Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Bard Guide | New 5E Bard Options
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is exactly what I, as an option-oriented player, was looking for in a book. It added a ton of choices for every class, including subclasses and brand new class features. And who better to be versatile than the king of versatility; the Bard! They got loads of options, so to talk about them, check out our Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Bard guide!
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Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Bard Guide
The Bard got a few new class features and one new subclass that was introduced solely in Tasha’s. The class features are especially good for a Bard, and emphasize versatility over everything! That’s perfect for this class, and you’ll find them all as great optional additions to your build. Be sure to talk to your DM about including any of these!
Optional Bard Class Features
The class feature options are, again, versatile as all-out! In addition, these are all separate. If your DM only allows you to choose one, you do not need to take all three. However, you must talk with your DM before taking any of them.
Additional Bard Spells
In addition to what is traditionally allowed for a Bard’s spells, the bard gets an expanded spell list.
- Color Spray
- Command
- Aid
- Enlarge/Reduce
- Mirror Image
- Intellect Fortress
- Mass Healing Word
- Slow
- Phantasmal Killer
- Rary’s Telepathic Bond (Ritual)
- Heroes’ Feast
- Dream of the Blue Veil
- Prismatic Spray
- Antipathy/Sympathy
- Prismatic Wall
Primarily, this spell list adds a few more illusions and mental effects to a Bard’s repertoire (and Mass Healing Word; how did they not get that initially?). These are great for a Bard, and I would highly recommend seeing if you can get these options on your Bard. They all just make sense.
Magical Inspiration
At level 2, your Bardic Inspiration dice can be added to spell damage rolls or spell healing rolls for a single target. It’s a bit strange for this to be a base Bard feature, since basic Bardic Inspiration is… only for d20s. Now you can add it to your d4 for Healing Word, or d6 for Fireball, without any Archetypes to change it. That’s… a little weird! But hey, it’s super useful if you need to maximize healing or nuke a boss. Much better for full-caster parties.
Bardic Versatility
As a 4th level augment to Ability Score Improvements, you can do more whenever you gain an ASI. Whenever you gain an Ability Score Improvement from the Bard class, you can do one of these options;
- Change your Expertise skill from one to another skill proficiency.
- Change one Bard cantrip to another Bard cantrip.
Just a little extra change at level 4 and about every 4 levels. Not bad at all, just extra ability to swap things around. Being able to change Expertise to cover your party’s weaknesses is probably going to be more useful than moving Cantrips around.
New Subclasses
There is only one brand-new Subclass introduced in Tasha’s. The College of Eloquence was introduced earlier, and added in Tasha’s as well to keep things together. Even so, the newest subclass is quite cool!
College of Creation
Rather than simply improving spell slots or strictly increasing numbers, the College of Creation is focused on summoning and inventory utility. Their Mote makes Bardic Inspiration strictly better. Other than that, they can create items and cause objects to defend your party. This might not be the best archetype, but if you’re constantly forgetting to prepare for encounters, there is no other College that you’ll like more!
Wrapping Up Our Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Bard Guide
The Bard received plenty in this guide, and every single class got almost as much, or even more! Because of that, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything is the best 5E supplement to buy, by far! Please grab it if you love 5E but didn’t want to get a book with only a couple of extra options.
