How do you envision bards?

[Tarin Greenflame]

Wanted to gather some info, so just tell me what you think of how bards should be.

 

[Erik Mona]

I think I'd rather eliminate the class from all of my campaigns altogether. Is the Bard a jack of all trades, or a musical magician?

Turns out I just don't care. He's fired from all my campaigns forever. Sorry, Bard.

--Erik

 

[Crothian]

He's an adventuring entertaining. He's no longer the jack of all trades. He has the potential to do many things, but you're just not able too. It's a fine, misunderstood class. Not everyone expects all fighters and Rogues to be the same, why do they expect all Bards to be similiar?

 

[Number47]

How do I envision bards?

Naked!

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

The bard should be a jack of all trades first and formost. He's also an entertainer, a rogue, and a dabbler in the area of magic. I love the bard i'd probabaly still be playing basic dungeons and dragons if not for the sheer unstoppable coolness of the bard!

 

[kenjib]

I voted other. I see the bard as primarily a warrior poet with perhaps some minor magical talent. There's nothing rogue about him. The PHB bard doesn't quite capture it - not enough combat skill mostly. The arcane spell failure is one of the big problems I should think.

 

[Maerdwyn]

I think the bard is written as sort of a jack of all trades class.

I think such a class should be re-written as the "adventurer" class -(possibly an NPC class), weaker as a whole than all the pc classes but able to dabble in several different abilities and hopefully survive in a dungeon. A person who wants to be GOOD at a bunch of different things should (IMHO) have to use the multiclassing rules to do it.

A bard, OTOH (and IMHO), should be of the *entertainer; oral historian; inspring companions to feats of greatness; satiring enemies; delivering curses, blessings, geasae, and other magical effects (not spells) with his songs* type of character.

 

[sepulchrave]

A warrior, a lover, a poet, a gadfly who defies the gods. A psychopomp.
A skald. A weaver of mighty magics, who can calm a raging sea, cause trees to bear fruit or bring down lightning from the heavens with his voice.
Orpheus, Vainamoinen, Taliesin, Finrod Felagund...now THEY were bards.

None of this namby-pamby, wishy-washy high mediaeval minstrel-rogue rubbish.

Bards should be Prestige Classes with nigh-impossible entry requirements.

 

[rounser]

Bards aren't powerful enough to match celtic mythology. The 1E bard was a much better representation of the power and respect that legendary bards demand than the 3E one, which is, IMO, a poorly thought-out exercise in designer fiat.

Perhaps the Bards Tale CRPG bards are a good model for 4E - make Bards the buffing class with their spellsongs, make that their role, and dispose of the jack-of-all-trades idea.

Songs which regenerate companions, make their weapons keen, enhance their ability scores etc. (Yes, those few ideas are combat oriented, but that's an important part of all the D&D classes.)

 

[Wolf72]

had to do it ...

http://www.d20reviews.com/pozas/Pictures/Wallpapers/bard_wp.jpg

I think bards are fine as is, some people like 'em some don't. I like the idea of more special songs or spells with vocal only components though.