Spells and cantrips are an essential part of building your Bard. You’ll want a solid set of spells behind you for heading out on adventures, and the fact that you need to learn them as opposed to preparing them each day means you have to be extra careful. The good news is that you can switch spells around every time you level up.

While this guide has a strong focus on the best Bard spells, it is equally important to look at the ones that aren’t so good as well. After all, you need to be able to weigh up the pros and cons of each, and you might find that a spell we find to be a little useless actually works wonders for your chosen build. That’s the best thing about the Bard spell table – no two builds are the same.

How to Use This Guide

Throughout this guide, you will see a series of emojis—we use these to rank how useful a feature or ability is for your chosen class.

✅ — A critical feature that you absolutely need in order to play Bard to the best of its ability. May also provide exclusive bonuses.

🆗 — A good feature that should definitely be considered.

⚠️ — A weaker feature that might only work with specific builds. Definitely largely circumstantial.

⛔ — A terrible feature that could be detrimental to your class that often weighs you down. Can also be a dump stat that is completely useless.

The Best Bard Cantrips

🆗Light

You’ll be just fine with regular torches if you don’t have the room for it, or another spellcaster can pick up something similar. If you do have the space, it can be really useful for quick light in those dark spaces.

✅Mage Hand

You can use this to move objects without using your actual hands. Magic hands are definitely a lot safer in many situations.

🆗Message

Bards built for stealth can do a lot of sneaking around, which frequently involves being separated from your party. Use this to send messages without revealing your position.

✅Minor Illusion

There is space for plenty of creativity here as well as a spacious 5-foot cube for you to put your creations inside.

✅Prestidigitation

Whenever you want to do something small and magical that’s not covered by another spell, it’s usually covered by prestidigitation. This spell is exceptionally versatile.

🆗Thunderclap

Damage every creature within five feet.

✅Vicious Mockery

The most iconic Bard spell, and while the damage is small the debuff is absolutely worth it.

The Worst Bard Cantrips

⛔Blade Ward

The Dodge action makes this redundant.

⚠️Dancing Lights

It’s a funny cantrip, but Mage Hands is way better. Even a candle can do the same job as this.

⚠️Friends

This is really hard to use, you need to put distance between yourself and the enemy, and you only get a minute.

⛔Mending

Too situational.

⛔True Strike

Attacking twice does more than using this cantrip once.

🎵 Do you know which College to pick? Check out our bard subclass guide!

The Best Bard Spells

1st Level Spells

🆗Charm Person: If you can cast this on a target outside of combat without them noticing, this can be a great way to defuse a potentially hostile situation.
🆗Comprehend Languages: This works well until you replace it with Tongues later on.
🆗Cure Wounds: A simple does what it says on the tin spell, it detects magic in the area and every party needs one person who has it.
✅Detect Magic: A simple does what it says on the tin spell, it detects magic in the area and every party needs one person who has it.
✅Dissonant Whispers: Excellent crowd control that only requires verbal components.
✅Faerie Fire: The lowest-level option to deal with invisible creatures, and Advantage on attacks against creatures which fail their save means that this remains a powerful support option well into high levels, especially against enemies with high AC but poor Dexterity saves.
✅Feather Fall: You probably won’t use this very much at all, but when you do it can save a life.
✅Healing Word: This spell is more important than Cure Wounds, especially at low levels. It’s a bonus action, which means you can heal an unconscious ally and then still use a cantrip after.
✅Heroism: A massive buff that can make or break a battle at lower levels.
✅Silent Image: Throw up a fake wall, door, or portcullis to slow pursuers. Create a piece of furniture like a box or a chest, then hide inside it and stab people when they try to open it like a pointy jack in the box. Your imagination (and the DM) is the only limit.
✅Silvery Barbs: Incredibly powerful and equally complicated for a little spice.
✅Sleep: This doesn’t require a saving throw, making it a powerful and reliable way to incapacitate enemies with relatively few hit points even at high levels.
🆗Tasha’s Hideous Laughter: Single-target save-or-suck that won’t work on unintelligent creatures.

2nd Level Spells

✅Aid: It lasts for 8 hours and is the kind of buff you will want to cast every single day. You can also add some Temporary Hit Points which is massively helpful.
🆗Blindness/Deafness: Lasts for a whole minute and can be highly effective.
🆗Calm Emotions. Both of the effects are situational, but they remain useful. You can use it to temporarily suppress charm or fear effects. You can also use it to make your enemies friendly towards you for a minute.
✅Enhance Ability: This is such a versatile spell, boosting abilities for a nice bonus in a range of situations. Enhance Eagle’s Splendor for improved social interactions or Bull’s Strength to improve grappling etc.
🆗Enlarge/Reduce: You can use this on a small ally to make them small enough to smuggle in a pocket, or you can use this on an ally to give them an edge against enemies that rely on grappling.
✅Invisibility: Essential for scouting and infiltration.
🆗Kinetic Jaunt: The Bard version of Misty Step. However, it requires Concentration and doesn’t remove you from grapples.
✅Knock: The primary reason to have proficiency with Thieves’ Tools is to handle locks. Knock doesn’t require a check.

🆗Lesser Restoration: A good healing spell. One that won’t be needed all the time, but that you’ll be thankful for once it’s there.
🆗Mirror Image: A great defensive option, and it doesn’t require Concentration so you can easily use it alongside other great options like Fly.
🆗Phantasmal Force: This spell is a great counter to unintelligent creatures, and its flexible nature gives you a lot of room to really mess with the target.
✅See Invisibility: Lasts for an hour and doesn’t require Concentration.
🆗Shatter: The Walmart version of Fireball but does a good enough job.
✅Silence: Most spellcasters will run into serious trouble if they are silenced since so many spells have a verbal component to them. Use it to close the mouths of your enemies and then smash them with a mace. Too violent?
✅Suggestion: Extremely versatile. This spell benefits greatly from your own creativity, so the more thought you put into its use the more effective it will be.
🆗Warding Wind: A great buff for melee Bards that makes the terrain difficult to remain steady on.

3rd Level Spells

✅Bestow Curse: Versatile effects that ensure this spell can be brought into a range of situations. It also scales nicely with your level, keeping it viable even as your character grows. It has the ability to practically knock an enemy out of the fight.
✅Clairvoyance: The focus is expensive if you want to see and hear, but the price is definitely worth it. You can use it to scout locations completely undetected, and when you combine it with Darkvision it becomes truly unstoppable.
✅Dispel Magic: Simple as removing magical effects. An absolutely crucial spell that every party needs.
✅Enemies Abound: Throw this on something tanky and horrifying that’s there to protect squishy enemies from you and your friends, and watch it freak out and kill its buddies for you.
🆗Fast Friends: It’s a non-lethal way to handle targets, but it does come with limitations. The target does need to be able to understand you and it requires Concentration (among others), but once you get around them it’s a pretty useful spell to have on you.
🆗Fear: A great way to disable foes but immunity is common.
✅Hypnotic Pattern: Great AoE.
✅Leomund’s Tiny Hut: Makes for a great place to rest and set up defences.
Major Image: If you pick this up later you’ll be able to cast permanent illusions.
✅Motivational Speech: This is better than Inspiring Leader because it doesn’t require a Feat and also takes way less time to actually perform.
🆗Nondetection: It’s good but not essential and can help keep your party hidden from enemy eyes.
🆗Plant Growth: It’s situational but can definitely come in fairly handy when in battle.
🆗Sending: Fancy? No. But the thing is, you do get to send messages across vast distances is handy – especially since the creature you give the message to doesn’t have to understand you.
🆗Slow: It might not be the best of its kind but it can certainly come in handy during battle when keeping enemies at a distance.
🆗Stinking Cloud: Constitution-based save or suck in an AOE.
✅Tongues: Any language or social Proficiencies become pointless when this is cast. It lasts for an hour, but that’s all you really need to work your way out of a sticky situation.

4th Level Spells

🆗Charm Monster: A great nonlethal way to deal with enemies and works in a similar way to Charm Person.
✅Dimension Door: A great equivalent to Misty Step that allows you to teleport.
✅Greater Invisibility: Run around for a full minute and become practically impossible to target, we dare you not to love it.
✅Phantasmal Killer: Despite how slowly it kills the target, this is a great single-target spell and the spell level scaling is absolutely spectacular.
✅Polymorph: Versatile, exceptional, and also fairly complicated to master.

5th Level Spells

🆗Animate Objects: Provided that there is sufficient fodder for the spell, this can work in a variety of encounters.
🆗Dominate Person: If you come across humanoid foes, dominating an enemy and turning it into a temporary ally is very effective.
✅Greater Restoration: A crucial healing spell that every Bard should have on them.
✅Hold Monster: With the exception of undead, this works on any creature type, and paralysis takes a creature out of a fight almost as much as killing them.
🆗Scrying: It’s not as powerful as it was in previous editions. However, once you do you can spy on major characters and learn more about their plans. Use it at every opportunity.
✅Skill Empowerment: Expertise for the whole party – I’m not even joking.

6th Level Spells

✅Eyebite: Spend one spell slot, and every round for a minute you get to pick a creature and put it to sleep.
✅Mass Suggestion: You can send the whole fight off on a long walk… maybe off the edge of a cliff. Your choice.
🆗Otto’s Irresistible Dance: The target suffers the effects immediately, and doesn’t get to make a save until they have spent an Action to make the save, and since they must spend all of their movement dancing, they effectively lose at least one turn after being targeted.

7th Level Spells

✅Etherealness: This is a fantastic scouting/escape option. It lasts for 8 hours, and unless you’re fighting ethereal enemies, you’re untouchable. You can see and hear into the material plane, allowing you to spy on other creatures in person without their knowledge.
✅Forcecage: An absolutely amazing way to isolate either your party or your enemies. The duration is long enough to take a short rest, and there’s no save for enemies to resist it.
✅Mirage Arcane: This is a difficult spell. The affectable area is huge, the distance is Sight (go climb a mountain on a clear day), and the effects of the illusion are tangible enough that you can physically interact with them, including picking up sticks or stones.
✅Teleport: You have the power to rescue the whole party in the middle of battle. Be warned that this can be a complex spell.

8th Level Spells

✅Dominate Monster: Arguably the best save-or-suck spell in the game. You can do a lot with perfect control over a creature for such a long period of time.
🆗Feeblemind: Wisdom-based and Charisma-based casters are extremely vulnerable to Feeblemind.
✅Glibness: Throw this up before going into a fight with an enemy spellcaster and enjoy countering everything that they cast with minimal effort.
🆗Power Word Stun: If you can time this to hit a wounded enemy (or an enemy with a low hit point maximum like many spellcasters) it can take them out of the encounter long enough for you to win largely unopposed.

9th Level Spells

✅Foresight: With an 8-hour duration, you can throw it on the lucky recipient and watch them laugh their way through nearly any challenge for a full day worth of adventuring.
🆗Power Word Heal: Full healing and removing a bunch of status conditions in one spell is really tempting, but preventing all of that damage and all of those conditions with Foresight will work much better. Mass Heal does provide more and gives a more even split.
🆗Power Word Kill: 100 hit points is a very low cap, but it’s hard to argue with how effective it is to outright slay a creature with no rolls involved.
🆗Prismatic Wall: 10-minute duration, you and your allies can pass through it unharmed, and if enemies move through it they can take up to 50d6 damage, be turned to stone, and be sent to another plane.
✅Psychic Scream: Intelligence saves are the weakest saves on average, even for high-CR monsters, so in many cases you can Stun enemies and keep them stunned for an incredibly long time.
✅True Polymorph: Powerful, versatile, and it lasts an hour. However, it is also very complicated to master.