Bards - Why do so few people play them?

I am jumping in a little late, but here are my thoughts, meager as they are, on bards.

This class is great!
When I am not DMing, it’s shared between two people in my group, I play a bard. If that's not enough, my wife also plays one. If you think one bard can do lots of stuff you should see what two can do.

A Story

The party generally consists of 6 players and 1 DM. When I play there is also a cohort following us around.

In the last session I DMed both of the fighter types had to miss the session (one was hiking in the wilderness hoping he wasn't lost and the other had to go to Europe on business). My wife's character was the big damage dealer. With her rapier of speed, cat's grace, finessed rapier, bull's strength, and improved critical rapier she was mowing through my monsters. We just need to get her spring attack to really make her nasty.
She also used her perform to give the rest of the party the upper hand in several other cases.

All this was in a dungeon crawl adventure. The next time I DM it will be almost entirely urban, I can only imagine what she will do there.

I do agree with several other posters that the bard class lacks support. I hope that publishers and players will come around and put more information out. Anyway that's all I have for now.

The Sigil said:

Nope. It is not nearly impossible. It is impossible.

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Yeah, I figured someone would point that out, but I preferred going to lunch over fixing it. Usually when people propose this (time and time again, ad nauseam, over and over), they've looked into it just enough to propose Sorc 6/Bard 1, which is the technically doable version, without following through to see how ridiculous it would be to try it.

In fact the official word is that cross class ranks have a maximum of half the character level, (PHB, page 60, first column, 2nd paragraph).
Thus you can either get Bard at 1st, buy Dip and Perf to 4 each, and then spend 16 skill points cross class (2 2/3 per level) or you can take bard last, starting at 2 ranks each (up to 4 each as sorc), and then spend 8 points (if you have them) or more from the bard allowance as class skills with the rest coming cross-class from the sorc skill points, which will probably be around 16 again. 24 skill points either way unless you have a fantastic Int score, but if you go bard last you have to have the 16+ Int/human qualifier.
In the former case, you don't quite need such a high Int, but you need at least +1 SP/level.

I really like bards.

Since I DM a lot, I haven't had a chance to play one recently, but they are a fun class.

One niche that a lot of people overlook is the swashbuckling bard. Think Scarlet Pimpernel or Zorro (in original book versions). Both could be easily reproduced with a bard that used a rapier.

Bards also make good Duelists, using their limited magic to pump up their own fighting skills.

One of my more interesting villains, by the way, was a bardic duelist that drove the PCs nuts because she was nearly impossible to pin down. (Her final downfall was a Dimensional Anchor combined with a couple of targetted Dispel Magics...)

Those of you who think that bards are weak have never really built one, have you? They are on-par with all the other classes and can be munchkin characters if that's what you're looking for.

One of the big things you are all missing is that bards are spontaneous casters. They only cast useful spells, because they don't have to memorize. They also get certain spells at a discounted spell level, notable the information-gathering spells, so they can cast them at about the same character level as a wizard. The Use Magic Device skill is what really brings the bard up to par with the other classes. If you aren't using this, you have a weak bard. The argument that a bard has a weak armor class doesn't fly, because they can use all the same AC boosts that a wizard can. Yes, they may be slightly weaker overall than a cleric, but so is everything else. Especially don't forget that scrolls are cheap, cheap, cheap and the bard can use all of them.

Small group: Use Magic Device gives you a person who can use magic items that might otherwise have gone to waste. Don't forget that the bard can even use evil items without penalty as soon as he has a high enough UMD.

Large group: Improves all combat with inspire courage. +1 to hit and damage for all allies is not small potatoes. Working with the wizard and/or cleric, the bard can UMD to cast scrolls for spell combos that are not possible for any other class. How about Divine Power/Tenser's Transformation combo? He also makes a good person to get "secondhand" items. When the fighter, wizard, cleric or rogue gets an improved magic item, the bard can almost always use the leftover magic item.

Bard is the only class with Speak Language as a class skill. You wouldn't believe how useful it is to speak all known languages.

If you know how to make it, you can have a superpowerful bard, if that's important to you.

Number47 said:

The Use Magic Device skill is what really brings the bard up to par with the other classes. Especially don't forget that scrolls are cheap, cheap, cheap and the bard can use all of them.

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An *excellent* point that I myself have overlooked. Note that this lets bards do a lot of "funky" combination-type stuff.

For instance, use a druid "heal" scroll and a wizard "contingency" scroll to nullify the Harm problem (Heal is a 6th-level druid spell; use it with an 18th-caster-level wizard contingency spell, set to go off when hp<4 - as soon as your foe casts Harm, the Heal is triggered and the net result of harm is a manageable 1d4 points of damage, no save).

Yes, I know - rogues could do that too...

BUT can rogues Craft a weapon (or other magic item) that requires both Divine and Arcane spells? No. Can a bard? Yup. All he needs is a few divine scrolls.

UMD is a terrific skill, now that I think about it.

Okay, that just gave me some EXCELLENT ideas for the Enchiridion of Mystic Music's upcoming revision and expansion... thanks!

--The Sigil

personally, i think the bard is one of the most interesting classes in 3E. bards are loremasters, spellslingers, scouts, warriors, all of that and more. bards are the movers and the shakers of the world. bards are the lifeblood of any campaign, spreading tales and news throughout the lands, inspiring people to greatness (be it good or bad). while bards might pale in comparison to other classes in combat, in a large party, they are an asset, with music related abilities and the jack of all trades feel, they can always help somewhere.

ramble on, here my song...

Number47 said:

The Use Magic Device skill is what really brings the bard up to par with the other classes.

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The bard in our party gets great use from this. We almost gave her the Black Robe of the Archmage, as she could easily use it. If we had a Holy Avenger to go with it, we would have. Now that would have been a sight, eh?

PS

I have never played a bard in D&D.....however, i would like to do so sometime. I -have- played a bard in EQ d20, and the class is perfect. Its a little more powerful than the D&D version, and at some point im going to play a 3E D&D bard to compare them, but i think that (especially) in parties without a lot of PCs, the bard is very useful.