Designers: Say Yes to Bards! Save the Class

[Aus_Snow]

I believe that it makes a better PrC or perhaps feat + talent tree configuration than anything like a base class.

Even this is better than going down that path. IMO.

Come to think of it, you can always just take some ranks in Perform, and sing if you feel like it.

 

[Quartz]

I keep hearing the Bard Class is on the bubble. It would be a bad mistake to remove the class.

How can they kill off the Bard? The 3E bard is very different to the 1E bard. Gandalf is the archetypal 3E bard. (Perform: Storytelling, anyone?)

 

[ragnarok77]

The bard will appear (and I'm probably the one who will write it).

If you still didn't start to write it down, there are ZERO possibilities to see him in PH1.

And btw i'd like to have a word to the one, or the team, who has decided to drop the bard down, and put it in following books, just to underline this:

the bard was clearly a poor balanced class for 3.5e, but still there is SO MUCH people, that during these years has played, and enjoyed this class. I really don't understand how they can miss the appeal that bards have towards players!

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

If you still didn't start to write it down, there are ZERO possibilities to see him in PH1.

So what? If the bard shows up in the second year 4e core books, the PHB2, is that going to irreversibly ruin D&D for people who want a bard class?

 

[pawsplay]

What would distinguish a 3.5 bard from a rogue/sorcerer with a hypothetical fascinate feat?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

What would distinguish a 3.5 bard from a rogue/sorcerer with a hypothetical fascinate feat?

The part of the bard that makes parties love bards. Inspire courage/Inspire greatness.

 

[cerberus2112]

Bards (and Druids) should appear in a Celtic lands sourcebook. It should also have a section on fey, and everything else that is typical of the British isles. Whenever I think Bard, I think Fflewder Fflam. It has always bugged me that they expect these icons of specific world cultures to fit into every campaign . . .

 

[pawsplay]

The part of the bard that makes parties love bards. Inspire courage/Inspire greatness.

Heroism, haste, rage, remove fear. Admittedly, bards don't get prayer.

 

[satori01]

We don't think of the PH1, MM1, and DMG1 and "core." Every PH, MM, and DMG is core. So any class that appears in one of those books (and any other book, and the magazines) will get all the tender loving care that the fighter, wizard, or rogue got. The bard will appear (and I'm probably the one who will write it).

Glad to hear it, would love to get some tidbits on how it will be implemented.

I still have to admit that I have trepidation, about these other PHB. First off I have a perfectly workable system in 3.5, so If I have to wait months or years to get the archetypes I want, why buy right off the bat. Now If I dont buy right away, other people wont...and the what happens when the sales figures are not as robust as they should be.

I would much rather have some larger books, than many smaller ones.

 

[Herobizkit]

Personally, I'd like to see the Bard returned to its 1st ed. greatness and make it a PrC. Fighter, Rogue, and Druid would be obvious entry classes, with heavy "Druidic" pre-requisites.

Also, there was just something about the 2ed Bard that lost all translation into 3.x... being a Bard in 2e was actually FUN becasue you got to do a bit of everything. Bards in 3.x have lost that edge becuse, coneivable, every class can do that, and better. I dunno, I could be just spitballing here.