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Message: <blockquote data-quote="chikikosaotome" data-source="post: 7101358" data-attributes="member: 6878438">There are i think a couple of problems.  in previous editions it was stated explicitly that the bard didn't actually have to sing or play music.  reading over the 5e, it not actually required.  you don't even need to own an instrument.  If you want to own an instrument you can use it as a spellcasting focus, but it isn't required.  you can at your choosing just use a component pouch and use the bat guano and clump of dirt to cast your spells. this would make you no different than other casters except you have better fighting and skills.   Even then those who do choose to be creative type need not sing, as was previously stated in other editions, you can instead cite poetry, or honestly you can just talk to your teammate.  You could literally be giving an inspiring speech while in the midst of battle giving your team mates something encouraging to focus on instead of being disheartned.   Most movies with a fight scene often have that rallying/inspiring speech before hand, the bard can just continue to give the speech while your in battle.going back to music, science has shown that music can have an incredibly  strong impact on our emotions.  take out the music from most scary movies and you lose almost all the tension.  without the music the scary movie is just not that scary.  so too the large inspiring dramtic moment will fall flat if you take out the musical score.  heck even in the days of silent movies you still added a musical tract to keep people entertained.  more over you hear stories of music literally saving peoples lives as there have been times that people who are at the limit suddenly hear a song on the radio and it inspires them to make a change in their live or even not to to kill themselves.  music is powerful in the lives of people in our everyday world.  So it's only natural then that in a world with magic the power already imbued in music could be amplified by magic to do incredible things.  but a though i just had is does the bard even have to be singing aloud?  can he just be singing or humming to themselves why they fight?  perhaps the inspiration comes from those who watch their passaion as they fight.also if your are picture a bard prancing around playing shrill music on a lute and having a hard time seeing why you'd want them in battle, for that one specific part i will agree with you.  because obviously by the fact that you used shrill with means its a bad grating sound this bard doens't know what they are doing they obviously don't know what they are doing.   that would mean the person your picturing is either an inexperience pre level 1 type character who just picked up a lute and is trying to learn how to use it and should therefore not be trying to use it in battle or they are intentionally being jarring as either a way to distract the enemy or draw attention on to themselves and away from another teammate by being loud an obnoxious.  The trick about the bard is that they are CHARISMATIC,  if they're not charismatic they just don't work as a character.  someone with a charisma of 20 really just needs to stand there in the battle field and their presence alone  is enough to inspire their allies  and deter their foes.So then comes the pansy comment.  this is the most troubling as it takes the conversation from why/how is music supposed to help me in a battle to  a debate about your own built in preconceptions about gender and your opinions on what that should include and how it should present itself.  What is being found to be at fault is the "singing, prancing, and flamboyant persona" of the bard.  your not really complaining that they are back row support, after all a wizard is back row support and incredibly not suited for front line combat.  so your not concerned about what they do for the battle but how they do it.  So it's ok for a someone to stand in the back wiggling their fingers and chanting or for someone in potentially dirty leathers calling out to the earth mother to protect the group.  but the character who can inspire you music is silly?  also pirates have always been flamboyant characters often dressing in silly ways as have rogue type characters as well, just look at captain sparrow or older captain hooks.  heck even once upon a time's version of hook is best known as captain guyliner and he is otherwise fairly drap in all black leather.   So if this is really the only problem your having issues with, then there isn't really anything anyone can do as your problem isn't really with the bard but something far deeper and personal.</blockquote>

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