Bard does not suck!

[webrunner]

So, given that Bards can literally mock enemies to death with Vicious Mockery, anyone have any cunning lines to use with said at-will?

Ask the Monkey Island crew

 

[Piratecat]

Ask the Monkey Island crew

Insults and comebacks for MI1

We just had a player change her character from a FFG Troubadour to a bard. She was massively successful and seemed to have fun. We're playing it like the troubadour, however, in that she's not music-based; instead, she uses standards as her implement and creates effects through speech and epic words.

 

[BASHMAN]

While I definately like alot of their abilities the thing I HATE about the 4e bard is that their music does damage. What the heck? My friend said "the song is so sad, you want to die" as the explaination, but that sounds crazy. It reminds me of the bards from various video game rpgs, like Edward in Final Fantasy IV (II originally here in the states).

Next we need a gambler class, one who uses a rod to pull the arm of an invisible slot machine. Roll 3d10, and depending on what combo you get, the enemy takes various effects. If you are really desperate, you can use your money to do 1pt of damage per GP you have in a close blast 3.

I think the bard would be better if they used regular weapons to attack and songs to only do special effects (buffs, grant actions to allies, dominate/slide foes, etc). I could picture one sort of charm spell "vs. Will: pull enemy CHA squares closer. Make a secondary attack vs. the enemy if they are within reach of your weapon". That'd be cool, and bardy, but not cause my brain to hurt. I just can reconcile the "music does damage" thing.

If I ever GM, and someone plays a bard, all enemies have DR 50 to music damage.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I just can reconcile the "music does damage" thing.

You realise the bard is an arcane leader, right? It's not "music does damage" it's "magic does damage". It just happens to be catchy at the same time.

If I ever GM, and someone plays a bard, all enemies have DR 50 to music damage.

That's a genius way to get out of GMing! Appearing competent doesn't seem to be working for me...

 

[shilsen]

While I definately like alot of their abilities the thing I HATE about the 4e bard is that their music does damage.

You should never play this class called the wizard then. Its words do damage. And not just damage. It rattles off some gobbledygook and people catch fire or are blasted with energy, clouds of smoke are created, the ground is covered with ice, the wizard flies through the air, etc. It's the stupidest concept in the game!

 

[Danceofmasks]

Resist 50 music doesn't do anything anyway.
There's no music keyword.

 

[DracoSuave]

The bards don't do damage with music.

Silly people.

The bards sing a tale about heroism and stuff and then reality bends itself so that whatever the bard is yammering about comes true.

'You are a coward!'
'The bard called him a coward, but that's Sir Yorick the Brave!'
'Give it a moment'
(TIME SPACE ALTERATION OCCURS)
'Oh, he's running away... like a coward....'


Notice how a Bard has a number of powers that aren't singing but manipulate time-space?

Oh yeah. It's not a coincidence. Bards are like a newspaper that has the ability to go back in time to make the stories they fabricate real and factual.

They just -hate- being wrong -that- much.


Also, that encounter utility power at level 6 (iirc) that allows them to transfer a saving throw to another? -Awesome.-

Let's say you have two characters that get hit with the same status effect. Happens often when fighting a dragon. Fancy the Fabulous uses this power to give the condition from one guy suffering it, to his buddy who is suffering the same condition.

Now, their effects overlap, and share durations (save ends). Except now that buddy's got a bonus to save against it. So you've ended -two- conditions quickly with a single power use.

Let's just say that's -nice-, and without even bringing up the word 'Warden'.

 

[Regicide]

Next we need a gambler class, one who uses a rod to pull the arm of an invisible slot machine. Roll 3d10, and depending on what combo you get, the enemy takes various effects. If you are really desperate, you can use your money to do 1pt of damage per GP you have in a close blast 3.

You could "reskin" the sorcerer. Sounds pretty close to what you want.

If I ever GM, and someone plays a bard, all enemies have DR 50 to music damage.

This is a game where a warlord can give a peppy speech and a person recovers from having fallen off a cliff and being stabbed repeatedly with a sword and you have a problem with music doing damage? Going "hip hip horrah" already undoes damage, why shouldn't music cause it? I take damage every time I turn on the radio and Britney Spears is on.

 

[DracoSuave]

If you think sound can't deal damage, might I direct you to a course on what -resonance- is and how it can destroy bridges, how cars can have their bolts undone by their bass if not designed properly, and how a singer can, in fact, use it to shatter glass.

Comments like 'music can't do damage' are at odds with the way physics work in our world.


Now add magic.

Make some of that damage psychic mental trauma, and make other damage 'thunder' damage.

And all this is without taking into account the myth and lore that D&D is derived from.

 

[Regicide]

If you think sound can't deal damage, might I direct you to a course on what -resonance- is and how it can destroy bridges, how cars can have their bolts undone by their bass if not designed properly, and how a singer can, in fact, use it to shatter glass.

Comments like 'music can't do damage' are at odds with the way physics work in our world.

If all your enemies were thin pieces of crystal that stood still for you, that would make perfect sense. However a singer CAN NOT set up resonance in a person to deal damage to them. That is how physics works in our world. The movie Push is not real.