Why Are Bards...Bards?

[Mr. Kaze]

Bards just aren't built for conventional adventuring...

"Bard. James Bard."

Sorry, no. The #1 weakness of the Bard class is that it has no backup plan to cover for when the bluff check fails. Rogues step all over the bard's class skill list (and have more skills) and have both uncanny dodge and evasion for when their speaking skills fail them. Bards... eh, not so much.

Full Bards are the ultimate sidekick character -- they can attempt to perform a surprising quantity of tasks to help the heroes. Right up until they get detonated because they don't have evasion, resist energy, or very many hit points.

This may all change after the class abilities from rogues slow down after level 4 and the sorceror's skill list starts looking particularly one-dimensional after level 6. But what I've seen is that the so-called jack-of-all-trades bard is really a poser-of-all-trades that has to work rather harder than anybody else to actually do any given task really well.

::Kaze (is bard to death of playing a Rogue/Bored in a dungeon crawl)

 

[mmadsen]

Anyone else notice that the Bard makes a decent Jedi knight?

 

[Lalato]

Refresh my memory... when did the bard first appear in D&D?

 

[JimAde]

Refresh my memory... when did the bard first appear in D&D?

I believe it was a "prestige" class in 1st edition AD&D. The entry requirements were brutal (it was almost impossible to qualify) and they could do everything. Does that sound right? It's been a a looong time.

 

[Wolv0rine]

I believe it was a "prestige" class in 1st edition AD&D. The entry requirements were brutal (it was almost impossible to qualify) and they could do everything. Does that sound right? It's been a a looong time.

Yeah, pretty much. It didn't really matter who or what your character was... the 1E Bard p0wned you, plain & simple, but only about 1 in 17 billion guys could ever even dream of BEING one (legitimately, at least).

 

[Samothdm]

I believe it was a "prestige" class in 1st edition AD&D. The entry requirements were brutal (it was almost impossible to qualify) and they could do everything. Does that sound right? It's been a a looong time.

The first time I remember seeing it was the 1E Player's Handbook. I'm sure Diaglo would know if it were around before that. My recollection is that you started as a Fighter, worked up to about 5-8th level, then switched to a Thief, did that until you passed the level you stopped as a Fighter, and then switched to the Druid class, but at this point you actually became a full-fledged Bard, so in addition to the stuff you got from the Druid class you also got more special abilities on top of that for being a Bard. It was such a weird concept that it was actually in the Appendix of the Player's Handbook and not listed alongside the other core classes. In Best of Dragon Vol. III there was an option for a "regular" bard that you could play from first level.

The first time in the Core Rules that it was a core class was 2nd Edition.

"Bard. James Bard."

That was actually the opening line to a spy-like Character Kit from the 2nd Edition Complete Bard's Handbook. There were lots of ideas in there for playing different types of bards, including a loremaster-type, a gypsy dancer, a herald (although I don't think the herald was fully fleshed out) and some weird ones like a juggler and a knife-thrower.

I'm currently playing a Night Elf Hexblade2 / Bard 2 in a Dawnforge Campaign. His bardic performances focus on Dancing and Chanting. There were a lot of Night Elf feats in the core CS and the follow-up Path of Legends book that involved dancing, so I figured it was a natural for my bard. The DM was cool and let me swap out some of the standard bard abilities for some of the dancing-ones from Path of Magic and Stealth & Style (a Kingdoms of Kalamar book designed for Basiran Dancers and Infiltrators).

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I think Spellthieves are better at that.

Well, I'd certainly like to see more about this class, but from what I understand it doesn't work to well since it has an inferior skill list.

As I see it there are really three or four types of skill users:

Charismatic/Social

Wise and Canny/Perceptive

Intelligent/Clever

and

Quick and Strong/Practical

Bard covers some aspects of the first three and then adds spell use.

Ranger covers some aspects of two and four and then adds spell use.

Spell thief, from what I understand, covers four and two and possibly three but misses some important elements of one.

 

[talien]

I personally think bards make excellent elves.

To clarify, I've always felt that elves (especially in anime) are much more mystical, in touch with nature, and very wise. Elves don't get all that much as a race to simulate the fact that they're long-lived. But as a bard, you've got an elf with music and magical talents.

Ilmare, in my Arcanis story hour, is played very much that way. If anything she comes off as more an archer than anything else, who happens to convince the spirits of the air to act on her behalf. And when she sings, it's an unearthly, uplifting experience, never just a song nor something so pedestrian as being for entertainment value alone.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Anyone else notice that the Bard makes a decent Jedi knight?

Particularly when combined with Psychic Warrior, either as a multiclass or as a Gestalt.

 

[Kelleris]

Another thing you can do to make the bard more archetypally flexible is to just reflavor the spells. I'll do this sometimes with characters that wouldn't really be down with the magic-fu - just pick spells with more subtle effects, like cat's grace, and desrcibe them as mantras or focusing chants or innate ability to boost yourself for short periods.

Also, the bard has so many abilities that you almost ignore one and still be okay. I've had characters that hardly ever used bardic music, simply because they usually had better things to do - spellcasting or combat or what have you.