Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shadowdweller00" data-source="post: 9512338" data-attributes="member: 6778479">Bards need to remain full casters in 5e; at least without VERY significant additional abilities to make up for itThe fact of the matter is that although bards were not full casters in previous editions, spell scaling was also significantly different.  Spells often scaled based on caster level AND spell level rather than merely spell slot level.  There was no concentration mechanic, so a variety of different buffs could be stacked on allies.  Individual spell effects were often much more powerful: For example Dominate Person gave near unlimited control over a victim.  Hold Person affected multiple targets in 2e and essentially guaranteed death if a single save was failed.  Spells often affected more targets than in 5e.Bards by edition:1e - Spellcasting was based on the Druid spell list; at the levels these could be cast this made bardic spellcasting extremely weak in this edition.  Partly to make up for this, bards had a chance to charm enemies an unlimited number of times per day...at a success rate that started out nonfunctional and eventually got moderately less frustrating.  But charm was essentially mind control.2e - Based on the Wizard spell list, meaning that the breadth of available spell types was vastly greater than in 5e.  Bards could cast fireball, summon impenetrable walls of force3e/3.5: Limited spell list, but many buffs could be layered on allies at the same time and bards had some of the best buffs available.  Like Haste (which affected multiple allies).  On top of this bards got a super-powerful inspiration (inspire courage) ability that would have destroyed bounded accuracy.4e - I didn't play much 4e, and am unaware of what the 4e version was capable of.</blockquote>

Verification