The Best Backgrounds For Bards In DND

Summary

• Carefully selecting which skill and tool proficiencies you want based on each background can help optimize your bard build.
• Bard backgrounds are different between the 2014 and 2024 Player’s Handbooks, but can both be used at the discretion of your DM.
• Different bard backgrounds offer unique opportunities, from espionage to folklore to enhancing character development.

Bards are a well-loved class in Dungeons & Dragons for good reason. A versatile set of skills and spells lets them take on the role of scholars, entertainers, spies, and con artists. From a skald singing odes to their battlefield prowess to a court jester secretly collecting gossip for blackmail, there are a lot of ways to play the class.

Backgrounds give a way of customizing a character further, showing not just where they are now but where they come from. It can flesh out your skillset or provide a springboard for building roleplaying moments.

Updated February 10, 2025, by Jack Filsinger: With the release of the 2024 Player’s Handbook, some rules for backgrounds have changed. We’ve updated this list with a few more background options from the 2024 Player’s Handbook and updated rules for backgrounds from the 2014 Player’s Handbook that have carried over so you have everything you need to select the best bard background for your DND campaign.

The rules for how backgrounds work have changed between the 2014 and 2024 Player’s Handbook. Talk to your DM to make sure whichever background you’re selecting works with their table.

8

Charlatan

The flavor of the charlatan background offers a lot of fun opportunities for characterization. Plus, having your bard start with proficiencies in Deception and Sleight of Hand means you can exacerbate these skills with Expertise later on in your campaign.

The Forgery Kit proficiency is also nothing to sneeze at. If you’re playing an urban sprawl-style campaign, being able to forge documents, letters, and more can make a huge difference in your party’s success.

7

Artisan

The Artisan background gives players a lot of flexibility in terms of tools right off the back. You can characterize your artisan to craft any kind of interesting material or product, depending on the vibe of your campaign. Investigation and Persuasion are another duo of skills that are great for bards later on in their campaign.

The one trick here is to think about why your bard left behind a world of craftsmanship to pursue the arts. Or are these somehow connected? Perhaps your bard’s art form is sculpture or painting.

6

Spy

There’s a long history of entertainers in espionage: You can be invited into prestigious establishments, are expected to travel as part of your work, and can draw attention away from more traditional cloak-and-dagger rogues in your entourage.

The spy contact feature works well for a bard: Having contacts that can provide leads gives the DM an easy way of providing you with information it makes sense for your character to have, alongside a source of quest hooks.

5

Folk Hero

A Folk Hero is a background that is intended for a martial class. Your character rose from some humble beginning and played an important role in history by changing the outcome of a battle or defying a tyrant. All of this happening before reaching level one may strain the credulity of some games.

The bardic spin on the folk hero is that it doesn’t need to be a true story. Either adopting the mantle of some renowned figure or inventing the story entirely, your character can bask in the reverence of the masses via the rustic hospitality feature. Your character might grow into the role of the hero they pretend to be, or it may be a mask they discard once it outlives its use.

4

Entertainer

Most bards are entertainers already, so a background in the performing arts fits well into a character who refines those arts into a magical discipline. Don’t limit yourself to a single type of entertainment.

A charismatic bard can become a master of poetry, stand-up comedy, fire-swallowing, and song. The goal of having multiple routines is both to be able to perform to the same audience several times and to cater to different audience tastes (a singalong may fit better in a tavern than a noble court).

3

Cloistered Scholar

Bards have more in common with wizards than most other spell casters. Their power is derived from the knowledge they gain about the world, even though their magic is channeled through performance rather than ritual. History is a useful proficiency for any bard. While you may not have the best intelligence in the party, you may be expected to step in for lore-related skill checks.

For any lore checks where the dice betray you, you have access to a place of research through your Library Access feature. While your character may not know all aspects of the setting from the top of their head, a scholastic background and access to this trove of books will make up for any gaps in your knowledge.

2

Noble

As characters with high charisma and good speaking skills, bards will often end up as the diplomats representing the party socially. The Noble background gives you some reputation to stand on while arguing against the death penalty for the rogue and barbarian’s antics.

History and Persuasion are a pair of skills that will take you far, and your starting equipment includes a scroll of pedigree that you can flaunt at the statistically anomalous number of orphans at most parties. Your other starting item, a signet ring, can be used as a symbol of reputation.

1

Feylost

The exact way that the Feywild works is much more subject to the GM’s interpretation than more familiar territories such as a city or countryside. Expanding your bard’s understanding of the world to include the esoteric rules and meanderings of the fey gives you an additional range of targets with which your bard can negotiate, barter, and gather information.

Deception is a useful skill proficiency to have, while survival is outside your typical skillset. Since bards have access to Expertise and the Jack Of All Trades class feature, you could choose to focus on the charisma skills you perform best in or hedge the areas that your ability scores don’t cover well.

If you pick an older background that you’d like to use for your campaign, you can also modify it by following the rules for ability score adjustments laid out in Chapter Two of the PHB.