D&D General What's Bardier than a Bard?

[Scars Unseen]

Well stealing from the 2e Bard's Handbook you also have Meistersinger, Gallant, Thespian, Herald and Charlatan.

The rest don't fit, are too niche or have already been mentioned.

I like to imagine a Herald walking around criticizing NPC's names and passing commentary on local coats of arms.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Well stealing from the 2e Bard's Handbook you also have Meistersinger, Gallant, Thespian, Herald and Charlatan.

The rest don't fit, are too niche or have already been mentioned.

Thanks you for the link to the review.
Although I must say, the reviewer (whoever that is...) is going out of his way to state that there was a lot of power creep inside over an over again... while only once saying the reason: the original bard was rather underpowered, so a bit of power creep was appreciated.
So Mr. Reviewer, if you happen to read it: shame on you!

(The review is point on and I got a lot of value out of my first owned book and I played at least half of those kits in different campaigns and never felt useless, as I did with the true bard before.)

So the bard for me was always the gallant who lived through night below and saved the day because she was allowed a second save against the mindflayer stun and the riddlemaster/wizard or the sneaky blade or the gnome tinker? , and never the guy/gal with a lute.

 

[Lycurgon]

Strictly speaking, troubadour is gendered as well. Troubadour is male, trobairitz is female.

You might even have encountered the term in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Priscilla, the young woman in a budding relationship with Dandelion, is described as a trobairitz on more than one occasion (though the game is very heavy on language in general).

Thanks for the info, that is really interesting. I haven't played Witcher 3 yet, so haven't seen the term before. I alway like learning new things like this.

Googling it, I am not sure troubadour is still considered a gendered term, it is definitely etymologically a gendered term, but not sure if it is still considered such. In any case I am now less keen on the name but not totally against it yet.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Troubadour and anything like that is a terrible fit in my opinion.
It can be one subclass, but the bard general class encompasses so much more:
College of lore
College of valour
College of swords
College of wispers
College of spirits
Even the three left are more than just someone who plays music. Actually none of them has to.
So please lets look at something that is not music related.

 

[Orius]

….. I think this thread should have a trigger warning.

Synonyms for Bard? This can really scar people.

I thought you referred to them as "target practice".

 

[Yaarel]

Troubadour and anything like that is a terrible fit in my opinion.
It can be one subclass, but the bard general class encompasses so much more:
College of lore
College of valour
College of swords
College of whispers
College of spirits
Even the three left are more than just someone who plays music. Actually none of them has to.
So please lets look at something that is not music related.

Yeah, the Bard is a fusion of shaman and scholar.

 

[Rune]

Ne’er-do-well.

 

[TarionzCousin]

The 1e bard is bardier than the bard... I said it.

I disagree. The 1E bard is fighterier, thiefier, and druidier than the bard.

 

[Lycurgon]

Troubadour and anything like that is a terrible fit in my opinion.
It can be one subclass, but the bard general class encompasses so much more:
College of lore
College of valour
College of swords
College of wispers
College of spirits
Even the three left are more than just someone who plays music. Actually none of them has to.
So please lets look at something that is not music related.

But the D&D Bard is musical. They get Musical instrument Tool proficiencies, they use them as their focus, the description of their spellcasting says they shape magic with their wishes and music. Music in an a core part of the class mechanics and flavour.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

More than a little surprised no one has suggested Virtuoso.

It has implications of high mastery, but in its more archaic forms it also implied broad mastery; dilettante is a synonym (albeit a somewhat archaic one), and on Thesaurus.com today, "magician" is one of the favored synonyms now. It retains the implication of performance (since "virtuoso" is strongly linked to musical performance specifically), but permits a somewhat broader interpretation. Further, it would make perfect sense that you could have "Virtuosos" who are specialized in specific areas despite their overall interest in a wide variety of fields. 3e even used it as a name for a really quite strong Bard prestige class!

So...yeah. That seems like "Virtuoso" is the perfect name. It retains the right connotations, it expands on them in both archaic and modern senses in on-theme ways, and it has both the flexibility and the actual game history. It does, of course, lack a little of the implicit poetry and poignancy of "Bard" (e.g. no link to Shakespeare, "the Bard of Avon" or just "the Bard"), but there's basically no way to avoid that with a new term, so that's hardly a knock against it relative to any other choice.