Lawful Neutral Bard [Pathfinder]

[Zhentarim]

What does a lawful neutral bard even look like?

[Morty]

Someone who uses magic, music and a variety of skills to help their allies, hinder their enemies and solve problems while also displaying a noticeable belief in law and order, but no particular leanings towards good or evil. Seems... pretty obvious to me.

[Zhentarim]

Someone who uses magic, music and a variety of skills to help their allies, hinder their enemies and solve problems while also displaying a noticeable belief in law and order, but no particular leanings towards good or evil. Seems... pretty obvious to me.

Yeah, but what kinds of music? How would these beliefs express themselves? What "law" is "lawful"?

[Morty]

The answer to the first question is: literally any music, same as with any bard. The answer to the question is the same as with every other lawful character, which is to say exceedingly vague because that's just how the law/chaos axis is.

[Inevitability]

Someone who believes music has a use and purpose in maintaining the societal order and cohesion they value so much (national anthems, propaganda songs, religious hymns).

Someone who likens the world to a grand orchestra, where each must strive for the perfect piece to be produced even if it means not getting to take the spotlight.

Someone devoted to a being of extraplanar Law, who sees the inherently ordered force of music as the perfect way to praise their patron.

Someone who believes in order, honesty, and loyalty while also being good at spells and songs, because class does not have to dictate alignment.

[Zhentarim]

Someone who believes music has a use and purpose in maintaining the societal order and cohesion they value so much (national anthems, propaganda songs, religious hymns).

Someone who likens the world to a grand orchestra, where each must strive for the perfect piece to be produced even if it means not getting to take the spotlight.

Someone devoted to a being of extraplanar Law, who sees the inherently ordered force of music as the perfect way to praise their patron.

Someone who believes in order, honesty, and loyalty while also being good at spells and songs, because class does not have to dictate alignment.

That is a gorgeous explaination and just what I was looking for.

It does, however, raise another question:

How does a lawful neutral bard differ from a lawful good or lawful evil bard? Order, honesty, and loyalty would seem to be a trait of all 3.

[Florian]

What does a lawful neutral bard even look like?

Welcome to Cheliax and the wonders of classical opera.

[Jay R]

Alignment has nothing to do with appearance.


https://youtu.be/iWHrBad9-OM

[Inevitability]

How does a lawful neutral bard differ from a lawful good or lawful evil bard? Order, honesty, and loyalty would seem to be a trait of all 3.

The same way regular LN characters are different from LG or LE ones. LG actively goes out of their way to help and is willing to make great (disproportionately great?) sacrifices to aid others, LN takes a more pragmatic view but may still support the weak (albeit from a more analytic perspective), while LE has no qualms harming innocents if it supports their goals of establishing a hierarchy with them somewhere near the top.

[Seto]

Anthems and hymns are a very good idea, as Inevitability said. If you're looking for specific musical genres or instruments to reflect alignment, your Bard will probably enjoy harmony over release and highly complex and well-performed compositions over a raw emotional performance. Classical music rather than rock and roll, symphonies rather than rhapsodies. Something with a steady beat supporting layers of melodies playing off one another. Music that makes you want to pay attention and listen to it, rather than dance to it (so no rhythm-based music with loud bass). Atonal music is probably out as well. For instruments, strings, perhaps brass, are more likely than winds or percussions. If he's a percussionist, he doesn't have solos. Perform : Oratory is also an option.

Are you aware of Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy? He thematizes a very enlightening distinction between the dyonisian and the apollonian. Among Greek Gods, art is born of two deities: Dyonisos, god of wine, madness and feast and Apollo, solar god of beauty and harmony. Dyonisos is one of the Wild Gods: he represents animalistic impulses within man and the joy of giving up control. Apollo represents composition, light, appearances arranged to delight the senses.
In art, the dionysian is the raw, primal passion that resonates deep within us and erases boundaries between each other, between ourselves and the world. The apollonian is the beauty of the form, the elegant and harmonious structure of the work of art. Art is the union of both, and great works have both, but to varying degrees, one form of art or one artist being likely to emphasize one or the other. (For Nietzsche, Greek tragedy is the perfect union between them).
It's not very rigorous or scientific, but I find this distinction endlessly inspiring, and to me it's a good layout of Law vs. Chaos (and why you should be Neutral), especially when it comes to art. Your guy is likely to be heavier on the apollonian side.