5.5, Class by Class: Bard

 I realized as I was writing the Druid post that I had skipped over the second "B" class. Man, they really frontload a lot of classes early in the alphabet, don't they?

Also, coincidentally, I've spent way less time playing a lot of the early-alphabet classes than I have some later down the line, Bards being one example.

Bards of course have the whole "jack of all trades" thing going on, though I think that for the most part, they need to make a pretty solid choice between being a primary spellcaster or a melee combatant, especially given how the subclasses tie into one or the other.

Actually, regarding subclasses: Bards are odd in that they only get subclass features at three different levels. While some of these are quite impactful (especially Valor and Swords) I do wonder if the subclasses would have an opportunity to feel a bit more unique if they impacted the class at just one more level (bringing them in line with most classes). This, of course, would make it harder to make things "backwards compatible" but it could be good for the class.

The Bard is odd - it has an extensive spell list, but pointedly, it doesn't have a ton of big damage spells, and falls behind the Cleric and Druid in terms of healing spells. But that's also kind of by design, so I wouldn't call that out as a "design flaw" or anything - Bards are the most "support" focused class. And, of course, with Magical Secrets, you can actually wind up learning a fair number of non-Bard spells in higher levels.

While I've really liked some of the later Bard subclasses, the two in the current PHB do a good job of representing the two sides of the Bard class - though I think I like Swords a little better than I do Valor. Indeed, it might be interesting to see a melee Bard subclass that deviates more from the vibes of those two, but that might not be necessary here.

College of Lore is a little dull, but I think it's strong enough that people actually play it, so I think some slight tweaks are all it needs. The question, I think, is to determine whether there's a third archetype that feels core to the Bard identity, once you have the main spellcaster and the primarily martial archetypes. I like the sinister flavor of the College of Whispers, but I also think that two of its main features are far too situational. Perhaps seeing a redesigned College of Whispers to act as the third archetype could be a good option.