Best Feats for Eloquence Bard 5e
by Prince Phantom
Do you want to be the bardiest Bard that ever did Bard? If so, the College of Eloquence might be for you. All of these features either bolster existing Bard features (primarily Bardic Inspiration), improve Charisma skill checks, or empower our spellcasting.
All of these are things that all Bards want to be improving upon, meaning this subclass is also one of Bard’s best. That being said however, nothing that this subclass offers is going to change anything about our playstyle, meaning we are mostly taking the standard best feats for Bards in general.
Best Feats for Eloquence Bard 5e
Moderately Armored (ASAP): That silver tongue of yours is bound to get you into trouble, and you can’t talk your way out of every fight. Bards have terrible defenses, and our subclass does nothing to remedy that, so this is very necessary if you want to actually survive and refuse to multiclass for armor proficiencies.
Telekinetic (Lv 4): Bardic Inspiration does give us a bonus action sometimes, but the limited uses of it means that we can’t rely on it every turn, especially if you average more than 2 combats per adventuring day. The 5ft push provided by this feat fills those holes and is even sometimes the superior option over inspiration. If that shove moves an enemy into a damaging or hazardous area, or if you are saving an ally from a similar effect or grapple, I’d say that is significantly better than slightly boosting a potential future roll. The Charisma boost and invisible Mage Hand are also great to have.
Fey Touched (Lv 4): If expanding your spellcasting is more your style, there isn’t a better option than this. Misty Step is a great spell to have for free each day, and you could pick up Silvery Barbs here to free up a known spell from your very limited options as a Bard. Silvery Barbs in particular stacks super well with our Unsettling Words feature, really making it tough for enemies to consistently pass our saving throws, meaning that the extra free casting is really nice to have.
War Caster (Lv 8): This is one of the best subclasses for save-or-suck spells thanks to Silvery Barbs plus Unsettling Words, and the best of those spells are concentration. This means protecting concentration is crucial for success in combat, and advantage is a much higher statistical advantage than proficiency at this level.
Inspiring Leader (Lv 12): Both thematically fitting and mechanically powerful, this feat presents a massive increase in total party HP, and don’t forget that any summons, pets, helpful npcs, or undead minions are also able to benefit from this feat, so this becomes even better the bigger your party is.
Resilient Constitution (Lv 12): Now proficiency in Constitution saves is much more important, as monsters are actually capable of dealing over 20 damage in an attack, making the save to hold concentration higher than the base DC 10. Huge chunks of damage can be impossible to save from if you don’t have proficiency. For example, if you need to roll a 19 to save, advantage isn’t really helping you very much at all. Proficiency plus advantage should give you a good chance to make that save almost all the time.
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