Bards are infamous as one of the best classes in Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition. The latest version of the class has significantly improved its durability and spellcasting without taking away from its versatility and expert skills.

In short, the only thing a D&D 5e Bard might struggle with is direct damage – and not always that. They can be an immensely rewarding class to play, but only if built right.

Although a Bard build in D&D 5e can be almost anything, the choice of race can influence your choices and playstyle for the entire campaign. The best races for Bards in D&D 5e either double down on the ridiculous versatility the class has or work to patch its very few holes.

Updated September 23rd by Artificial Twenty: Even with the Player’s Handbook 2024 out, I can’t imagine everyone will abandon the D&D 5e Bard. As a result, I’ve updated this to keep the information fresh and at my usual standard. You bet some boring technical tweaks happened as well.

Variant Human and Custom Lineage Are Still the Most Versatile

The Variant Human article entries will continue until morale improves.

Jokes aside, Bard builds in D&D 5e reward flexibility above all else. No other race in D&D 5e has anything like the flexibility of Variant Human or Custom Lineage.

A free feat isn’t to be underestimated, even if the Bard wants to prioritise Charisma above all else for its ability scores. Variant Human or Custom Lineage are among the best Bard races in D&D 5e because of how many doors that free feat opens.

For more spellcasting-focused Bards, players might choose War Caster or Resilient: Constitution to beef up their Concentration spells. Alternatively, feats like Magic Initiate, Fey Touched, or Strixhaven Initiate provide even more spell choices. I’d be tempted to pick up on a combat cantrip, but then I’m like that.

Skill Expert bolsters the best skill class in D&D 5e even further, in case Expertise and Jack of all Trades weren’t enough for you. You can go in for the weird stuff, like Religion or Animal Handling.

Many Bards don’t need to juggle many ability scores, given how important Charisma is. However, Variant Human and Custom Lineage are an even better D&D 5e race for Swords or Valor Bards, allowing them to take feats without sacrificing Charisma or Dexterity.

Personally, I’d go Variant Human (or Custom Lineage without Darkvision) and take a free skill, but that might be overkill.

Fire Genasi Provides Some Spellcasting Teeth

The Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse version of the Fire Genasi race makes minor but significant tweaks to the pre-existing version. These tend to be in the Bard’s favour.

For non-martial Bard subclasses in D&D 5e, at-will damage can be a weakness. They only make a single weapon attack, and cantrips like Vicious Mockery don’t output much hurt (despite being excellent). Furthermore, few of their spells deal damage and nothing else.

The Fire Genasi stands out as one of the best races for Bard in D&D 5e because it remedies this problem nicely.

Produce Flame isn’t the best combat cantrip in D&D 5e. However, it’s still usable with Charisma and almost double the damage output of Vicious Mockery. Uncomplicated, single-target damage with no riders is good in most circumstances. Fire Genasi has damage to spare.

I won’t pretend Flame Blade is a particularly good spell. Nonetheless, Burning Hands fills another combat gap in raw area-of-effect damage.

On top of this, Fire Genasi get resistance to Fire damage, one of the most common dangers in the entire game. Bards are only moderately resilient, even those with medium armour. If you can reduce hundreds of points of damage over the average campaign, do it.

The fire-themed offensive and defensive punch cement the Fire Genasi as one of the best D&D 5e Bard races. However, you have to be leaning hard into combat to make the most of it.

Changeling Provides Unmatched, Unique Utility

The Changeling stands out from other D&D 5e races for how much one ability lets it dominate social interaction, stealth, intrigue, and other non-combat areas of the game.

Shapechanger has the minor, minor effect of letting a character change their appearance and voice to another humanoid form at will. They can’t morph their clothes, but instead they change everything else about them as a person.

The limits of Shapechange are constrained basically by the player’s creativity. This makes it an excellent race to pair with the Bard in D&D 5e, assuming you’ve got creative juices left.

Furthermore, many of the uses for changing shape, such as infiltration, distraction, and hiding, all reward having many, many skill proficiencies. Conveniently, the Bard has these in spades. You can use Deception to enter, Performance to pretend to be someone else, Insight to know when your cover’s blown, and Stealth to hunker down when it goes wrong.

Similar abilities are available through other means, such as the D&D 5e Warlock’s Mask of Many Faces Eldritch Invocation. However, playing a Changeling Bard in D&D 5e lets the player access this ability without multiclassing, feats, or magic items.

On top of that, the Changeling further earns its place as one of the best races for Bard in D&D 5e with Changeling Instincts. You get proficiency in two of: Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Performance, or Persuasion. Namely, the social skills that all Bards want.

Are two abilities on their lonesome enough to elevate Changeling to the ranks of best race in D&D 5e for Bard builds? Yes, yes they are,

Half-Elf Goes All-In On Versatility

Few races can match the Half-Elf’s versatility in D&D 5e. This primarily comes from its incredibly generous ability score improvements and skill proficiencies.

A D&D 5e Half-Elf gets +2 to one ability score and +1 to two others. This is better in raw numbers than almost any lineage and much more useful than the Standard Human’s +1 buff to all.

A melee-focused Bard can keep their Charisma, Dexterity, and Constitution impressive from the very beginning with the Half-Elf’s statline. Otherwise, it’s one of the best D&D 5e races for Bards who might want to promote other ability scores for their unique skills (such as Wisdom for Insight).

On top of that, Half-Elves don’t beat around the bush by getting skills the Bard happens to want. Instead, the player gets two additional skill proficiencies of their choice.

Between the Bard’s natural abilities, the Half-Elf race, a background, and even the College of Lore, a Half-Elf Bard can get proficiency or Expertise in over half of the skills in D&D 5e without feats.

Satyr Has Rizz and Magic Resistance

Satyrs get a grab-bag of useful abilities in D&D 5e, ranging from ‘situationally helpful’ to ‘game-changing.’ Fortunately, almost all of these situational and/or gamebreaking Satyr features suit a Bard well.

A movement buff isn’t exactly Christmas. Nonetheless, it’s ideal whether you’re a melee Bard trying to close the gap or a spellcaster Bard who wants to stay as far away as possible. Better jumps come up very rarely, but they’re welcome when they do.

Reveler is another top-tier Bard feature from the D&D 5e Satyr race. Persuasion and Performance are two proficiencies that almost every Bard wants to take. As a result, it’s effectively two free skill proficiencies to put anywhere as a result.

This all pales compared to Magic Resistance. Advantage on every saving throw against magic is a significant buff, especially as Bards run the risk of poor Wisdom saving throws. It’s one of the best race abilities in D&D 5e that provides a significant buff to any character.

Ram is really the only Satyr feature that doesn’t make it one of the best Bard races in D&D 5e, and that’s a minor, forgivable oversight. The other eye-watering abilities make up for it.

Eladrin Fills A Spellcasting Gap

There’s no denying that the Bard is one of the best spellcasters in D&D 5e. However, they tend to focus on utility, support, and debuffing to the exclusion of other things, with obvious cuts made to try and limit their power.

Notably, Bards can’t get Misty Step, one of D&D 5e‘s most versatile and useful spells, without feats or spending Magical Secrets. If you want to skip that, you can build an Eladrin Bard in D&D 5e and get a better version.

The Eladrin’s Fey Step doesn’t cost spell slots, and comes with four different abilities that can use Charisma. This versatility suits the Bard’s many potential battlefield roles in the game.

Charming enemies, Frightening them, teleporting allies out of (or into) danger or even inflicting damage are all viable things for Bards to do with the Eladrin’s Fey Step in D&D 5e.

Fey Step isn’t the only thing that makes the Eladrin one of the best Bard races in D&D 5e, but it does provide the bulk of the reason.

That’s far from the only benefit. Almost every character wants proficiency in Perception, which Keen Senses provides by default.

Furthermore, Trance provides tool or weapon proficiencies. The latter might be particularly helpful for unconventional College of Swords Bards in D&D 5e (Valor Bards already get all of them). Otherwise, take some tools that aren’t musical instruments, see how it feels.

Fairies Are Flying Spellcasters

Flight is one of the most powerful tools in D&D 5e. It’s invaluable for reaching enemies, avoiding them, or overcoming obstacles in the adventuring world.

There’s a reason that Fly is a third-level spell with a strict Concentration requirement.

The D&D 5e Fairy negates the need for Fly and its restrictions at all. The race has innate flight equal to the character’s walking speed, with no limited duration or Concentration.

This does come at the cost of wearing armour heavier than light, but many D&D 5e Bard builds can’t do that anyway. A College of Lore Bard isn’t going to wear anything other than light armour, whilst College of Swords or Valor can make do without medium (particularly at high levels).

On top of that, the Fairy is one of the best races for a Bard in D&D 5e because of its powerful spellcasting. Faerie Fire and Enlarge/Reduce are already on the Bard’s spell list, but it’s a welcome relief not to have to learn them. Furthermore, a free cast of each once per day is well worth it.

These are the Fairy’s only real benefits, but it doesn’t need much else to be one of the best Bard races in D&D 5e. Anything else would blow every other choice (except Satyr and Variant Human) out of the water.

Astral Elves Have Unmatched Flexibility

Bards boast more skill proficiencies and Expertise than almost any class in D&D 5e (dueling the Rogue for top spot). On top of that, they have Jack of All Trades to boost other ability checks and spellcasting to fill in shortfalls.

Sometimes, however, that isn’t enough.

The Astral Elf’s Trance only gives one skill proficiency, unlike many of the other best Bard races in D&D 5e. However, it comes with a unique trick. An Astral Elf can change this skill proficiency (and the weapon/tool proficiency it gives) every long rest.

What better suits a versatile, utility-focused character than the ability to pick up the slack in a different skill every day? One day the Bard can be a History genius, and the next they’ll be a living lie detector (who is still fairly good at History).

With a bit of warning, an Astral Elf Bard build in D&D 5e can conquer any obstacle in the game.

On top of that, they get free cantrips, the Perception skill, and a bonus action teleport (that isn’t as good as the Eladrin’s). It’s an eye-watering array of abilities for any race to give a Bard in D&D 5e.

These have been eight of the best races for Bard in D&D 5e, each with its own strengths that empower the class in different ways. Please do like this article and share it around if you’ve enjoyed it. I’d also really appreciate it if you check out other content, such as the suggestions down below. Thank you!

For more D&D 5e build advice, please check out these guides on the best races for D&D 5e Fighters and the best races for D&D 5e Artificers.

For a more fiction-first approach to D&D 5e character creation, try our tips for writing a D&D character backstory.