D&D 5E D&D doesn't need bards

[MGibster]

What point is this supposed to convey?

Tomax and Xamot were the facemen, press agents, reputation-builders, and public face of Cobra. I mean they had a thin veneer of respectability in that they ran a successful "legitimate" business facade, but that's what they were.

 

[der_kluge]

Tomax and Xamot were the facemen, press agents, reputation-builders, and public face of Cobra. I mean they had a thin veneer of respectability in that they ran a successful "legitimate" business facade, but that's what they were.

And lawyers. Or were they accountants? No, lawyers, I think.

 

[MGibster]

And lawyers. Or were they accountants? No, lawyers, I think.

They were the CEOs of Extensive Enterprises.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Tomax and Xamot were the facemen, press agents, reputation-builders, and public face of Cobra. I mean they had a thin veneer of respectability in that they ran a successful "legitimate" business facade, but that's what they were.

Ah.

Cobra being a D&D-based cartoon, I take it?

 

[Horwath]

A little rework of NPC/hireling/sidekick class Expert, could be a great "bard".

Lots of skills, lots of expertise, bonus action help, extra tools
maybe add cantrips known equall to prof bonus + int bonus, picked from any class to add extra versatility(yes, it will be Guidance 1st pick...I know).

 

[akr71]

Ah.

Cobra being a D&D-based cartoon, I take it?

The bad guys in the G.I. Joe cartoon. After my time, but I had enough friends with little brothers, that I picked up on it.

 

[pemerton]

In the context of D&D, the challenge for bards as a non-combat/non-support class is having them be relevant to game play. There need to be situations that are important in the context of play, and which call upon a lawyer or "face" or however one characterises the non-combat/non-support bard for their resolution.

There are many RPGs that illustrate how this can be done, but D&D tends not to be one of them.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

To my mind 5E finally got the Bard right - the formula shouldn't be .5/.5/.5, but more like .8/.8/.8 - while it looks unbalanced on paper, it's limited by the fact that a single character can still only do one thing at a time, and is powerful enough to actually make a difference. The problem in the d20 system was that any "hybrid" class would rapidly be dramatically outclassed in every way - 5E got it right, making the Bard powerful enough to actually fill the roles it's needed for.

Though I must say, the idea of making them less of a caster and more of a face does interest me a bit - making something like the Starfinder Envoy class, which is one of the most interesting implementations of this idea I've seen to date, or perhaps mechanically more like the Warlock, as mentioned above. But for now the 5E core version suits me just fine.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Bard, the magical girl who sings bardcore music.


All Disney princess wants to be bard when play D&D.


Bard is the sweet melody in the stealth operations where you need total silence to be not detected by the sentinels.

Magic Idol Singer - TV Tropes

When a Magical Girl is also an Idol Singer. This usually comes in two varieties: An idol singer gains the ability to fight crime (often by way of singing). A girl becomes an idol singer through the use of magic. This type of magical girl is the …

tvtropes.org

Music-Based Abilities

powerlisting.fandom.com

I imagine bards as spellcasters who needs music, dance or telling fairy tales to promote creativity and imagination because their true source of magic power is the fae glamour, and with glamour to craft single-use magic amulets. Their fae magic help them to survive but not to be powerful spellcasters.

To be more popular this class needs a right character in the media (cartoon, comic, novel, videogame). Maybe tomorrow a webtoon whose main character is a bard make this class to be more popular.

 

[Ace]

Bards really weren't a thing in early D&D, janky optional AD&D prestige class not withstanding and the game would fine, maybe better without them. Still 5E offers enough interesting "not a lute plonker" variants to make them palatable and I wouldn't limit them in my game.