D&D 5E Time to remake the Bard

[DND_Reborn]

To be fair, they only do it because bards are awesome. ;-)

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Inspired by my Which Class is "The Best" thread, and several people's belief that Bard is the best class, let's examine why.

At the core of the class, you have inspiration (still meh to me-- powerful as it is I am not a fan of the mechanic), spells, and expertise. With the proficiency system, bards can fight about as well as warrior classes, especially if you take an archetype that grants Extra Attack. The Lore bard allows you to be a skill monkey. Other archetypes fill other roles as well.

So, a bard could really just be a Fighter/Rogue/Sorcerer or some other combination. Now, since 1E PHB the bard was a Fighter then Rogue then (druid) Bard.

I am sure many of you are happy with the Bard as is. I'm not.

It steps on way too many toes. I would rather see the Bard as the skill monkey (Jack of all Trades is one of my favorite class features just purely based on the flavor idea) and develop an alternative role for the Rogue. I like the idea of Bards having spells, but fewer with enormous variety potential more meets my idea of the spells a Bard would know (various charms, etc. picked up "along the way"). A spell progression similar but a bit better than Paladins and Rangers might work well, or even something like the Warlock with few spell slots but other spell-like abilities akin to their invocations.

Finally, PLEASE do not waste my time (or yours...) simply by saying "the bard is awesome, and great as it is" or something similar. I am looking for ideas on how to remake the bard into something I would actually want to play. Characters already can support each other, so I don't want a class primarily designed to support others. Maybe I am not being clear, but hopefully for anyone who feels the way I do about bards, you get the idea...

 

[Shardstone]

Warlock spell-progression with a bard + features to pick up other features "learned on the road" would make for a very interesting bard.

 

[Tallifer]

I like to imagine the bard as a traveling troubadour. Mostly impressing people especially the ladies with his music, poetry and social graces.

 

[Li Shenron]

Sounds like you want the 3e bard.

 

[bedir than]

I love the idea of a Bard on a chassis more similar to Warlock. I think the fiction of using their art to create spells that they have less control over than Wizards makes sense.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Like you, I think it steps on too many toes. Especially by being able to steal other classes spells. I would get rid of that. Have it's own spells only (mostly around charming and illusion---things we associate more with music than a fireball).

 

[Tony Vargas]

It steps on way too many toes.

5e has mostly given up on niche protection, so not the issue it used to be.

I would rather see the Bard as the skill monkey (Jack of all Trades is one of my favorite class features just purely based on the flavor idea) and develop an alternative role for the Rogue.

Skill Monkey is only remotely viable in 5e with Expertise, and, even then, it's more a side-line. The Rogue is already (like all non-casters in 5e) primarily DPR. The Bard gets Expertise, already, and is a full caster.

I like the idea of Bards having spells, but fewer with enormous variety potential more meets my idea of the spells a Bard would know (various charms, etc. picked up "along the way"). A spell progression similar but a bit better than Paladins and Rangers might work well, or even something like the Warlock with few spell slots but other spell-like abilities akin to their invocations.

It'd be cool to see a second class adopt the Warlock spell resource model. Maybe make the Bard - or lore bard, specifically - a prepped version?

 

[DND_Reborn]

Sounds like you want the 3e bard.

I didn't play 3E for long, less than a year really. I glanced through the 3.5 PHB (I don't have the 3E, but I don't think it is much different?) and that is a good place to start.

A mixture between a 3/3.5E bard but with some warlock casting/feature flavor might be good.

 

[MonkeezOnFire]

Currently the bard is second best at a lot of things which is okay but I find in play they rarely get the spotlight as they don't have a lot of tools to make big power plays (apart from Magical Secrets, that is the only thing I find interesting in the bard but it looks like other in this thread feel differently). In this way I feel that they are more the side kicks of the party.

I'd really like to see the system of bard songs that have different effects come back from 3rd edition. This way the bard can definitively become the king of party buffs (and some debuffs but with competition from other caster classes for top spot). In exchange you can bump them down to half casting progression.

 

[bedir than]

Interestingly enough, the interplay of Pact/Patron could work for warlock-like Bard.

College/Art would be a fun distinction. Song, dance, speech, etc would have different mechanics and not just narrative that diverges from RAW