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Just curious, for those of you who've played bards, what instrument did you have them use?
I ask because I read about a language called Silbo "spoken" by shepherds in the Canary Islands that is composed entirely of whistles! It made me think it might be cool to play a bard whose instrument whistling.
I have used:
Poetry
Ballads
Prayer
Lute
Harp
Kantele
Flute
Pan Pipes
For a bard to really work he needs some thing hand free - others wise he can't really fight and sing.
But usually I take an instrument as well for flavor - although as a practical matter this is fudging the skill rules as I read them in 3.5.
I would house rule that with the skill maxed out at first level the character would gain proficiency with one instrument plus one per point of intelligence bonus.
War drums, Bugles, Bag pipes
My favorite bard the gnome Nellin Bob, played an four string ukulele. A dark skin little magically dude who likes practical jokes sound like the Hawaiian legendary Menehune. SO for flavor I chose the ukulele.
Another player had a wise cracking halfling ranger multi class as a bard and took up stand up comedy as his performance. As a Dm I loved and we developed the Hilshire halflings who could multi class as bards because of strong gnome influence in the community.
I've had characters who've used song and one who used the lute. Whistling would be cool though... One day I would like to play a bard/marshal who uses a war trumpet. Always thought that might be neat.
Sometimes you don't have to use a hands-off instrument, particulary if you're going for effect. For instance, once I set my player up against a Bard 7/Sublime Chord 1 who used a violin, so that just after they've finished with the hoard of pirates that attacked out of the mist (thanks to a fog cloud spell) this haunting violin music comes out of the mist and the dead pirates start rising up as zombies! (Via an Animate Dead spell and the Lyric Spell feat) That freaked a couple of them out really well thanks to the music I had left on in the next room. And when the PCs went up against the bard, they really suffered when she started casting spells AND using bardic music from behind her big brawny allies.
So you have to remember that singing and such stops you from casting spells with verbal components at the same time.
I've had characters who've used song and one who used the lute. Whistling would be cool though... One day I would like to play a bard/marshal who uses a war trumpet. Always thought that might be neat.
A war trumpet sounds cool. You could sound revelry when the party needs to wake up.
I friend playes a 1/2 orc bard who played a drum it was cool.
I've always been a fan of strings for some reason for my bards, I guess it's the sitting under a tree in dappled sunlight plucking the strings of some guitarry-type thing that appeals to me.
I had one bard who didn't do music at all--just a storyteller and minorly skilled acrobat (for drunk and rowdy crowds who weren't up for a story). I had another bard character who was a big half-orc who just used found instruments, like banging on stovepipes and slapping on and shaking half-empty barrels; Regu the Wimzikul--he was fun.
A favorite bard-like character a friend of mine played played a flute, and was basically a cross-class bard/cleric who used beautiful flute ballads as a public tribute to his god. I remember the scenes were always hold-your-breath dramatic. I loved 'em.
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I also played a bard without an instrument. I believe his perform skill was 'oratory', where he would generally belittle his enemies. As an evil bard, he didn't want people realizing he was affecting them with magical abilities, so he eventually took Subsonics, muttering under his breath.
There weren't many instances where he chose to use any Inspire ability, because he didn't get along with his companions very well. Taking a couple levels in Lasher gave him some style and made him rather good at disarming, though.
Yeah, Oratory is fun, I've used it to try and make up little poems to inspire my allies and make fun of the enemies. I think I've chosen it twice - once the more typical gnome bard, the other was a human barbarian/bard from the wilds with a strong oral tradition, he was short-lived but fun.
My favorite bard "instrument" was the puppet. I had craft: puppet to make any new or unique puppets that I wanted. I had to perform: puppet show to have my "bardic music" work. Inspire courage became the party puppets routing some monster puppets. Fascinate was a puppet show with my trademark puppet, a blue dragon that was also a masterwork hand crossbow. Inspire competence was the character puppet performing the task. You get the idea. And I always had a weapon (blue dragon), because the guards never make a puppeteer hand over all his puppets. Additional bolts were carried as spears by certain puppets. I never had to resort to this, but I always knew that I could make shadow puppets if I was ever really desperate.
I tried perform: comedy one time, but it was not really believable because I am not funny. The other players refused to take the inspire courage bonuses. It did not last long.