Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Gandal 'The Grim Fisted' 10-27-05, 10:21 PM	I'm about to play a Bard and I have a few issues I'd like to clear up. I'm not looking for excuses to wrought the system, I'd like to play by the book, but the book is confusing me! Bardic Knowledge? Can it be used as a substitute for ANY Knowledge or is it as the text seems to indicate, more of 'Local people' type of Knowledge or as it literally describes ' local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places'. Can it be used to determine information about monsters, or when the DM asks for ANY Knowledge check? Is there a definitive FAQ style expalntion for what BK can and cannot do? Countersong? Is there a simple, unambiguous way to determine which spells you can use countersong against? Is there a descriptor to look out for? is there a list of spells? Perhaps it must be described as a 'sonic' effect? Subsonics (Complete Adventurer) Which Bardic abilities can this be used with this effectively? There's a lot of talk on the forums about using Subsonics to Fascinate (and Suggest) but Subsonics mentions nothing about negating any other 'prerequisite' for a Bardic ability, like the victims requirement to 'see' and 'pay attention' to the Bard. It seems that it's best use is in disguising the 'Inpires' and maybe Countersong... which seems pretty pointless. Does anyone have the 'official word' on any of thes barding... I mean burning questions? Thanks in advance.
TheWinterBard 10-27-05, 10:29 PM	Bardic Knowledge? Can it be used as a substitute for ANY Knowledge or is it as the text seems to indicate, more of 'Local people' type of Knowledge or as it literally describes ' local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places'. Can it be used to determine information about monsters, or when the DM asks for ANY Knowledge check? Is there a definitive FAQ style expalntion for what BK can and cannot do? I have always played it as substitutable for any knowledge check; stories and rumors can be about anything and thus the bard could have picked up knowledge about most anything. I don't know of any text that specifically counters this; let me know if there is, anyone? You might want to play with the DC of the check if it's knowledge that the DM determines might be more or less likely to have come up in a tale. Countersong? Is there a simple, unambiguous way to determine which spells you can use countersong against? Is there a descriptor to look out for? is there a list of spells? Perhaps it must be described as a 'sonic' effect? The [language-dependent] or [sonic] subtypes of spells are always game, I believe. Subsonics (Complete Adventurer) Which Bardic abilities can this be used with this effectively? There's a lot of talk on the forums about using Subsonics to Fascinate (and Suggest) but Subsonics mentions nothing about negating any other 'prerequisite' for a Bardic ability, like the victims requirement to 'see' and 'pay attention' to the Bard. It seems that it's best use is in disguising the 'Inpires' and maybe Countersong... which seems pretty pointless. I played a bard with this once. The way it was handled was that all effects worked normally; the victims' minds were still enthralled or whatever by the effects, but their conscious minds were unaware of the source. Otherwise, there would be almost no point whatsoever to the feat, and if it survived from 3.0 to 3.5, then someone must have thought it at least a little worthwhile. But that's just my two cents :)
Lawrence 10-27-05, 10:35 PM	bardic knowledge is essentially all the knowledge skills rolled into one, but with two catches. 1) you can't retry. you either know something or you don't. 2) it's more 'vague' unless it's something so specific it's unlikely to be forgotten. the rarer the info, the higher the check would have to be for the information to NOT be vague, otherwise it's more of hints or ideas of where to look. I follow the countersong answer for now. Not sure myself. ^-^; and ditto with the subsonics, except I'm a bit more confident in the answer, lol
Jherid 10-27-05, 10:45 PM	Bardic Knowledge? Can it be used as a substitute for ANY Knowledge or is it as the text seems to indicate, more of 'Local people' type of Knowledge or as it literally describes ' local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places'. Can it be used to determine information about monsters, or when the DM asks for ANY Knowledge check? Is there a definitive FAQ style expalntion for what BK can and cannot do? Bardic Knowledge A bard may make a special bardic knowledge check with a bonus equal to his bard level + his Intelligence modifier to see whether he knows some relevant information about local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places. (If the bard has 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (history), he gains a +2 bonus on this check.) It seems pretty clear that unless the subject of the asked knowledge check doesn't fall under the bolded categories then you can't bardic knowledge it. So while you could check to see if you know anything about the resident master baker you can't try to see if you know what a Hound Archon's energy resistances are, that would take a Knowledge: The Planes check.
3doorsfan 10-28-05, 12:34 AM	Bardic Knowledge: A bard has at least a slight chance to know something about almost anything. That quote is from the article bards with class to me that implies that bardic knowledge applies to everything
Gandal 'The Grim Fisted' 10-28-05, 12:38 AM	Where can I find that article?
3doorsfan 10-28-05, 12:45 AM	look at the DnD main page under articles. Look up character class. Bards with class