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General Tabletop Discussion
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Bards Should Be Half-Casters in 5.5e/6e
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<blockquote data-quote="Minigiant" data-source="post: 8391762" data-attributes="member: 63508"><p>I think it should be expanded.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Partially is fine.</p><p></p><p>The issue with the Bard is it is <strong>mostly</strong> defined by its subclasses. Bardic Colleges each tilt the bard heavily in seperate directions because the base class does so little.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I think 4e and 5e broke everyone's brains. Traditionally there were <strong>FOUR </strong>grouping of class features.</p><p></p><p>Warrior</p><p>Thief/Rogue/Expert</p><p>Arcane Magic</p><p>Divine Magic</p><p></p><p>Traditionally the bard was the only class with access to all four but at weaker power than full or half members. However D&D had problems getting it right because it was overly concerned with making every class use the 4 aspects in the same way. So bards were rarely matched up well with level appropriate obstacles outside of conversation.</p><p></p><p></p><p>5e "fixed" this by turning down the warrior, expert, and divine aspect of the bard, shoving them into subclasses, and watering down the base class to make it malleable. It "worked" in making the bard function in adventures must it made the class feel more bland.</p><p></p><p>If the bard was supposed to be defined by subclass, it would have been better to make it a halfcaster in a Artificer style. Then subclasses could lean harder in any direction without fear of oveetuning a full caster. Each college would let you focus on warrior, expert, divine, arcane, or generalist aspects of the bard trope.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Minigiant, post: 8391762, member: 63508"] I think it should be expanded. Partially is fine. The issue with the Bard is it is [B]mostly[/B] defined by its subclasses. Bardic Colleges each tilt the bard heavily in seperate directions because the base class does so little. I think 4e and 5e broke everyone's brains. Traditionally there were [B]FOUR [/B]grouping of class features. Warrior Thief/Rogue/Expert Arcane Magic Divine Magic Traditionally the bard was the only class with access to all four but at weaker power than full or half members. However D&D had problems getting it right because it was overly concerned with making every class use the 4 aspects in the same way. So bards were rarely matched up well with level appropriate obstacles outside of conversation. 5e "fixed" this by turning down the warrior, expert, and divine aspect of the bard, shoving them into subclasses, and watering down the base class to make it malleable. It "worked" in making the bard function in adventures must it made the class feel more bland. If the bard was supposed to be defined by subclass, it would have been better to make it a halfcaster in a Artificer style. Then subclasses could lean harder in any direction without fear of oveetuning a full caster. Each college would let you focus on warrior, expert, divine, arcane, or generalist aspects of the bard trope. [/QUOTE]
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Bards Should Be Half-Casters in 5.5e/6e
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