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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010393" data-attributes="member: 18387">By Glenn Dean, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine RackSizing up the TargetThe Quintessential Bard is the fifteenth book in Mongoose Publishing’s Collector Series. Written by Shannon Kalvar, this 128-page softcover book retails for $19.95.First BloodThe Quintessential Bard is a d20 supplement designed to provide players and Games Masters a number of mechanics to spice up the use of the bard character in the campaign. Appropriate to such a diverse character class as bards, this book addresses every aspect of the bard character – music and musical instruments, specific bardic tools and songs, treatment of bardic lore, roleplaying tips, as well as new feats, spells, prestige classes, and other mechanics.Quintessential Bard is laid out in the same manner as the other books in the Collector Series. It begins with fifteen bard character concepts. These can be used to provide roleplaying tips, find new roles for bard characters in the campaign, or to create variant bard classes; each concept adjusts some class abilities in favor of others to better fit the concept. There are traditional bard roles (Minstrel, Loremaster, Skald, Talespinner), some interesting applications (Ambassador, Explorer, Naturalist), and some unusual ones (Law keeper – an odd role given that bards must be non-lawful).Eight bardic prestige classes follow the character concepts. Most of these are focused on bardic performance abilities – particularly music, though the Dream Dancer and Jester in particular focus on other performance modes. Some are quite original – the evil Soultaker, for example, and the Singer of the Dawn, whose songs destroy undead. The prestige classes aren’t particularly restricted to bards – the Jester and Seneschal would make excellent rogue prestige classes, and the Soultaker fits any evil arcane spell caster. There are 25 feats included as well, enhancing everything from bardic knowledge about specific subjects, to song effects (Dissonance, for example, disrupts other bard songs), to combat skills (First Strike, Dwarven Warcry), to healing and magical craft skills. Most are fairly solid, though a few – like Swordsman’s Dance, which provides Attacks of Opportunity against Attacks of Opportunity -- have some unusual mechanics.Two chapters discuss the tricks and tools of the bardic trade. Tricks of the trade include various applications of some bardic skills (diplomacy, gather information, innuendo, intimidate, and use magic device), as well as a long and detailed discussion of how a bard can put a wide variety of profession skills to work. There’s also a number of great ideas for modifying the way a bard’s music can work, based on the combination of instrument and type of music played – battle hymns that protect against fear, for example, and a lullaby that enhances healing. The tools of the trade include bardic instruments – invested with power, masterwork, magical, and exotic in a fairly wide range. There is a section on magical crafts that provides a number of creations that focus and channel magic (through architecture, chandlery, painting, pottery, and the like), though the mechanics is a bit odd here as well. Magical compositions also provide a way of creating long-lasting magical effects in the form of sheet music – sort of like an arcane scroll with a magical song effect.An entire chapter is devoted to handling bardic knowledge, sorting different types of information that a bard might glean by both Difficulty Class and type of knowledge - -whether arcane, historical, local, or item-specific knowledge. There’s also a great discussion of other uses for bardic knowledge, from deciphering divinations to reading omens.If you’re like me and have found the basic bardic music in the core rules to be a bit tame, and want a way to enhance it without creating new rule mechanics, you’ll find the Mysteries of Music section useful. This provides a mechanic through which the bard “discovers” new performances and by gaining skills in those particular mysteries – ranks in Perform – the bard can perform increasingly difficult and powerful feats. Each of the eighteen mysteries has four levels of performance with its own name, effects, and unique flavor, and the mysteries are not restricted to music – dance, acting, jesting, and storytelling are among the various mysteries.Bardic spellcasting is not neglected; there are 16 new spells across the six bardic spell levels, most of which serve to provide skill or musical enhancements.Quintessential Bard closes with examinations of bardic duels and venues. There are rules for five types of bardic duels – whether with magic, performance, riddles, rites, or steel – all of which are based on use of perform skill mechanics. Bardic venues provide places that can enhance acoustics, fame, or the returns on performances, and may change performances depending on type – at court, religious performances, traveling shows, and the like. There are rules for designing and constructing bardic venues, with a number of examples.The back of the book contains a couple of pages of rules summary items, as well as a blank character sheet designed specifically for bards.Critical HitsI have to confess to being a bit of a bard fan, despite their reputation as the Rodney Dangerfield of classes – a lot of gamers give bards no respect! Even some supplements that have claimed to be focused on bards tend to give the class short shrift; it’s nice to see a product that gives a complete look at the existing class, without going into an overhaul of the mechanics. As befits a product that treats the “jack of all trades, master of none” class, each aspect of the bard is touched on: music, lore, skills, spells, and even a bit of combat.The best individual section of the book is the Mysteries of Music. This adds some much-needed depth to the bard’s most unique ability, in a manner that’s easy to integrate with the game system (since it’s based on Perform ranks), and there are such a wide variety of offerings that it allows for some outstanding customization of bard characters. It’s not quite a home run, though – it would be nice these abilities were scaled beyond 12 perform ranks.Critical MissesThough by and large this product contains some pretty solid mechanics, there are a few that I find questionable. While the character concepts provide a nice wide range of ideas for roleplaying bard characters, a couple of the mechanics are a bit generous – for example, the Minstrel variant gains four feats for the sacrifice of medium armor, a weapon proficiency, and some skills – not game breaking by any means, but generous. The magical craft rules are a bit odd, using Craft skill mechanics rather than magic item creation mechanics – again an interesting variant, but slightly off from the norm. The items are extremely cheap using this method, with costs in silver pieces, and I think the items should have had spell requirements listed for their creation.I was a little disappointed as well to find that so few of the prestige classes (3 of 8) have a full ten-level progression – though the focus on musical abilities is quite original and refreshing.Coup de GraceThe Quintessential Bard provides all of its rule mechanics as Open Content, providing a wide range of compatible bard-customizing mechanics for GM and player alike. Though there is an odd mechanic or two, by and large the contents will enhance the use of bards in most any campaign – this is the d20 treatment for core bard characters.To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=425&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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