You Might Be a College of Eloquence Bard | Bard Subclass Guide for DND 5e
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 มิ.ย. 2024
- #dnd5e #bard #swords
Hey! Guess what. You're Awesome and thanks for watching. I promise this is the best DND tutorial based on a 30 year old Jeff Foxworthy joke you'll ever see. Stick around for more and vote in the comments for which subclass you'd like to next.
PATREON right here!: / youmightbeadnd
Check out the DISCORD! / discord
Just a smooth talkin sob
All music credit to Kevin Macleod
@incompetech_kmac - เกม
note to self, make a eloquence bard who's sole goal is to convince everyone that the setting's moon is in fact fake.
do it in a party with a lunar soul sorcerer, moon druid, and/or a moon cleric, all of whom hate that it's working
That'd lead to alot of mad Shar follower
choose eberron, you have 12 to choose from lol
I hope that if you do that the DM reveals that you where actually right all along
Or flat earther eloquence bard. 😊
*DM* [being mean to Eloquence Bard]: So it turns out they are all deaf....
That's fine, I took sign language as one of my languages.
@@adamloga3788 surprise! underdark campaign!!
you'll be fighting worms!
That's right WORMS!!
Blind, deaf, AND mute! Now with astounding tremorsense!!
But wait, there's more!
Call now and you can get FREE!! That's right FREE semi-sentient fungi!!
They don't have eyes or ears but I'm sure they'd love to turn your healthy flesh into an even healthier mushroom farm!
Just call (made up number with mediocre pun) now!
That's (made up number with mediocre pun).
And all can cast darkness too... Just to be sure
My warlock friend set up a telepathic link between us
Or take a dip in Great old one warlock.@researcherchameleon4602
I will say, the best Eloquence Bard of all time would be Sir Kendric of house Lamar. He had no fewer than six jaunty tunes that could slay the OVO Drake.
Remember kids, a silver tongue can also talk people INTO a fight when it is advantageous.
Starting to realize that I do in fact have a really good DM when I hear people talking about issues like not enough combat, or being able to circumvent combat. Meanwhile in a single session my team can circumvent fighting a dire wolf just to find ourselves against a suit of animated draconic armor with nothing else to do but fight. He tends to have a nice mix of encounters that we can handle a variety of ways but also encounters that will require fighting. He is also more than willing to put reasonable limits on things. "Yes I know you are a bard who rolled a nat 20 on deception but you are attempting to lie after being caught with your hand in the guys pocket in a public place after failing a slight of hand." Sometimes common sense would avoid so many of the meme things you hear about in D&D.
I’m playing an Eloquence Bard that is literally just Jack Black. Specifically, his name is Jackagar Blackagar, and using the tenacious power of his mighty lute, we shredded the Free Bird solo so hard that we two-shot a fire djinn with a pirate ship.
It's wyat Jack Black deserves.
Save spell+Unsettling words+ 3 silvery barbs
Multiclass into Mastermind Rogue to become the SMOOTHEST criminal.
I've played with an eloquence bard in the party. The issue wasn't that the party talked our way,out of every situation, it was that HE talked us out of every situation. The rest of us felt like his traveling entourage and didn't really get to do much.
It's a powerful class and fun for a while, but it does get old imo.
Just remember a fey wanderer gets to ADD their wisdom to charisma checks so if you dip 3 levels into both classes by total level 17 you get:
Minimum
10 + 5 + 5 +12 = 32
Maximum
20 + 5 + 5 +12 = 42
The problem with eloquence bard is that it is too easy to dominate at the table. With a elobard, no one else will even consider making a Cha check. When it's time to speak, everyone will look to you. So my thought is keep your Cha checks like a superpower. Say as little as possible. If you are continually making high Cha checks, most people will be suspicious of you. You are casting mind control spells on them. If you approach it that way, you should all have more fun. Even the DM. But too many players will want to show off as much as possible. This leads to Main Character Syndrome. I think it would be better to the Eminence in Shadow type. Make the fighter a legendary hero. Make the Wizard a grand sage. Use your talky powers to promote your friends and everybody wins.
As a smooth talker it would make so much sense to use the people around you to your advantage. You're playing the ultimate manipulator so it just makes sense
For any DM that's worried about an Eloquence bard Persuasion Checking through every combat, every problem, every single thing.
Just remember you can just set the DC to be impossible. I don't mean set it to like 30, I mean the DC is actually impossible. You cannot do it.
Like an Eloquence Bard could roll a Persuasion 400, the King is still not going to abdicate his throne, turn over the country to you, and give you the treasury's gold. That's just never going to happen, period.
So if you just want to give your players combat, you can just say "These bandits don't seem interested in talking. They not only want your money, they want your life, cause if you get away from this, they can't be sure at least one of you won't squeal on them. Roll initiative."
Like it's just straight up impossible to talk your way out of all kinds of situations. That's ignoring the possibility of encounters with monsters that can't talk regardless.
Good choice. And at a certain point, talking your way out of a fight becomes even more stale and predictable than actually fighting.
@@bthsr7113 If you exclusively WANTED the whole game to be about talking, you probably wouldn't be playing DnD in the first place. Combat is a major part of the game after all. Not everything needs to be combat, but there should be combat.
This is the first time I've heard Eloquence Bard is widely hated. Being a martial class with the intelligence of a rock and the charisma of a slightly better looking rock, I definitely don't mind the Chad Bard with a minimum roll that passes most checks do the talking. Maybe I just have good DMs that can throw reasonable curveballs to keep things interesting (good luck talking your way out of a banshee fight), but something tells me there's plenty of bad DMs who just ban it outright because they aren't creative enough to make things interesting.
I think the problem is that it is so astronomically strong that is someone else wants to do something else relating to charisma it feels like there's no point
I’m currently playing an eloquence bard. And the different flavors you can use for it is staggering. For example, mine is a snake oil salesman style charlatan following the party to strike it rich, using his words to get the party better deals and extra gold from jobs. Then the multi-class options too. Pair this with some levels in warlock and you got some fun tricks you can pull.
The Bard not being picked during the voting session.
YMBA makes a song about it
Worth the wait.
Fucking hell, dude, have I said yet that you’re hella talented? Parody is an art and the wit and extra effort that goes into those songs is nothing to sneeze at! Always get excited when I see that you’ve uploaded and honestly you’ve convinced me to see about making an eloquence bard at my next opportunity
I remember playing an Eloquence Bard for this one long campaign, and it was wonderful. Unless your party formation has a clear deficiency you can rectify with the "level 6 magical secrets", every single one of your abilities mitigates RNG, and Unsettling Words in particular breaks bounded accuracy. You're effectively taking random chance out of the equation, or at least diminishing the effect random chance has on a given outcome,
This is the sort of class you want to play if you want to be this manipulative Guile Hero, who's mouth is bigger than their actions, that operates the battlefield by manipulating their foes to trick them into taking their own fall, confusing them with witty patter, and deceiving them with various disguises and flattery. If there is a D&D equivalent who could convincingly be a near-invincible karmic trickster hero like 'Looney Tunes' Bugs Bunny or 'Blazing Saddles' Bart with the same wry confidence to take down much more powerful opponents, then that's the College of Eloquence Bard in a nutshell. That's you, baby!
DM who's sick of the eloquence bard running their mouth: The litch casts silence.
Love the videos ❤
What about telepathy and that one wizard spell that lets you visit people in their dreams lol
This kind of feels like the equivalent of the Scribe Wizard. The subclass that is a rich vanilla, letting you truly appreciate the core of the class.
You are the Bard's Bard.
Please homebrew a Gourmand subclass for the Artificer. I wanna see you cut up myconids for food.
Is that a Dungeon Meshi-reference?!?!
Gourd-on Ram-sy
My favorite way to break the social game is to multiclass Eloquence 3 with Aberrant Mind 17, Silvertongue and Unsettling Words combined with Psionic Spells, I basically always win (and it gets even worse if Acquisitions Incorporated spells are allowed between that one that rolls back a conversation if you somehow freudian slip or the one that's the result of Charm + Suggestion doing a DBZ Fusion Dance)
Aww, I thought it was time for the Fathomless Warlock for Kraken Week.
I’ve been waiting months for this. Finally, it’s here!
My favourite character I ever played was an Evil Dragonmark of Hospitality Halfling Eloquence Bard inspired by Littlefinger from Game of Thrones with a bit of Lex Luthor and Kingpin mixed in. It wasn't an Evil campaign but my bard was the kind of Evil where he would stick with the party and help them with the heroics to boost his public image while doing shady deals behind the scenes. Peter "Littlefoot" Brown became truly terrifying throughout that campaign and it was a blast.
I am currently playing a changeling eloquence bard, and it is ridiculously fun to play this subclass as an unhinged smooth-talker. Simply put, I have gotten my party into and out of shenanigans frequently, and my party in-game actively tries to keep me from being the face of the party because they have no idea what the outcome will be. And yes, I have discussed whether my character's random behavior is fun in the game with my group. We all agree it adds some fun narrative moments for player-to-player role-playing moments.
This is actually pretty cool! As for a new subclass to cover, I'd love to see your thoughts on Four Elements Monk. That way, you can say how it can be improved.
This was so goddamn good! Eloquence bard is legit one of the classes that made me really wanna jump into bard
Bugbear + Eloquence bard = true rizzly bear
yeah, I'm on no sleep, 2 hours before my drama 2 final, so this really helps, may Eugene inosco bless u YMBA
Me: “I use unsettling words”
DM: “What do you say?”
Me: “Your mama.”
DM: “I’m sorry I asked.”
I’m currently playing a changeling eloquence bard with 20 charisma, the actor feat and expertise in deception and performance. Combined with the charlatan background I’m NEVER going to be busted for identity theft.
You do a great job of showing the fun in every subclass. Thank you for the video
Playing an Elven Eloquence bard that is a tragic emo poet.
He's overdramatic and a complete downer, then brings everyone else down.
It is one of my favorite characters I've played in a long time.
Meanwhile I wait for him to dunk on my favorite sorcerer class, the storm sorcerer. Another top notch video by the way. You should also look at Way of Long Death monk if you haven't yet. Really good subclass that I see so many people pass up because it's in the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide.
I TOTALLY get why people ban this subclass. The other DM at my table thought about playing one (and I was gonna let him), but then he thought about how much he'd hate it if HE had to DM for it lmao. He went with a homebrew college instead.
I will say that having the option to talk your way out of conflicts is fine, even more so if you have a whole party of spell casters…but for Martials and stuff at that point you are relying on the Bard player to actively choose not to use their keystone ability or for the DM to just make the feature in able to work in certain situations. I can see why people dislike it as well and with me saying the above I would not mind as long as every time we meet someone who’s hostile I don’t hear “I want to persu…” that is all.
I have a halfling eloquence bard with the halfling racial feat and lucky. It’s rare when anyone in the group fails a save
I’d love to hear your thoughts about the Samurai Fighter or Inquisitive Rogue subclasses!
Don't forget to grab a stone of good luck so all checks get boosted by another one point
I'm playing an eloquence bard but with one major flaw i cant lie so deception is out of the table just pure persuasion and if people ask me why im distracting them from there job i would say don't worry about it which isn't technically lieing.
They rolled nat ones trying to convince the audience to vote for them
What a coincidence, I made an Eloquence Bard that I should be playing for the first time tonight.
You know, Baldur's Gate 3 is what I'd say sparked the interest in D&D. Personally I love subclasses and the myriad ways a class can evolve and transform given the right conditions. Still, going through all your videos I kind of feel I'm too stupid to truly get into it all.
Frankly any dm who cant handle an eloquence bard puts too much weight on ability checks. There are always going to be things you can't possibly convince someone to do or to believe. Letting the bard jerk people around like puppets on a string betrays a lack of understanding of how sentient beings behave
The best Lawyer bard XD
I also hope next poll includes Path of the Depths Barbarian and the other Bilgewater subclasses which are official n stuff XD
Klernt the goblin was so good at persuasion/deception the dm stopped asking for rolls because of that guaranteed ten on the die.
I think the reason this subclass gets the hate it does is because it handles social situations so well that it steals the spotlight from the rest of the group. By that I mean why would anyone in the group WANT to try negotiating when they can just call in Gabe to get a minimum 20 roll at level 5. Its not so much as the subclass being OP (which it kinda is), its that it can easily have 1 character dominate an entire pillar of gameplay. Of course, a good player and group will work around this, because we all know that when the Barbarian who dumped Int and Cha steps up to negotiate the release of hostages that the results will be hilarious! But I can see a lot of groups and players abusing this and ruining fun at the table.
Honestly this bard is amazing.
I just voted against it for the meme
I’m currently playing as a Yuan-ti level four aberrant mind sorcerer and level three eloquence bard I picked this subclass for my PC two sessions ago because he is a merchant so it made sense for him to be good at haggling and a lot of his spells require a save check so unsettling words is very useful for my PC
Another amazing video. Anytime permitted cheese comes out. I know it’s going to be a banger.😂
2:36 It goes in the square hole.
2:39 Easy answer. Everything goes in the square
If you will slapped on the silver tongued (au) feat and the actor feat. You won’t be able to roll under a 30 minimum
Yeah,no. My goddaughter's favorite class is barbarian. I tried to get her to play a bard. It didn't go well. Disintegrated by a beholder in the first round of combat. ☠️☠️☠️
I ask for more wishes.
DM: The genie isn't going to...*sigh* roll persuasion, but its going to be....35?!? Well fck.
Why did this give me the idea to play an eloquence bard who's just a youtuber?
As much as I love bards as musicians, you could just as easily make a bard who's an aspiring stand-up comedian since bards don't NEED to use an instrument for a focus.
I want to make a subclass of bard called the College of Law that casts vicious mockery and is the nightmare of any and all fiends, devils and demons.
I'm in a party right now. I just swapped my character. I will be a college of lore bard/ gunslinger fighter. A friend of mine I made him a character that's a college of eloquence bard. After everything was said and done I realized " wait a minute, two songs of rest per short rest! "
new day, new video
How to nerf this subclass... have Silence spell on every NPC.
Talk no jutsu
Rizzlybear!!!!!! 🤣
2:00 look in my first group our problem player was a bard I can not help what that does to my vote
So with a crap capstone, *what multiclass dips works best?*
2 level in Divination Wizard for even more dice evil, or one of the front loaded Cleric subclasses?
Or 2 levels in Warlock for invocations.
Or another charisma class dip like Paladin or Sorcerer?
*Any suggestions.*
two levels of divination wizard to really make sure those saves fail. and portent on an eloquence bard is nonsense.
Well sorcerer's work pretty well due to meta magic, heightened spell is especially nasty on eloquence bards since not only do they know have disadvantage, they also subtract your bardic inspiration die. You can also target two creatures with something like irresistible dance.
Just in time for WOTC to chop it and make it the College Of Dance…
If I had a reason to play hard this is the reason, but I'm a professional warlock player so I can't (without multi classing)
My favorite aspect of DnD is RPing and it is for this reason I hate the Eloquence Bard.
I'm sick of playing with the most obnoxious and whiny players I've ever met on Roll20 and having them succeed on every persuasion roll, despite having all the charm of an angry teenager who got their PS5 taken away when they interact with the NPCs.
So when are we getting samurai fighter?
Doctor Who, the d&d class
I thought you were going to say “getting laid” here 1:25
Thanks for reminding me to change the batteries on the moon projector.
Gen from Dr. Stone is totally an Eloquence Bard
Unsettling Words + Suggestion.
Bard: "No, that right there. What you did, that was dumb. You are dumb. What you should probably do now is hand over all your weapons, armor and gold.
Thug: *Just nods and hand over everything* "Uh... wait... why did I just do that?"
Bard: "Cause you are dumb."
Thug: "Oh... right..."
Bard: "Now, I suggest you go on home and rethink your life."
Thug: "That... actually sounds like a good idea. You're smart you know that?"
Bard: "Yeah, and you are dumb."
Thug: "I know..." *Hangs head and walks off... only to later be arrested by guards for public indecency*
I wanted to build a linguist archaeologist bard who is not a monk that can read and write all language including niece ones like yeti and have the invocation beast speak because it’s cool and funny when I can talk to anyone weather I can win a chat doesn’t matter the character interaction is god
Oathbreaker Paladin pls
YMBA the only reasons bard didn’t win the pole was cuz we wanted to finish with a bang
So if the Scribes Wizard is the Wizard Wizard, I guess this would be... the Bard Bard? What other foundational subclasses are there...
2:00
Man, pools' bard is really bad at barding
Oh no YMBA is a flatearther...
Do something safe. Champion fighter.
Play a race that doesn't speak Common as a Eloquence Bard like a grung. It's so funny to speak gibarish but everybody know and accept everything you want😂😂😂
Wotc making the class reworks so this series doesnt end >>>>>>
❤
freaky
oh, combat? 2 warlock hexblade and 18 eloquence bard. You're set now. Stop crying for lack of fighting ability XD
Why do people default to always try and get out of a fight as an eloquence bard? I play eloquence bard and whenever theres a fight we can take, ill take it and make it absolutely humiliating for the enemy OR raise the stakes so you get something better after fighting them. work with your party to use your domination in social settings to get what they need and no one will complain lol
Reminder dms a roll is when a situation has a level of uncertainty. Persuasion checks arent mind control and wont make someone act drastically out of character unless given a actual good reason to. You decide when a roll even makes sense.
All that said i dont like this class. Its very poor for group role play and basically feels like like main character syndrome the class. 1 player should not dominate a whole piller of game play and sometimes its good for the story for a roll to fail or for that -2 charisma druid to roll. Theres also the fact that if the dc isn't higher then 20 why even ask for a roll? Rouges earn this ability by investing 11 levels into there class, eloquence bards start out with this craziness and it undermind social encounters just as much as a Flying races can undermind a combat encounter.
Sorry if it reads like a bit of a ramble but with all that said ill most likely not be allwing this subclass in some of my campaigns.
If your DM is permissible enough, you have a version of Master of Tactics to persuade people to let your allies attack them.
I played an eloquence bard. The never roll below a 10 ability gets old fast. It makes the risk of making an off the cuff lie nonexistent unless your DM powermaxes every npc's insight. It's not as fun as it sounds. Love the subclass as a whole, but talk with your DM about swapping out the Silver tongue ability for something else.
NEEERRRD!!! 🙄🙄
I have to disagree on the fun factor, Silver Tongue is just way too strong, especially for something you get at level 3.
Imagine if a Berserker Barbarian got the ability to just decapitate and kill anyone they manage to engage in melee combat.
Combat would now be worthless as your Barbarian kills everything (unless your DM comes up with reasons why this ability won't work). But beyond that, the rest of the campaign would be warped around this skill. Need to gain entry into a guarded location? Just kill the guards and waltz right in. Need to steal something? Just kill the person who has it and take it from their corpse. Need to get some intel? Find the person who has it and start killing their closest kin until they spill the beans to get you to stop.
That's what Silver Tongue does: if it can be solved by talking, it WILL be solved by talking. And if a situation can somehow be turned into a situation that can be solved by talking it is the most logical step for your party to do so. So now your DM has to come up with reasons why some pretty mundane NPCs (remember: we are at level 3 here) can not be reasoned with or have no kin that can be reasoned with, otherwise the rest of the party will be sitting there watching the Amazing One Bard Show session after session - which means the bard can not be allowed to do what they want to do most of the time because if and when they are allowed to do what they build their character to do as a treat every now and then they will basically auto succeed.
Or a bit shorter: Silver Tongue does not add options, it takes options away. If talking is allowed as a way to win an encounter it is the objectively right thing to do as it is basically guaranteed to succeed, which means all other options your party has are gone (unless they want to actively sabotage themself). Which means talking can no longer be allowed to be an option in any way shape or form, restricting the DM for no gain.
The rest of the abilities do some really cool stuff with your Bardic Inspiration - but Silver Tongue is just dumb. There is a reason Eloquence Bard could not win the polls: whatever else set dressing it has, it doesn't matter because it does one thing way, WAY too good which overshadows those other abilities and even worse the rest of the party. And that makes it a boring subclass.
HUH?! i found a subclass i hate, didn't think that would ever happen, i usually can find the redeeming flavor bits in any subclass, even the ones usually considered "bad". but this one...... i HATE ! from soup to nuts (and oddly not at all for the reasons you mention in the video). Bard was never a class i was overly fond of in any edition until 5e, then it kind of came into it's own and i genuinely enjoyed the class as a whole. but not this one, this one can die in a house fire.
I think you badly misunderstand why people are annoyed with this subclass.
It LIMITS the game. It doesn’t expand it. You say it’s better to have 100 options instead of a couple? Well, with this subclass you are down to ONE option. Every encounter becomes “we’ll have the bard talk to them, I guess none of the other characters matter”. It’s not outside the box thinking. It’s making a tiny box and specifically only thinking inside of that.
I was pretty annoyed that you missed all that and pretended the only people who could possibly have an issue with this subclass were people who didn’t know how to do anything but combat.
Well sorry you were annoyed. That wasn't the intention, but again I disagree with you. This is probably a big enough topic for a whole video entirely, but I also think people place wayyy too much emphasis on ability checks, especially when they are or aren't warranted.
For example. You say this subclass becomes just "the bard talks to them" every encounter... ok. Talks to who? The BBEG? In no way should that be a check ever to try and convince the bad guy to not do their deed unless it fits the sutuation. Convince a guard to let you into a stronghold? Maybe. But again you shouldnt just be able to walk up to the guard anyway unless it makes sense.
However. Convince townsfolk to give you more information on the bad guy or about the layout of the castle? Convince someone who works in the governemnt for access to blueprints? Find out who the has a key to the bad guys room and party with them until they're drunk enough you can steal it...
Persuasion orr deception checks are not mind control. NPCs should not just do whatever the bard asks, if it goes against what they would normally do unless theres a real reason. Even if they roll a 40 on the die. Does that make more sense?
Oh yeah. Another classic song for the eloquence bard. You rock!