Bard Spells & Bard Songs
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:08 am
Author: Obsidian Sea [ Wed Nov 04, 2015 6:30 pm ]
A new thread for a different class, which might help players and team members alike with clarity and navigating the forum.
The first and simple suggestion is that the following 2 spells are added to the Bard's level 1 spell list, with accompanying explanations for why I think it could be appropriate:
•Animate Weapon - Does this not just seem perfect for a Bard? Making a weapon dance and strike following a consistent rhythm or pattern? Personally I think it makes more sense than the Summon Creature series, if the Bard were forced to choose between one and the other to not become overpowered, but I doubt it could overpower them unless I have made a grave oversight.
•Horizikaul's Boom - A nice inclusion for a level 1 spell to allow them to shift into the role of a Wizard as well as they can shift into the role of a Fighter or Priest depending on the circumstances. It also might give players an opportunity to create a 'Sonic' themed Bard, who can use the Bard Song: Furious Vibrations and Bard Song: Overwhelm Senses feats, and Horizikaul's Boom and Sonic Burst spells to establish a thematic damage output for a Bard.
In addition, if Bards could learn Horizikaul's Boom, it would make them much more applicable to taking advantage of the early levels of Arcane Archer, which includes the Imbue Arrow feature that does not give a Bard many options at present.
My second suggestion is a reiteration from another player, whose perspective I can appreciate more now for having played a Bard:
Endalyor wrote: Bard: You NEEEED 18 charisma in order to get these bonuses. You also need to waste your first 2 feats on Artist and Skill Focus: Perform, otherwise these bonuses would only be +1 instead of +2. This means you must be a human as well.
...
Lower the perform you need to increase the ranks of your songs. That way, bards won't have to put ALL of their points into charisma from the start to get that +2 bonus, let them put some points into str, dex, and con so they're not so terrible in combat if they have to.
I do not think Artist and Skill Focus: Perform should be considered wasted feats, but certainly they should be less than a mandatory investment for those Bards who still want their primary class feature to really take off. Lowering the required number for upgrade in each song by 2 is enough, I would imagine, to allow every Bard to be able to make their Bard Songs a noticeable advantage to allies without having to wait until the very high levels, and allowing the Bards that do invest everything in upping their Perform skill to really shine.
As always, feel free everybody to reply with things you agree or disagree with regarding this post.
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Author: Obsidian Sea [ Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:36 am ]
I have done a bit of personal maths to try and legitimise my second suggestion regarding Bard Songs and the Perform skill better.
Nathaniel Askovar has a +3 Charisma modifier, and the highest amount of investment in the Perform skill for his level. He does not have any feats that give him extra points of Perform - he does have the Extra Music feat. He does not have any items that give him extra points of Perform. He is level 4. Two of his songs, Inspire Courage and Furious Vibrations, require a certain Perform skill to advance.
With the current requirements on each Bard Song, Nathaniel Askovar will have to be level 6 before Inspire Courage will give a +2 bonus, instead of +1. He will have to be level 8 before Furious Vibrations provides a +2 bonus instead of a +1 bonus, or he will have to take a feat that amps up his Perform skill at level 6. This all assumes that he continues to max out his Perform skill at every level, of course.
Regarding Inspire Courage, this means that for the majority of his career (14999xp/28000xp) Nathaniel Askovar will only be able to convey a +1 bonus via use of this song. By about level 3 this is fairly insubstantial, and by level 5 it is underwhelming indeed. If he did not have the Extra Music feat, he would have to be very selective at most levels and in most dungeons about when to deploy this song, and when he does it probably wouldn't be perceived to have any critical function for bringing the battle to a triumphant end mechanically (players are very often generous and attentive to the class-specific skills of the characters their PCs interact with, which returns RP rewards, and it would be remiss not to provide due credit to them for that).
Furious Vibrations is handy for particular enemies at low levels, and still makes its presence count in larger parties at higher levels: less so in smaller parties. Waiting until level 8 for the song to amp up for Bards who do not opt for Perform skill feats is unreasonable, however. For Bards that choose to take PrCs which require certain feats, taking a Perform skill feat might not be possible before level 6, even if it is desirable.
For Bards that choose to take PrCs, or other base classes, it should also be mentioned that while one could argue they need not be entitled to heightened effectiveness in these songs, they are already disbarred from or hampered in advancing other Bard Songs, some of which advance based on the number of levels the character has in Bard, rather than upon the Perform skill.
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Author: Loreweaver [ Mon Nov 23, 2015 5:57 pm ]
It'd like to start with a few thoughts on the second suggestion.
For a casual bard making no particular feat or attribute investment, a Perform modifier of about 16 is achievable. For a bard going all out, 28 is about the highest they can accomplish without relying on special instruments, potions or magic items. The result is that Perform-based song effects can almost be doubled by making serious feat and attribute investments.
The effects of multiclassing on Perform are fairly limited. A Bard (4)/Other (4) would miss out on 2 ranks, and depending on their other class, they may have the ability to compensate for the loss (a Priest could cast Heroism and Guidance for +2 skill, a Rogue might pick up Greater Skill Focus: Perform as bonus feat, etc.). It does of course affect level-based songs.
If you'd like to focus your build on improved bard songs, consider that Extra Music and Lingering Song both add 50% to song duration (or more before level 8). The maximum effects won't be as potent, but for a smaller investment they'll last over twice as long. You can certainly combine this with a Perform build by sacrificing Song variety - effectively, granting partymembers something like +4 AB for 18 turns rather than +2 for 8 turns.
Of course, if you raise STR from 14 to 18 instead of putting the points into extra CHA, you get a +2 AB bonus as well as a +2 damage bonus for yourself, effective all the time. For a party of 4, that pays off after 9 turns of fighting...
Undeniably, you get the most out of your bard's Song and spell abilities if you raise your CHA, and since that already gives you a Perform headstart it makes sense to invest further in the skill as well. It's a logical thought, but it shouldn't be mistaken for the only valid one. In addition to their Song ability, the bard class is one which can serve decently in both melee and ranged combat, can apply a variety of skills and has some magical potential too.
This allows you to specialize in many directions. You won't be the best at anything (barring Bard Songs as they're unique to the class), but you can become very good without losing the ability to be decent in neglected fields. For example, taking no Perform ranks still allows you to use bardsongs based on level as well as any other bard.
The best advice I have is to determine which songs you want and work backwards to decide what kind of Perform bonus would work best without stressing your build too much. In the above I assume Bard 8; naturally it's wise to plan for earlier levels as well.
It may be beneficial to change a few of the songs so that they rely on other character aspects or improve at different rates. But for the most part, it's a matter of choosing a selection which works for your character.
Regarding the first suggestion, Bards were given the Colour Spray spell on "it's appropriate" grounds before so I'm sure these two also deserve consideration. The bardic spellbook shouldn't be too large and diverse however, so something else would need to be removed.
Swapping Summon Creature I for Animate Weapon may be problematic because it removes the foundation for Summon II and III, and additionally it can be argued that summoning creatures is a common enough practice for stage magicians that a Bard should have the same ability (even if Summon I provides neither doves nor rabbits). What other course would you suggest?
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Author: Toros [ Tue Nov 24, 2015 7:39 am ]
The problem with lowering the requirements of the skill level per rank is that then a bard maximizing perform just becomes that much better.
If you made it 4 ranks per +1, then our theoretical 28 perform bard then gets +7 bonus to AB, which may or may not be excessive.
My opinion on bard is that it is an excellent class for oversized parties, but is significantly less desirable until you have a high AC fighter, healer, rogue, and a buffer. So at best a bard would be my 3rd or 4th choice.
If I had a party of 10, then 1-2 bards would be excellent.
With our general population and the low duration of bard songs, it's hard for bards to compete with say, a priest as a fighter or as support.
While bards can identify items easier, anything worth the effort to find another PC for could just as easily be taken to an NPC for identification.
The main thing that I think hurts low level bards is not just the potency of their songs (which given only to 2-3 people) but the duration. Without extra music, their inspire courage lasts 1 turn, and uses their only song for that level. Contrast with bless from a level 1 priest, which costs one of several spell slots and provides the same bonus for 4x as long.
You could optimize to get +4 to hit or (far more valuable imo) +4 to AC for everyone, at which point your impact is significantly more. However, at that point a priest 8 with shield of faith gives +2 AC for a long duration, and protection from evil for a long duration as well. Combine those two and you have the same buff on those allies that truly need it, and you had to sacrifice nothing but a few level 1 slots that rest. Priests get 7 level 1 slots at level 8 alone.
I guess my perspective is that when it comes to support, bards are outmatched by priests and to a lesser extent wizards and druids.
When it comes to damage furious vibrations is good with a high perform skill, but a lot of other options aren't as appealing without several high level bards (support act, overwhelm senses) or not particularly appealing to begin with (marching tune, numb senses, countersong)
In my mind the niche bards have is group buffing, and I feel that their current song options generally only help part of the group, or are replicated or nearly replicated by other classes, plus utility that bards don't get.
Against strong melee enemies they'll get shredded. Their AC won't be able to handle +10 or higher AB, and outside of furious vibrations they don't have strong ranged options either.
Bards make superb diplomats and have a lot of interesting RP oppurtunities (and I'm excited to see what the current crop of bards will do, the bard duels have been wonderful).
However, mechanically I'd put them behind priests, druids, wizards, sorcerers, rogues, paladin, and fighters. Basically just ahead of monks.
I'd never turn a bard away for a dungeon run, but they wouldn't cause a significant change to the level of difficulty I'd want to attempt.
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Author: Obsidian Sea [ Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:28 pm ]
Taking these comprehensive replies into consideration, I think there is still a change to be made regarding the Bard Song relationship with the Perform skill: as Toros explains, a Bard's benefit is to a group more than to himself - which is the role I would expect the class to fill - however that benefit is fairly insubstantial for a long part of the Bard's TER career.
The incongruity between my perspective & Loreweaver's, I think, is how heavily one considers the end game: while the mechanical explanations provided are not refutable, they encourage a mentality among players that they should be aiming to get up to high levels if they want to shine in their class role (at least in the case of this class).
Therefore, would it be a possible compromise between a potentially overpowered endgame and a relative lack of usefulness in the early and mid-game if there was a progression scaling on the songs that rely upon a fixed Perform check? Taking Inspire Courage as an example, the idea would be something like:
+1 AB: 0-8 Perform
+2 AB: 9-17 Perform
+3 AB: 18-30 Perform
+4 AB: 30+ Perform
Regarding the spells suggestion, I am uncertain if any spells would need to be cleared out of the Bard spellbook to make room for the new spells: Horizikaul's Boom would be the standalone damage spell of that level - and arguably a choice for the flavour of being a Sonic-damage Bard more than effectiveness, given that Bards gain very few spells per day. With Animate Weapon, I imagine it would serve as a choice alternative to Summon Creature I, similarly to how Balagarn's Iron Horn and Grease accomplish much the same task; Sleep and Scare; Mage Armor and Protection from Alignment.
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Author: Loreweaver [ Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:37 pm ]
You are correct, I do consider level 8 first, as too in the examples below. It's for a couple of reasons. Chiefly, because it covers the class' full potential and is the least susceptible to variations in ability score and feat choices. Also because the knowledge that things work out in the end is valuable in that it makes temporary fluctuations a matter of class difficulty rather than of ultimate fate. That doesn't mean low level imbalances are ignored, only that I consider them acceptable to a certain degree.
In this case, something like having a fairly low Perform skill and just one bard song use at level 1 is fine as it's not the only thing the class relies on. Roughly put, they're similar to rogues with better equipment options and some healing magic, without sneak attack damage and trap/lock skills. If they want, they can take cross-class ranks in these and be good enough for level 1 dungeons. The bard song can buff them when they're not, or help other allies who did take cross-class ranks while the bard chose something for the long term instead. The bard is not shining as example of bardness at that point, perhaps, but neither are they far behind other classes or forced to deny their identity.
Regarding the bard's worth in parties, the core principle of the class is that they can serve based on their need. In large groups, the song buffs and debuffs have clear value so I'll just focus on the other end. In small groups, bards can play nearly any role required if they're built with that flexibility in mind.
Taking AC as an example, a bard with decent DEX (perhaps supplemented by Cat's Grace), light armour, a large shield and Balance/Tumble can get their AC up to 22ish without much trouble. The same is true of a bard who opts for a Heavy Armour Proficiency feat, though that of course hampers skills and spell use and carry capacity significantly. The base AC can then be improved temporarily with bard songs (either raising party AC or lowering enemy AB) and spells like Mage Armour and Ghostly Visage if selected. Assuming a +2 song effect, that might be an effective AC of 27 with DR 5/+1. Blindness, Haste, Displacement, Protection from Alignment.. Even before feat specialization there's plenty of material to help you survive an AB 10 monster and its cronies.
The main consideration here is that the more you focus on one role, the less versatile you become. If all your known spells are defense based, you can't really tap into the bard's potential for offense, healing, crowd control, stealth or other utilities. Bard songs, too, call for a choice. Do you focus on one task, ensuring that you have the most optimal song for each value of Perform and an ability which complements with the songs of other bards, or do you choose a repetoire with a song for every occasion? Songs may not be as powerful as single-target spells (though curse songs ignore SR and saves, which helps), but they don't need to be prepared in advance so they're almost always useful.
Certainly, priests and druids are highly flexible too thanks to their own class abilities and generous divine spell lists. Druids can even manage some stealth, priests a measure of arcane magic. At some roles, they're plainly better than bards, though bards still have skills in areas the divine ones lack, as well as the ability to coax more out of the rest of the party without special preparation or advance knowledge.
In many cases, a bard is indeed not what small parties wish for because there's a more desirable class for the role they're lacking. But a single bard with sufficient flexibility can turn almost any small party into a viable one against almost any foe, whereas you'd need a whole stable of different class PCs otherwise. That is their primary mechanical strength.
Also not irrelevant is their ability to get more coin out of the same treasure. It may not be obvious, but those healing potions you drink because the bard is not priest enough might be paid for.
A new thread for a different class, which might help players and team members alike with clarity and navigating the forum.
The first and simple suggestion is that the following 2 spells are added to the Bard's level 1 spell list, with accompanying explanations for why I think it could be appropriate:
•Animate Weapon - Does this not just seem perfect for a Bard? Making a weapon dance and strike following a consistent rhythm or pattern? Personally I think it makes more sense than the Summon Creature series, if the Bard were forced to choose between one and the other to not become overpowered, but I doubt it could overpower them unless I have made a grave oversight.
•Horizikaul's Boom - A nice inclusion for a level 1 spell to allow them to shift into the role of a Wizard as well as they can shift into the role of a Fighter or Priest depending on the circumstances. It also might give players an opportunity to create a 'Sonic' themed Bard, who can use the Bard Song: Furious Vibrations and Bard Song: Overwhelm Senses feats, and Horizikaul's Boom and Sonic Burst spells to establish a thematic damage output for a Bard.
In addition, if Bards could learn Horizikaul's Boom, it would make them much more applicable to taking advantage of the early levels of Arcane Archer, which includes the Imbue Arrow feature that does not give a Bard many options at present.
My second suggestion is a reiteration from another player, whose perspective I can appreciate more now for having played a Bard:
Endalyor wrote: Bard: You NEEEED 18 charisma in order to get these bonuses. You also need to waste your first 2 feats on Artist and Skill Focus: Perform, otherwise these bonuses would only be +1 instead of +2. This means you must be a human as well.
...
Lower the perform you need to increase the ranks of your songs. That way, bards won't have to put ALL of their points into charisma from the start to get that +2 bonus, let them put some points into str, dex, and con so they're not so terrible in combat if they have to.
I do not think Artist and Skill Focus: Perform should be considered wasted feats, but certainly they should be less than a mandatory investment for those Bards who still want their primary class feature to really take off. Lowering the required number for upgrade in each song by 2 is enough, I would imagine, to allow every Bard to be able to make their Bard Songs a noticeable advantage to allies without having to wait until the very high levels, and allowing the Bards that do invest everything in upping their Perform skill to really shine.
As always, feel free everybody to reply with things you agree or disagree with regarding this post.
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Author: Obsidian Sea [ Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:36 am ]
I have done a bit of personal maths to try and legitimise my second suggestion regarding Bard Songs and the Perform skill better.
Nathaniel Askovar has a +3 Charisma modifier, and the highest amount of investment in the Perform skill for his level. He does not have any feats that give him extra points of Perform - he does have the Extra Music feat. He does not have any items that give him extra points of Perform. He is level 4. Two of his songs, Inspire Courage and Furious Vibrations, require a certain Perform skill to advance.
With the current requirements on each Bard Song, Nathaniel Askovar will have to be level 6 before Inspire Courage will give a +2 bonus, instead of +1. He will have to be level 8 before Furious Vibrations provides a +2 bonus instead of a +1 bonus, or he will have to take a feat that amps up his Perform skill at level 6. This all assumes that he continues to max out his Perform skill at every level, of course.
Regarding Inspire Courage, this means that for the majority of his career (14999xp/28000xp) Nathaniel Askovar will only be able to convey a +1 bonus via use of this song. By about level 3 this is fairly insubstantial, and by level 5 it is underwhelming indeed. If he did not have the Extra Music feat, he would have to be very selective at most levels and in most dungeons about when to deploy this song, and when he does it probably wouldn't be perceived to have any critical function for bringing the battle to a triumphant end mechanically (players are very often generous and attentive to the class-specific skills of the characters their PCs interact with, which returns RP rewards, and it would be remiss not to provide due credit to them for that).
Furious Vibrations is handy for particular enemies at low levels, and still makes its presence count in larger parties at higher levels: less so in smaller parties. Waiting until level 8 for the song to amp up for Bards who do not opt for Perform skill feats is unreasonable, however. For Bards that choose to take PrCs which require certain feats, taking a Perform skill feat might not be possible before level 6, even if it is desirable.
For Bards that choose to take PrCs, or other base classes, it should also be mentioned that while one could argue they need not be entitled to heightened effectiveness in these songs, they are already disbarred from or hampered in advancing other Bard Songs, some of which advance based on the number of levels the character has in Bard, rather than upon the Perform skill.
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Author: Loreweaver [ Mon Nov 23, 2015 5:57 pm ]
It'd like to start with a few thoughts on the second suggestion.
For a casual bard making no particular feat or attribute investment, a Perform modifier of about 16 is achievable. For a bard going all out, 28 is about the highest they can accomplish without relying on special instruments, potions or magic items. The result is that Perform-based song effects can almost be doubled by making serious feat and attribute investments.
The effects of multiclassing on Perform are fairly limited. A Bard (4)/Other (4) would miss out on 2 ranks, and depending on their other class, they may have the ability to compensate for the loss (a Priest could cast Heroism and Guidance for +2 skill, a Rogue might pick up Greater Skill Focus: Perform as bonus feat, etc.). It does of course affect level-based songs.
If you'd like to focus your build on improved bard songs, consider that Extra Music and Lingering Song both add 50% to song duration (or more before level 8). The maximum effects won't be as potent, but for a smaller investment they'll last over twice as long. You can certainly combine this with a Perform build by sacrificing Song variety - effectively, granting partymembers something like +4 AB for 18 turns rather than +2 for 8 turns.
Of course, if you raise STR from 14 to 18 instead of putting the points into extra CHA, you get a +2 AB bonus as well as a +2 damage bonus for yourself, effective all the time. For a party of 4, that pays off after 9 turns of fighting...
Undeniably, you get the most out of your bard's Song and spell abilities if you raise your CHA, and since that already gives you a Perform headstart it makes sense to invest further in the skill as well. It's a logical thought, but it shouldn't be mistaken for the only valid one. In addition to their Song ability, the bard class is one which can serve decently in both melee and ranged combat, can apply a variety of skills and has some magical potential too.
This allows you to specialize in many directions. You won't be the best at anything (barring Bard Songs as they're unique to the class), but you can become very good without losing the ability to be decent in neglected fields. For example, taking no Perform ranks still allows you to use bardsongs based on level as well as any other bard.
The best advice I have is to determine which songs you want and work backwards to decide what kind of Perform bonus would work best without stressing your build too much. In the above I assume Bard 8; naturally it's wise to plan for earlier levels as well.
It may be beneficial to change a few of the songs so that they rely on other character aspects or improve at different rates. But for the most part, it's a matter of choosing a selection which works for your character.
Regarding the first suggestion, Bards were given the Colour Spray spell on "it's appropriate" grounds before so I'm sure these two also deserve consideration. The bardic spellbook shouldn't be too large and diverse however, so something else would need to be removed.
Swapping Summon Creature I for Animate Weapon may be problematic because it removes the foundation for Summon II and III, and additionally it can be argued that summoning creatures is a common enough practice for stage magicians that a Bard should have the same ability (even if Summon I provides neither doves nor rabbits). What other course would you suggest?
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Author: Toros [ Tue Nov 24, 2015 7:39 am ]
The problem with lowering the requirements of the skill level per rank is that then a bard maximizing perform just becomes that much better.
If you made it 4 ranks per +1, then our theoretical 28 perform bard then gets +7 bonus to AB, which may or may not be excessive.
My opinion on bard is that it is an excellent class for oversized parties, but is significantly less desirable until you have a high AC fighter, healer, rogue, and a buffer. So at best a bard would be my 3rd or 4th choice.
If I had a party of 10, then 1-2 bards would be excellent.
With our general population and the low duration of bard songs, it's hard for bards to compete with say, a priest as a fighter or as support.
While bards can identify items easier, anything worth the effort to find another PC for could just as easily be taken to an NPC for identification.
The main thing that I think hurts low level bards is not just the potency of their songs (which given only to 2-3 people) but the duration. Without extra music, their inspire courage lasts 1 turn, and uses their only song for that level. Contrast with bless from a level 1 priest, which costs one of several spell slots and provides the same bonus for 4x as long.
You could optimize to get +4 to hit or (far more valuable imo) +4 to AC for everyone, at which point your impact is significantly more. However, at that point a priest 8 with shield of faith gives +2 AC for a long duration, and protection from evil for a long duration as well. Combine those two and you have the same buff on those allies that truly need it, and you had to sacrifice nothing but a few level 1 slots that rest. Priests get 7 level 1 slots at level 8 alone.
I guess my perspective is that when it comes to support, bards are outmatched by priests and to a lesser extent wizards and druids.
When it comes to damage furious vibrations is good with a high perform skill, but a lot of other options aren't as appealing without several high level bards (support act, overwhelm senses) or not particularly appealing to begin with (marching tune, numb senses, countersong)
In my mind the niche bards have is group buffing, and I feel that their current song options generally only help part of the group, or are replicated or nearly replicated by other classes, plus utility that bards don't get.
Against strong melee enemies they'll get shredded. Their AC won't be able to handle +10 or higher AB, and outside of furious vibrations they don't have strong ranged options either.
Bards make superb diplomats and have a lot of interesting RP oppurtunities (and I'm excited to see what the current crop of bards will do, the bard duels have been wonderful).
However, mechanically I'd put them behind priests, druids, wizards, sorcerers, rogues, paladin, and fighters. Basically just ahead of monks.
I'd never turn a bard away for a dungeon run, but they wouldn't cause a significant change to the level of difficulty I'd want to attempt.
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Author: Obsidian Sea [ Tue Nov 24, 2015 1:28 pm ]
Taking these comprehensive replies into consideration, I think there is still a change to be made regarding the Bard Song relationship with the Perform skill: as Toros explains, a Bard's benefit is to a group more than to himself - which is the role I would expect the class to fill - however that benefit is fairly insubstantial for a long part of the Bard's TER career.
The incongruity between my perspective & Loreweaver's, I think, is how heavily one considers the end game: while the mechanical explanations provided are not refutable, they encourage a mentality among players that they should be aiming to get up to high levels if they want to shine in their class role (at least in the case of this class).
Therefore, would it be a possible compromise between a potentially overpowered endgame and a relative lack of usefulness in the early and mid-game if there was a progression scaling on the songs that rely upon a fixed Perform check? Taking Inspire Courage as an example, the idea would be something like:
+1 AB: 0-8 Perform
+2 AB: 9-17 Perform
+3 AB: 18-30 Perform
+4 AB: 30+ Perform
Regarding the spells suggestion, I am uncertain if any spells would need to be cleared out of the Bard spellbook to make room for the new spells: Horizikaul's Boom would be the standalone damage spell of that level - and arguably a choice for the flavour of being a Sonic-damage Bard more than effectiveness, given that Bards gain very few spells per day. With Animate Weapon, I imagine it would serve as a choice alternative to Summon Creature I, similarly to how Balagarn's Iron Horn and Grease accomplish much the same task; Sleep and Scare; Mage Armor and Protection from Alignment.
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Author: Loreweaver [ Tue Nov 24, 2015 2:37 pm ]
You are correct, I do consider level 8 first, as too in the examples below. It's for a couple of reasons. Chiefly, because it covers the class' full potential and is the least susceptible to variations in ability score and feat choices. Also because the knowledge that things work out in the end is valuable in that it makes temporary fluctuations a matter of class difficulty rather than of ultimate fate. That doesn't mean low level imbalances are ignored, only that I consider them acceptable to a certain degree.
In this case, something like having a fairly low Perform skill and just one bard song use at level 1 is fine as it's not the only thing the class relies on. Roughly put, they're similar to rogues with better equipment options and some healing magic, without sneak attack damage and trap/lock skills. If they want, they can take cross-class ranks in these and be good enough for level 1 dungeons. The bard song can buff them when they're not, or help other allies who did take cross-class ranks while the bard chose something for the long term instead. The bard is not shining as example of bardness at that point, perhaps, but neither are they far behind other classes or forced to deny their identity.
Regarding the bard's worth in parties, the core principle of the class is that they can serve based on their need. In large groups, the song buffs and debuffs have clear value so I'll just focus on the other end. In small groups, bards can play nearly any role required if they're built with that flexibility in mind.
Taking AC as an example, a bard with decent DEX (perhaps supplemented by Cat's Grace), light armour, a large shield and Balance/Tumble can get their AC up to 22ish without much trouble. The same is true of a bard who opts for a Heavy Armour Proficiency feat, though that of course hampers skills and spell use and carry capacity significantly. The base AC can then be improved temporarily with bard songs (either raising party AC or lowering enemy AB) and spells like Mage Armour and Ghostly Visage if selected. Assuming a +2 song effect, that might be an effective AC of 27 with DR 5/+1. Blindness, Haste, Displacement, Protection from Alignment.. Even before feat specialization there's plenty of material to help you survive an AB 10 monster and its cronies.
The main consideration here is that the more you focus on one role, the less versatile you become. If all your known spells are defense based, you can't really tap into the bard's potential for offense, healing, crowd control, stealth or other utilities. Bard songs, too, call for a choice. Do you focus on one task, ensuring that you have the most optimal song for each value of Perform and an ability which complements with the songs of other bards, or do you choose a repetoire with a song for every occasion? Songs may not be as powerful as single-target spells (though curse songs ignore SR and saves, which helps), but they don't need to be prepared in advance so they're almost always useful.
Certainly, priests and druids are highly flexible too thanks to their own class abilities and generous divine spell lists. Druids can even manage some stealth, priests a measure of arcane magic. At some roles, they're plainly better than bards, though bards still have skills in areas the divine ones lack, as well as the ability to coax more out of the rest of the party without special preparation or advance knowledge.
In many cases, a bard is indeed not what small parties wish for because there's a more desirable class for the role they're lacking. But a single bard with sufficient flexibility can turn almost any small party into a viable one against almost any foe, whereas you'd need a whole stable of different class PCs otherwise. That is their primary mechanical strength.
Also not irrelevant is their ability to get more coin out of the same treasure. It may not be obvious, but those healing potions you drink because the bard is not priest enough might be paid for.