Bard
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"He[Sauron] chanted a song of wizardry, Of piercing, opening, of treachery,Revealing, uncovering, betraying.Then sudden Felagund there swaying Sang in answer a song of staying,Resisting, battling against power, Of secrets kept, strength like a tower,"
- – The Silmarillion
The Bard is a Dungeons & Dragons class widely regarded as one of the weirdest inclusions in the game (alongside the Monk). This is because the basic idea of the Bard is that it's a character who marches into battle with the rest of the party, singing and/or playing musical instruments whilst everyone else does all of the work. It's a rather odd concept, to say the least.
The existence of the bard class arguably stems in one part from D&D's roots as a wargame - it's a conversion of the "unit musician" troop model, which traditionally grants various boosts to its attached unit - and in another part in the bard's existence as a magical hero-figure in several European countries, where characters being able to perform music are capable of literally magical feats, stemming from the Finnish hero-god Väinämöinen or many Welsh mythological tales. It also draws from the medieval trouvères and minstrels; basically itinerant entertainers travelling from place to place and putting on a show wherever they went. Another source of inspiration may be, as many things in D&D are, from Tolkien. The Top quote is not just for show in this case, it's a demonstration that the idea of magic=music goes far back into the fantasy that Tolkien inspired roots.
At its core, the Bard is a support class, focused on buffing players through their Bardic Music ability and rounding out their options as a Skill Monkey class. Unfortunately, it has a reputation for trying to do too many things and ultimately ending up not being able to do anything very well at all. As our frenemies on TVTropes would say, Bards attempt to be a Jack Of All Trades, but ends up being a Master Of None.
This has varied a lot over editions, but Bards are generally regarded as an underwhelming class that mostly chosen by people who want to be "wacky" and thus make themselves a nuisance.
The bard traditionally relies on Charisma as its most important ability score.
AD&D
In Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, the Bard started out as a right mess of a class. You started the game as a Fighter and then, at any point between levels 5 and 8, you had to dual-class over to the Thief. Then, after reaching a minimum of 5th level as a Thief, and before they reached level 9, they had to dual-class again, this time to Druid - except this time, they didn't gain Druid abilities but gained Bard abilities, which was a kind of subclass of Druid. While a fighter/thief makes sense for a bard, the druid class is close to the exact opposite of a bard (The reason for this almost certainly relates that to the fact that among the ancient Celts of Gaul and the British Isles, the priestly caste, the Druids, refused to write anything down, instead relying on memorization. One subset of these druids were the bards, who functioned in a similar manner to a norse Skald. These bards would continue to exist even after the rest of the Druids died out, and even survived the coming of Christianity, although they lost their religious status.) Needless to say, this was ridiculously complicated and was quickly changed; 2nd edition introduced the now-iconic definition of the Bard. This version of the Bard was considered a Rogue-school class (what later editions call the Rogue was, at the time, called the Thief), and gained most of the same abilities as a Thief, like picking pockets and finding/removing traps. What made it unique was its party-buffing Bardic Music ability, its slightly better combat skills, its inferior thieving skills, and its ability to cast a number of Mage spells.
Notably, the Dark Sun incarnation of the class focused more on intrigue and being masters of poison use than just throwing buffs around.
3e
The idea of the Bard being the weakling class mostly started in 3rd edition. Here, it become more separate from the newly renamed Rogue, and it gained its own distinctive spell-list, which included some spells on both the Wizard and Cleric lists - Bards were the only non-Cleric non-Druid classes in the corebook to have access to Cure Wounds spells. But, individually, the class was pretty weak if taken entirely straight from the corebook; as 3e progressed, bards became more powerful because they could be customized better with feats and prestige classes. 3.5 Edition splatbooks almost always included good spells, feats, and prestige classes for bards--so by the end of the print run Bards had a spectacular amount of options to choose from (some extremely strong). Bards were initially given the classification of tier 3, though later revision of the system revises this to only being tier 3 if they had open sourcebooks and drops them tier 4 if playing core only.
On the other hand, a lot of their abilities were just busted. Bardic Knowledge basically meant they never had to worry about failing any kind of knowledge check by even mid-levels, and with even modest optimization their Jack of All Trades skill could let them effectively replace almost any actual skill-person in the party. Plus, even a half-caster is still a caster, and this was a caster's world.
Pathfinder
Pathfinder greatly improved the core Bard and it's definitely tier 3. All abilities scale faster: Bards can now cast 1st level spells at level 1 and their spells known have all been upgraded by a level, while Inspire Courage improves at 5 and every 6 after instead of 8 and every 6 after. They no longer need to have the Perform skill trained to access the most useful Bardic Music options. While the next ability means there's no reason to be totally untrained in perform (unless you're dipping only one level, getting it from another class, or taking an archetype that trades it away), it does allow instrument focused bards to sing/dance untrained in combat instead of tying up their hands. They also gain a new ability called Versatile Performance that lets him use their perform skill in place of two other skills (Such as oratory replacing both diplomacy and sense motive or dance replacing acrobatics and fly), effectively getting 2 skills for the price of one, one which is more easily buffed to boot. This has the side effect of giving them effectively more skill points than the Rogue at level 10.
In splat they got even more awesome, though nothing strong enough to be tier 2. They have a wider variety of unique spells than they did in 3.5 splat, where they mostly got stuff wizards got levels ago. They also have a unique concept called a Masterpiece which were essentially a type of ritual magic: In exchange for a spell known they got additional performance options, which require specific types of perform (e.g., Wind Instruments) and have blatantly supernatural effects. Most of these mimic higher level spells than the bard can normally get at the cost of eating performance rounds, but many have entirely unique effects. Notable Masterpieces include:
- Music Beyond the Spheres is the most powerful Masterpiece without question. It allows duplication of Limited Wish for con/wisdom drain instead of an expensive component. While ability drain doesn't heal naturally, and is normally expensive to heal, Limited Wish can duplicate Restoration without paying the 1000GP it requires. This means you can easily follow up a few uses with a Restoration. Avoids making the bard Tier 2 by going straight to Tier 1 if not Tier 0 since just building up wealth with this loop (while Limited Wish can't produce expensive stuff, a large number of lower spells can when free of material components worth less than 1000GP) would be sufficient to make a tier 1 bard, but it can pull most spells out of the ass too.
- Pageant of the Peacock lets you use bluff for any intelligence based skill. It also comes pretty early. You now know everything!
Pathfinder 2e
Second edition saw the bard gain a hefty buff in becoming a full-caster with their own rinky-dink spell list - yes, for some reason their magic is now classified as "Occult". As part of this change, the various bardic performances have been remade into Composition Cantrips, providing slightly weak buffs. While they lack the ability to effectively to count as trained in all skills, they do get quite a few skills at start (Occultism, Performance and 4+Intelligence Modifier more). They also have the ability to automatically cast some spells at their max level despite not learning it at that level.
Bards are categorized by "Muses", certain entities that inspired the bard in their musical means. Alongside giving a bonus feat, each also grants a special spell to the ones they know.
- Enigma is the knowledge-based muse. The bonus feat gives them the ability to substitute all their knowledge skills with one singular skill in place of the know-it-all Bardic Lore. The tradeoff is that this skill has limited progression and is can't do any other stuff the skills it replaces does.
- Maestro is the magic-based muse. Its bonus feat gives a focus spell capable of prolonging cantrips and feats equating to bardic performances.
- Polymath gives a secondary facet of skill utility. Its bonus feat is Versatile Performance, letting Performance stand in for social skills in certain circumstances. Further feats emphasize the bard's role as jack of all trades.
- Warrior (introduced in Advanced Player's Guide) is the combat-centered muse. This gives the bard proficiency in martial weapons. The feats for this muse are the most direct in supporting allies in combat.
4e
Bards were one of several classes, alongside the Barbarian, the Druid and the Sorcerer, that did not appear in the 1st Player's Handbook for 4th edition. WoTC explained that this was because they needed more time to tinker with them and make them work. Grognards raged at the delay... but when it came out, it was proven well worth the wait.
Released in the Player's Handbook 2, the 4e Bard is an Arcane Leader, a combination of Source and Role that it would share with the Artificer from the 4e Eberron Player's Guide. Its unique class features are Bardic Training (free Ritual Caster feat & ritual book, can cast a Bard ritual 1/day per tier without any components) and Skill Versatility (+1 to untrained skill checks), but also has a number of shout-out features.
Firstly, the bard's traditional ability as both a healer and the party's face is reflected in its two innate class powers; Majestic Word (2/encounter healing burst) and Words of Friendship (+5 to a Diplomacy check 1/encounter).
Secondly, the bard's long association with multiclassing is reflected in its Multiclass Versatility feature; it's the only class in 4th edition that can take multiclass feats from multiple classes.
Finally, Bardic Music is covered not just by the bard's attack & utility powers, which are various magical notes & melodies that have buffing or debuffing effects, but also by its Song of Rest feature. During short rests, bards can play music or sing in order to grant their audience the ability to spend healing surges, gaining bonus HP equal to the bard's Charisma modifier.
A Bard's subclass-feature is its Bardic Virtue, which basically reflects the kind of qualities who the bard prizes in their stories/poems/songs and which they consider the most important virtue to try and emulate themselves. The PHB2 features the Virtues of Cunning (slide allies that enemies miss) and Valor (grants THP to an ally who bloodies or kills an enemy), with Arcane Power adding the Virtue of Prescience (Intercept an enemy's attack against an ally by adding the bard's Wisdom modifier to that ally's defenses).
Essentials added a variant Bard in the form of the Skald, an Arcane/Martial hybrid bard that is more "fightery" and less "castery".
5e
In 5th edition, the Bard Class has gone from a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" to "Master of all trades, Grandmaster of a couple things". Seriously, someone on 5th Ed's development team really must love this class, because this bias is as transparent as Monte Cook's Wizard fetish. An important feature is Jack of All Trades - instead of allowing you to take untrained skill checks without penalty, the bard now gets to use half their proficiency bonus on skill checks that they don't have. In other words, it doesn't matter what situation the party gets thrown into, the Bard can always use the appropriate skill check to solve the problem directly. Need to organize a siege? The Bard can build siege weapons, manage logistics and draw up strategies. Need some more arrows? The Bard can fletch some more. Do you need to bake an elaborate and complicated cake for a King's birthday, AND construct a poison that kills slowly yet is indistinguishable from a heart attack? The Bard can do that too! This would be a broken enough ability if it were something you gained at something like level 10, or if it were exclusive to one Archetype. It's not. All Bards get this at level 2. The only limiting factor is the "Half Proficiency bonus" thing, but that's hardly an issue since for most of the game the gap's not too wide and the target number parameters of 5th edition are so low anyways, and it doesn't count as being proficient (mainly a problem for tools). At least it catches up with you in the later levels since you don't have a means of providing a bonus to skill checks... unless you play College of Lore in which case you get the ability use Bardic Inspiration on yourself. Which on average will actually give you a bigger bonus than if you just had the proficiency. Yes, even at level 20.
Bardic Inspiration works a little differently now. Instead of providing a constant bonus, they bestow a floating D6 upon whomever they inspire. At any time before the next Long Rest, the inspired can expend that D6 and add it to an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw (valor bards also allow you to add it to weapon damage or to your AC in response to a single attack) during or outside combat. As they level up, this expands to higher dice sizes, and eventually the bard can even anti-inspire his enemies, forcing them to take a penalty on any non-saving throw roll of his choosing. The Class Variant Features UA (and the print version in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything) saw the ability to add Bardic Inspiration to a spell's damage (or healing).
Bards can get up to 9th level spells now (because apparently "dabbling in magic" means a better spell progression than the Warlock, but then again dabbling probably should get you more than simply asking for an eldritch handout) as well as the awesomely broken "Magical Secrets" ability which lets them take a spell from any other class' spell list. This would be bad enough on its own, since you can cherry pick all the best spells from everyone else (Animate Dead necrodancer shenanigans anyone?) but it's worth mentioning since the half casters tend to have some pretty potent spells at the 4th or 5th spell levels. The Bard, being a full caster, can take these for themselves as many as 7 levels earlier than when you're supposed to have them. The most infamous choice is the Ranger spell "Swift Quiver", a spell they added to try and help save that class from becoming completely useless but instead made the Bard into an even greater Munchkin's delight. They get 3 instruments, and they are capable of dealing more damage (in the form of better offensive spells and more weapon proficiencies).
In terms of subclasses, the Bard was up there with the Druid in getting passed up for subclasses, having only a paltry two in the PHB. It eventually got some really cash ones:
- College of Valor, which gives him proficiency with medium armor, more weapons, and makes him able to inspire while stabbing,
- College of Lore is the magical bard, who gets more skills than the Rogue and access to the aforementioned broken-ass "Magical Secrets" four levels earlier than the base class. Also hilarious is the Bard-only cantrip Vicious Mockery, where the bard literally insults someone so hard they take psychic damage from it.
- Glamour Bards are, basically, faerie-taught mentalists, with features based on super-charging their ability to use enchantments. Mantle of Inspiration lets you spend a Bardic Inspiration slot to give allies within 60 feet temporary hit points and a free move to rally towards you. Enthralling Performance basically lets you cast a Charm Person spell on everyone within 60 feet watching you perform after you spend at least 10 minutes doing a performance; furthermore, unlike the normal Charm Person spell, creatures who resist this effect aren't made aware that you tried to monkey with their minds, though you can only do this once per short rest. Mantle of Majesty lets you envelop yourself in a cloak of glamour for a minute, during which time you can throw out a free Command spell (which auto-hits on your charmed victims) each round as a bonus action. Finally, Unbreakable Majesty lets you cast a Sanctuary spell on yourself once per short rest that also gives you Advantage on Charisma checks and forces Disadvantage against your spells on any creatures that succumb to the sanctuary's effects.
- College of Whispers makes bards more creepy and assassin-like with some fairly spectacular illusion & enchantment tricks. Using Bardic Inspiration to conjure poison on your weapon for bonus damage via Venomous Blades not enough? How about Venomous Whispers, which lets you terrify someone AND send them scrambling to find their safest, most secret place just by spending 10 minutes talking to them? Or Mantle of Whispers, where you can capture the shadow of a creature of your size & type that dies within 5 feet and wear it, gaining free access to its appearance and its surface memories for an hour? And then there's Shadow Lore, where you can basically cast an 8-hour-long Charm Person spell on somebody once per long rest. Admitted inspiration from the Dark Sun incarnation of the class.
- College of Swords does exactly what it sounds like, making you better at putting the pointy end in the other man. In theory, at least; in practice it comes off as a poor man's Battlemaster until level 14 when the final subclass ability kicks in. That's a really long time to wait to become awesome.
- College of Eloquence is the one you want to do all that dragon-seducing you hear about on the chatboards. Basically this college takes the baseline Bard features and turbocharges them.
- College of Creation exists to take down Artificers a peg or two by allowing weird inventions to come from somewhere other than their smug brains.
| Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Classes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Player's Handbook 1 | Cleric • Fighter • Paladin • Ranger • Rogue • Warlock • Warlord • Wizard | |
| Player's Handbook 2 | Avenger • Barbarian • Bard • Druid • Invoker • Shaman • Sorcerer • Warden | |
| Player's Handbook 3 | Ardent • Battlemind • Monk • Psion • Runepriest • Seeker | |
| Heroes of X | Blackguard* • Binder* • Cavalier* • Elementalist* • Hexblade* • Hunter* • Mage* • Knight* • Protector* • Scout* • Sentinel* • Skald* • Slayer* • Sha'ir* • Thief* • Vampire* • Warpriest* • Witch* | |
| Settings Book | Artificer • Bladesinger* • Swordmage | |
| Dragon Magazine | Assassin | |
| Others | Paragon Path • Epic Destiny | |
| *·: Non-AEDU variant classes | ||
| Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Classes | |
|---|---|
| Player's Handbook | Barbarian • Bard • Cleric • Druid • Fighter • Monk Paladin • Ranger • Rogue • Sorcerer • Warlock • Wizard |
| Tasha's Cauldron of Everything | Artificer • Expert • Spellcaster • Warrior |
| Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft | Apprentice • Disciple • Sneak • Squire |
| Unearthed Arcana | Mystic |
| The Classes of Pathfinder 1st Edition | |
|---|---|
| Core Classes: | Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Druid - Fighter - Monk Paladin - Ranger - Rogue - Sorcerer - Wizard |
| Advanced Player's Guide: |
Alchemist - Antipaladin - Cavalier Inquisitor - Oracle - Summoner - Witch |
| Advanced Class Guide: |
Arcanist - Bloodrager - Brawler - Hunter - Investigator Shaman - Skald - Slayer - Swashbuckler - Warpriest |
| Occult Adventures: |
Kineticist - Medium - Mesmerist Occultist - Psychic - Spiritualist |
| Ultimate X: | Gunslinger - Magus - Ninja - Samurai - Shifter - Vigilante |
| The Classes of Pathfinder 2nd Edition | |
|---|---|
| Core Classes: | Alchemist - Barbarian - Bard - Champion - Cleric - Druid Fighter - Monk - Ranger - Rogue - Sorcerer - Wizard |
| Advanced Player's Guide: | Investigator - Oracle - Swashbuckler - Witch |
| Secrets of Magic: | Magus - Summoner |
| Guns and Gears: | Gunslinger - Inventor |
| Dark Archive: | Psychic - Thaumaturge |
| Other: | Archetypes |
Bards: Sex Icons?
It's an old meme, so you don't see it often anymore, but occasionally you may hear some iteration of "be a bard and get all the women/men/other members of your hermaphroditic race" bandied about on /tg/. If you're wondering where that came from, well, you've come to the right place.
The "Bards are the Love Machine Class" meme owes itself predominantly to 3rd edition. /tg/ has always loved its monstergirls, but 3e is when Bards both became "The Face Class", with a high reliance on Charisma and proficiency in all Charisma-based skills, and gained a mandatory nonlawful alignment. Combined with how brokenly powerful diplomacy could be in 3e, and you had a character class type where not only was "I try to seduce the monster!" one of the less annoying character schemes you might hear, it actually had a pretty good chance of working! However, a lot of this could be said of any charisma-based class: Bards, Sorcerers, Wilders, Favored Souls, whatever. What really pushed Bards in particular over the edge was that Third Edition basically gave them mind-control powers (specifically Fascinate, Suggestion, and Mass Suggestion), enabling them to magically roofie NPCs. Plus, by the time 3e had rolled around, people wanted to push bards away from being perceived as twee Renaissance Faire minstrel types and instead began pushing them more as the fantasy equivalent of rockstars, so that certainly helped fuel the idea that bards get a lot of action.
The meme was really cemented in /tg/'s consciousness by the actions of an artist called Frederik Andersson. Possessing a penchant for tasteful sexuality, goodnatured humor, and interspecies erotica, he had already drawn a picture called "Dragonlayer", which depicted a smug female dragon presenting a Half-Dragon toddler to a gobsmacked knight as his king exasperatedly complained he had told him to slay the dragon. When he heard of D&D's bards, he created "The Bard's Tale", an ongoing series of pictures depicting a single-mindedly horny xenophile human bard with insanely high Charisma and his misadventures. Retconning "Dragonlayer" into being his first appearance, most of the Bard's pics revolved around him either seducing yet another beautiful non-human female or being presented with his halfbreed offspring from such a liaison.
Gallery
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Masoud, level 9 Bard/Revolutionary. If your DM tells you Bards can't work in their Urban Fantasy campaign, show them this.
External links
| Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Classes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Player's Handbook 1 | Cleric • Fighter • Paladin • Ranger • Rogue • Warlock • Warlord • Wizard | |
| Player's Handbook 2 | Avenger • Barbarian • Bard • Druid • Invoker • Shaman • Sorcerer • Warden | |
| Player's Handbook 3 | Ardent • Battlemind • Monk • Psion • Runepriest • Seeker | |
| Heroes of X | Blackguard* • Binder* • Cavalier* • Elementalist* • Hexblade* • Hunter* • Mage* • Knight* • Protector* • Scout* • Sentinel* • Skald* • Slayer* • Sha'ir* • Thief* • Vampire* • Warpriest* • Witch* | |
| Settings Book | Artificer • Bladesinger* • Swordmage | |
| Dragon Magazine | Assassin | |
| Others | Paragon Path • Epic Destiny | |
| *·: Non-AEDU variant classes | ||
| Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Classes | |
|---|---|
| Player's Handbook | Barbarian • Bard • Cleric • Druid • Fighter • Monk Paladin • Ranger • Rogue • Sorcerer • Warlock • Wizard |
| Tasha's Cauldron of Everything | Artificer • Expert • Spellcaster • Warrior |
| Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft | Apprentice • Disciple • Sneak • Squire |
| Unearthed Arcana | Mystic |
| The Classes of Pathfinder 1st Edition | |
|---|---|
| Core Classes: | Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Druid - Fighter - Monk Paladin - Ranger - Rogue - Sorcerer - Wizard |
| Advanced Player's Guide: |
Alchemist - Antipaladin - Cavalier Inquisitor - Oracle - Summoner - Witch |
| Advanced Class Guide: |
Arcanist - Bloodrager - Brawler - Hunter - Investigator Shaman - Skald - Slayer - Swashbuckler - Warpriest |
| Occult Adventures: |
Kineticist - Medium - Mesmerist Occultist - Psychic - Spiritualist |
| Ultimate X: | Gunslinger - Magus - Ninja - Samurai - Shifter - Vigilante |
| The Classes of Pathfinder 2nd Edition | |
|---|---|
| Core Classes: | Alchemist - Barbarian - Bard - Champion - Cleric - Druid Fighter - Monk - Ranger - Rogue - Sorcerer - Wizard |
| Advanced Player's Guide: | Investigator - Oracle - Swashbuckler - Witch |
| Secrets of Magic: | Magus - Summoner |
| Guns and Gears: | Gunslinger - Inventor |
| Dark Archive: | Psychic - Thaumaturge |
| Other: | Archetypes |