Bards - What Makes them Good?

[Chimera]

14th level Human Valorous Bard in a War of the Burning Sky Campaign.

I have skill levels that make other characters weep for shame.
My defenses are solid across the board.

My at-wills and weapons attacks are extremely solid and have some cool effects. Earthquake Strike is almost ridiculous as an Encounter power.

And my ranged attacks are really cool. I love Visciously Mocking things to death from range. It's not huge damage, but it's thematically awesome.

Or like the last session where, in a narrow corridor, I used Cutting Words to pull the enemy Wizard from the second rank to right out front, where he got slaughtered by our Paladin and Fighter.

Need to reposition an enemy? I'm on it.
Need some temp HP? Just kill or bloody something and 9 temp hp are yours.
Need healing AND a Shift AND a save? I'm on it.
Lots of conditions in this battle? Savior's Song will take the edge off that.

Resting between battles? Add +6 hp to each Surge.

Need to travel faster? I got a ritual I can do for free. I can feed us for two days at a time with an Endurance bonus to boot for free too. I got a ton of other rituals up my sleeve as well.

I'm not particularly focused, but nothing I got is bad and I got a couple of bucket loads of good stuff.

 

[the8bitdeity]

Personally I felt the Bard was everything the Warlord wanted to be, but wasn't.

It promotes tactical placements and buffage in a manner that's fun.

The Warlord seems to sacrifice too much of it's own fun to help others. Plus their class features seem powerful, but limited (action point driven).

 

[Artoomis]

I am having a blast playing a bard (cunning) now at 23rd level. To give you some idea of how good they can be if you work at it:

Multi-classed into 5 classes (two using Epic feat "Multiclass Mastery")

Arcana, Insight and Perception all at +38. Streetwise, Bluff and Diplomacy al at +28. 11 trained skills in all, plus Perception and Insight are virtually trained through Sorcerous Vision feat (because of multiclassing into sorcerer).

3 heals per encounter, each for 2 party member and each gives a bonus saving throw. 3 more heals per day.

Sorcerer Implement Expertise allows crits on 19 or 20 - another advantage of multiclassing, as he could qualify for this one.

Knowledge Arcana is optimized as best I could for the Sage of the Ages epic destiny - Arcana needs to be high for that destiny to work well.

 

[Starfox]

Op here again. I think a big part of the problem for my team's bard is that everyone on the team is already very mobile. Giving all those shifts is not so impressive when everyone can shift on their own.

Also, my group of four has two defenders (Swordmage and Fighter) - defenders have a great deal of control already which makes the bard's control seem less impressive.

 

[Herschel]

That actually sounds like a great combo. You can control the heck out of a battle field even without a true controller. Bard, Fighter, Swordmage, Striker can make a very nice party sans a true controller because each can pick up part of the duty naturally instead of having to use feats, etc.

 

[Felon]

BARD PROS
Has access to lots of [W] damage
Can target all 4 defenses
Has access to the largest range of attack items (combining melee weapons, ranged weapons, and implements) of all classes
Great out-of-combat healing thanks to Song of Rest

BARD CONS
Sparse in-combat healing
Very single-target-oriented
Overmphasis on control effects rather than pure buffs
Few utilities worth writing home about (at least relative to other leaders)

The make-or-break element of a bard is whether or not the party can be directed to attack the guy you're attacking, because that's the only guy most of your buffs and debuffs help against. If your group is into free-for-alls where everyone does their own thing, and suggesting what another player should do will earn you a dirty look or a reproachful remark, the bard is not going to shine.

 

[Chimera]

BARD CONS
Sparse in-combat healing
Very single-target-oriented
Overmphasis on control effects rather than pure buffs
Few utilities worth writing home about (at least relative to other leaders)

1> Not any worse than the other non-Cleric leaders. There are powers that heal and powers that give temp hp, besides the Valor Bard's class ability.

2> Almost every level of Bard powers has a Burst or Blast attack power. They aren't lacking for multi-opponent powers.

3> They vary a whole lot. Fewer buffing powers than I expected to see in the class, but I'll take the trade off of actually being able to kick butt over the 3e class and it's high buffs, but inability to do anything else.

4> Must not be looking in the right places. My Utilities are: Words of Protective Fate (chance to blunts crits, lasts for encounter), Ode to Sacrifice (transfers effect and gives bonus to save) and Savior's Song (reroll one failed save a turn if within 5 of me, lasts for encounter).

I love Ode to Sacrifice. I frequently point out "it doesn't say that they have to be willing!" as I transfer my immobilized/slowed/dazed or whatever condition to another party member.

 

[Felon]

1> Not any worse than the other non-Cleric leaders. There are powers that heal and powers that give temp hp, besides the Valor Bard's class ability.

2> Almost every level of Bard powers has a Burst or Blast attack power. They aren't lacking for multi-opponent powers.

3> They vary a whole lot. Fewer buffing powers than I expected to see in the class, but I'll take the trade off of actually being able to kick butt over the 3e class and it's high buffs, but inability to do anything else.

4> Must not be looking in the right places. My Utilities are: Words of Protective Fate (chance to blunts crits, lasts for encounter), Ode to Sacrifice (transfers effect and gives bonus to save) and Savior's Song (reroll one failed save a turn if within 5 of me, lasts for encounter).

I love Ode to Sacrifice. I frequently point out "it doesn't say that they have to be willing!" as I transfer my immobilized/slowed/dazed or whatever condition to another party member.

Re: Healing--Shaman is much better at healing, warlord nominally better because he has more healing in hit utilities and daily attacks. Artificer I don't know.

Re: Single-targeting--They have a handful of fairly paltry AoE's distributed sparsely through the class, which are again are more akin to weak control effects than leader buffs. They're heavily outnumbered and outgunned by the available single-target attacks. All the same, feel free to count them as worth something. I don't.

Re: Buffing vs. Control: Honestly don't see anything to rebutt here; just comes across as contrarianism for its own sake. You want to dismiss every con for the bard. Suit yourself.

Re: Utilities--If it's been in a printed WotC product, I've examined it thoroughly. The three powers quoted don't come across to me as examples of bringing the awesome. Protective Fate is among the better choices for that level, but like most bard utilities, it doesn't offer the unparalleled usefulnes of a straight-up buff to attacks, defenses, or damage (heck, monster crits typically aren't anything to write home about anyway). Actually, Concerted Effort is probably at the top of the pile, being crazy powerful, and one of the scant few buffs that the bard himself can benefit from. But it's certainly an outlier. What I really don't like is seeing bonuses that only work in zones that have to be sustained and don't move. But I guess we won't see the likes of bless or shield of faith again.

I think with Arcane Power's addition of prescient options, I'd be really disappinted with the bard. I love all of the various dice-rerolling powers it has to offer. That beats all the shifting and sliding powers to heck and back IMO. I love using Glimpse the Future or Rewrite the Future to try to give a striker an auto-crit.

 

[eamon]

The bard is very weak on area effects, and that's a real weakness. I still think it's quite playable with a bunch of funky effects, but using those is often tricky and requires party help. The valor bard, with his temp-hp machinery is probably best at generic party help. The cunning bard can be neat, but is quite situational; in some parties or some combats he'll be mostly useless (compared to an area buffer). I've no experience with the prescient bard, but he looks a little less situational than the cunning bard, but also less robust than the valorous bard: temp HP just work, whereas the defense boosts are more timing-sensitive (and feat-intensive).

 

[Blackbrrd]

I don't remember what at-will power it is, but it gives a -2 penalty to attack rolls. It's awesome, especially on Solo mobs.

The you-miss-I-slide bard is awesome for avoiding flanking and taking hits. It's no fun as a DM to setup flanking only to see the first attack miss and the second attack fizzle because the character isn't there anymore.

The bard has a lot of powers targetting will, so even if his damage is quite low, he hits quite reliably. Another thing is that you can hang back and not be a target, so that the mobs end up attacking your Defender.