“Sweet Yalme, another pint
The Crab is quite alive tonight
And allow me to recite the tale
Of how your host, the gleeman Rascal
Caught the mighty whale”
Rascal the Gleeman, aka Rasgueado Vilhuela, aka John Henry Hastings, aka DM Chris
Greetings, 3WD-verse. DM Chris here! The Bard class in D&D is a fickle thing. Much like being an actual musician, teasing the right notes out of your wandering minstrel can be challenging. As a guitarist myself, I’d often admired the cool eccentricities of the Bard from a distance, but when DM Dave first mentioned the Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign, I knew it was finally time to pull the trigger. Enter, Rasgueado Vilhuela. Herein lies the top 5 tips and tricks I used (and learned through experience) as we traveled through Krynn to make my Bard truly sing.
1. Find Your Muse
We often come up with character concepts from our own experiences with books, TV and movies. In the same way, a great archetype for your Bard can come from an actual artist or performer, past or present. Rasgueado was the fiery and virtuosic love-child of two of my guitar heroes, Eddie Van Halen and Paco De Lucia. Amazing musicians AND performers. Suddenly, I could picture Rasgueado, long-haired and wild, granting Inspiration with flourishes of flamenco guitar, or casting spells with something like Van Halen’s “Eruption”.
Another great example of using existing performers is Roderick Draughall from DM Tony’s Storm King’s Thunder campaign, whom DM Dave based on the immortal Vincent Price. Roderick is more of a poet and orator, so Dave cleverly gathered bits of prose and verse to sprinkle into his spellcasting and inspiration. More than any other class, with the Bard it really matters how you do the things you do, so starting off with a good archetype gives you a great head start.
2. All The World’s A Stage
A backstory is especially important for the Bard. Whether they really went through it, or they’re embellishing to establish their fame, here is the part where you can give them something deeper than performing to drive them. It’s fun to play the traveling minstrel, but it’s even better when they are driven by something just under the surface to make them more real.
Rasgueado’s backstory was born of both my admiration for the migrant craftsmen that brought their gifts to the larger world, and my dissatisfaction with D&D’s handling of the whip. The world of Krynn is overflowing with deep lore and fantastical places, but I wanted Ras to have a simpler start. So the story became that Ras’ grandfather, Ernesto, emigrated to Ansalon, bringing the art of Látigazo, or the way of the whip, with him.
Once I had the basics, then it was time to add the hooks that would drive him beyond spreading music and the whip to the world. Ras was raised by his mother, Rosalita, after his Bard father abandoned them. Then, Rosalita met another man, Alromarim, who was also a powerful wizard. Alromarim charmed Rosalita and sent Ras packing. Now while Ras works with his friends to stop the Dragon Queen and save the world, he also has someone to look for – his father – and somewhere to fight to return – his home.
3. The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword
I referenced Rasgueado’s use of the whip in the above section. The whip in D&D, in my humble opinion, has always been poorly realized, but why choose to climb that mountain here? Because Bards need a little something extra, even with their weaponry. If he’s swinging a longsword, that really doesn’t have the same dramatic flair as the rapier or scimitar. Leave the regular weapons for fighters and their martial brethren. A performer’s choice of weapon should serve his flair, as well.
This doesn’t mean that you need to comb the world looking for unique weapons, but it does mean that you should pay extra attention to how they enhance the aforementioned flair. Even the poor longsword, which I so rudely insulted before, can take on new life if wielded dramatically. When using a weapon with your Bard, make sure to give your actions more gravitas – there’s no “I swing my longsword at the skeleton” from you. No, a performer of your capabilities would “call forth the steel from its leather womb and drive it through the skeleton’s bony skull”.
4. If This Be Magic
More than any of the other spellcasters in D&D, the Bard spell repertoire is built for support. In true bardic fashion, your purpose in combat is to enhance your comrades’ stories. A swarm of orcs is headed for the party and you cast Color Spray, beguiling the motley crew and giving your party members the spotlight to wipe them out. Or the excellent Dissonant Whispers, which while not doing a ton of damage is an Attack of Opportunity machine when you cast it on a creature paired up with one of your friends.
This was one of the things I really needed to learn by doing about the class. It took me several battles with Rasgueado to start to understand that I wasn’t going to be the combat star, like my beloved Oath of Vengeance Paladin, Sir Scarr. No, I needed to find my sweet spot by working together with the party. Once that realization was made, then my choice of spells became much more focused. To truly enjoy the Bard, you’ll need to be content to get your bigger endorphin rushes from helping. It’s not for everybody, but it’s incredibly satisfying once you focus your efforts there.
5. The More I Give To Thee, The More I Have
Like above with your spell choice, a Bard really shines when helping others. In fact, I’d be inclined to say that they may be the ultimate support class for D&D. Nothing says help more in a game with bounded accuracy than an additional die roll to assist with attacks and saving throws. When playing a Bard, make sure to lean into Inspiration, hard.
Traditionally, this meant using your bonus action to hand a d6, d8, etc, to a teammate, but thankfully the folks over at WOTC saw the struggle that we had with making sure our teammates remembered the given inspiration (I carried extra dice to hand out to my team). The recent playtest idea for giving Inspiration as a reaction is a breath of fresh air for Bards. Giving die rolls when they’re actually needed vs. handing them out in hopes they’ll be used is an important distinction if you’ve ever handed one out that expired without helping anyone.
Final Thoughts
The Bard class just isn’t going to be for everyone. But if you want to do a little work, it can become one of the most memorable you’ll play. Spending the past year creating Rasgueado and adventuring through Krynn has been eye-opening – you really can’t judge a class until you’ve taken a ride. So, artists and performers, unite! Use these tips to bring your muse to life. Or maybe your experience with playing a Bard was different? As always, we love to hear your thoughts.
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I had a lot of fun playing my bard, Adelard. Making up songs about the exploits of the party was cool. Being relatively new to 5e, I wasn’t aware I supposed to seduce everyone we met, so I sort of missed out on that aspect of things 🙂