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The Bard-Paladin multiclass inDungeons & Dragonsbrings to life the fantasy of a storytelling adventurer who travels from town to town regaling folks with the details of their journeys. Whereas your typical bard might prefer to share the stories of others or their entire party, the bard-paladin lends itself more towards a self-centered individual who is the hero of their own story.
That being said, players interested in this build should beware of the depredations of main character syndrome. As a charisma-based caster, frontline melee combatant, and expertise skill monkey, the Bard-Paladin truly can do it all. Consequently, you’ll need to make a conscious effort to leave some spotlight for your fellow players.
Best Multiclass Bard-Paladin Species
Due to the overwhelming power of feats, yourbest species optionsare eitherTasha’s Custom LineageorVariant Human.Both of these species give you access toa free feat at first levelwhich is better than any other feature or benefit other species provide.
Nonetheless, there are someother species to consider if you play at a table with the homebrew rule that everyone gets a free feator if you’re interested in trying something new.Dragonborn, Half-Elves, and Tieflingsfrom the original Player’s Handbook are fine choices thanks to the Charisma bonuses they offer.
As far as newer publications are concerned,Satyr and Yuan-Tiare both great thanks tomagic resistancesince it combines well with the paladin’s aura of protection. In addition, theShadar-Kai, Astral Elves, and Eladrinhavebonus action teleport abilitiesthat are incredibly useful for melee characters looking to close the distance.
Lastly, theHobgoblin’sfortune from the many ability providesan additional benefit for having other player characters stand nearby youthanks to your paladin auras.
Best Multiclass Bard-Paladin Ability Scores
While many players believe paladins should focus on Strength,Charisma is actually their most important ability score.
This goes doubly so for a bard-paladin multiclass where you gain access to clutch bard spells asyou’ll want your spell save DC to be as high as possible.
Of course,Strength is a close second.You’ll need a decent Strength score to make certain your smite attacks land thoughyou can also rely on your bardic inspirations in a pinch.The goal line should be toreach a Strength score of 16.If you can manage to pump it higher without sacrificing a 20 in Charisma, even better.
Finally,a decent Constitution score is importantfor any character. The extra health thata minimum of 14 in Consitutionprovides will allow you to survive an extra attack or area of effect spell thrown your way.
This isespecially important for paladins as your lay-on-hands abilitycan easily serve as asecond hit point poolas long as you avoid going unconscious first.
1 - 6
7 - 11
Paladin (optional)
12
Bard
12/13 - 20
Although this character will eventually end up with more levels in Bard, we want tostart with Paladin levels so that we gain access to heavy armor.One of the biggest benefits of playing a Strength-based character is the extra AC (Armor Class) thatheavy armoraffords. Unfortunately,we only gain proficiency in heavy armor if we start off as a Paladin.
You willremain a single-classed Paladin until level sixto unlockextra attackandaura of protection.This aura is one of the most powerful abilities in the game as it providesa bonus to saving throws equal to your Charisma ability modifierto yourself and all allies within 10 feet of you. It’s alsoanother reason why Charisma is more importantto our build than Strength.
Once you hit Paladin six, you will switch over to Bard. This multiclass trulycomes online around levels 10-12as by this point your multiclassing spellcasting progression will allow youhigher-level spell slots than a single-classed Paladin.Not only that, but you’ll also gain access tomore spell slotsas well. This makes formore frequent and more powerful smitesthat will obliterate adversaries of all kinds.
You can stay picking up Bard levels for the remainder of your character’s career, however, you may want to pick up one extra level in Paladin at level 12 to unlock your seventh-level Paladin subclass ability.
Spells
1 - 4 (1st Level Paladin)
Bless, Command, Wrathful Smite, Thunderous Smite, Protection from Evil and Good, Heroism
5 - 6 (2nd Level Paladin)
(Aid, Find Steed, Lesser Restoration, Magic Weapon (if no magic weapon), Zone of Truth
7 - 8 (1st Level Bard)
Dissonant Whispers, Hideous Laughter, Feather Fall, Healing Word, Silvery Barbs (if allowed), Detect Magic (ritual), Comprehend Languages (ritual), Identify (ritual)
9 - 10 (2nd Level Bard)
Suggestion, Detect Thoughts, Heat Metal, Hold Person, Invisibility
11 - 12 (3rd Level Bard)
Hypnotic Pattern, Enemies Abound, Dispel Magic, Speak with Dead, Leomund’s Tiny Hut
13 - 14 (4th Level Bard)
15 - 16 (5th Level Bard)
17 - 18 (6th Level Bard)
19 - 20 (7th Level Bard)
Forcecage, Teleport, Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion
Above is a comprehensive list ofall of the spells you should considertaking at specific levels during your progression. A funny thing about multiclassing is sometimesyou have higher-level spell slots than you do spellcasting.
For example, the 11 to 12 level Bard-Paladin has fourth-level spell slots but can only cast second-level Paladin and third-level Bard spells. Thankfully, this isn’t an issue for a Paladin multiclass asyou can use these higher-level spell slots to smite.
It’s also worth considering that you can use these spell slots to upcast other lower-level spells you have such as Invisibility, Hold Person, Heat Metal, and more.
Another often overlooked ability that Bard spellcasting allows you is the option tocast certain spells as rituals.When you cast a spell as a ritual, the casting time increases by 10 minutes but the spelldoesn’t cost you a spell slot.This is a great way to cheat out some extra spellcasting every adventure.
While the spell list above will serve you well in a general sense, there are some niche choices not mentioned here that can be useful depending on your campaign setting. For example, Dominate Person is a great spell in a campaign that features mostly humanoid enemies.
Best Multiclass Bard-Paladin Subclasses
Your Paladin subclass choice islargely up to youas there isn’t any one subclass that fits extremely well with a Bard multiclass. This means the run-of-the-millPaladin subclasses that stand outare all good options. These include theOath of Vengeance, Oath of Conquest, and Oath of the Ancients.
While not good enough to force your decision, there are a couple of particularly cool interactions worth mentioning. TheOath of Conquestsubclass gives you access to thearmor of agathysspell which you can upcast using your higher level multiclass spell slots.
Besides that, theOath of Redemptionhas a channel divinity ability calledEmissary of Peacewhich gives you a +5 bonus to Persuasion checks. Paired with bard expertise, this ability will make itnearly impossible to fail a persuasion attempt.
While your Paladin subclass choice is largely up to you,your Bard subclassshould almost certainly be theCollege of Swords.This subclass gives you thedueling fighting stylewhich increases your damage by 2 on every attack for the rest of your career as well as the ability touse your bardic inspirations as blade flourishes.
These flourishes give youadditional damage equal to your bardic inspiration die, another 10 feet of movement, and your choice of cranking your AC up by the number rolled on your bardic die until your next turn or pushing your target up to 10 feet away from you and even more movement.
As always, you can build your Bard-Paladin however you like. That being said, it’s impossible to deny that the abilities the College of Swords offers naturally complement one of the best smite builds in the game.
Bard Vs. Warlock Or Sorcerer Multiclassing
Some players may argue that there’s no reason to multiclass Bard-Paladin because Paladin-Sorcerer, Paladin-Warlock, and Paladin-Warlock-Sorcerer multiclasses are better. While these multiclasses are better in some ways, we would argue thatthe Bard-Paladin blows them out of the water in others.
From a purely combat-oriented viewpoint, Sorcerer and Warlock multiclasses do offer a little more in the way of defensive and offensive tools. However,there’s a lot more to Dungeons & Dragons than just combat.
A Bard multiclass gives your character access to the incredibly powerfulexpertise abilitywhich turns a number of your skills into checks that are nearly impossible to fail. Additionally, you also gain the aforementionedritual castingand some uniquely useful Bard spells includingDissonant Whispers, Hideous Laughter, and Heat Metal.
Dissonant Whispers triggers opportunity attacks that you can choose to smite on if you so desire.
Lastly, bardic inspiration gives youa reliable use of your bonus actionwhich is an action that many Paladin builds fail to exercise regularly. For all of these reasons, the Bard-Paladin stands tall as a great, albeit underused, multiclass that deserves its time in the limelight every bit as much as other more popular Paladin multiclass builds.
