Bards and arcane spell failure

[TommyTutone]

Do bards face the risk of having their spells fail when wearing armor and/ur using shields? For example, I have a bard wearing studded leather and equipped with a buckler. If he casts ghost sound, is there a 20% chance it will fail?
I assume they cast spells of an arcane type (though their spell selection is limited), but found nothing in the handbook that would indicate as such.

 

[shilsen]

Are you sure you looked?

The bard description, under "Weapon and Armor Proficiency" (pg. 27 of the PHB), specifically states that the bard suffers arcane spell failure chances when wearing armor or using a shield and casting spells with somatic components.

The following section ("Spells") also specifically states that the bard casts arcane spells.

 

[hong]

Do bards face the risk of having their spells fail when wearing armor and/ur using shields? For example, I have a bard wearing studded leather and equipped with a buckler. If he casts ghost sound, is there a 20% chance it will fail?

Yes. A number of people house rule bards to use divine magic because of this.