1st Edition PH Excerpts: Bard

Wizards of the Coast · Jun 12, 2012

In this preview of the 1st Edition re-release of the Player's Handbook, we venture into the appendixes of the book to rediscover the bard!

Read 1st Edition PH Excerpts: Bard on D&D Insider here!

Scrivener of Doom · Jun 12, 2012

And that, my friends, is the very first prestige class.

dammitbiscuit · Jun 12, 2012

Wow, that is one powerful piece of work! Qualifying for all four classes must have been tough, though, not to mention the down payment on all those levels you take and then forget about from the first three classes.

Big pimpin if you get that far though, eh?

Conjecture: they are previewing this material so that we know the 5e bard will be a badass-of-all-trades, and not the awkward, backup-singer exemplified by Elan of OotS?

tlantl · Jun 12, 2012

dammitbiscuit said:
Wow, that is one powerful piece of work! Qualifying for all four classes must have been tough, though, not to mention the down payment on all those levels you take and then forget about from the first three classes.

Big pimpin if you get that far though, eh?

Conjecture: they are previewing this material so that we know the 5e bard will be a badass-of-all-trades, and not the awkward, backup-singer exemplified by Elan of OotS?

there's only three classes. The druid part is when the player is actually earning bard levels.

I'm A Banana · Jun 12, 2012

The Gygaxian prose is, as always, alternately amusing and fascinating. From "subsumes" in the first sentence, to "Racaraide" as the title of the 5th level bard...niiice.

tlantl · Jun 12, 2012

dammitbiscuit said:
Wow, that is one powerful piece of work! Qualifying for all four classes must have been tough, though, not to mention the down payment on all those levels you take and then forget about from the first three classes.

Big pimpin if you get that far though, eh?

Conjecture: they are previewing this material so that we know the 5e bard will be a badass-of-all-trades, and not the awkward, backup-singer exemplified by Elan of OotS?

There's only three classes. The druid part is when the player is actually earning bard levels.

It took me a year and a half of steady play to make a fast bard (minimum levels) and over three years to do one at max level fighter/thief (8/9)

the really hard part is not using your fighter levels if you do you don't get experience for the stuff you did. Some DMs would follow the rules to the letter and you lose it for the entire adventure.

I was less strict but you didn't gain xp if you resorted to other class abilities for at least the combat or situation where the lapse occurred and afterwards if it affected the outcome of the adventure. Losing XP was a big deal when you needed hundreds of thousands for your next level.

rogueattorney · Jun 12, 2012

Scrivener of Doom said:
And that, my friends, is the very first prestige class.

Nope. The paladin from the Greyhawk Supplement preceded him by about two years. A fighter with 17 Cha and Lawful alignment could "become" a paladin. The wording left it fuzzy as to when Paladin-hood could be achieved. Some DMs interpreted as at character creation, while others interpreted it that it could occur after character creation (if, for example, he changed his alignment or his charisma somehow became augmented).

Scrivener of Doom · Jun 12, 2012

rogueattorney said:
Nope. The paladin from the Greyhawk Supplement preceded him by about two years. A fighter with 17 Cha and Lawful alignment could "become" a paladin. The wording left it fuzzy as to when Paladin-hood could be achieved. Some DMs interpreted as at character creation, while others interpreted it that it could occur after character creation (if, for example, he changed his alignment or his charisma somehow became augmented).

Nope. The fighter becomes a paladin; the paladin is not a new class, per se. All of the erstwhile fighter's levels would now be paladin levels. Agreed?

A bard is an entirely separate class to its prerequisite classes... and thus it remains the first prestige class.

TerraDave · Jun 12, 2012

That appendix, with psionics, the bard, the planes...I think I looked at that far more then most other parts of the PHB...even if it wasn't used much...at least directly.

Olgar Shiverstone · Jun 13, 2012

tlantl said:
and over three years to do one at max level fighter/thief (8/9)

Whoops ... two levels too many. Have to change before reaching the top level, so max fighter/thief was 7/8 before going bard.

1E PHB said:
Bards begin play as fighters, and they must remain exclusively fighters until they have achieved at least the 5th level of experience. Anytime thereafter, and in any event prior to attaining the 8th level, they must change their class to that of thieves. Again, sometime between 5th and 9th level of ability, bards must leave off thieving and begin clerical studies as druids; but at this time they are actually bards and under druidical tutelage.

Emphasis mine. Had a player with a bard in the last 1E campaign I ran many moons ago and it was fun when he finally qualified for the class.