I'm thinking of having the bards in my Monster Hill campaign setting cast spells like a wizard, having to prepare spells from a spellbook. Anybody done anything like this, or have any thoughts to share on the idea?
Why?
And one thing you'd need to do is take something away from the bard. I'm not sure what, but they'd have to lose something. Example after example shows that spontaneous versions of classes "get more" stuff than the prepared caster version.
I think bards should get spells from learning like wizards. It doesn't make much sense to me that they'd have inherent or intuitive magic. Basically I think a bard should be a dabbler in wizardly magic.
Well, the idea behind the bard's spellcasting is that they're innate artists of some sort. So it does make sense when you come from that angle...That's why everything of theirs is based off of Cha.
But hmm. To do this, you'd need to replace all Cha abilities with Int. A lot of abilities won't make sense with that, so you'd probably need to change the fluff a lot. Dirge of Doom doesn't make much sense if you're all "LOOK HOW SMART I AM!".
Drop Versatile Performance. It's meant to give more skills to bards in a sneaky way. With Int based abilities, that's not needed at all.
Drop everything music related. Bye bye countersong, distraction, frightening tune, deadly performance, and dirge of doom. Probably Inspire Heroics and Greatness too. "I'm so smart that you're doing more awesome!" doesn't really work. Not so sure how Fascinate will work either. Just doesn't fit too well, but suggestion does, so keep it.
At this point, we have... inspire courage and competence, the jack-of-all-trades abilities, lore master, and two abilities all about socially outsmarting people (suggestion).
Ok, that wasn't quite what I had in mind when I originally said "lose something". But it all logically follows.
So now we need to build it back up...but how...?
Or I could just have spells keyed to Int. I don't really want to make such sweeping changes to the bard, just change they're spellcasting.
But then it doesn't make sense :)
Sure it does. Spellcasting is one thing, the bard's other abilities are different and separate.
Not really. The spellcasting is heavily coupled thematically with their other abilities. They get their spellcasting from an innate understanding of art and the magical qualities of sound, not studying. That's why all their spells have verbal components, even if they don't normally, and also why so many of their spells are sonic or language dependent. But ok, let's just go with that :)
I think dropping the versatile performance, dirge of doom, frightening tune would be a ... somewhat close approximation of where it should be. Maybe even pushing back when starting a performance takes less actions by a level or two. But since you'll need alright Cha as well as alright Int, that probably isn't necessary.
Giving up Versatile Performance isn't actually worth much. You're replacing it with something that's probably much better for most of the game, and prepared casting is very strong.
4 Winds Fantasy Games may have done something like this already.
Masterpieces fit that wonderfully.
I'm just applying some of the guiding principles behind Paizo class design here.
If you want bards to learn spells instead of spontaneously cast them, you don't have to change this to an intelligence based mechanic. Just change the acquisition and preparation of them but keep the mechanics tied to charisma.
Unless your bard has an int of 5 or so, he/she should be able to read.
MCA project actually did this one awhile ago:
http://mcarchetype.wikispaces.com/Erudite+Bard
Hope it helps >:3 </Shameless plug>