Complete Guide to College of Spirits | Bard Subclass D&D 5e Deep Dive

[@johnmichaelarnaud]

On its surface, Tale #1 appears to be just a worse Bardic Inspiration. However, what I missed on first reading is that you can use this tale on YOURSELF, meaning that you can benefit from your own Bardic Inspiration, which is something non-Lore bards can't do. It's limited to mental checks, but those are the ones we care most about anyway, and it lasts for 10 minutes. Going into a fight with a big bad magic user and happen to have Counterspell from Magical Secrets? Why don't you make every Counterspell check using your Jack of All Trades bonus PLUS a roll of your BI die? That makes you Lore Bard light--and you don't have to wait until 14th level, either. If I'm headed into a big fight against a spellcaster, this is absolutely the Tale I want in my mind.

[@LordZeebee]

Alternatively, it's an outright fantastic Tale for any big social encounter. Going to plead to the king to let your barbarian out of jail? Going into an enchanted forest to bargain with a hag? Up against one of the BBEG's lieutenant whom you've previously found out is starting to doubt the BBEG's plans? All situations where 10 whole freaking minutes of infinite Bardic Inspiration on mental checks would be absolutely crazy. It's very situational, sure, but it's a situation that will almost without question come up at least at SOME point in your adventures.

[@brianmclaughlan2546]

As I understand it, a racial cantrip wouldn't get the bonus damage at 6th level since it isn't a bard spell. As a DM, I'd still allow it though.

[@l.raphaelnery7299]

Basically tales is like having something for emergencies or an ace in the whole when things get weird or bad

[@emilee3223]

Thank you for this!! I'm going to be playing this for the first time in a few days and this really helped me grasp it all better

[@rumskle3468]

Roleplay one as RL Stine. Goosebumps bard

[@elliotbryant3459]

7:13 I was kind of confused with the wording for Tales of the Beyond". It says "You can use an action to choose one creature you can see within 30 feet of you (this can be you) to be the target of the tale’s effect", so in the case of Tale of the Renowned Duelist, I originally assumed that the "you" is the target that you designated and they would make the attack, but the feature describes no action economy for the attack [so that's probably not the case]. Kinda sloppy writing. If they intended the target to be the one suffering the attack, then they should have made that more clear with a description like "Choose a target creature within your reach and make a melee spell attack against them..." But it's weird that a creature who never heard a story from you before could be affected by it. I wish this subclass had a few extra uses of inspiration [even just 1 or 2 per short rest] that was limited to using the Tales of the Beyond so that it could be used a little more freely/reduce the opportunity cost of not using normal inspiration.

[@tdarassp]

I love the flavor of this subclass, but I'm not at all a fan of the randomness. It's the same reason why people find the Alchemist so lackluster, in that it's primary feature is simply inconsistent on top of situational. If a player was considering playing this, I'd grant the lvl 14 feature as part of the primary subclass feature and come up with an alternative subclass capstone. I just can't justify a subclass capstone as "you get to do the thing you want to do (and have been doing for 11 levels) slightly more consistently."

[@tommyeliassen2071]

Actually, even though the Renowned Duelist Tale is a melee spell attack, as per the description of how the tales work, it STILL has a 30ft range. I think this is on purpose to synergize with things like the Tale of the Brute which knocks people down, so you’d get advantage on the cast if it’s against a prone target, despite it kind of being a ranged attack. This works especially well with how I play the class in that I flavor these abilities as literally summoning a spirit to execute the attack for me within 30ft, which seems to be the intention as far as I can tell. This also makes sense considering that this subclass leans heavily on taking a spellcaster role with the bonus D6 on spells.

[@DnD_Daily]

Neat, thanks for taking the time to break that down!

[@DracosDiabolis]

Awesome deep dive. Really havnt but thought into this collage before. Thanks for the spotlight. I agree, you really need to put some thought into this collage. Lol Tortle Spirit Bard lol communing with ancestors because of their relative short life spans.

[@cosmonautrob8614]

This is so informative, thank you!

[@carolxs]

I wish this class was better written because the flavor is awesome. Can cause confusion in many cases though

[@princephantom1294]

Shame that the 3rd level feature requires you to cast the spell through your focus for it to get the bonus damage/healing. RAW you can only use an arcane focus during the casting of a spell if the spell has a non costly material component that you are substituting with the focus. There are like 3 bard spells that meet these requirements and do damage/heal, and none of them are that good. If you’re playing this subclass, talk to your dm about this. It definitely isn’t broken to allow it on all spells you cast as long as you’re holding your focus.

[@DnD_Daily]

So you’re saying that if A) it doesn’t have a material component Or B) it requires a costly component be consumed The bonus doesn’t work? Do I understand that correctly?

[@JakeConrad666]

@@DnD_Daily, they’re saying any spell that don’t have a material component cannot use the focus.

[@johnmichaelarnaud]

@@DnD_Daily That is how it works RAW; however, researching this topic online, I found that the overwhelming majority of DMs in the discussions decided to let this apply to any applicable spell as long as the bard is holding their Spiritual Focus. The text appears to have been copied from an ability in the Artificer: Artillerist subclass, whose spells all have material components (and that get a d8 instead of a d6, for that matter). This was either just lazy editing from WotC or a completely unnecessary throttling of an otherwise perfectly reasonable feature.

[@davidstratton696]

Dude I couldn’t even make it halfway through this comment without getting a headache. I don’t even understand this and I’ve been playing D&d for so long and played as many spellcasters. Like how the heck cares? It does an extra d6 dmg of healing or dmg on your spells y do we have to make it so complicated? This is 5e not 3.5 let’s leave the complicatedness back in 3.5. I guess the many DM’s I’ve played with just don’t care about this complicatedness. Which is understandable this is just dumb.

[@jrg305]

​@@davidstratton696 it's not that complicated. Most spell casters have to have a free hand if the spell says V, S. If the spell says V, S, M, they do not need a free hand if holding a focus, unless it has a costly component. Most DM have more things to worry about, but as a player this does matter. Artificers are special because their class feature means they never have to worry about having their hands full, unless it is a material component with a cost listed. Most of those you can do out of combat so it doesn't matter.

[@arnaudsider9547]

At higher level when bonus action economy becomes tight, that spirits bard 9/Wonkymulticlass X noted a few things : You can control the size of your tales pool if you don't like the latter ones by stopping progressing your inspiration dice and multiclassing. I found the 12.5% chance for each let met get tale of the phantom or of the clever animal more reliably than staying single classed, and those are to me the highlights of the whole list in terms of utility. Clever animal on that key insight / investigation / arcana check to get a crucial clue means you can stack on that skill check 2d8 bardic inspiration + 1d4 guidance + advantage with enhance ability. We have the Psychic Blade rogue do them for even more extra dice ! Invisibility from the phantom only breaks on attacks, so go wild casting spells, moving things around and triggering devices that cause trouble without attacking while staying invisible. Let the most wicked Home Alone situation be brewed in a minute or less. I also found that, as I obtained more things to do with my bonus action, I'd not automatically use all my bardic inspirations. This might be campaign and player playstyle specific but I have a hex to put up, my buffed up healing word and mass healing words to distill as they are super good with this class and I play into the strengths given. My actions to bestow are an issue. I have some "set up" types of spell such as a self polymorph for a mass healing / tanking buffer whilst initiative happened, Greater invisibility to get advantage on attacks and try to fish for that 19-20 hexblade crit, a couple win the fight spells that I'm responsible for... That means two things for Tales from Beyond. I value the non combat ones more. Having spare inspiration will actually have me spam tales to cycle through and reroll until I get a Phantom or Clever Animal to win the day on easy mode. Favorite combat one is number 5 though, the taste of revenge damage is always sweet for the one taking the hits for the party. Finally, if you enjoy that feature, the Rythm Maker's drums give you one more tale a day too so they're even better to you ! Charsheet : www.dndbeyond.com/characters/77026810

[@NobodyDungeons]

I think making the tales an just a bonus action would be better.

[@davidstratton696]

I think some should be bonus actions at least. Like the ones that give temp hp. Where as the one that auto stuns (if u hit) I can understand it taking an action. Just because stun is that broken.

[@takis5689]

Sorry but i was a bit confused. I thought with the tales of the renowned duelists that you can give it to allies