D&D 5E Anyone else think the Bard concept is just silly?

[Tony Vargas]

Seriously? Gnomes too?

You sure DnD is your game?

Sure, lots of us love D&D while hating specific bits of it, and it's not like the Elan stereotype has no basis in experience of playing the game.

It's just absurd to say that all bards are meant to be Elan.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Funny, Gnomes are my favorite race, and Warlock is my top class for Flavor, second for mechanics. So if I was reincarnated as my favorite race/class, it would be a Gnome Bladelock

A Gnome Bard-Lock is also really fun. I've been thinking of adding one to my rotating cast of recurring, sometimes companion NPCs in Eberron. It's a small team, and I don't want to get too attached to a DMPC, this the rotating thing.

In my homebrew setting I'm developing, that is a bit more magitech, like Eberron meets final fantasy 9, Gnomes are one of the primary races, and Humans are a very small minority in the "main" region. Drow, Goliaths and their Firbolg cousins, Dragonborn, Kenku, and the Fey (satyrs, Dryads, sprites, etc, but also Shadar-Kai and Vrylocka) make up the primary races, with Halflings, Svirfneblin, Elves, Humans, and others being second fiddle to those races.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Sure, lots of us love D&D while hating specific bits of it, and it's not like the Elan stereotype has no basis in experience of playing the game.

It's just absurd to say that all bards are meant to be Elan.

If it helps, I've no clue what an Elan is?

Is it a silly Bard character from something?

I also don't get why people dislike gnomes. Especially when people compare them to Halflings, and the half sized humans win, somehow! Like...if I had to choose 1 to keep in the game, it wouldn't even occurs to me to choose the Halfling. Ever. Im even playing one in Eberron in 5e and FR in 4e,

But I get not liking parts of DnD while still liking DnD. I mean, outside 4e, I really dislike the fighter. I think 5e is actively worse off for having it. I hate the cleric. I think the wizard is overbroad to the point of near meaninglessness in 3 and 5e, but was cool in 4e, and in old DnD when you picked a school.

I just don't get this thread, I guess.

 

[Capn Charlie]

I'll save my blatant gnome bigotry for another thread then.

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[Aldarc]

When I think of a bard, I think of them in mythical rather than historical terms. I think Orpheus, whose music had power even over Hades. I think the sirens who could lure sailors to their deaths with their song. I think the Pied Piper, who played his flute to rid a city of rats and later, of children, when he wasn't paid his fee. I think Sheherazade, who kept death at bay through storytelling. I think Luthien, whose song could enchant and destroy and whose dance cast a spell of drowsiness on Morgoth himself. I think all the countless minstrels who learned or perfected their musical gifts in strange otherworlds. I think of folktales about musicians who summoned ghosts, demons or even the Devil with their playing. I think of those blues and rock legends who were said to have sold their souls to be able to play as well as they did.

Indeed, the bard is far more prevalent in Celtic mythology and folklore, where they are the heroes or protagonists of the stories: e.g., Taliesin and Amergin. What's a wizard? The bard and druid were where it was at. In Lloyd Alexander's Welsh-inspired Chronicles of Prydain, bards were highly regarded heroes and figures, many of whom were seemingly expected to adventure.

 

[KahlessNestor]

To have a problem with the Bard class is to have a failure of imagination and creativity on the part of the player. As others have said, Bards do not need to be effeminate lute-picking poets. There are many cooler interpretations of the Bard. I do wish that the 5e Bard was designed a little differently, with it's own mechanics for various forms of inspiration instead of spells, but I still think the Bard is one of the coolest and most fun classes to play in D&D.

If you want to talk about SILLY you should be talking about Gnomes. Perhaps it is a failure of my own creativity and imagination, but I can't imagine a single Gnome concept that isn't absolutely ridiculous. I still have not gotten over my annoyance with 3e using Gimble the Gnome as the iconic Bard.

You should try Eberron gnomes. Zilargo is SCARY.

Sent from my SM-G900P using EN World mobile app

 

[Redthistle]

Just for fun, here is a short excerpt from "The Wander," which is in an example of Anglo-Saxon poetic verse and which the historical "bards" would have recited in halls full of warriors to promote courage. The poem laments the loss of brave warriors, both for the speaker as a last wandering survivor of a slaughtered band of warriors but also, perhaps, for society in general. It may suggest a perceived waning of bravery that those listening can only address through their own conduct, such as in battle, and through their faith in God's permanence outlasting the unavoidable impermanence of a warrior's life.

Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago? Where is the horse gone? Where the rider?
Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa? Where the giver of treasure?
Hwær cwom symbla gesetu? Where are the seats at the feast?
Hwær sindon seledreamas? Where are the revels in the hall?
Eala beorht bune! Alas for the bright cup!
Eala byrnwiga! Alas for the mailed warrior!
Eala þeodnes þrym! Alas for the splendour of the prince!

...

eorl mid elne gefremman. a hero must act with courage.

Poem in full here: http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=text&id=wdr

In case any bards want to try reciting old english at your next D&D session, the þ characters are not p's. They are a "th" sound.

So, "maþþumgyfa" might share the origin root for Tolkien's hobbit cultural giving of "mathoms" (if I remember the correct word) on their birthdays?

And such a hobbit would then be the maþþumgyfa. Cool!

 

[Derren]

Just for fun, here is a short excerpt from "The Wander," which is in an example of Anglo-Saxon poetic verse and which the historical "bards" would have recited in halls full of warriors to promote courage. The poem laments the loss of brave warriors, both for the speaker as a last wandering survivor of a slaughtered band of warriors but also, perhaps, for society in general. It may suggest a perceived waning of bravery that those listening can only address through their own conduct, such as in battle, and through their faith in God's permanence outlasting the unavoidable impermanence of a warrior's life.

The important part is "in halls full of warriors" not "in the middle of the battlefield while all warriors are currently engaged in life or death combat"

 

[Aldarc]

The important part is "in halls full of warriors" not "in the middle of the battlefield while all warriors are currently engaged in life or death combat"

Just like all those scholarly wizards, druids, and such. What's your point? Why are people giving such about bards when wizards are in this game? Or is this just yet another of the double-standards in favor of wizards?

 

[Obeliske]

I have never liked bards, until fifth edition. Granted I havn't done a lot with dnd and them (4th and pathfinder mostly) but for fifth I really feel like they have a spot and I really feel like they bring their own to the table.