1. Barbarian/Bard

(Image Credit: Wandering Island)

The barbarian and the bard is a classic combo from many years of players wanting to recreate the real Nordic tradition of Skaldic poetry to venerate heroes and myths. Thankfully, the bard mixes well with the barbarian class despite what you might think, as despite being unable to cast bardic spells, bardic abilities such as bardic inspiration can still be used even during rage, allowing your bard to belt out his songs of inspiration in a red fury of rage. The Barbarian’s unarmored defense and the bard’s good nature mean that the bardbarian can sweet talk their way into the king’s court, then fight their way out once their cover is blown using nothing but a chair for a club. 

Why Barbarian/Bard is Great

• Barbarian’s unarmored defense provides the bard with some incredibly important improved defenses, rage and barbarian HP improving your chances of survival further.
• Bardic healing improvements also help with keeping the barbarian alive after a really tough battle, and improving sleep and off combat healing with your bardic abilities will free up your other party members to keep you alive during combat.
• Bardic abilities are useable during rage, allowing for a much more versatile barbarian that can do more than just attack or trigger attack powers.

Choose This Multiclass if

• Your looking to replicate the ancient Norse tradition of skaldic poetry and tales with your warrior combat and rage.
• You want to improve your chances of survival by combining the barbarians sturdiness with the bards versatility and healing. 
• You want to ditch the image of a bard that can’t fight in battle and take an axe that is both figurative and literal to your enemies faces.

2. Cleric/Bard

(Image Credit: looceyloo)

Singing praises to your deity takes on extra weight when your voice is literally magic capable of healing the wounded. Bardic and cleric abilities get along just fine, and clerics of deities of arts or knowledge are frequently bards to gain access to the bardic knowledge and research skills for their respective orders. On a more mechanical level, the Cleric has access to many powerful spells, and the bardic abilities can help provide support options that might not normally be possible for the cleric. Combined with a mix of domain and divine abilities that increase the effects of common bard stat and hp boosting spells and your bardic cleric will have even more ability to handle themselves in a pinch. 

Why the Cleric/Bard is Great

• The Cleric class opens up a suite of divine spells that the bard can use to great effect, especially layering it’s class support over the cleric’s class support options. 
• Bardic spells bring a set of unique support spells that cover a lot of niche situations, allowing the cleric half to focus on more combat hardy spells.
• Cleric boosts to healing and healing spells also effects bardic abilities and vice versa, allowing you to supercharge abilities on both sides by overlapping powerups. 

You should choose this multiclass if

• You want to cover the multitude of skills and abilities missing from the cleric class so your priest can be more than a heal bot.
• You want to mix the deep knowledge of a cleric with the worldliness of the bard so you don’t get lost in courtroom politics.
• You want more spells and abilities than you could reasonably use on any given day.

3. Druid/Bard

(Image Credit: Sarah Walkins)

Druid is an odd combination with bard, but thankfully the combination is bolstered by druid just being an incredibly powerful class on it’s own. Thankfully, once again the Bardic abilities are not automatically silenced by wildshape. It won’t work with every ability, as you’ll be unable to hold a instrument or a note depending on your form and your musical stylings. But having more spells that will cover more side cases is always a good thing, and the wild-shape of the druid automatically makes you much more impressive in combat.

Why the Druid/Bard is Great

• Bards are known for getting into trouble, and a wild shape will buy you a 100 different escape plans in a pinch.
• Bardic abilities can often be combined with wildshape, so long as the form you take is still able to use your bardic singing or similar ability to perform.
• Druidic nature magic can often help the bard take advantage of face diplomacy that they cannot normally use outside of the city. 

You should choose this multiclass if

• You want to enable your bard to make as many nature and animal based puns as possible. 
• You want the built in escape hatch of wild shape for all your worst bardic misadventures. 
• You want bardic spells and skills to help you cover for diplomatic difficulties of being a hermit that can turn into a squirrel.

4. Fighter/Bard

(Image Credit: Ron Spencer)

Fighter is the class to split into anytime you want to inject a build with raw fighting power, and the bard fighter is no exception. The first thing the fighter does is open up armor options to make your bard much sturdier in preparation for the combat they may get involved in. It also gives them additional combat capabilities so they don’t get completely stomped if caught separate from the rest of the party. As always, the trusty action surge opens up the ability to activate multiple powerful effects in a turn, and bardic abilities 

Why the Fighter/Bard is Great

• Action surge never stops supping up any class that it gets attached to, and the bard is absolutely no exception. 
• Heavier armor for your bard means their less likely to die in a pinch, as does a fighters health die.
• Giving yourself support magic, particularly support magic that allows long term healing can help you give your more dedicated healers a break from healing up their tank.

Choose this Multiclass if

• You want your bard to be able to survive and even participate in combat.
• You want your fighter to have an arrange of useful spells and support abilities that fit right alongside other options in the fighter subclasses.
• You enjoy the idea of giving your fighter some out of combat skills to make them feel more rounded out and fulfilled.

5. Monk/Bard

(Image Credit Bryane Syme)

I can’t help but see the monty python singing monks hitting themselves with their books when I think of this multiclass. While you absolutely can sing while you bean them upside the head, this class combination is more for fun than for power, as your abilities will be to spread out to be particularly powerful. Bardic spells can cover a wide ranger of instances that the monk might not be able to cover, and since the monk has unarmored defense and the bard need only use their voice to make music, you can keep yourself as light as possible without much need for additional items or magic weapons.

Why the Monk/Bard is Great

• A bard and monk combined can survive almost any situation by themselves, being the ultimate jack of all trades.
• Monk unarmored defense means that the bard can layer mage armor on top for some fairly strong defense.
• The monk grants additional speed that the bard can use to flee in a pinch.

Choose this Multiclass if

• You want to make sure your character is ready to fight even if all they have is their instrument.
• You want to make your bard more likely to survive even when found without their weapons and armor.
• You expect as a bard with a cunning wit to be punched in the face, and would just like to punch back every now and then.

6. Paladin / Bard

(Image Credit: Nowis-337)

Paladin’s have a reputation for their high charisma, and that means that bard actually is a class that mixes well with paladin, as it let’s the Paladin focus more on their secondary stats and face abilities rather then hitting things super hard. The bard’s inspiration ability is also super effective for support focused paladins who are looking to help the whole team do better. But I also just like to be a bard paladin and remind my dungeon master that there is nothing in the paladin code about celibacy. 

Why Paladin / Bard is Great

• Paladin’s help with one of the bard’s greatest flaws, in that by using ther detect evil ability they can tell if the person they’re flirting with is a horrible monster in disguise.
• Bardic spells and inspiration can help bolster a party and add an additional layer of versatility without splitting your ability scores.
• Paladins are not known for their spellcasting abilities, but what spells they do have are great for powering yourself up. Adding in the Bardic support abilities means that you can still hold your own in combat while supporting your allies.

Choose this Multiclass if

• You want to play the face of the party but want to command a little more respect than the standard bards get.
• You want to play a holy warrior but are more interested in supporting your teammates than fighting on the front line.
• You want to remind the dungeon master that there are no paladin codes against partying like it’s a fantasy tavern and you’re the bard.

7. Ranger/Bard 

(Image Credit: Steve Sketches)

The class combination of ranger and bard is a little like dandelion from the witcher. You can survive out in the wilderness alone, if not spectacularly well, and you can go into the halls of power and bow with grace at the same time. On a more mechanics focused level, the Ranger can also use the bard to support a beast master plan, allowing the bard to spread it’s more powerful abilities over a larger array of allies. The ranger as a nature focus class also gives the bard a little more hardiness to survive a more rough and tumble group. 

Why Ranger/Bard is Great

• The ranger allows the bard to generate their own allies to fight.
• Ranger magic is incredibly limited, and bard magic can help cover the gaps.
• Many of the best spells are support focused, which allows the ranger to support their animal companions who often are weaker than the monsters being faught.

Choose this Multiclass if

• You want to support your animal companions in additional ways besides heal spells and damage.
• You want to support both being out in the wilds and in the halls of power in the city.
• You want to have a wide array of magical abilities, both arcane and nature based.

8. Rogue/Bard

(Image Credit Rachel Denton)

The rogue bard seems like an oxymoron if you only refer to the usual stereotypes. But a rogue is a clever con artist as much as they are a sneaky thief, and the bard class skills and abilities open up a world of abilities and subtle tricks that can be used to take what you need. The distractions and better skills at lying alone would be worth taking this class combo. Giving your rogue a healthy dose of magic that they can work with is absolutely icing on the cake.

Why the Rogue/Bard is Great

• Between the bard and rogue skill boosts, you’ll be able to roll any skill you want with complete confidence.
• Bards are great at being confidence scammers, and including rogue’s nimble fingers and clever skills only makes them more dangerous at relieving people of hard earned goods.
• Bardic magic allows for things like invisibility and other rogue assisting spells easier to gain access to.

Choose this Multiclass if

• You want to be good at every skill available in the game. 
• You want to be able to charm and woo and lie your way in and out of almost every situation.
• You want to use magic to help you do the prior options even better.

9. Sorcerer / Bard

(Image Credit: Jason Engle)

A great class combo, both bards and sorcerers draw their power from their personality, AKA their charisma. This means that you can mix and match and combo your spells to great effect and really get some great support builds going. As with all multiclass options throughout this list that both have spell lists, restricting you from your higher level spells is going to be a tough hurdle to overcome, but not impossible.

Bards are support spell casters by nature, and mixing in the sorcerer adds a jolt of electricity (Sometimes literally!) to your build by improving your abilities and widening the array of spells you cover to just about any situation. And because both classes use charisma as their primary attribute, 

Why Sorcerer/Bard Is Great 

• Sorcerer’s biggest downside is that your spells known list restricts you terribly on what spells you can cast. Bards however know an very different list of spells they can know, and their own “Known spells” amount.
• By using the Sorcerer’s spell points, you can give yourself important bard spells back or manipulate your sorcerer spells across the two classes to grant you even more flexibility in spellcasting.
• Running out of spells stinks. Getting more spells per day even if they are of lower levels is nice, and having the bardic inspiration is a nice fall back once you’ve

Choose This Multiclass if...

• You want to have a skill or a spell for any and all occasions. 
• You want to focus more on being the face of the party, but you don’t want to give up on power completely.
• You want to use meta magic and spell points to keep your spells variable and malleable, even with two classes that are limited by “Known” spells. 

10. Warlock/Bard

( Image Credit: Arcady)

The warlock and bard is an odd combination that struggles a bit, but benefits from the warlocks spells combining well with the bards support class features. From a roleplay perspective it becomes particularly interesting as it allows many ways for your own bard to look into their own patron and learn new things about them. On a more mechanical level, the bard is more support focused, and the warlock spells tend to be more offensive than utilitarian. But perhaps you have a small party and are covering multiple roles, this is a way to have your cake and eat it to, if only one piece and not the whole thing.

Why Warlock/Bard Is Great 

• Warlock spells mean you don’t have to worry about running out of offensive capabilities, letting you pick more versatile and niche options for your bardic abilities.
• Bardic knowledge can unlock strong roleplay opportunities with your patron.
• Bardic charisma based skills and spells combine well with the warlock’s since they both use the same stat. Anytime a stat does double duty is good.

Choose this Multiclass If

• You want to be the party face and put all your points in charisma.
• You want to add some offensive power to your bards charismatic capabilities without splitting your abilities to much.
• You want to gain deep and dark and forbidden knowledge’s and look good doing it. 

11. Bard/Wizard

(Image Credit: Rudy Siswanto)

Bard wizard is one of those classic combos that shows up even in fiction. Bards are seekers and keepers of general knowledge, wizards for arcane knowledge. This means that the wizards arcane recovery can help the bard go the distance through a long day of adventuring, and the wizard’s spellbook method of learning spells known can help to cover any gaps in your magic you accidentally leave open with your spells known. It also allows the wizard to combine with the bard’s support abilities and the wizard school powerups to enhance the other class’s abilities. 

Why Bard/Wizard is Great

• The wizard’s spellbook and prepared spells means that you can reserve the spells known for bards to very important spells.
• Arcane recovery works for your bard spells to, and can go far to giving the bard the kind of endurance they need. 
• Bard enhancement spells combine will with wizard abilities to get greater effect from each casting of your spells.

Choose this multiclass if

• You want to be a wizard and gain knowledge both of the arcane and the general. 
• You want to be able to enhance your performances with the power of magic beyond that of a normal bard. Or actually want to do damage with spells as a bard.
• You want to use the school enhancements of the wizard to get cool secondary effects for your bardic spells. 

You may also be interested in: 

• The Best D&D Classes (Ranked from Worst to Best)
• Top 25 Best D&D Villains of All Time

• 32 Most Interesting Facts About Dungeons and Dragons!
• 25 Best D&D Games for PC That Every Fan Must Play!

• Most Powerful D&D Dragons For Adventurers To Defeat

• D&D Top 10 Most Damaging Spells That Obliterate Foes
• Top 15 Most Powerful D&D Spells
• The Best D&D Race for Every Class

You may also be interested in: 

• The Best D&D Classes (Ranked from Worst to Best)
• Top 25 Best D&D Villains of All Time

• 32 Most Interesting Facts About Dungeons and Dragons!
• 25 Best D&D Games for PC That Every Fan Must Play!

• Most Powerful D&D Dragons For Adventurers To Defeat

• D&D Top 10 Most Damaging Spells That Obliterate Foes
• Top 15 Most Powerful D&D Spells
• The Best D&D Race for Every Class