Bard Class And Level Squish Coming To Neverwinter In The Jewel Of The North Update

It’s been over a month since Neverwinter developer Cryptic Studios first announced their plans to introduce a new Bard class and revamp the game’s progression system at the same time. We initially thought that both the new class and the massive level squish will be arriving alongside Sharandar’s The Odious Court but it turns out that it was planned for release a little later down the road.

Fortunately, players won’t have that long to wait as the team officially announces the release date for the update, dubbed Jewel of the North.

“Neverwinter: Jewel of the North will introduce the new stylish Bard class, based on the popular Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition class,” announced the studio in the press release. “Players who choose the Bard class become daring heroes who possess the ability to weave magic into their swords, use music to inspire allies, manipulate minds, and even heal wounds.”

“With the ability to select one of two unique Paragon Paths — the swashbuckling, close-ranged damage dealing Songblade path, or the master musician, ranged-casting Minstrel — players will find that the new class offers an arsenal of unique abilities that are based on the power of music.”

As for the controversial level squish, Cryptic maintains that the decision to bring the max level down to 20 is part of the team’s effort to return to the game’s D&D roots and help players reach the endgame faster.

“With this change, new and returning players are able to reach epic-level content much faster (in approximately 10-12 hours) – while veteran players will be able to have the option to quickly level up their alternate characters, and have even more players to party up with to take on challenging quests,” explained Cryptic.

Players caught midway through leveling to 80 will automatically be boosted to level 20 when the update rolls out. “All of their stats and item power levels will remain the same; the only change is their character level will now be set to 20,” assured the studio.

Aside from the new class and level squish, the Jewel of the North update will also revamp the new player tutorial and introduce the new Adventures system in addition to various quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes.

Jewel of the North arrives on PC on July 27 and on consoles sometime this fall. Check out the video below for