Bards: Arcane or Shadow?

[Sir Brennen]

I'd hate to have -all- Bards shoehorned into being emo shadow-lurking tricksters. Bards are supposed to be inspirational too, and I don't really get that flavor from Shadow.

It's been indicated they're probably going to have the "Leader" role, so I think inspiration will actually be the focus of the class, not the trickery side.

It's an example of the 4E goal of making a class as effective in combat as other classes, regardless of their role outside of combat.

 

[keterys]

While I was kinda lobbying for primal, myself... the fact that the bard is done already heavily implies it was designed as an arcane leader,and only got cut for space and/or improving.

 

[Kishin]

I'm inclined to agree with Keterys. The Bard is likely the Arcane Leader.

A Shadow Leader would be very interesting, however.

 

[Xethreau]

After reading over the bard description in R&C and the description of the Shadow power source in W&M, it seems like Shadow would be a more natural fit for the bard than arcane. The bard deals with deception and trickery and that seems like Shadow's forte.

Bards also inspire, lead, and otherwise manipulate emotions. Judging by the effect of powers only, would make it seem like bards should actually be Psi characters! However, that would obviously be a disgusting choice. Likewise, Shadow, which is not nessessarily evil, but very very dark, would also be a disgusiting choice, IMO.

I think Bards will be either Arcane, as per tradition, or will be Primal, and take the Bard back to his "nature" roots, and restoring its kinship with the Druid.

 

[DandD]

I guess they'll go with an "Art/Music"-Power Source instead of "Arcane" for the Bard. They might then also bring in some kind of Dancer-Class, so that the Bard can focus on story-telling and inspiration, and not being a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none-except-for-stuff-nobody-really-cares-nor-needs.

 

[Klaus]

After reading over the bard description in R&C and the description of the Shadow power source in W&M, it seems like Shadow would be a more natural fit for the bard than arcane. The bard deals with deception and trickery and that seems like Shadow's forte. Has it ever been confirmed that the bard will be arcane, or has it just been assumed? Anybody have any thoughts on the matter?

I think Bards should be built up from the Primal power source, tapping on the primal song of creation itself, and having a thematic link to Druids.

 

[Nifft]

Bards, Swashbucklers and Ninjae will all draw upon the Fashion power source.

Cheers, -- N

 

[TroyXavier]

It would be interesting, but I suspect Sorcerer is going to get the primal role, therefore Bards should get Arcane Leader.

 

[Belorin]

I'm going with Arcane and being similar to the Warlock in structure, getting his powers from a patron is a lot like a Warlock's pact. Also there will probably be different patrons, Muses almost, music, song, dance, poetry & prose.
One thing you have to remember about power sources is that they should support at least 3-4 classes, so a Art/Music source might have the Bard as a leader, a dancer class as striker, but where to go from there?

Bel

 

[Li Shenron]

Who decided that bards should be illusionists? That's one of the few things I really didn't like about 3E.

They aren't in fact. They have more illusions, enchantments and trickery spells than other spells, but no 3e bard HAS to be an illusionist.

BTW, I prefer ARCANE than shadow.