Seeking to captivate friend and foe alike with magic and melody? The Bard might just be the perfect class for you in Baldur's Gate 3. Seamlessly weaving their spells into beautiful tales and melodies, bards are full-casters who spend their time on the field inspiring allies and hindering enemies with their enchanting performances.

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Unlike offensive-focused spellcasters like the Evocation Wizard, Bards instead excel at supporting their party, skillfully steering the flow of battle with buffs and crowd-control. With an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, Bards truly shine as the jack of all trades; and whether you're a newcomer or a seasoned player, the Bard boasts a versatile magical prowess that few can match.

Baldur's Gate 3 is currently in early access, and only Act 1 of the story is available. As the game continues to develop, this guide will be updated to provide you with the latest information.

Bards: An Overview

You know music is more than a fancy—it is power. Through study and adventure, you have mastered song, speech and the magic within.

The Bard is a controller and healer support class that brings together the power of magic, eloquence and flourish to talk (or sing!) their way through any situation. Whether your bard is an entertainer, wordsmith or socialite, they're likely to excel in skills that rely on Charisma.

Bards outshine nearly every class in terms of utility, rivaled only by the Rogue in skill proficiencies and expertise. Naturally, Bards stand out the most in social situations, and have a high chance at succeeding when lying to get into goblin camps, dissuading heated Tieflings from fighting, or embellishing about dragons to famous authors.

Though they can hold their own on the battlefield with some careful positioning, Bards are generally squishy casters without much mobility. As such, they thrive best in the backline, hiding behind several layers of bodies and shields.

When protected from harm (and from concentration checks), Bards are capable of turning the tides of battle with their vast repertoire of Enchantment Spells for crowd-control, while at the same time giving the party game-changing boosts with their unique Bardic Inspiration feature.

Bards are an extremely versatile class. Some Bard subclasses (such as the College of Valor) offer Bards enough survivability and martial proficiency to excel on the frontline.

Starting Out As A Bard

Ability Scores

Bards heavily rely on Charisma as their primary spellcasting ability. They also benefit from Dexterity and Constitution for increased durability.

Though Strength, Wisdom, and Intelligence have less influence on mechanical benefits, they still impact skill checks and carrying capacity, making them worth considering for a well-rounded Bard.

Skills Proficiencies

Bards get a higher-than-average number of proficiencies, starting the game with three skill proficiencies instead of the usual two.

More importantly, however, while most characters only get proficiencies related to their class, Bards have the entire list of skills to choose from when selecting proficiencies. This means your Bard can easily fill in any skill-based gaps that party might be missing.

Class Features

In this section, we'll go over each Bard class feature, what they mean, and how to effectively use them.

Bardic Inspiration (Level 1)

The bread and butter of the Bard class is their Bardic Inspiration feature, which allows your allies to add an extra 1d6 dice roll onto any Ability Checks, Saving Throws and Attack Rolls that they make. This dice increases with the Bard's level, to a 1d8 at level 5 and so on. Certain subclasses can also enhance the Bardic Inspiration dice to have different additional effects.

A well-timed Bardic Inspiration can completely change the outcomes of close rolls, for example: nudging your ally's Wisdom saving throw just enough to pass a hag's Hold Person, or making sure a Guiding Bolt nails the enemy where it would have narrowly missed.

That being said, they only replenish on a Long Rest (until you obtain the Font of Inspiration feature at Level 5 Bard), and so while it can be tempting to give them out like candy, make sure to conserve one or two charges of Bardic Inspiration

Bardic Inspiration should not be confused with Inspiration, which is a resource gained when a character roleplays true to their character traits, personality or flaws.

Jack of All Trades (Level 2)

Though not as glamorous as some class features, Jack of All Trades is an excellent feature that applies a significant bonus to every single non-Proficient Ability check you'll ever make again. As your Proficiency bonus grows with your class levels, this will quickly add up and provide a very solid boost to your Ability checks.

Note that due to the wording of this feature, it will also apply to Initiative Rolls at the start of combat and Counterspell / Dispel Magic rolls!

Song of Rest (Level 2)

A free Short Rest can mean the difference between life and death when you're knee-deep inside the Shattered Sanctum, fighting off swathes of angry goblins. This feature can be particularly valuable in replenishing party resources, especially for classes like Warlocks and Fighters that heavily rely on short rests.

Though Song of Rest is useful in helping your party avoid Long Rests, as of Early Access, Long Rests are often significant milestones that advance the narrative and can have lasting consequences for your adventure. In earlier sections of the story, it may be beneficial to take Long Rests more frequently to progress story beats.

Expertise (Level 3)

This is a rather self-explanatory feature: you get a bigger number to add to your rolls. Awesome! This is especially fantastic due to the Bard's massive selection of skills.

Font of Inspiration (Level 5)

Given the limit of two Short Rests per Long Rest, this means that you'll be able to use your Bardic Inspiration dice three times as often—that's 6d8 worth of dice that you're adding to your allies' rolls (or subtracting from your enemies' rolls, if you're a Lore Bard)

Other Features

The following section contains spoilers for the story of Baldur's Gate 3After activating your Illithid Wisdom Checks enough times and recovering from its physical toll, you'll wake up to find that you've gained the Illithid Power Class Action of your corresponding class.

The Bard's Illithid Power Class Action is "Stage Fright", which inflicts disadvantage on all enemy Attack Rolls within an area around the bard, before inflicting sizable psychic damage on afflicted enemies each time they fail an attack roll. Use Stage Fright on a group of enemies engaged on an ally with high AC, and watch them all succumb to self-inflicted defeat.

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Bard Colleges (Subclasses)

College of Lore

You pursue beauty and truth, collecting knowledge from scholarly tomes to peasants' tales, and use your gifts to hold both audiences and enemies spellbound.

Bards of the College of Lore collect secrets and knowledge, using their rhetorical gifts to captivate audiences with stories and composition.

This subclass builds upon the Bard's solid foundations in support and utility, providing even more additional proficiencies and enhancing your Bardic Inspirations to be used defensively through the Cutting Words feature.

Cutting Words (Level 3, College of Lore)

The trusty "oh no, you don't!" feature of Bards, Cutting Words costs one Bardic Inspiration charge to use and can be used to ensure that when your enemy succeeds, they... don't. Cutting Words can be used to prevent an enemy's attack roll from finding its mark--or make sure that your saving-throw spell definitely does.

When toggled on in your Reactions menu:

Cutting Words will automatically prompt you when any nearby enemy makes a contesting Attack Roll or Saving Throw, allowing you to choose whether or not to use Cutting Words.

As of Patch 9 of Early Access, the in-game text of Cutting Words states that "It receives a 1d6 penalty to Attack Rolls, Ability Checks, and damage rolls." This is inconsistent with the actual behavior of the feature, as Cutting Words applies to Saving Throws instead of damage rolls, as depicted in the image above.

College of Valor

You wander the land to witness and relate the deeds of the mighty, keeping alive the memory of heroes of the past and inspiring heroes of the future.

Bards of the College of Valor are courageous skalds who use their tales to honor past heroes and inspire others to achieve greatness akin to the legendary heroes of the past.

This subclass adds a great deal of survivability and melee capability to Bards by giving them Medium Armor Proficiency, Shield Proficiency, Martial Weapon Proficiency, as well as enhancing your Bardic Inspirations to be used offensively through the Combat Inspiration feature.

Combat Proficiency (Level 3, College of Valor)

Though it may be tempting, adding Bardic Inspiration to Damage Rolls is less worthwhile than ensuring an Attack Roll hits or an enemy's attack misses. The Armor Class addition, however is very useful to have and can mean the difference between life and death when fighting particularly tough opponents.

College of Swords

Bards of the College of Swords entertain through daring feats of weapon prowess. Though they use their weapons to entertain, they are also highly trained and skilled warriors in their own right.

The College of Swords is an upcoming subclass for the Bard Class in Baldur's Gate 3. It is not currently available to play during the Early Access phase of the game.

Allegedly, Bards of this college, known as blades, impress audiences with their weapon prowess through acts like sword swallowing and knife throwing. While entertaining, they are also highly skilled warriors, leading dual lives with hidden talents.

Bard Companions

As of Early Access, Baldur's Gate 3 does not feature a confirmed Bard companion. However, it is more than possible that the game's full release will find a charming companion strumming their way into our parties.

NEXT: Baldur's Gate 3: Steal the Sacred Idol Quest Walkthrough