Is this a bad idea?

[ngilop]

Hey guys, so I though about doing a rejiggered Bard for a player of mine.

She wants to be a more nature-y tribal warchanter.

so I thought of letting her have the Druid's spell list and getting rid of bardic knowledge and replacing that with wild empathy and speak with animals X times a day.


I am hoping that the trade off do not too severely weaken the bard so much so that it is completely unplayable


just a note, my players are null optimizers so don't think we are all running around anywhere close to what the forums consider medium optimization let alone high optimization.

[dascarletm]

Check out savage bard from Unearthed arcana or the SRD. That would be a good starting point, and I do not personally think it is a bad idea.

[Grod_The_Giant]

You're getting a bit weaker, since you're getting delayed access to spells that would otherwise have been lower-level for the bard.

[nedz]

Take a look at some Bard and Druid ACFs here (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1151316).

[The Insanity]

Druid with ranks in a Perform skill.

[Diovid]

Make the bard a savage bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantSavageBard) (possibly even combined with the Divine Bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantDivineBard) variant) and have it take the Soothe the Beast feat (Eberron Campaign Setting), the Music of Growth feat (Eberron Campaign Setting), the Green Ear feat (Complete Adventurer) and possibly the Song of the Heart feat (Eberron Campaign Setting).

If you'd want you could also make the bard a fey bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bard), but most people see it as a bad variant.

Using these variants also opens up several druid prestige classes for the bard, such as Abolisher (Lord of Madness), Holt Warden (Complete Champion) and Lion of Talisid (Book of Exalted Deeds).

[ngilop]

You're getting a bit weaker, since you're getting delayed access to spells that would otherwise have been lower-level for the bard.

Hmm never thought about that actually thanks for pointing that out Grod :)


I am just going to go (with the spell list that is) if the spell is on the normal bard list then it is that spell level instead of the spell level it would be on the druid's list?

does that lessen the hit to spell access enough?

as for the fey bard.. it gets rid of the inspires which is something the player indeed wants. she suggested getting rid of bardic knowledge for wild empathy as
'im in a jungle, how would I know about stuff outside of my isolated tribe?" I felt that wild empathy was not a trade off so, I am thinking speak with animals 3+cha a day, a feat to add 2 uses and these can be used to fuel divine meta magic

the campaign is about some major stuff has happened and certain memebrs of the tribe-s (still deciding if I want these to be from multiple or just one tribe) are sent to see what the hulabaloo is all about.. queue random portal causing a mountain peak to explode an extra planar invasion (the legless dude from the ToB w/o the kill every last descendant and more the bad guy aliens from independence day)