Just a general discussion topic, but what role do you think the talents of a Bard would have them gravitate towards?
 
So far, the one that seems stand-out is as an advisor/guard to a figure of power (say, king).  I used a Warmage and Bard to really, really nice combination as the elite guards of a baron.  The bard was capable of doing the diplomacy, enchantment, healing, and divination, while the warmage blew the shit out of whatever pissed off the bard.  Even without the warmage, I'd think every lord would want a bard on staff.

Well, if I was a bard, I'd probably gravitate towards enchantments spells, and I'd then gravitate towards power and wealth.  I'd act like an entertainer and get in with nobility.  And as soon as I had the suggestion power, I'd work my way in with royalty, and try to get everything that isn't nailed down.

To me, the powers of a bard or enchanter just seem a lot more useful for evil characters than good ones.  

Yeah, bards seem fine power-wise, just so long as you don't expect them to be trying to make a living as an adventurer.

NPC

Quote from: CyberzombieWell, if I was a bard....

And if I was a bard, I'd hang myself with my lute strings.

Assassin Prestige Class. Just put Borgia as his last name.

Paper weight. :heh:

Strangely I have found that the bard as a character class is pretty maleable. Because as others have pointed out, the class at times seems ineffectual as a traditional adventuring class, I have had to sex it up so to speak. I have done this by using the background of the character as a starting point to give the bard some skills, abilities, magic etc that a standard bard would not have. This largely depends on the background that the player wants to have.

For instance I have had a player who wanted to play a bard who whose part of an army during some war or other. He was a member of the corp that played the musical instruments that signalled what  strategies the troops had to carry out etc. He was also a kind of chronicler of the war itself - part reporter/part agitator(those damn liberal activist) who recorded in song and verse the horrors of war. I got him some extra combat skills, some foreign spells he probaly learnt from captured/interrogated enemies, which really (at least I hope)  did not unbalance the class but did give the player a bit more of an edge in his adventuring career.

Another time one player decided she wanted her background to include that she was a slave at one time to the drow. So was involved in their horrid live torture preformaneces playing their weird sounding (think screaching and maoning) instruments. Her bard having the usual skills also had some survival skills learnt from drow she had ingratiated herself with and other prisoners from far away lands.

In all cases their musical abilities and talents underlined a deeper more conflicted persona. This normally made all adventuring bards a pretty hard core bunch -using their music and talents as a kind of weapon against the perceived injustices of the world - leaving the rest of the smile and whistle crowd (the unoffical term for the mundane non magical bards) free to ply their trade in and around taverns and such.

Regards,
David R

Best role for a bard: being a cohort.

It is one of the most useful class for a party but at the same time it is very boring to play.

Bards work best in the role as antagonist to the lead, competing for a girl's/boy's affections, but losing out in the end to the protagonist.  Bards are best as the pretty one who can seemingly do everything but it turns out in the end that they don't do anything all that well.

We've got a player in my group who kicks ass playing Bards. His Bard can turn our party into a force to be reckoned with. I like them as adventurers. They're not frontliners, but they're still a potent class. And you have all the diplmacy your party will need.

Quote from: CyberzombieWell, if I was a bard, I'd probably gravitate towards enchantments spells, and I'd then gravitate towards power and wealth.  I'd act like an entertainer and get in with nobility.  And as soon as I had the suggestion power, I'd work my way in with royalty, and try to get everything that isn't nailed down.

To me, the powers of a bard or enchanter just seem a lot more useful for evil characters than good ones.  

You know, I always thought a Bard/Mindbender would be pretty fun to play. Kind of a sleezy manipulator type of character.

My favorite use for bards is as Gandalfian wizards.  You get to swing a sword, cast spells, and know much Lore.  You can take Perform (oratory) and base your bard power on stirring speeches.  Get a robe and a pointy hat and you're good to go.

A Bard built for the Long Con is as nasty an npc as you could build.  She could turn a whole city against you; lead you into a trap, leave you naked in the desert.  PCs will climb mountains based on whispered hints of treasure dropped by some mysterious NPC.  A Bard with a cohort, followers, some minor illusions, she can leave a party feeling like total idiots.

A Bard level 7-9 has recently contributed greatly to our group: +1 for everyone, whip tripping for the dogpiling tanks, freeing allies from Improved Grabs with grease, stunning with sound bursts, and restoring consciousness.

Greasing that giants club really won a tough battle, also.

Diplomat/spy/saboteur/assassin ; 'nuff said.
You can destroy empires with them.