Greetings,
I have not seen a bard in action, so I come to you asking to see if this seems reasonable or even important and needed. I am pondering a house rule to help the bards do inspiration more often. It goes thus: as a bonus action, the Bard may expand one spell slot. He gains additional inspiration dice equal to the level of the slot.
thoughts?
Personally, I find the bard plenty inspiring.
Bards are probably one of the stronger classes. They don't need more help.
Thanks for the empty responses. Yeesh
Terrible idea.
AndyDay wrote:
AndyDay wrote:
Assuming you're still looking for responses on this...*I* think the class is fairly well balanced.
As you grow in level, you get more inspiration dice, they get more effective, and you regain them faster. Which is why you might be getting the 'doesn't need it' response from other people. Being able to use Cutting Words several *more* times in a combat is a huge swing in how effective your monsters are going to be.
If you were going to implement this house rule, I would recommend that it comes at the expense of something else ... probably Font of Inspiration, since that class feature already deals with improving how fast you replenish the dice.
I've played a bard myself, and find the InspDie mechanic to be balanced as is. Yeah, I need to budget when I use them and when I save them, but spellcasters all have to do that with their resources. I run two games which have bards as well...one is an AL table, where the bard blows all his spells and InspDice as fast as possible, and while he gets frustrated that we're not going to take a long rest, he still finds ways to be effective. The other is a huge 'beer and pretzels' game with an assistant DM and 12+ players. In that game, we did find that doubling certain resources (like InspDice) was the way to go...but I'm pretty sure that they didn't consider parties of that size when balancing the game rules. (I mention this because if you have a strange situation, take what we're all saying with a grain of salt)
The 5E bard is one of the best bards ever. Only the 4E bard gives it a run for its money (but 4E was a major departure from tradition in terms of mechanics, even if you ignore how maligned it is by some people). Compared to its spiritual predecessors (1E, 2E, 3E and 3.5 bards) - the 5E bard is clearly performing its role "as intended", and does not come across as a 5th wheel, or a joke.
I find it a strong class, however perhaps the reason you haved yet to see many people play it is because of the stigma associated with the class from previous editions? I find it a popular class at my store, with many pure and MC bards running around the tables (about half of all tables in my store have at least one bard, sometimes two). Nobody in my store has treated the 5E bard as a joke - in fact, they have said how refreshing it is to finally have a decent bard.
Kalani wrote:
AndyDay wrote:
I am playing a lore bard in a very "striker" centered party (big group). I took Inspiring Leader at lvl 1 as a human, and I use cutting words to prevent attacks from hitting. I use Fairy Fire for any meaningful combat and I think I am the single more powerful character in the party, simply because of the benefits that I give the party. I am the only healer, but I almost never have to heal, due to the party damage and temporary hit points I give them and attacks that I make miss.
I agree that bards are already pretty strong. The first couple levels suck until they can afford decent armor, but they never stop being able to contribute a lot in fights. They also have the best spell selection of any class in the game....because they can get any spell in the game.
After font inspiration they get to recharge 2 or 3 extra times a night in AL.