TaranTheWanderer
Legend
All full casters are mostly the same to me. Which Stat do you want to cast with? If there was a bigger difference in spell selection between classes, they'd all feel a bit more unique.
They are as good at support as any other class with the same spell, assuming no extra features from those other classes. There's obviously the sorcerer but there's also the wizard who can protect an ally by being abjuration or giving certain effects through a transmuter's stone. A bard has no features to make any of their support spells stand out or be better.I strongly disagree that bards are not a great support character or that they need any help in that department.
Every bard subclass is great at support, even the college of swords bard, IME the least "support" of the bunch (because so much of their resources go into self buffing) is great at support when they choose to be.
it’s not that they aren’t great. It’s that what they are great at doesn’t align to their identity.
What was the game-world identity of Bard's before? If a Magus is a Wizard/Fighter in PF, is a bard a Wizard/Thief with musical flavor and subbing out back-stab for knowledge skills?
What literature are they patterned after? Was it the Finnish section of de Camp and Pratt? What distinguishes them from a Wizard that uses words (like Earthsea or Name of the Wind) except for singing instead of saying?
Should they be more like Warlocks but with songs? Is that too limiting?
All full casters are mostly the same to me. Which Stat do you want to cast with? If there was a bigger difference in spell selection between classes, they'd all feel a bit more unique.
All full casters are mostly the same to me. Which Stat do you want to cast with? If there was a bigger difference in spell selection between classes, they'd all feel a bit more unique.
So, what exactly does "bard-like" mean? What archetype are we trying to emulate here?
They are as good at support as any other class with the same spell, assuming no extra features from those other classes. There's obviously the sorcerer but there's also the wizard who can protect an ally by being abjuration or giving certain effects through a transmuter's stone. A bard has no features to make any of their support spells stand out or be better.
In fact, they only get 2 features that can even be considered support, bardic inspiration and song of rest. Everything else is selfish for the bard.
So, they can fulfill support, but they're no greater (and even less so) than other characters in this regard.
It makes them feel like a psuedo-wizard instead with their magical secrets trying to have an answer for everything they wouldn't normally have.