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Baldur’s Gate 3: The 10 Best Feats for Bards

Feats offer unique options to expand your bard’s abilities in Baldur’s Gate 3. They can grant you proficiencies, spells, and other features that you don’t otherwise have access to. You can choose a new feat every four levels (at level 4, 8, and 12), so you can have up to three feats in total by the time you finish the game. Every character and party will look at feats a little differently, but we’ll walk you through some strong feats for bards in general and work our way up to some that we think are truly exceptional choices.

#10 Crossbow Expert

Crossbow Expert makes your hand crossbows more useful. (Larian Studios via HGG/Sarah Arnold)

Unless you’re a College of Swords bard, a pair of hand crossbows are probably going to be your primary weapons. The Crossbow Expert feat will make them a bit stronger, allowing you to use them in melee range without penalty. They’ll also make your Gaping Wounds debuff last longer, which is nice, although not the biggest bonus – hopefully your enemies won’t be living that long anyway. There are better feats, which is why this one is at the bottom of our list, but it’s worth taking alongside Sharpshooter if you decide to invest heavily in your crossbows, especially as a College of Valour bard with an extra attack.

#9 Resilient: Constitution

Baldur's Gate 3 Best Bard Feats Resilient Constitution
The Constitution version of the Resilient feat can help you maintain concentration. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

Although concentration spells probably won’t be as big a part of your repertoire as a cleric, there are plenty of great concentration spells that you’ll have access to as a bard, and if you plan to use them a lot, it’s well worth investing in a feat that improves your concentration saving throws. The Constitution version of the Resilient feat increases your Constitution stat, giving you more health, and it gives you proficiency in Constitution saving throws – which includes concentration checks. So every time you take damage, you’ll have a better chance of maintaining your current spell.

#8 Magic Initiate: Warlock

Baldur's Gate 3 Best Bard Feats Magic Initiate Warlock
The Magic Initiate feat gives you 3 extra spells to cast. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

Although you get to grab a few spells from other classes through Magical Secrets, the bard spell list overall is a bit limited, so grabbing some extra spells through feats can be beneficial. The Magic Initiate feat lets you borrow 2 cantrips and a level 1 spell from a class of your choice. The sorcerer and warlock versions of the feat both use Charisma, which is already your strongest stat, so both are good options. Depending on your build, the warlock spell list has some of the best options for spells to take. You can get Eldritch Blast, the best damaging cantrip in the game, as well as a solid utility cantrip like Bone Chill. For your level 1 spell, Hex is a great choice, especially if you’re a College of Swords or College of Valour bard who’s using your weapon a lot.

#7 War Caster

Baldur's Gate 3 Best Bard Feats War Caster
The War Caster feat improves your concentration saves and lets you cast Shocking Grasp. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

Like the Resilient: Constitution feat, War Caster helps you maintain concentration on your spells. It does this in a slightly different way, however. You don’t get a bonus to your Constitution or your Constitution saving throws. Instead you get advantage on concentration checks exclusively. Since those are what we’re interested in, that’s a good tradeoff, because advantage is a lot more powerful than a flat bonus. That’s not all you get with this feat, though: you also get to use the Shocking Grasp cantrip as a reaction in place of an opportunity attack. That’s free damage any time an enemy tries to run past you, and Shocking Grasp also prevents them from using any reactions until their next turn, giving you free reign to reposition around them without taking opportunity attacks.

#6 Moderately Armoured

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Baldurs-Gate-3-Best-Bard-Feats-Moderately-Armoured-1024x576.jpg
Moderately Armoured gives you proficiency in medium armour and shields. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

This feat should be skipped if you’re a College of Valor bard, or if you get either of these proficiencies through your race. Otherwise it’s a very strong feat for any bard. You get proficiency in medium armour and shields, both of which will make you significantly sturdier in combat and allow you to use some cool items that you would otherwise have to pass on. Taking less damage is always a good thing, but for a spell caster, it can also mean the difference between maintaining concentration on a spell and losing it, which is significant.

#5 Ritual Caster

Baldur's Gate 3 Best Bard Feats Ritual Caster
The Ritual Caster feat adds two extra spells to your spellbook. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

Bards have a pretty limited spell selection compared to some of the other spellcasting classes. They learn relatively few spells overall, even with Magical Secrets, and they can’t change them out on the fly like a cleric, druid, or wizard. One way around this restriction is through feats, and the Ritual Caster feat lets you add two extra spells to your spellbook. Even better, these are ritual spells, so you won’t need to use your spell slots to cast them. Options include Speak with Dead, Find Familiar, Longstrider, Enhance Leap, Speak with Animals, and Disguise Self, all of which can be very useful depending on your party and play style. A few of these spells are not available in the bard spell list, and while you can get them through Magical Secrets, you’ll want to save those for higher level spells.

#4 Spell Sniper

Baldur's Gate 3 Best Bard Feats Spell Sniper
Spell Sniper gives you a powerful damaging cantrip to cast. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

You don’t get any really good damaging cantrips as a bard. Although Vicious Mockery is a lot of fun, it only does a single d4 of damage, going up by another meager d4 at levels 5 and 11. The Spell Sniper feat gives you access to the best damaging cantrips in the game, including Eldritch Blast, which is normally only available to warlocks. But wait, there’s more! This feat also doubles your chance of landing a critical hit with the cantrip you choose, increasing its damage potential even further.

#3 Ability Improvement: Charisma

Baldur's Gate 3 Best Bard Feats Ability Score Improvement Charisma
The Ability Improvement feat offers a flat bonus to your ability scores. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

Increasing your main spellcasting stat is always a good idea for any spellcasting class. It makes your spells more effective by making them more likely to land and raising the damage or healing they do. You don’t get any other interesting effects from this feat, but you do get 2 ability points to spend, which is a pretty good deal. Charisma is the best choice overall, but you can also choose to put one point into Constitution or Dexterity if you have odd numbers. A 17 is effectively the same as a 16, so you always want to even the scores out if possible so as not to waste points.

#2 Sharpshooter

Baldur's Gate 3 Best Bard Feats Sharpshooter
Sharpshooter makes your ranged weapon attacks much stronger. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

Hand crossbows are an excellent choice of weapon for most bards, and the Sharpshooter feat will make your shots significantly more powerful. The feat does reduce your accuracy with a -5 to your attack rolls, but the ability to shoot from any angle without a low ground penalty somewhat makes up for it. And then there is the extra 10 damage you do – that’s a big bonus. This feat is made even stronger on a College of Valour bard who gets an extra attack at level 6.

#1 Lucky

Baldur's Gate 3 Best Bard Feats Lucky
The Lucky feat can save you from failing important skill checks. (Larian Studios / Sarah Arnold)

If there’s one thing you excel at as a bard, it’s succeeding at skill checks. Often the only way you will fail at them is if you roll a 1. This feat makes that even more unlikely by letting you roll an extra time three times a day. If that’s not good enough, you can also use your Luck Points to force enemies to reroll their attacks, helping you or your party members to avoid taking damage. The Lucky feat is one of the best feats for any class, but more so for a bard, because it helps you do what you do best even better. With this feat and your naturally high skills, you’ll be able to pass just about any check – no reloading required.

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Thanks for reading! We hope this guide has helped you choose the best feats for your bard in Baldur’s Gate 3. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, and be sure to subscribe to High Ground for more useful guides!

Happy gaming!

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