Pure Lore Bard Build | Baldur's Gate 3 Bard Guide | Level 1-12 & Combat Tutorial

[@grzegorzt6987]

Thanks for highlighting spec that is not only dmg focused.

[@NewDengs]

Well thank you for watching!

[@tonyflamingo8752]

you can preform with alfira in act2 in moonrise tower to make your bardic inspiration an 1d12

[@NewDengs]

Ohh interesting! I didn’t know this

[@randomnobody660]

Not quite. You get 1 special die that's a d12 which only recharges on long rest. Significantly worse than if you just upgraded to d12. Like can you imagine all those sword bard 6 or 8 slashing flourish with d12's?

[@eqofriendly4300]

Recommend going 2 levels into cleric and using heavy armor with viconias shield, basically a tank healer that deals stupid damage with good CC. Life domain for the bldss benefit without gear

[@NewDengs]

Totally agree, I personally struggle to play dnd or bg3 without multiclassing, however I’m trying to make just ‘pure builds’ that don’t use any multiclassing for new or casual players

[@Quantum_Bluntz]

Love your idea. I would go Knowledge Domain just for the RP flair of being a Bard following the College of Lore as well as the Domain of Knowledge lol 😅 But I also like the OP Full Lore Bard build. All builds are pretty fun. There’s like an infinite possibilities that can happen in this game with whatever build you make. It’s best to have fun with it since you’re ultimately up against the dice.

[@NewDengs]

Exactly this, hence why I preach not to worry about min maxing 😂

[@noahhinshaw1469]

How do I get good damage my strength is 8 and I’m a halfling on my run so my Weapon is a 4-7 dagger rn

[@erikhendrickson59]

​@@NewDengsWhen building my Bard for both gameplay and roleplay purposes, I like Human for the Shield Proficiency and the extra Skill Proficiency.

[@scottrackley4457]

First playthrough blind was forest gnome lore bard, basically a leprechaun. Handled the game easily.

[@NewDengs]

Sounds perfect

[@Im_Still_LightSpeedLayne]

They doesn’t mean the mob. It means you. I know, it’s not worded very well. But I’ve done it a thousand times and ALWAYS succeed on my hit.

[@NewDengs]

What's 'they'?

[@squeakerchips]

I like him

[@NewDengs]

Damn Right!

[@mattheusspoo]

Wouldn't, at lv 6, be better to take hunger of hadar (unless you already have it on a warlock) instead of fireball? I mean, fire glyph of warding is just 1d6 less damage overall (5d8 vs 8d6 is literally just 6 damage difference), and u would have one of the most powerful aoe control spells in the game otherwise exclusive to warlock or someone with the legendary staff.

[@NewDengs]

Choice is totally yours, I personally put HoH in my top 10 list of spells, but I tried to make these pure builds all slightly different otherwise you can really pick any subclass and with the same choice of spells, they’ll work pretty much the same

[@mattheusspoo]

@@NewDengs you ended up picking HoH in level 10 on the video (i wrote the comment before finishing watching) anyway, so no problem. I just feel on getting it as soon as possible because it's so good. the spell by itself can trivialize a lot of fights if you can put all enemies into a choke point like the doors in the gith creche, and force them to walk thru it just to be knocked back when they leave, or get barred from leaving. My favourite combo is doing that (with a warlock) and keep pushing them back in with eldritch blasts, while using sleet storm with another character to make the enemies trip and waste turns inside it.

[@NewDengs]

Ahhh you see in my main Playthrough I used that and Evard Black Tentacles together, and that ruined swarms

[@mycoal3016]

Divination wizard might be worth looking at for controller.

[@NewDengs]

That build is coming 😉

[@joeludlow8837]

2pal 10 sword bard with hat of arcane acuity. Arrow of many targets. Upcast hold person with your band of mystic scoundrels. Or 11 sorc 1 warlock. Hat of fire accuity, scorching ray, and then extend command grovel to bunch of enemies for 2 turns, no concentration required so you can also twin haste. In both cases, you literally cant miss.

[@NewDengs]

The whole point of this is a 'pure' build so no multiclassing, I've done more than my fair share of multiclass builds so now I'm making more simple and easy to follow builds for newbies

[@joeludlow8837]

@@NewDengs lol, do that with just a pure sword bard then. Still way way waaaaay better.

[@NewDengs]

Trust the process instead of criticising it ;) All the subclasses are coming

[@DarkElfDiva]

Why does literally everyone's character creation interface look different than mine?

[@NewDengs]

This is console if that helps?

[@re1v3r]

Your character looks like Robert E. Lee. 😂

[@NewDengs]

Well now I can't unsee that haha

[@Daekar3]

Classy look 😁

[@leoexgb3219]

No haste????

[@NewDengs]

No plenty of items and other characters have access to this, I think the more damage dealing or battlefield control spells are more important to take, obviously this is just my opinion so you can switch them out, but using magical secrets to take a spell an item could give you feels like a waste to me

[@randomnobody660]

I don't mean to be rude and I get maybe the game's more fun this way, and maybe more "broken" builds colored my perception, but this looks really weak? I clicked on this video because my lore bard is basically support bot (thou a good one between cutting words, counter spell, haste, enhance ability, and inspiration) w/ 2 warlock so she does literally anything at all in combat, and I wanted to know what a "real" lore bard is supposed to do. I have to say after watching I'm still confused. Like I don't know what the build is going for. It's not going for spell dc, it's not clear where damage comes from, I'm confused by almost all the gear choices etc. I'm not saying I built mine "well", but I'd like to share mine as a quick comparison. This is warlock 2 lore 10, to fit into a party w/ fighter 2 sword 10 and paladin 2 valor 10. The theme is full bard party if you ignore the fighter 4th member (the bouncer/bodyguard?). Charisma is 24 from base 17 + patriar's + bard's memory + asi + ravengard's sword. This is honor mode so no save scum; I simply rotate my companions until somebody got patriar's memory. If you really want that 1 companion you can also use forbidden knowledge or hag's hair. Ideally minthara since this is overall a support build w/ no good use for bonus action, so soul branding is nice. I also have darkness synergy in the party between eversight, spear of evening, and this warlock so drow darkness is useful, but that's situational. -EB is often used as the "baseline" resourceless dpr standard in dnd. Here, eb + agonizing blast + potent robe is 1d10+7+7 per beam, +d6+2 from hex and callous ring. If all beams hit average damage is 75, with +19 attack roll. There's also a d4 from reverb and probably ~4-5 amortized dmg from lightning charge (she's using marko bc nobody else wants it). On fights that don't matter enough to use spells, ~80 reliable damage + reliable-ish prone is what she does round to round. -Spell dc is 8+4+7(cha)+2(weave hood)+1(weave cloak)+1(marko)+2(amulet of devout) = 25. It's no arcane acuity but it'll cc most thing and burn legendary resistance. She would be wearing ring of mental inhibition if I didn't leave it in act 2, which would be quite nice. However stacking 6 radiating orb per eb is also useful. -AC is 20 from 11(potent robe)+3(mage armor)+3(dex)+2(bracer of defence)+1(dual wield). Gloves of dex means 1 less ac in exchange of probably +4 wis and +2 con and might be better, but it's used on my valor bard. Now obviously I took warlock 2 because I couldn't hit ~80 resourceless dpr otherwise, but like ~30 damage from a melee stab is just not there. A pure bm/ek is swinging/throwing for 100+ dmg without using maneuvers, action surge, whatever. Weapon attack on a class without extra attack just doesn't work, and wastes so much stuff dedicated to it. I'm sure there are better ways, but at the very least taking magic initiate:warlock or spell sniper gives you ~60 dpr eb while remaining pure lore bard. Potentially because of the weapon damage focus there's also now no spell dc gear. I don't know if this is supposed to be an early game build so it's mostly green items, but a lot of stuff is clearly act 3, and really you should be getting some sort of synergy going well before then. Overall I just really don't know where this build is supposed to shine.

[@NewDengs]

Hey! Thanks for watching! The point of this build is to be a simple controller build, I’ve made my fair share of powerful multi classes and now I’m making very simple and easy to follow ‘pure’ builds that anyone can use if there new to the game or dnd I’m also making them like this because as a long time dnd player, I think min maxing and trying to be become as powerful as possible to replace just fun or a ‘cool’ build is the quickest way to make a game boring and kill any enjoyment honestly

[@randomnobody660]

@@NewDengs I can see the optimization vs fun argument, but I think this is taking it too far. Even in the context of easy to understand/follow pure lore bard maybe w/o act 3 boss gear, this can be so much better. Most obviously, harmonic dueler on a bard is very cool, but this is the one subclass that really doesn't work on, both thematically and mechanically. IMO there's a huge distance between optimizing so everything makes sense and doing so to the detriment of fun. Taking 2 levels of warlock for eb+agonizing blast is hardly the latter, and taking initiate: warlock instead of asi con+2 is definitely the former. Melee lore bard controller with no save dc and no con save proficiency swings the other way so hard it almost feels like the product of some self imposed challenge, and it's not even the best version of *that* it can be.

[@incharini]

@@randomnobody660I actually just did a play through with a lore bard in tactician. For Shadowhearts quest, I used Crown of Madness on one of the middle NPCs in the Cloister. Everyone crowded around it to kill it, and I proceeded to use high dog AoE scrolls. One of the easiest fights I’ve ever had.

[@NewDengs]

I think you've totally missed the point, some people just want to play the game on easy and enjoy the story, that's what this is made for. If you want a more in-depth build, I've got about 30 of them on my channel. Your arguing changing the whole concept of this video for 'optimisation' which just furthers my point

[@scottrackley4457]

Lore bard is far from weak. You control where and when battle happens, you're always first. Lock down the battlefield, summon, then start really messing with them. You're using bard to passively.