D&D (2024) Always prepared spells for the Bard

[Marandahir]

Debatable, especially depending on which Celtic society you look at. Wizard is closer for some, but the only excuse for Cleric is the vague idea of clerics as priests and thus as religious leaders, but…they aren’t. Clerics are closer to missionary priests. Druids are scholar-priest-advisor-wizards, with different focus depending on society and time.



That’s a silly level of pedantic that no one is asking for in any class. Paladins are pretty mythologicially accurate. What you’re describing is history, not mythology.

These are again historical semantics, nothing to do with mythology. Largely based solely on each name, rather than on the inciting inspiration. And very specific to a time and place.

Also clerics are god-awful at being priests of any kind.

All the other classes have connections to what inspired them. Your nitpicking of specific historical time and place doesn’t change that.

I'm not sure where the idea that I'm nitpicking is coming from. I was throwing out examples from myths and folklore, not from history, fyi. But my POINT is that the Bard is broad scope by definition, and it makes more sense that a high level Bard would be synthesizing these power sources while lower level Bards are joining from various cultural traditions.

The D&D Bard is not just based in Celtic Mythology, but the dabbler/trickster/scholar/entertainer archetype that appears in a lot of different traditions. I can see the Bard mapping onto each of these three power sources, but in very different ways. But the more you become a POWER, the more you realise it's all part of the same Universal Song.

I think there's a lot of beauty here.

Doesn't have to be 10th level, fyi, just that I would preserve the distinctions and not give Bards a specialized and pigeon-holed spell list either.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm not sure where the idea that I'm nitpicking is coming from. I was throwing out examples from myths and folklore, not from history, fyi.

Um…you sure? What myth are you referencing in saying that Rangers “would be tax collectors” or when saying they Paladins would be “fighters serving Charlemagne”?

But my POINT is that the Bard is broad scope by definition, and it makes more sense that a high level Bard would be synthesizing these power sources while lower level Bards are joining from various cultural traditions.

The D&D Bard is not just based in Celtic Mythology, but the dabbler/trickster/scholar/entertainer archetype that appears in a lot of different traditions. I can see the Bard mapping onto each of these three power sources, but in very different ways. But the more you become a POWER, the more you realise it's all part of the same Universal Song.

Unlike every other class, this has literally nothing in common with the inspiration for Bards. It’s completely divorced on every level. The Mythic Bard isn’t a dabbler at all, but a master of lore and story, with the power to bless, curse, free, bind, heal, and harm, with words. The 3.5 Bard was a bit closer, but D&D hasnt had an actual Bard class at least since before 2e. (Before that idk) It’s just had a class that borrows the name for no good reason.

Bards are closely related to Druids, Rangers, and maybe Swashbuckler Rogues. More distantly they relate to Wizards, especially in figures like Taleisen.

But they’re more similar to the Irish Fianna than to Scanlan Shorthalt.

 

[renbot]

I was also wondering about "always prepared spells" for the Bard, which would be provided by the subclass rather than the base class. For example, it seems like even divine College of Dance Bards should get access to expeditious retreat and primal Lore Bards should get Comprehend Languages.

Which is weird for me because I've been in the "classes should get more abilities that key off their unique traits (BI for Bards, Channel Divinity for Clerics, Invocations for Warlocks, etc) and be less reliant on spells" school for a while. But adding always prepared spells for each Bard subclass would likely require toning down the other cool non-spell stuff they are getting.

Consider me torn...

Tangent PS: while typing the above I realized why WotC can't seem to settle on a consistent Capitalization scheme. I used to think more things should be capitalized but I kept going back and forth while writing this post and didn't like any of the various permutations.