Bards - give them a reason to use an instrument.....

[Phlebas]

Theres only a couple of minor things that i'd tweak (out of a lot of things i like) but if I had to pick one its the Bard + Instrument thing

I like Bards,i think they're fun, flexible characters and i have no problems with the opening up of the perform skills to allow lots of options for a bard. In 3,5 i saw a bard played as a battle commander using orate to marshall his allies. Thought it was a brilliant variation on the stereotype.

but then i saw another singing bard,

and another, and then we worked it out

If a bard uses an instrument he is severely penalised in combat by

- only being able to perform or spell cast
- not having an attack of opportunity available,
- you have to stow instrument (std action)and then draw weapon to gain ability to attack (lose a round)
- and if you drop instrument & draw weapon to attack (same round), it means that it will take a standard action to pick up instrument (- lose a round) to regain the ability to perform
- vulnerability to Sunder attempts on the instrument
- vulnerability to silence

singing/orating/dancing bards on the other hand

- can perform, spell cast OR attack any round
- have attack of opportunity available
- do not lose an action switching between perform & attack
- Dancing bards can even perform in a silence spell!

the only plus for an instrument wielding bard is when you find a magical instrument..... but its not as if a singing bard will be short of skill points if he needs to up a perform skill overnight

this was brought home to me last week when the Bard in my game(a relative newcomer to D&D and definitely not a powergamer) said she wasn't even going to bring an instrument into the tomb "as it might get damaged and i'll never use it"

I'm all for allowing the use or not of instrument to be a decision of the player purely for role-playing purposes, but this is akin to a fighter deciding to restrict himself to a single light weapon - you can do it but you'll pay a heavy price compared to the ones that don't.....

so my proposed fix is to allow bards WITH INSTRUMENTS OR ANY OTHER TWO HANDED PROP to perform and spellcast in the same round.

(if all bards get perform plus spellcasting as was discussed in the classes forum then some other kind of bonus for instrument / prop use would be required - maybe utilising the perform skill check to boost or replace standard spell save DC?)

thanks for listening - for all the playtest

looking forward to the final product

[JoelF847]

There is a big reason to use an instrument - it can provide bonuses. At low levels, the MW +2 bonus is useful, and at higher levels, you can use magic instruments (BTW, there's a very cool article on magic instruments in Kobold Quarterly, maybe #5?)

I've yet to see a MW or magical voice.

[Abraham spalding]

My problem isn't the different metal types exist.

My problem is that magic weapons can bypass the need for the metal types.

I like the various metal types existing, and the various damage reduction types. I do not like the return to the "this weapon is soo magical it can pierce that werewolves damage reduction".

My specific arguement is that the +3 magic sword shouldn't bypass damage reduction like it is made of both silver and cold iron, and that the + 4 sword shouldn't bypass damage reduction like it is adamantine, silver, and cold iron . I also don't like the + 5 sword doing all that and bypassing alignment based damage reduction.

If they have damage reduction 5/cold iron it should be just that damage reduction 5/cold iron . Not Damage Reduction 5/cold iron or a + 3 weapon .