Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gort" data-source="post: 3257059" data-attributes="member: 11239">As lots of people have pointed out, bards get better the larger your party - buffing everyone for (up to) +5 attack and damage is really powerful in larger parties. Also, buffs like greater invisibility, heroism and displacement are incredibly powerful on the right targets. However, there's a big difference between being powerful and feeling powerful. Much of the effect you'll have on the party will be expressed through the other players - the fighter hits harder, takes less damage, can stay in the fight longer thanks to your healing spells... but those all make HIM better, not you.In smaller groups, the bard's a pretty poor class compared to the others on offer. There're only a few niches that need to be covered in a group - healing, protection from attackers, damage, and trap bypassing. A standard cleric is a far better healer, is far better at taking damage and keeping the rest of the group safe, and has a number of spells that either directly damage the enemy or make them into melee monsters. Plus, since the bard lacks the all-important "trap-finding" class feature, it can't take a rogues niche.All that said, I do like bards, because you've always got a lot of options in combat and out of combat. You're very versatile, so you can contribute to most situations - it's just a pity that in most situations there's always someone better equipped to deal with them around.As anecdotal evidence, every time a player I don't know has played a bard, the character has been really useless. At the lower levels where these kinds of pickup games tend to be played, they often build their bard to be the best spell-caster possible, to the point of weakening them in other areas bards have to be able to cover, like melee. Too many people play bards like wizards in a chain shirt, they're not like that. You don't just have one area you're good at and that's it - that's both the strength and weakness of the class. You have to cover as much as possible or yes, you do suck.</blockquote>

Verification