Alt. Bard (product of FoxWander's thread)

[Archimago]

Bard
HD: d6
Saves (F/R/W): Poor/Good/Good
BAB: Medium
Armour Pro: Light, Shields
Weapon Pro: All Simple plus 1 Martial
Skills: 4+int
Skill List: As PHB
Lesser Spell Progression
Semi-Spontaneous Casting – Memorize one spell for every spell slot (spells must be of equal or lesser level than slot); cast spontaneously from that more limited group; learn spells as Wizard does in PHB.
L1 Bardic Knowledge, Bardic Casting, Lesser Bardic Performance
L2 Lesser Bardic Performance
L3 Lesser Bardic Performance
L5 Bardic Performance
L7 Bardic Performance
L9 Bardic Performance
L12 Greater Bardic Performance
L15 Greater Bardic Performance
L18 Greater Bardic Performance
Bardic Knowledge – Add (Bard Level/2) to all knowledge checks
Bardic Casting – Bards subtract 10% casting failure because their casting relies more on sound than somatics. Every bard spell has a somatic component, this overrides the spells entry.
Bardic Performance – Learn a new Bardic Song choose one from the noted group or from a lesser group; can perform once per level per day; Bard gains 4 ranks of perform at level 1, and 1 rank every level thereafter
Performance - Affect

Lesser Songs:
Inspire Courage - As PHB
Fascinate - As PHB
Inspire Competence - As PHB
Countersong - As PHB

Songs:
Suggestion - As PHB
Defensive Posture - Add Cha to AC for 10 rounds or till stop
Aggressive Aspect - Add Cha to Hit for 10 rounds or till stop

Greater Songs:
Inspire Greatness - As PHB, also gain +2 damage
Improved Countersong - Bard may attempt a counterspell dispel magic but at half the bard’s caster level; if successful only area of 30ft radius around bard is considered countered
Compulsion - Bard can force a subject to commit any non-suicidal act, target must be fascinated and have suggestion implanted to follow Bard’s will, and gets saving throw at DC 13+Bard’s Cha; counts against daily limit

NB. Bards use a wiz's spell list, but the unique bard spells are included in that list.
PS. I think if you kept the way the Bard's spells work in PHB this alternative would still be okay, its just that they way my homebrew works their spell list is completely improper.
PPS. Because bards now have a choice amongst their songs and that they are grouped differenly, DMs can create their own songs to add to the list and players can customize their bards a bit more.

 

[Crothian]

I copied this from the other thread. Sorry, I hadn't noticed the new thread.

What I would do is create a list like you have of all the ability choices. Some are obviously more powerful then othewrs. So, the more powerful ones get prerequisites. I'd really just treat this like feat chains. I realize that you are moving away from the Bard, and that is good.

So, at first level allow them to pick 2 and then every 3rd level (3,6,9,12,15,18). You can also allow them to spend a feat to get one of these abilites.

Most classes havea focus and I'm not realling seeing the niche this is supposed to fill. I think one can make a Bard without music ability. Ya, it might seema bit wierd, but I've heard of people who have done it.

The spell list needs to be smaller the n the Wizards. That's the powr of the wizard, being able to do almost anything with magic. I think handing out that spell list weakens the wizard.

The increase in skill points is great. WotC needs to errata the Bard like that. That may be the second most common house rule next to increaseing Skill Focus to +3.

Edit After rewiewing your work: Interesting idea with the casting of spells. A combination of Sorcerer and Wizard. I still think the spells list is to much. I think this class would fall into the habit of using all the Wizard standby spells instead of the unique Bard flavor spells. I'd just increase the skill points to 6. The abilities are nice. You might want to steal those from the Virtuoso to add to the list. THis way there will be some choices and not everyone of this class will look the same.