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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7821079" data-attributes="member: 6775031">The big problem with the bard in D&amp;D is that it doesn't really feel like a bard. It's useful as a spellcaster, sure, but there's very little overlap between its power and its theme. Your useful abilities don't feel like bard abilities. When I was writing Gishes &amp; Goblins, I felt like this was a problem that needed to be addressed. Obviously, there's the issue that playing a lute is kind of a silly thing to do in combat; but if you aren't playing a lute, then you aren't really acting like a bard. My solution to that was multi-classing. In my game, bard exists only as a multi-class option, which any class can take in lieu of their sub-class. Nobody is only a bard. So you can be a fighter/bard, and you still get all of your primary fighter features, but you also have the option of doing bard stuff when the situation calls for it. Or you can be a wizard/bard, and you still get as many spell slots as any other wizard, but you also get bard stuff.As for what the bard stuff does, it's mostly just AoE de-buffs for as long as you keep playing. You start with a bane effect, and progress through fear, slow, vulnerability to energy, confusion, and exhaustion. None if it is limited by rests, so you always have the option of using the right song for the situation at hand.I also gave them disintegrate at-will, by playing a musical instrument, as their capstone ability. (If you play any of the later releases of Final Fantasy IV, the bard eventually becomes the most powerful character in the game, hitting almost every enemy in the final dungeon for 9999 damage with his harp.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7821079, member: 6775031"] The big problem with the bard in D&D is that it doesn't really feel like a bard. It's useful as a spellcaster, sure, but there's very little overlap between its power and its theme. Your useful abilities don't feel like bard abilities. When I was writing [I]Gishes & Goblins[/I], I felt like this was a problem that needed to be addressed. Obviously, there's the issue that playing a lute is kind of a silly thing to do in combat; but if you aren't playing a lute, then you aren't really acting like a bard. My solution to that was multi-classing. In my game, bard exists only as a multi-class option, which any class can take in lieu of their sub-class. Nobody is [I]only[/I] a bard[I]. [/I]So you can be a fighter/bard, and you still get all of your primary fighter features, but you also have the option of doing bard stuff when the situation calls for it. Or you can be a wizard/bard, and you still get as many spell slots as any other wizard, but you also get bard stuff. As for what the bard stuff does, it's mostly just AoE de-buffs for as long as you keep playing. You start with a [I]bane[/I] effect[I],[/I] and progress through fear, slow, vulnerability to energy, confusion, and exhaustion. None if it is limited by rests, so you always have the option of using the right song for the situation at hand. I also gave them [I]disintegrate[/I] at-will, by playing a musical instrument, as their capstone ability. (If you play any of the later releases of Final Fantasy IV, the bard eventually becomes the most powerful character in the game, hitting almost every enemy in the final dungeon for 9999 damage with his harp.) [/QUOTE]

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