Best Feats for Valor Bard 5e
by Prince Phantom
Perhaps the simplest Bard subclasses in terms ease of understanding (and word count), but simultaneously perhaps one of the most difficult to optimize, the Valor Bard is surprisingly difficult for a new player to get good mileage out of. Medium armor and shield proficiency is a godsend for Bards, massively improving their survivability and removing the need to take Moderately Armored as soon as possible.
Optimal weapon use however, is far less straightforward. Simply picking up a rapier and shield and charging into melee will actually make your survivability worse than other Bards. This means we should lean to ranged weapons, and should take the feats that support that playstyle.
Best Feats for Valor Bard 5e
Crossbow Expert/Sharpshooter (ASAP): Obviously we take the two feats that empower ranged weapon use. You may question if Crossbow Expert is good since Bardic Inspiration is also a bonus action. I answer that question with another. What’s better, dealing 15+ damage, or slightly boosting your buddies’ next roll, maybe. Damage solves, and might even prevent your buddy from needing that inspiration in the first place. I’d also recommend grabbing the Archery fighting style from some source to help offset Shrapshooter’s penalty, and maybe even take a Hexblade dip so you don’t have to maximize your Dexterity along with your Charisma.
Inspiring Leader (Lv 8): All other feats past the first two I listed are luxury picks. Once you have your weapon use established, you’re pretty set for your entire campaign, understanding that basically your entire subclass is the ability to do high, single target damage at will. There are no more feats to meaningfully improve this, so now we just take things that are nice to have. Inspiring Leader provides a ton of temporary HP to your party and can be used on as many creatures as you have time to spare. The best healing is pre-healing, and not much does it better than this.
War Caster (Lv 8): If you are staying at range, you don’t absolutely need this like you would in melee. If I’m melee, you can’t cast a lot of spells with a weapon and shield in your hands, so this becomes mandatory. I still recommend it for ranged Bards because advantage on concentration checks is just that good.
Fey Touched (Lv 12): A boost to our Charisma and 2 good spells is a pretty sweet deal for a class that gets so few spells known. Misty Step is a great emergency button as always, though we do already have access to Silvery Barbs so we will probably look elsewhere for our other pick.
Resilient Constitution (Lv 12): At higher levels we need to secure our concentration better, and simply having advantage isn’t enough anymore. Proficiency in the save at this level is a big gain, and should help us consistently make those saves for the rest of the campaign.
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
