Bards - What Makes them Good?

[Starfox]

I've seen a lot of mention about how people play bards and find them both enjoyable and powerful. I'd like a few pointers - what powers, combos, items do you use? What is your role compared to other leaders?

While I like the bard, I find it too much of a generalist - not good at anything really. I'd like to be proven wrong.

 

[eamon]

Well, they make great skill monkeys, that's for sure. Particularly Prescient bards - wis+cha are the most used stats for skills. That, in combination with the easy multiclassing means that they can collect quite a few skills without too much cost in combat effectiveness. They do strike me as being a little less dramatically good, though. Nevertheless, the little bits here and there to help; they may not have an uber at-will like the str-cleric or artificer, but several at-wills are fairly solid, at least.

They may not be the flashiest, most impactful class, but the various little bits do add up, and the generalism is somewhat valuable, so they're definitely quite playable.

 

[sfedi]

From a DM perspective, the bard in the group was different from other leaders because:

- it allowed for clever tactics (like the Tactical Warlod)
- excellent support out of combat

I should note, though, that I DM in a way that makes skills very important, so in my case the Bard may have had an advantage over other leaders.

 

[Rothe_]

I think that bards are very much a leader/controller mash-ups. In a positive sense.

The group I DM for has a valorous bard and he keeps the party going with his heals and the valorous ability that grants temp hp when ally bloodies or kills an enemy. In addition to that, he has some nice controller powers, like shout of triumph.

Bards are not maybe the *most powerful* leader type, but they are as good as most leaders. Optimized clerics and warlords will probably be a bit better, but the difference is not big.

 

[Rechan]

I think that bards are very much a leader/controller mash-ups. In a positive sense.

This.

With my cunning Bard, I felt like I could seriously hamper enemies. I was sliding them around giving extra attacks, dominating them, etc. At the time, I had Allegro, which saved the party's bacon TWICE - once that got everyone out of a grab situation, and once a boxed in position. CUnning Bards can also slide one person free each round, so that can often get a player out of a few scrapes.

The ability for the Inspiring Word to grant a free slide is also useful.

My Prescient Bard is basically the "Not so fast" bard. I can protect people from getting hit (Prescient class feature), make an attack hit (Rhythm of the Bloody Blade or so) and grant some nasty damage as well as prevent a hit (Warning Shot). Dancing between Vicious Mockery and Jinx Shot lets me at least almost prevent attacks.

Alsolat +Cha to out of combat healing is very, very useful.

The Valorous bard I ran for was equally useful. His ability to lower enemy defensese with an at-will made elite and solo monsters more palatable. And his dailies - "Here, take some HP every time you hit this guy" was quite useful.

It's not so much the raw power - but they are flashy, and have a lot of tools in their toolkit.

 

[DracoSuave]

Let's see. In terms of healing power, they're pretty decent. They save you surges in the long run with Song of Rest, and they have decent at-wills all around, rather than one at-will you must have and who cares about the second.

One place they are awesome in is in their dailies. Many of them have persistant effects that help your allies while attacking your foes, which makes Coordinated Explosion an excellent feat for them after Expertise.

As well, they do a lot of psychic damage and thunder damage, which at paragon lets you milk the excellent paragon feats for these.

In terms of multiclassing, besides their feature, Charisma's not a bad place to be for other class's powers. Paladin, Warlock, and Sorcerer all have Charisma attacks which can be used.

As well, you have Allegro, which as noted above, is awesome. If you like the position-game in 4E, Bard is one way to get the most out of it.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Valorous plus War Chanter can hand out ridiculous amounts of Temp hit points, especially to himself. In every encounter I had with mine from 12th to 20th level, he saved the fighter and himself at least one surge and sometimes two in every fight. They are also great with a fighter that has the Agile Opportunist feat in PHBII (Paragon tier) that allows a basic attack whenever they are slid, pulled, etc. Majestic word = tons of healing, a nice shift and a free attack. Get an invoker with the feat that allows a shift when using an encounter or daily and that is like a free attack nearly every round.

 

[Mengu]

Been around a Cunning Bard through low heroic, and Valor Bard in low paragon. Both have been fantastic leaders. They both save healing surges, the Cunning Bard does it with slides. I get surrounded by a bunch of guys, one of them misses, and slide, i'm out of there, leaving the rest of the mobs without a target to attack. Valor Bard War Enchanter as mentioned keep the whole party including himself fueled on temp hit points nearly all the time. We had an infernal warlock in our party who gained her own temp hit points too, so taking a snapshot of the game at any time, most of the party would have temps.

And with a Bard, we also get very efficient surge expenditure during short rests.

Their powers keep us mobile, fueled up on attack/damage bonuses, and give us frequent free attacks. Warlords and Bards are currently my favorite leaders.

 

[Nifft]

Effect-based Daily powers which are reasonably strong. It's like playing a Warlord who doesn't cry when he misses.

The at-wills give a lot of flexibility in defining your role, and allow a Bard to fit well in a variety of parties.

Cheers, -- N

 

[lukelightning]

One thing I like about bards (at least the cunning ones, which is the one I've seen in action) is that they seem to have a lot of things they can do outside their own turn, with their slide-after-miss thing, and immediate interrupt/reaction powers.