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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tonester" data-source="post: 4348856" data-attributes="member: 71788">I commend you for your work, but yes, the cantrips and at-wills are pretty broken balance-wise, imo. Having an at-will that grants CA on a hit? Cantrips that grant saving throws? Cantrips that give pretty big bonuses to skill checks? These sorts of things would set new precedence for all the existing classes. I understand it is a work in progress, but without even looking beyond level 1 skills, I can already say with confidence that this class would break tons of design and mechanics in a 4e campaign. Critique: 1) No other class has more than 2 defenses to attack for their At-Wills and your bard happens to have all 4 covered. Classes are meant to be less reliable against certain types of defenses. I.E. Fighters can't challenge much more than a defender's armor.  If a particular opponent has impenetrable armor (high AC), the fighter will be less effective than other classes against that target most likely. 2) The cantrips are more in line with level 1 At-Wills or the Divine Channeling (which are encounter). Take a closer look at Wizard Cantrips for a comparison. 3) Too many skill choices. If you look at a Rogue as being the baseline for the skill class, then this blows it away. Furthermore, the skills don't match your particular vision of the Bard. Is it a motivator, a healer, a rogue, or a controller? Your interpretation seems to be all - also overpowered. This opinion is further supported by the Bardic Knowlege class feature. 4) Being able to essentially use melee weapons as ranged 20 weapons at-will? This is definitely overpowered - especially when you consider some of the higher level magical weapons. 5) An At-Will that grants Combat Advantage on a hit and also marks a target? You understand that marking is one of the core mechanics that makes up the Defender Role, correct? And here, you give it away for free every attack - essentially making the Bard a Controller/Defender Multiclass at level 1.  Summary:It needs a ton of work to bring it in line with the classes already available. At-Wills and Basic Attacks make up (estimating) around 80 to 85 percent of an encounter. This class has At-Wills that dwarf the other classes. A level 1 Human Bard (2 additional Feats, 7 useful At-Wills, an attack that works against any defense, etc) would be severely broken. I say it not to discourage you... I know this takes a ton of work. I say it because it is something that isn't to be taken lightly or just kind of thrown together because it sounds cool or useful. This is why class design takes months or years to get right. As a final suggestion, and as someone else already pointed out, it doesn't really feel that "bard-like" other than the implement and names. Try to find a way to leverage a bard's ability to inspire, revitalize, and turn the tide. I'm thinking something to do with Action Point(s), a daily buff that allows a party member's next attack to be reliable, things that allow a group to need less rest than normal or to allow a group to push beyond the normal physical boundary (temporarily) to get through a hairy situation but then require more rest afterwards. I'm not really sure... but those are things that sound more bard-like to me. Just my 2 cen....er dollars.</blockquote>

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