All the cool kids get something they can use all day! Wizards have their elemental rays or acid darts, clerics have their domain abilities usable at will, many sorcerers get some magical stuff they can use as oten as they wish.
But those poor bards are stuck with having to use their performances 1/day per level. So while the evoker 1 keeps blasting away enemies with his mighty ray of whatever-he-things-is-appropriate(-or-nets-him-the-most-wenches), the bard 1 can only sing one ittle song (and then use a couple of non-cantrip spells) before he has to try and embarrass enemies to death with canny uses of prestidigitation.
The ideas of an extra bardic performance feat or letting them use it level+cha times per day are a good start, but still, I think they should get a general bardic performance that works all day long.
I think inpsire courage could do the job. I even think that it wouldn't mean the end of hte world if the improved versions (+2,+3,+4) would continue to work like that. Sure, +4 to fear, attack and damage is quite nice, and being able to do this in every fight even more, but the bard would still have to decide whether he wants to boost his friends or whether he'd rather want to paralyse, frighten, or kill an enemy (or free a comrade from mental bondage or something)
At at will ability would be kind of handy. Being as Bards are the jack of all trades, perhaps allowing them to select the 1st level ability from any one arcane school or sorcerous bloodline would be adequate...
I totally agree that the bard could use an at-will ability. And inspire courage would be a very good candidate for that.
All the cool kids get something they can use all day! Wizards have their elemental rays or acid darts, clerics have their domain abilities usable at will, many sorcerers get some magical stuff they can use as oten as they wish.
But those poor bards are stuck with having to use their performances 1/day per level. So while the evoker 1 keeps blasting away enemies with his mighty ray of whatever-he-things-is-appropriate(-or-nets-him-the-most-wenches), the bard 1 can only sing one ittle song (and then use a couple of non-cantrip spells) before he has to try and embarrass enemies to death with canny uses of prestidigitation.
The at-will abilities of the Wizard and Sorcerer, while useful, aren't exceptionally powerful. They seem to have been added so that the casters always have a magical attack and don't have to fall back on a crossbow after a few rounds.
Bards, however, have a better BAB progression and more weapon proficiencies. They don't need that fall-back basic attack. Plus bardic music has some rather potent applications at low-levels, especially with the additional spells at the bard's disposal.
I'd rather see Bardic Music get a boost to its power, so that it is more useful, than go to at will. In its current iteration I think Inspire Courage and the other bardic music abilities fall short of equivalent spells once you reach the 5th and 6th character levels. Instead of letting the bard do something that's "OK but we've got better spells" at will, let's give the bard something that's "Great, lets use it!" and limit the number of times per-day they can do it. Then Extra Music and a high charisma can help the bard become a great buffer.
Or you could just make a bard's buffing song into an all-day aura. It's just +1/+1.
-Matt
Thanks to no limit on cantrips the bard gets to use 4 to 6 of these as spell-like abilities as often as they want each day.
Sure, they're not a specific bardic ability but they should come in handy (especially summoning the instrument both at low levels - when they can be hard to afford or at high levels when you've been captured or lost all your gear).
And I imagine if a bard wove some of these into a performance (sort of a medieval rock concert) it would give them some pluses.
Dancing Lights: Creates torches or other lights.
Daze: Humanoid creature of 4 HD or less loses next action.
Detect Magic: Detects spells and magic items within 60 ft.
Flare: Dazzles one creature (–1 on attack rolls).
Ghost Sound: Figment sounds.
Know Direction: You discern north.
Light: Object shines like a torch.
Lullaby: Makes subject drowsy; –5 on Perception checks, –2 on Will saves against sleep.
Mage Hand: 5-pound telekinesis.
Mending: Makes minor repairs on an object.
Message: Whispered conversation at distance.
Open/Close: Opens or closes small or light things.
Prestidigitation: Performs minor tricks.
Read Magic: Read scrolls and spellbooks.
Resistance: Subject gains +1 on saving throws.
Summon Instrument: Summons one instrument of the caster’s choice.
I could see countersong becoming an immediate action.
Cheers
Stealing a mechanic from Iron Heroes, why not allow a bard to use a perform roll against a DC 0f 20 to accomplish the same thing as an Inspire Courage but without using one of their Bardic Performances. Using the Bardic Perfromance would be guarenteed while the simple perform check might not work but could be at will.
Doug
I could see countersong becoming an immediate action.
Well, I would like to see Counterspell in general becoming an immediate action, so why not ?
Becuase countersong is useless, it affects a total of 12 spells two of which are message and speak with dead.
Why don't we make countersong worthwhile? Let the bard use it as an actual counterspell so he has a reason to use this little dousy once in a while?
Or you could just make a bard's buffing song into an all-day aura. It's just +1/+1.
The Bard's not really The Aura Guy. Unlike those deadbeat paladins, he must actually work for his buffs.
Becuase countersong is useless, it affects a total of 12 spells two of which are message and speak with dead.
Why don't we make countersong worthwhile? Let the bard use it as an actual counterspell so he has a reason to use this little dousy once in a while?
I second this. I'll reiterate my earlier point about if we improve Bardic Music, we don't need to increase the number of uses.
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Becuase countersong is useless, it affects a total of 12 spells two of which are message and speak with dead.
Why don't we make countersong worthwhile? Let the bard use it as an actual counterspell so he has a reason to use this little dousy once in a while?
I've always been a fan of letting it apply vs ALL charm-like spells so that your low Will characters are no longer forced to turn on their friends, but an actual counterspell would be nice to see.
well that's worthwhile and I like it, but it's still a house rule until Jason accepts it, I could really go for it though.