How to play an All Bards Party in Baldur’s Gate 3 Tactician Difficulty

You may have heard a balanced party filled with a colourful cast that specializes in different skills is the ideal adventuring party. But then have you heard what happens if you create a party that is filled with jack of all trades, whose best skill is in performance? 

 

You create a band of bards who function more as a group of scam artists rather than an elite team of monster hunters and dungeon crawlers. But despite everyone being able to talk their way out of most combat encounters, there are absolutely disgusting setups an all bards team can do to set the stage. 

 

 

Bards 101 

Bards are the iconic support classes that powers up their party members with the sheer power of their creative might! The swiss army knife of BG3, they cast buffs, debuffs, and control enemies allowing their allies to do big damage or soak in big damage. But if everyone is a lady, who goes first? If everyone is a supporter, who throws the punches? 

This is where subclassing and multiclassing comes into play and we’ll explore which builds can create different roles. But even without that, the teamwork and synergy of an all bards team is like a murder of crows swarming a giant eagle. All you need to know is that cutting words stack. You get your bardic inspiration back after every shortrest from level 5 onwards. And between your four band members, you get 6 short rests. The enemies literally can’t touch this~

 

 

Spells and abilities that would be good for every bard in your band would be Tasha’s hideous laughter, healing word, and vicious mockery. Other good spells to have between band members, especially early game, would be Dissonant whispers, Shatter, Cloud of Daggers, Longstrider, Friends, Minor illusion, Thunderwave, and Hold Person. 

Assbardians of the Galaxy!

 

An all bards team can almost feel unfair towards the enemy as they excel in layering debuffs and crowd control spells allowing for the heavy hitters to finish them in one fell swoop. For this playstyle, initiative order is crucial. 

 

The Face trail blazes the initiative order! With the alert feat and high dexterity, they can make sure the battle starts on their terms by blessing allies, crowd controlling or debuffing problematic enemies, or by activating the bardiest sword, Phalar Aluv. The Phalar Aluv ‘shriek’ function is particularly nasty because not only does it add an extra 1d4 thunder damage dice to enemies in the area, it IMPORTANTLY reduces ALL saving throws by 1d4 as well. Unfortunately, activating the singing sword is a full action, but this is where the Jackal comes in… Or some handy haste potions.

 

The Jackal would ideally also be pretty high up in the initiative order and would be versatile in their actions. If the enemies’ defence is still too high, they can further debuff the enemy with spells like Bane or Curse and if they are up for the risk, they can immobilize the enemy themselves with Tasha’s Hideous laughter, Hypnotic pattern, or Hold Person. Some levels into rogue could help them hide as a bonus action so that they can’t be targeted while concentrating. I’d also add quite a few high damage spells and some good weapons to the Jackal for that sneak attack bonus! 

 

The Juggernaut is your heavy armored bard with the big hitting concentration spells that either immobilize or destroy. With the warcaster feat, their iron concentration would make any self-help guru proud. If the problematic enemies haven’t been hit with a Hold person or Hold monster spell, or they somehow haven’t been immobilized in any way, the Juggernaut is the person for the job. The party’s rock, they also make for a good primary healer since they’ll likely be the last to go down.

 

The BomBarder is your college of swords bard that’s going to spike the ball the Juggernaut or Jackal had set. The hold person or monster spell means every hit becomes critical and a heavy dual wielding Bard will make these criticals count. Especially with a couple levels into fighters, the enemies will be questioning what a turn based game means. Also… Since the BomBarder doesn’t primarily attack with spells, they make for a great secondary healer or a clutch crowd controller! 

 

Shadowheart is my Juggernaut but she demolishes Ch’r’ai W’wargaz