Jester questions

[KenB3]

1)The Jester casts spells similiarly to the bard, but he doesn't seem to share the bard's ability to cast in light armor. Is this an omission or deliberate?

2) Similiarly, jesters have both search and disable device, but don't have trap finding. What good is disable device without trap finding? Again, was something left out?

3) Why are jesters the only class with hide and move silently but not spot and listen? That's sort of unusual, isn't it, I mean they can sneak past people, but not recognize it in others?

Anyway, it's still a cool class that I'm planning on playing, I'm just curious about this design decisions or whatever they are.

[Mike Mearls]

(These are all IMO. Things may have changed after the book left my hands.)

1. Jesters can cast in light armor, as can the savant.

2. Jesters should have trap finding.

3. This is deliberate. Jesters aren't really the calm, collected, searching types. They're a bit too chaotic for that. I can definitely see the logic for giving them Spot and Listen as class skills, though. I don't think it unbalances the class by any means, but I think at that point they get a little too rogue-like. I see a jester as precisely the kind of guy who sneaks into the room, and accidentally blunders into the weapons rack he failed to notice.

[KenB3]

Well, thanks for the answers, 3 in fact did happen last weekend, well, substitute "weapon rack" with "slime" and you'll get the idea.

One other question, were they supposed to get concentration as a class skill or not? They seem to be the only casting class that doesn't, even paladins and rangers get the skill. I sort of see it as maybe being undisciplined and not concentrating, but just in practical terms it sucks being a caster without that skill.

[Mike Mearls]

Yeah, that was intentional, but if you house rule it in there shouldn't be any balance issues.

[Gubbaffet the gnome]

Mike Mearls wrote:

I see a jester as precisely the kind of guy who sneaks into the room, and accidentally blunders into the weapons rack he failed to notice.

He's sounding a bit like me :)

Sugar + me=bad-Gubbaffet

[Shades of Eternity]

sorry to commit some thread necromancy, but I'm thinking it's best to pull up an old thread then start a new one.

I'm thinking of playing a jester for my next character, and was wondering if their were any tips.

such as choice of feats, spells, race, equipment as well as overall tactics?

[Amaril]

Shades of Eternity wrote:

sorry to commit some thread necromancy, but I'm thinking it's best to pull up an old thread then start a new one.

I'm thinking of playing a jester for my next character, and was wondering if their were any tips.

such as choice of feats, spells, race, equipment as well as overall tactics?

I have a player in my campaign who is playing a jester. He's actually a comedian in real life, and he loves it!

I'm allowing feats such as Extra Music and bardic music feats to apply to Jester's Performance.