D&D General What's Bardier than a Bard?
- Thread starter Jack Daniel
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LordEntrails
Hero
What about 'kender'? I mean that doesn't have any negative connotations and it's not really in use...
Mannahnin
Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
Nah, it's the one from Dragon #64.
Although actually... I should ask my OD&D DM if my Fighting Man can recruit a Bard as a henchman.
No pooping in the thread! Bad Snarf!
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I was actually talking about how they’re almost homophones.FYI, to clarify, the "too bad they can't spell" is because they misspelled "Inspiration" in the pic, not because people mistake Minstrel for another word--just in cast that was your line of thought.
Second, it's a word like any other, "trouble" is in the eye of the beholder, and if people take issue with it they should probably grow up a bit IMO.
"Rake" was going to be my other suggestion, but a lot of people don't know the meaning of that word in this connotation. So, since Minstrel was one of the suggestions in the OP, I went with that one, as did a few others posting in the thread.
Another thought was "Scoundrel", but that has too much of a negative connotation with it. I figure that is also why WotC went away from Thief and used Rogue instead, too much is implied in the name otherwise.
We were gaming one night and the host’s wife wandered through. She asked what kind of character someone at the table was playing.
”A minstrel.” Her husband replied.
She whipped her head around, “A WHAT?”
We all shouted synonyms, “BARD!” “TROUBADOUR!”, etc.
good times
Yes, but it also has the meaning of “nonconformist” and “socially unconventional person, especially one who is involved in the arts.”
doctorbadwolf
Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Yeah the Lore Bard, steal some tree related spells maybe if you wanna be cheesy, definitely make sure you know polymorph (the shapeshifter of the Druid comes from Roman accounts of Druids IIRC), and you’ve it.
I thought about calling the priest archetype in my game The Druid, but the confusion potential was a little too great.
AliasBot
Explorer
In reading through this thread, I'm realizing that my concept of what the Bard's archetype is is a fair bit different from most of the rest of the people posting here, including the OP, which means my answer might need a bit more explanation.
For me, the core of the Bard lies in the types of magic it's associated with: most centrally the magic of music and the magic of stories, but also the broader categories of performance/art magic and word/language magic. The unifying theme is that bardic magic, more than that of any other casters (bar maybe Clerics or Paladins, depending on how much you believe their power to stem from their faith or conviction rather than from their patrons), is the magic of people: it's the power that emerges from intelligent beings finding ways to express themselves to each other and to the world. Conceptually, it's a subtler, more ephemeral power source than the arcane, or the divine, or the primal, which is reflected in the Bard's spell list - light in raw damage or physical world-shaping potential, high in ways to influence and support other people.
From this perspective, much of the Bard's loremaster-y fluff and skilled-generalist mechanics stems from its focus on stories and language: stories are how history and lore are recorded and maintained in collective knowledge outside of physical media, so the storyteller filling the role of the lorekeeper makes perfect sense; stories have to be heard to be recorded, and cannot be kept in the collective knowledge without being shared with the community, so they must be an active part of the community, often including travel between various communities to gather and share their tales - thus, Bards tend to be more worldly than other casters, gleaning knowledge of various practical endeavors through experience and osmosis.
(The justification for the mechanics is, admittedly, shakier - Bards being better at practical skill stuff than other casters makes sense, but being better at it than every class other than Rogues? Not so much. If Bards just got Jack of All Trades and not Expertise it'd scan better, but I recognize that the interpretation of the class I'm coming from does not match up with the interpretation the class was designed from.)
So: we have a fullcaster who wields the magic of expression and of communal knowledge, who alternately supports, inspires, and beguiles those around them. If leaving its name as "Bard" is off the table, the best name I can come up with to encompass as much of the concept as possible (including the "high magic" feel, which was the hardest criteria to meet) is the Muse: leaning into the focus on the arts, on creation, and into magical inspiration. (Other notable considerations included the Artist and the Chronicler; the Player would actually be a solid second-place, if not for the obvious confusion it would generate.)
For me, the core of the Bard lies in the types of magic it's associated with: most centrally the magic of music and the magic of stories, but also the broader categories of performance/art magic and word/language magic. The unifying theme is that bardic magic, more than that of any other casters (bar maybe Clerics or Paladins, depending on how much you believe their power to stem from their faith or conviction rather than from their patrons), is the magic of people: it's the power that emerges from intelligent beings finding ways to express themselves to each other and to the world. Conceptually, it's a subtler, more ephemeral power source than the arcane, or the divine, or the primal, which is reflected in the Bard's spell list - light in raw damage or physical world-shaping potential, high in ways to influence and support other people.
From this perspective, much of the Bard's loremaster-y fluff and skilled-generalist mechanics stems from its focus on stories and language: stories are how history and lore are recorded and maintained in collective knowledge outside of physical media, so the storyteller filling the role of the lorekeeper makes perfect sense; stories have to be heard to be recorded, and cannot be kept in the collective knowledge without being shared with the community, so they must be an active part of the community, often including travel between various communities to gather and share their tales - thus, Bards tend to be more worldly than other casters, gleaning knowledge of various practical endeavors through experience and osmosis.
(The justification for the mechanics is, admittedly, shakier - Bards being better at practical skill stuff than other casters makes sense, but being better at it than every class other than Rogues? Not so much. If Bards just got Jack of All Trades and not Expertise it'd scan better, but I recognize that the interpretation of the class I'm coming from does not match up with the interpretation the class was designed from.)
So: we have a fullcaster who wields the magic of expression and of communal knowledge, who alternately supports, inspires, and beguiles those around them. If leaving its name as "Bard" is off the table, the best name I can come up with to encompass as much of the concept as possible (including the "high magic" feel, which was the hardest criteria to meet) is the Muse: leaning into the focus on the arts, on creation, and into magical inspiration. (Other notable considerations included the Artist and the Chronicler; the Player would actually be a solid second-place, if not for the obvious confusion it would generate.)
Bacon Bits
Hero
Strictly speaking, troubadour is gendered as well. Troubadour is male, trobairitz is female.
You might even have encountered the term in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Priscilla, the young woman in a budding relationship with Dandelion, is described as a trobairitz on more than one occasion (though the game is very heavy on language in general).
AnotherGuy
Hero
Well stealing from the 2e Bard's Handbook you also have Meistersinger, Gallant, Thespian, Herald and Charlatan.
The rest don't fit, are too niche or have already been mentioned.
The rest don't fit, are too niche or have already been mentioned.
