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<blockquote data-quote="ZombieRoboNinja" data-source="post: 4021574" data-attributes="member: 54843">I don't really think of the bard as the &quot;master&quot; of social encounters. I think of him as the jack-of-all-trades of social encounters.The wizard has more background knowledge. The warlord/cleric/paladin can be just as inspiring. The rogue is a better liar. But the bard brings it all together - he has &quot;bardic knowledge&quot; of a little bit of just about everything, with enough persuasiveness, &quot;pull,&quot; bluffing, and charisma to put it all into play.Reynard, I think the central premise here is that &quot;level = combat effectiveness.&quot; Any level X character should be about as effective in combat as any other of the same level, although this obviously varies with build optimization and situation.Non-combat situations are trickier. I think that ideally &quot;social&quot; classes like bards and warlords will have a ton of options, whereas less socially-focused classes might have one or two big areas of social expertise. For example, a wizard gets to be the expert on arcana and ancient history, while the fighter can be just flat-out intimidating in a way it's tough for the sneakiest rogue to match. That way, everybody gets to participate in social encounters, but the bard still gets his time to shine.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ZombieRoboNinja, post: 4021574, member: 54843"] I don't really think of the bard as the "master" of social encounters. I think of him as the jack-of-all-trades of social encounters. The wizard has more background knowledge. The warlord/cleric/paladin can be just as inspiring. The rogue is a better liar. But the bard brings it all together - he has "bardic knowledge" of a little bit of just about everything, with enough persuasiveness, "pull," bluffing, and charisma to put it all into play. Reynard, I think the central premise here is that "level = combat effectiveness." Any level X character should be about as effective in combat as any other of the same level, although this obviously varies with build optimization and situation. Non-combat situations are trickier. I think that ideally "social" classes like bards and warlords will have a ton of options, whereas less socially-focused classes might have one or two big areas of social expertise. For example, a wizard gets to be the expert on arcana and ancient history, while the fighter can be just flat-out intimidating in a way it's tough for the sneakiest rogue to match. That way, everybody gets to participate in social encounters, but the bard still gets his time to shine. [/QUOTE]

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