Elora's page

"It ruins the mood to imagine your tough as nails barbarian warrior exploring secret caverns and fighting inhuman monsters while some idiot plays the guitar behind you and sings songs that make you fight better."

That's exactly what I was talking about...what kind of idiot bard would play a guitar walking through secret caverns? Talk about seriously bad roleplaying, especially if the bard is traveling with a barbarian! If my bard were in that scenario, we'd be talking a war drum and chanting (maybe even some wild dancing to distract and place fear in the heart of the foes), not folk music and a guitar. On the other hand, if I (ha! caught myself -- my bard) was going through caverns full of creepy monsters with a group of scared young warriors, a Celtic song of courage to lift their hearts would be in order (and that way I could keep my hands free to hold a weapon as well!).

Ok, so I admit I'm new to DnD and roleplaying...but I don't understand why bards are so looked down upon. I really enjoy playing a bard -- my character is very flexible, and I've saved my group's collective arse on more than one occasion since we started playing 5 months ago. My bard can pick up a nice bag of gold pretty much every night we spend in a town by performing, she's great at finding out important pieces of information and persuading people to talk before killing, etc...and in the field she can hold her own fairly well and has been among the last standing on several occasions (and not because she was hiding in the back). Best of all, she's great at "filling in the blanks" in the group, eg-- the group isn't screwed when the cleric goes down and there's still 2 dire wolves left and your fighter keeps getting his feet knocked out from under him.

So, I've been thinking about why the class is dimissed so quickly by most people, and I think it's at least partly due to the conception of a bard as a "jester/funny guy". (I know the stats are a bit weaker than for other classes as well, but I think that the flexibility, mixed with some cleverness, more than makes up for that). I can see why one would tire quickly of being the "hero" that can juggle. But that's not how I see a bard -- my conception of a bard is more along the lines of Taliesin or Merlin from Stephen Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle. Specifically, I fashioned some of my bard's aspects after Llew Silverhand from Lawhead's Song of Albion trilogy -- like Llew, she favors a longsword and a spear. Or, for a series you all may be more familiar with, think of a bard as someone who has a "wishsong of Shannara" ability. Basically, my bard is not an entertainer...she is a storyteller, "moving" souls and shaping events using her innate understanding of the power of song and music.

If you would like to have a bard included as a PC in your campaign, or if you are thinking about playing one, I would encourage you to read some of the books mentioned above or suggest them to your players.

Wow! I love reading these stories! You guys would be great to roleplay with. My husband and I just started playing DnD (v3.5) a few months ago, after we fell in love with Morrowind and his officemate said, "gosh, you'd like DnD - wanna play?". And we said, hmm, isn't that the creepy "demonic" game we were warned about as children??...Why not?! And then we added 3 more complete newbies to our crew, including 2 Lithuanians who had never heard of the game, bought ONE set of dice to share (DM has his own), and ONE Players Handbook.

Anyway, I came up with Elora, a young human bard with long black hair with silvery highlights, and deep green eyes. She has three thin scars on the back of her shoulder which she tries to keep hidden, and always wears a necklace with a small object wrapped with thick cloth. She has *gasp* a mysterious family history involving The Raven Throne (long-dead dynasty, remembered only by a few...some who have sworn to keep the prophecy from coming to pass in which the dark Raven kingdom is reborn, some who wish to use the prophecy to their own ends, all watching for the last descendants to kill or aid them). However, she also has Lillend ancestry, the source of her inborn bardic music. Elora learned the bits and pieces known about her history from her grandfather on his deathbed, and later left her family and town to protect them when she was marked by a part of the prophecy -- a raven, "Dochas", scarred her and then would not leave her. (This is how I convinced our DM to let a bard have a raven familiar :-). Then she spent a few years wandering the land, quietly seeking information about the Ravens and learning how to protect herself. Currently, she is traveling with a gnome cleric loyal to Kord, a dwarf ranger, a human sorceress, and a half-elf fighter.

I hope to play for years to come, and have several interesting character ideas I want to pursue, but I think Elora will always be my "iconic" character. I can't wait to see who she becomes.

I've only read the excerpts posted online, but I LOVE the new feats. There are some great options for bards, and I can't wait to use them! Battledancer!! How exciting...