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21 Min read Equipped with multiple weapons flourishes, Collge of Sword Bards is a great choice for anyone who wants to use weapons and abilities for damage rather than support.
Being able to use Bardic Inspiration to damage, stun, and or defend themself along with Extra Attack, College of Swords Bards can be menacing on any battlefield while also being great at dialogue.
In our College of Swords Bard build guide for Baldur’s Gate 3,we’ll dive into the subclass’s pros and cons, along with recommendations for every level 1-12.
Find out where the Bard ranks in our Baldur’s Gate 3 class tier list.
To learn how to play the Lore Bard, check our guide.
College of Swords Bards are a great mix of support and combat as they gain access to Weapon Flourishes and Medium Armor Proficiency.
They’re the only Bard subclass that gets Weapon Flourishes and Scimitar Proficiencies as well. Bardic Inspiration is one of the best Actions in Baldur’s Gate 3, as it can be used in either combat or exploration to gain the upper hand in a diverse selection of situations.
Because of their high Charisma, Bards provide players with a more dialogue-focused playthrough which is wonderful for uncovering the hidden lore of Faerûn.
Additionally, College of Swords Bards gain Jack of all Trades and Expertise Proficiencies, which just furthers their out-of-combat dialogue Proficiency Checks such as Persuasion, Deception, or Performance.
The main issues with College of Swords Bards are their Bardic Inspiration usage and their lack of buffed Bardic Inspiration. Weapon Flourishes require Bardic Inspiration to use, which forces College of Swords Bards to choose between using it to buff allies or perform their Weapon Actions.
College of Swords Bards also don’t gain buffed Bardic Inspiration. Valour Bards have access to Combat Inspiration and Lore Bards have Cutting Word, but Swords Bards don’t have anything like these two abilities.
Additionally, a decent amount of a College of Swords Bard’s spells require Concentration; however, characters can only concentrate on one spell at a time.
This requires you to be more strategic when thinking of spell placements so that you don’t waste your spell slots.
When it comes to the best race for a Swords Bard, it’s almost completely up to personal preference. Zariel Tieflings gain access to the Thaumaturgy Cantrip, giving you a bonus to Intimidation and Performance ability checks. No other race has any Charisma bonuses or traits.
Because of this, I recommend either choosing this Tiefling subrace or just choosing any race you like personally and adding +2 in Charisma and +1 in Constitution under the Abilities tab.
A Bard’s highest Ability Score should be Charisma since it’s your abilities’ modifier. Your Constitution and Dexterity are also very important and should have the second most amount of Ability Points invested. Since you gain Medium Armor Proficiency at Level 3, having high Dexterity will help your early game skirmishes as well as increase your Armor Class (AC) by +2 when you wear Medium Armor.
Since you’ll also be using finesse weapons heavily as a College of Swords Bard, having high Dexterity will also allow you to do more damage. Constitution is also very important as it’ll increase your character’s max HP. Having a high Constitution score also helps you succeed in Constitution Saving Throws, and are very important for Bards as they have many Concentration abilities.
The rest of your points can be allocated as you wish, depending on what Skill Checks you’d like to pass. I recommend Wisdom so you can pass Insight Checks easily during dialogue, typically unlocking additional dialogue options. Your Ability Points can look something like this.
The most optimal Bard backgrounds are ones that provide Charisma skills.
Recommended backgrounds:
Depending on what Ability you choose to invest extra Ability Points into, you should choose a background that has its skill. For example, if you invested Ability Points into Intelligence, then it’s not a bad idea to select the Noble Background.
When choosing your skills, selecting anything that provides Charisma or Dexterity Skills will serve you well. I recommend choosing Persuasion, Insight, Performance, or Deception. You should choose your skills depending on what dialogue options you’d like to pick during the conversation.
You’ll also gain the option to choose your Musical Instrument. This is purely to determine the sound effects your abilities have and has no effect on actual attacks in combat, so just choose whichever one you like most. If the instrument you chose in the beginning is not to your liking, you can also find all the instruments while exploring or in certain shops.
Even though College of Sword Bards is more reliant on their Weapon Flourishes and attacks, they’re still able to support and crowd control enemies effectively. Unlike other Bard sub-classes, Bardic Inspiration will be largely used to do your Weapon Flourishes and not support your allies.
At Level 1, you’ll gain Bardic Inspiration. This is an ability that gives any ally an added +1d6 bonus to their next Attack Roll, Ability Check, or Saving Throw. You can use Bardic Inspiration in combat or during dialogue. Unlike other Bard sub-classes, however, College of Sword Bards can also use Bardic Inspiration to perform their Weapon Flourishes in combat.
Weapon Flourishes are an extremely strong combat tool since you’re able to CC enemies or make yourself more tanky. Until Level 5, you can only replenish Bardic Inspiration with a Long Rest. This is why it’s very important to save your Bardic Inspiration for important battles or checks until you get more charges at later levels since it can turn the tides of battle easily, especially in Tactician mode.
As you play and level up, you’ll gain access to many new Spells and Cantrips. However, like Sorcerers, you can’t Prepare Spells. This means you’ll learn a finite amount of spells throughout your playthrough. You must be selective in what spells you choose to learn since you won’t have access to every single Bard spell at any given time. Don’t stress though, as you can always talk to Withers to change out your spell list at any time.
For Level 1 spells, I recommend choosing Vicious Mockery and Blade Ward/True Strike as your Cantrips. Vicious Mockery does decent damage and can also give your enemy Disadvantage on their next attack roll, and since it’s a Cantrip, it doesn’t cost a spell slot.
It’s a very strong option for pre-Level 3, and overall is a good option if you have no Bardic Inspiration or Spell Slots. Your next cantrip should be Blade Ward or True Strike. I personally recommend Blade Ward so you can be a bit more tanky before you gain Medium Armor proficiency.
You can choose four Level 1 Spells in the character creator. I recommend the following load-out:
Level 1 Spells
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter or Thunderwave are good options as well, but I prefer getting those spells at later levels.
At Level 2, you gain access to Jack of All Trades, Song of Rest, and more Spells. Jack of All Trades just furthers your out-of-combat utility, as it lets you add half of your Proficiency Bonus to non-Proficient Skills checks. Song of Rest is basically just another Short Rest, which is a really good ability if you have a Warlock in your team or are playing Tactician difficulty.
You can also replace learned Spells and choose a new one. I suggest keeping the ones you picked in the Character Creator until Level 6 since the effects they provide are still useful in combat. For your new spell, I recommend choosing Faerie Fire, Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, or Thunderwave depending on your team comp.
Level 2 Spells
When you reach Level 3, you’ll be able to pick your Bard subclass, choose your Skills with Expertise, and learn a Level 2 spell. College of Swords Bard grants you Medium Amour and Scimitar Proficiency, Weapon Flourishes, and a Fighting Style.
Weapon Flourishes are the main selling point of College of Swords Bards. Using a Bardic Inspiration slot and an Action, you’re able to use Slashing Flourish (attack up to 2 enemies at once), Defensive Flourish (increase your Armor Class by 4 if you hit your attack), and Mobile Flourish (push your target back 6m and are able to teleport to the target).
While these abilities are all very strong, they all do take Bardic Inspiration slots so it’s important to keep track of how many charges you have available during combat and decide if you want to use it on your allies or your attacks.
For Fighting Style, I recommend choosing Dueling over Two-Weapon Fighting since you’re unable to dual-wield rapiers.
Unless you plan on choosing the Dual Wielder Feat at Level 4, which I don’t recommend since you get Extra Attack on College of Swords Bards and no extra Bonus Actions, then you should choose Dueling as your Fighting Style.
You’re also able to choose 2 skills with Expertise. Expertise is a class ability that allows you to double your Proficiency Bonus on a skill. I recommend choosing any Skill you notice you enjoy using so you’ll pass those checks more easily.
When choosing your new Level 2 Spell, there are many good options, and you should pick depending on your team comp and what you need. I recommend picking Heat Metal or Blindness. Heat Metal causes a metal weapon or armor to glow red-hot and force the creature touching it to let go or receive Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and Ability Checks.
This is a great ability to force enemies to drop their weapons or do damage over time. Blindness limits a foe’s sight range. It is easier to hit, and the creature will miss more often.
Attack Rolls against the affected enemy have an Advantage and the foe attacks with Disadvantage. This is another great support ability as you can lock down any difficult enemies and make it almost impossible for them to hit you.
Once you reach Level 4, you’ll be able to pick a Feat, an additional Level 2 spell, and a new Cantrip. I recommend picking Ability Improvement as your Feat so you can level up your Dexterity and Charisma to even numbers, which will only buff your spells and attacks. Alternatively, you can select Defensive Duelist to increase your AC and cause enemies to miss their attacks.
For your new Cantrip, choose the Cantrip you didn’t choose at Level 1. For example, if you picked True Strike then choose Blade Ward. Lastly, choose Blindness or Hold Person as your new spell.
At Level 5, you’ll gain access to Font of Inspiration, Improved Bardic Inspiration, and a Level 3 Spell. Font of Inspiration allows you to gain back all Bardic Inspiration with a Short Rest.
This is good because you don’t have to waste Camp Supplies on a Long Rest to refill your charges, and you’re able to use your Weapon Flourishes more often. Improved Bardic Inspiration increases Bardic Inspiration skill check bonus to 1d8 from 1d6. For your new spell, I recommend taking Glyph of Warding or Stinking Cloud.
Glyph of Warding allows you to cast a giant circular glyph on the ground. If an enemy walks over it, then depending on the element of the glyph, different things can happen. This includes large AoE elemental damage, pushing enemies back, and putting enemies to Sleep.
Allies can be hit by the AoE caused by enemies standing on the glyph, so be careful with positioning. Stinking Cloud makes a large AoE area that stops enemies from taking reactions. I enjoy Glyph of Warding more since it’s more versatile, but it’s ultimately up to personal preference.
At this point, your spellbook will look something like this:
At Levels 6 and 7, you gain the Bard Class Feature: Countercharm. You also gain Extra Attack, and a new Level 3 and 4 Spell Slot. We’ll also begin to swap out older spells at this point.
Countercharm is an Action that provides all allies within 9m an advantage on Saving Throws against being Charmed and Frightened. This Action can be good against any enemies with CC spells. Extra Attack lets you make two attacks in one turn, which greatly increases your damage output.
For your new spells, I recommend picking from the following depending on what you chose before and what team comp you have.
Best Level 3 Spells:
Best Level 4 Spells:
Once you reach Levels 8 and 9, you’ll gain a new Feat and new Level 4 and 5 Spell. I recommend picking Ability Improvement so you can raise your Charisma to 18 or 20 (depending on your last chosen Feat).
For your new spells, I suggest choosing Confusion and Dominate Person/Mass Cure Wounds. While Mass Cure Wounds is the best healing spell in the game, if you have a Cleric, Druid, or different sub-class Bard in your party then it’d be better for them to have it and for you to take Dominate Person.
Level 4 Spells
Level 5 Spells
At Level 10, you’ll gain a new Cantrip, Skill Proficiencies, Improved Bardic Inspiration, Magical Secrets, and a new Level 5 Spell. Skill Proficiencies let you gain a +4 in 2 Skills of your choosing. This means you could have a +13 to 2 Skills if you chose them to have Expertise before. Improved Bardic Inspiration increases your Bardic Inspiration bonus from +1d8 to +1d10.
Magical Secrets allows you to choose two spells from any other spellcasting class and cast them with a Charisma modifier. While there are many good options to choose from, and if you have any you personally really like then choose those, but these are my personal favorites.
Level 5 Spells
At Levels 11 and 12, you’ll gain a Level 6 Spell and your final Feat. For your Feat, you can choose Ability Improvement to raise your Dexterity or Charisma higher. If you’re tired of choosing Ability Improvement, however, then other great choices are Sentinel or Mobile.
Level 11 Feats
My favorite Level 6 Spell is Eyebite. Eyebite allows you to inflict dread, sickness, or put creatures to sleep. While Concentrating on Eyebite, you may cast Eyebite without expending a spell slot. Another popular choice is Otto’s Irresistible Dance which causes a creature to start dancing, making it unable to take actions or move and attackers have Advantage on Attack Rolls against the target.
I personally think Eyebite is the better spell option as you have access to Hold Monster or Polymorph as single-target CC options, but Otto’s Irresistible Dance is certainly the more amusing option.
For equipment, I recommend picking any rapiers or scimitars with bonuses. This will maximize your damage as both are Finesse weapons. A good early-game weapon option is the Speedy Reply, which is found in the Risen Road. You should also equip a longbow, as your Dexterity is enough to do decent ranged damage and you can do ranged Weapon Flourishes.
The best armor for College of Swords Bards is Medium Armor due to your Proficiency. Wearing Medium Armor will increase your AC and make you harder to kill. For early-game armor, I recommend Scale Mail or the Githyanki Half Plate. You can find Scale Mail being sold by merchants or on corpses, and Githyanki Half Plates can be found on dead Githyanki or by permanently borrowing Lae’zel’s.
I recommend wearing the Cap of Curing early on since Bards are the only class that can make use of its benefits. If you use Bardic Inspiration on an ally while wearing this hat, the target will gain 1d6 HP. This hat is found in a Gilded Chest near the Druid Grove, next to the Bard NPC, Alfira. The Wondrous Gloves, dropped by a Mimic in the Grymforge, provide you with an additional charge of Bardic Inspiration.
However, once you get into Act II or III it isn’t a bad idea to switch out your gear. Some items I would recommend are as follows:
The Armor of Agility is Medium Armor that you can buy for 2900 gold. It has the ability, Exotic Material, which adds your Dexterity modifier to your AC, allowing you to be better in combat overall since the College of Swords Bard is the most combat/frontline-oriented Bard subclass.
Additionally, you will likely have decent Dexterity, meaning that you will be able to take advantage of this bonus. As an added benefit, the armor gives you +2 to Saving Throws and does not provide you with Disadvantage on Stealth Checks.
Yuan-Ti Scale Mail can be purchased for 704 gold and also has the Exotic Material stat, adding your Dexterity modifier to your AC and negating the Disadvantage on Stealth Checks. While wearing it, you’ll also gain a +1 bonus to Initiative Rolls.
Another set of Medium Armor that boasts the Exotic Material effect is the Unwanted Masterwork Scalemail that you can purchase for 640 gold. This set will also provide you with fire resistance.
Elven Chain is an alternative armor set that is much cheaper than the previous options at only 510 gold! It gives the wearer automatic Proficiency while wearing it (which you don’t really need since you already have Medium Armor Proficiency, but it’s good to know for other classes).
Its other benefit is Elven Agility, which provides the wearer with a +2 bonus to Initiative Rolls and Advantage on Dexterity Saving Throws, letting you start your turn earlier.
The Cindermoth Cloak can be obtained for the low price of free in the Baulder’s Gate Sewers! This cloak causes any creature that causes damage to the wearer to start burning (provided that they are within 2m).
The Vivacious Cloak is also free and grants the wearer 7 temporary hit points if they cast a spell within melee range of an enemy creature. This essentially equates to a free use of the spell, False Life, a spell that Bards are unable to wield without the aid of Magical Secrets, so having this cloak is helpful.
The Boots of Brilliance are a set of boots that provide the wearer with the Class Action: Restore Bardic Inspiration which allows you to, you guessed it, restore charges of Bardic Inspiration both in and out of combat. Since you’ll be using your Bardic Inspiration a lot, it’s a good idea to hold onto these.
The Pointy Hat is a hat you have to steal from Lucretious’ locked chest (yet another task you can force Astarion to do). While Intelligence isn’t the most useful skill for a Bard, this hat adds your Intelligence Modifier to your Persuasion Checks. This is useful for gaining an extra edge during dialogue, or just for bragging about being able to crack 35 on a Persuasion Check.
Killer’s Sweetheart is a ring that, once per Long Rest, allows you to use a Reaction after killing a creature to turn your next attack into a Critical Hit.
This is useful because Critical Hits are actually capable of higher damage output when compared with a normal attack! Yes, really!
Likely one of the most useful weapons in the game, the Infernal Rapier, granted by Mizora after not killing her and passing a DC 14 Persuasion Check, provides many useful effects to its wielder.
First off, you will gain a +1 bonus to Spell Saves, giving you a higher chance of negating the effects of harmful spells. It also adds your Spellcasting Modifier to your Attack Rolls instead of using your Dexterity, meaning that the higher your Charisma is, the more damage you’ll deal with attacks. Finally, you will gain the ability to summon a Cambion to join you in battle, or even as a buddy while exploring, without spending a spell slot.
Finally, once you complete the mission, Save Vanra, you will be granted the Duelist’s Prerogative, a legendary rapier that can provide you with many bonuses and abilities. The first benefit you are granted is the Elegant Duellist perk which allows you to roll a Critical Hit if you roll 19, provided that your off-hand is empty.
This will stack with your Fighting Style if you previously chose Duelling, allowing you to deal even more damage per hit. This ability also gives you an additional reaction per turn, which you can use with the weapon’s other ability, Withering Cut, allowing you to use a reaction to deal Necrotic Damage equal to your Proficiency Bonus after you hit a creature with a melee weapon. Duelist’s Prerogative will also allow you to use the abilities Challenge to Duel and Dueller’s Enthusiasm.
Challenge to Duel is an ability that can be used as a Bonus Action to cause an enemy to focus on only attacking the caster. It will also cause the target to bleed, dealing 2 Slashing damage each turn and giving them Disadvantage on Constitution Saving Throws.
The affected target has to pass a Wisdom Saving Throw in order to negate the ability’s taunt. Dueller’s Enthusiasm is a Weapon Action that allows the user to make an additional melee attack as long as they aren’t dual wielding.
College of Sword Bard is a great choice for anyone interested in dealing consistent damage with high rizz. Equipped with Medium Armor Proficiency and different Weapon Flourishes and spells, you can rely on this class to be a great damage dealer and a good supportive member of any team.
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