Dragon 396 - Bards of Wolfstone is up

[UngeheuerLich]

At first i was confused too, but i believe, not limiting everything is the right decision. Maybe some feats could also have primal as prerequisite. But hey, you would multiclass to barbarian anyway... which bard does not? Without that feat you are just a troubardour, not a warrior skald of legends!

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yeah that's why I was saying it is seemingly OP in that every bard will likely want to take it BUT despite the extra damage and extra slide, I don't think it will necessarily make the class OP, etc. Feats that everyone takes always make me a bit skeptical, but I think this is still fine in this case.

And yes, Wild Virtue is much more powerful for the Cunning Bard. Whats really nice about the bard is that its still pretty easy to take the Virtue of Cunning, yet still remain primarily melee, and the Wolfstone article just expands on those options.

Actually, bard feats have to be powerful, as they not only compete with other strong bard feats, but multiclass feats and muticlass class feats...

which you need to take account of, as the bard is balanced with heavy multiclassing in mind... (at least i guess so)

 

[Mengu]

The feats and powers are decent for a change. One of the better crunch articles we've seen in a while. They even didn't fall into timing traps with the auras. It's not the most flavor-attractive article that makes me jump up and down wanting to play a bard with a touch of primal, but overall solid.

 

[Riastlin]

Actually, bard feats have to be powerful, as they not only compete with other strong bard feats, but multiclass feats and muticlass class feats...

which you need to take account of, as the bard is balanced with heavy multiclassing in mind... (at least i guess so)

Aye, I was constantly struggling with feat choices for my bard because there were so many good options to choose from. The Bard is still one of my favorite classes in 4th Ed. as I think they did a really good job of balancing it and allowing for a variety of builds. The versatility of the bard is so good that it really seems like the Virtue choice is just an added benefit rather than a build definer. My Cunning Bard was also the secondary tank in our group and would pop in and out of melee depending on the given situation.

 

[Jhaelen]

So what we get is a NON ESSENTIAL article that has some ESSENTIAL FLAVOR achieved by mixing power sources and adding a strong theme.

Cool!

Indeed! That's the kind of content I like seeing. It's way preferable to simply providing an Essentialized (sub)build to achieve the same thing.

 

[MrMyth]

I liked it. Good thematic element to build an article around. Solid character options with their own flavor and decent balance. Inspiring narrative and good background for these characters, plus some useful guidelines on how to build such characters. Very efficient article.

I'm also glad in general to see more of Wolfstone - a previous article gave some backgrounds and feats for humans from this settlement. This sort of gradual expansion of the Points of Light setting is what I like best about it.