What's the deal with the Dancer Bard? It's in the sample build sidebar for the Bard, but it doesn't have a suggested 1st level Feat. Also, I didn't notice anything in the Bard class description about dancing, but I'll admit I may have missed it because I skimmed through as Bards aren't interesting to me. Even so, I would like to know what's going on with it in case one of my players wanted to be one in the future.
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Bards, like other casters (though wizards were apparently a typo) do not get a level 1 class feat. There's no reason to suggest one, unless the bard is human.
Bard compositions use performance (the skill). One of the types of performance they could use is dance.
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Thanks, folks. I'm still getting used to 2e and there are so many errors in the Core Rulebook, I'm never sure if something is a typo or a feature.
You can use any kind of Performance you like as a Bard, including dancing.
This isn't true for compositions, which require you to use a visual composition (dancing qualifies) for somatic component compositions, and an auditory composition (dancing does not) for verbal component compositions.
The majority of compositions are verbal, although you can use a 10th level polymath muse feat to swap them at the cost of an extra action.
The only somatic compositions that dancing would qualify for (both as flavor and for checks to boost via Lingering Composition) are Counter Performance (against visual attacks only), House of Imaginary Walls (level 10), Soothing Ballad (level 14, both, I assume you have to use one of the performance options that is both, like acting/comedy), and Triple Time (level 4). These are not the spammable combat cantrips that most people are after when playing a Bard.
Bards, like other casters (though wizards were apparently a typo) do not get a level 1 class feat. There's no reason to suggest one, unless the bard is human.
Bard compositions use performance (the skill). One of the types of performance they could use is dance.
Only for somatic compositions, which are only two plus Counter Performance in some circumstances.
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The nice thing about Performance is that it's one skill rather than multiple skills you have to add a parentheses to to define; you can sing for verbal components and dance for somatic without having to pay for Performance twice.
The nice thing about Performance is that it's one skill rather than multiple skills you have to add a parentheses to to define; you can sing for verbal components and dance for somatic without having to pay for Performance twice.
The exception is Virtuosic Performance skill feat, which gives you a +1/2 circumstance bonus which you want for Lingering Composition/Counter Performance and need for Inspire Heroics checks as well as Versatile Performance skill checks, so you're best off specializing in acting or comedy so that you can cover both auditory and visual performances. And acting is slightly and situationally better than comedy because it maps to one of the Versatile Performance skill checks.
The one exception is that at high level you can get a +3 item bonus for an instrument but not for acting, so picking an auditory specialization in an instrument will maximize by one extra point the majority of performance checks that are auditory, while tanking you on the minority that are visual.
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...I skimmed through as Bards aren't interesting to me. Even so, I would like to know what's going on with it in case one of my players wanted to be one in the future.
One of your players will play one, so best read up, OP. A Dancer Maestro Bard has a claim to be the best PC buffer in the game. That silly disco Halfling can use a bow or a sword and shield and... still waltz or bogle, and still cast, and still buff. Bards are no longer effete poets with feathers in hats*
*and when was that last a thing? the old Robin Hood movies?
*and when was that last a thing? the old Robin Hood movies?
...Pathfinder 1st edition?
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*and when was that last a thing? the old Robin Hood movies?...Pathfinder 1st edition?
The Pathfinder 1st edition with Arcane Duelist Bards, Sandman, Archaologist, Dervish Dancer, Celebrity, Buccaneer...
It's been a long long time since hey-nonny-no lutists, courtly love simperers have had to be a thing.
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I think I actually just read your post to mean the opposite of what it meant. I brought up PF1 as an example of a recent instance in which Bards are not effete poets with feathers in hats.
I'm pretty sure the 5E bard is still pretty locked into that archetype unless you take the bard school specifically for fighting because 5e loves to tell you what to do.
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I’m not invested in this thread, I just wanted to say I love the thread name.
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In another thread someone suggested using bells attached to clothing as the instrument for a dancing bard, letting your dance create the verbal component by ringing the bells.
One could always just hambone to supply the verbal component.