The bard who wants to be a paladin

[Jmarsh56]

So in my upcoming game me and a friend are going to play brothers. I will be the younger brother who as younger brothers do looks up to his older brother. My friend is going paladin and I am going to play a bard, but I'm thinking of attempting to emulate a paladin as a bard as a way of using my skills to try and be just like my older brother.

How does a bard best do this? I may dip a little bit into paladin, probably just up to smites as to not step on his toes TOO much. I am planning to go lore bard for magical secrets but swords and valor both have their merits too.

[MagneticKitty]

Whispers bard gets a inspiration smite that can be applied to a ranged or melee attack

[nickl_2000]

So, what types of things are you trying to replicate?

Auras? Weapon/Armor? Fighting Style? Smites? Specific Spells?

[CheddarChampion]

What race and oath will the paladin brother be?
Easy answer: Swords/Valor Bard.
Go for 16 Dex and Cha, 14 Con.
10th level magical secrets: Circle of Power and Find Greater Steed.

Pick spells that fit the RP: healing, buffs, defensive spells, restoration...

[CTurbo]

I'd go Str Valor Bard with 14 Dex and the best medium Armor you can get plus shield. Then as mentioned above just choose your spells that fit the Paladin theme.



Ironically, I have played a Dex based Halfling Paladin that used a Scimitar of Speed before AND a Dex based Halfling Valor Bard that used a Scimitar of Speed before in two completely separate instances and the two did play kind of similarly.

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

If you essentially want the same flavor, but different and want to be a lore Bard, you could take the magic initiate feat to get booming blade which could be your "smite" (might even get the DM to reflavor it as radiant damage, since Thunder is rarely resisted anyway), grab your first level in Fighter for con saves and armor plus shields, then go the rest in Lore Bard. You could also grab War Cleric instead of fighter for the occasional bonus action attack if you want to emulate Paladin's extra attack feature, but that gets a little MAD. This works best using the level 1 variant human feat.

Fighter, Cleric, or a Paladin dip would be the best if you want heavy armor. Fighter dip or straight Valor/Swords Bard is best for medium.

Hexblade dip could also work if you're going medium armor and you aren't variant human or you don't want to use your level 1 feat for magic initiate. Also has the SAD benefit.

[Jmarsh56]

Well were both going to be halflings, he is going dex paladin and I'm going (mostly) bard. I'm not opposed to dipping to achieve what I want but I dont want to dip multiple classes for multiple different effects mostly for spell progression but also it feels cheesy to me.

I have been tempted for by a level of cleric for medium armor and a few abilities depending on which domain, I have been tempted for smites but I'm planning to push dex not strength (I'm sure my DM would hand wave it though). I have also considered hexblade, but it would be 100% for abilities no flavor from the class dip at all

[diplomancer]

It depends whether we are talking abour "good" or "bad" emulation.

"Good" emulation, get 2 Paladin levels, go swords bard with two-weapon style for extra smite chances

"Bad" emulation, get about 2 or 3 levels of Hexblade (with booming blade or green flame blade), and go glamour bard. You have stayed in the shadows of your "leader of men" brother for too long, you will show him what TRUE power is about.

[Jmarsh56]

It depends whether we are talking abour "good" or "bad" emulation.

"Good" emulation, get 2 Paladin levels, go swords bard with two-weapon style for extra smite chances

"Bad" emulation, get about 2 or 3 levels of Hexblade (with booming blade or green flame blade), and go glamour bard. You have stayed in the shadows of your "leader of men" brother for too long, you will show him what TRUE power is about.

I do like the bad option... the basic idea were working with is my brother was always the perfect child and I was just kind of along for the ride.

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

Hexblade might be the best dip for SAD melee attacks. Works with Lore Bard (focus on booming or green flame Blade) or Valor/Swords for extra attack.

Arcane Cleric could work for grabbing booming blade and another handy cantrip, with the benefit of not delaying spell slot progression and clearing up some of your Bard spells know.

Valor/Swords with 2 levels of Paladin is the closest to the actual Paladin, leaving you with a ton of smiting slots, but you won't be able get any Paladin spells until level 12 (though you'll immediately be able to snipe the best ones).

Bards in general will end up casting more than doing melee, though. Sticking close to your brother will definitely eliminate a few of the downsides of being in melee by being able to do things like leech off his aura.

[HiveStriker]

So in my upcoming game me and a friend are going to play brothers. I will be the younger brother who as younger brothers do looks up to his older brother. My friend is going paladin and I am going to play a bard, but I'm thinking of attempting to emulate a paladin as a bard as a way of using my skills to try and be just like my older brother.

How does a bard best do this? I may dip a little bit into paladin, probably just up to smites as to not step on his toes TOO much. I am planning to go lore bard for magical secrets but swords and valor both have their merits too.

Whispers bard gets a inspiration smite that can be applied to a ranged or melee attack

This. Or Valor Bard if you "trying to be like your brother" is more about wearing armor and wielding sword and shield (although you could just grab it through feat or starting one-level dip into Fighter).
Otherwise, Whispers is definitely what you want. The extra damage is much more useful than it looks at first glance, even if it's only once per turn.

Also, I'll plus the suggestion made about grabbing Booming Blade if you want to tag-team into melee.