Bards vs Alignment?

[Lord Pendragon]

Remember that "Lawful" does not necessarily have anything to do with codified laws. I really wish 3e had renamed it "Ordered" just to do away with this kind of confusion.

The reason that bards have to be Chaotic is that Chaos is the essence of inspiration, the bane of logic. It's the fount of creativity, and a bard has to be creative above all else.

This does not mean that a 3.x bard--as written--cannot be the keeper of his people's laws. It doesn't mean he can't sing the praises of the law, or believe that laws are good. Instead, it means that he likely follows his gut rather than past experiences, may play fast and loose with established forms of ballad and epic poem, and his fighting style is a hectic mixture of half a dozen different forms, rather than the mastery of just one.

 

[irdeggman]

I agree with Lord Pendragon here, also see my previous quote on lawfulness and lack of adaptability.

But (as he points out with as written) this is referring to the default or generic style bard. This doesn't mean that you can't recreate their function and style for your campaign.

For example in the Birthright setting one of the human subraces (the Rjurik) had strong Celtic influence where the role of the bard was decidedly different than the norm. They were required to be Lawful Good. This was because they were the keepers of the laws (per se), those that the people relied on to pass knowledge and give messages exactly. On the flip side they gained some social benefits for being that alignment (basically they were always treated well and respected - translate into free room, board and passage). Their druids were also of the Celtic influence so they also had a unique role by the way.

 

[ARandomGod]

Curious question: How come a bard can't be lawful?

While I was making the kool-aid today (orange, 2 litres, 1 cup a sugar, and a two year old tugging on the pants leg) cranking on Manowar, i was curious about this.

I envisioned a Lawful Evil bard in a society where he spreads the glory of the Nation (Big Brother), you know, like a Lawful Evil nation.


what do you guys think?

kc

Actually, this depends more on the alignment of the GM and the players. An appropriately chaotic GM will ignore any "rules" that they disagree with. A neutral one will take the rule into consideration, and change it as he sees fit. But a rigid, unadaptable Lawful GM, that GM won't allow anything in the rules. (And yet often complains if/when broken rules or rules loopholes are used... but just TRY to slap an Alignment Infraction Penalty on a GM!)