D&D 3E/3.5 Beefing up the 3.5 Bard?

[Crothian]

I like my bard to be a jack of all trades so I give them +1 to all skills at fifth, tenth, 15th, and 20th level. I also allow them to make a cross class skill a class skil at first, 4th, and every 4 levels after that.

And one thing I've been thinking about is have perform skill cost half a point per rank.

 

[Glak]

Dude, Bard is probably the best class in 3.5

Powerwise it is about average I'd say, with some nice magic and all-around goodness. However because they have so many options they are really fun to play. It's kind of like how clerics are kind of boring so they made them super strong. Bards have everything.

 

[Michael Morris]

Has anyone come up with a quick and simple way to make the 3.5 Bard more effective? I'm not looking for a huge change in the class, just a simple tweak, like, say, giving them a bonus Feat every 5 levels. Or something similar.

BTW, would bonus Feats unbalance the class?

I have two changes to the bard, but neither directly alters the class. The first is that the class gets more exclusive and arguably some stronger spells in Art of Magic.

The second change, and the one I'll share here, has to do with how knowledge checks work. Seperating bardic lore from knowledge has always been a little unclear, so I grant bards the ability to make any knowledge check untrained and with a bonus...

In my game when a character has to make a knowledge check the die is rolled repeatedly until the result comes up failure. The more times the character succeeds the more detailed his results.

A bard has the unique ability to add his level to the first roll only. This means a bard has a very good chance to know a little about everything, but specific details escape him unless he's boned up on the subject.

BTW, 1 success provides general knowledge with major points missing, obscure or possibly wrong. 2 successes provides more detailed knowledge with major points missing but nothing outright wrong. 3 successes is even more detailed with some minor points missing or obscure. 4 successes is complete and accurate information.

Now, in my setting knowledge checks are made a *lot*, making this a very important feature for the class.

 

[Stagger_Lee]

I've been fiddling with the idea of importing the Spell Points rules from Unearthed Arcana (or somewhere else, if there are better ones) just for the Bard and Sorcerer - the idea being to give them further separation from the Wizard class. I like the fact that it beefs up the Sorcerer, and the extra flexibility works well with the Bard as well, but am afraid it gives the Bard a power boost where it really doesn't need one.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I really like the free perform ranks of bard level (+3 if 1st character level is bard)... I'd even bump it being able to use 1 instrument per 4 ranks.

As it stands we houseruled to the 3.0 version of perform - IMO, doesn't have a huge game impact and makes the bard a bit more fun.

I likes bards - they're great!

 

[Kabol]

What i have done with bards in my games is :
Replaces thier songs/performs with the Auras from Marshall class < Minis >. To me its Exactly how i view a bard, Able to inspire those around him - with out having to look like a idiot bangin on some bongos.

Plus, doin it that way lets people pick what kinda bard they want to be - it adds diversity to the class.