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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zhure" data-source="post: 159453" data-attributes="member: 308">Well, a lot depends on what your bard does thematically. Here's my commentary for the Bard 2nd level spells:Animal Trance - tends to be outmoded fairly soon as it is limited in hit dice. Like a Sorcerer avoiding Sleep, I'd avoid this one.Blindness/Deafness - Nice one even at higher levels.Blur - superb for shutting down Sneak AttackBull's Strength - useful even at high levels, especially if you plan on making a lot of STR-related magic items.Cat's Grace Subject - as Bull's Strength. Plus, very useful for archer-type Bards.Cure Moderate Wounds - Better than Cure Light, still helpful even for higher level characters since it tops out at 26 points whereas Cure Light tops out at 13.Darkness - Stops Sneak Attacks, great defensive or retreating spell.Daylight - Praise Pelor! Good duration, lots of light. More useful for humans and halflings than for dwarves and half-orcs.Delay Poison - Usually not frequently used enough to make it worthwhile, but when it's needed, it's really needed.Detect Thoughts - excellent recon and investigation spell. Not often taken and far more useful in low-combat campaigns.Enthrall - partially useless as Bardic perform can sort of replicate this.Glitterdust - double duty: blindness and finding invisible.Hold Person - a classic stand-by. Can certainly swing a combat.Hypnotic Pattern - like Sleep, this one can become useless in higher level games and it also replicates to some degree the Bardic performInvisibility - Better than hiding in shadows since there's no roll.Levitate - If you haven't pumped your Climb skill, this is really useful, or in certain dungeons, or as a classier alternative to clambering up to a beau's window.Locate Object - extremely useful detection spell, but almost all spellcasters can get it.Magic Mouth - enh. Nice, useful, lots of tricks. Very low combat use, low non-combat use since most casters won't be fooled by it. Basically it's a post-it note and an alarm clock.Minor Image - sonic image, which makes it the first illusion likely to actually fool someone for an extended period.Mirror Image - Except for it's low duration, this one is one of the best defenses against targeted attacks.Misdirection - nice if you're doing lots of stealthy things; not so useful in high combat games or if the opposition is caster-weak.Obscure - As Misdirection.Pyrotechnics - Weeeeeeeeee.Scare - Like Sleep, of limited use.See Invisibility - Glitterdust is usually better.Shatter - not terribly useful, but definitely a sonic attack, of which their are few.Silence - Best anti-caster spell EVER. Downside is you can't usually use perform in it can't ever learn the Silent Feat.Sound Burst - little damage, but can create a stun effect, from which there's almost no defense in 3e.Suggestion - Mind altering = good. Unless you're going against constructs, undead or those with high Will saves.Summon Monster - Also a very limited spell, like Sleep, but not completely useless at higher levels.Summon Swarm - immobile, small area, but still does damage for concentration + 2 rounds in very limited circumstances. Wouldn't take it as a primary spell but makes a nice backup low-damage spell. Bards are weak on damage spells.Tasha's Hideous Laughter - a variant on Hold Person, but most of the subjects you want to affect the most will gain a +4.Tongues - since language is the forte of a Bard, this is a nice spell for groups who travel frequently and expect the party Bard to be the communications officer. In groups which travel little or who have lots of high-INT characters or multiple races, it's less useful.Undetectable Alignment - enh. Only really useful if you're evil and hiding from the paladin or doing a lot of covert work.Whispering Wind - Nice communication spell, but Magic Mouth is almost more flexible if used creatively.As I mentioned earlier, it all depends on what you're trying to do. Bards are very flexible and often considered the Jacks-of-all-trades, so they can have lots of different roles.Perhaps you could explain what goal you're trying to accomplish with the character?Greg</blockquote>

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