Baldur’s Gate 3: Best Bard build in BG3

Bards in Baldur’s Gate 3 are a very versatile class that can play the role of a caster or support. They are poetic, charismatic, and can deal damage—but that’s not where their strength lies. The best Bard build maximizes these traits while mitigating their downsides.

What Bards lack in the DPS department, they make up for in their utility, meaning buffs and debuffs. However, one approach stands out in the early stages of leveling and the late game: here is the best Bard build in BG3.

Best Bard build in BG3

The best Bard build in BG3 is the College of Valor Bard. They can use their Bardic Inspiration to deal damage or protect allies—and they also hit surprisingly hard from melee or at a distance with Extra Attack, utilizing the game’s expansive list of strong Martial Weapons.

Bards in BG3 resemble the Bard class in Lost Ark as they, too, can deal damage, although not as much as some of the harder-hitting classes and offer a versatile kit that can support their companions.

Understanding the Bard: Primary ability and proficiencies

Given that Bards are nimble and charismatic, it’s no surprise that their abilities reflect this. They have Musical Proficiencies, a Hit Dice of 1d8, Combat Inspiration and Song of Rest. But in short, Bards offer these features and proficiencies:

Knowing this information before we even pick our race and subclass is crucial because it does help narrow things down and focus on choosing options that will enhance these abilities and proficiencies, which is why this build works so well.

One of the best features of the Bard as they level up is that you gain the Jack of all Trades and Expertise Proficiencies at levels two and three. These add small yet sometimes crucial bonuses to your proficiency checks, which can allow Bards to dominate the skill check that BG3 emphasizes so much.

Best Bard build: Race

One of the best and worst things about Bards is that various races synergize well with the class. For this particular build, the best race is the Tiefling, specifically, the Asmodeus Tiefling or the Zariel Tiefling, for the following reasons:

• The Zariel Tiefling race gains access to a Cantrip called Thaumaturgy, which gives you an advantage on Intimidation or Performance checks, which can be game-changing if caught in a pickle. As they level, they can deal increased melee damage through Smite spells.
• The Asmodeus Tieflings gain Produce Flames, which produce light and deal damage when thrown. They later get Hellish Rebuke, a good damaging option, and Darkness, a solid combat control spell.

Both of these are great options. However, if you want more of a support Cantrip, choose Zariel for Thaumaturgy, and if you want utility and a little DPS, choose Asmodeus for Produce Flames.

You could also choose Drow if the Tielfings aren’t appealing to you since they also provide fantastic spell options like Faerie Fire. Unfortunately, with both of these races, you may find that NPCs may not react to you very well. When I was in the Druid’s Grove as a Tiefling, Kagha actually inflated the DC to persuade her. By eight. Unnecessary, lady.

Ultimately, your race no longer affects your stats in BG3, so you can choose whatever makes you happy, whether it’s a Cantrip you want for your playstyle or a great racial bonus like Darkvision.

Best Bard build: Subclass

The best subclass for Bards is the College of Valor, as you will gain the following features at level three:

• Medium Armor Proficiency
• Shield Proficiency
• Martial Weapon Proficiency
• Combat Inspiration—this is transformed from your Bardic Inspiration and will inspire your allies and add a bonus to their next Attack Roll, Ability check, Armor Class, weapon damage, or Saving Throw.

You’ll gain Extra Attack at level six, which means you can get an additional free attack if your first one was unarmed or a weapon attack.

Moreover, because you have such a high Dexterity score, you can now increase your Armor Class by two when you wear Medium Armor, which means you should have a little more survivability. This is great for this defensive support role we’re taking with this build because it means you can focus on buffing and healing your DPS-heavy companions without worrying too much about your health.

The College of Swords is a similar subclass but is too self-reliant and selfish to be reasonable. The College of Lore is an effective support Bard that can learn spells like Haste, but their use of Bardic Inspiration isn’t that strong in BG3, making them less useful for the short rest system.

Best Bard build: Ability scores

For this Bard build, your Ability scores should be as follows:

The Bard uses Charisma for its Primary Ability and Dexterity for Saving Throws (as well as Charisma), so these should be the two of your highest scores, and Constitution for additional health and good measure, which is necessary for the College of Valor Bard.

If you plan on being more of the support type, a 16 in Constitution is better for keeping you alive and keeping your concentration on debuffs when you take damage.

Best Bard build: Background

The best backgrounds for this Bard build are ones that provide Charisma or Dexterity skills, as this is where our highest ability scores are. So, the best backgrounds for this Bard build include the following:

• Criminal: Deception plus five and Stealth plus five.
• Entertainer: Acrobatics plus five and Performance plus five.

All of this can be pretty confusing, so if you aren’t sure what the Charisma proficiencies are, they include the following skills:

• Deception: Determines whether you can lie through dialogue or actions.
• Intimidation: Determines how well you influence someone through threats, physical violence, or by being hostile.
• Performance: Determines how well you can perform and how entertaining you are.
• Persuasion: Determines whether you can influence someone, and it’s generally done in good faith.

Your Dexterity ability skills include Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. As your Charisma and Dexterity abilities have the highest scores, choosing a background that can benefit from either just Charisma or Dexterity is best.

We wouldn’t, however, choose one with a Wisdom skill—at least not for this build. If we were to choose a background with an Intelligence skill, we would only get a plus one on the check because it’s not an area we’ve invested our points into, so to speak. So, it wouldn’t be worth it. In contrast, it is if it’s a Charisma or Dexterity skill.

Backgrounds are one more layer to your Bard build, and it’s not only influenced by your Proficiencies, but they influence how an NPC views you and how events might turn out, which creates a whole new dimension of storytelling and intrigue. Bards are very good at skill checks that the Charlatan and Entertainer need for Inspiration, so we recommend one of these paths.

Best skills for Bard in BG3

As for what skills to take after you have Entertainer or Charlatan, the best five skills—including your Background options—are:

• Deception
• Intimidation
• Persuasion
• Sleight of Hand for picking locks. Who needs Astarion anyway? Or even better, make Astarion your Bard.
• Performance lets you make money in towns and can help Bards with a variety of random conversation checks.

You can tuck one of the Charisma options away, but that means your Bard might not be able to handle every single conversation. And that’s not the Bard’s job.

Best Bard build: Spells and level progression

Unlike the College of Lore Bard, the College of Valor doesn’t have as many spells, but the ones they do have, especially in this build, are well worth using. At level three, when you choose College of Valor, your Bardic Inspiration will change into Combat Inspiration, which is an excellent buff for your companions because it can increase their attack roll, weapon damage, saving throw, and more.

There are many spells and abilities you’ll obtain on your journey to level 12 as a College of Valor Bard.

Level one

Although you could stick with either a debuff or healer role as a Bard, I recommend a mixture of both due to its versatility in healing and casting debuffs on your enemies. And there is something very satisfying about listening to your character throw shade on another with the Vicious Mockery cantrip.

But at level one, you should have the following spells:

• Cantrips: Mage Hand and Vicious Mockery
• Spells: Healing Word, Heroism, Sleep, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter

Healing Word is a great way to pick up allies, while Heroism keeps them from dying. Sleep forces enemies to take naps based on HP rather than saving throws, and Tasha’s Hideous Laughter can put foes down for a while with the giggles.

Level two

Two of my favorite features unlock at level two, including Jack of All Trades (adds half of your proficiency bonus to ability checks you’re not proficient in) and Song of Rest (provides out-of-combat healing similar to a short rest).

You’ll unlock more level-one spells here, but the one you should choose includes the following:

• Faerie Fire: An area is covered in lights, coating the targets and preventing them from becoming invisible. What’s more, attack rolls against targets in the light are made at advantage.

As your main team will include Astarion, a Rogue, this spell will assist him greatly because Rogues perform so well with an advantage on their attack rolls, and it’s a must-have against creatures like Auntie Ethel that love turning invisible.

Level three

At level three, you can choose your subclass, the College of Valor, and you will gain additional proficiencies with Shields, Medium Armor, and Martial Weapons. Your Bardic Inspiration will transform into Combat Inspiration.

You also get to choose two skills with Expertise, a class ability that will double your Proficiency Bonus on a skill. Cool, right? The two best skills to use this on are Persuasion and either Sleight of Hand for a no-Astarion comp or Deception to raise your odds of getting inspiration with Charlatan.

At level three, you’ll unlock several level-two spells, and the best options are:

• Shatter: This will damage all nearby creatures and objects with Thunder damage, and it’s excellent if your team lacks AoE spells. In addition, even if the enemy does pull off a Saving Throw, they still take half the damage. Without a Gale, you should consider this.
• Lesser Restoration: This will cure a creature or character from poison, paralysis, blindness, or disease. Super important if you don’t have a Cleric, like Shadowheart, in the party.

Level four

You can pick a Feat or an ability improvement, a level two spell, and a Cantrip at level four. You should take the Ability Improvement over the Feat and increase your Charisma to 18, as this will improve the effectiveness of your spells.

And for the spell, you can choose the option you didn’t take when you hit level three, or you can pick something else, like Crown of Madness, which instills madness in a humanoid enemy and will make them attack the creature closest to them.

As for the cantrip, Blade Ward is great for when you are Hasted and want to give yourself physical damage resistance. Friends works well for lower difficulties where you want to guarantee success on talking-based ability checks but flounders at higher difficulties where there are punishments for using it.

Level five

Level five is a great level to hit because your Bardic Inspiration will be enhanced, and you can gain back all your Bardic Inspiration on a short rest with Font of Inspiration, which means you can use it more often.

You will also want to switch Tasha’s Hideous Laughter for Fear because it’s a level three spell that Fears enemies hit by it, and they may drop their weapons. It’s a potent crowd-control ability, and you’ll find yourself turning to this quite a lot.

And finally, you should take Glyph of Warding. It inscribes a circle with arcane glyphs on the ground that can trigger spells when an enemy steps on it, and it’s great to use if you’re lacking AoE ones. The hardest though, is that this has seven variations for you to choose from, including the following:

• GoW Sleep: This glyph puts everyone within range to sleep when an enemy steps on it.
• GoW Detonation: This glyph pushes everyone within range backward when it’s stepped on an enemy.
• GoW Thunder: This glyph explodes and deals Thunder damage to everyone within range when an enemy steps on it.
• GoW Fire: This glyph will also explode but will deal Fire damage to everyone within range when an enemy steps on it.
• GoW Cold: When an enemy steps on this glyph, it will explode and deal Cold damage to everyone within range.
• GoW Lightning: When an enemy steps on this glyph, it’ll explode and deal Lightning damage to everyone within range.
• GoW Acid: This glyph will deal Acid damage to everyone within range after it’s been stepped on by an enemy.

The downside, however, is that it can also affect your companions. So, you do have to be mindful of how and where you position it and your teammates.

But if you can do it right, there’s nothing more satisfying than watching them set off the trap. And even if they successfully pull off a Save Roll, they still take half the damage. Since enemies tend to funnel towards the party anyway, you can make this work quite easily.

Level six

Level six is where things take a turn for the better, as you can gain Extra Attack, Countercharm, and a spell. As the name suggests, with Extra Attack, you gain a bonus attack during your turn whenever your first attack is either unarmed or a weapon attack.

Countercharm allows you and your teammates within a nine-meter radius an advantage on Saving Throws to help you resist being Frightened or Charmed. And it’s a savior against being crowd-controlled.

For your spell, the best option is Stinking Cloud. This spell spits out a cloud of gas is created that is so sickening that it stops creatures from taking action and lasts 10 turns.

Like the Glyph of Warding, you must be careful where you place the Stinking Cloud because your allies are also affected by it. However, rather than dealing damage, this putrid cloud prevents enemies from taking actions.

Level seven

Your first fourth-level spell is almost always Greater Invisibility. Against most fights in the game, putting this spell on your Astarion turns him into a blender of damage.

It’s also a valid escape option, as enemies need very specific buffs—like See Invisibility—to pull you out of stealth. Even in Act Three, that is not a common occurrence—outside of the endgame cultists that are part of the Dark Urge questline.

Level eight

Once you reach level eight, you can gain a feat and another spell. While there are a few you could get here, these are some of the best:

• Dimension Door: You can teleport yourself and one ally to an adjacent location. However, they can’t be medium or larger.
  • This is also a common spell for Gale or Wizards, but I recommend taking it for your Bard so you can solely focus on a more DPS build for Gale. You have to save a lot of people during Act Three, and Dimension Door is perfect for a rescue.
• War Caster (Feat): To maintain Concentration on a spell, you’ll gain Advantage on Saving Throws. If a target is moving out of melee range, you can now use a reaction to cast Shocking Grasp. This is a Cantrip where you can do between one and eight Lightning damage, ensuring the target can’t use reactions. This spell gains an Advantage if the target is wearing armor.
  • War Caster is an incredible Feat for the College of Valor Bards because many of our spells require concentration. So, gaining Advantage for a chance to maintain our spells for longer is very beneficial.

Level nine

At Level Nine, you’ll gain access to level five spells, and while this may be exciting for some classes, it’s not all too amazing for Bards as there are very few high-class spells worth taking for the College of Valor subclass. Even so, there is one you must get: Hold Monster.

Hold Monster forces enemies into a bad position: You either save against this spell, or you die. Paralysis is an incredibly strong condition. I should know—enemies adore using it on my party. So, giving your party the chance to dumpster an enemy if they fail a saving throw can save a lot of headaches.

We’ll also get rid of Faerie Fire, as there are items, potions, and other casters that can deal with invisible creatures a little better for our bard. Instead, we’ll take Mass Cure Wounds for emergency situations where multiple allies have gone down.

Level 10

Level 10 is the last time you’ll have a “full Bard” build because there are only a couple more high-level spells that we want to take before starting our multi-class journey. At this level, you will need to take the following Cantrips, Class Features, and Spell:

• Minor Illusion (Cantrip): You can create an illusion that creatures will investigate. This is an excellent out-of-combat Cantrip for sneaking into or out of areas we’re not supposed to be in. And I found it really helpful while looting for “stolen” goods.
• Polymorph (Spell): We’re circling back to level four spells because Polymorph can win you fights instantly. Similar to Hold Monster, Polymorph prevents enemies from attacking, but this spell transforms them into a sheep. Keep them out of the fight for the five-turn duration, or boot them off a ledge.
• Improved Bardic Inspiration (Class Feature): At level 10, this will improve your bonuses to +1d10
• Expertise (Class Feature): You can increase two of your Skills, so add points to Persuasion and Intimidation.
• Magical Secrets (Class Feature): You get to learn more spells from different spell lists, like Cleric or Wizard. The best spells in the game.
  • Haste: Hastened is an incredibly strong buff in BG3, and the Bard doesn’t learn how to do that very well. We can fix that right now.
  • Conjure Elemental: This spell summons an elemental that will fight and follow you. One of the hardest things I found about playing as a support class is that you often become a target and don’t get much protection. But having an elemental that can almost tank damage for you and deal damage vastly improves your combat experience and survivability.

This Haste is not for us, mind you. It’s important to rely on others for a College of Valor bard to be successful, and we’re going to use Haste on our party members. Buffing a Paladin like Minthara or a Fighter like Lae’zel is a big boost to your party’s single-target damage. Buffing Gale can lead to double Fireball turns, where an entire room is lost in a tide of fire. Coordinate with the turn order to best decide who should be Hasted, or prebuff with it before combat.

If you want to deal damage yourself, we can put that high AC into motion with Spirit Guardian. Spirit Guardian surrounds us with spirits that deal 3d8 damage per turn and halve the movement speed of enemies around you. It takes concentration—which we’re improving through War Caster—and is a rather large area that heavily disrupts fights. Great damage over the course of a gummy fight.

Level 11

Once you hit Level 11, you’re going to start multi-classing. Although we have Gale and Lae’zel on our team, their two classes and Paladin are the strongest multi-class options for this build. Ultimately, though, we want to multi-class and take Fighter abilities as a College of Valor Bard because they have a few abilities that synergize well with this support-style build.

So, from the Fighter abilities, you’ll take Fighting Style: Protection, which is also available to Paladins. This ability imposes Disadvantage on an attack against your teammates when you’re within 1.5 meters of them, but only when you have a shield, and you must be able to see the attacker.

As this is more of a support ability, it works really well with this College of Valor build, but as you do have to be quite close to your teammates for it to take effect, it comes with a risk. However, your shield and summoned elementals can help mitigate this.

Level 12

Now that you’re at Level 12, you’ll take the Fighter ability, Action Surge, which means you get an extra action during a turn. The downside is that it can be used only once during battle, but it will recharge on a Short Rest.

It can’t be understated how powerful an extra action is, even for our supportive Bard. Being able to buff yourself before running in and dealing damage or debuffing enemies is very strong. During turns with multiple dying allies, Mass Cure Wounds, Action Surge, Haste or Conjure Elemental—for distraction purposes—has been what saved my party’s sorry behinds multiple times.

Best Bard build: Equipment

As you progress through the campaign, you won’t be able to access all the best equipment for the College of Valor immediately. However, many of the best or final pieces of equipment can be obtained early in the campaign. But you can use a few early-game alternatives until you can upgrade to the late-game ones.

The best equipment for the College of Valor Bard includes the following:

• Weapon
  • Early Game
    • Rapier +1—Purchase from Dammon, the merchant in Druid’s Grove. You can also get it from Roah Moonglow when at Shattered Sanctum.
  • Final
    • Infernal Rapier—Get it for freeing Zariel’s asset during the Mind Flayer Colony part of Act Two. You’ll need to pass a DC 14 Persuasion check for it, which I imagine will be easy for you. It adds a plus-one to Spell Save DC and lets you use Charisma to attack.
• Armor
  • Early-Game:
    • (Option One) Leather Armor (from Arron in the Druid Grove)
    • (Option Two) Faded Drow Studded Leather Armor (from the body of a dead drow near the fountain near The Risen Road)
  • Final:
    • Blazer of Benevolence—You gain Remedial Rhymes, which means whenever you inspire an ally using Bardic Inspiration (or Combat Inspiration), you gain four temporary hit points, and it will increase your Dexterity Modifier.
      • This is a reward for completing the quest, Rescue Volo in the Shattered Sanctum.
• Head
  • Wapira’s Crown—You gain Crowning Glory, which means when you heal someone else, you gain 1d6 hit points.
    • You get this as a reward from the quest Save the Refugees, but you must accept the gold they offer. Otherwise, you won’t get the crown.
• Neck
  • (Option One) Amulet of Restoration—You gain the abilities of Healing Word and Mass Healing Word, two great healing options to have once per day.
    • You can get this from Derryth at the Myconid Colony in the Underdark
  • (Option Two) Silver Pendant—You gain Guidance, which means you can give Guidance to someone, and they receive a d4 bonus to an ability check of their choice.
    • You can loot this from a skeleton north of the Roadside Cliffs waypoint at the coordinates X:152 and Y:371.
• Rings
  • Ring One: Whispering Promise—You gain Blessed Mercy, which means when you heal someone, it will also get a 1d4 bonus to Attack Rolls and Saving Throws for two turns.
    • You can purchase this from most traders, but to get it in the early stages, buy it from Grat the Trader at the Goblin Camp or from Brem in the Zhentarim Hideout.
  • Ring Two: (Early) Ring of Salving—You gain Saviour’s Allure, which means you restore an additional two healing points every time you heal someone.
    • You can get this from Omeluum (the Mind Flayer) in the Myconid Colony after you complete the quest “Help Omeluum investigate the parasite”.
  • Ring Two: (Final) Ring of Regeneration—At the start of your turn, this ring will activate and heal you for between one and four points.
    • Rolan sells this at the Sorcerer’s Sundries in Baldur’s Gate.
• Gloves
  • Wonderous Gloves—You gain Troubadour’s Wonder, which means your Armor Class increases by one, and your Bardic Inspiration gains one more use.
    • The gloves are dropped by Mimic in Grymforge, roughly at the coordinates X:-695 and Y:377.
• Boots
  • Boots of Brilliance—You gain the ability to restore your Bardic Inspiration, which basically gives you another use of Bardic Inspiration per day. The more, the merrier.
    • These boots are in the Gauntlet of Shar, past Yugir the Orthon.
• Musical Instrument
  • You don’t get any bonuses, boosts, or effects from your musical instrument, so it doesn’t matter which one you choose.
• Consumables
  • Potion of Speed: Like every character in the game, a Bard who can act twice (or three times with Action Surge) is a very effective, very happy bard.
  • Elixir of Arcane Cultivation: Elixirs that provide you additional spell slots are very, very helpful. Even low-level spells like Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, Sleep, or Healing Word are battle-defining.

Best Bard build: Team composition

With this College of Bard build, you will be the main healer, protector, buffer, debuffer, and general glue that holds the team together. However, you lack damage, which is why the best team members for the College of Valor Bard include the following:

• Lae’Zel—As a Fighter, Lae’Zel is terrifyingly strong and can take a lot of damage when she’s built right. This gives you more of an opportunity to be a supportive Bard and play aggressively regarding your debuffs and CC.
• Astarion—Rogues, like Astarion, are beneficial both in and out of combat. His stealth attacks can sometimes take out low-level targets in one go, and he can lockpick almost anything. So, he’s a great addition to the team.
• Gale—The Wizard of Waterdeep offers great DPS spells and utility, and when he’s multi-classed in the later levels, he is instrumental and downright scary.

While we can say, “This is the best Bard build,” it may not be the best for you and your playstyle. The College of Valor Bard build focuses on healing, protection, crowd-control, buffing, and debuffing, and it may not be as involved or attack-heavy as some may like.

This is why being able to respec your character in BG3 is a nice touch because it means we can try something else, especially if the updates change abilities so much that they need to be added or removed from our kit. For instance, you can try the College of Lore to see if you’d prefer the extra spells known when compared to Extra Attack.

When choosing your character, it’s important to pick something that suits you. But if you want to take on more of a support role with a versatile kit, then the College of Valor Bard build is for you.