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Message: <blockquote data-quote="two" data-source="post: 2223276" data-attributes="member: 9002">[I'm not a probability wiz, so excuse any stupid mistakes...I hope my point is still valid, in general]Speaking of a relatively "core" bard, using the old Song & Silence splatbook, you can get +2 to hit/+2 damage starting at level1 using a Bone Horn (from S&S) which augments your inspire courage but reduces the save bonuses to nil.+2/+2 to all attacks at level 1 is how good?  It's real good.In any given battle, the +2 to hit will probably make a miss and hit at LEASE once, and of course everyone is doing +2 more per hit.That really, really, really adds up.Let's see though.Let's say you have a Bard in a party of 5 PC's.They are in the woods, see some orcs, and the orcs start to charge in.  Whatever.The bard blows the bone horn, everyone is inspired, maybe some ranged attacks go off.  Let's assume the orcs close in one round without taking ranged attack damage due to cover or whatever.PC's are:1)  Fighter2)  Cleric3)  Wiz4)  Rogue5)  BardThere are for example 5 orcs.  Pretty scary battle.It's hard to judge exactly how long the battle with take, let's say 5 rounds.Each round, every PC (except the wiz) has a 2/20 or 1/10 chance of hitting instead of missing due to the +2 to hit bonus.That means each PC has a 1/2 chance (roughly) of hitting instead of missing over the 5 rounds, and 4*1/2 = 2 hits were hits instead of misses.Thus the bard is responsible for 2 hits instead of 2 misses, doing 6 (base, on average let's say) + 2 (extra bard damage) = 16 points of damage.The PC's also attacked 4*5 other times (20).  2 of these have been dealt with, leaving 18.Of the 18, how many hit?  Hard to say, but let's assume 50% did (Orc AC vs. bonus to hit at level 1).  A roll of 10 should hit.  So that's 9 hits, and all 9 hits got an extra 2 points of damage from the bard, making 18 points of damage.So far the bard has done roughly 34 points of damage.How many times did the bard do damage by his own strikes?Let's assume an archer bard without rapid shot (yet).  So just 5 arrows loosed, let's say 2 hit.  Let's say 6 base damage per arrow +2 damage = 8 * 2  = 16 points done directly.  Pretty conservative damage done.The total damage done by the bard is 50.That is, on average, 50 points of damage in a 1st level party in a 5 round combat that would NOT have happened if the bard had been, for example, a ranger.Now, in any given combat, the number varies; it might be 20 one combat, or 70 the next (the bard bonus allowed a pick critical to confirm, for example).  Point being, a lot of the extra damage is sneaky; the bard doesn't deal it himself, but it is dealt. A party that isn't paying attention might think the bard isn't doing much.  (how wrong they are!)I played a bard PC a long while, and used to keep track of "hits that would have been misses without the inspire courage".  Some combats it was none. Often it was 3 or 4.  Now that there are spells and other ways to increase the inspire courage bonuses, I'd get them as high as possible as early as you can.  And rock-n-roll.Note:  some bard spells are quite potent.  glitterdust, mirror image, alter self, and naturally dispel magic (just as good as the wizzie).  Plus your bard's cure light wounds WILL save somebody's life at some point.  100% guaranteed.</blockquote>

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