Bards learning new songs

[Cuddly]

What if Bards learned new uses for their inspire courage ability like wizards do? How much would that throw 'balance' off?

[Iudex Fatarum]

Do you mean learn it as a spell?

If so it would change how bards worked, they would no longer be based nearly as much in the performance arena and would be just another style of illusionist/divine caster (they get heal and lots of buff spells)

if thats the case you'd need to give them full spell progression.

I like bards as they are personally, perhaps a damaging spell or two but meh take energy substitution and shout (fire and shattering all glass its fun stuff)

[Chronicled]

There are feats which allow you to do different things with your bardic music.

[Cuddly]

There are feats which allow you to do different things with your bardic music.

I know this, but it's extremely costly to grab a feat that lets you do something you should have been able to do without the feat.

I mean, if wizards can just buy a scroll to learn ANY CRAPTASTIC ANYTHING EVER, why can't bards do the same thing? Rather than burn a feat on it, just have the Bard gain the ability by finding an old journal or music sheet or something. Put a gold cost, make it cost more than one bardic music use/day, and that would be that.

[Person_Man]

There are also a wide variety of PrC that offer various uses for Bard songs.

You could also just make custom magic items, similar to the Tome of Battle magic items that grant maneuvers, or psionic magic items that can be powered by your own power points.

Or you could homebrew a Bard that has no spellcasting. Just double the effects of its current songs, and have it gain new song abilities at each level. Wouldn't be that hard to stat out.

[ocato]

I kind of like the idea of a bard who, instead of knowing spells, learns new songs. The songs would be pretty similar to spells (honestly, Inspire Courage is a scalable version of the cleric spell Bless anyway) and could be slightly wizardly in aquisition. Bards could exchange magical songs, learn them from song books, or they could even be inlaid in special, magical instruments.

In fact, certain songs could be instrument specific, so a bard might learn a bunch of Horn songs, making him fundamentally different than a Lute Bard, Harp Bard, or Drum Bard. Perhaps singing and dancing could be included, giving a bard a bonus to his song if he is capable of singing/dancing along with the song. Of course, there would be all around bard songs as well that could be played on any instrument. Or even combination songs! For example, if a Bard performs a certain song on a horn and is accompanied by a Bard with a drum, there could be some kind of enchanced affect. This sounds like a neat idea for a new base class or a PrC. *strokes invisible mad scientist goatee*

[Iudex Fatarum]

I like the idea of learning things that are instrument specific. What if each person takes a main instrument and gets a bonus on spells that are related to that instrument. perhaps horns do sonic damaging spells, songs inspire and do group buffs, um strings do healing, and perhaps drums do detection and comprehension spells. Or some thing like that, this is not specific.

[Brawls]

I kind of like the idea of a bard who, instead of knowing spells, learns new songs. The songs would be pretty similar to spells (honestly, Inspire Courage is a scalable version of the cleric spell Bless anyway) and could be slightly wizardly in aquisition. Bards could exchange magical songs, learn them from song books, or they could even be inlaid in special, magical instruments.

In fact, certain songs could be instrument specific, so a bard might learn a bunch of Horn songs, making him fundamentally different than a Lute Bard, Harp Bard, or Drum Bard. Perhaps singing and dancing could be included, giving a bard a bonus to his song if he is capable of singing/dancing along with the song. Of course, there would be all around bard songs as well that could be played on any instrument. Or even combination songs! For example, if a Bard performs a certain song on a horn and is accompanied by a Bard with a drum, there could be some kind of enchanced affect. This sounds like a neat idea for a new base class or a PrC. *strokes invisible mad scientist goatee*
I just had a very bad image of bardic interpretive dance.:smalleek:

Brawls