Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Jul 28, 2003 17:13:02	Given the number of people claiming that Bards Suck on various other boards (mostly the 3.5 discussion one), I thought I'd write a guide to playing bards (both as player and DM. I'm going to divide my analysis into three sections: The strengths and weaknesses of the bard, ideas for bard PCs and NPCs and how I think bards should be used by the DM. First, the weaknesses of the bard. He only gets 6th level spells, so he will get creamed by a primary caster. He gets fewer skill points than the rogue, even before you take perform into account, and has fewer protective abilities than the rogue or the ranger, fewer hit points than the ranger, cleric or any primary fighter and only the BAB of the cleric or rogue. Also many fewer defensive and offensive spells than either the wiz or cleric. All this means that he is going to get creamed in a stand up fight So don't use him in one in the front lines. Instead either have him behind the fighter or cleric, buffing and fighting past them with either a longspear or a whip, put him way out on the flank (or guarding the wiz) and armed with a bow and again buffing or team him up with the rogue and doubleteam any monsters on the edges of the battle to give the rogue flanking and sneak (also let the rogue do the tumbling) as he can. Either that or pretend to be a wizard, and use illusions to cast spells that the enemy doesn't get to interact with yet (delayed blast fireball, creeping doom (even better if the real druid also casts creeping doom and you just add another set of swarms) etc.) and doesn't want to find out about, or ones like illusionary darkness that are particularly powerful when one side can disbelieve them. In short, you won't be the greatest at combat if you are a bard, but can hold your own with some thought and good tactics. Also your buffs add a surprising amount of usefulness to the other characters even though it doesn't feel like "you" are doing it. (If the fighter was going to hit on a 10, and you've just given him a +2 song of courage, you've just added 20% to his chance of hitting (and something to his damage on top of this)). Also remember that as long as you keep singing, your bonus affects every ally within earshot- that includes summoned monsters, people late for the battle and the like. Now we move onto the strengths of the class. 1: Buffing. An extra buffer certainly doesn't hurt, and the bard can buff everyone within earshot at the same time with inspire courage- a very useful ability if there is more than one combat at once. Inspire greatness is also pretty good and inspire heroics gives a dodge bonus, and dodge bonusses stack. All this is before you've taken the spells into account, and although you double up with both the bard and the cleric in places and are missing some of their spells, your buffs aren't bad 2: Information. With both Bardic Lore and Gather Information, the bard is a peerless researcher and a great help for either himself or the party here. (The ability to buy knowledge skills is a bonus) 3: Skills. The bard has a very good skill list and gets 6+Int modifier skills per level. These include UMD, Hide, Move Silently, Listen, Diplomacy, Bluff and Sense Motive which are all amongst the best skills in the game. 4: Spells. The ability to cast a fair number of spells at full caster level is certainly not a poor ability. He isn't as good as a full caster, but that isn't the same thing as being useless. Also due to fascinate he has the highest DC ability in the game- the save against fascinate is a perform check (i.e. 1D20 + Attribute Mod + Skill Ranks +Misc Mod compared to the normal 10 + Attribute Mod + Spell Level + Misc Mod), and best of all, a fascinated creature is unlikely to complain afterwards as one who was magicked would. 5: Synergy. This is the core of playing the Bard effectively. The Bard's skills and spells work together rather than on their own. Using disguise as an example, the wizard can alter shape all he likes- but doesn't have the disguise skill, so he still talks like a wizard (and if it looks like an orc and sounds like an orc, but winces when someone walks across the flowers, it's probably a druid using 1000 faces). The elven rogue on the other hand can walk like an orc, and possibly even sound like an orc- but is too small and can't get rid of his pointy ears completely (and his makeup rubs off), while the bard can do both making him the best disguiser (to the tune of a +10 bonus over the rogue). With Glibness (for +30 to bluff!) and Eagle's Splendour thrown in, he's more than a match for any other character class socially, including the rogue. He's also arguably the stealthiest character (a polymorphed druid or ranger in the wild may have their own opinions), being the only character to both be able to cast invisibility and to hide (and the fact he can also cast expeditious retreat, allowing him to move much faster while hiding is just an added bonus. Everyone has seen either the mascot, the cheerleader, the siren or the wandering minstrel bard- but here are a number of others fitting within the bard class. The Scholar (probably NPC) The scholar loves his books and loves learning. Although the scholar has learned some magic, he is more interested in the theory than the practice and considers the wizards to either be amateurs or annoying barbarians who aren't interested in true learning. His usual use of Bardic Music is through the oratory category and making helpful suggestions (which can occasionally get annoying for those being helped). His fascinate usually comes from finding the pet subject of whoever he is trying to fascinate and knowing enough to talk to them for hours on end about it. The Elder The village Elder (also known as the Witchdoctor, wisewoman or witch) is the leader of the community who all turn to in times of trouble and who knows the inns and outs of the workings of his community. Some knowledge of magic but not much is normal, as would lore be. This probably wouldn't make a very good PC (unless the PC was an apprentice) The Aristocrat The aristocrat has had some of the best teachers that money can buy and, although most of it went in one ear and out the other, some of it including elocution and other perform lessons stuck, as did some of the knowledge and some of the basic grounding in magic. Diplomacy isn't just useful, it's a survival skill as are both bluff and sense motive for the aristocrat, but the other bardic skills aren't so heavily practiced. The Charlatan The charlatan doesn't have any magic- he is just very good at convincing people of a lot of things, possibly including the fact that he is a wizard. Most of his spells should either me mind affecting or rationalisable away (silent image and CLW are both just about possible). Whether he actually has no magic (and is just using it as a mechanic) or whether he just believes he doesn't is between the player and the DM, and if he actually does have magic and just doesn't know it, it could be interesting when he realises that he actually has the magic he's been trying to persuade others that he has. The Son of a Preacher Man The son of a preacher man thinks that he's a priest. Always charismatic and usually trying for converts, the preacher may have his powers from divine sources, may be a complete charlatan, may believe his own rhetoric or may just be trying to do what he thinks is right. How normal clerics react to the preacher is an issue to be handled by the DM or other players. The Court Wizard The Court Wizard isn't as powerful a wizard as a normal wizard would be, but is much better at the court functions. Chiefly an illusionist, the court wizard mostly performs using his magic and bluffs any challengers. He is also one of the most influential people within the court and one who either hears everything or who people bring their problems to. The Spy Invis. Hide. Sculpt Sound. Listen. Move Silently. Alter Self. Disguise. Bardic Lore. Gather Information. Scrying. Suggestion. 'nuff said. The Officer Usually a bard/fighter multiclass, the officer leads his men from the front inspiring them with his words and deeds. He's also an all round professional who's studied magic and history if only to see how it will affect his men, and tends to be very thorough about learning about his enemy, the terrain and anything else that may be useful. The Bounty Hunter Often a bard/ranger (although can be almost any class, with bards, rangers and rogues being the favourite), the bounty hunter is adept at finding and pursuing his prey through any environment then either killing it or bringing it back wherever is necessary. The best use the DM can make of a bard in my opinion is... The BBEG Yes, I am serious. What better feat for a BBEG than Bardic Lore, giving him a lot of knowledge about most things, from which to formulate his plans? Who better to lead a set of disparate factions than a Bard with his high Cha, good social skills, fascinate, suggest and other bardic music skills and a variety of mind altering spells? It does not matter that there are other badguys with more direct power than he holds- with massive bluff and diplomacy skills he can persuade them to do what he wants (remember most classes other than the rogue don't have this- and most rogues are also busy with other things). There may be tougher enemies than this BBEG, but if you don't kill him he can restart and become more powerful than ever. Four examples of Bardic BBEGs: 1: The General- Essentially the Officer on steroids. His men love him and will follow him anywhere, and he inspires both his men and allies around him when he is giving orders (Perform (oratory)) skill. He usually starts the battle with a speech to encourage the men (We few, we happy few...), and shows up wherever the action is hottest, giving orders and rallying the men and increasing their effectiveness. (Needn't be bad in this case). Sense Motive and Bluff both help the General immensely in working out what the enemy is doing, as does bardic lore and his scrying spells. (For direct combat (or even more powerful scrying), he's got an army hasn't he?) 2: The Demagogue- Perform (something), fascinate, diplomacy and sky high charisma used to build and maintain a cult of personality about him and whip up crowds into a frenzy in a direction of his choice. Not much of an opponent if you catch him when he's alone, but that's unlikely and with his inspiration even first level commoners can hit PCs, and don't much care about getting hit back (probably because they are in two pieces, but that's another story) 3: The Maniac- enter the Evil Lord's castle and you hear either screams or some sort of music (Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor on an organ if you are being cheesy, and put it on as background music). Although the Maniac is completely off his rocker, his staff are loyal and devoted, and while the screaming or music is going on, they get the benifit of his music on Inspire Courage. The actual fight with this BBEG is going to be short and uneventful, but getting to him is much harder due to his presence than it would be without. 4: The Mastermind- see the early appearences of Blowfeldt in the James Bond movies for a good example of this. The Mastermind is seldom seen (and when the PCs do catch him, he usually goes invis, casts expeditious retreat and flees down a prepared path). Instead he sits in his lair (or behind the throne...) and directs things. Most of his important minions (say 5th level or above) have a minor wonderous item which he can direct them with (variant of the message spell enchanted into this). They use it to report to him, and he uses it to either guide and explain (inspire competence), encourage (inspire greatness) or coordinate (inspire courage on alll) his minions. Bardic Lore allows him to formulate some nasty plans, and although he probably won't be much of a fight when the PCs finally manage to trap him, he will have given them far more trouble than a straight encounter would be. I hope that this adds both more bards and more variety to the bards that are already out there. Like any other class, the bard is what you make of it- and is pretty effective although it looks unpromising at first glance. And remember... It's not what you can do, it's who you can get to do it for you.
#2 zombiegleemax Aug 17, 2003 7:07:21	Glad to see someone put more thought into Bards than just "Mechanically, I don't think they're very good" I really like the list of archtypes. *snags into file for later use* I particularly like the 'son of a preacher man' idea. Bards do have access to curing spells and can cast in (some) armour now, making them a bit more like clerics and less like wizzies. And since they are spontaneous casters, theres no reason why they couldn't think that it's all divinely inspired. ^-^
#3 dither Sep 01, 2003 8:52:31	Try to imagine a much longer post than this. It was, and then the window closed for embaressing reasons. So here's the shortened version. My first character ever - bard. Why? They're neat. Charisma is the most open-ended of the Primary stats, and makes for many, many ways to interpret different Charisma-based skills. My bard character is similar to the "jack-of-all-trades" but with serious con-artist undertones. I have a rich background for the character, him being the bastard child of a human bard and an elven thief. In his past he was a bright kid, apprenticed to as a scribe, learned his parents were alive, took up wandering, living from day to day, more comfortably than one might think, singing and playing for his supper, occasionally scoring large with a con against an oppresive noble. Lots of fun skills (disguise, diplomacy, forgery, innuendo), knowledges, and LOTS of reward exp for clever ideas and schemes. Charisma and intelligence-based characters are moderately difficult to play, and are really hindered a lack of creativity that manages to run rampant through many D&D tables (somehow) or very restrictive DMs. A couple of cool examples of schemes that I got bonuses for - I approached several nobles and convinced them to invest in our party, to be connected to the heroes that saved the city, mostly bluffing and diplomacy there... ...another fun one to role-play was a con to get the party in a higher standing in the city quickly. The scheme involved spreading rumors, luring city guards into an ambush with our characters disguised as monsters (which we came through victorious, of course), and managed to convince the mayor that we were the city's "only hope", and thus get exclusive rights to looting the dungeon, first choice at other quests that might come up, and free room and board at the best hotelry in town. In only 2-3 gaming sessions of what had been shaping up to be a "hack and slash" campaign, the whole role-playing experience was spiced up thanks to some creative plots enhanced by the bard's cunning and unique talents. Did I mention the fun spells? Boring people use mage armor and magic weapon. Give me stun, grease, and presdigidation any day. Bards give you a flexiblility (for fear of repeating myself) unlike any other class and they are listed here. With so many possibilities, it's truly a wonder more people aren't complaining about how boring the fighter and ranger classes are, and how limited they really are as far as playability. (which is sort of a fib - a creative player can do almost anything, but i like to believe the bard is just the coolest :P)