A bard brings forth magic from his soul, not from a book. He can cast only a small number of spells, but he can do so without selecting or preparing them in advance. His magic emphasizes charms and illusions over the more dramatic evocation spells that wizards and sorcerers often use. In addition to spells, a bard works magic with his music and poetry. He can encourage allies, hold his audiences rapt, and counter magical effects that rely on speech or sound. Bards have some of the skills that rogues have, although bards are not as focused on skill mastery as rogues are. A bard listens to stories as well as telling them, of course, so he has a vast knowledge of local events and noteworthy items.
I am not the only dreamer; there are those who see as intimately as I, though without the divine power to wake within a sleeping mind. The gifts of these dreamers are no less than mine; indeed may be counted greater. Performed by those who may only look in from the outside, the tales bards tell are nonetheless written from the inside out. Whether music, plays or poetry, history, treaty or anthology, however they are communicated, the words of a bard come from the heart.
Bard Education
Although some bards adhere to a classic apprenticeship to learn their rhythms and others wander the world to learn from the school of personal experience, there do exist in Faerun bastions of higher bardic education. Big cities and centers of refinement are doubtless the best places to seek training and welcome for bards of all stripes.
Instruments
Several stores on ALFA servers specialize in musical instruments. Optional performing scripts may or may not be actively attached to instruments sold or installed on servers. These scripts enable an instrument to be used to post a text ‘performance’ to the dialogue box. Please check with server DMs to discover whether performing scripts are active on the server.
Performing
Performing is the soul of a bard. There may be scattered loremasters more inclined to solitude than to showmanship, but they are few and far between and might indeed have fallen away from the primary gratification of the bard: to perform what they have written. Ranks in the Perform skill are valuable in ALFA. Many DMs will ask for a Perform roll before/during/after a performance for roleplay purposes. You may roll on your own without a DM request, of course. The actual performance of a Bard rises over and above any Perform role, however, in roleplay terms. Poetry, song, even plays have been written by ALFA bards in the past. Do not hesitate to set up performances with DMs and have the performances advertised in IC means. That kind of RP is cause for applause OOC as well as IC. A good text macro program may be of use to maximise the quickslots available.
Bard Rogue Skills
Please see the page on Rogues for information on Pickpocket, Stealth and Traps.
Spells
Bardic spells are based on charisma and must contain a verbal component. Please see the section on Spell Changes for information on changes to arcane spells, which Bards may use.
Class Features:
Hit die: d6
Proficiencies: Armor (light), Shields (except tower shields), Weapons (simple, bard)
Skill points: (* 4 at 1st character level) 6 + Int modifier
Class skills: Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (All), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Speak Language, Spellcraft, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic Device
Base attack bonus progression: Medium
Saving throws
high: Reflex, Will
low: Fortitude
For further bard technical information, see here
There is currently a bug with bardic perform skills when selected normally when first creating a character that prevents bards from properly using some bard abilities. The following is a workaround to avoid such bugs:
"Do not put ANY skill points in ANY perform skill in the character creation; instead, dump those skill points you want for perform skills into something else. Once you have clicked 'finish' and logged into the game, youll be prompted to finalize skill points or to adjust skill distrubutions - NOW is when you adjust your skillpoints. Remove the skill points you placed into dummy skills using the prompts, then place those points into your desired perform skills. Viola!, your bard should now be working properly." ~Heero
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