Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Symar 06-24-07, 04:13 PM	I understand that a bard is a jack-of-all-trades, wandering minstrel type. The one thing I've never been able to understand about them is how their music (or whatever performance they do) had magical effects. What's the rationalization and reasoning behind that? I have been playing Elite Beat Agents recently, which brought this question back into my mind, but unless the party bard's dancing can bring spirits from beyond and fend off alien invasions, it doesn't compare. So, why can a bard's music/dance/perform magically charm and inspire? Or am I just looking at it all wrong? This isn't a mechanics question, but one of flavor and class background.
Darth Syntax 06-24-07, 05:36 PM	The Bard is really a sort of combination of character archetypes. On is the Bard/Skald/Rhapsode, this is the lore keeper, the scholar and all such related things. They are the ones who sing the epics, keep the laws, and record the history. Think of a kind of pre-literate library, archive, and reference librarian who also happens to be a poet. The other main character type from which the bard draws is the troubadour, the signers of courtly love stories in the south of France on the high middle ages. This is where the wandering idea comes in, as well as the notion of bards needing to be chaotic (which is frankly absurd considering that the first archetype of the bard was often the keeper of the law codes and was required to be trained to recite epics from memory). As to the concept of bards working magic through music, it all stems from the fact that well played music does, in fact, have an effect on people. Some are "compelled" to sing or to dance, others almost go into a trance. This is why so much of bardic magic is of the enchantment sort, it draws on this knowledge and amplifies it. A stirring speech will have a similar effect on people, and thus that can be extended into the oratory bard.
warwinner 06-25-07, 12:36 AM	By mixing powerful arcane words with melodious singing.It's easier to influence people when their favourite music is on.So the bard makes the subject enter a happy/joyous/etc state with music, which makes them more receptive to his arcane syllables and symphonic suggestions which help the bard to get the subjects to do what he wants or let them enter new states of mind They are kind-of like modern hypnotists but with some music and magic mixed in, who put you into a trance with music and suggestions and get you to spill your beans or improve your behaviour with positive suggestions while you are in a hypnotised state
Adrez Nesnsid 06-25-07, 09:19 PM	It's easier to influence people when their favourite music is on. That's why TV jingles for fast food, cleaning products, electronics, et cetera, are so effective.
Tytalus 06-26-07, 02:18 AM	I actually prefer the marshal/commander type, where bardic "music" is purely speech (oratory): the morale bonuses are simply derived from confident commands and inspirational speeches.
Saicotic 06-26-07, 06:57 AM	I don't know what kind of music you listen to, so my example might not make the most relevant sense. But I'll give it a try. Ever been to a full-on metal concert, like Ozzfest or With Full Force fest? People in a mosh pit will do some crazy things, caught up in the moment- and the music helps. Think of a Bard's music kind of like a barbarian's rage, or a frenzy. You get caught up in it, and worry about the aftereffects later.
Radijs 06-26-07, 02:19 PM	I am a teller of stories, a weaver of dreams. I can dance, sing, and in the right weather I can stand on my head. I know seven words of Latin, I have a little magic, and a trick or two. I know the proper way to meet a Dragon, I can fight dirty but not fair, I once swallowed thirty oysters in a minute. I am not domestic, I am a luxury, and in that sense, necessary. That about sums it up.
Symar 06-27-07, 02:30 PM	Thanks for the responses guys, it helps to clear up what they are some.