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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arius" data-source="post: 4430128" data-attributes="member: 43184">I had a chance to play test a couple bard builds recently and I thought I’d share the results. The two characters were intended to be NPCs but with full stats that they might join an adventure occasionally, or as a temporary character in the event of character death, which have been frequent as of late. While the NPCs have only just met the party, I recently ran a one-off for a new player (who played the fighter) and a 3e vet (who played the bard), and these two NPCs were their characters, along with a warmage type staff wizard I threw together played by myself. The one-off opened with a skill challenge followed by 4 combats loosely based off Bordrin’s Watch adventure (WotC). The first build was a Fighter / Bard multiclass (Eladrin Spear Fighter 5). I picked up a couple Bard powers (Critical Strike and Healing Hymn) that worked nicely to compliment the Fighter powers (Villain’s Menace, Rain of Blows, and Rain of Steel among others) which worked out pretty well. I won’t go into a lot of detail as a 5 level character multiclass doesn’t have much to show, but the other was a pure Bard, musician type build.  The second character was a Half-elf Bard 4 with the following stats: Alyssa CloverfieldGood Half-elf Bard 4Str 8, Con 13, Dex 13, Int 17, Wis 12, Cha 18 Abilities:Dilettante: I chose Enfeebling Strike as a Cha based melee should she get in a bad spot.Bardic Music: Inspire Courage and Fascinating Song.Feats: Jack of All Trades, Lingering Melody, Raging Storm.Cantrips: Prestidigitation and Ghost Sound.At-Wills: Inhibiting Song and Warning Yell.Encounter: Distracting Shout and Ironthunder Horn.Daily: Burst of Awe.Utility: Improvisation. [Coles notes to follow.] The opening encounter was the skill challenge (trek across the mountain: complexity 2) where the bard did quite well with a decent amount of trained skills and jack of all trades to boost the rest. It started off bad though with the first two players rolling a natural 1 and 2 for two of three allowed failures. The pressure was on but the group rallied. The challenge required two players to make endurance checks with the highest bonus being held by the wizard (!). The bard player was please to see Improvisation and promptly boosted the second ally while she made her own check (Perception) for a total of three successes. The group went on to victory. The following encounter had the PCs scaling the fortress walls as the Fighter led the group Climb check up 50 feet and over the top. Once atop the wall the bard suffered her first frustrations. As the Fighter made good use of his longbow and the Wizard used a variety of range attacks including scorching burst and magic missiles, the bard struggled to find a ranged spell with a range greater than 5. Having a low Dex in order to put a few points to Con (what was I thinking) her ranged basic attack was craptacular and the only power with range 10 she had was Fascinating Song, but both other characters were engaging the same group. The rest of the battle for the bard was a lot of misses until the final combatant shoved the Eladrin over the edge of the wall, where he dangled perilously below the remaining orc. A timely Healing Hymn and an Enfeebling Strike saved the day though. Inside the fortress again the bard was met with frustration as ranged attacks failed and the Wizard and Fighter made short work of enemies from long ranged. As the enemies closed to a close range that she might use more spells, the fighter was quickly overwhelmed by orc fodder and the rest found their way into the secondary ranks. Having found herself stuck in melee with a rather nasty orc she found her first success when she used Ironthunder Horn to blast the enemy and knock it prone. She burned an action point to activate Distracting Shout while her fighter company jumped in with a basic attack and the foe was vanquished. She sat there stunned for a moment, shocked, but at the same time pleased with herself. As the encounter at the alter came to a close, the party headed down through a secret door into a large underground cathedral. The party tried to be stealthy with the goal to sneaking up on their foes, but as a single orc caught sight of them, the wizard went off and started launching long range spells. The fighter quickly joined in with his longbow while the bard cursed under her breath for not having a better ranged attack. The Fascinating Song missed for the second time and frustration returned.  I suggested looking over her other options pointing out Inspire Courage. After reading it she looked at me and said it’s a standard action, and it gives a +1 to attack and damage for one round, that sucks, why on earth would anybody give up a standard action to use that? I found myself unable to argue the point, it was a minor buff with a short term and no other effect (as the fear save thing is quite situational and would rarely apply). Having become irritated by the whole thing, she leaped over the side of the stairs targeting the nearest orc and landing square on top of him before standing back up and throwing off a Healing Hymn.  It is here the battle got slightly chaotic as the fighter fearing the demise of the bard jumped himself, but a natural one ensures a long fall flat on his face while the wizard juggled between Bigby’s Icy Grasp and Flaming Sphere to the clear the stairs. As the melee ensued, the bard made good use of Ironthunder Horn again, as well as Distracting Shout and the paladin power Enfeebling Strike, but not before she dropped a Burst of Awe hammering every enemy in range with a daze and the final Healing Hymn for the fighter. She rounded out the encounter with an Improvisation and a few At-Wills as the party mopped up the surviving orcs. Cole’s Notes / Summary:All in all, she had mixed feelings about the bard (and 4e in general), part of that was the range of powers combined with the crappy ranged attack (which is obviously build based) and although she liked some of the powers, especially the encounter powers I chose, she was thoroughly unimpressed by the Bardic Music ones. She found the At-Wills mediocre, and although they are obviously the least powerful spells, the Warning Yell was very situational (and we didn’t really fight many controller types except the Witch Doctor who got thoroughly felt up by Bigby’s Hand) and the Inhibiting Song wasn’t much to write home about. She especially like the encounter powers, Ironthunder Horn being the favorite with the high damage / prone combo, and team inspired Distracting Shout in a close second. The daily Burst of Awe was a life saver, especially when combined with the daily effect of her Horn of Life implement (as holy symbol), and combined with the Healing Hymn as a minor action was able to keep the group going without being the healing machine that was required in previous editions. The utility power Improvisation didn’t see a lot of use, but it wasn’t until the final encounter that she realized it was a minor action to cast, and noted that she would have made better use of that power had she known sooner. Lastly the Bardic Music effects were a sore spot to say the least, and she had the following suggestions (some of which may have been already discussed so my apologies if so).  The Fascinating Song would have been cool if she had got it off, but it really seemed to lack staying power even if you did. I wonder if a combo of sustain minor, and save ends (to force it to end prematurely) would work better.  For Inspire Courage, as a standard action buff that does no damage or meaningful secondary effect and only lasts one round, it needs some help. My suggestion would be to leave it as is but make it a minor action, or better yet, increase the bonus by 1 (making it +2/3/4) or half Int modifier, and make it sustainable (either sustain minor, or sustain move or something). I hope the feedback helps and thanks again Saric for your efforts!Edit: I noticed that in my haste building this character, I seemed to have changed my stats and no longer qualify for the feat Raging Storm.  Stats have been adjusted to correct, and I shifted a few of those Con/Wis points to Dex for use with a bow.</blockquote>

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