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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Snapdragyn" data-source="post: 3720845" data-attributes="member: 12432">Don't do away with the bard in favor of multiclass warlord/rogue! Don't let 4e be the edition that kills Elan & helps Nale take his stuff!I, too, hope for the bard in the PHB. PHB2? To me that feels like suggesting that they just hold off the MM for a year too -- after all, it's no big deal since we'll get around to combat eventually. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Where I see a space for the bard in the PHB is as the jack-of-all-trades -- but one that actually works this time. They've said they're fixing multiclassing, so they already have some ideas of how to keep power level up while allowing greater diversity of options. I think that they could use this experience in crafting a workable hybrid class.The way that encounters look to work now, with x/round, x/encounter, & x/day abilities for all classes, the primary resource becomes opportunity cost (i.e. does the wizard use this ability or that one), since most types of abilities will recharge after the encounter anyway, but you still only get 1 action/round. This opens up a great spot for the character who combines opportunities from different combat roles. A bard casts an illusion spell? It not only convinces the enemies that the battlefield is covered in debris & thus slows their movement (controller) but also boosts the morale of allies (leader). Or the bard executes a maneuver while singing a note which deals damage to one foe (striker) while also healing an adjacent ally (leader).This is a different situation from a multiclass character, who has a greater diversity of choices than a single-class but still faces the same 'either or' choices per round -- for a bard built like this, it's a choice of 'which combination'. To balance the power of having each ability produce multiple effects, those effects can be weaker than ones produced by the other classes. At lowest levels, when the system won't deal with numbers <1, just having the choice between multiple role effects would be an advantage since other classes won't have multiclassed yet; by the time they do, the bard's abilities could start picking up their secondary effects.One key point to make such a class desirable, of course, would be that the effects would need to be fully stackable; otherwise the minor buffs or damage which the bard could produce (even though they'd have the advantage of producing them simultaneously) would be outweighed by the stronger buffs of other classes. Having all bard effects based on luck would not only fit pretty well with the archetype, but also stack with the majority of spells as they exist in 3.x (can't predict for 4e, of course).</blockquote>

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