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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 7159550" data-attributes="member: 2011">Our last 3 fights with Frost Giants were:Day one:5 Frost Giants plus 1 Adult White Dragon vs. 7 9th level PCsDay three:8 Frost Giants plus 2 Adult White Dragons vs. 6 10th level PCs plus Harshnag (the Monk PC convinced the Dragons to stay out of the fight in return to helping them rescue their dragon eggs, so it ended up being 8 giants vs 6 PCs plus 1 giant, although the one Dragon did Dragon Fear on one of the PCs who was being cocky and it prevented him from moving close enough to the fight for a few rounds)Same day later on:5 Frost Giants plus Frost Giant Jarl and 5 Frost Giants on round 3 plus 2 Frost Giants plus 2 Winter Wolves on round 6 vs. 6 10th level PCs plus Harshnag plus 2 gimped white Adult Dragons (whose breath weapons were basically worthless). 15 overall vs 9, but the average at any time was closer to 8 vs 9So yeah, we often have tough encounters where we need to have every PC be very proactive and very capable of doing something productive in every single round. We are also able to handle large encounters like this because we have two controlling PCs (Lore Bard and Wizard), two PCs that can conjure pets (Lore Bard and Druid, and to a lesser extent, Necromancer Wizard who sometimes has undead minions), and 4 PCs that can hold their own in melee for a while (Barbarian/Wizard, Monk, Cleric, shapechanging Druid). 5 out of 6 PCs can cast spells and that matters a lot too.But if you are not in a tough encounter, then I could see a Bard using a Shield to protect his concentration. Overall though, he might as well just use Vicious Mockery (or some other more potent spell) and Cutting Words to protect himself and his allies and bring in a second Conjure Animals if the first one gets wasted. Hanging onto a concentration spell can sometimes be critical, but in a tough fight, contributing every single round and being able to cast spells every single round is usually more important than +2 AC to keep a concentration spell up.I see that you view it as just one more tool in your Bard toolkit, but I just think that taking an entire round to just get to be able to cast spells again (for a Lore Bard where casting spells is his bread and butter in combat) seems extremely restrictive. It's like fighting with one hand tied behind your back.</blockquote>

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