Bard Deep Dive

 I'll confess: I've never found the Bard that appealing of a class. But I think that puts me in the minority - the Bard is a popular and powerful addition to any party. And it is (unless I'm forgetting something) the last class we're getting a big video preview for in this "pre-orders are available" marketing blitz.

The overall sense here is that the Bard as a whole is not changing a whole lot, but there are some features that are getting shifted around. Expertise, for example, comes at level 2 now.

First off, the Bard spell list is being expanded, though we'll also see how Magical Secrets effectively gives them the biggest spell list of any class in the game once they hit level 10.

Another slight tweak: Bardic Inspiration now lasts an hour, rather than ten minutes, so you'll have a larger window to use it before it wears off (to be fair, the distinction between 10 minutes and 1 hour, other than when seeing how long it takes to take a short rest, is a distinction I don't see a lot of DMs really worrying about).

One big change is that Font of Inspiration will now allow the Bard to expend spell slots to regain expended uses of Bardic Inspiration, which is pretty cool.

Countercharm, long treated as a useless ability, has been totally redesigned: now, if a creature fails a saving throw against a charm effect, the Bard can use their reaction to allow them to make another saving throw and potentially replace the failed save, and that re-roll is made with advantage. Making this a reaction is a huge boon, and I think will make Bards potentially very good at saving allies from charm effects.

Likely the biggest change here is Magical Secrets. When you get this (at level 10, I believe) you can now select spells from the Cleric, Druid, or Wizard spell list when you learn new spells upon leveling up. As far as I can tell from the video, there's no limit to this other than the number of spells you learn at each level. The reasoning for why only these three classes' lists is that they represent the sort of quintessential Divine, Primal, and Arcane spellcasters, while other classes like the Ranger or the Paladin or the Warlock have more idiosyncratic spell lists tailored to their specific class fantasies.

Given how broad the options here are, I think this is going to be a massively popular change - your spell list explodes when you get this. Again, the video implies that you don't have to choose one of the three, but instead just get all three lists in addition to the normal Bard list, but I'll warn that in the UA the choice was instead to get one of those three lists as your options. Still very good. (Notably, the Magic Initiate feat is now tied to those three spell lists as well.)

Superior Inspiration has gotten a couple of improvements, including no longer being the capstone (though you still need to wait until level 18). The other big buff is that you no longer need to be fully out of BI uses to benefit from it - now, if you roll initiative with zero or one use, you reset to two, no matter what. This kind of change is very welcome - it's silly that a Bard could be punished for having held onto a single Bardic Inspiration, so this fix is nice.

The new capstone is Words of Creation, which lets you learn Power Word Heal and Power Word Kill without counting against your spells known, and it also lets you target two eligible targets at a time with it, rather than just one.

    I will say that Mass Heal is still probably going to be better than Power Word Heal even if you get to hit a second target, but this is still pretty cool. The "word" nature is also very thematic.

Subclasses:

Bards are getting a brand-new subclass: the College of Dance.

Dance Bards are going to be all about mobility in combat. You'll get an Unarmored Defense feature similar to a Monk's (though using Charisma rather than Wisdom, I think) and also, when you expend a Bardic Inspiration die (either through the normal Bardic Inspiration or other features of the subclass) you get to, as part of that same action/bonus aciton/reaction get to make an unarmed strike against a target in range, and on top of that, your unarmed strikes now deal damage equal to your Bardic Inspiration die plus your Dexterity modifier (in other words, basically keeping pace with the new Monk). Also, remember that shoving and grappling are now part of unarmed strikes (though unlike the Monk, I don't think you get to set escape DCs based on Dexterity rather than Strength).

At level 6, if an enemy ends its turn within 5 feet of you, you can expend a Bardic Inspiration die as a reaction to move up to half your speed without provoking opportunity attacks, as well as granting a nearby ally that half speed, non-opp-attack movement as well. And remember, you can also make an unarmed strike as part of this.

You can also expend a BI die when you roll initiative to give your whole party a bonus to their initiative rolls equal to your result.

At 14, Dance Bards get Evasion (like Rogues and Monks) but they can also share it to allied creatures within 5 feet of them.

The College of Glamour, first seen in Xanathar's, has gotten some changes. Flavor-wise, I'd argue that this, more than the College of Lore, is the Bard subclass that most closely fits with the popular conception of the D&D Bard - kind of rock-star personality who can manipulate the minds of others. So I'm glad to see it here.

Beguiling Magic fully replaces Enthralling Performance. You get Mirror Image and Charm Person automatically learned (I'm still not happy that they're describing spells known for classes that can't swap out their spells on a long rest as simply "prepared spells," which feels like it could lead to confusion). It also allows you to (a limited number of times per long rest) attempt to Charm or Frighten a creature whenever you cast an Enchantment or Illusion spell.

Mantle of Inspiration got a buff to the Hit Points it restores, and Mantle of Majesty now both automatically gives you the Command spell, and also lets you regain uses of the feature by expending spell slots of 3rd level or higher.

Unbreakable Majesty is also simpler, allowing you to simply prevent attacks rather than redirecting them to other targets.

The College of Lore (and the College of Valor) return.

Lore has gotten some minor tweaks - Magical Discovery works like Magical Secrets, only getting access to the Cleric, Druid, and Wizard spell lists, but you can swap the spells gained by this on each level up.

Another subtle change is that Cutting Words now will work against foes even if they are immune to the Charmed condition - so it just works now, which is great!

Peerless Skill has also gotten some bad-luck protection, as you'll now only expend the BI die if the feature turns a failure into a success, and won't cost you anything if it fails to help you (a bit like the Soulknife's Psi-Powered Knack). Love this sort of thing, where you don't get that real "feels-bad" moment of expending an important resource and getting nothing out of it.

College of Valor gets two subtle but powerful buffs:

First off, you can use your weapon as a spell focus. I'll confess that I was very sad to see this not added to the Eldritch Knight, as someone who got to level 12 having to drop my weapon every time I cast Shield (in retrospect I should have picked up Warcaster at my first ASI). Valor Bards will thus be free to wield sword and board and be perfectly capable spellcasters.

The second big change is that your Extra Attack feature, a bit like the EK's redesigned War Magic and the (not in the PHB) Bladesinger's Extra Attack, now lets you replace one of your attacks with a cantrip. I don't know if Booming Blade and/or Green-Flame Blade is going to be in the PHB, but regardless, this will be a nice way to let you really feel like a magic/melee hybrid.

    So there we have it! All the class previews with the somewhat imminent new Player's Handbook. I definitely think that there are some real winners and losers here - I think the Monk has been elevated fantastically while the Ranger maybe didn't get as much love as we hoped. The Paladin is still a strong class but I think we've got to call the Divine Smite changes a nerf (though the Smite Spells now look a lot more attractive). Weapon Mastery should make most martial characters feel like they have more interesting choices to make and a more interesting effect on the battlefield, though it might slow combat a little. Pure spellcasters are probably going to feel the most similar, though we'll really have to see more of the spell redesigns.

I think that in most cases, even with nerfs, we're looking at an improvement to the game, the result of essentially ten years of playtesting with these basic designs. Fixing some of the outlier bad options from 2014 is really exciting - I could even imagine playing an Elements Monk now, or a Berserker Barbarian.

Anyway, we'll see what other previews are lined up - we got a brief look at the new visual design for dragons today, but I'm much more curious about monster design, though we'll have to wait until next year to actually get the new Monster Manual.