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Bards - Why do so few people play them?
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<blockquote data-quote="tarchon" data-source="post: 589585" data-attributes="member: 5990"><p>Virtuoso?</p><p>Well, it's nearly impossible for a Bard1/Sorc 5 to meet the class prerequisites, so, that's not a very realistic case. (A human character with a 16+ Int who spent huge wads of cross class skill points could do it, but personally I think having a 6th level character with hardly any skills besides Diplomacy and Perform outweighs the putative advantage, and then you have a sorcerer who's put one of his best stats on Int.)</p><p></p><p>Virtuoso also has worse BAB and worse Saves than Bard. The other thing that makes it more balanced than it seems at first glance is really the fact that the prerequisites practically necessitate at least two levels in a class with Diplomacy (6 req) and Perform (10 req), and even then, you would have to devote a large proportion of your skill points to it, along with having a DM who sees nothing wrong with a character gaining like 4 ranks or more in a skill in a single level. This sorceroso pseudo-bard has 5 fewer songs/day than a comparable bard too.</p><p></p><p>Now, I'm not saying that the class doesn't suck, but to me it sucks more because it doesn't do anything interesting for bards than because of power issues. Like my BAB, Ref Save, and Bardic Knowledge advancement aren't worth trading for a class that really gets no new abilities until the 3rd level.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tarchon, post: 589585, member: 5990"] Virtuoso? Well, it's nearly impossible for a Bard1/Sorc 5 to meet the class prerequisites, so, that's not a very realistic case. (A human character with a 16+ Int who spent huge wads of cross class skill points could do it, but personally I think having a 6th level character with hardly any skills besides Diplomacy and Perform outweighs the putative advantage, and then you have a sorcerer who's put one of his best stats on Int.) Virtuoso also has worse BAB and worse Saves than Bard. The other thing that makes it more balanced than it seems at first glance is really the fact that the prerequisites practically necessitate at least two levels in a class with Diplomacy (6 req) and Perform (10 req), and even then, you would have to devote a large proportion of your skill points to it, along with having a DM who sees nothing wrong with a character gaining like 4 ranks or more in a skill in a single level. This sorceroso pseudo-bard has 5 fewer songs/day than a comparable bard too. Now, I'm not saying that the class doesn't suck, but to me it sucks more because it doesn't do anything interesting for bards than because of power issues. Like my BAB, Ref Save, and Bardic Knowledge advancement aren't worth trading for a class that really gets no new abilities until the 3rd level. [/QUOTE]
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Bards - Why do so few people play them?
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