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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AliasBot" data-source="post: 8542476" data-attributes="member: 7021806">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.)</blockquote>

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