Bards......what happened?

Nolan Silvermoon · Post by **Nolan Silvermoon** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:45 pm

i had a bard "pre-wipe" that i loved to play, so i decided to start a new one the other day, i was wondering what was up with the one round bard song, and curse song? what was the reasoning behind getting rid of the free action on those two? do you pull your car over and start singing then start going again when a favorite song comes on the radio? i dont think so. so how come when bards want to sing they've got to stop, and take a whole round to do the same. can someone please give me the reasoning behind it. if not i would like to make the suggestion that the bard song and curse be returned to a free action. it sucks getting pounded while your trying to get the song and curse off.

T. Rick Of The Light · Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:54 pm

Bards still rock!

Post by **Mr. O'Dearly** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:54 pm

I'd say be thankful its not like in PnP, where youve gotta make concentration checks to sing in battle. Talking is a free action. I figure, your concentration is being done in that first round when youre trying to figure out the words and muster up some magic.

Post by **Sparky** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:19 pm

Its because when you sing in your car, you don't gain earth shattering bonuses. Bard's and their allies have to at least hear the song for a few seconds before becoming juggernaughts of destruction, a quite reasonable amount of time since it happens to coincide with PnP.

And I'm not sure how long you played your Bard if you consider Free Action Bard songs to be the norm. Bard Song's change to a free action didn't even last one week, thank goodness.

Nolan Silvermoon · Post by **Nolan Silvermoon** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 9:40 pm

as to sparkys question. i lvled my bard to 34 and the whole time the song and curse was a free action. granted after reaching that lvl, i didnt play him that often, cause the only place to lvl was the zons. so yes it has been awhile, and your right bards are still awsome

watchwood · Post by **watchwood** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 12:05 am

Its because when you sing in your car, you don't gain earth shattering bonuses.

True enough. My car singing voice is more of a curse song then a normal bard song.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:58 am

Activating the bardsong is a free action or maintaining the bardsong is a free action...

Which are you talking about?

Post by **Mr. O'Dearly** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 4:18 am

bardsong currently takes one round to activate.

at one point in time, for a short time, before the wipe, activating bard song was made a free action.

this thread was made in an attempt to reinstate activating bard song to be a free action.

the answer is no.

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 4:19 am

I'd have to agree. Activating bardsong should take one round. I just don't want to see it having to take much to maintain, aside from a Conc. check maybe. Nothing to maintain would be preferrable.

Nolan Silvermoon · Post by **Nolan Silvermoon** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 5:45 am

well it was worth a try, im sure ill get used to the one round activation of the song when im lvling. thx all for the input

minielvis · Post by **minielvis** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 5:58 pm

There are quite a few books out there that have Bards in them.
The authors must have a different take on this, because Bards
will perform while fighting, running, riding and/or numerous other
activities.

I agree that Bards are powerful just as they are, however a free
perform action would be handy for those that play Bards. I don't
think it would be too disastrous for those that fight them.

On another point, Bards will probably not be seeing pure bonuses.
They don't need the help, but what about giving Pure Bards a free
perform action and making sure that cheesed Bards do not get it.

watchwood · Post by **watchwood** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 4:16 pm

Maybe make it a free action, but require the bard to make a concentration check to keep it up?

JesterOI · Post by **JesterOI** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 5:20 pm

watchwood wrote:Maybe make it a free action, but require the bard to make a concentration check to keep it up?

sounds like your trying to make it harder on the bard.

MasterYoda · Post by **MasterYoda** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 5:28 pm

watchwood wrote:Maybe make it a free action, but require the bard to make a concentration check to keep it up?

do this and watch the bards with 60 concentration easily atainable with song bust out the 3 round timestop

now immagine a bard dualwielding with 6 attacks a round with haste getting 18 hit is on u + the free round action curse song.

bards are already a power class right now. IMO I think there fine the way they are.

Celorn · Post by **Celorn** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:32 am

minielvis wrote:There are quite a few books out there that have Bards in them.
The authors must have a different take on this, because Bards
will perform while fighting, running, riding and/or numerous other
activities.

I agree that Bards are powerful just as they are, however a free
perform action would be handy for those that play Bards. I don't
think it would be too disastrous for those that fight them.

On another point, Bards will probably not be seeing pure bonuses.
They don't need the help, but what about giving Pure Bards a free
perform action and making sure that cheesed Bards do not get it.

Bards tell the stories and act, that's part of their song... and it's easy to keep singing the same song over and over.

I think bards are fine, but i don't agree that they don't need a pure bonus -- a pure bard gets only 3 attacks, and d6 hitpoints... sure they have disc+tumble, but an average level40 cleric and bard side by side puts the bard around 200 less hitpoints, and no regen.

If pure bard bonuses ever come up, it'd be cool to see some REGEN (like the fighter one) if nothing else...