D&D 5E managing the bard's Concentration spells

[GlassJaw]

I'm almost always the DM but a player in my group wanted to try his hand at DMing so we started a side game and we just hit 3rd level. I'm currently playing a bard because I've wanted to try the class for a long time. I'm going College of Lore and focusing on buffs and crowd control.

3rd level is a big deal because it grants 2nd-level spells but I'm really struggling with the spell choice, specifically how to manage all the Concentration spells.

I currently have Bane (conc), Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire (conc), Healing Word, and Sleep. I'm considering Crown of Madness (conc), Silence (conc), Suggestion (conc), and maybe swapping something out for Heroism (conc) or Tasha's Hideous Laughter (conc). It's an insane about Concentration spells. I'm also considering saying screw it and just taking Shatter instead.

I'm concerned that I'll have to choose 1 spell each combat and then end up spamming Vicious Mockery after that. On top of that, with so many Concentration spells, will most simply go unused? There's also the issue of deciding which one to use.

Can any fellow bards provide some insght?

 

[Mistwell]

No rituals?

 

[Shiroiken]

I've played a lot of classes that have issues with concentration overlap (Circle of the Land Druid, for example), and found that you need to select your spells very carefully. Out of combat utility spells shouldn't be too much of an issue, but you might lose long duration spells if combat breaks out. You should limit your concentration combat spells to no more than half your total combat spells, and should consider only ones that aren't likely to be useful in the same fight. Ones with similar usefulness should be avoided, because you're likely only going to use one.

You have 4 combat spells, with 2 of them concentration. Faerie Fire is less useful than Bane for most combats, but really useful if you run across anything invisible. You are getting 1 new spell for level 3, and should be a 2nd level spell. If you want it to be a combat spell, I'd recommend one that isn't concentration, such as Shatter or Blindness/Deafness. If you want a combat concentration spell, you should get one useful primarily against a single opponent. Crown and Hold Person are best, against humanoids, or you could switch out a 1st level spell for Tasha's (probably Sleep, because it loses a lot of usefulness as you level). If you don't have a cleric/druid in your party, picking up Lesser Restoration is probably a really good idea too.

As for spamming Vicious Mockery, that's how most characters work. They have either a weapon or cantrip that they spam, except when they have a better (usually limited resource) action to take. Since Bard has only Thunderclap and Viscous Mockery, you don't have a lot of options until you get Magical Secrets and can pick up something else. Unless your Dex is garbage, you can use a crossbow if you think the damage will be more important (or against a creature with Magic Resistance or high Wisdom Save).

 

[jgsugden]

Spellcasters, in general, us one concentration spell early in combat and often switch to a second somewhere in harder battles. In other rounds, they cantrip or use non-concentration spells.

Blindness/Deafness is a good choice, as is Shatter, for non-concentration attack spells.

A great choice for a bard to pick up wuth magical secrets is spiritiual weapon. It allows you to have a non-concentration level 2 spell that adds to your damage pool, and makes good use of bonus actions.

 

[5ekyu]

"Can any fellow bards provide some insght"

I started my bard with "no songs thst hutt" for rp reasons - leaving out VM and DW. Imo you dont have enough slots at the lower level to make damage a priority.

So I focus of buff, control and utility.
Get at least one ritual per level if you can.
Honestly until you hit 5th and beyond you likely do not have the slots for more than one spell of slots per encounter (planned.) So dropping out 1 concentration early and the rest being cantrip, weapons or bard dice makes a decent normal plan.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm almost always the DM but a player in my group wanted to try his hand at DMing so we started a side game and we just hit 3rd level. I'm currently playing a bard because I've wanted to try the class for a long time. I'm going College of Lore and focusing on buffs and crowd control.

3rd level is a big deal because it grants 2nd-level spells but I'm really struggling with the spell choice, specifically how to manage all the Concentration spells.

I currently have Bane (conc), Dissonant Whispers, Faerie Fire (conc), Healing Word, and Sleep. I'm considering Crown of Madness (conc), Silence (conc), Suggestion (conc), and maybe swapping something out for Heroism (conc) or Tasha's Hideous Laughter (conc). It's an insane about Concentration spells. I'm also considering saying screw it and just taking Shatter instead.

I'm concerned that I'll have to choose 1 spell each combat and then end up spamming Vicious Mockery after that. On top of that, with so many Concentration spells, will most simply go unused? There's also the issue of deciding which one to use.

Can any fellow bards provide some insght?

I'm going against the grain and say that you'll be fine

First of all, at 3rd level you have only 4 slots of 1st level + 2 slots of 2nd level... it is impossible to have wasted slot at the end of the day.

With your selection of spells, all your 2nd level known spells are Concentration, but you still cast only 2 of them per day. If you're lucky, you can cover 2 combats, but let's not forget that each time you are hit you can lose concentration.

Spamming cantrips is actually intended by design, but you also have 3 non-concentration spells of 1st level which are easily spammable AND all of them are scalable (just in case you decide not to use some 2nd level spells for conentration spells). They are also nicely chosen to cover the 3 of the most obvious spells functionalities in the game: Dissonant Whisper = single-target damage, Sleep = multi-target disable, Healing Word = cure.

If anything, too many concentration spells might result in some analysis-paralysis, but not that significantly in your case: leave Silence and Faerie Fire out for specific scenarios (e.g. spellcaster enemy / invisible enemies, respectively), then it's clear you should use Bane in larger battles and Crown of Madness or Suggestion in smaller battles, the possible baffling choice is between the latter two.

 

[Dausuul]

Blindness/deafness is a winner. While most monsters have good Constitution saves, a round or two of blindness without having to concentrate is not to be sneezed at.

 

[Mistwell]

You might check out Treantmonk's guide to Valor Bard (three videos). Here is the first.

 

[5ekyu]

If anything maybe reconsider CoMadness or read up on it to see how many limitations it has.

 

[jgsugden]

My choices for the 6 spells and 2 cantrips of a 3rd level lore bard would be:

C: Vicious Mockery, Mage Hand
1: Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word, Charm Person, Sleep
2: Invisibility (Conc), Phantasmal Force (Conc)

You have a nice combination of utility and combat spells and only 2 concentration spells. Dissonant Whispers is a winner that, even at higher levels, can deal massive damage to enemies as they take OAs when they flee (which makes your allies happy). Phantasmal Force is an insanely versatile spell. It is great in combat to deal with one enemy, and outside combat it can be used in a variety of ways to influence a target ("You see an alluring figure beckoning you to come join her from an upstairs window.")

However, something else to consider is adding a level of Warlock if it fits your character concept. There is a lot of versatility nd interesting designs that flow from adding a little soul bondage to the bard...