Director of Game Design
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Hey there all,
In looking at all of the classes, I wanted to get you feedback on bards. It is clear to me that bards are way too powerful and need to be toned down. The class has the ability to boost every other ally within range, meaning that the more PCs you have with you, the more powerful the bard is. Here are some of my thoughts in tonight the class down.
- Change bardic music to once per day, period. Not once per day per bard level.
- Remove Countersong, Fascinate, Inspire Courage, Inspire Confidence, Suggestion, Inspire Greatness, Song of Freedom, Inspire Heroics, and Mass Suggestion. Replace them with, Minor Cheer, with gives you a +1 bonus on saves against fear effects if another party member within range is at negative hit points.
- Change the bards BAB to the wizard BAB. Keep its HD at d6 (or maybe even d4 to scale them down a bit).
- Bardic Knowledge now only works to identify the genealogy of peasants. At 12th level it can be used on the genealogy of merchants. At 20th level it can be used on the genealogy of nobles and potions.
- No good saves.
- Reduce the number of spells per day by half and remove any spell with a casting time of 1 action or less.
That should just about do it. Thoughts.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
Oooooo.... Jacobs is gonna hurt you, Bulmahn.
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I have no idea what you are talking about. I am serious. The bard is BA-ROKEN!
I suggest adding these abilities at 1st level to assist in balancing the class
Ignore Ridicule (Su): The bard is able to ignore all mind-affecting effects that involve laughter, pointing, cute nick names, comparison to small terriers, or reference to a fifth wheel.
Bardic Pity (Ex): A bard using the Perform (begging) skill receives twice as much gold as listed in the Perform skill, because, hey, let's face it, he's never going to cut it adventuring.
Oh now thats a good joke man it really is.
Bardic Music checks need to be subject to critical fumbles/failures. That is, if you roll a natural 1, you have to confirm your failure to see how bad it really is. Normal failure implies being pelted by yesterday's vegetables. Critical failure generally means something along the lines of decapitation, commonly carried out at the behest of some irate noble, but occasionally due to broken lute string bisecting the carotid artery and spinal column.
I propose a product tie-in with a variant Critical Hit Deck.
heh heh-heh heh-heh-heh .... he said bard.
METAL ROCKER [Bardic Feat]
Prereq: 1+ levels of bard
Benefit: Any musical instrument you use gains the LIGHTNING subtype. You gain a +2 bonus to perform checks.
You gain weapon proficiency with musical instruments.
If a musical instrument is used as a weapon, it inflicts 2d6 electrical damage and is destroyed on a successful hit. A natural roll of 1 on an attack roll, will result in the item being destroyed.
Normal: Musical instruments are not electrical weapons of mass coolness.
The bard should only be able to use his bardic music if he does perform[large unwieldy instrument] which includes playing the organ, piano, harp and possibly the tuba.
Further, they should only be proficient with clubs improvised out of instruments because let's face it, those pacifists wouldn't dream of picking up an actual weapon, so summoning a violin to bash on the enemies' heads seems the only solution.
Also, you might consider changing their spell selection to only include summon instrument, ghost lights and fairy fire.
I think you mean bard-oken!Best. April Fools. Ever.I have no idea what you are talking about. I am serious. The bard is BA-ROKEN!
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
bard-um-pah! *cymbal clash*
<.< >.>
Thank goodness, I wasn't the first one the come across this, I forgot it was April Fools. ^^;
Any bard who uses Perform (oratory, singing, or comedy) to use Bardic Music requires the Leadership feat and a staff of Expert NPCs equal in number to his ranks in all perform skills. These experts write the Bards material and must each make a profession(writer) role DC 25 for the Bard to get his one use of Bardic Music a day. If one writer fails the Bard can't use Bardic Music that day. A DM may also chose to have the writers 'Strike', requiring the Bard to under take a epic quest to appease them, until then the Bard looses all of his class abilities and half of his net worth a month.
Bard's Curse (Su): A bard can never multiclass no matter what else the rules say. Its not enough that you chose to become one, now you can't be anything else.
I also believe that we should remove their BAB entirely, they only should be able to deal damage on Perform checks under 10.
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Director of Game Design
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Jason... you just got put on The List. OBSERVE:
THE LIST: ENEMIES OF ENTERTAINMENT
1: Uwe Boll
2: Roland Emmerich
3: Jack Thompson
4: The RIAA
5: Jason Bulmahn
(remainder of list cut for length)You better start sleeping with one eye open, Bulmahn!
Wow.. that's rough. I never would have thought it took so little to get added to this list.
Touchy... touchy...
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
I thought I'd share.
Change bardic music to once per day, period. Not once per day per bard level. ...
Reduce the number of spells per day by half and remove any spell with a casting time of 1 action or less.
Egads! I'm half the man I used to be!
Oh well, I still get all girls.
I thought I'd share.
Ah, Bard, Schmard!
Make them Rogue/Wizard combos with the following feat:
BARDIC MUSIC
Benefit: You can cast spells through the art of music. Singing (vocal component) and playing instrument/dancing (somatic component). You still need the usual foci and materials.
Any character should be able to reproduce bardic music now by spending a few hundred gp for a device called the "Wii" and a supplemental item called "Guitar Hero".
Also a good one. I like that.
Bards are BADONG (that is bad and wrong at the same time).
I vote for upping their HP's to D10 and adding a handle to the back of their armour so strong fighter types can use them as a meat shields. Maybe then someone would take one as a cohort, seems the only way I can get anyone to play them in my group.
When are we going to tone down the complete warrior samurai?
That's only for bards named Ken and Ryu
I think you mean bard-oken!
And Black Mages that use bards as spell components.
Between two adventures, Shackled City (*shudder*) and a homegrown one, I kept losing characters, until I made a bard. The bards have lasted longer than any character, both still alive, and I absolutely love playing 'em. :) Can't wait to see what the Pathfinder bard looks like :)Bards are BADONG (that is bad and wrong at the same time).
I vote for upping their HP's to D10 and adding a handle to the back of their armour so strong fighter types can use them as a meat shields. Maybe then someone would take one as a cohort, seems the only way I can get anyone to play them in my group.
That's because noone has the heart to kill them :)
And Black Mages that use bards as spell components.You're thinking of paladins.
Nono. I think Black Mages. They have a 9th-level spell, Hadoken (and many variations, like Me-Doken, where they launch themselves, or othters, where they launch victims they particularly hate, which is all of them), which is powered by love.
I think you mean bard-oken!Best. April Fools. Ever.I have no idea what you are talking about. I am serious. The bard is BA-ROKEN!
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing
Bard-oken?
Isn't that what Ken and Ryu from Street Fighter 2 used to yell when throwing a fireball?
bah
base all bards on the following character archtype
:D
That works! I'd personally go with something like this, but then you'd have to give them exotic weapon proficiency (suitcase).