D&D 5E (2014) D&D doesn't need bards

[akr71]

I'm just responding to @Morrus request for more suggestion threads for testing.

However, I don't like bards and think the game would be better without them. Certainly not as full casters and in no way should they be able to swap spells on a long rest.

Edited for grammer.

 

[Morrus]

Gives me chance to test a downvote!

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Bard should have the spellcasting format of Warlock, replacing Invocation per Songs that can add effect to an aura around the bard and replacing Boons (at 1st level) with Performer's Focus: Blade (prof with martial, medium armor and Accro), Minstrel (Instrument as focus, prof in social skills) or Loremaster (tomes as focus, prof with knowledge skills and languages).

 

[Jd Smith1]

I'm just responding to @Morrus request for more suggestion threads for testing.

However, I don't like bards and think the game would be better without them. Certainly not as full casters and in no way should they be able to swap spells on a long rest.

Edited for grammer.

I agree: drop the spellcasting, and move bards into what they should be: lawyers, face men, press agents, reputation-builders, and deep wells of role-play opportunities. As it is now, they are just a label slapped on a dungeon-crawl support class.

 

[akr71]

Bard should have the spellcasting format of Warlock, replacing Invocation per Songs that can add effect to an aura around the bard and replacing Boons (at 1st level) with Performer's Focus: Blade (prof with martial, medium armor and Accro), Minstrel (Instrument as focus, prof in social skills) or Loremaster (tomes as focus, prof with knowledge skills and languages).

Ahh! This was mostly a tongue-in-cheek post, but I could get behind that type of Bard!

 

[Stormonu]

I don't like elves, can we remove those?

I have a great love of bards, but they are difficult to do because they aren't specialists but instead generalists. They also tend to be team players instead of focusing on DPS or the like. They work best when they are making everyone else better, not necessarily themselves.

I would like to see builds that don't depend on them being dependant on music. Bards could also derive powers based on lore and research (secret/ancient knowledge), not just song-related powers.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm just responding to @Morrus request for more suggestion threads for testing.

However, I don't like bards and think the game would be better without them. Certainly not as full casters and in no way should they be able to swap spells on a long rest.

I have nothing against the bard as a jack-of-all-trades, warrior/thief/wizard type, like they were in 2E. Under that paradigm, they would be able to swap spells on a long rest, because they use the same magic as wizards.

I'm also okay with a bard class that's actually a bard, and plays the harp in combat.

I'm not really okay with a bard who is just a spellcaster, but different from the wizard, and with better powers. If that's all they have to offer, then the game would be better off by removing it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

If I recall correctly, the C&C bard is more like a skald, and lacks spellcasting.

For my part, there are a lot of things a person could say D&D doesn't need. I think it doesn't need psionics, others love it. Some folks still think the only classes needed are fighting man, cleric, and magic-user.

The question of what is core to D&D isn't something easily resolved. And that's okay. Since the beginning D&D has ever invited people to hack it and make their own, the mostly ignored occasional dictum from on-high be damned.

 

[der_kluge]

I agree: drop the spellcasting, and move bards into what they should be: lawyers, face men, press agents, reputation-builders, and deep wells of role-play opportunities. As it is now, they are just a label slapped on a dungeon-crawl support class.

 

[Jd Smith1]

What point is this supposed to convey?