Pippem was a Gnome Archivist Bard in Pathfinder. He was a scribe who specialized in knowledge skills and buffing the party with a specific version of Bardic Performance that required knowledge of the enemy the party was fighting.

We only made it to level 4 but for the sake of this article, I'm going to level 5 for that single 3rd level spell.

Porting Pippem Over: Gnome Lore Bard

How would rebuild him for 5e?

Race and Ability Scores

We used standard array in the campaign. I'm looking at 8/14/13/12/10/15 with a +2 bonus in CHA and a +1 bonus to CON for 8/14/14/12/10/17 at level 1. With our level 4 feat, we're going to take Skill Expert (although it should be Fae Touched)

Pippem was a gnome in Pathfinder so I could take advantage of some once-a-day spells. He wasn't particularly stealthy and that's important to keep in mind because Deep Gnome (Svirfneblin) looked appealing at first glance.

Mark of Scribing Gnome seems like a perfect replacement.

Outside of gnomes, Halfling seems like another good choice that would fit what Pippem was supposed to be. Stout Gnomes look nice and I'm a huge fan of Mark of Hospitality Halflings (and even the Mark of Healing Halfling looks great).

Given what I know about the campaign we played in (it was a survival campaign), I'm fairly certain I would have choosen Mark of Hospitality. I wouldn't blame David, our GM/DM from blocking that choice and I'd be content running Mark of Healing... but we'll worry about how I would change him later on.

Given Pippem was a writer and he came to town to document the festivities, I have to go with Mark of Scribing.

Note about Spells of the Mark: Spells of the Mark adds spells to the spell table of your class, it does not make them automatically known. This is a little annoying for spontaneous (known) spellcasters, like bards.

Class and Subclass

The Archivist translates fairly closely to the College of Lore, so we'll go with that.

For proficiencies, I have to stay true to his character and go with Perception, History, and Persuasion. Our bonus proficiencies will be Arcana, Nature, and Survival.

Our first round of expertise will go to History and Persuasion, the second round will go to Arcana and Perception (again, going off of what this character was designed to be, not what the best choice is).

We'll use Skill Expert to pick up a proficiency in Religion and make Nature an expertise.

For spells:

Cantrips: Minor Illusion, Prestidigation, Vicious Mockery Level 1: Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word, Silent Image Level 2: Lesser Restoration, Aid (if available, otherwise Silence) Level 3: Dispel Magic

Background

Cloisered Scholar, all the way.

Insight and Acrobatics.

The campaign had us fighting orcs and goblins, so let's pick up those languages.

Updated: Knowledge Cleric

This is a little odd to think about but at the end of the day, Pippem focused on knowledge so the bard part wasn't the most priminent feature for him.

Plus, we had a rather charismatic paladin in the group....

Outside of Lucky, Halfling isn't particularly interesting here. I'm tempted to take High Elf here and give myself Booming Blade but one of Pippem's tropes was not being a fighter (I took the Help action more often than trying to make an attack myself, something that confused my GM a bit).

Unfortunately, we're just taking Custom Lineage... we can keep him a gnome or halfling but we're looking at Fey Touched with Dark Vision.

Ability Scores: 13/12/14/10/15/8, +2 WIS from Custom Lineage

Taking +2 WIS ASI at level 4.

Spells:

Cantrips: Guidance, Light, Mending, Sacred Flamee Level 1: Bless, Detect Magic, Healing Word, Protection from Good and Evil Level 2: Aid, Silence, Spiritual Weapon Level 3: Dispel Magic, Revivify, Spirit Guardians