Upgrading the Bard

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Bards are NOT a weak class.
1) He raises the power of all accompaning PCs by increasing their damage and attack abilities, by protecting them from some magical effects. He can use his spells to further augment him or other ones (hey, he can learn haste, Greater Magic Weapon, Displacement, Cat`s Grace, Bull`s Strength and many funny things more).
2) He is the only one who really has a great chance in social situation. The rogue typically has the possibility to learn the neccessary skills, but he has not the charisma - and he has to spend his skill points on skills like Open Lock/Disable Device, Search, Spot, Listen, Move Silently and Hide.
He is often even better than a paladin (he often lacks the Skill Points and he does by far not have all of the neccessary skills)
3) A Bard has "Use Magic Device". This is one of the most powerfull skills, and unlike a Rogue he can use it (thanks to his Charisma) to full effectiveness. At higher levels he has no problems to use Wands of any kind (Wand of Fireball? Wand of Haste? Wand of Magig Missile? Wand of Cure Moderare?)
4) He can cast healing spells and if you have no cleric he is the best one to ask for this. (The Druid or Ranger will not always want to prepare healing spells)

Playing Bard is fun. It is a character who will never shine out in combat - at least not obviously - hidden he can be one of the most important characters...

Mustrum Ridcully

PS: I have to admit that I would be happy to have more skill points, but who cares...

 

[Sir Apropos]

Suppossedly in Febuary, Monte Cook will be releasing his Book of Elidritch Might II from Malhavoc Press on his website as a PDF. One of the things rumored to be in there is his revised version of the Bard. If it's anything like his revised Ranger class it will become the default for my campaign immediately.

For those who don't know his website is www.montecook.com

 

[UofMDude]

Suppossedly in Febuary, Monte Cook will be releasing his Book of Elidritch Might II from Malhavoc Press on his website as a PDF. One of the things rumored to be in there is his revised version of the Bard. If it's anything like his revised Ranger class it will become the default for my campaign immediately.

For those who don't know his website is www.montecook.com

Does anyone else think that Monte's ranger is just a little too powerful? Compare it to a fighter. Monte's ranger gets 4 extra skill points (and much better skills), better reflex saves, favored enemy, and spells. All the ranger gives up for this is 3 feats and 1 hp per level.

I plan to use a very similar ranger class for my campaign except without the spellcasting.

UofMDude

 

[Ravellion]

Does anyone else think that Monte's ranger is just a little too powerful? Compare it to a fighter. Monte's ranger gets 4 extra skill points (and much better skills), better reflex saves, favored enemy, and spells. All the ranger gives up for this is 3 feats and 1 hp per level.

Yup! I'd take monte's ranger over the fighter class for most combative concepts.

Rav

 

[Archimago]

Here's my Bard

Recently, I made a homebrew world and had to drop healing spells from bard because of certain cosmological reasons. Anyway, I knew this was a big change so I decided to entirely rework the class.
Anyway, I'm not sure if this will be a help to anyone, but if any of my ideas strike those who think the bard needs tinkering, by all means cannabalize my version for use in your ideal bard.

I'll give a synopsis of changes before I show the class entry as it appears in my house-rule handout.

1) Dropped all healing spells
2) Allowed Bard to use same spell list as a wizard
3) Made the Bard a arcane half-caster, like a Paladin is a divine half-caster
4) More songs, and songs that affect only the Bard
5) Song acquisition level, not perform skill based
6) Bardic Knowledge stacks with skills pts in the Knowledge skills
7) Bard can take their free weapon proficiency in any martial (Not all bards follow an elven or even human-like tradition)
8) Kept 4+int skill pts, but bard automatically gains 1 skill pt per level (x3 at level one) in perform (since the songs are level-based I needed some way to force bards into having good perform ranks w/o having to rework the songs too); with the stacking Bardic knowledge, these bards operate near to 6+int

Bard
HD: d6
Saves (F/R/W): Poor/Good/Good
BAB: Medium
Armour Pro: Light, Shields
Weapon Pro: All Simple plus 1 Martial
Skills: 4+int
Skill List: As PHB
Lesser Spell Progression*
Spontaneous Casting w/ limited spells known (use lesser spell progression chart for spells known)
L1 Bardic Knowledge, Bardic Spellcasting, Bardic Performance (Inspire Courage)
L2 Bardic Performance (Fascinate)
L4 Bardic Performance (Inspire Competence)
L6 Bardic Performance (Suggestion)
L8 Bardic Performance (Defensive Dance)
L10 Bardic Performance (Marksman’s Mantra)
L12 Bardic Performance (Inspire Greatness)
L14 Bardic Performance (Countersong)
L16 Bardic Performance (Inspire Resolve)
L18 Bardic Performance (Compulsion)
L20 Bardic Performance (Song of Spell-Resistance)
Bardic Knowledge – Add (Bard Level/2) to all knowledge checks
Bardic Spellcasting – No spell failure in light armour for bard spells only
Bardic Performance – Learn a new Bardic Son; can perform once per level per day; Bard gains 4 ranks of perform at level 1, and 1 rank every level thereafter

Performance - Affect
Inspire Courage - As PHB
Fascinate - As PHB
Inspire Competence - As PHB
Suggestion - As PHB
Defensive Dance - Add Cha to AC for 10 rounds or till stop
Marksman’s Mantra - Add Cha to Hit for 10 rounds or till stop
Suggestion - As PHB
Inspire Greatness - As PHB, except gain +2 damage as well
Countersong - Bard may attempt a counterspell dispel magic but at half the bard’s caster level; if successful only area of 30ft radius around bard is considered countered
Inspire Resolve - Allies with 30ft may use Bard’s Perform score as their saving throw against any mind-affecting effect
Compulsion - Bard can force a subject to commit any non-suicidal act, target must be fascinated and have suggestion implanted to follow Bard’s will, and gets saving throw at DC 13+Bard’s Cha; counts against daily limit
Song of Spell-Resistance - Allies within 30ft gain SR of 11+Bard’s Cha

*Lesser Spell Progression Chart

1 2 3 4 5

1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 4 1
6 4 2
7 4 3
8 4 4
9 4 4 1
10 4 4 2
11 4 4 3
12 4 4 4
13 4 4 4 1
14 4 4 4 2
15 4 4 4 3
16 4 4 4 4
17 4 4 4 4 1
18 4 4 4 4 2
19 4 4 4 4 3
20 4 4 4 4 4

 

[CRGreathouse]

[2E humor]

Finally, bards who can cast magic missile and fireball again!

[/2E humor]