Timeline for Are 3.5 Bards mechanically weak?
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:45 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Dec 3, 2015 at 22:44 | comment | added | KRyan | @DanB If a wizard doesn't use spells, he's weak too. If a fighter doesn't have a weapon, he needs to hide too. I didn't say being a bard automatically makes you powerful: I said there are plenty of options to make a bard powerful. As for having many books, that's acknowledged, but also applies to everyone except full-casters. And high level? Inspire Courage is at 1st. Inspirational boost is at 2nd, Song of the Heart 3rd. Suggestion too. Where is high-level coming into this? | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 21:02 | comment | added | Dan B | I think the advice you are giving is well-suited for high-level games played by very experienced players (with, as you say, lots of books allowed). I don't think this advice is useful in campaigns which don't meet those criteria. | |
| Dec 3, 2015 at 21:01 | comment | added | Dan B | Yes, but in practice my bard players don't do that stuff. The last bard player I had was in a campaign that started at third level. She wasn't casting inspirational boost or using snowflake wardancing or suggestion. What she was doing was hiding behind the fighter, because she had no weapon and no combat-useful spells, because she'd assumed that wouldn't be necessary for a Diplomacy-focused character. In the meantime the fighter was being effective and useful, even though you've dismissed fighters as being "decidedly worse" than bards. After two sessions she quit the game. | |
| May 23, 2015 at 14:34 | comment | added | Miniman | @KRyan Ah, right. Clever. | |
| May 23, 2015 at 14:27 | comment | added | KRyan | @Miniman Yes, so you perform Dragonfire Inspiration first, stop playing that (and get 5 rounds of it lingering), then play Inspire Courage. | |
| Nov 17, 2012 at 5:24 | vote | accept | KRyan | ||
| Nov 13, 2012 at 5:26 | comment | added | KRyan | @lisardggY: I not only notice that, I pointed it out in the very beginning of the answer. Core-only Bards are at a disadvantage, true, but then so are everyone who isn't Cleric, Druid, Sorcerer, or Wizard. The Core spell lists for those classes are incredibly powerful; the Core options for every other class are decidedly mediocre. Bards are doing better than most thanks to their spells. Mostly, though, balance in a Core-only game in the face of competent optimization is impossible. The PHB is by far the most imbalanced book WotC published for 3.5. | |
| Nov 13, 2012 at 5:16 | comment | added | lisardggY | Have you noticed that most of the cool feats and powers you describe come from splatbooks, obscure Dragon articles and the like? Doesn't that leave base-rulebook-only bards at a disadvantage, which would explain the lack of love they usually get? | |
| Nov 13, 2012 at 1:47 | history | answered | KRyan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |