4e Bard Homebrew

[Breaw]

So I got bit with the bard bug (I have no idea how it happened, promise) and have been thinking about how to homebrew (with minimal crunch changes) a 4e Bard, based primarily on the Warlord class. I'll put out what I have so far and would love input on what I've done/what I still need to do.

1) Template for the class in Warlord. I don't really have the understanding of 4e balance atm to create a reasonable character from scratch, so I'll mostly be altering the fluff of his abilities to fit my concept.

Alterations to Warlord:

Spoiler

Show

i) Take out Knowledge (History) and give Knowledge (Bardic) as a skill that must be trained. No reason to change it's function from core 4e skillchecks, just change the flavor of the knowledge a touch.

ii) Lose shield proficiency and chainmail proficiency.

iii) Maybe change +1 fort/will to +1 reflex/will

iv) Drop HP from 12+Con to 10+Con

v) Give him ritual casting (limited perhaps, might have to give up more to make this fair)

vi) Change abilities that read as N[W] + Str to N[d6] + Int. I don't want to make it + Cha because 4e specifically strays away from 1 stat wonder classes.

2) Choose inspiring presence (over tactical presence)

3) Multiclass Wizard. Choose abilities appropriately and follow the multiclass paragon path. Some spells would be better off as will save rather than reflex save (call them illusions).


Good example of ability choice for a 3rd level 'Bard'

At will (level 1)

Spoiler

Show

Commanders Strike
Furious Smash *Int rather than Str damage*

Encounter (level 1)

Spoiler

Show

Guarding Attack
Thunderwave *Assuming half-elf*

Daily (level 1)

Spoiler

Show

Bastion of Defense

Utility (level 2)

Spoiler

Show

Aid the Injured or Shake it off

Encounter (level 3)

Spoiler

Show

Warlords strike

Recap of the biggest changes:

1) Lose some proficiencies/hp and gain ritual casting in their stead.

2) N[W]+Str melee abilities become N[d6]+int short range spell effects. These spell effects would require that you are audibly (or visually) performing your selected artistic ability.

The rest is just changing the fluff text. Once you get into the 11-20 level range and can really have fun with the wizard multiclassing I think you'll be able to do a great deal of what we expect of bards. Might also 'force' the player to take diplomacy, which can be used as a perform check.

Any thoughts? I'm sorry if this is a bit scattered, please ask for clarification on anything I explained poorly.

[Vavaara]

I've actually been working on building the Bard class from the ground up, with semi-unique abilities and other bardic stuff, including full class progressions.

[BardicDuelist]

Yours is a decent quick fix. The bard is the easiest of the three (to me) important classes (Bard, Barbarian, and Druid) to create that need to be restored to make my D&D world work because you can use the Warlord pretty well.

Still, while I am working on my own, I think the best so far was done on the WotC forums by Saric.
Here.