Dragon 376 - Class Acts: The Bard

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think that's the idea; it's a way for a Bard to add more flavor to his multiclassing, since it's such a big class feature.

Well, the article mentioned it might also be interesting for people multiclassing into Bard. But it's not, mostly. At least as far as I could see. There are some nice abilities for non-Bards, but a lot of them give the Bard an ability the class already has.

 

[SteveC]

So I had been wondering which Prestige Path to take for my "all multiclass all the time" bard that I play in the RPGA, and I have to say it's Resourceful Magician for the win! Get some cantrips, swordbond and eldritch blast all in one tidy package? Yes please! They said I was a fool when I took all those multiclass feats, but I'll show them: I'll show the world!

--Steve

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

So I had been wondering which Prestige Path to take for my "all multiclass all the time" bard that I play in the RPGA, and I have to say it's Resourceful Magician for the win! Get some cantrips, swordbond and eldritch blast all in one tidy package? Yes please! They said I was a fool when I took all those multiclass feats, but I'll show them: I'll show the world!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

--Steve

Fixed that for you.

I'm really tempted by the Bard, of all the new classes. This idea around multiple multi-classes is really tempting - it could mean that you just have all these wacky powers that no one else ever has.

Of course, you're not going to be that good with all of these powers, but hey...

 

[LightPhoenix]

So I had been wondering which Prestige Path to take for my "all multiclass all the time" bard that I play in the RPGA, and I have to say it's Resourceful Magician for the win! Get some cantrips, swordbond and eldritch blast all in one tidy package? Yes please! They said I was a fool when I took all those multiclass feats, but I'll show them: I'll show the world!

It's actually not too bad for Martial and Arcane classes right now, since the Power books offer alternative multi-class feats. This way, especially for Arcane, you don't have three or four feats giving you training in Arcana. My first thought reading this article was to do something along those lines.

Well, the article mentioned it might also be interesting for people multiclassing into Bard. But it's not, mostly. At least as far as I could see. There are some nice abilities for non-Bards, but a lot of them give the Bard an ability the class already has.

Sorry, I didn't read the introduction overly well. That'll show me.

The ability overlap was the big thing I noticed as well though. The Martial and Primal ones aren't bad, but the Divine and Arcane ones are awful with a X/Bard multiclass. They may be interesting to use with a hybrid class though.

 

[SteveC]

Fixed that for you.

I'm really tempted by the Bard, of all the new classes. This idea around multiple multi-classes is really tempting - it could mean that you just have all these wacky powers that no one else ever has.

Of course, you're not going to be that good with all of these powers, but hey...

You're totally right. I have gotten a lot of strange reactions to the character (I play him in living forgotten realms) where people are upset that I didn't start with a 20 charisma and go for their idea of the optimal build for a bard. And then actually in the game I can do all of these strange things in combination that absolutely floors them. I've yet to have the character be seen as useless in actual play, and that's probably because will defense for most of the critters we've run up against has been much lower than all other defenses.

--Steve

 

[Crothian]

I was really hoping for my Halfling Whistler to be in there.

 

[Shroomy]

There's a lot of good stuff in this article. First of all, I really liked the Blessed Psalmist PP; I felt it had the best fluff overall and I liked how you gain channel divinity through the Heaven's Favor class feature (and it opens up even more feats for your bard).

I was actually least inspired by the Daring Blade PP though I do like its powers and class features from a mechanical standpoint; I kind of felt the same way about the mythic skald, but it has probably my favorite power in the entire article, Mythic Destiny. Man, we could have used that power a few times in our games.

Resourceful Magician probably has the best overall class feature (greater study) and my second favorite power, twinned spell; this is the PP that really encourage further multi-classing the most. I would say that the mythic skald is the only PP of the four that doesn't really open up further multi-classing opportunities or encourage power swaps through its class features.

 

[CelticMutt]

Ditto

I'm also looking forward to the Dragon Magazine Annual 2009. I hope they manage to include most of the really essential stuff, like the race writeups.

Not likely. The Revenant (and upcoming Assassin) are DDi exclusives, so I wouldn't count on them seeing print. The Warforged already has been "reprinted." The Minotaur will as well in PHB3. The Shadar-kai are pretty much 95% guaranteed to be redone/reprinted for PHB4 or 5, whichever has the Shadow source. The Gnoll then is the only one left, and some people have been theorizing that it'll also end up in the PHB3.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Does anyone remember Morrison the Multi-Faceted?

You could so be the ultimate half elf everything class using Hybrids, multi-classing and these PPs.

And (unlike previous editions) it wouldn't suck too much

 

[Piratecat]

I've forked all the non-relevant bits over to this thread, which will go live in the Meta forum.

Carry on!