D&D 5E Bards Should Be Half-Casters in 5.5e/6e

[Scribe]

Not much to say, but that I agree. I like Bards as being able to do many things, and being a full caster doesn't 'feel' correct to me.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

No they should not.

 

[Faolyn]

The most important thing, @AcererakTriple6, I feel, is: what do you want their theme to be? Not their role in the party--we don't need to know if they're meant to buff or heal or fight or whatever right now. That comes later. Paladins are oath-sworn warriors. Warlocks gain knowledge from sources that humanoid dare not name. Druids are emissaries of nature.

Right now, bards are mostly a musical hodge-podge of a class who knows things. It's not a great theme, I know. But with that theme in mind, it actually kind of makes sense that they get such random spells.

So: focus on their musical knowledge. Instead of making them half-casters, make them more like warlocks (but MAD, focusing on both Cha and Int). Few spell slots (but they get those slots back quickly) and a host of invocation-like abilities that are dependent on them playing music, telling stories, or reciting history or myth. Actually make them a knowledge-based class.

 

[Krachek]

I agree to the halfcaster bard, but dont add for 5.5 or 6 Ed, it makes your post heading to a future that may never exist.

 

[Yaarel]

A love the full caster Bard because it is mythologically accurate. The word "bard" comes from reallife Celtic tradition, refering to a kind of mage. This mage did magic by means of formulating magical spells into words. Especially, the bard foresaw and manipulated the future by praising someone to bless them, and making fun of them to curse them. They are known for many other kinds of magic as well.

The famous Merlin is in fact a Celtic bard.

The slot 9 spell Shapechange allowing perpetual shapechanging into anything ultimately comes from a story about another Celtic bard, Taliesin.

The slot 9 spell Foresight is also a Celtic bard thing relating to the ability to foresee the future.

Power Word Kill is something the Celtic bard is famous for, where the satire litery deals body harm.

Generally, the main themes of the D&D class are prescience, healing, teleportation, shapechanging, and of course mind magic, of enchantment and illusion. These themes are mythologically correct.

I appreciate the accuracy because the term bard is a reallife term from a reallife culture. For the sake of cultural sensitivity, there is an ethical obligation to use the term in a reasonably appropriate way - and here D&D does this well.

The Bard class models Celtic magical traditions. But it turns out, the Bard class also describes Nordic magical tradions well. The healing, resurrecting, and protective magic relate to the Songs. The prescience relates to the Spa by the volva. Mind magic of enchantment and illusion relates to Seidr. The shapeshifting and teleportation relate to Form Travel.

The Celtic and Nordic traditions sometimes describe very powerful magic. The high level spellcasting of the Bard class is accurate too. The Bard is an important and excellent class.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No they should not.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think you are right that the Artificer could be a really good model for what a half-casting Bard could look like.

I wonder if someone could do a reskinning of the Artificer with bard-like flavoring to see what it would feel like to play.

I think it may require a new, custom archetype, but the class itself lets you Infure some instruments and some other bard-y items:

• Eyes of Charming
• Pipes of Haunting
• Hat of disguise
• Boot of striding and springing
• Pipes of the sewer
• Horn of Blasting

 

[humble minion]

If I was redoing the 5e bard from scratch, they’d be a general charisma-based class centred around support and inspiration, and the base class would have no spell casting abilities at all. Their subclasses would be heavy, with lots of features - one of which would give half spellcasting of the ‘traditional’ bardy enchantment/illusion/thunder sort. This would allow the class to also have for instance, a Marshal subclass that grants weapon/armour proficiencies and Extra Attack and so on, but which remained largely martial rather than ending up a spellcaster at high levels just because Bards Cast Magic.

it’s probably a sacred cow too far, but I’d even look at changing the class name.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

That change would definitely push me further toward making my own version of the Bard, since it would push the Bard further from what it should be, IMO.

I do agree that the high level spell list sucks, though.

I just don’t see why that would ever be support for the argument to “make it a half caster”. The best solution to that problem is to fix the spell list.

And not with more kind control magic, for the love of song.

Inspire Courage/Wrath/Cleverness spells that give big meaty group buffs. Spells that turn the world against the target. Druid spells.

Mass versions of spells like Longstrider, Jump, Enhance Ability.
At very high level (7-9) look at things like multi-target spells similar to haste.

spells that are similar to divine “Turn X” abilities but more tuned toward “I speak and you feel my rebuke in your bones and want to be anywhere but where you can hear my words of rebuke” flavor.

The Bard needs to grow past the Jack of all Trades, which fits the Ranger or Rogue better anyway, and reach toward a more mythic archetype of a lore keeper, a speaker of truth and whose deception are especially dangerous bc they have the power of truth, someone who can lay down curses and cure the sick with word or song or secret knowledge.

In D&D, it’s just harder to do any of that without Spellcasting, and at high levels it requires full casting.

I’d give the bard more known spells, strong ritual casting, and features that leverage knowledge and social skills to magical effect.

 

[Greg K]

In my opinion, this is the first time they got the bard right, so keep it a full-caster. Or, they could give the bard its subclass at first level. One subclass for full caster, one for the warrior skald, and one for the roguish minstrel.