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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 6227954" data-attributes="member: 2525">I am guessing you yourself did not play the bard, you just read about it in isolation apart from the other mechanics in the game.  Maybe I am wrong in that guess (please let me know), but if I am right I think you might find playing it, it's not what it seems.  Also, there are assumptions you may not be aware of, as you say you didn't follow all the betatest release issues as they came up.  For example, it sounds like you were not aware that not all the spells and subclasses are in this release, or how the first three levels work for the classes, or the scaling of skills.I'll respond specifically to detail:First level "sucks" for all the classes, intentionally.  They've built it so that the 1st and 2nd level of the classes are essentially "apprentice" levels, and the final product apparently suggests starting at 3rd level if you don't like this.They, like all classes which have a bonus to any sort of skill, get it at third level.  It's listed as Expertise.  It's a MASSIVE bonus.  I know from the perspective of other editions it seems like a small bonus, but once you become more familiar with how ability checks work (skill checks are just modifiers on ability checks), you'll see that having the skill and then on top of it the expertise makes you truly a master of that type of thing in this game.  Few classes get expertise, your skills don't really go up with level (they do, but not by much), and you'll dominate whatever you have Expertise in.Languages come through background, race, and intelligence.  A Bard usually has a decent intelligence.  Then most of the races that tend to gravitate to bard get bonus languages, and most of the backgrounds that tend to mesh well with bard also get bonus languages.  A half-elf bard with a sage background and a 16 intelligence, for example, would get: Common, Elvish, Bonus (half-elf), Bonus (sage), Bonus (sage), Bonus (sage), Bonus (Intelligence), Bonus (Intelligence), Bonus (Intelligence).  There you go, nine languages at first level, and there are only nine standard languages in the game.  And then, you also get Comprehend Languages on your first level spell list.  Now a polyglot ability isn't a bad idea, and I think it should be included in a subclass.  So, good idea.  But I don't think it's quite as bad as you think.They do have their own spell list, but not all the spells are listed in the Beta test.  Well it's the beta, bard came along later in the testing, and we know not all the spells are listed (not even close, apparently).  I'd bet you a fair sum of cash you're going to see plenty of unique bard spells in the final book.  And I agree with you, they should have more unique spells on their list, and I think that is coming.I think this is a matter of taste.  I don't think it looks random.  But, that's what the playtest is for - play the game, and then give them your feedback.That's what they do.  I think this is where some background in how subclasses work for all the classes becomes more helpful.Yup, that's this bard.  Yes to all that - that's how the class is set up.  We don't have all the subclasses revealed yet, but that's the direction the current subclasses went, exactly the sort of stuff you're talking about.  It's in the colleges.  They get their subclass at 3rd level, like most classes, and there will be more subclasses.I am not attacking you, but it does sound like you didn't playtest the bard to see if it matches what you think it matches, and I think you'd gain something from trying it out.  Also, I think you're coming at this without knowing about some important things that happened in development, and how some other classes work, to see where some information is located, and what levels everyone gets them.</blockquote>

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