Bard
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Combat Style: Musical Combat Rating: Low Magic Style: Enchantments, Song Magic Rating: High Preferred Races: Dryad, Halfling Preferred Alignment: Any Chaotic Preferred Weapon(s): Harp Skills: Song of Pain, Song of Health, Song of Death, Song of Life, Merciless Jape Skill Weapon: Musical Instruments Skill Centers: Temple of Music
Description
Bards may be musicians, poets, actors, dancers, masques, storytellers, or anything similar.
They generally love to travel and tell of their travels through song or story and possess a unique type of magic linked to their poems and music. Bards tend not to be tied to any particular homeland. Instead, they wander and gain life experience to write more songs and increase their repertoire, which increases their combative abilities.
Most bards make a living from pleasing people with their various performing arts, but their unique powers can also be turned to warfare. Bards can make excellent spies, scouts, and negotiators because of their power, charisma, and traveling skills. However, they can also be evil, using their dark experiences and will to manipulate others into their service or extract information. As many bards tend to be neutral during times of conflict, it is not uncommon to see a bard on the royal payroll or as a hero's paid follower. After all, who ever heard of a hero (or villain) without a story?
Combat Style
- In Terms of Roleplaying/Dueling
- Due to the flexibility of the bard’s practice, they can use a wide range of weapons, including melee and missile, or may prefer to rely on their bardic magic. As with any other hybrid class that permits dual fighting styles, a higher physical combat ability is usually compensated for with lower magical ability to prevent godmodding, and vice versa.
- Bards are able to use various instruments, or in some cases use their own bodies as conduits, to channel their unique magic with varying effect, such as healing, elemental manipulation, or other such magical effects.
- An example of how to balance magic and physical traits: A bard that practices primarily in writing poetry or other stories will generally have lower physical strength than a bard that performs enchantments through dance. The poet, however, may cast spells in greater concentration.
- In Terms of Game Mechanics
- Their combat skills require a musical or miscellaneous-type weapon to cast.
- Bards cannot use missile weapons, and will gain little benefit from melee weapons.
It doesn't matter how you live and die, it's how the bards wrote it down. Terry Pratchett
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