wizo Bard features in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything provides a lot more options to your players and two new powerful subclasses. Neither subclass is out rightly overpowered, but in the right situations, they are both fairly strong.
The bard features in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything add options to the bard class at the cost of other options. This means you get to choose which is the best way to add content to a class. The subclasses are also very good, but not the most powerful in any sense. They are a rather good addition to an already powerful class.
The options presented here make the bard even more alluring for players. There are however, a few things that may be a bit much.
Bard Optional Class Features
The bard features in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything add optional features to just buff up your bard if the DM allows it. If you are wondering if you should use Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything then check out our review on it DMs and see if the book is right for your game!
Extra Spells:
The first optional class feature for the bard is more spells. They already have magical secrets, but this just allows bards to learn some extra spells without using magical secrets which helps increase choice when using magical secrets. These spells are either support or debuffs for the most part and fit with how the bard’s spell list is set up.
Magical Inspiration:
This ability lets bards add their inspiration to healing or damage dice. If an ability/spell heals, you can make it heal more. Same with damage. This is a bit much for an optional feature. While it does provide options, it gives something that another subclass already gives. College of Valor lets you use your bardic inspiration as AC or extra damage, and magical inspiration makes half of the College of Valor’s bardic inspiration go to waste. This is the only feature I am not a fan of but it doesn’t nullify the College of Valor completely. It just makes the College of Valor give less uniqueness to whoever chose it, and that isn’t a good addition.
Bardic Versatility:
You are able to re-adjust a cantrip or expertise when you would gain a feat or stat increase. This just lets you move things around and isn’t bad for the game. It is helpful to players who were unsure of how they wanted to make their character when they chose these skills and cantrips.
Subclasses
The bard features in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything gives 2 new subclasses to chose from.
- Creation-I want to make objects move and make everything better!
- Eloquence-I know bards are good at talking, but what if I was REALLY good at talking?
Most subclasses for bard are compared to the College of Lore. The College of Lore is pretty strong since it provides an insane amount of versatility, but the other good bardic colleges give you options to play your bard differently. With that in mind, do these subclasses give you adequate options? Or are the options presented trash?
Here is a short summary:
Creation- Too many options. It is great since it provides a ton of options to you, but isn’t overly powerful. It doesn’t give you anything really new and is only good in a situation where you don’t have objects. Play this class in a survival campaign, in a place where it is difficult to acquire items, or if you are extremely creative.
Eloquence- A great way to make the bard broken in social encounters! We have all heard the story of the bard seducing the dragon. If you want to be that bard, this is the subclass for you! If you want to do anything else aside from sweettalking people, dragons, and objects, then this isn’t the subclass for you.
Now, let us start with the creation bard!
College of Creation
Mote of Potential:
This makes all of your inspiration dice better!
Ability checks? Roll twice and pick the better number on the bardic inspiration di!
Attack rolls? Make everyone within 5 ft of you that you want either make a constitution saving throw or take bardic di damage! Perfect for swarms!
Saving throws? Even if you succeed you might take damage, so take some temporary hit points!
As you can see, these are all really good. It just makes your bardic inspiration dice amazing, and something that you want to use as much as possible. Which is a good thing.
Performance of Creation:
You can make an item for free that will disappear eventually. That is the sweet and short summary of a very long 2 paragraph description. Use it creatively and it can be useful. If you aren’t creative, it is worthless. Completely dependent on you, which makes this a pretty good trait.
A perfect way to infuriate your DM or just do something unexpected.
Animating Performance:
In short, you can make an object fight for you. This object helps you out in combat and is pretty good. Bards generally have a hard time dealing damage in combat and this helps you out a lot. It is sad that you can only use this once per long rest (or use a 3rd level or higher spell slot to get this feature back). Still, it is an interesting addition to the College of Creation.
Creative Crescendo:
If you have used Performance of Creation well, you now are able to just go insane. Have fun with it, and become a monster. If you didn’t realize you had Performance of Creation, this will be a dead feature. It will do nothing for you.
This class is EXTREMELY dependent on you. Are you creative enough to play this class? Will your DM allow your creativity? The answer to those two questions determines how good this class will be in your game.
College of Eloquence
Silver Tongue:
Have you ever heard of the rogue’s reliable talent? Rogues get it at level 11, and it makes them unable to roll below a 10 on any skill that they are proficient with. What if bards had that at level 3, but only with persuasion or deception? This is exactly that. You are now a silver tongued god who should try to talk, lie, and cheat your way out of everything. If you aren’t doing either of those 3, you are playing the eloquence bard wrong.
Unsettling Words:
Speaking of talking, don’t you hate it when people don’t listen to your spells? Well, now you can use your bardic inspiration di to reduce a target’s saving throw. This makes people listen to you, or be affected by your teammates. Very powerful in any scenario, and this combined with silver tongue already makes the eloquence bard enough to be a solid pick.
Unfailing Inspiration:
If your bardic inspiration di didn’t do the job, then your allies keep it for later. This can be useful, but most players use their inspiration dice well. Very rarely do I see this being used, but it can be nice to make your fellow players use their inspiration dice more. Especially if they hold onto them the entire fight and never use them. Like some of us do with consumables in video games.
Universal Speech:
Once per long rest you can speak/understand any language. Very nice for an Eloquence bard. Not overpowered, but still very nice since it always allows you to do what you are good at. Talk.
Infectious Inspiration:
You can now make your bardic inspiration dice last longer. Not extremely powerful for a level 14 ability. You already get your bardic inspiration dice back on a short rest, so running out is not that big of a problem. You don’t really need this feature for 90%+ of fights but it can be clutch when things get dicey.
Conclusion
The bard features in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything are there to open the doors for players. Only in rare instances does it make them too strong to deal with. The power of the bard has never been in combat, but in roleplay. If you agree with this statement, then be careful of the Eloquence bard. The subclass is powerful and can destroy games, but the creation subclass can as well.
The creation subclass is directly tied to the player who is controlling the bard and with what the DM allows. If you can be creative, then the creation subclass can give you more than the Eloquence bard could. This is all dependent upon you and your DM though.
As for the other features, they are good. They give the bard more options. I do have complaints about Magical Inspiration, but that is really all. The bard features in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything are a great addition to the bard class.
I hope that this has helped you understand the bard a bit better in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything!
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