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<blockquote data-quote="Ashrym" data-source="post: 6184814" data-attributes="member: 6750235">WOTC_Rodney:&nbsp;What role does the bard serve in a D&amp;D Next party? Is it a&nbsp;&nbsp; jack-of-all trades or an inspiring leader or some mix of the two?&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &quot;We’re still in the process of working on the bard, but I would say&nbsp;&nbsp; that there are a few things we can pretty reasonably say fall within the&nbsp;&nbsp; bard’s domain. In mythology and history alike, bards are historians,&nbsp;&nbsp; writers, poets, and eulogizers, as well as doctors and magicians. In&nbsp;&nbsp; D&amp;D, bards should excel in social skills and make good party leaders&nbsp;&nbsp; and party representatives in social situations. They should also be&nbsp;&nbsp; fonts of knowledge, both from their collected stories and histories, as&nbsp;&nbsp; well as from the ability to go out and find information that they need.&nbsp;&nbsp; Bards should excel in any interaction portions of an adventure, and&nbsp; you&nbsp; want to have a bard with you to help seize the advantage when&nbsp; social&nbsp; situations arise. So, I would say that while the bard’s role&nbsp; isn’t&nbsp; necessarily to be the leader of the party, it’s definitely to&nbsp; take the&nbsp; lead during interaction scenes.&quot;It's a broken link and removed but the quote is still&nbsp; valid.&nbsp; 1E bards were an attempt at Celtic warrior style druidic&nbsp; lorekeepers.&nbsp; 2E were more like wandering minstrels.&nbsp; 3E moved back to&nbsp; 1E roots with healing spells and left the opportunity to build various&nbsp; styles of bards.&nbsp; 4E focused more on being arcane casters and less on&nbsp; entertainers.The origins of bards started as prophets and seers, and their purpose&nbsp; was to to interpret customary law, and maintain customary law and&nbsp; tradition.&nbsp; They were an academic class highly valued in some points in&nbsp; history.&quot;Bards are artists first and foremost, and they&nbsp; practice magic just as&nbsp; they practice song, drama, or poetry. They have a&nbsp; clear sense of how&nbsp; people perceive reality, so they master charm magic&nbsp; and some illusions.&nbsp; Sagas of great heroes are part of a bard's&nbsp; repertoire, and most bards&nbsp; follow the example of many fables and become&nbsp; skilled in a variety of&nbsp; fields. A bard's artistic ability, knowledge of&nbsp; lore, and arcane might&nbsp; are widely respected, particularly among the&nbsp; world's rulers.&nbsp;Art and magic share a sublime beauty, and, as a bard, you seek the&nbsp;&nbsp; place where the two meet. You might be a naturally talented wanderer who&nbsp;&nbsp; casts impressive spells almost instinctively, a student of a bardic&nbsp;&nbsp; college who learned ordered systems of magic and epic poetry, a warrior&nbsp;&nbsp; skald who mixes skill at arms with thundering music, a dashing&nbsp; performer&nbsp; known for putting on a good show even for your enemies, or a&nbsp;&nbsp; perfectionist who seeks the consummate formula that blends art and&nbsp; magic&nbsp; into a higher force.&quot;They share some design space with clerics and wizards, and the archetype&nbsp; was a lorekeeper.&nbsp; Twitter feeds list bards as arcane casters and we&nbsp; know they were working on the college of valor as a warrior-esque&nbsp; version.&nbsp; The roguish entertainer isn't representative of the name&nbsp; &quot;bard&quot; but has some more modern interpretations as an entertainer and in&nbsp; other games.&nbsp; I expect to see the roguish minstrel option, the warrior&nbsp; skald version, and the knowledgeable sage caster version.&nbsp; That doesn't&nbsp; mean I'll get it of course, but I'm partial to the more historically&nbsp; accurate representation.Entertainment was not the actual focus of the caste in the first place&nbsp; and stemmed from learning histories and legends in the form of poems and&nbsp; songs in oral tradition.&nbsp; Changes in the roles came with the wane of&nbsp; oral tradition in favor of written works and the time period at which we&nbsp; look sets more of a tone on what a bard represents.&nbsp; For anyone who&nbsp; might not know, the point of the eulogy included a prediction on the&nbsp; deceased's successor and was part of the prophet aspect of bards until&nbsp; the prediction was later removed from the practice.&nbsp; Originally bards&nbsp; were seers, magicians, healers, and keepers of lore.&nbsp; Roguish minstrels&nbsp; are a much later representation but still a valid one base on modern fiction.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ashrym, post: 6184814, member: 6750235"] WOTC_Rodney: What role does the bard serve in a D&D Next party? Is it a jack-of-all trades or an inspiring leader or some mix of the two? "We’re still in the process of working on the bard, but I would say that there are a few things we can pretty reasonably say fall within the bard’s domain. In mythology and history alike, bards are historians, writers, poets, and eulogizers, as well as doctors and magicians. In D&D, bards should excel in social skills and make good party leaders and party representatives in social situations. They should also be fonts of knowledge, both from their collected stories and histories, as well as from the ability to go out and find information that they need. Bards should excel in any interaction portions of an adventure, and you want to have a bard with you to help seize the advantage when social situations arise. So, I would say that while the bard’s role isn’t necessarily to be the leader of the party, it’s definitely to take the lead during interaction scenes." It's a broken link and removed but the quote is still valid. 1E bards were an attempt at Celtic warrior style druidic lorekeepers. 2E were more like wandering minstrels. 3E moved back to 1E roots with healing spells and left the opportunity to build various styles of bards. 4E focused more on being arcane casters and less on entertainers. The origins of bards started as prophets and seers, and their purpose was to to interpret customary law, and maintain customary law and tradition. They were an academic class highly valued in some points in history. "Bards are artists first and foremost, and they practice magic just as they practice song, drama, or poetry. They have a clear sense of how people perceive reality, so they master charm magic and some illusions. Sagas of great heroes are part of a bard's repertoire, and most bards follow the example of many fables and become skilled in a variety of fields. A bard's artistic ability, knowledge of lore, and arcane might are widely respected, particularly among the world's rulers. Art and magic share a sublime beauty, and, as a bard, you seek the place where the two meet. You might be a naturally talented wanderer who casts impressive spells almost instinctively, a student of a bardic college who learned ordered systems of magic and epic poetry, a warrior skald who mixes skill at arms with thundering music, a dashing performer known for putting on a good show even for your enemies, or a perfectionist who seeks the consummate formula that blends art and magic into a higher force." They share some design space with clerics and wizards, and the archetype was a lorekeeper. Twitter feeds list bards as arcane casters and we know they were working on the college of valor as a warrior-esque version. The roguish entertainer isn't representative of the name "bard" but has some more modern interpretations as an entertainer and in other games. I expect to see the roguish minstrel option, the warrior skald version, and the knowledgeable sage caster version. That doesn't mean I'll get it of course, but I'm partial to the more historically accurate representation. Entertainment was not the actual focus of the caste in the first place and stemmed from learning histories and legends in the form of poems and songs in oral tradition. Changes in the roles came with the wane of oral tradition in favor of written works and the time period at which we look sets more of a tone on what a bard represents. For anyone who might not know, the point of the eulogy included a prediction on the deceased's successor and was part of the prophet aspect of bards until the prediction was later removed from the practice. Originally bards were seers, magicians, healers, and keepers of lore. Roguish minstrels are a much later representation but still a valid one base on modern fiction. [/QUOTE]

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