Best Feats For Bard in Baldur’s Gate 3: In Baldur’s Gate 3, bards are the musicians who enrich the experience. They play cheerful tunes for their companions at camp after a long day and inspire courage with battle music during fierce confrontations, ensuring a suitable melody is always at hand. However, their role encompasses much more than music. Bards are a potent class, capable of enhancing their allies’ abilities and casting spells on unsuspecting enemies.
The most advantageous feats for a bard primarily emphasize enhancing charisma and aiding in the maintenance of concentration on spells. Additionally, there are various feats worth considering to provide protection for a bard, as they are less resilient than other classes, thereby enabling the bard to effectively utilize weapons in combat.
Also read: Marvel Rivals characters tier list
Best Feats For Bard in Baldur’s Gate 3
1. Actor
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| It offers you advanced skills in Deception and Perception checks, even if you did not have these proficiencies before.
It also comes with a +1 to charisma. |
Your success in dialogue rolls will not see a major improvement; the benefits will be limited to Deception and Performance.
It’s not relevant for combat. |
The actor provides an enhancement to your charisma attribute and effectively doubles your proficiency bonus for checks related to deception and performance. Elevating your charisma can significantly benefit a bard in various aspects. Should you prefer dialogue over combat to address your issues, a higher charisma will facilitate your success in performance or deception checks.
Charisma serves as the spellcasting modifier for bards, making its enhancement crucial for improving performance in combat. By increasing your charisma, you will benefit from a higher spellcasting modifier when making attack rolls with spells, thereby facilitating more successful hits on your targets.
2. Ability Improvement
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| You can potentially increase two stats.
It’s a quick way to improve a specific stat. |
It takes the space of a unique feat.
Ability Improvement is only useful if you’re increasing to an even number, so it’s very dependent on your beginning stats. |
Selecting the Ability Improvement feat is a commendable first step for individuals aiming to slightly elevate their attributes. Charisma and dexterity are generally the most advantageous stats to enhance; however, the decision may vary based on the particular direction you choose. As the bard class features multiple subclasses, the importance of certain attributes will differ.
It is essential to examine the subclasses thoroughly to determine how to enhance them. The College of Swords emphasizes dexterity, while the College of Valor and the College of Lore prioritize charisma. We advise allocating your primary ability score to 20.
Read also: How to Get Meloetta In Pokémon Go
3. Lucky
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| You can re-roll almost everything with Lucky.
The feat especially helps in areas that you’re not proficient or skilled in. |
You only have three uses per long rest. |
The Lucky feat is an excellent choice for any class within the game. If you find yourself uncertain about which feat to select or if none of the available options appeal to you, opting for Lucky early in your character’s development is a wise decision.
This particular feat endows you with three luck points that can be employed to gain advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws. Additionally, these points can be used to make an adversary re-roll their attack rolls. It is a commendable feat that offers support in nearly every situation, whether you are contending with a difficult battle or simply exploring, thus enhancing your capabilities across various scenarios.
4. Magic Initiate
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Increase the number of spells and cantrips you have access to. | The level one spell can only be used once per long rest. |
By selecting the Magic Initiate feat, you acquire a first-level spell and two cantrips from the class of your choice. Since your spellcasting ability is determined by charisma, it is recommended to opt for a variation of Magic Initiate from a class that also relies on charisma, such as the bard, sorcerer, or warlock.
This strategy allows you to choose a cantrip that offers increased damage potential over Vicious Mockery, such as Eldritch Blast or Fire Bolt. Additionally, you have the option to gain more bard spells, thereby broadening your array of magical options.
5. Spell Sniper
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| This allows you to obtain superior cantrips and decreases the number of successful attempts needed to secure a critical hit. | You’ll only get one extra cantrip. |
The Spell Sniper feature shares a similar premise with Magic Initiate, permitting you to obtain magical spells from other classes. The drawback, however, is that you are restricted to a single cantrip from a specified list. Each of these cantrips necessitates an attack roll, and the options include Fire Bolt, Ray of Frost, Bone Chill, Eldritch Blast, Shocking Grasp, and Thorn Whip.
An interesting aspect of this system is that you will achieve a critical hit whenever you roll a 19 or 20, rather than solely on a roll of 20. This adjustment effectively increases your likelihood of landing a critical hit to ten percent, as opposed to the standard five percent. Furthermore, there are items available that allow for critical hits on lower rolls, enabling you to combine these effects and further enhance your chances of achieving critical hits.
See also: Pokemon GO Introducing Mega Evolution in Upcoming Event
6. Skilled
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| You have the option to select the areas in which you wish to enhance your proficiency, rendering it a highly adaptable skill. | It is beneficial for dialogue and discovery; however, it will not assist you in combat situations. |
The Skilled feat is an excellent choice for classes that do not have stringent requirements for feats or are in search of a benefit that can be utilized in both combat and non-combat situations. This feat provides you with three skill proficiencies of your choosing.
Bards are characterized by their conversational nature, thus focusing on charisma skills will yield a considerable improvement in dialogue interactions. If this approach does not appeal to you, directing points towards dexterity skills may also be advantageous, particularly for performing sleight-of-hand tasks.
7. War Caster
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| It’ll be harder for enemies to break your concentration.
Gives a charisma-based opportunity attack. |
The feat is not advisable to pursue unless you are utilizing concentration spells or engaging in melee combat. |
With the War Caster feat, you gain an advantage on concentration saving throws and the ability to cast Shocking Grasp as an opportunity attack using your reaction. While dealing damage may not be the bard’s main objective, having Shocking Grasp at your disposal for enemies that draw too near can be very advantageous.
Most bard spells are concentration-based, and thus, having advantages on saving throws can greatly enhance your combat capabilities, particularly when your bard is under threat. Spells like Confusion or Hold Person can effectively incapacitate opponents for a few turns, highlighting the necessity of preserving those concentration checks.
8. Tough
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| It boosts your total health points, enabling you to withstand combat for a longer period. | This feat is useful exclusively during attacks, a situation that can be sidestepped by opting for other spells such as Invisibility or Misty Step. |
For bards, the Tough feat represents a significant advantage due to their inherent susceptibility. When foes direct their attention towards your bard, the increased hit points can be instrumental in ensuring they can continue fighting until help comes.
The Tough feat provides an increase of two points to the maximum hit points for each level attained. Although this may appear minimal initially, the cumulative effect becomes significant as the game progresses, particularly during more challenging encounters. Given that bards typically do not prioritize constitution, enhancing their defensive capabilities in any manner is advantageous.
9. Alert
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Stops you from missing a turn if your party is surprised.
It gives you a nice initiative bonus. |
Your ability to safeguard yourself will be significantly diminished if the remainder of your group is equally taken by surprise.
If your group is emphasizing stealth, this feat may not be beneficial, as you will be catching your adversaries off guard. |
The Alert feat is an essential tool for participants during the opening moments of a battle. Being surprised can confer a considerable edge to your opponents, so it is imperative to evade this whenever possible. This feat not only protects you from being surprised but also provides a +5 bonus to your initiative roll, allowing for quicker engagement in combat.
It is possible to employ specific spells such as Concentration or Hold Person to provide your fellow party members with additional opportunities to recover from their surprised condition while minimizing damage taken, thereby enhancing your chances of securing victory before the battle commences.
10. Sharpshooter
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Removes the low ground penalty so you can attack anyone higher up.
In the event that your hit accuracy is already high, leveraging the passive ability can result in a remarkable boost to your damage. |
Not very useful if you’re not using ranged weapons.
If the probability of hitting a target is inherently low, switching the passive mode to active may not enhance your chances. |
The role of bards in combat can vary based on the subclass chosen; they typically remain at a distance, utilizing spells to support their allies. The Sharpshooter feat enhances their capabilities in ranged weapon attacks, allowing them to inflict additional damage on adversaries.
This feat effectively removes the disadvantage associated with ranged weapon attacks aimed at targets situated above the attacker. It also allows for a ten-point increase in damage, though this is accompanied by a -5 penalty to the attack roll. Even if increasing a bard’s damage is not of utmost importance, this feat serves as a useful means of enhancing their defensive options.
11. Defensive Duelist
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Adds your proficiency bonus to your AC, which helps you stay alive.
The achievement can assist you in surviving if you find yourself isolated or as the sole survivor. |
Only works when wielding a finesse weapon.
If you are capable of boosting your Armor Class by other means, the feat might be regarded as superfluous. |
With the Defensive Duelist feat, you can employ your reaction to improve your Armor Class in response to an attack while you are equipped with a finesse weapon. Since Bards typically possess finesse weapons, this feat serves as an excellent opportunity to bolster their defense in battle.
Although this feat does not alter the bard’s damage capabilities, it is advantageous when the remainder of your party is actively fighting, as it enables the bard to protect themselves, thereby conserving the resources of another fighter.