Some good Bard build advice
here
This one has some advanced Bard multiclassing advice.
And
a Rogue class guide, in case I dip into it.
I have a table of skills on my nonspoiler tips page, and my ranking of each is based on my 2025 playthrough character.
Bards can use every skill.
This gives me the following S and A tier skills (plus Performance, and I can't imagine having a Bard without Performance):
- Perception
- Persuasion
- Performance
- Acrobatics
- Sleight of Hand
- Stealth
- Insight
That's 7 skills. I only get 3 skills at character creation (if I start as Bard) or 4 (if I start as Rogue). I *think* that if I start as Bard, then I get one more skill if I add a level of Rogue.
Additionally, I can get one or two skills from my race (Perception and Stealth from Wood Elf, just Stealth from Half Wood Elf), and two from my Background.
Some backgrounds that might be of interest:
- Charlatan (Deception, Sleight of Hand)
- Criminal (Deception, Stealth)
- Entertainer (Acrobatics, Performance)
- Urchin (Sleight of Hand, Stealth)
- Guild Artisan (Insight, Persuasion)
- Noble (History, Persuasion)
The Entertainer or Guild Artisan backgrounds would work well. Entertainer seems to fit my character better.
I get Expertise at Rogue 1 and Bard 3. That doubles my proficiency bonus in something I'm already proficient in.Rogue Expertise is limited to Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion, while Bard Expertise can be applied to any of them. I get an additional Expertise if I take Bard to level 10.
Wood Elf and Half Wood Elf would both work well for this build. I can get all the skills I really care about with either. Wood Elf would let me add one more B-rank skill from my nice-to-have list. Half Wood Elf would give me additional weapon proficiences, including shields. Shields would be useful in the early game (I may dual-wield later, making it unnecessary). I'm leaning towards Half Wood Elf, just because it fits my character concept.
Some internet advice that I may or may not follow: for items, grab Band of the Mystic Scoundrel at the Circus at the start of Act 3. Also the helm of Arcane Acuity from the Mason Guild in Act 2. In the meantime, you should be using hand-crossbows as your ranged weapon, so you can use those bonus actions for Hand Crossbow attacks. There's two good ones (Hellfire and Ne'er Miss) in Act 2.
I'll start as Rogue (because Sneak Attack will be immediately useful, and level 1 Bards kinda suck). I'll then level as Bard for awhile. At some point, I may choose to add two move levels of Rogue, in order to get the Thief level 3 Bonus Action (Fast Hands). However, that would mean I would not get Magical Secrets at Bard 10 (because I'd only take Bard to 9). I should play awhile and decide if I prefer the extra Bonus Action from Rogue or the additional spells from Bard.
Getting the Fast Hands would abuse the game's action system, giving Attack/Cast/Attack/Cast each turn. That's pretty compelling, but I won't know for sure until I try it.
I could lean even harder into weapon combat by taking 1, 2, or 3 levels of Fighter or Ranger. This would work for either melee or ranged. For ranged, I'd probably dual-wield Hand Crossbows. Benefits of the extra class at each level would be:
Fighter:
- Level 1: Fighting Style: Archery (permanent +2 to all ranged attack rolls)
- Level 2: Action Surge (extra attack, recharges on short rest)
- Level 3: Sublass, either Champion (improved crit chance) or Battle Master (some neat Manoeuvres)
Ranger:
- Level 1: Hunter's Mark (extra 1d6 damage to each attack but costs a bonus action and a level 1 spell slot to cast) and Familiar (can help proc Sneak Attack by having an ally in range, Raven is good for this)
- Level 2: Fighting Style: Archery (+2 to ranged attack rolls)
- Level 3: Subclass features, probably one of:
- Hunter: gives Colossus Slayer (once per turn +1d8 when target is below max HP)
- Gloom Stalker: gives Dread Ambusher (On first turn of every combat, get Initiative +3, Movement +3m, and a free extra attack that does +1d8 damage, fully passive/automatic, no bonus action or spell slot required)
Of course, any of that would give up a lot more Bard, so maybe worth it, maybe not. Either way, take the Sharpshooter feat (-5 to Attack roll but +10 damage). The idea is that the Archery bonus helps offset the Sharpshooter penalty, so you hit a little less often, but at higher levels with decent gear that's not a big problem, and you get a LOT of extra damage. The Hunter variation is better consistent damage in longer fights, the Gloom Stalker variation is a kill-somebody-on-the-first-round specialist.
A reasonable attribute spread might be:
- STR: 8 (-1)
- DEX: 16 (+3)
- CON: 14 (+2)
- INT: 10 (+0)
- WIS: 10 (+0)
- CHA: 16 (+3)
For my Bard/Rogue with maybe some Fighter or Ranger, I expect to have not-so-great WIS and INT, so regardless of what I dip into, I should do it BEFORE I add Bard. In other words, Bard should be my last new class. I can add more of whatever later on, but I should take at least one level of every other class I'm taking before I take my first Bard level. That way, CHA will be my Spellcasing Ability not WIS or INT.
In the actual game, I can respec. So I can always take things in whatever order is most beneficial for the early game, and then when I'm ready to add the other class(es), I can respec to have Bard added last.
Here are some build possibilities:
I ended up playing the Bard 6 / Rogue 4 / Fighter 2 version and was very happy with it. See notes on that page for details.
All of these builds make Astarion pretty much redundant, and he's an interesting character that I don't want to always leave out. So here are some other things I may try with Astarion that don't overlap quite so much with Ember:
I also respec'd Shadowheart: