What is your favorite instrument to have your bard play?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

1 to 50 of 65 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>

1 person marked this as a favorite.

As the title asks, I'm curious what instruments peoples bards play? I have never played a bard, But I want to and I'm thinking of having my potential bard play a swedish Nyckelharpa (16 stringed keyed fiddle).

What about everyone else? What instruments do your bards play?

Silver Crusade

My bards have never played an instrument. My Dawnflower Dervish will take Perform Percussion as her third Versatile Performance (after Sing and Dance), so maybe a tambourine or a maraca? There's no mechanical need (that I know of) for a bard to play an instrument.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I've played a skald and a bard, once each. The skald had an archetype that made him have to use a horn, like a primitive real animal horn. I also carried a custom flail that's head was riddled with "whistling holes", when I swung it, it counted as a woodwind.

My bard started as a minstrel in the only good "level 0" game I ever played. I kind of made him to be a bit of a musical warrior/spy. He used a flute that could double as a blow gun, a harp that I could use as a short bow, and a drum that I think was either a shield or some kind of bludgeon (maybe both).

For the needs of weapons or spells, most others I see play bards either sing or dance.


Sysryke wrote:
For the needs of weapons or spells, most others I see play bards either sing or dance.

This is a serious hindrance, to the point that I houseruled some significant bonus effects for those who choose to sacrifice versatility in the name of their performance.

Claine McUllen, a 7ft, pot-bellied highland warrior with orcish blood, told epic stories and played a set of haunted bagpipes.

Tonneth Nackle, captain of the gnommish Blue Cloak Knights, sang and played queeze of a squeezebox

Maulo the Fire-breather danced with fire poi.

Welby Footpaddin juggled knives, played the fiddle and performed various acts of professional buffoons.

Alarian Silverstone played the half-harp, pan pipes and sang.


I haven't played a bard since AD&D, but I played a bass variant of a lute or a viol, I can't remember now

But it could be played plucked or slapped. So, there was a sound much like KoRn or Type O Negative, and I'd play funeral dirges for my enemies. Thematically, very entertaining for me.

Shadow Lodge

Brooke, a changeling animal speaker. She sang, danced, and played the flute.

Victoria Sharp, creepy doll halfling mute musician. She danced and played violin.

I also did a heavy metal half orc bard/storm kindler who sang and brought down the thunder.

To make the most of versatile performance, bards need multiple perform skills. 2 at level 10, 3 at 14 and 4 at 18. So I take that into consideration when I play one.

Silver Crusade

gnoams wrote:
To make the most of versatile performance, bards need multiple perform skills. 2 at level 10, 3 at 14 and 4 at 18. So I take that into consideration when I play one.

Note that bards gets their first Versatile Performance at 2nd lvl, second at 6th lvl and third at 10th lvl.

Shadow Lodge

PCScipio wrote:
gnoams wrote:
To make the most of versatile performance, bards need multiple perform skills. 2 at level 10, 3 at 14 and 4 at 18. So I take that into consideration when I play one.
Note that bards gets their first Versatile Performance at 2nd lvl, second at 6th lvl and third at 10th lvl.

Yup, my bad. Last bard I played was the mute musician, who didn't get that feature.

Dark Archive

I kind of veer away from bards being 100% associated with music, and my last bard was a political advocate who used perform (oratory) and quoted from inspiring rhetoric, while my previous bard (monster, I was GM) also used perform (oratory) while reading from a holy book (it was a lizard-king 'priest' who was exhorting his lizard-cultists to kill us, 'inspiring' them with appropriate quotes from their holy book about eating humans...).

One that actually used Knowledge (religion) instead of Perform might have made more sense, but the rules is the rules. :) (Similarly, a 'bard' who uses military tactics and strategy to provide inspiration bonuses and is more of a general than a 'performer' might make sense to use a relevant skill (knowledge-tactics?), if there were one.)

But my favorites for music would be singing, or perhaps drums. A nice orcish war-drum, maybe?


Song and dance are obvious first choices. It’s hard to participate in combat when you’re pumping a pipe organ. Last real bard I played did take ranks in the violin as soon as he had the points to spend. The game died off, but I would have added other instruments. A bard should have skill in music, I feel.


I have two bards, plus a character with a dip. The first one was an archaeologist so she didn't have any performances. So no music. The one with a dip was forced to learn music by her parents, so she prefers not to play. But she's able to play the flute.

And finally, I am building an orc Arrowsong. He has a guitar. Though he'll probably just sing in combat since he can't hold a bow and a guitar at the same time.


Syr and Vash both use(d) Oratory or Sing, especially to start... need them 10 ranks so I can pick up Discordant Voice at 11. Both were Longspear/Flagbearer Bards.

Syr didn't live past level 3... not having anything to get past the DR of zombies. He got his guts ripped out by a zombie he had stabbed multiple times.

Vash is an Arcane Duelist, and doesn't get Versatile Performance. And I just keep Oratory at max ranks, sprinkle some Dance in there. He will be getting Flagbearer as soon as we level up to 7. And he just recently found the Banner of Ancient Kings.

If I was an Arrowsong Minstrel, or in a campaign that could take advantage of it, I would invest in Strings for a Lyre of Building. Even as an Arrowsong Minstrel, I would still make sure to get 10 ranks in Oratory or Sing for Discordant Voice.


tuned bowstring.

I also have a lich bard who's phylactery is their adamantine vuvuzela I save to throw at groups I want to annoy.


My first bard was allowed to have a special magic item that could transform into any instrument I wished, including a pipe organ (with my explicit assurance that I would only use it for an instrument and not as a cheap way to drop a 150-ton mass on people or block passages or anything).

My second (current) bard prefers light things like small flutes or hand-held drums, in addition to singing.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Pretty sure the most popular elf bard ever plays a blue ocarina.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Reksew_Trebla wrote:
Pretty sure the most popular elf bard ever plays a blue ocarina.

Absolutely, but over the course of his career he's also played; a whistle, a flute, at least two drums, a fish skeleton guitar, a five-headed wooden trumpet, a harp, and probably a few other's I'm overlooking. Gotta love a one man band.

Silver Crusade

Keyrock, Skald, Oratory - exercise trainer and Keyrock Method (TM) enthusiast

Professor, Sensei, Oratory - mentor and insult artist

Dar’Azhan Ozron, Soundstriker/Arcane Healer, Sing - overtone / throat singing

Gnome Anne / Anne Nonymous, Cleric / Bard, Oratory - tactical expert, summons monsters and creates battle lines, enfilades, etc.


No love for violins?


I give some love to violins, I just can't remember if I used one with my minstrel or not. Arguably my favorite instrument to listen to though.


Albatoonoe wrote:
No love for violins?

Not for my Bards, but I wouldn't mind learning to play the violin IRL.


Made a skeletal champion bard as a GM - it played a violin. I ran an NPC dervish dancer who, obviously, used Perform: Dance. Finally I made but didn't play a halfling bard with a mouth harp who also sang; she was going to go for a folk hero, low GP kind of thing and eventually play spoons, clang symbols and twang a fiddle as a one-woman band.

As a personal aesthetic I love the image of bards, inquisitors and skalds using oratory to awe, intimidate or cow their enemies. That one spell, where you make someone burn by chastising them? That is my jam!


I hate bards, or more accurately the mechanics associated with them. Imagining a bard playing an instrument, merrily singing or telling jokes whilst creeping along a narrow passageway or engaged in a tense fight to be farcical. So I'm going to say the grand piano and make it absurdly farcical.


In a Play-By-Post Game a few years back, I played a Shoanti skald who was proficient with the Totem Spear. Describing his mixed performance/fighting style was pretty fun.


Hugo Rune wrote:
I hate bards, or more accurately the mechanics associated with them. Imagining a bard playing an instrument, merrily singing or telling jokes whilst creeping along a narrow passageway or engaged in a tense fight to be farcical. So I'm going to say the grand piano and make it absurdly farcical.

The use of inspire competence to boost stealth is specifically called out as being infeasible, and may be disallowed at DM discretion.

IRL I’m able to sing while doing physical work, so I don’t imagine singing and fighting would be that hard to do.
As to the grand piano, a bard could certainly use it to use several of the bard powers. As a player I would never try to play the piano and fight, nor as a GM, would I allow it, but a bard could fascinate a crowd using a grand piano.


Waterhammer wrote:


IRL I’m able to sing while doing physical work, so I don’t imagine singing and fighting would be that hard to do.
As to the grand piano, a bard could certainly use it to use several of the bard powers. As a player I would never try to play the piano and fight, nor as a GM, would I allow it, but a bard could fascinate a crowd using a grand piano.

Cobblers (to put it politely). Do you honestly believe you could sing <insert favourite song> whilst in a UFC cage with 2 hungry pitbull terriers? I would suggest that you would be off key, forgetting words and screaming before finishing the first verse.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Hugo Rune wrote:
Waterhammer wrote:


IRL I’m able to sing while doing physical work, so I don’t imagine singing and fighting would be that hard to do.
As to the grand piano, a bard could certainly use it to use several of the bard powers. As a player I would never try to play the piano and fight, nor as a GM, would I allow it, but a bard could fascinate a crowd using a grand piano.
Cobblers (to put it politely). Do you honestly believe you could sing <insert favourite song> whilst in a UFC cage with 2 hungry pitbull terriers? I would suggest that you would be off key, forgetting words and screaming before finishing the first verse.

That's why you fight with a weapon that is an instrument at the same time, of course.


To be fair. He's also not a trained fighter that fights for a living. Most adventurers aren't gonna be afraid of level accurate fights (and mechanically aren't afraid of almost anything) so I imagine a bard could probably sing while fighting at least decently well. Plus it's magical...err...supernatural so it doesn't have to be the most realistic

Shadow Lodge

Bardic performances do not have anything to do with music, they're just another form of magic. Only a couple of bardic performance powers even require you to have ranks in the perform skill to use. Inspiring courage is visual or auditory magic (su) and as such is no more ridiculous than a wizard casing a spell. It requires neither singing, nor joke telling, nor playing any instrument.


Hugo Rune wrote:
Waterhammer wrote:


IRL I’m able to sing while doing physical work, so I don’t imagine singing and fighting would be that hard to do.
As to the grand piano, a bard could certainly use it to use several of the bard powers. As a player I would never try to play the piano and fight, nor as a GM, would I allow it, but a bard could fascinate a crowd using a grand piano.
Cobblers (to put it politely). Do you honestly believe you could sing <insert favourite song> whilst in a UFC cage with 2 hungry pitbull terriers? I would suggest that you would be off key, forgetting words and screaming before finishing the first verse.

lol. In real life I always sing off key, if you must know.

Edit: Also forget the words a lot.


If you don't like song and dance on your bards, there is always chants and mantras which, as demonstrated by many fantasy and horror series, can be creepy or intense. There is also the Haka and a long, looking history of battlefield musicians.

And sure, you could look at it like a guy aggressively playing the flute, but there are so many good stories of magical musicians that captivate listeners or even affect the world. While some argue that your hard doesn't need music, I argue that a bard can have his music and still be cool.


Albatoonoe wrote:

If you don't like song and dance on your bards, there is always chants and mantras which, as demonstrated by many fantasy and horror series, can be creepy or intense. There is also the Haka and a long, looking history of battlefield musicians.

And sure, you could look at it like a guy aggressively playing the flute, but there are so many good stories of magical musicians that captivate listeners or even affect the world. While some argue that your hard doesn't need music, I argue that a bard can have his music and still be cool.

Video of a guy aggressively playing the flute.

Shadow Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Bloodywood. Indian metal. He also rocks out with a flute.


Dox of the ParaDox twins wrote:
To be fair. He's also not a trained fighter that fights for a living. Most adventurers aren't gonna be afraid of level accurate fights (and mechanically aren't afraid of almost anything) so I imagine a bard could probably sing while fighting at least decently well. Plus it's magical...err...supernatural so it doesn't have to be the most realistic

There are several professional boxers that sing, including Mike Tyson, Manny Pacquiao and Oscar de la Hoya. None do so in the ring.

Whenever I think about bards performing during encounters and adventuring, I either think of Monty Python's Brave Sir Robin song or a Bollywood movie dance/song sequence and tension turns into slapstick. So I've banned them in my campaign and reskinned the class as a NPC noble class

Shadow Lodge

Bagpipes. Drums. All manner of horns, bugles, and trumpets. Singing and chanting. Or just banging your sword on your shield and shouting in unison. There's a long history of music being employed on the battlefield.


gnoams wrote:
Bagpipes. Drums. All manner of horns, bugles, and trumpets. Singing and chanting. Or just banging your sword on your shield and shouting in unison. There's a long history of music being employed on the battlefield.

You forgot rousing speech. All the examples given are appropriate for mass combat, not for a small team of professional adventurers.

Sovereign Court

I like a bit of fun in my PF, it doesn’t have to be so serious all of the time. A bit of Elan can lift the table.

And if you want to be serious, oratory can represent a well-timed word or two: “counting on you” to the team mate who thrives on pressure, “you got this” to the one who needs reassurance, “absolute badass” to the attention seeker.

I guess it’s just a play style difference.

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Ventnor wrote:
In a Play-By-Post Game a few years back, I played a Shoanti skald who was proficient with the Totem Spear. Describing his mixed performance/fighting style was pretty fun.

Ooh, that's cool. Thanks to Game of Thrones (that scene with Oberon vs. the Mountain) or even that 'spear-dancing' scene in Hellboy 2, I've developed a fascination with the spear as a weapon, and love the idea of anything that makes it more dynamic and visually appealing.


Set wrote:
Ventnor wrote:
In a Play-By-Post Game a few years back, I played a Shoanti skald who was proficient with the Totem Spear. Describing his mixed performance/fighting style was pretty fun.

Ooh, that's cool. Thanks to Game of Thrones (that scene with Oberon vs. the Mountain) or even that 'spear-dancing' scene in Hellboy 2, I've developed a fascination with the spear as a weapon, and love the idea of anything that makes it more dynamic and visually appealing.

Very much second (third?) this. Hammers are my absolute favorite, but spears run a close second. Loved prince Nuada's Silver Spear. The purple spear in God of War 2 is also pretty sweet. I'm picky on my shapes though; has to be the right kind of spearhead.

Scarab Sages

Personally I like the bagpipes, flute and piano but they all have issues for a bard so I usually go with Ukulele.

Weapon shape is important I hate the huge swords that are fairly popular these days.


gnoams wrote:
Bloodywood. Indian metal. He also rocks out with a flute.

Thank you so much for this.


Hugo Rune wrote:
gnoams wrote:
Bagpipes. Drums. All manner of horns, bugles, and trumpets. Singing and chanting. Or just banging your sword on your shield and shouting in unison. There's a long history of music being employed on the battlefield.
You forgot rousing speech. All the examples given are appropriate for mass combat, not for a small team of professional adventurers.

If Britney can sing for a minute (10 combat rounds) while doing half-hearted circus nonsense, your Bard better be able to do the same. If not, you don't have a bard, you have a loser.

Shadow Lodge

and of course there's Lindsey Stirling if you're looking for dance/acrobatics while playing the violin.

The pair of assassins from kung fu hustle playing a guzheng is another good one.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I don't really play bards, so I had to look up the performances. Turns out that you can manage several performances while fighting as long as you have Free Actions. Some don't work depending on GM fiat, such as Perform: Comedy during a Stealth check.

So, looking these over Perform: Sing comes up a lot. IRL singing doesn't ALWAYS include words, such as yodeling, throat singing, or scat. I think some arias may simply be tonal, not word related. So as long as your bard can make and hold notes while fighting/performing, they're good.

As for using an instrument, the only performance that calls out that instruments CAN be a part of it would be Countersong. The rest generally say that the performance involves audible and visual components. Since these are called out in the general info on performances that these can be met with other Perform skills besides using instruments, using an instrument seems non-plussed.

This is further reinforced by the hand(s) needed to hold an instrument while performing. This game still has mechanics after all so if you're playing a 2-handed instrument such as bowing a fiddle, it would be tough to hold material components to cast a spell or a rapier to stab with.

Seems to me Perform: Dance, Sing are the only 2 practical skills for a general bard to employ while planning to use Performances in combat.

So then, why would a bard employ an instrument? Well, the Versatile Performance ability calls out that some instrument types can be subbed in for some skills, like keyboards for Diplomacy. So your bard isn't going to use a baby grand in combat but likely could belt out a ditty to get an NPC to lighten their attitude closer to Friendly.

Using the skills that instruments replace in Versatile Performance (Diplomacy, Bluff, Diplomacy, Handle Animal and Intimidate, use action types that aren't Free actions (so they might eat into your combat functionality) or they have alternative uses that are simply non-combat related (taking a minute to use Diplomacy to change attitudes, or 1-4 hours to gather information).

There's the Advanced Versatile Performances once your bard hits level 6, but again, there's STILL the mechanics of using actions to play an instrument and the hand(s) required to employ said instrument. If you've gone 6 levels and dedicated much of your bard's career to this point playing a "keyboard" instrument during Countersongs or other performances, employing it during Diplomacy or Intimidate checks, it's likely you've already worked out how you're using your "keyboard" instrument to sub in for a tetsubo from the "hammers" fighter weapon group using the AVP Martial Performance.

So... I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that most adventuring bards whose archetypes either retain Performances and Versatile Performance mechanics in some form likely do a lot of singing, dancing, or other oration/acting/comedy. This leaves their hands free for weapons or spell components. If they intend on using an instrument El Kabong style (fighting with it) the player has to work around the mechanical constraints such as 1 or 2 hand use with the instrument, encumbrance, move actions to draw the thing out and so on.

I would like it noted however that, after all of this, I would like to build a bard shooting towards using a "Key-Tar" or electric keyboard/guitar, strapped to his back, to eventually double as a tetsubo. He would also teach Spanish at a community college and would wear protective goggles when using the "key-tar" in Sunder attempts.


VoodistMonk wrote:
If I was an Arrowsong Minstrel, or in a campaign that could take advantage of it, I would invest in Strings for a Lyre of Building. Even as an Arrowsong Minstrel, I would still make sure to get 10 ranks in Oratory or Sing for Discordant Voice.

In Skull & Shackles, my character has two Lyres to help with his shipbuilding business. He also has a follower (Bard 5) I've equipped who has Skill: Craft(Ships) 23; Perform (Strings) 17. [Equipment: Ring of Craft (Ships) +8 comp; Ring of Perform (strings) +3 comp; and a casting of Crafter's Fortune +5 luck.] This lets him use the full 8-house day for the Lyre, twice in the week.

/cevah


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Hugo Rune wrote:
All the examples given are appropriate for mass combat, not for a small team of professional adventurers.

Yeah, it stretches credulity a bit. But so does loosing seven arrows in 6 seconds, or killing 40 people in the same amount of time, or running 70mph. Sword and Sorcerery definitely has a lot of tropes that strike an over-the-top tone far more often than a gritty, realistic one.

To go further with your example of fighting two dogs in the octagon; very few people I've seen play S&S-style ttrpg's ever seem to view combat as something frightening and best avoided. It's exciting and, sometimes, even approached casually.

As long as the bard manages to pull off their inspiring song/jaunts/whatever in a way that fits within the story, I'm good with it.
One of my friends wanted a suggestion for what his bard should play or do. I said "That thing you do when you make your mouth a little 'o' and slap your cheeks." --that lich may be scary, but it's hard to take him seriously as he reveals his 300-year-long scheme with your friend off to the side, just slappin'away.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I must admit that I have generally preferred performance types that leave the hands free -- so dance, comedy, oratory, or singing would be my top choices. Finger cymbals (percussion) might be acceptable as they don't interfere as much with fighting or spellcasting as a larger instrument might.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Quixote wrote:
Hugo Rune wrote:
All the examples given are appropriate for mass combat, not for a small team of professional adventurers.
Yeah, it stretches credulity a bit. But so does loosing seven arrows in 6 seconds, or killing 40 people in the same amount of time, or running 70mph. Sword and Sorcerery definitely has a lot of tropes that strike an over-the-top tone far more often than a gritty, realistic one.

Oh I agree, but I find there's a difference between fantastic and slapstick. The machine gun elf-archer in Hawk the Slayer was cool. The combatants stopping mid-combat to do a song and dance routine in a Bollywood version of Sinbad (may have been Aladdin or something else similar) I saw once was cringeworthy.

Then there is the game mechanic argument that the performance is a free action so they can play their instrument and wield the weapon.

I don't like the mechanics and I don't like the imagery so I effectively banned them (also helps that I GM a conversion of the ToEE campaign so bards aren't a thing) and reskinned the class as an NPC noble class. The reskinned class has a formal education including clerical and academic arcane teachings as well as being taught how to lead and inspire.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Discordant Voice, alone, pretty much means that I will always use Oratory or Sing for any Bard that actually buffs the party with Performance. Pretty much nothing has Sonic resistance, and now we are all doing extra Sonic damage... on top of the +3/+3 from Inspire Courage... you're welcome.

People take teamwork feats for 1D6 of precision damage, and yet, there are more enemies immune to precision damage than there are to Sonic damage... my one feat is actually better than the entire team taking the Precise Strike teamwork feat... and it cost my Bard absolutely NOTHING as far as action economy... other than just my normal rounds of Performance, which I would be doing anyways.

You don't even need to worry about positioning/flanking... I got you...

When I step forward and yell "Danger may be real, but fear is a choice!"

Everyone benefits... except the enemy.

Shadow Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

So many people seem to have the misconception that a bard needs to do an actual performance in order to activate one of their magical "bardic performance" abilities like inspire courage. Bardic performances are magical effects (Su) with audible and/or visible components. With the exception of countersong and distraction, They require no ranks in any perform skill to do. You don't get a +1 to attack and damage because the bard is making you feel good with an uplifting song, you get that +1 because they are infusing you with magical power.

A bard is no more ridiculous in combat than any other spellcaster who waves their arms about and spouts ridiculous nonsense while brandishing a tiny fruit tart and a feather.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I try to talk massive amounts of $#!+ towards the enemy to "maintain" my Performance.

I wave my spear and banner around, I levitate to be seen by all, I scream encouraging words, and boldly close the distance with enemy to start my Performance with gusto...

But, ultimately, I usually just tell the GM if I am still performing, rather than elaborate every round...

1 to 50 of 65 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | next > last >>
Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / General Discussion / What is your favorite instrument to have your bard play? All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.