How do you justify the bard's abilities?

[Holy Bovine]

I've never had to, since every bard in any of my campaigns has mysteriously died in the very first round of combat.

Don't worry - there's 49 more of him!! (anyone else love Dorkness Rising?)

The short answer is I don't.

The long answer is - I've never had a play want to play a Bard. Not in almost 30 years have i been presented with a Bard PC. Is that weird or what?

 

[Garthanos]

The first bard a player I seen made had air magic and death magic emphasis he had perception to see the souls leaving the body and might someday be able to send somebody on a quest to recover the souls of the dead... he had a black eagle familiar and was the companion bodyguard of an elven princess. He could send is voice on a breeze.... and looked a bit like a blond David Bowie... in black leather with a silvered sword. I think he used pipes like the pied piper or maybe he was a lutist not remembering that clearly... I seem to recall it was built with Dragon Quest.

I think we called him a Death Warder and Wind Mage but he definitely was bard.

 

[Set]

I've only played two types of bards;

One was a nobleman, an aristocrat who had been expensively tutored in fencing and swordplay, diplomacy, strategy and even tutored by arcane scholars until he had a smattering of magical power. He used oratory to inspire people, and provided both tactical and strategic advice from his studies of the fantasy-world-equivalent of The Art of War. The only mechanical difference between him and another bard was that he prepared spells from a collection of pages, bound into a kinda/sorta poor man's spellbook, and had less spells per day, being a prepared caster, not a spontaneous caster.

The second and third were both priests, by trade, regardless of the class written at the top of their sheet, inspiring others with religious aphorisms (enhanced by divine fervor) and gaining their spells from their religious studies.

None of the 'bards' I've played had any skill with music, song or sonic-spells (although one of the priests enjoyed a good hymn from time to time, he was no singer).

 

[Garthanos]

I played a character once in somebodies home brew game who was entirely inspired by the pied piper ... it was most definitely a question of paying the cost for using magic. He asked those he did magic for to pay a price.. in some cases the price was accepting a geasa it was fairly improvisational and very wicked. He got backlash build up when working magic... and could release it if somebody else paid the price.

Damn I now have an urge to play that character again...(and no current contact with that GM)
any one know a good system for it?? Come to think of it that backlash mechanic might be doable
using Mage the Ascension.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

YouTube - Kung Fu Hustle - Fight With The The Harpists (HQ)

Watch especially from 2'25''

EDIT: What I want to say is that it's all just a question of imagination. "A Wizard Did It™" always works too.

Heh. I've wanted to play a Bard that fights like Motochika Chosokabe in Samurai Warriors -- he actually uses a Shamisen, a string instrument, as his weapon -- and does sonic damage with his weapon, playing it in battle.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zgvrj_lZpg]YouTube - Motochika Chosokabe play on Okehazama stage SW 2[/ame]

 

[airwalkrr]

The Pathfinder bard has the ability Deadly Performance that makes "one enemy to die from joy or sorrow". No matter how I think about it, the ability just seems extremely silly to me...

Sillier than a man in robes wiggling his fingers and causing another man to fall dead? (finger of death)

Sillier than a fellow with a wild beard who transforms into a living flame? (wild shape into a fire elemental)

Sillier than a chap who travels across time and space to instantaneously arrive in the land of the gods? (plane shift)

We are playing a game of high fantasy. It requires a large amount of suspension of disbelief.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Bards make great villains though, even when they're not actually villains.

Just put a bard NPC in a dungeon and have him sing and dance when the PC's show up. Even if keeping that one poncy lutist alive wins D&D forever they won't be able to stop themselves from killing him.

And when they are villains, they are terrifying. Or great fun. From the cheesy (mock-horror game where the villain is playing Toccata And Fugue in D minor on an organ while the PCs deal with the haunted house - and then realise that that organ music is Inspire Courage +2) to the frustrating (Bards have almost as many means of escape as Wizards and Rogues combined and really don't want you to face them directly - that's if they show the same face every time) to the down right sinister (high charisma + mind affecting magic. Are their victims willing? And who cares if they don't do that much damage when their foes start off asleep and just get cdg'd?) Also they can be significantly higher level than the party without simply blowing them away in combat.