The Valor Bard: A Comprehensive Guide to Martial Prowess and Magical Might in D&D 5e

The College of Valor Bard in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition (D&D 5e) presents a unique blend of martial prowess and magical support. These daring skalds draw inspiration from the great heroes of the past, weaving tales of bravery and might while simultaneously embodying those ideals on the battlefield. This guide provides a comprehensive look at the Valor Bard, exploring its strengths, weaknesses, and optimal strategies for both novice and experienced players.

What is a College of Valor Bard?

Valor Bards are versatile characters who combine spellcasting, music, storytelling, and combat. They gather in mead halls or around great bonfires to sing the deeds of the mighty, both past and present, traveling the land to witness great events firsthand and ensuring their memory endures. This subclass grants proficiencies in Medium Armor, Shields, and Martial Weapons, allowing them to stand on the front lines alongside their allies. But it's crucial to remember that their primary role remains that of a Bard: supporting, controlling, and inspiring their party.

Key Features and Abilities

The College of Valor offers several key features that define its playstyle:

Bonus Proficiencies: At 3rd level, you gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. These proficiencies are a cornerstone of the subclass, allowing you to wade into melee combat with a shield and weapon.
Combat Inspiration: Also at 3rd level, you learn to inspire others in battle. A creature with a Bardic Inspiration die from you can roll that die and add the number rolled to a weapon damage roll it just made. Combat Inspiration is a versatile tool that can be used to bolster allies' attacks or shore up their defenses. As mentioned above in the features section, using this defensively to negate an attack is far better than adding a little damage to a single attack.
Extra Attack: At 6th level, you can attack twice whenever you take the Attack action. This feature significantly enhances your damage output with weapons, making you a more formidable presence in melee combat. Now we can attack twice per attack action. This is key to getting more out of certain spell options that add damage to attacks.
Battle Magic: At 14th level, you have mastered the art of weaving spellcasting and weapon use into a single harmonious act. Battle Magic is a nice feature, allowing us to still fire off an arrow as a bonus action when we fire off a spell as an action. Great for taking advantage of something like Hold Monster on our own turn.

Character Optimization

Races

When creating a Valor Bard, consider the following races:

Half-Elf: The +2/+1/+1 ability score increase of Half-Elves is a superior choice. From Half-Elf, we gain Arcana and Perception.
Custom Lineage/Variant Human: Custom Lineage, Variant Human could work as well. Mainly for the first level feat which will be Crossbow Expert.
Aasimar (2024): Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage increases your hardiness. All the celestial revelation options are great for a valor bard. You can use flight when you need to get safe or use necrotic shroud or inner radiance for a more aggressive approach.
Dragonborn (2024): You don’t get many AoE spells as a bard so a Dragonborn makes a good option with their breath weapon. You can use it in place of one of your attacks and combine it with thunderclap for a turn of somewhat explosive AoE damage. You also get temporary flight which is great for hit and run tactics.
Dwarf (2024): An extra hit point per level is great for a vulnerable melee specialist.
Goliath (2024): Faster movement makes you even better at traversing the battlefield. Your giant ancestry grants some very useful options too. For a valor bard, I’d lean into being more durable by taking stone giant ancestry for the damage reduction as you’re quite vulnerable on the front line.
Orc (2024): A couple of great endurance features here with temporary hit points and relentless endurance to save you when knocked to 0HP.
Tiefling (2024): Repeat uses of 4 innate spells is great for a spellcasting class. If you take the infernal legacy, you gain access to firebolt for scalable ranged damage that will outstrip damage from a light crossbow.

There aren’t really any bad species options for a valor bard.

Ability Scores

For ability scores, prioritize the following:

Charisma: This is your primary spellcasting ability and affects the potency of your Bardic Inspiration.
Dexterity: Dexterity: Perhaps slightly more important than charisma for a Valor bard (depending on your play style).
Constitution: This is vital for maintaining concentration on spells and increasing your survivability.
Strength: Strength: It’s possible to build a strength based Valor bard, but you end up dividing priorities too much.

Using point-buy, aim for 15 in Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma. The Half-Elf race can then be used to achieve 16 in Dexterity and Charisma, and 15 in Constitution.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 as the ability score increases previously tied to your race/species are now linked to your background. I know most of you will probably not be able to use them but I feel like I always have to mention the Strixhaven and Dragonlance backgrounds because they’re so good. If you are playing in one of those settings or have a nice DM, these backgrounds are a really good pick.

Feats

Consider the following feats to enhance your Valor Bard:

Elven Accuracy: Various buffs and spells grant us Advantage from time to time, such as Faerie Fire. Getting Super Advantage from those effects instead is nice.
Fighting Initiate (Archery): Taking this feat puts our Longbow attacks on par with anyone hitting 20 in their attack score at this level. At 8th level, we take Fighting Initiate and choose Archery. This allows us to be on-par for attack rolls with people reaching 20 in their attack score at this level.
Sharpshooter:
Resilient (Constitution): Boosts our concentration checks as well as all our other Con saves. At 8th: Resilient: Con, boosts our concentration checks as well as all our other Con saves.
Telekinetic/Fey Touched: Mainly for the +1 Cha but each can provide its own unique utility.
War Caster/+2 Charisma: Another boost to our concentration checks which will be nice at a level we are taking a lot of damage per hit.

Multiclassing

While the Valor Bard is perfectly viable as a single-class character, a few multiclass options can enhance its capabilities:

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Hexblade Warlock: One level of Hexblade does three things for Valor Bard. It gives the Shield spell, Charisma to attacks, and Hexblade’s curse.
- Hex Warrior: We can attack with our Charisma and we get medium armor proficiency
- Hexblade’s Curse: Good bonus to our single target damage once per short rest
Fighter: One level of Fighter grants a Fighting Style, such as Archery, which further improves your accuracy with ranged weapons. Level 8: Fighter 1
- Fighting Style: Archery

Spell Selection and Magical Secrets

The Bard spell list is incredibly versatile, offering options for support, control, and damage. Key spells for a Valor Bard include:

1st Level: Healing Word, Silvery Barbs, Faerie Fire, Sleep
2nd Level: Enhance Ability, Shatter
3rd Level: Dispel Magic, Fear, Hypnotic Pattern
4th Level: Dimension Door, Greater Invisibility
5th Level: Hold Monster, Synaptic Static
6th Level: Mass Suggestion, True Seeing
7th Level: Forcecage, Teleport
8th Level: Feeblemind, Glibness
9th Level: Foresight

Magical Secrets, gained at levels 10, 14, and 18, allow you to learn spells from other classes. Excellent choices for a Valor Bard include:

10th Level: Holy Weapon, Summon Celestial, Find Greater Steed, Wall of Force
14th Level: Counterspell, Heal, Wall of Force, Conjure Celestial, Pass Without Trace, Contingency. You could take Simulacrum as well but this one can be game breaking so I would talk to your DM first.
18th Level: Wish, Maze, Holy Aura

Combat Tactics and Strategies

In combat, the Valor Bard excels at balancing martial attacks with strategic spellcasting.

Early Levels: Use spells like Sleep and Faerie Fire to give your team an edge in early fights. Healing Word and Silvery Barbs are your defensive tools.
Mid Levels: Cast something like greater invisibility on yourself to strike your enemies with advantage and relative safety. Or fireball your enemies and finish the stragglers off with a crossbow attack. You could cast hold monster then attack with advantage against your enemy.
Late Levels: Our tactics our pretty much the same we just have much better spells to start of with and now with Battle Magic we can still do some damage on that first round when we’re casting our concentration spell.

Valor bards need to mix spellcasting prowess with slick swordsmanship. This makes them a little tricky to optimise as you need to focus on multiple areas but it is possible to do this effectively.

Equipment

Armor: Half Plate (for a balance of protection and stealth) or Full Plate (if stealth is not a concern)
Weapons: Longbow (for ranged combat), Rapier (for melee), Glaive/Halberd (if Strength-based)
Shield: A shield will significantly improve your AC.
Spellcasting Focus: Warlock and Bard

The Valor Bard in D&D 2024

In D&D 2024, the College of Valor makes a welcome return. They are mostly unchanged from the 2014 version but have had a few tweaks. Not a lot.

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Gain proficiency in medium armor, shields and martial weapons.
The best use of your bardic inspiration is likely down to the enemy being fought. Against Spellcasters and enemies that don’t do high damage (especially with a single attack, like a monk) then more damage is best.
You can make an extra attack when you use the attack action.
Adding cantrips into the mix is where things get interesting. Your cantrips scale in damage much better than your attacks will so you should always look to use a cantrip where you can. Thunderclap is one of your best options from the bard spell list and can damage multiple enemies at once.

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