D&D 5E Anyone else think the Bard concept is just silly?

[Derren]

I agree that the bard concept is completely silly. While there are historic examples of warrior poets or large armies coordinating with music once the battle is joined the musicans fought instead of playing their instrument. Yet this is what the bard in D&D is supposed to do.

If bards were presented as pure loremasters who pick up many different thing like in a post a few pages ago it would be different, but prancing around with a lute or harp is the core concept of the bard.
Basically you are supposed to play Elan from OotS.

 

[Gwarok]

I'm pretty sure the pick spells from other lists abilities is referring to the dabbler aspect.

"Yea, I dabble."

"Dude, you just cast a Meteor Swarm!"

"I dabble pretty hard."

 

[mrpopstar]

Im not talking about ARMIES guys. Im talking 5-6 dudes fighting 10 Orcs and one of them is being an obnoxious poet while everyone else is sword swinging.
Some of what people are saying sounds fine when they say Bards as casters or without musical instruments etc... Except that why even have a bard if you take away the instruments? Then they are the same as a sorcerer or Wizard. My point? They are silly if played as is with an instrument or poetry in combat, and if you try and ignore the Musical part they are not needed because they just duplicate a class already in play.

The bard is a cultured generalist whose interactions are seeped with magic.

Reciting poetry is one way of interacting in combat, sure, but making that choice is not playing the bard "as is."

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

I agree that the bard concept is completely silly. While there are historic examples of warrior poets or large armies coordinating with music once the battle is joined the musicans fought instead of playing their instrument. Yet this is what the bard in D&D is supposed to do.

Is it? Where did you get that idea?
Bards can cast their spells using their instruments. That doesn't mean that have to any more than it means they can't fight.

prancing around with a lute or harp is the core concept of the bard.

Citation needed. Preferably several.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Basically you are supposed to play Elan from OotS.

And yet somehow we manage not to. I guess we're just doing it wrong.

 

[hejtmane]

Is it? Where did you get that idea?
Bards can cast their spells using their instruments. That doesn't mean that have to any more than it means they can't fight.

Citation needed. Preferably several.

Of course the great Giacomo (not that most people get the joke)

 

[Derren]

Is it? Where did you get that idea?
Bards can cast their spells using their instruments. That doesn't mean that have to any more than it means they can't fight.

Citation needed. Preferably several.

Apart from the art, the class description, the class abilities, the quickstart suggestions and some bard exclusive spell description?

 

[cmad1977]

Of course the great Giacomo (not that most people get the joke)

King of Jesters and jester to Kings.


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[Afrodyte]

When I think of a bard, I think of them in mythical rather than historical terms. I think Orpheus, whose music had power even over Hades. I think the sirens who could lure sailors to their deaths with their song. I think the Pied Piper, who played his flute to rid a city of rats and later, of children, when he wasn't paid his fee. I think Sheherazade, who kept death at bay through storytelling. I think Luthien, whose song could enchant and destroy and whose dance cast a spell of drowsiness on Morgoth himself. I think all the countless minstrels who learned or perfected their musical gifts in strange otherworlds. I think of folktales about musicians who summoned ghosts, demons or even the Devil with their playing. I think of those blues and rock legends who were said to have sold their souls to be able to play as well as they did.

When I play a bard, I want to be able to do things like:

• Sing or play up a literal storm, pelting enemies with hail or striking them lightning
• Overwhelm creatures with joy, sorrow, fear, rage or confusion
• Compel creatures to dance to my tune until their feet are bloody tatters
• Utterly fascinate creatures so that they can do nothing but watch me and listen
• Animate inanimate objects or make them do other unnatural things (like bleed or weep)
• Summon otherworldly beings who would do me a favor just so I can keep singing, playing or dancing
• Open a porta to another other world by singing, playing an instrument or dancing

If I have a criticism of the mechanics for the D&D bard (3e-5e), it's that it focuses a bit too much on having a little bit of what other classes have and not on solidifying it as its own interesting and unique mythic archetype.

 

[renevq]

14 pages in and no mention of Kubo?

My take on it is that magic has been viewed throughout various parts of human history as having its own innate magic and being a way of unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos (think Pythagoras and the music of the spheres). As such, in a world that is inherently magical as in D&D, bards have through apprenticeship or serendipity or sheer talent discovered how music intersects with magic and thus be able to use it.