They’re loud, overly confident and always stand at the back in a fight. What’s not to love?

I saw a post on social media recently that talked about the deficiencies of bards as a class, particularly in combat. Each to their own, and I can understand why some players might shy away from bards but I love playing as a bard, and as a DM I love running a game with a bard in the party.

I think most people would agree that bards bring a lot to the game table in terms of roleplaying and NPC interactions (gotta love that charisma stat!) but in the spirit of the post that prompted this post, let’s focus on combat.

I suppose first of all, it’s important not to equate a character not dealing oodles of HP damage with them being bad at combat. Yes, combat does ultimately need someone to reduce the HP of the enemy down to zero before they do that to the players, but in DnD, everything is of course far more nuanced.

Bards are a support class, and as such we all know that they can be great as a healer in combat, ensuring that the big hitters are healthy and also boosting them with some inspiration. And Vicious Mockery is always a welcome addition to any combat. But bards can offer more than just standing at the back with the DnD equivalent of a tube of savlon and cheerleading pom poms.

They can bring a lot of fun roleplay to combat, which is especially good when you’re in the midst of a long combat session that threatens to slip into the formulaic, and needs some spontaneous humour to keep everyone invested.

For example, a bard might cast Mage Hand, and then wave the spectral hand they have conjured back and forth in front of an enemy’s face, while chanting “Can’t get mad, not touching you! Can’t get mad, not touching you!” As a DM I would definitely give advantage to the next player attacking that NPC.

I’m also yet to see a bard attempt to fire their fiddle bow by using the fiddle as an actual bow cartoon-style, pulling the strings back to fire the makeshift arrow. If any of my players read this, please take the hint. You might just be rewarded!