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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alexemplar" data-source="post: 7090952" data-attributes="member: 6874182">Then he doesn't do it through raw force of personality, but it's very often that kind of character who knows all the legends and lore about monsters, their likes/dislikes, their languages  I have to disagree here.  Having a larger than life/forceful/inspiring/intimidating/charming personality is VERY MUCH a part of the Captain/Warlord/Battleleader archetype.     I'm saying that if Bards don't NEED the instrument- as others have suggested- then there's no real reason to have them gain automatic proficiency with one or insist they be proficient in one or constantly show them with one. If it doesn't define Bards and they work just fine without, then how is its absence considered a loss that destroys the class' identity?  If the minstrel flavor is optional in the Bard class, what is the issue with a Bard class in which minstrel flavor is presented as optional?  I say it's because of the identity the Bard has in D&D.  One that has been cultivated and not changed too much for decades:  the insistence that all Bards- that all oral lorekeepers, jacks of all trades, and pretty much the only dedicated support class- need to be musically themed and carry around instruments (usually a stringed one) and the two concepts are more or less inseparable.   D&D *COULD* do what other games have done and separate the two concepts. I doubt it will.  Why?  The Bard has name recognition.  It has history in D&D.  There are generations of players who grew up playing the Bard in every edition.  There are people who are familiar with the D&D Bard throughout the years and don't want it to change into something that they no longer recognize as the uniquely D&D take on the concept. Too a far lesser extent,  there are people who fear that some new class might somehow still the spotlight/role of this D&D fixture.    I consider that a tradition.</blockquote>

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