to do so that is how your college   of Valor Works let's now talk about the College  of Swords so the swords college is really all   about making you a better Fighter the College of  Valor is about buffing up your teammates use that   combat inspiration right but with the College of  Swords you're basically becoming a whirlwind of   Destruction kind of a little bit but you get  proficiency to medium armor now and you get   a proficiency to Scimitar remember Valor gave you  Marshall and medium armor it's a difference there   also you can use your simpler martial weapons  that you have any profession with as a spell   casting focus and for your fighting style that's  something that's unique to to swords as you get   a fighting style remember you can only choose  one fighting style in which case you get bonuses   when you're doing certain things take for example  dueling dueling is using a weapon in a single hand   and nothing in the offhand which gives you a plus  two bonus to damage rolls with that weapon or two   weapon fighting so this allows you to use a weapon  in each hand which is lovely right so you choose   one or the other as a fighting style and you only  can choose one then you get Blade flourish all   these unlock lot level three so you pretty much  get a lot of your abilities right out the gate   and it's worth noting here that if you played  Baldur's Gate 2 then the blade is what you'll   probably remember this guy as right you've got  the court the College of Swords well it was very   similar to the blade I think hair Dallas was a  blade Rich you had your blade dances that you   could basically give passive bonuses um it's not  like that anymore now you've got blade flourish   and the way that the blade flourish works is that  it gives you the con the bonus no one else so you   get defensive slashing and mobile flourish  defensive flourish works in the exact same   way as combat inspiration where you get to use  your bardic inspiration dice to help deal extra   damage to the Target you hit and you also use that  same dice to help out with your AC but again it is   only you combat inspiration applies to anyone well  anyone within range defense authoris is just you   you have slashing flourish which is you can  spend one of your Bardock inspiration to cause   the weapon to deal extra damage to the Target you  hit and to any other creature of your choice that   you can see within five feet uh the damage equals  the number you roll on the bardic inspiration die   so if defensive flourish gave you a single Target  bonus this gives you a ability to Splash damage   around right you do damage to one person and now  also to someone right next to them or creature   right next to them mobile flourish you can expand  one of your bardic inspiration to cause the weapon   to deal extra damage to the targets you hit always  lovely the damage equals the number you roll on   the bar to consideration die we already know what  that's going to happen right now you can push the   target up to five feet away from you plus a number  of feet equal to the number you roll in the die   you then can immediately use your reaction and  move up to your walking speed to an unoccupied   space within five feet of the target that's super  convoluted right but it's basically saying you can   shove them to get a little bit of room between  you and your party maybe or or to push them   into a trap whatever it is and then you can move  towards them to kind of close that Gap once more   outside of that though you get an ability to get  an extra attack so you can attack multiple times   um in a turn and lastly you get Masters flourish  um which you can add a D6 and use it instead of   expanding a bardic die so it's a very nice little  way to do that but that happens in level 14 so I   don't know if we get access to that in the game  but this is your college of Swords so if you can't   decide between the two of the Marshall colleges  just decide for yourself of do you want to be a   party support buffing character or do you want  to be someone who tries to dish out the damage   yourself that's what's going to help you decide  between Valor or swords hopefully this all helps   you out in deciding how to approach The Bard  or if you want to play The Bard in Baldur's   Gate 3. we have quite a few more classes to  go through and there are a lot of different   things within each class and I think every time  you watch anything or read anything about any   class it just adds to the damn list of classes  you want to play but Bart is really going to   be for you if you want to be a character who  is all about using their proficiencies to the   best of the ability to help out the party maybe  you don't have a lot of characters that do have   a lot of really good proficiencies or maybe  you have a huge gap in proficiencies across   the way Bard is going to help out to kind of fill  those gaps or allow you personally the player to   just play with a lot of the proficiencies that  you want for your character I think one of the   most inspiring or best things about bart and  yeah sure it's easy to think like oh this is   a guy who jumps into the tavern uses Charisma and  Charisma is his way out of any situation sure but   you're going to interact with a lot of portions  of the game world that are going to be unique to   the proficiencies you select are you going to do  something heavy into a history in Arcana and pro   and uh investigation where you're going to do  things far different than a bar that would not   be doing those things obviously that kind of  goes without saying but I'm saying that a lot   of the game is going to interact with those  proficiencies and you're going to have a far   different experience than if you did not take  those specific the proficiencies that you end   up taking but hopefully again this helps you out  if you want to be that body Bard go with Lord if   you want to be a combat friend that helps out Bros  go with the Valor but if you want to be a single   Target or I'm sorry a single force to be reckoned  with then go with that Bardock College of sorts   but as always guys thank you so much for watching  here today if you have any questions anything like   that go ahead and let me know in the comment  section below but have a good one and take care [Music]   thank you [Music]

Channel: ItalianSpartacus

Views: 57,282

Keywords: baldurs gate 3, baldur's gate 3, bg3, Bard Class & Subclass Detailed Overview for Baldur's Gate 3, bg3 bard, bg3 bard guide, bg3 bard build, bard overview, bg3 bard overview, bg3 bard instruments, bg3 bard subclasses, bg3 bard valor, bg3 bard swords, bg3 lore bard, bg3 college of sowrds, bg3 college of valor, bg3 college of lore, bg3 valor vs swords bard, bard subclasses, bg3 class overview

Id: cZWPX7hnEe0

Length: 22min 41sec (1361 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 19 2023