D&D 5E A bard walks into a bar

[Moorcrys]

<emphasis mine>
Interesting. See, as soon as I looked at the art [which I had seen on ENworld previously and was not a fan. But was not surprised to see that they used/made it into the book], my first thought was "Wow. They're really taking the whole elfin androgyny thing seriously this edition."

There is nothing in that image that makes me say it's a "she." By the same token, there's nothing so explicit to make me...sure...it's a 'he' either. [though I did, upon first viewing, immediately assume it to be a 'he.' But after a moment or two more, I was like...wait a minute...is it?...]

So, for those that like their elves neither masculine nor feminine (or want them all to be feminine) I guess this is a good thing. [I just do not happen to be one of those people.]

Hah that's cool. To each their own. Looked like a she to me with short hair and an attitude. :-D It reminded me of a friend of mine actually, and she's a she. So maybe that colored my perception of the gender.

It's funny to me because I really didn't like the tiefling art at all. Or the warlock art. This was the first time the art grabbed my attention.

 

[tuxgeo]

Dayum, that guitar, er, lute in the art is serious badass!!!

Yeah, but it has four tuning pegs, not six -- is it a cuatro, or a tenor guitar, or a double bass, or an oud, or something else?

("Rhythm fencepost?")

 

[UngeheuerLich]

That's true, but they got that AS WELL as their other stuff! I guess I should be clear that I don't want it INSTEAD!

I always like the bard to have more stuff...

but I believe this time he gets enough

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I always like the bard to have more stuff...

but I believe this time he gets enough

Haha, probably fair, but this time he got 9 oranges and 1 apple, and I'd like it better if he got 6 oranges and 4 apples. In 2E he got 9 oranges and 3 apples, which probably wasn't fair, but not much was "fair" about classes in 2E (I say that with love for 2E!).

 

[Alessandro Guarita]

Must say: my gnome bard will use a bagpipe. Because "true annoying" is my alignment.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I don't know what the heck those lazy minstrels were doing, 'cause I was belting out poetry while plinking away with my crossbow or bow when I played my bard.

Seriously, there's nothing to stop a bard from launching their inspiration and then moving to something else, because it lasts for 5 rounds after you stop -- pretty much the length of the combat.

Oh, I know. It's just that for some reason people I've seen play bards don't want to.

I don't know if it's just the archetype that causes people to feel that way or not but it's been a recurring thing that we've seen. In Living Greyhawk we played with one bard whose first round was always exactly the same: Inspire Courage and then run as far away from the enemies as possible. Then he'd avoid damage while continuing to sing. We would make fun of him for it constantly saying that it's difficult to feel that he's inspiring courage when he isn't showing any. He'd say that he didn't know how long the battle would last and he wanted the bonus to continue.

We played with another bard who would actually sing quietly in real life as long as their character was singing. Most of the time her turn was stopping singing long enough to say "I'll just keep singing".

More recently, in a 5e playtest, we had one of our players also play a Bard who also would sing and then stand there doing nothing. We asked if he was positive that he didn't want to attack or anything and he said "No, I'm fine. I'm singing." We asked nearly every round for 2 sessions straight before we realized that his answer was always going to be the same. Now we just assume he isn't doing anything every round of combat. Well, until his character died.

Not that many Bards got played. But that's 3 examples, all of which don't even know each other and never played with each other. It isn't confined to those people though. Same thing happened a couple of times in our 2e games and a couple of times at conventions with random people.

I think it's something about the archetype of bard. People think they should just stand around and inspire.

 

[Snapdragyn]

I have to wonder if those bards understood they could sing AND attack? Particularly the one who claimed they weren't sure how long the fight would last - um, it wouldn't matter, just keep singing while you're swinging!

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I have to wonder if those bards understood they could sing AND attack? Particularly the one who claimed they weren't sure how long the fight would last - um, it wouldn't matter, just keep singing while you're swinging!

Yeah, he understood. He was multiclassed as a cleric. If he wasn't singing, he wanted to cast spells. He couldn't cast and sing. His character had a low strength and a really bad BAB due to multiclassing. He didn't want to bother making what he considered to be useless attacks while risking death.

 

[Tormyr]

I honestly never understood the whole, "I keep singing," mechanic and am glad that the bard has obviously moved on to being able to do other stuff while singing/doing the bard thing. Hopefully, this opens up more play options for people. If I ever get a chance to play a bard, a charlatan modeled after Saffron from Firefly might be fun.