rein451's page

Something else that needs to be looked at now that the bard has a ton of new songs, especially at first level, is his uses per day. In most campaigns I have seen, at high levels, the bard never used all his bardic music/day (BM/Ds in the future). Conversely, at low levels, he had the same problem as the 3.0 and 3.5 barbarian, compounded exponentially because of the number of songs: neat ability, but when do I use it?

I don't know if bards need a music point system a la Rage points. But it would be nice if they had maybe 3 extra BM/Ds at first level and then progressed normally from there. At higher levels, maybe add in a mechanic where they can spend a BM/D for a bonus on a skill check equal to their Inspire Courage bonus-showing that they can improvise with random bits of lore and luck and expanding the Jack of all trades feel. Addiionally, they could spend a BM/D to boost the DC of a Bardic Music effect by +2 (obviously you could only do this once or twice).

rein451 wrote:

I can see how bards get pigeonholed into the role of negotiators: they're the only core class besides sorcerors and paladins who NEED a good charisma AND have the points to invest in the skills that make that role work. But to say that bard's have to fill that role, doesn't that take away from the jack-of-all-trades mentality?

I don't think that the "Jack-of-all-Trades mentality" is an asset to the class. I think it leaves people without a handle on playing the character or what their role in the party can/should be. Which means the bard is often the after-thought/forgotten character when it comes to party dynamics. Which I think is a crying shame for a class that is ostensibly extroverted enough to have "perform" as a required skill.

When I say Jack-of-all trades, I mean that you can build a bard to fit any role, mechanically, based on party makeup. If you have a wizard, fighter, and rogue in the party, you can build him to be a healer. You can make your bard anything you want...that to me is a big attraction of the class.

All having a favored class stops you from doing is jumping into another class at level 10 or 20 unless you were your race's favored class or were getting into it. Even though it is not a favorite rule of a lot of the people I play with, it rarely came up. I think people just chaffe at the idea of a restriction on their PCs.

Besides, Pathfinder seems to be more about building a character in his core class through level 20. Favored class (and the bonus hit points-which are the equivalent of an Epic Feat by level 20) are more just flavor.

Because then the Ranger becomes a less than glorified bard at the cost of an animal companion (which is fairly versatile).

Especially since Hunter's bond only targets a single favored enemy, I think it should last until that enemy is dropped or the Ranger picks a new enemy.

If we're naming fantasy bards, let's also count Rein from Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber and Carisman from Terry Brook's The Druid of Shannara (also numerous fools and lovers from Shakespeare's plays and other classic sources of literature).

The bard has always been my favorite class mainly because they could be anything from an archeaologist to a troubadour to a court jester. I love the knew bardic knowledge system (easier on the DM and on the player). It sucked to have this really versatile ability that either yielded a golden egg or bupkiss and made the DM have to create random stories on the fly.

I can see how bards get pigeonholed into the role of negotiators: they're the only core class besides sorcerors and paladins who NEED a good charisma AND have the points to invest in the skills that make that role work. But to say that bard's have to fill that role, doesn't that take away from the jack-of-all-trades mentality?

The biggest thing that needs tweeking are the numerous abilities whose save DC is the bard's perform check. Even if the player didn't feel like cracking out their character, a level 20 bard with max ranks and a 20 charisma will still have an average save DC of 37 vs. death. Maybe if it was just based on their ranks, instead of their rolls...

Psychic_Robot wrote:

Curious wrote:

I would add a feat that would allow sorcerers to burn a higher level slot for a lower level spell.

There is one, but it's in CMage.

There is no reason it couldn't be built into the class though... Is there?

cant' they do that anyway?

In a longstanding campaign I was running, I convinced a player who had previously only played wizards to try a sorceror, even though he hated the class...this particular gentleman is quite talented at making very very potent and specialized PCs (without making them broken...most of the time).
After playing "Callisto" for a few games, he was instantly in love with the sorceror class for the flexibility it offered...the thing he hated most about being a wizard was having to hoard his 3rd level fireball for just the right moment or decide another, useful, spell to drop in order to cast it more than once.
His most potent spells as a sorceror were Dispel Magic, Teleport, and Wall of Stone and he constantly used the spells he picked (you have to go with utility when you pick sorceror), and always finding new ways for them to be useful. Dispel was a favored trick either for countering other spellcasters or debuffing opponents. He was easily the most potent member of the party (which included a fighter/bard, rogue, and a ranger). He was also the healer (I won't bother with describing how he got the cure spells, because there are a multitude of ways via feats, classes, etc. to get one or two cure spells on a sorceror list).
I need to look at the Alpha 2 sorceror again before I go one way or another, but personally, I feel the sorceror class is the energizer bunny of the D&D world for utility. You haven't DMed until you've had a sorceror pop Legend Lore 3 times every game.

Are you going to post the prospective levels each adventure will span for the new story arch as you did for "Rise of the Runelords?"