bedir than
Full Moon Storyteller
I remain convinced the Bard spell-casting chassis should be the same as Paladin and Ranger - fewer spells, but more buffs (Song of Rest, Bardic Inspiration).
D&D 5E Anyone else think the Bard concept is just silly?
Greenstone.Walker
Adventurer
Strangely, if you replace "bard" with "warlord", everyone wants it and posts lots of threads on forums.
I think most of us in the western world associate "bard" with characters like "Alan a'dale" in Robin Hood, dressing in tights and playing a lute while dancing gaily around the battle. If you look at the skald from Nordic tradition or the piper from Gaelic tradition then you see a different version of "bard".
The Crimson Binome
Hero
If the Bard class was meant to reflect the skald concept, then they would have called the class Skald and it would have art to match. Instead, the picture in the PHB always shows someone carrying a stringed instrument such as a lute.
cbwjm
Seb-wejem
The dude playing a lute in a castle is probably just a minstrel rather than a bard, in 5e terms, that might simply be a commoner with the entertainer background. Not every character in DnD that picks up a musical instrument has to be a bard.
As for modern day bards, I'm sure everyone knows of this guy.
Greenstone.Walker
Adventurer
Watch a movie combat scene with the sound on mute.
Watch the scene again with the soundtrack playing.
The difference is bardic influence.
Watch the scene again with the soundtrack playing.
The difference is bardic influence.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Yeah, Mr. Lute-bringer tends to do the class a disservice in my opinion. Nothing in the class says you must use a musical instrument for your magic, as every description says, "musical instrument or oration" or "music or words of power." A diplomat could be a bard. The basso or baritone war-chanter, spurring on his men with military cadences can be a bard.
I'll close by saying that in 5e I've seen frighteningly effective bards, including one in a game I'm GMing who has served as main party healer, turned the tide of battle against a spectre through his Psychic damage spells, and used several high-level illusion spells and terrain advantage to hold off a score of bandits so the party could get time to flank and perform a smash and grab at the bandit base camp.
In Pathfinder, I once saw a mid-level bard fail a Vampire's domination, and working with just him and Vampire Spawn he darned near killed us, by keeping us occupied with sound bursts, glitterdusts, and grease patches, and inspiring the vampire spawn to attack better.
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