Mulitclass Bard question

[Cutty Sark]

In my group, we have a player who can only show up about half of the time. It's annoying, but he's a good friend of everybody and fun to be around. He plays a Barbarian/Bard. The last time we played there was an argument about his Bardic Knowledge. The question was:

When he adds "his level + his Intelligence modifier," is it Bard Class level or character level?
Same goes for his uses of Bardic Music per day. He's a sixth level character, but only 2 or 3 are levels in Bard.

When the PHB says level, does it mean class level or character level? Or does it depend on the situation and the context?

 

[Limper]

Unless it states otherwise.... for class abilities its levels in that class.... So its Bard levels on both your questions.... the actual effects of the Bards music is determined by Ranks in perform, so these can have a continued progression aside from actual levels in the Bard class.

 

[gamecat]

Welcome the ENboards! It is bard levels. Use logic. Would being an experienced barbarian give you additional knowledge in esoteric fields? That's like saying a figher/wizard progresses in spells when he gains a fighter level.

 

[Dog Faced God]

In my group, we have a player who can only show up about half of the time. It's annoying, but he's a good friend of everybody and fun to be around. He plays a Barbarian/Bard. The last time we played there was an argument about his Bardic Knowledge. The question was:

When he adds "his level + his Intelligence modifier," is it Bard Class level or character level?
Same goes for his uses of Bardic Music per day. He's a sixth level character, but only 2 or 3 are levels in Bard.

When the PHB says level, does it mean class level or character level? Or does it depend on the situation and the context?

I can't find anything in the PHB that would clear this up. They make a clear distinction between "Class" and "Character" levels on page 55. However, they don't stick to the terminology in the class descriptions (they generally only say "level").

I would tend to say that class features should be dependent on Class levels. It seems counter-intuitive to add in Barbarian levels when figuring out Bardic abilities.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

Limper is correct. Bardic knowledge is based on Bard levels. Bardic music is based on ranks in Perform.

 

[Cutty Sark]

Thanks for the quick responses, and the welcome from gamecat.

Normally, or if I was the DM, I'd assume that only Bard levels count. It's just that the 3e rules for Wizards, which I'm pretty familiar with, always specify whether or not you use spellcaster levels. The text in the bard section doesn't. This weekend the player made a halfway persuasive argument for character level representing the overall power of a character.

I was hoping that someone else had had this problem, and found a ruling in a book somewhere so I could help settle this thing for the other players.

 

[Christian]

PHB glossary is often a good place to look:

class level: A character's level in a single class. Class features generally depend on class level rather than character level.

Conclusion: if a class feature depends on character level, it needs to state so explicitly. If it just says 'level', it is presumed to mean 'class level'.

 

[Christian]

bump-want to make sure CS saw this ...