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Dungeons & Dragons' College of Dance offers mechanics that blur the line between the bard’s class identity and that of a monk. You gain unarmed defence and weapon damage, while still having full access to the bardic spell list. Paired with superb buff abilities, this is one of the strongest subclasses available in the game.
This allows for a Dance bard to be played anywhere on the spectrum from Eddy Gordo to Wong Fei-Hung. You can lean into charismatic dance as a style of fighting, flavour it as a style of martial arts that appears as a dance to observers or be a spellcaster who is very good at running away.
Class Identity For A Dance Bard
The dance bard has some of the best durability a caster can ask for, with anarmour class that scales to their spellcastingattribute. This is paired with abilities that let them maneuver around melee attackers to keep just out of range.
Additionally, the subclass features beyond third level are all focused onshared benefits between yourself and your team. A dance bard is able to function alone but performs at their best when they have a partner.
Dazzling Footwork
Gain unarmoured damage and defence from your charisma and dexterity.
The damage die matches up with the monk but lacks the extra attacks that martials rely on for most of their damage. The unarmoured defence it grants will make you very survivable in situations where most bards would be scared to tread.
Inspiring Movement
Use a reaction to move away when someone approaches you. A nearby ally is able to move at the same time.
Inspiring Movement is able to shut down most ambush attackers. When an enemy sneaks past your frontline fighters to attack the casters in the backline, you canuse a reaction to escape to negate their entire turn.
Leading Evasion
Take half or no damage from dexterity saving throws. This feature is shared with adjacent allies.
Probably one of the strongest party buffs available, on par with the best paladin auras if it weren’t for the limited range. This encourages the bard toposition themselves between vulnerable allies. Rangers with bows, along with other spellcasters, have a high dexterity to use evasion but don’t have it in their own class abilities.
Origin And Attributes For A Dance Bard
Dance Bards care about charisma firstand dexterity second. This limits their options for origins, so don’t be afraid to pick from a wider selection as long as you get a charisma boost at minimum.
Entertainer and merchant are the top two picks, with hermit being an option if you want to play different.
Your origin will also provide you an origin feat. Not all of them are equal, but the Entertainer, Merchant and Hermit all give good options.
Species Options For A Dance Bard
Your species options are wide open and mostly down to personal preference for the story you’re telling, or a specific feature you want to obtain:
Multiclassing For Dance Bards
Most of the multiclass options that would make sense for a dance bard are counterintuitively sub-optimal: A monk-bard doesn’t get to stack the multiple versions of unarmed defence and damage. Apaladin-bard isn’t able to smite with unarmed attacksbecause of a years-long Twitter debate held between different designers.
The strongest multiclass options for the dancing bard are theBladesinging Wizard and Warlock. Wizard grants you an extra attack (which can include a cantrip), additional AC and mobility via bladesong, better concentration checks and access to wizard spells like Tenser’s Transformation and Conjure Minor Elementals.
Warlock grants you access to Eldritch Blast and all its associated upgrades. Eldritch blast pairs superbly with the newly added spell Conjure Minor Elementals. Thisadds damage to each attack rolla character makes, nearly trebling the power of eldritch blasts, or any ability that makes multiple attack rolls. The difficult terrain it generates improves the evasive strength of inspiring movement as it only slows your enemies.
