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Sep 6, 2012 -- 7:54PM, Halefor wrote:

Oh, also, it'd be nice to see music tied more explicitly into at least some of the bard's magic. Sure, he's a dabbler and may have picked up a wizard spell here and there but it'd be interesting to see a core of bardic magic that comes out of music. If we're after iconic images of a class I quite like the image of a bard who enchants or transforms his audience. As I think about it, that might be inherently out-of-combat magic.

Sirens enchanting victims are an example of Bardic magic during combat.

Interestingly, Scandinavian folklore associates running water with music, so water spirits like the Nykr and Fossegrim are superlative musicians. Reallife musicians would actually go to a particular river or waterfall to ask the water spirit to teach them to become great musicians. These water spirits would use their song to enchant people (sometimes malevolently to drown them), but would also use their song to enchant waters, in order to animate the waters.

Traditionally the bards role has been story telling and education and history is maintained through those stories.  That knowledge could tie in more than just performance.  It's easy enough to apply the performance as flavor without complicating it's use in the actual game mechanics.  That being said... inspiration and fascination are typical abilities I associate with bards, whether it's 3.5 fascinate or 1st ed charm abilities.

Japanese bards were called biwa hoshi (BEE-wuh HO-shee), “lute priests,” because they dressed in the robes of Buddhist priests and accompanied themselves on the four-stringed Japanese lute called biwa.  The man who sang to ghosts was a Japanese legend and would have refered to Japanese bards.

Finland had the Kalevala.  The descriptions of magic in the Kalevalahave survived from an ancient time when shamanism was an important part of Finnish tribal life. A similar belief pattern has been found in existing tribal cultures around the world and is thought to have once been common throughout Europe as well.

In the Kalevala, magic is made by chanting special runes. These runes often petitioned gods or spirits, or spoke of origins. According to the ancient beliefs, anyone could use the magic runes, but great magicians like Väinämöinen and Louhi knew more runes and more powerful ones than common people did. Another belief was that the spell created by a rune could be undone by singing the words in backward order.

It's the variety of bards in stories that do vary.  Examples would be Taliesin, who became a powerful mage with the power of prophesy and poetic inspiration; or Orpheus and his ability to charm all things with his music.

Music and performance seem to be an important part of various bardic stories and traditions.

The typical bards from gameplay I'm familiar with range from warrior poets to arcane tricksters to advisors and teachers to roguish gypsies to arcane scholars.  Music, spell casting, inspiration, charms, areas of knowledge, and healing are commone to most of the editions.  Heck, in 3.5 bards were the among best sources of information gathering available between the spells and skills, and they could be great behind the scenes villains as master manipulators.

I think we have more bardic identity to work with than some people think.  I also like the version of the fascinating sexy exotic dancer captivating everyone in the room with a mesmerizing performance while whispering soft questions and instructions that people become helpless to resist.

Just toss in some text along the lines of "The bard usually represents a musician, but doesn't have to be.  You may come up with some other narrative reason for bardic abilities or ignore any description entirely."

Then, apply the same general idea to every damn class.

Ah, Bards. Spoony to the core, the iconic bard is a wandering minstrel who has a sharp wit, silver tongue, and is quick on their feet. In a fantasy world where horrible things lurk in every shadowy corner and dragons could raze countrysides without warning, Bards are a welcomed distraction from the worries of every day.

I definitely think that they should bring something unique to the party, and be a viable combatant even when not surrounded by allies. Traveling is dangerous, and who travels more than a Bard busking from town to town? I like the idea posted earlier about giving Bard an Aura-like ability to buff/debuff while still remaining active in combat if they so desire, at the cost of strength of said buffs/debuffs. (Examples: At the beginning of combat, a bard begins to sing/hum/play a lively tune, giving him and his allies a +x to reflex saves, where X is the degree of focus the bard is putting in to the song. If he was actively focused on buffing his allies and not attacking/defending, then the bonus would be greater than if he was just absentmindedly humming while attacking/defending. That same +reflex song would also distract his enemies, giving them a -x to their reflex saves, where X is also dependent on the amount of focus the Bard is putting into the effect.)