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Message: <blockquote data-quote="arscott" data-source="post: 4193803" data-attributes="member: 17969">Okay, back from work.  I edited the guy to give him role-appropriate hp.There's an aspect of performance in the tumble skill, which seems appropriate for certain bards--especially if acrobatics includes dancing, which is a necessity for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0" target="_blank">certain forms of musical performance</a>.  You're right that thievery and stealth aren't quite as appropriate to this bard as those of previous editions, but I think it's important to provide appropriate skill options for the (high dex) performance bard.  As it stands, the skill list contains 3 int based skills (including history, which is automatic), and 3 dex based.I considered intimidate, but I have a hard time visualizing the bard being scary without resorting to specific songs or chants (i.e., his powers).I don't think "bard" has ever been used just to denote a guy who sings for money.  Historically, the word refers to a specific group of poets whose duty was partially ceremonial in nature--They're as much "guys who tell poetry for a living" as a clergyman is a "guy who dispenses moral advice for a living"--Technically true, but doesn't really denote their importance.  More recently, it's an honorific bestowed on highly esteemed poets (i.e., Shakespeare is 'The Immortal Bard'), or a group of counter-cultural musicians in soviet russia.In fiction, Bard tends to refer either to the historical caste of gaelic poet, or to heroic or villainous characters with a particular (and often supernatural) gift for song.I've never seen Bard used as a synonym for traveling performer outside of a D&D context.  And even it's use within a D&D context is pretty strained--It's equivalent to the sort of thinking that gives us "Rogues' Guilds" in place of "Thieves' Guilds" and never uses the word "monk" to designate a tonsured clergyman who lives in an abbey .</blockquote>

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