Banned classes? For my campaign, Bard is banned. Why? It's never made any sense to me why a bard would be traveling around having adventures instead of going from town to town telling stories/making money.
The bard is an adventuring archetype from mythology and folklore.
Taliesin:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/taliesin.html
Orpheus:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/o/orpheus.html
Alan-A-Dale:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan-a-Dale
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I haven't specificly ruled anything out, yet, but I haven't ran as many games as you guys.
As a side note, in the campaign I'm building, I'm introducing World classes and Cultural Classes. World Classes are the ones found all around the world, while Cultural Classes are restricted to specific cultures. Druid and Monk are examples of the Cultural Classes, where characters who start out as a Druid must come from the European-esque continent, where those who wish to start out as a Monk must come from the Asian-themed continent. Any character may then take these classes later on in their development, if they can find someone to start them down the path. I'm considering restricting Barbarian to the Northern portions of both continents, but am currently unsure.
Banned classes? For my campaign, Bard is banned. Why? It's never made any sense to me why a bard would be traveling around having adventures instead of going from town to town telling stories/making money.The bard is an adventuring archetype from mythology and folklore.
Taliesin:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/t/taliesin.htmlOrpheus:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/o/orpheus.htmlAlan-A-Dale:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan-a-Dale
Just because it's an available archetype doesn't mean he's a suitable adventuring class. The bard's skills in the game don't line up with the mythical figures, and if I just go by the mythical figures, it still doesn't seem like an appropriate class for players. I see it as more of an NPC class.
A bulk of his/her powers come from performing? How logical is it to be performing while in the midst of combat? Or have your companions be able to hear you and get inspired?This all depends on which specific Perform skill you're using and how you describe it.
Granted, even though music can be a powerful motivator, the "traditional" troubadour-like musician/singer variety of bard is not a great fit for the typical adventuring party. Closer is the bard of Celtic history/myth as a warrior/loremaster/spellcaster who was also a trained musician (which was the inspiration for the 1st Ed. AD&D bard). An even better fit is the bard who uses inspirational chants, poetry, and speeches (Perform (Oratory)) or dazzling weapon maneuvers (Perform (Weapon-drill).
Um... still never thought this made sense. The game abilities of the bard have him doing these things in-combat.
I don't disagree with the bard class entirely, but it's the way a lot of the bard's best abilities are centered around performing. I still feel like if a bard is performing (in any style) while others are in combat it just makes no sense whatsoever.
In any case, I'll give up the discussion for the sake of the thread continuing with other discussion.