From the D&D Twitter feed . . .
Not bad. I like it.
Ugh, magic. I'm not a fan of this new "music as magic" concept. I vastly prefer the 2E bard, who knew magic as a result of dabbling in wizardry, because there was only the one way that arcane magic could possibly work.
Saelorn wrote:
I've never really liked the bard. I just can't visualize the idea of performing a song in the middle of combat. So this approach seems just as good or bad as any other to me.
The power of my bards always come from their ability to play the air guitar.
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
GhostStepper wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
GhostStepper wrote:
GhostStepper wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
GhostStepper wrote:
kill_the_wiz_first wrote:
I've never really played bards, but I've always had a lot of respect for their flavor.
In fact, there was a book... It would have been in the Dragonlance books... I don't remember much of the plot, but I remember a scene, the young girl drummer who was the main character and the military squad she was attached to were standing on a cliff, outside a city in which Takhisis was being summoned to the material plane. The arcane magics were whipping up a viscious sandstorm. The young girl beat her drum, sang as loud and hard as she could, into the biting winds, in defiance of the dark goddess and lost her voice, permenantly as she resealed the goddess.
I stilll get chills and remember that girl's courage even after all these years. Mechanically weak, sure, but I gotta love the bards style
I don't see magical music being the Bard's true power. I want bards to have access to magic, I just like it more when, instead of speaking arcane words to invoke a spell, the bard sings a song, recites poetry, or plays a tune. Using music or poetry as an option for the verbal component of spells is fine. That's how bards worked in 2e anyway, magical music / poetry was optional for the bard.
Rastapopoulos wrote:
Why is the gut reaction always to compare to a video game (specifically, an MMO) or an anime?
Shasarak wrote:
GhostStepper wrote:
GhostStepper wrote:
The description sounds pretty good to me. I was hoping for healing as part of the description.
Shasarak wrote:
Ashrym wrote:
Nicodaudel wrote:
Nausicaa wrote:
Nausicaa wrote:
Ashrym wrote:
LFK wrote:
Brimleydower wrote:
Nicodaudel wrote:
Alter_Boy wrote:
I love the description, and I'm eager to see the art that goes with it. I hope we'll be able to make a Skald bard!
Alter_Boy wrote:
I always saw arcane magic as garbled false true speak. The wizard taps Into the the fabric of magic with speech and motions. The sorcerer is bonded to the magic by blood. And the bard substitutes some speech with music.
Alter_Boy wrote:
That description sounds exactly like a bard to me. I like that language is the key to bard's magic. There are all sorts of things you can do with that-- power words, songs that were song to create the world (ala Tolkien), damnable sayins (ala Zelazny), true names... If you want to read some great old fantasy novels about bard, check out Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster of Head series. Also, more recently, Patrick Rothfuss's Kingkiller series (which has I think like half a dozen different types of magic in it, naming being one of the most powerful).
When I played in the last round of open play test we had a bard in the party and he was very godlike. We played high level characters. The bard could sing and heal characters then rush into combat and have advantage so he practically never missed. I played a cleric and said well I heal so and so then attack such and such. The DM and the rest of the party said no you have to do a ritual to heal and that is your full action. Wait the bard healed the same amount damage as what I tried to do with just a ditty and I have to kneel down light candles lay hands on a character and I am done. It is so stupid. I think that bards are jacks of all trades and master of none. So what ever they do should not be as good as a character that has been fully trained in that ability. They should be okay at what rogues, wizards, and clerics do but should never be total replacements for these classes.
ITT: objections to flavor text. GG forums.
1. Derogatory and unfair comparison to MMO's. Check.
2. Musings on how the old system was better. Check.
3. Factually wrong statements about said old material which in reality isn't that much different. Check.
4. A whole bunch of hate to base flavor text which can easily be refluffed, because my way of flavor should clearly be core instead of anyone else's. Check.
Yup. Looks like a DnD Next opinion thread to me.
Personally, I like the implication that every magical class does magic in it's own way. That magic is just there, as a crucial part of the world rather than just something wizards and spellcasters do. Heck, the idea of bards as these mystical guys actually outdates the idea of wizards, IIRC, and bards (or skalds, or minstrels, or whatever), both oratory as musical, have historically been very important characters in both reality as fiction. From a design perspective, bards feel a lot more consistent with the in-game world, rather than just being annoying guys with lutes who just happen to be there.
And every who disagrees with my opinion is wrong because I say so.
Ishorn wrote:
Ashrym wrote:
Nausicaa wrote:
Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
Brimleydower wrote:
Alex_ wrote:
Ashrym wrote:
Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
Gizmoduck_5000 wrote:
Alex_ wrote:
I'm actually liking this more and more as I think about it. I like that all these classes have options to be more than mundane. Spell Songs are also a pretty neat idea. 13th Age also had Bard Songs that were selected using spell slots, so I think it works.
I am thinking that the Bard is going to absorb the 1E Illusionist class and the 4E Warlord class and force onto both this ridiculous music theme. It is the only way to make the breadth of the class wide enough to make it worth having subclasses.
The middle road would be a more traditional 2E/3E/4E Bard.
I have an odd relationship with the Bard class. It's got exactly the assortment of abilities I would want my character to have, but at the same time its got that damn "playing a flute in the middle of pitched combat" ridiculousness that I just can't get past.
And even if at one point in one paragraph is say "well, it can be... words" if every single other paragraph of the class and every single ability references "music" and playing a flute in the middle of a life and death struggle while everyone else wield steel and sorcerery... yeah, that little subnote isn't even worth having.
"but at the same time its got that damn "playing a flute in the middle of pitched combat" ridiculousness that I just can't get past."
David Carradine made it work in "Circle of Iron"!
Though when attacked by horsemen, even he was forced to admit "It's hard to kill a horse with a flute".
DemoMonkey wrote:
I can't wait for a chance to see what I get for a good "Krull" reference!
DemoMonkey wrote:
Ashrym wrote:
Hebitsuikaza wrote:
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LupusRegalis wrote: