In regards to placing the Performance of Creation item around a creature (the examples given in the video were a safe, a crate, or a cage), this is something you should discuss with your DM before you use it. Even if the space the enemy creature is in is not occupied by the cage around it, the DM could still reasonably interpret the cage as occupying that space. Worth a conversation beforehand.

If you thought Disney’s princesses have been getting really, really meta in recent years, welcome to Treantmonk’s Temple! 😄

My Disney princess of choice was the swarm keeper ranger focusing on straight wisdom and flavoring the swarm as twittering songbirds and/or other woodland creatures. Thanks for giving me a second character to add to my Disney party

you should pick up Awaken as a magical secret for your disney princess so you can have an intelligent tiger friend, birds, trees, etc.

Such a cool build! I also love that you listen to your patron's ideas, as you've shown via multiple videos. I feel as though a small but vocal handful of optimizers take the "my way or the highway" mentality and are not open to outside ideas.

This is hilariously awesome and I love it. Mass Suggestion is of course to have the enemies stop fighting and join in a music number.

Haha, I love it. When I read the Creation Bard, it occurred to me that I'd need to study the equipment lists to figure out what good items to create at various levels. It hadn't occurred to me to make it rideable. This REALLY opens the door to some cool shit. A possibility that occurred quickly is a simple wooden crate with no top. Four allies climb inside, and between turns they hunker down for full cover. If one of them is a Paladin, that even bolsters the saves of the created item to help it survive. Suddenly, I can see a ranged Paladin having a useful role in the group.

Truly a giga level brain and shitpost character concept, as a villain in camapign with pocasnowbell I would die of humilation after losing to some random bimbo flying on a bed who restrained me in cage she singed out of nowhere and proceeded to vicious mockery and bed air drop attack me

A trick I have used is to take leftover inspirations (either after a fight when it's likely to expire before another fight or before attempting to short rest) and force a save to get the temp HP. You can use the light cantrip (target a carried object, creature makes dex save) to force the save. Alternatively, if either the DM doesn't like that cheese or you want a more fun way to do it, you can "Roast" them by using viscous mockery. If they fail, the temp HP probably covers the damage. But it's pretty awesome to RP mocking your allies in a playful way for a mechanical benefit.

To be fair Disney princesses are super op being able to charm and control animals en masse and in the case of Mulan defeating an army of huns in a single turn.

Pretty cool build. I've theorycrafted builds for the creation bard myself as well. They can do some really cool stuff. One notable aspect of the creation bard this video didn't mention is that you didn't mention you can conjure costly components for spells. There is no restriction in the feature that says you can't, unlike similar features (conjuration wizard). This makes heroes' feast a very appealing 6th level spell option for magical secrets, in my opinion. Using heroes' feast daily also helps with the wisdom saving throws a lot. It obviously can also work for simulacrum if you want to ruin a DM's day. Also, making objects spontaneously dissapear by using the feature again can be used to great effect. Something like creating a bridge (at higher levels), running over it and then conjuring a new object when your enemies try to cross. Another interesting use for performance of creation can be lava or similarly harmful objects. There is nothing in the description that states you can't harm an enemy with your creation. That actually also works very well with telekinesis. Blanket an area with lava, or fill up an area of the map that can be used as a pool, then drag your opponents into it.

If your dm gives you trouble finding suitable objects to fly on with animating performance or is a stickler about letting more than one creature stand on it, the way I read it you can animate your performance of creation object. So in theory, you could create a 10 by 10 vehicle like a cart or boat that would easily have enough space for 4 creatures to fit in.

This is a class you give to someone who "just wants to have fun" and they will fall in love with it. Then later when trying something different it won't feel as good they don't appreciate that this class so well because it combined optimization with flavor. I am really with you that the best classes build deliver on the flavor with mechanics. A character concept that relies on all flavor will never compete.

You create stuff with song of creation in the "unoccupied space", so I'm very sure you are not allowed to put enemies in the cages and boxes. Blocking narrow corridors is a good option.

Even of DM doesn't allow you to cage a monster with no save, you still have very good combat options: 1. Create a steel box with arrow slits and a lever that can close them, and enter said box. You now have a powerful fortified position that grants you immunity to most effects in the game as most effects require line of sight and line of effect 2. Create that cage you wanted and have the barbarian grapple, drag and lock a monster inside that cage

Left out Poison. Particularly once you hit level 14. At level 5 you can create 100 gp, so basic poison. Level 10 you can create Drow poison, Level 15 you can create huge vat of Purple Worm Poison for all to use. Not to mention creating holy water, acid, alchemist fire, etc. if you happen to suddenly need them. Though a Huge vat of holy water can be key at 14th level if you are facing an army of undead.

OMG the “GridLock” effect for the PCs against Large foes is SO GOOD!

People don't know the spells of fizbins because I don't think people view it in the same light as Tashias and Xanathars, I think its on the same level as Acquisition's Inc. The use of getting basically a force wall panel/bubble for a level 2 spell is def really good. I might try it for my next bard, but I'm currently running an eloquence bard. There is another option with Telekinisis that you forgot to mention. You can steal someone's weapon, AND THEN animate it so they can't use it! Animate the weapon for a BBEG that uses weapons for a majority of their damage like Yunogo and suddenly big puppy is doing 18 damage/round down from 55 damage/round and lost his legendary actions and all his battlefield control. I have been loving Eloquence bard due to making basically anything without legendary resistance a won encounter with polymorph/suggestion and is really the only way to make the save or suck spells usable. Had a fight this week with a level 20 wizard NPC who had a mantle of spell resistance so he had some insane wisdom saving throws. But that -10 to their wisdom saves at advantage meant they kept falling the dc 17 wisdom saves for suggestion, and suddenly we had an additional level 20 wizard for the fight and yeah. And I don't know any other class that can do that besides a div wizard who gets some nat 1s on their portants.

Highly recommend picking up Heroes Feast as a magical Secret at high level! Being able to spend a 2nd level spell slot instead of the expensive material component , via your creation feature, is pretty darn sweet. Also occurs to me that’s it’s on point thematically.

I'm really loving these builds that lean into themes, Optimizing is important for doing well in battle but having a fun character is vital for doing well in a campaign, i really love this build and am thinking of updating up my painter creation bard in inspiration

This vid is #AwesomeSauce also very cool to see a quality build that's so thematic around a character concept. It really does seem like she could dance around being magical and not die (in combat) which is pretty cool! and i like the use of contingency,

I'm a 52 year old man, 6'2" and 300 pounds. And now I want to play a princess. 🤯

My favorite thing to do with the creation bard is to cast unseen servant and use animating performance before the battle start then use my performance of creation to create a cannon with the unseen servant and the dancing item to load and aim the I go boooooom you take 8d10 damage.

My daughter wanted me to do a build for Mirabel from Encanto. After doing some reading I thought, singing, inspiring, dancing chairs and doors? Creation bard. I go online, of course Treantmonk did the build months ago. ;)

right-the fear spell would be more in keeping with the disney villains - you should do Malificent for your next build

Around 32 or 33 minutes it is mentioned even with low wisdom saves that fear is not an issue as their character isn't doing the movement it is the magical carpet. Yes as written the carpet is immune to fear. The problem here on this one is that your character who has the frightened status is controlling the carpet. So me as a char are afraid of that enemy, but I'm going to command my carpet to fly towards them??? I'm yet to play with a DM who would allow that level of BS to fly.

I love the idea of making a large bed my flying mount and then take the mounted combatant feat.

You can also theoretically create costly components with Performance of Creation. After 14th level, you can always have diamonds for revivify. Considering Simulacrum only has the ruby dust for a costly component, guess what, you can create Simulacrums for free as well starting at 14th level. It's unclear if these can be consumed by the spell though, so DM ruling may be necessary, but it seems reasonable that at least components that aren't consumed are fine to be used (such as components for summoning spells and such)

When I played a CoC bard, I went with a different animated muse: Wile E Coyote/Bugs Bunny. Song of Creation is as broken as your imagination, and DM's tolerance allow! Especially if you can justify it with relevant tool-use proficiencies, imagine bespoke engineered items like spring-loaded mallet traps or a wooden barrel full of white-hot liquid metal!

Good morning Chris! Time for making quest progress on watching all the build videos! Have a great day!

Pocosnowbelle teaming up with P’aladin? ;)

Definitely rolling a Disney princess inspired character next one-shot/new campaign my group starts. Awesome build

I can practically hear the smile on his face this entire recording that is amazing

I have always loved Command. In fact my character recently successfully used Command to get an Aboleth out of water while we were fighting along with stealing a turn. The DM after the session admitted that Command had also kept the Aboleth from escaping on that turn. I put Command on all my characters that can get it.

This video is great. Treantmonk’s build videos are the best. Love the focus is beyond damage.

It feels like you had fun writing this and I love it!

I just used your template as a guide to create a Bardlock for a Level 20 one-shot that's coming up. I can't wait to see how it goes! ^_^

I would love to see a 'how to play' section for each of the subclasses on D&D Beyond or in the published books.

At 14th level, the best thing you can probably do with song of creation for a DPS bump is make 5 vials of purple worm poison for your party, which if all DC 19 con saves are failed, deal a total of 60d6 damage. You could even pre apply it to the objects you animate.

Super minor tweak but in general if you have +1 to an ability score in character creation or from a half feat that can't give you a higher modifier in anything and you don't plan on ever raising it in the build, it is best to put them into strength because long jumps are one of the few things in the game that rely on the score itself rather than the modifier.

I find it funny how my group. None of which are focused on building optimal characters have assembled arguably the 4 most powerful subclasses for there classes. rune knight. zealot barb, creation bard and a reflavored eberon druid subclass. I found the channel about 3 months ago which is about a month after we started playing and I just find it funny how impressed I have been with the performance of the creation bard. cool video as always.

I had a discussion on your discord about using the Tasha’s summon spells and using the creation “mount” as a platform for flying those over enemies as well. Creation Bards are awesome!

Well if it is a large creature with 18 strength; there are rules for how much it can carry…

I've been drafting an Orpheus-inspired, nature-focused creation bard. Your build has confirmed some of my plans (like taking "Grasping Wind" a.k.a. Telekinesis) and is making me contemplate some other options I hadn't considered. Thanks!

I'm definitely going to be stealing this one if I ever do a one shot. I'm loving the concept immensely.

Congratulations on 50k subscribers!!!

You could also "Hold action until end of carpets turn" Carpet moves, takes dodge, action goes off.

Okay, personally, for Princess Jasmine, I'd go Variant Human with Skilled Feat, going Dexterity, Wisdom, Charisma, Constitution, Intelligence, and dump Strength. Boost Dexterity and Charisma. Pick Noble Background to get Persuasion. Grab Acrobatics as her Free Skill. Grab all the other Charisma-based skills with Skilled - she has them all. After that, go Ranger - Animal Handling is needed, followed by Perception and Insight, as she does notice things. As for what type of Ranger - Beastmaster - need Rajah the tiger after all - reskinned Jaguar or Beast of the Land version of the Primal Companion. 12 levels would be okay for this. Then, go Monk for the other 8 levels - Way of the Open Hand - Jasmine doesn't wear armor after all. Multiclass earlier if one wants to. Just keep boosting Dexterity and Wisdom. Pick up the Dueling Fighting Style, Desert is a good environment, or go Deft Explorer (boost Persuasion), and Humanoids - Human are good foes. Overall, decent tank, decent face, and she has a pet tiger.

I've been playing Creation Bard thanks to this video, and I can update my feelings on them. They're fun. Very fun. Like, super fun. Animating things to do what you want has so many uses outside of combat. For example, I animated a bridge that was the only way to get over a gap, so the mobs chasing us couldn't do anything about it. You can also drop items on mobs then animate them for some funny shenanigans, and at 14 things get crazy.

Congrats on 50k!

I’m about to play a Creation Bard in a charity high-level one shot for Boston Children’s Hospital. I’m wondering if it would make more sense to have your paladin or barbarian ride on the magic carpet while you yourself take the Pegasus?… The only reason I ask is because greater Steeds have spells applied to them that you cast upon yourself… So I’m thinking… some powerful spell on yourself and also on your Pegasus so you can both stay out of the fight and have double concentration on a powerful control ability…. Any Thoughts? But I do understand now as I edited this that telekinesis would not work on your steed also concentrating on it since it does not target yourself…thanks and I love the community here so much.

I think the Healer feat would be an awesome feat for this build. Using the third lvl ability you can make a healers kit when needed for d6+4+lvl every short rest. It’s a better version of a healing spirit or aura of vitality as it does better average healing than the former and by lvl 10 does more reliable healing than the latter. Burning a second lvl slot to create another healers kit is worth it for that out of combat healing.

hypnotic pattern has also gained a lot of respect from me lately - wow. what a spell

I like the build, but I gotta ask, why start with a 16 dex if you are going to take Moderately Armored later and end up with an odd Dex score of 17? Wouldn't it be better to just make do with the slightly lower AC until level 4 and then get both the increase in dex modifier along with the new breastplate? The extra 2 points this saves for point buy would allow you to have a 10 wisdom which would help with saves and perception checks.

7:13 I can't see how this gets added to the damage roll or multiplied. "the creature can roll that die and choose a target affected by the spell. Add the number rolled as a bonus to the hit points regained or the damage dealt."

I feel there's some thematic synergy with an artificer dip here; would also save you two feats, and allow acquisition of wisdom resilience later. The stat requirement can be accounted for.

I enjoyed the way you edited this video

I like this a lot, for kicks I might make my creation bard focused on the word spells for flavor.

One massive thing I feel like he missed was that you can create spell components. This is pretty awkward to use before 14th lvl but maybe at 10th lvl you could start sleep casting a glyph of ward right before the end of a long rest or something if you have the spare slots. After 14th lvl though it’s a little ridiculous, you get to create 1 huge object and 9 small or tiny objects with no cap on price. You could still use the huge object for utility and stuff and then have something ridiculous like 9 halfling “snowmen” made of diamond dust. Idk what the ratio of volume to gold coins of diamond dust is but that’s more then enough to cast true resurrection like it’s nothing. Just go around the lands reviving every historical figure from the past 200 years, better yet if the characters body was destroyed you wouldn’t even need to go grave digging just say their name and boom ancient king, hero, or evil sorcerer.

It's funny that you went with Disney princess, as I immediately thought of fairy godmother with this subclass. :D lol

Honestly, my favourite part of these character build videos is how creative the concepts are.

Now the real question is if Speak With Animals is in the mix.

i really love non racial concentration free flight with hover and i also love pets... having a pet flying carpet is basically the best of both worlds lol. i never even considered riding the dancing item. i just thought it would be a kinda meh add to dpr on your round or throwing some hp onto the map. but yeah it's really cool. also i've always also felt that the creation bard was always overlooked as all it's features are pretty strong. i think this build with a 2 level dip into fighter, 1 at 1st level and 1 at 11th level would round this build out really well. saving you the need for 2 of the feats you took in the 1st level and opening up more race options, or just more fun bard feats like inspiring leader, war caster, or just straight up upping your ASIs sooner.

Thank you for the video. I'm totally going to a chose an Creation Bard for my next character.

This video inspired me to create my first ever Bard. Though I went with Ariel as my template since her main instrument will be her sirenic voice, of course.

Great build!

If you use your creation ability at level 14 to create a 15x15x15 tub of acid, the damage done by that would be about 1.7 million d6. (15^3 cubic feet is about 3,353,605 fluid ounces, and a vial of acid contains 4 ounces and deals 2d6 damage, so 1d6 for every 2 ounces, 1,676,802 d6 acid damage, which you stupidly used on a black dragon and ended up dealing 0 damage)

I love this idea so much.

I love this style of video

I love this build. Like you, I hadn't considered the ... really cool and sometimes frightening ... implications of being able to create walls and other obstacles essentially at will and without Concentration. I mean, Wall of Stone is a FIFTH-LEVEL SPELL that requires Concentration. This ability sits right on the edge between "really powerful" and "utterly broken" IMNSHO. 😉 And being able to have a flying mount without even casting a spell at all is even more broken than Magical Secrets giving the bard Find Greater Steed seven levels before the paladin can get it ... 🤣 As far as how many characters the flying "pet" can carry, I will note that it is a Large "creature" with an 18 STR, just like a warhorse ... but whereas a warhorse probably only covers 2 squares on a map (otherwise how could it's rider make attacks to either side?), a standard "large" creature ... or, for example, a large CARPET ... would cover four. Therefore, as a DM I would most likely rule, depending on the item being animated, that it could carry up to four Medium or Small passsengers so long as they don't exceed the weight limit of 540 pounds that a Large 18 STR creature can carry. That seems reasonable, right? As far as the build goes, my only critique has more to do with flavor and theme than with practicalities. Disney princesses don't wear armor! Well ... except for Mulan, anyway. But I'd suggest starting our Princess out with a level in sorcerer so she can learn Mage Armor and Shield. Or maybe (eventually) two so she can learn Find Familiar and have a pet songbird. 🤣

I like the new thumbnail format

A more elegant wording of your contingency for dispel magic might be, "When I am magically being prevented from doing exactly as I please."

40 minute video boiled down to one essential, this bard can get concentration to free flight.

My gnome Creation bard, Nym Shimmerstone, is a puppeteer. His usual target for animation is his specially-constructed backpack, which has several folding mechanical arms tucked inside, along with a pair of unfurlable wings. When animated, it can manipulate objects, help him in puppet shows, whallop someone with one of the arms, or carry him aloft since he's securely strapped to it. I've also found that the increase/decrease movement is a quite useful free buff/debuff. It works VERY well in conjunction with Spirit Guardians--since Spirit Guardians has already cut the opponent's movement in half, slapping on another 10 foot penalty renders most opponents nearly immobile.

I actually thought of A Creation Bard Princess who sings and inspires her subjects and rides on their large flying Construct than suddenly Treantmonk thinks of one as well

I must say you have thrown me for a loop with this one, I too thought thought eloquence was the undisputed king of bard subclasses. But if what I'm seeing is correct the creation bard can become an excellent control mage as well as supporter. It's taking me a while to process the advantages of creation over eloquences very appealing inspiration buffs.

So an interesting thing about the performance of creation ability is that it specifies an item not an object, meaning it could be something like an ox or a horse which is written in the items tab in the equipment page. Interestingly this also means you could theoretically hijack the body of any creature who meets that description since animating performance also mentions a non magical item even with the errata

Really great video as always, I think i'd play this and start lvl1 with 13 Int & artificer to fix Con/AC issue. That way i can fit Resiliant Wis as well.

I'm no rules expert but regarding the Bardic Inspiration and Magic Missile interaction it seems pretty clear with the wording of the Magical Inspiration feature that it simply adds the total rolled on the BI die to the total damage dealt by the spell. It's not adding it to a damage roll like Hexblade's Curse so it's 1d4+1 missiles + 1d6. Unfortunate since stacking that with a Sorc 1 Hexblade 1 for something like 1d4+1+2+1d6 per missile would be pretty sick to see.

This is absolute gold.

You mentioned that concentration free flight at low levels is super rare outside of flying races which are often banned, and you're right. But here's a fun fact I learned earlier today: even though everyone loves to talk crap about the phb beastmaster ranger, they can choose a vulture as their companion, which you can then ride if you're small, for a 50ft fly speed at level 3!

If you have access to setting-specific gear, also consider the regular gear you can create which gives some buffs, like ToA's Wildroot or Ryath Root, EGW's drugs. Once lvl 14 is achieved, basically the whole list is available, except massive ships.

These objects, plus the ability to fly early, just make me think of two words: FALLING DAMAGE.

Would you consider a dip into hexblade to get med armor and shield Prof? It would let you pick up an attack cantrip you could use with your action if you were concentrating on a spell and didn't have to use your action for telekinesis. The bard has a great number of good concentration spells to choose from, so having a spell attack that takes no slot and does reasonable damage might be helpful

WTF? I'm not even mad that this subclass is that strong. But Irrepressible Dance just makes me look at the Oath of Glory Paladin and wonder how the fuck they were both published within the same book.

Imma just say the definition of strongest is one of teh biggest contentions here. creation bard is certainly versatile in battle and has utility outside. But i will say that eleoquence is basically unrivaled in social encounters and while id argue spells could make up the difference eloquence has those same spells. really the thing i love about eleoquence is you have actually relatively lean back off the blowing up your persuasion and branch out. Id argue that is much stronger. But no doubt the creation ability is great for creative play.

at 17 level you can use true polymorph to turn permanently turn into an adult gold dragon. And since you share spell with the steed summoned by find greater steed, it turns into a dragon too. That's a heck of a mount. Honestly i'd rather multiclass into fighter to get the armor proficiencies and constitution save proficiency. Sorcerer is an option too. You wouldn't get armor proficiency but you would get the shield spell and mage armor which is good enough. That's two feats economised right here. One could be used to take resilient wisdom and another war caster Alternatively two level in warlock would give baseline damage. and advantage on con saves which means no need for war caster we economise a feat again.

You mentioned a while ago that a Circle of the Dreams Druid would make the best healer. Would love to see a Dreams build

Something to note on Magic Missile: aside from decades of tradition of rolling multiple dice, the wording is ambiguous at best suggesting each dart is a roll, and the Sage Advice points to a rule about a "spell or other effect" targeting multiple creatures, which may not apply to every casting to begin with, before taking into account that if that was applied to every damaging spell that had the potential to damage multiple enemies, then Scorching Rays and Eldritch Blasts targeting multiple enemies would only roll damage once, but we don't because that rule treats each magical _effect_ as a separate entity unto itself, making a solid ground to argue that the RAW is so unclear you can only go by your table's ruling.

Love this build! Bbuuutt I have to ask what happens if you take a 1 level dip in Hexmage Warlock?

love this build so much...for reasons of completion what feats would you go for after level 14? ty for sharing

this is why Bards are my fav. Inspiration is everywhere!

Sure, you could do a flying carpet... but you could also do La Chasse-galerie. Fulfill all your French-Canadian fur trapper fantasies in a flying canoe. Also useful if you ever need a regular canoe.

The greater steed would also receive any buff you give yourself. Would you explore that option at all?

A firbolg(Speech of Feather and Leaf or what ever it is called) Disney Princess bard with that animal connection.

Agreed that the creation bard is one of the best bards. i'd personally rank it at the same level of eloquence and lore. i'd say eloquence suffers once you hit tier 3+ as magic resistance, immunities and legendary resistance become more common place. in terms of magical inspiration which gives a bonus to the dmg roll, i'd rule it as similar to empowered evocation and hexblade's curse where it's added to the base dmg roll. if it said extra dmg or then i'd add it after the base dmg roll much like power surge. magical inspiration actually makes bards great for captain magic missile builds at level 14+.

Yeeees! FINALLY my favorite bard subclass is getting it's due!

Can you use the 'Ready Action' feature to ready movement? I've had DMs rule no, and their reading made sense, but now I'm wondering if I need to reread it. Edit: having checked, 'ready' allows a readied action OR movement, but not both. I think that's what my DMs ruled against with hindsight, when trying to ready a familiar to act on my turn.

I have a Creation Bard and we just got to level 6 and got to use the animating performance for the first time, it was as an ok attacking option for the situation we were in but it quickly became obvious how much more useful it would be for movement. One thing you havent mentioned is that the Performance of Creation ability doesnt restrict you to create costly Material Components (unlike the conjuration wizard's ability). We have been using it in our table so far because we failed to find a pearl in a harbor town (lol). We are probably not getting to level 12 in this campaign, but do you think it could get game-breaking to be able to create material components with 2nd level spells? (I once ran a campaign in which one of the main goals of a faction was to steal diamonds around the nation in order to true resurrect a legendary wizard of old)

I remember this concept from the damsel-in-distress Warlord of 4E.