Dragon #311 and Bards Q

[Savage Wombat]

OK - my wife is thinking of playing a bard, since she has a neat mini.

The problem is: bards kinda suck.

I understand the latest Dragon has new Bard PrCs in it, but I won't get a copy until Thursday at the earliest. (My FLGS should have it in by then.)

So, just tell me: are any of these Bard PrCs worth the trouble of playing a bard to get?

 

[Cybern]

Bards don't suck... unless you only play hack and slash.

Think of it as killing someone with a d6... you HAVE to get creative and do things differently.

 

[MadScientist]

My issue is at home but I thought several of these PrC's were very cool and for most of them the bard had to give up very little to enter the class. All of them were only 5 lvl PrC's though, so you can't really make a whole career out of any of them. I would give some specifics on the classes but I'm at work right now.

Maybe someone else can chime in with more details.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Just because I think combat is an important aspect of the game doesn't mean I only play hack & slash.

For that matter - characters that lack social skills can often improvise and role-play around the weakness, but it's harder to finesse a few extra points of damage.

Bards in 3rd Ed (both versions) are like demi-humans - it seems like you're getting a large variety of cheap goodies, but unless you want to actively use ALL of those goodies, you're probably better off playing something else.