D&D 5E Bards. They are silly. Is there a way to make them NOT silly?

[JeffB]

I do not have a good answer. I have always had players who went to the silly side of Bards to the point where I swung the banhammer. Though , I love the idea of them.

I am always reminded of the interviews with British/Canadian/Colonial veterans of WWII. There are times when some bagpipe player was in a situation where the troops observing him were thinking it was the most stupid asinine thing they ever saw in their lives and in similar situations, that image and music was a big inspiration/rallying cry for a particular vet or group of vets.

 

[iamntbatman]

My new bard doesn't sing. He has an enchanted Hardanger fiddle gifted to him by a creature of the Feywild that he can't quite remember. When he plays tunes on the four top strings, the five sympathetic strings below resonate with magic, and depending how he plays can either twist the strings of fate to benefit his allies or thwart his enemies. Mechanically, the only point to the vocal element of spells is that some sound has to be created (therefore making them audible/unsubtle and unusable if silenced by some means). So all of his spells with vocal components are just various melodies producing different magical effects.

I'm setting up an app on my phone with a custom soundboard with tons of different Hardanger fiddle clips to play at opportune moments. I'm hoping to build a big enough collection that it will help with that repetitiveness problem that was pointed out earlier in the thread.