In 2024 D&D, the new Bard still wants to lute that body

Bards hold a soft spot in a lot of dungeon masters' hearts. Bards are described as a jack-of-all-trades, able to do a little bit of everything—which is exactly what DMs are asked to do in Dungeons & Dragons. DMs are every nonplayer character—man, woman, everything in between, and everything outside of that. DMs are a little bit of every river you cross, every mountain you climb, and every dungeon you delve. Heck, DMs are even a little bit of every song they play: every Skyrim soundtrack, every lofi fantasy playlist to sip grog to, every ambient jungle sound effect. Since a dungeon master is all those things, it's natural for DMs to gravitate towards a class that can be so many things in and of itself, and be a fantasy rock star while doing it.

Do we want to seduce the dragon, too? Look, I don't judge what you do in your free time.

Even D&D designer Jeremy Crawford, who doesn't play favorites, probably finds that bards are his favorite. As usual, you can get a beautifully charted view on the D&D Beyond website of what's changing between the 2014 bard and the 2024 bard.

The bard's dedicated spell list returns, as opposed to leaning into other classes' spell lists. Like the other spellcasters in 2024 D&D, bards can swap out a cantrip spell every time they level up, rather than be permanently saddled with the ones they pick up along the way. Bardic Inspiration—a signature  nonmagical ability of the bard that grants an ally a six-sided die's boost to their rolls—can now last up to an hour instead of 10 minutes. Plus you can burn spell slots to get Bardic Inspiration back and use it more. Bards can give an ally advantage on rolls that counter charm spells and abilities.

At 10th level, when bards get to dip into other classes' spell lists with Magical Secrets, they're more limited now in which spell lists they can loot from; those spell lists are now Bard, Cleric (the emblematic divine spellcaster), Druid (the emblematic primal spellcaster), and Wizard (the emblematic arcane spellcaster). No more nabbing Sorcerer and Warlock spells. I'm not well-versed in multiclassing, but I'm betting this affects the "Bardlock," which is a multiclass of Bards and Warlocks.

There's of course so much more covered in both the video below with Jeremy Crawford and Todd Kenreck. Including the new College of Dance bard subclass. Yes, many a dragon may have been seduced by the lute. But I'm guessing a lot of those dragons tune into So You Think You Can Dance later on, after they've, ahem, tossed a coin to their witcher.