In Dungeons and Dragons 5e, the bard is a jack of all trades. They can sing and dance to bolster allies, cast spells to help them in battle, and even heal wounds. But what makes a bard truly unique is their ability to connect with others. Whether it’s through their music or words, bards are able to bring people together and help them find common ground. This makes them invaluable allies on quests, whether they’re helping the party find treasure or defeating enemies. ..
Specifically, the ability says:
It’s not a bad ability.
But it’s not as powerful as some people like to think.
Since the bonus is rounded down, most bards will simply get a +1 bonus to all ability check rolls for skills they are not proficient in. At level 10, when the proficiency bonus increases to +4, JOAT will grant a +2 bonus to those skill checks.
At level 17, when proficiency bonus reaches +6, the JOAT bonus increases to +3
Bards do get a number of skill proficiencies, however. And they will not receive any bonus on rolls for ability checks for skills where they already have proficiency.
This further limits the usefulness of JOAT.
Similarly, JOAT does not provide bonuses for other kinds of rolls, such as attack rolls or saving throws.
If you were to stop reading now, you’d probably think, “Meh. You’re right, JOAT isn’t quite as cool as I thought.”
But there is one way that this ability is pretty awesome…
Initiative rolls are a type of ability check.
Since you cannot add proficiency to rolling initiative, a bard will always get the JOAT bonus to initiative.
Since there aren’t many ways to improve your initiative score, this is pretty great for bards, especially since (a) bards tend to have high dexterity and thus a good initiative bonus, and (b) bards can often benefit significantly from going early in the initiative order to cast powerful control spells, before enemies can act or other PCs get in the way.
So celebrate the fact that your initiative gets a bonus. And keep track of those times when you barely pass an untrained skill.
It won’t happen often, but you might be pretty happy when it does.
