Getting my head around the Bard

[Greenfield]

<Lies down on couch. "Thank you for seeing me, Doctor. I really need your help." >

I'm currently playing a 3.5 Bard, and while it's not the first time I've played one, the first one died pretty quick.

I know, in my head, that the character is not really an offensive spell caster of any real power, nor is he any kind of physical combatant. The class is designed to be general support in combat, and to take the lead only in RP situations.

Yet I keep finding myself tempted to boost his combat power. I almost took Shape Spell as my 6th level feat, even though feats like that are like adding a turbo charger to a moped.

I chose Versatile Performer instead, which I think is a much better fit. Yet still, some part of me wants to be able to blast or chop things down.

Somebody talk me out of that, please?

 

[kitcik]

You have to have the right temperament (and a DM who gives you the chance to shine) to play a bard, which I do not.

That said, the bard in our group gets more high-fives than anyone else.

His buffs totally rock and he gets us out of the toughest RP predicaments just when it looks like the you-know-what is hitting the fan.

If his buffs were a bust and his predicament-saving unreliable due to some combat crap he loaded up on, this degree of admiration would quickly change to disgust (as far as my character is concerned, anyway).

So, I urge you DON'T DO IT!!

(However, I think Dandu has a nice melee bard build somewhere.)

 

[Greenfield]

Well, my Bard has a Str of 9 (was 8, but got a +1 Inherent as a reward. Total waste.) His Dex is 14, so he can Weapon Finesse all he wants and it still isn't going to impress anyone. Wis is 10, Con is 12, Int is 16 and Cha is 21 (+2 item).

He just made 7th level.

He's not going to be much of a combatant, and Bardic spell selection is anything but impressive when it comes to direct damage dealing. And I knew that when I designed the character.

He rocks in the RP situations though. The Dm has pretty much given up on challenging him in Diplomacy face offs. He's just not ready to adjudicate situations where I'm rolling in the 30s and he's barely in the teens. His Perform checks just hit +19, with the addition of the feat, and I can pump that by another 4 when I prep for the event. And I'm more of a theatric type role player in any case, which makes it fun for me but hard on him.

Still, my first love as a class is still Wizard, and I still find myself itching for the ol' lightning bolt when the situation comes up. But rounds I spend in melee or trying to cast the very few offensive spells a Bard has (and they do offend more than injure) are rounds that I'm not singing songs, adding buffs, distracting opponents or giving general support.

Which means that I'm not doing my job, I'm wasting time trying to do someone else's. And that gets PCs killed.

So I really need to get my head out of quarterback or middle-linebacker mindset, and more into being the cheerleader the character's supposed to be. Adding offensive spell enhancing feats to this Bard is like trying to turbocharge a moped. A colorful thought, but ultimately futile.

 

[Jimlock]

..i've played a bard twice in my RPlaying career. While both times it was fun... One of them was a truly memorable experience. i 've said a little about him in the "favorite class poll", but i'll gladly repeat it here...

It was 2e Planescape...

My bard was a tiefling, human from waist to toe, hyena from head to waist (somewhat like a gnoll). He wasn't the tenor one might expect... not even the baritone type... his voice was really bad... as if he had caught an everlasting cold. His singing was nothing more than a storytellish mumble over his quirky yet flavorful lute playing (some sort of a mediaeval Tom Waits)... He was quite the attraction in one of Sigil's infamous Inns...
Plenty of connections in the City of Doors... He always knew someone who eventually knew someone else who could lead him to the information he was after... He was some sort of an "information broker"... Through a combination of his adventuring experience with his innumerable connections he had managed to acquire knowledge on many a portals and their keys in the City of Doors.......
Unfortunately he died in the most unexpected of ways... he entered an infinite spiral staircase of which he forgot to mark the entrance... Once the door closed magically behind him, well, he never found it again... there was no way to figure out the number of steps he had taken for he had descended in the staircase for quite a sometime... until he figured it led to nowhere.......

.....It was a fascinating experience, for it allowed for great Roleplaying. I remember losing my voice after each session as i tried to imitate his speech. Of course he was neither the tank nor the caster of the party.... not even the rogue one would expect. However the RP opportunities were many and nicely backed up by the DM. I never felt inferior to the party for i really enjoyed simply RPlaying such a character....

For a bard to shine... well it greatly depends on the setting and the RPing opportunities... If the DM and players alike enjoy this type of game, picking a bard is far from being annoying in respect to playing alongside more powerful class...
On the other hand... in a hack-n-slash type of game this inferiority... slowly... eats the player from inside out.

I don't know if your game belongs to the latter... but if it does, i suggest you talk to your DM about how you feel so that he might create more opportunities for your character to shine.

...If your game is fine and you simple want to create a tank of a bard...then perhaps you do need to see the doctor...

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

One of my wife's favorite characters was an Eberron Bard X / Barbarian 1, who took a lot of the Eberron song-buffing feats.

She really enjoyed reminding people, when they were rolling something, "+X for me!" and could do a fairly decent job smacking things around with her falchion in the meantime.

 

[Visigani]

The Sublime Chord is largely a Sorc in disguise with some handy alternative abilities. Because those abilities are reasonably potent control and offensive abilities you can still function in your bardic role by adopting buffing spells. It also advances your bardic music abilities, but at half the rate it otherwise would (if I recall correctly).

I believe it becomes available around lvl 10 or so.

 

[Dandu]

<Lies down on couch. "Thank you for seeing me, Doctor. I really need your help." >

I'm currently playing a 3.5 Bard, and while it's not the first time I've played one, the first one died pretty quick.

I know, in my head, that the character is not really an offensive spell caster of any real power, nor is he any kind of physical combatant. The class is designed to be general support in combat, and to take the lead only in RP situations.

Yet I keep finding myself tempted to boost his combat power. I almost took Shape Spell as my 6th level feat, even though feats like that are like adding a turbo charger to a moped.

I chose Versatile Performer instead, which I think is a much better fit. Yet still, some part of me wants to be able to blast or chop things down.

Somebody talk me out of that, please?

Here you go

 

[Greenfield]

Well, mine is a Half Satyr/Half Elf, and is definitely the Face of the party. He's been mistaken for a fiend of some sort more than once, with his narrow bony face and goat horns.

He's hairy from navel to his cloven hooves, well tanned from belt line to the top of his head, and 100% con man/opportunist in between. A follower of Bacchus, he's a lover of wine, women and song.

He's more than a bit of a free spirit, as I think Bards are supposed to be, and has often been seen diving out a bedroom window when the girl's husband or father shows up.

Yet, when there was a serious chance that he might have gotten a girl in trouble, he had no problem showing up ready to "do the right thing" if it turned out their tryst had borne fruit.

He's put skill ranks into a rather special "perform" area, the kind of performance that normally takes place in the bedroom, if you know what I mean. (Yes, the DM is okay with this.) The Versatile Performer feat now lets him do that particular "performance" at near-legendary levels.

So I'm getting the "face" part down, but when combat comes up I still want to make all the wrong decisions.

 

[Kazy]

From Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible

Bard 6/ Lyric Thaumaturge 3/Virtuoso 1/ Sublime Chord 2/ Virtuoso +8

9th level spells, all of virtuoso's songs.

Plus Snowflake Warchanter; stacks with Weapon Finesse.
At lvl 7 I was hitting with +19 with my Satyr Bard.

Hope this helps.



Btw. How does Half-Elf Half-Satyr work?

 

[gorfnab]

From Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible

Here is a better formated Bard Handbook.

9th level spells, all of virtuoso's songs.

You're missing all but 1 Virtuoso song. Revealing Melody is gained at the last level of Virtuoso.

If you must go melee with a Bard a read through of Breaking Down Inspire Courage Optimization might help.

For melee based bards look into Slippers of Battledancing and Snowflake Wardance.

Bard based melee builds:
Bard 6/ Crusader 2/ Jade Phoenix Mage 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Jade Phoenix Mage 8
Bard 8/ Paladin of Freedom 2/ Sublime Chord 2/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Sacred Fist 3