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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hawk Diesel" data-source="post: 7808471" data-attributes="member: 59848">A couple of things come up as I read over the OP. 1) Perhaps reflect on the way that you, as a DM run encounters and design challenges. If every encounter is a combat, then any player that is not optimized for combat will feel less useful. Try to design challenges with each character's strengths in mind to be able to better encourage sharing of the spotlight. A College of Whispers bard is all about subtlety and subterfuge. They learn secrets that give them advantages and use them when it hurts their enemies most, or at least gives them the best chance of success.Any time a guard is giving the players problems with gstting past, or they are dealing with stingy merchants, or need something from the uppity noble, or convincing the bugbear chieftain to surrender, they should be using their Words of Terror ability. Yes, mechanically it causes the frightened condition. But this is not a combat ability and thus should not be treated like one. Have the guard see monsters in the shadows and go chase them, believing them to be a greater threat than the players, or the noble believe that his court is full of spies and that he needs the characters close by to protect him, or the bugbear chieftain see signs that his minions will turn on him to bargain for their own safety and begin attacking his own men.Even better, the Mantle of Whispers is the perfect means of infiltration. You follow the target until they are alone, kill them, and now you have the benefit of disguise self, knowing much of what your assumed identity would know, and no possibility of them popping up unexpectedly. That ability opens so many doors that would be far more difficult in the social pillar of the game. And even the exploration pillar, since you could kill someone familiar of the area and suddenly know a great deal about the area, including important people, general knowledge of those people and customs or idioms, any traps or places/people to avoid, ect.2) Why is the player so concerned with saving their resources? Bards at that level can get lots of inspiration, which can be used either to attack with their psychic blade or to support by granting it to other players. And Bardic inspiration is also useable outside of combat. Is their a player that doesn't have great balance that needs to cross a thin ledge to get to the other side or fall to their death? Bardic Inspration to give them courage and focus (and a bonus to their Acrobatics check). Fighter needs to grapple an enemy about to get away and call for help? Bardic Inspiration to remind them of the stakes and not miss (with a bonus to their Athletics check). And this isn't even counting their non-college abilities. They provide extra healing when the party uses hit dice during a short rest, and their spells have great utility. Even when not combat focused, they offer great support. Faerie fire aids all the players. Charm person and suggestion make social pillars even easier. They can offer healing. They can control the battlefield and create distractions with their use of illusions. This sounds like a player that:1) Needs to learn how to really get the most out of the strengths and role of the bard in general and CoW in particular, including making the most out of the spells they've chosen.2) The need to learn that the next enemy may be more difficult, but you'll never find out if you don't survive to get to them. Unless they have some advanced knowledge of what enemies/obstacles lay ahead and know that they'll need certain resources to deal with them, the player is better served liberally using their resources because otherwise they may not survive.Hope this helps.</blockquote>

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