Pathfinder 2E - Support Bard Guide

By Mnemonic; Updated 2021-09-12 for Secrets of Magic

 Class Overview
Strengths
● Composition Cantrips: These unique AOE buffs are the Bard’s main strength. At level
one Inspire Courage already blows away the otherwise great first-level spell Bless. At
level six, you can pick up Dirge of Doom for the system’s best no-save-allowed debuff.

● Maestro: The Maestro Muse is an incredible subclass. You receive Lingering

Composition - a focus point spell which massively boosts the action economy of your
already powerful composition cantrips. You also start at level one with 2 focus points
and Soothe - very arguably your most important spell.

● Shortbow Proficiency: For reasons known only to Paizo, Bards are also proficient with
the best ranged weapon in the game. With Dexterity as your secondary ability score,
Strike #1 will be a great third-action for the entire game. Wielding a shortbow also
leaves you an open hand to freely use a Material Component Pouch, Battle Medicine, or
consumables such as Potions and Scrolls. Note that Bards don't require an instrument
to cast their spells. Component substitutions are always worse than using a Material
Component Pouch, and are for flavor and when you're thrown in prison.

● Critical Specialization Effects: A deceptively powerful feature which is normally

reserved for martials - Barbarians, Fighters, Rangers, Rogues, and Swashbucklers.

Flaws
● The Performance Skill Tax: The hidden downside of the Bard class is that you often
spend your premium skill increases on the otherwise subpar Performance skill. This
mirrors the ‘Jack-of-All-Trades, Master-of-None’ motif. You’ll start with a good deal of
trained skills, but will lag behind others in advancing the more typically useful skills.

● Below-Average Defensive Saves: Your Fortitude and Reflex saves never advance to
Master. This means you upgrade normal successes to critical successes on only one
save. While this is balanced somewhat by having the second best Will save in the
system, you still rank in the bottom 35% on overall save proficiency.

● Signature Spell Shenanigans: You receive one Signature Spell per Spell Slot Level.
This means that if you want multiple Signature Spells of the same base spell level - say
both Soothe and Summon Fey - you’ll need to jump through a couple hoops unlearning
and relearning spells at a higher level. This is an optimization puzzle that some find
arduous.
 Character Goals
● Extra Action Economy: Unlike most characters, Bards have almost too many
third-action options. Instead, their main focus is on fitting in extra actions per round
with...

a. The Traditional Methods - Any feats which offer free-actions or efficient

Flourishes are rated highly. Examples include Lingering Composition, Effortless
Concentration, Doctor's Visitation, Mature Companion, etc.

b. Reactions - The only natural reactions that Bard has access to are Aid and
Counter Performance. Any options that offer varied and generally powerful
reactions are highly rated - the goal is to use your reaction for most every round.

c. Focus Points - Since you start with Lingering Composition, gaining access to
extra focus points or a better refocus naturally boosts your action economy.

● A Familiar: A key focus here is the Accompanist ability, a blanket circumstantial bonus
to Performance checks. This increases the success and critical success rate of
Lingering Composition regardless of the situation. Moreover, the other familiar abilities
also help boost your action economy - either giving you Free Actions that can be used
to Draw Items, a bonus focus point, or what is essentially a free Quickened Spell. Other
notable familiar abilities are Partner in Crime, Cantrip Connection, and Spell Battery.

Recommended Ancestries
Rating Ancestry Overview

Lucky #1: Decent heritage in Liminal Catfolk. Very strong feats in Cat’s
Catfolk
Luck, Expanded Luck, Black Cat Curse, & Elude Trouble.

Fey-Touched: Access to a familiar. Good heritage in Wellspring

A Gnome Gnome. Good feats in Unexpected Shift & Fortuitous Shift. Small size.
Good Ability Array.

Lucky #2: Very strong feats in Halfling Luck & Cultural Adaptability.
Halfling
Small size. Good Ability Array.
 Nimble Multiclasser: Base speed of 30ft. Unique heritage in Ancient
Elf
Elf. Good feats in Otherworldly Magic, Nimble Elf, & Ageless Patience.

Jack-of-All-Trades: Good heritage in Half-Elf. Good feats in Natural

Human
Ambition, Clever Improvisor, & Multitalented. See Elf feats.

B
Flying Thunder God #1: Good heritage in Spellscale Kobold. Decent
Kobold
feat in Cringe. Can spend 3 feats on at-will flight. Small size.

Sneaky Scout: Access to a familiar. Decent heritage in Longsnout

Ratfolk
Rat. Good feats in Rat Form & Warren Digger. Small size.

Evasive Little Bugger: Decent feats in Goblin Scuttle & Skittering

Goblin
Scuttle. Small size.
C
Flying Thunder God #2: Good feat in Storm’s Lash. Can spend their
Tengu
heritage and 2 feats on at-will flight.

Kitsune Access to a heavily restricted familiar. Decent feat in Fox Trick.

Grippli Decent heritage in Poisonhide Grippli. Small size. Good Ability Array.

Versatile Heritages
I recommend GM’s allow Uncommon Versatile Heritages, but only when combined with a
Common Ancestry - for our purposes Elf, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling and Human. If your GM
is comfortable with this, then know that each of the Uncommon Heritages is powerful. The only
native options that can compete are Ancient Elf, Half-Elf, and Wellspring Gnome. That said, I
will leave exploration of the heritages as an exercise for the reader. However, note that the
Sylph and Tiefling heritages both offer boosts to your movement speed and grant at-will flight.
 Backgrounds
Like with ancestries, we are limited to backgrounds which can support both Dexterity and
Charisma as initial ability boosts. Luckily, this still leaves a wealth of options to build a
unique and flavourful character. While I recommend that you find a background that creates
an interesting character, the more powerful backgrounds will be those with useful skill feats.
Barrister, Deckhand, Martial Discipline, Pathfinder Recruiter, and Raised by Belief are all
standouts amongst the general options. For adventure/region-specific backgrounds pay
particular attention to any with Assurance in Medicine and Battle Medicine.

Skill Choices
Rating Skill Main Utility Key Feats

Lingering Composition, Inspire

Performance ---
Competence
A
Assurance, Battle Medicine,
Medicine Treat Wounds & Battle Medicine
Continual Recovery

Acrobatics Escape, Kip Up, Balance Kip Up

Pleasant Social Interactions, Bon Bon Mot, Glad-Hand, Shameless

B Diplomacy
Mot Request

Stealth Sneak, Rolling Initiative Swift Sneak, Legendary Sneak

Athletics Long Jump, Swim, Climb Assurance, Quick Jump

C Deception Sidestepping Social Interactions ---

Thievery Disable a Device, Pick a Lock Wary Disarmament

 Ability Arrays
Gnome | Grippli | Halfling
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
Lv1 8 16 [12 or 14] 10 [12 or 14] 18
Lv5 8 18 [14 or 16] 10 [14 or 16] 19
Lv10 8 19 [16 or 18] 10 [16 or 18] 20
Lv15 8 20 [18 or 19] 10 [18 or 19] 21
Lv20 10 20 [18 or 20] 12 [18 or 20] 22

Catfolk | Goblin | Kobold

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
Lv1 10 16 [10 or 14] 10 [10 or 14] 18
Lv5 10 18 [12 or 16] 10 [12 or 16] 19
Lv10 10 19 [14 or 18] 10 [14 or 18] 20
Lv15 10 20 [16 or 19] 10 [16 or 19] 21
Lv20 12 20 [18 or 20] 10 [18 or 20] 22

Elf | Ratfolk + Optional Voluntary Flaw

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
Lv1 8 16 [10 or 14] 10 [10 or 14] 18
Lv5 8 18 [12 or 16] 10 [12 or 16] 19
Lv10 8 19 [14 or 18] 10 [14 or 18] 20
Lv15 8 20 [16 or 19] 10 [16 or 19] 21
Lv20 10 20 [18 or 20] 10 [18 or 20] 22

Other Ancestries + Optional Voluntary Flaw

Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
Lv1 8 16 14 8 12 18
Lv5 8 18 16 8 14 19
Lv10 8 19 18 8 16 20
Lv15 8 20 19 8 18 21
Lv20 10 20 20 10 18 22
 Notable Class Feats
Level Rating Feat Overview

C Hymn of Healing Early focus point healing.

Lv1
Useful for multi-target buffs with touch range, i.e.
C Reach Spell
Resist Energy.

Requires Multifarious Muse. A bonus Signature

B Esoteric Polymath
Spell or one Prepared Spell per day.

Inspire Guarantees success with Aid for any skill by

Lv2 B
Competence Lv6~9. Your bonus reaches a wild +4 by Lv15.

Choosing Polymath gives Versatile Performance,

C Multifarious Muse
allowing you to skip Diplomacy Skill Increases.

If another party member is providing Frightened,

Lv4 C Inspire Defense
this is a decent alternative to Lv6’s Dirge of Doom.

AOE Debuff of enemy offense and defense with no

Lv6 A Dirge of Doom
save. Frightened is very strong.

Emergency reaction that prevents character death.

Lv10 B Ode to Ouroboros
Great use of focus points after Lv18.

Lv12 A Inspirational Focus Double your focus point uses per encounter.

Strong AOE heal that is useful in and out of

Lv14 B Soothing Ballad
combat.

Effortless Massive boost to spells like Maze, Summon Fey,

Lv16 B
Concentration and Spiritual Weapon. Allows 2 active summons.

Eternal Start combat with a composition active and never

Lv18 A
Composition spend an action to keep it going.

Twice the broken nonsense of Alter Reality and

Lv20 A Perfect Encore
Time Stop.
 Recommended Archetypes
Rating Archetype Summary Key Feats

A combat pet/mount with 1 free Mature, Incredible, &

Beastmaster
Strike or Stride per turn. Specialized Companion
Enhanced Familiar, Incredible
A Familiar Master Access to a familiar.
Familiar
Stronger Battle Medicine, a
Medic Doctor's Visitation
powerful Flourish, & skill feats.
3 free Skill Increases and a decent
Acrobat Dodge Away
defensive reaction.
B
Blessed One Focus point healing. ---

General Feat Choices

I recommend Fleet for your first General Feat. Adopted Ancestry (Elf | Gnome | Halfling),
Incredible Initiative, and Toughness round out the other strong initial options. At Lv7 Untrained
Improvisor becomes very powerful and after Lv17 I recommend taking Canny Acumen
(Fortitude). I do not generally recommend taking Skill Feats with your choices - but that being
said - it is an option to jumpstart a Medicine build.

Recommended Spell Choices

Signature
Level Rating Spell Overview Spell?

A Detect Magic Use this in every room you encounter. ---

Unless the whole party has dark vision,

B Light ---
this will be a major boon.
Cantrips
A decently strong defensive third
B Shield ---
action.

Telekinetic Your primary damage cantrip unless

C ---
Projectile you were able to pick up Electric Arc.
 Spontaneous heals are the best kind of
A Soothe Yes
heal. Gets someone back on their feet.

Massive out-of-combat utility with

A Summon Fey Yes
Lv3-5 slots. See guide below.

A circumstantial reaction out of a Lv1

B Lose the Path No
Spell Slot. Can waste 1 enemy action.
Lv1
Scales very well. Damage isn’t halved
B Phantom Pain Yes
on save. Start using w/Lv3+ slots.

Liberating Help your allies avoid the MAP on

C No
Command escape. Single action, occult only.

Until your party finds magic weapons

A/F Magic Weapon No
this is very strong. Retrain after Lv3-5.

A valuable counter to general magic

Lv2 C Dispel Magic Yes
shenanigans.

Possibly PF2’s best spell. A strong

A Slow Yes
effect on save and eventually is AOE.
Lv3
B Invisibility Sphere Party-wide invisibility. No

An overwhelmingly strong counter to

B Silence No
spellcasters.

Resistance powerful enough to warrant

Lv4 C Resist Energy Maybe
use in-combat, and it lasts 10 minutes.

C Restoration Someone in the party should have this. No

Slow, but better. Strong enough to

A Synesthesia Maybe
Signature Spell just to use Lv6 slots.
Lv5
B Shadow Siphon A powerful reaction against spells. Maybe

Scintillating
A Your primary reaction spell. Yes
Safeguard
Lv6
B Wall of Force The gold standard for battlefield control. No
 Strong Single Action spell. Can
A True Target Maybe
Signature Spell just to use Lv8 slots.
Lv7
Great if your party uses the actions
B Haste No
without resorting to strike #3’s.

The gold standard for buffs. Turns a

Lv9 A Heroism Yes
Fighter into a walking nightmare.

A Alter Reality Do any of the things. ---

Lv10
Cast 9 actions worth of battlefield
A Time Stop ---
control, summons, and self-buffs.

Summon Fey Guide

Level Rating Utility Summon

Lv1 B Flying Scout Nyktera, Sprite

B Alarm Vexgit

B Speak with Animals Naiad

Lv2
C Trap Disabler Vexgit

C Charm Nixie

A 100-400ft of Flight for Small PC’s Zrukbat (Carrying)

B Illusory Object Leprechaun

B Invisible Flying Scout Grig

Lv3 B Water Breathing Nixie

C Create Water Naiad

C Glitterdust Grig

C Illusory Creature Leprechaun

A In-Combat: 2x Heal Spells + Flank Unicorn

Lv4 B Speak with Plants Dryad

 C Detect Alignment (G) Unicorn

A 5 Minutes of Memory Loss Pixie

Lv5 B Faerie Fire Pixie

C 50 Gallons of Water (~6.7 ft3) Grodair