My current bard is a Grandma who inspires people by telling them how proud of them she is. She also uses cutting words as only a disappointed grandma can. I didn't originally set out to make a grandma, but I love this character!
I'm not a naturally charismatic person (shy, introverted, lying is hard and I can't sing a note), but I love stories, so when I finally got around to building my first bard, he was an elderly dwarfish librarian who'd read every book in his library a hundred times and knew all the old legends. After his son mysteriously disappeared while adventuring, he decided to seek him out, and in the process, write his own adventure down in a book, which may one day sit in someone else's library and be read by other bards. His bardic inspiration mainly comes down to him quoting famous heroes and encouraging his allies not to give up.
I made a very similar character. I think people underestimate how much charisma can come from a shy but sweet old bard character. I remember one player in my group was an incredibly bubbly person, and she was trying to play a hardened badass character and kept having to break character to say how bad she felt giving my character the cold shoulder. It's super fun to have a character that everyone loves so much.
bards have so much potential man. I once played an elf bard that grew up amongst humans so when she noticed her mentors and friends grow old and realized that she will outlive generations of humans she concluded that gathering their stories and pass them on was a way to keep their memory and help them live as long as she would. So let no one tell you bards are a silly class, the sillyness comes not from your class but only from your bard getting hit with silence-effects at the most inopportune moments lmao.
@@theuncalledfor I mean that's great lmao, my bard tho was (pathfinder 1e) very much reliant on verbal performances, I dont recall any somatic only spells she had that weren't reactions to being hit and most importantly she was a soundbreaker bard, meaning she could attack with sonic-based attacks (think like high-pitched singers breaking glass etc) so every time she got hit with silence it was time to bust out the old reliable rapier and hope that she could atleast help the paladin flank lmao.
@@theuncalledfor well in high level 3.5/pathfinder bards (though not full casters) were still reliant on their spells and performances, you do not ever want to enter melee combat ever unless you are a d10+ hit die martial class or a striker like the rogue or monk. Bards were skill monkeys, face characters and support casters for the most part - silence shuts down most if not all of their combat utilty. And yeah the video was about stereotypes in general, so it's pretty system agnostic :D
Some of my favorite occupational twists on the bard: - Bartender - Comedian - Symphony conductor ("Bardthoven," followed around by a phantasmal orchestra) - A doctor (that one was kinda weird) - Con artist - Don Draper style marketing hotshot - Fighter-bard multiclass who was a pirate who sang sea shanties while bludgeoning people with an enchanted oar - Edit: I forgot about the Twitch-streamer bard in a Starfinder game some years back
A few of those are already covered by the rogue, Fighter/Bard Pirate is covered by a Rogue Swashbuckler Con Artist is the rogues shtick in general and so on.
@@ColonelBragg I think a point you're missing is that no class should be so pigeonholed that there's only way to play them (as the video shows) - and if you have an idea for an archetype (pirate), you shouldn't feel constrained to only one class. To you, a swashbuckler should be Rogue because ... well ... it's already in the rules book. But a fighter or bard being a pirate makes complete sense to me as well. The first D&D campaign I was ever in was a seafaring, island-hopping adventure. Only two of us were technically "pirates" at the start of the campaign, but by the end, we basically all were. And we had a Rogue (Inquisitive subclass Sea-Elf) - but also a Druid (a Water Genasi who was good at swimming and talking to fish), a Fighter (good for sword fighting), a Warlock (who was tied to a deep sea deity), and a Cleric (of the moon ... and tides). We all made our characters knowing we were going into a "Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker" style campaign and planned accordingly. It would have been rather boring if we were all just Swashbuckler Rogues.
The last bard in my group was a drill sergeant. His inspiring abilities came from him insulting you, challenging you, and getting you fired up for action. It was amazing.
My main bard is based on Orpheus He lost the love of his life, and was so haunted by his failure that his spouse manifests as ghost who haunts him, literally making the air around him gloomy. He sings mostly durges and laments, but when he gets really into it and remembers his passion for music his spouse joins him in a duet
I love it. I would take the opportunity whenever possible to re-flavor his spells as song/poems so mournful they make the very ground heave with sobs (Earth Tremor). Most Enchantment-school spells could easily be mechanically the same but described as inducing intense melancholy instead of Hideous Laughter or Dissonant Whispers.
One of my favorite characters was a bard/warlock who would steal people’s souls, for their patron then use soul energy to put on magical plays about how their battle skills were
As great as you cosplay is, your ability to shapeshift into almost a totally different person with a pair of glasses and a demeanor is some impressive, and understated, acting
A bard who gained even more renown after their newsletter about their adventures found their way to people, and thus a subscription service to the newsletter was a good source of income. After one adventure led slightly awry and they were left with the curse of lycanthropy, their new slogan "Don't forget to Lycan subscribe" became very memorable.
One of the character ideas I want to stat out is a sports announcer bard, who casts spells by narrating their target's actions like a radio sports announcer.
Im writing one up in a little project im working on, they use a magical microphone to project their voices over the battlefield and can help or hinder characters theyre actively commentating on, really awesome support flavour! I always inagine a 1920s radio voice like in Korra
So a friend of mine made a Math teacher bard. She would inspire us by complimenting us like a teacher would and her vicious mockery were chastising and math problems. Also steel my heart is an amazing book title.
Ow! I made a bard teacher too! She's more of a field reasearcher, but she's actually a history teacher and her goal is to compile tomes to further enrich her academy's library. Very austere though, not the encouraging type at all. More of the intimidating into compliance sort. XD
Two of my favorite so far An actual disney princess conjuring animals with their voice, not knowing of their heritage they traveled the world looking for their one true love. A psycotic manipulative evil bard which power was to gaslight the world into narrating what "actually happened" to cast spells Needless to say, there is a lot of room to work with XD
I multiclassed a Pally with 1 level of Bard. The idea was he'd be like that annoying youth pastor, spreading the good word of his deity. I don't think I've pulled off the execution very well, he's more of a Pally that can give bardic inspiration but I don't think I've given up on the concept yet.
I’ve been wanting to play a fitness trainer bard - think Richard Simmons. His performance is demonstrating proper form and aerobics. He inspires people by leading meditation, leading breathing techniques, and encouraging self esteem. He likes to play the party’s therapist and get them to “tell their stories” and be their “best selves.”
my bard is exactly like this, he's a yoga instructor and guides meditations with the party to help them grow hahahaha it's actually pretty helpful! he helped the druid reconnect with his druid circle for instance. and with his noble background, he gives hot yoga classes to the kings we meet on the way!
Leliana from Dragon Age is one of my favorite examples of a bard. Her backstory story and character arc throughout the game series is so compelling. She definitely breaks the mold of the bard stereotype and I took a lot of inspiration from her when making my own bard for D&D
On the surface Leiliana is the most stereotypical bard, who plays the lute and has a fair bit of horniness in what you see from the beginning. Then there is te cool subplot of *spoiler* being trained as an assasin thats unfurls ass you get to know her. Sounds like a great inspiration to play a bard or an assasin rouge with expertise in deception.
I love Leliana! Dragon Age: Origins is one of the few video games i played as a teen and i think really set up the framework for my love of DND as an adult :)
On a similar note, I think Varic is a great example too. A storyteller by heart who everyone loves, but is actually unromancable as his heart belongs to someone else.
My bard is actually a therapist and all of her bard stuff is actually like therapy things. Her bardic inspiration is giving the other players positive motivation, and for her vicious mockery she yells the enemy has poor coping skills. I also gave her inspiring leader and she has the party do guided meditation or other relaxation techniques to get their temporary hitpoints.
Should probably throw in some quip about childhood trauma and blame it on their parents. That's what my psychologist tried to do. I rolled a successful save and told her she was wrong. She tried it again but I'm already buffed against that attack.
Antonio Demico (known in RUclips and Twitter as Pointy Hat) got me hooked into playing a bard, especially one who's academically inclined as shown in one of his examples. Honestly, his DnD With A Twist series are great sources of inspiration for spicing up classes, monsters, and races in your games and I couldn't recommend it enough.
Bard at our table is SO amazing! He is a centaur war veteran, raising a young human mage to be a good man and a fighter. He is being played by my female friend, and boy is she charismatic. If needed, she fights with two axes, but mostly she inspires us with her words. She uses very intricate language to sound like a very pompous and eloquent medieval person. But also she uses so much flattery! And I love how her class is being roleplayed. We had an amazing session few weeks ago, where we suddenly got sucked into another dimension and couldn't get out, so we needed local higher ups help. They wanted to know who we are and where are we from, so our bard went on a 10 minute rant, retelling all the events of our previous sessions, and she managed that on a day when she kinda lost her voice. I wasnt even sure she was breathing. We almost passed out from laughter. It was so in character, cause her centaur was pissed by how everyone is stupid and there is no discipline. It was briliant. She is funny, but she can also is very serious and threatning, when anyone harms her protege. At the same session she almost killed our warlock, cause he accidentally almost killed her protege. So to me bard is a wonderful class with a great variety, and we love having one at our table.
A friend who is, in my opinion, destined for Broadway, wanted to play a Bard in our campaign because she was new to the game and didn’t want to have to worry about difficult roleplay and learning the rules at the same time. Her bard is a High Elf of the Noble background who left her home kingdom to be with her Half-Elf violinist girlfriend. I was quite blown away that her entire motivation for adventuring was to make a life with her girlfiend. When she was picking her art form, she asked me “What’s the least High-Elf instrument I can take proficiency in?” And we settled on the bagpipes. So now, all our party’s healing is in the form of ‘Green hills of Tyrol’, and it’s GLORIOUS!
Have her look up "Lords Of Iron" by Antti Martikainen (the super gorgeous video is right here on RUclips, and the song is like 9 minutes long but well worth the time). Might be good mood music for your campaign, or at least inspiration for her character.
I ALWAYS take the worst instruments as a running gag - Bagpipes are a good regular, the saw is quite fun, the nose flute is another classic and of course the didgeridoo.
@@iggysdinners7092 Following that same line of thought, I once had a bard character in a joke campaign, whose adventuring instrument was a Hardart (IRL, a musical instrument invented in the early 1960s by Peter Schickele and Philip Glass, which was made out of one entire wall of a 50s-era diner). DM agreed to let me have him be able to carry it around easily as though it weighed nothing and were small enough to actually fit through dungeon corridors, and he was endlessly confused at why other people seemed to think he had some sort of magical secret that let him do so, because he wasn't smart enough to understand why they'd expect it to be hard to lift or maneuver, when he'd never found it to be such.
My Bard PC is a changeling that was raised among elves and faced a mild existential crisis as he grew up and realized that his lifespan was miles shorter than all of his peers - reaching adulthood for his species where any elf would barely be considered more than an infant in comparison. He sought music as a way to try and leave an impact on society that would be able to outlive him and find purpose for himself in that. He's a wonderful little ball of emotions who just wants to be helpful to those he meets and leave smiles behind wherever he performs.
Oh my goodness, I have a character who is very similar! She's an air genasi Bladesinger born to famous elven adventurer parents. Her focus is more on academia and swordplay than dance and music, but she does those too, and is super ambitious. She has a similar goal, going down in history to make up for her shortened lifespan. She's not a bundle of sunshine though: cunning, sassy, somewhat arrogant, and true neutral.
Dorian Storm is my favorite bard I've seen played. A socially awkward bard who is charming in his humility yet who is super competent and impressive when people aren't watching is really fun.
That's right where my mind went too. Sam was _so_ awful in Campaign 1! His first character was an over-the-top caricature of every bad bard stereotype ever, and when Matt finally tried to force some character development on him, he decided to take his ball and go home, replacing obnoxious troll character Scanlan with even more obnoxious troll character Taryon. Thankfully he's gotten a lot better in the later campaigns, but _wow_ was he ever painful in Vox Machina!
@@masonwheeler6536 you understand that your opinion is really unpopular and most people do not agree with that take, specifically finding Scanlan to be one of the more enjoyable characters. Scanlan had a fuck ton of character development and Tarry was not a troll character.
@masonwheeler6536 I'm sorry but you need to watch more than one episode before talking character development. Scanlan had some of the earliest development, from believing that nobody truly cared for him, to realizing how much his absence actually hurt his friends (especially Grog) to realizing that the love he seeked should've been the love of his daughter whom he had forgotten about, there was a lot going on with that character.
@@underthependulum3484 I went through the entire series. And what I saw was that when Matt got sick enough of Sam's antics that he tried to finally push some character development on Scanlan, Sam chose instead to take his ball and go home. And then he replaced Scanlan with someone even more obnoxious purely out of spite. He did _eventually_ come around, but the whole thing left a very, very bad taste in the mouths of a lot of fans.
@@masonwheeler6536 Yeah, I highly doubt it left as bad a taste in fans' mouth as you're making it out to be. The amount of fans I've seen who disliked Taryon are in the single digits. And Scanlan leaving the party, while many were sad for him to go, nobody from what I've seen disliked the decision. Along with that, saying that Sam left out of spite due to character development being pushed on him is absurd. Sam had Scanlan stick around with the party even after finding out about Kaylie for nearly 50 more sessions. And he was more than willing to roleplay serious moments for Scanlan
I’m playing a lawyer bard for an upcoming Pathfinder campaign, and I’m really proud of the concept. He’s a goblin with a poor upbringing, so he knows basically nothing about the legal system, but through incredible adherence to justice, highly persuasive manner and sheer dumb luck he’s super good at it. My DM and I are really into Ace Attorney, so I’m highly anticipating some insane legal shenanigans and turnabouts
My favorite bard from film is Paul Bettany's character Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale (2001). As both public orator and close friend everything he says is quite sincere and moving. Also he forges documents and has a gambling problem. What a fun character.
I dropped Paul Bettany's Chaucer into my campaign as a random person you could meet while traveling. They did help him to a town but after one insulted him he's vowed to 'eviscerate him in fiction'. I'm just waiting for the perfect opportunity for it to happen, likely when they only half remember meeting him.
Bard is my favorite class too! I started playing it before I'd seen any of the memes, and I'm glad because they really would've put me off. I play a half-deaf, animal-loving College of Spirits bard who is a writer and started seeing the ghosts of his friends after a traumatic event. He has a (seemingly) upbeat, witty personality, and helps others because he doesn't want anyone to go through what he went through, and he tends to accidentally trap ghosts in his magic book.
I played a Tabaxi College of Whispers Bard who used Tarot cards instead of instruments. She was part of a circus that was a front for a secret organization and joined the party because she had a premonition that something important was going to happen with them at the centre. She also really loved making new friends and eventually multiclassed as an Archfey Warlock after travelling awhile with a pixie and forming a deep connection to the Feywild. She's definitely one of my favourite characters that I've played.
I had a bard named Torynth the Tall who was only 5'2". He gained his moniker by acting with a troupe of halfling actors who always typecast him as the giant. He began adventuring in order to write a script that truly showcased his talent as an actor, so he became the group's scribe writing up the last week's adventure in verse and presenting himself as the hero of every conflict. The group did not stay together long, but it was a fun schtick for what was otherwise a fairly straight forward dungeon exploration game.
My dream bard is a Tiefling who loves to tell scary stories, who dresses all in black and uses her natural Thaumaturgy cantrip to change the color of the fire in the room she is telling stories in for mood lighting. She tells tales of curses, monsters, the downfall of evil rulers and sings murder ballads. In battle, she uses spells that frighten opponents, demoralizes them or creates illusions of ghosts coming to get them. I just love the idea of being the Gothic Bard, a cross between Edgar Allen Poe and Siouxsie Sioux.
Until I went online, I had never heard about the cliché bard. My first bard recited poetry instead of singing and she lived a very sheltered life before being throw into an adventure. The DM wanted to start us all at 10th level and so all our characters first met after being kidnapped by a lich. She was a gloura and from what I read about the underdark fairy race, no one bothered them, so that let me give her a happy childhood. I was was going opposite to the cliché: whole village destroyed/tortured backstory. My next bard loves jokes and so that is how she fights: sharp barbs and playful encouragement.
My first big "bard" that completely broke the mold was a valor bard. He was a grizzled war veteran who had seen "a little of everything" over the course of his travels during his campaigns. The spells he used, despite being done as a "caster" were flavored as spells he'd seen done by other mages. The bardic inspiration was flavored as tactical advice, healing spells as battle medicine, healing word was even literally "Get up, I know you've still got some gas left in you!" etc.
My Bard was a military strategist and tactician. He didn't play songs so much as tell war stories to inspire. He used Glamour bard skills to reposition allies on the battle field, and had a few levels of battlemaster fighter so he could order other people with more power to attack in his place. He was a super dignified, thoughtful, larger-than-life halfling general.
I was just thinking how a bard in a pike-square would be incredibly useful. Drummers to communicate orders long distance and weave spells to protect and boost the square.
I was helping my friend build a character for a "Strictly Ballroom"-inspired campaign. His character was a competitive ballroom dancer, and instead of making her a bard (like we initially assumed), we made her a barbarian, and it was the best decision. Her "rage" was when she was in the zone dancing, and it fit her much better than a bard would have.
My favorite Bard that I've played was a Kitsune named Yoko. She was a princess who used both her pan flute and gentle words to inspire and bolster her allies... and also stop the party from killing both each other and everything around them. One Bard type I wanna play is a Bard who's a commander. Someone who barks orders and rallies their comrades on the front lines of the battlefield.
I love playing bards as the strong silent type. Quiet until he has something to contribute to the conversation that leaves a strong impression on everyone and commands the room. Someone who hardly ever speaks, but when he does everyone listens, they can't help themselves.
I love putting dark twists on the bard: Funeral performers/dirgesingers, zealots who violently defend/protect the arts, or researchers seeking the note that started the universe (and hoping to sing a new one into existence).
@@Alche_mist Seconded. If Ginny actually wrote this book I'd definitely read it. And considering how many different talents she has I wouldn't be surprised if that's in her skillset.
A great example of a bard is from the 1985 Disney film “The Black Cauldron”. The character Fflewddur is indeed a bard and he has a magical harp. That tiny side note character to me was a great example of a bard. He was struggling but it got the point across and it was well done in my opinion.
My last bard was a good-natured heroic himbo with a romantic streak - not horny, romantic! He actually ended up being in the only romance subplot in any of our group's games so far, and it was kept very PG and sweet, which is how to make it not weird for everyone else around you 😆
my first ever character was a teenage dragonborn bard named Mikira. Everone joked that her name sounded like Shakira and so i associated her a bit with dance as well as her lyre. she holds such a deep place in my heart. Now i am remaking her to be an older mother figure who sings folk songs along with her traditional drum set
I have a Tiefling Eloquence Bard who really leans into the deal with the devil thing. His art isn't so much about song, dance, or drawing. It's more an art of manipulation, finding out what exactly people want and stoking that fire until they would do anything to get it. Making sure that he and his party always get the better end of a bargain and making sure those who made a deal with him get EXACTLY what was written on the contract. He's easily the scariest fucking character I've ever played.
When my regular DM gets to play in a game one of the rest of us runs, he usually plays a tiefling bard named Prince who is such a consummate manipulator that it makes me genuinely afraid of the man in real life
I had just finished taking a latin class when I was creating my bard, so he ended up being a historian who was traveling the world looking for content to write his next epic. A poet and reciter rather than a singer and I had so much fun with him!
In Old School Essentials I currently play a Bard which is proficient with a bow and was a former soldier, but now he is a relatively famous theater actor, with exciting trick-shots, who carries his signature role into the real world. An almighty anti-hero that did everything, at least if you believe his epic tales. He once organised and wrote a play with the party as actors to defeat an art obsessed demon. Jest character I have ever played, I love him so much! Bard rules!! I will definitely play another one.
@@asheronwindspear552 They did and I did and it was. Most of my spells were shitty one liners that I would look up long lists of. My warlock patron made me rip out an eye and add it to the doll also the hand controling it began to get black and shrivled. If I ever DM my #BirdBard is going to be the big bad.
I love that I chose to make my first character a Bard, and I didn't really know what I was getting into - I just wanted to play epic music while casting lightning bolt because she just put so much confidence and effort into the music that magic happens
One of my favorite styles or concepts for a Bard is Skald, or a warrior poet. The type of character that will regale crowds of people at a tavern with the exploits of their home heroes, or of the party's own deeds. I picture the way he inspires through words of encouragement, uplifting their spirits, or becoming a rallying point for his party by blowing war horn. Perfomative and thematic, but noble in concept
My bard was basically a shell shocked soilder who seen his brother die in front of him. He use music to calm his soul, but he was really introverted, but when it came to bettles he was the one that everyone relied on due to his soilder background. He was a leader in the battlefield, but he would usually let the paladin and rouge do more of the talking, but when a brawl was coming up he would lead the group.
I love this so much! Our bard, who is a first time player, is a quiet, socially awkward prankster... and a literal Troll. He makes a great effort to use non-combat spells to deal with combat situations to solve the situation without hurting anyone. The creativity is AMAZING!
I think Ahmad ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas) from 13th Warrior is one of the most interesting "bards" in cinema. Arguably, as an ambassador, he get's his power from making connections with other people and learning what motivates them. I could have easily seen him starting the "Lo there do I see my father" speech at the end of the film as the ultimate act of connection and inspiration.
Outstanding, Ginny! Just wanted point out that the word "music" comes from the classical Greek muses, who represented ALL the arts - including dance, poetry, drama, comedy, and oratory or rhetoric. I actually made a bard - thanks to your suggestions here - who is a priestess of Eilistraee who grew up as a temple performer, while living with exiled parents in the Upperdark. She is an expert dancer & acrobat, and, as an artist, her perception is expert, as well. She simply uses body motions & vocalizations to cast her spells. She also uses a drum or a bell to cast certain spells, and she plays a noisy double reed instrument, too, but she only has basic proficiency. Having the sage/scholar background (working under her parents), oratory, rhetoric, and poetry are also a part of her spellcasting focus. She enjoys making up short rhymes as her verbal component to embody each unique circumstance in which she casts a spell. Thank you for nudging me to do it!
Honestly one of my characters that i enjoyed the most was a Bard/Monk, he was convinced that everyone had goodness in their souls in some shape or form, and travel the world to understand the human heart. He was specialized in illusion magic, that he conjured using a bell on his staff while performing martial moves with it. He was positive, inocent and very naive person, with led him to all sort of situations. He was defo one of my most beloved characters.
I once made a bard who was a firedancer and she told her stories dramatically with minor illusion fire, and prestidigitation fire. I loved her so much and really want to play her again!
I made one bard I’m the most proud of: Tulip. He is a skeleton who, upon rising from the ground and realizing that he didn’t remember anything, clings to the one source of identity in his otherwise unmarked grave: a simple wooden plank with the name Tulip carved into it. He wandered about for ages, picked up an abandoned Sun dress, and continued his search for meaning. He is a glamour bard who, despite being a skeleton, has a supernatural charm.
whoa, my son has a bard named Lotus, who is a warforged in the shape of a skeleton! He uses a conductor's wand as his focus, instead of an instrument, and plans to open a casino when he retires.
The 2nd Edition Bard's Handbook is one of my favorite source books of all time. It has widely varying inspirations on different takes and approaches for a bard. If you can get your hands on a copy it's a great jumping off point to the very things Ginny is talking about. There is so much fertile ground in the Bard if you look for it. Some of my favorite examples are: The Blade, who is skilled in fantastic displays of whirling, juggling, and spinning weapons, so much that they can intimidate foes that they are a greater threat than the more dangerous Fighter in their group. The Loremaster is compelled to hunt for lost and arcane lore, an adventuring scholar with a deep knowledge of obscure information, ancient societies, and little known legends. The Dwarven Chanter, who specializes in deep percussion and rhythmic chants that are used to make hard tasks like mining, smithing, extended marching or even battle easier and give great endurance to all that hear them. There are a bunch of other ideas, and they all contribute to a wide range of inspiration for other ways to play such a versatile class.
I've really been wanting to play a Bard that isn't even a musician for a while now. But i haven't had the courage because I was afraid my group was still gonna make jokes about my character being "weird" just because it's not what they expect. I feel more motivated now thanks to this video❤️
I'm currently playing a fairy bard from the college of eloquence. She grew up in the Seelie court and learned the power that lies in diplomacy and speech from Titania herself. Her true passion however lies in drawing and at some point she discovered, that she could bring some aspects of her paintings to life by using the fairy dust from her wings as pigment. So, her spell focus is a brush made from her own hair and she casts by drawing pictures into the air. I really love that character and no one has had any complaints about her.
@@XMaster340 My Bard idea wasn't even an artist. He's more similar to a wizard, but he's learned all his magic through Oral Practice. His spells are being cast by speaking words and verses from a magical language (Much like when Gandalf was speaking the Dark Tongue of Mordor).
My Bard is an entertainer. Sure he can play instruments and carries lute, as that is the easy thing to do, but he is also master of card tricks (to a point where many of my spell effects are just reskins of him using his "enchanted" card deck to do magic). He's a war veteran who had innate magic and good skillset and was part of few spec ops operations, but after the war decided that he had seen enough suffering of the common folk and decided to just wander, see the world and people and try to leave every person a better, or at least happier than he found them. Of course he had to run into this bunch of muppets trying to save the world. Or something. Not sure.
My friend new to DnD had me help her make her first character and she chose Bard. I helped her understand the bard mechanics and pick spells. She made her bard a "lazy" food obsessed musician. She never really went out of her way to engage in a fight but she was very skilled in use of Polymorph and Bigbys Big Hand (bear claw). She was a clutch member of the group and she had a blast being, in her words, a tourist at Disney/ren fair with her turkey legs Edit: she even got a statue of her riding her bearclaw as it crushed a Boneclaw. She was a fun bard.
My most favorite bard was a goblin motivational speaker. His bardic inspiration took the form of motivational quotes. His vicious mockery were demotivational quotes. My favorite attack was using Dissonant whispers where the target heard all of the negative things that had ever been said to them or they thought about themselves, with Fury of the Small added in for extra salt if he felt like it. If we had gotten far enough he would have used suggestion and mass suggestion to get guards or enemies to do team building exercises.
All the bards I've played with are absolutely scary. There are three major bards in my d&d lifetime. A bard who almost never spoke and danced instead, he had some warlock cultist vibes and eventually took 2 warlock levels later in the campaign. He started a cult, and at the end of the campaign left into the underdark looking for new opportunities. Second one's a college of Eloquence bard who was sort of our party leader in our second campaign. Our Necromancer/fighter was the smart guy, our tanky halfling druid was the big guy, I, a rogue/monk was the lancer, the kid we adopted was the heart and he was the protagonist. He never showed any romantic interest, and instead played 'the great game', which is the name of one of our world's poltical system. He grew a resentment for nobles, mostly because of his father and kind of invented communism together with a rogue mastermind that I made in a short campaign before our current big one. He started a revolution and him and my monk helped eachother to gain controll over their countries of origin. The third one I don't know much about. She's more into the horny stereotype, but has a funny dynamic with her wizard half sister, with her being the serious one.
My favorite bard character I've made is a Tiefling named Hope. She first learned violin from a minstrel that stopped at the tavern her mother worked in and she was inspired how the otherwise worn and weary patrons of the tavern's spirits were lifted by his music and stories. Her motivation for adventuring is twofold: to spread the hope and joy she saw that day, and to find that minstrel to thank him for the inspiration
One of my favorite ways to play bards is as a storyteller. I have a lot of nostalgia around traveling storytellers from them coming to school when I was a kid, but it's also a really common thing historically for someone to travel as a storyteller and entertain the village children with tales of heroism by day and the adults in the tavern with bawdy exaggerations by night. So many folk stories we have were preserved not by being written but by being collected and spread by these storytellers over the course of generations, and I love the idea of a character who travels collecting stories both of their own life and of those they encounter along the way, building a cannon of fables that will long outlast the bard themself.
In the last campaign with my wife she played a elderly gnome bard in search of the killers of her granddaughter. Her Character was a cold and gloomy. Her bardic performance was neither through song or dance - she channeled her powers by foul mouthed cursing
I just started playing a bard and I already love her. She comes from a tribe of travelling entertainers whose whole life revolves around music. They dance to perform their music ala riverdance or flamenco, weaving in fire imagery due to their tiefling origin. Mine is pretty much the product of her culture, living for the dance, but ran away in order to prove that her grandmother's stories about their family having a dragon guardian were true. The only thing she knows about it however was that the dragon left a scaled ornament for them and that they liked the dance her ancestor performed. It's comedic since she basically will step in front of a white dragon and dance just in case they were the ones to visit her family, but the motivation itself is still noble and she desperately wants to return.
One bard character I really enjoyed was a Dwarven bard. He was a clan loremaster in training. Part of being a loremaster involved advising the clan rulers and passing down the clan history in annual festivals. And, most notably, leading the naming ceremony (names being traditionally given by an elder). With all of this, he was adventuring to establish his own personal authority in the world to bring back to his clan before ascending to be full loremaster.
My bard is actually a soldier. She doesn't sing, she is an expert in communication and strategies, she inspires by controlling the battlefield, telling her allies about their advantages and the enemies weaknesses.
Yeah it's pretty easy to make a Bard into a military leader because of the whole buffing other characters thing, it makes it easy to flavor them as a "squad leader".
Ive been creating a few characters and 1 is an elf bard who just chooses to hang out with his party. He isn't too large in music but will play a guitar if it'll help the members calm down or to lure them to sleep. His way of story telling is through dance or music as he doesn't like speaking much. He enjoys listening to others and gets excited with new info while also being incredibly protective of his party members. That doesnt stop him from trusting people like they are his family, just he hears and sees more than some of his other members who may or may not have heightened senses. There are 9 other members which he will protect for the rest of his life.
Ginny, you've made my day with this video! The best bard I have ever played was Jarred, the balding tavern-keeper in his 50's with an ex-soldier background, with loose ties to the local criminal gangs. Since his magic was based on "music or oration", I've choosen the latter and made him act like a stand-up comedian, entertaining the folks at his tavern every evening, but also to weave magic in his witty words creating spells like "Tasha's Hideous Laughter" to throw out drunken people when they ended up prone on the spells effect. As a College of Lore bard I gave inspiration by telling the party the adequate stories of my former (soldier) carrier, and provided them the suiting poems or fairy tales as the Song of The Rest.
Ginny, I just wanted to say thank you so much! Thank you for making this video, and for putting so much time, effort, thought and care into it! Thank you for opening my mind to the broader possibilities of what the Bard class could be, other than just "stereotypical horny Bard". I personally had a very low opinion of Bards as a class before I watched your video, mostly due to the "stereotypical horny Bard" trope. However your video got me to re-think all of the creative possibilities that this class could be. I will definitely be sending this video to my DM, and keeping Bard in mind when I am building my next character for an upcoming campaign!
This video came at the right time. Yesterday, me and my friends were creating our characters for our new campaign, and I created a bard that doesn't sing (they are a tales writer) and aren't physically attractive. All the table made fun of my character and acted like I was going to play a bard the wrong way. But this video gave me a little bit of confidence to play them the way a wanted... thank you!❤️
I've got several bard characters, but my favourite (whom I've been playing 3+ years) is Adelaide. Her concept was a mix of snow white, esmerelda, and typical fairytale princesses. She's a bard-druid multiclass, so she does the typical thing of singing a pretty tune and having all kinds of birds and forest animals flocking to her because of it. It's also been a swarm of rats on occasion. She also talks to animals (circle of the shepherd) and sings to summon them to combat. Basically like that scene in Schrek the Third with snow white and the ents guarding the gate. 😆 She also uses dance to fuel her ritual spells and often performs to earn money or befriend npcs. She's the mom-friend of the group but also very much a goody-two-shoes and her good heart leads her to be too trusting sometimes. As a nod to the stereotype of horny bards that she very much does not embody, I made this her backstory: She was born to a travelling bard troupe, and her mom was the stereotypical flirty bard who got pregnant by a certain elven scholar who loved her performances every time they passed through his city. She worships Liira (goddess of dance, festivals and joy) and Sune (goddess of love, beauty and passion) and believes deeply in true love. Part of her story arc was saving her boyfriend from the feywild, where he was sent by a friend who betrayed them. She's an absolute joy to play and the two classes she's got fit her perfectly, even though neither are played in their typical way.
my next character is a halfling college of lore bard, who’s in the process of getting her phd in anthropology; she’s writing her dissertation on alternative methods of documenting and discussing history. i based her character around the theme of memory- of collecting, telling, and chronicling stories and experiences so that nobody is ever forgotten. she uses stories and folklore that she’s collected and learned from people to inspire and influence others. she is also not a horny bard- just a lover of love!
My fave bard I've seen is a friends bard who just....didn't have performance. Just didn't have it. It was 3.5, and her whole shtick was just "I'm the Pretender" Very Charisma for spells and persuade, but high Int and Wis for other skills, and very high Dex Absolute wet noodle elsewise, but can do nearly anything.
My first Bard was a multi-class that didn't pick up Bard until level 3. So... I had him never touch a musical instrument before! And he was on a quest to learn formal music skills once he figured out he had magic based around music.
@@kin2naruto Our current bard uses a wooden whistle as his "musical instrument" spell focus. A traveling druid carved it, and we bought it for the price of a lunch for the druid. What's cool is that the whistle can leave both of his hands free if he doesn't need to talk.
My favorite bard I played was essentially a Gilderoy Lockheart type. He was an adventure novelist who wrote stories of his many great adventures even though he'd never been on one. Even though he had low strength, he'd carry around a Longshore that he'd constantly cast light on so he could claim it was a legendary magic sword
My first bard was build from a newly adult halfling who started as a rogue but wanted to be sure everyone knew the story of her found family. She didn't really understand sex at first and once she did she made a couple jokes here and there but literally got out of scaps by talking her way out of them, and sang stories about their tales for extra cash while they were out and about. The way our story ended no one knew of what we'd done but I had an ability that allowed her to convince crowds of their tales as folklore that was praised everywhere they went.
My favorite bard character I ever made was an eloquence bard with a criminal background. She was a grifter. She sometimes played the "horny" bard troupe so people with underestimate her. She functioned a lot like a rogue since she usually liked to rob her "hits" blind after. She was based around the "mean girl" character type. She was a queen bee and could organize people underneath her accordingly.
As someone creating an ace/aro bard who struggles to find the magic and joy in her music due to PTSD after surviving a horrific massacre during her performance, this speaks to my soul.
@@firestorm165 Katernin Brightwood grew up in a happy home in Sigsbee, where her love of music was encouraged and allowed to flourish. She went to bard school to study the college of valor, where she and her five friends formed a music group called the Sigsbee Six. They enjoyed moderate fame performing all over the province. They were invited to perform at the birthday party of their beloved countess, Esvele Softwood. But rebels infiltrated the party guests and poisoned the drinks, and not long after their performance, the rebels attacked the poison-weakened partygoers. Katernin, who didn't drink any poison, survived by hiding. Her friends weren't so lucky. Investigators determined the massacre was the work of a cult. But as the sole survivor, Katernin saw the truth: the killing was orchestrated by Softwood's advisor Corvin Tallstag and his wife, who quickly filled the power vacuum and now rule under increasingly martial law. Everyone believed there were no survivors. Katernin went on the run, fearing for her life, and struggles with PTSD, survivor's guilt, and a fear of trusting people, especially people in authority. But she longs to exact revenge for the innocent lives lost, and she will gladly sully her hands with the Tallstags' blood.
I made my first bard character recently she is absolutely adorable she’s a southern bell/golden retriever kinda personality. It’s the least traumatized character I’ve ever written. Too bad she’ll probs be traumatized by the end of the campaign. She may not be super serious but she’s not a flirt either just wants to be everyone’s friend. I’m like in love with her.
One of my favorite characters to date is a bard/warlock I made called Jovi Banjo, who in fact, played a banjo and lived in a swamp community with her family. She was the friendliest, funniest and more entertaining character I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing
This video came around just in time. My current character is a girl whose mother forced her to attend magic school because of her natural skills as a spellcaster even though she wanted to travel the world as a singer/songwriter. Over the course of the playthrough, she's finding her balance between Bard and Sorcerer, eventually weaving the two together both in and out of combat. (Our DM asked all of us what our character's dream end goal was and I told them she wants to be recognized as the first of what we know to be a world-renowned singer.)
The only bard I played was a drow bard themed around black metal. He was a maniac, gathering dying moments of different creatures to inspire his music, his lyre's strings were made of tendons of his house's enemies, and he had psychic spells themed as sending the horrors he witnessed (and caused) to the target's mind.
There was a book series about an occult detective who uses a slide whistle and a deck of cards the rythem of playing then out as his way of reacting to the pulses of the weave of magic emanating from different spirits. I built that in dnd as a bard college of spirits with even his magic deck as part of his instruments because it's part of his performance.
@Teresa Ellis I will warn you if you listen to audio book I think the third book in the series dropped the original guy for someone very dry and bland. I had to read them normally because I couldn't stand it XD
I am currently playing a Minotaur Bard (skinned as a Yak, though!), and his whole thing is telling scary stories around the campfire, playing bone flutes, and blowing a big alpine horn. His biggest struggle is he speaks common as a second language and isn't up with all the current trends in fashion. He's also never seen a tiefling before, so he calls them "strange yak, but good yak."
Two things. No, actually three! You are amazing and inspiring in so many ways i almost can't comprehend. Thank you for youtubing! Second, the realtalk about actually talk about things in DnD with your table outside of the game is so good. I often find myself wondering, why we don't talk outside of the game and express feelings exept for ingame communication. it feels wrong to not include the fact that everyone has different oppinions and gains fun differently from the game. And thridly, a friend of mine had this amazing idea of making a DnD book to adress the different expectations of a campain and how to even them out. It's not finished, but it turns out to be a magical instrument in session 0 where the players can connect and not only tell the DM what they want to play but exchange that with the other players. I certainly will link the book when it's finnished but let me tell you this before: Talk to one another about how you have fun in a game, and what kills this for you. everyone at the table wants to have fun and i assure you, nobody wants you to not feel this fun when you play with them.
Leliana from dragon age is an interesting take on the bard. Very charismatic and charming - and in her youth she would tell stories and sing, but she was also a person of great faith and a spy by trade. She becomes jaded and bitter and comes to be a ruthless spymaster for the pope allegory lady. She's really interesting.
As the GM of the group, I got a chance to be a player when we did a mini campaign set 200 years prior to the main campaign during a war between two continents. As the main campaign's GM and world builder in a different system, it only seemed natural to me to choose Bard when making my D&D character. I played a non trope storyteller bard who was well traveled throughout the game's world and I wrote poems and short stories to read for inspiration, etc. He was insane at the beginning due to repeated head trauma when he was captured as a spy, but by the 6th of 8 sessions things happened that snapped him back to reality and he actually became the most outwardly somber member of the party. He also wasn't horny either, he had lost the love of his life 20 years prior and still carried the torch for her within his heart. It was when he had a couple encounters with the time weaver and saw his, his beloved's, and a couple NPCs' lives play out in her tapestry that he was snapped back to reality and his personality became more gloomy.
Personally when I think bard, I think Thom Merrilin in the Robert Jordan "Wheel of Time" series. He didn't use magic and wasn't the D&d type bard, but he personifies exactly what I imagine a fantastic bard character to be like. He is wise and experienced, dangerous in surprising and subtle ways, supremely self confident, and is basically the unseen puppet master in any area he happens to be in. While he has his fancy gilded instruments that he carries _everywhere_ it is his ability to tell stories in a way that makes the listeners feel like they are the characters in his stories and are transported into whatever they are listening to. There is obviously no single way to make or play any character type, but while I recognize the usual tropes, I have never just assumed that a bard would be the horny joke type and always imagine creating one more along the lines of Thom.
I’m actually playing a gleeman/bard (College of Eloquence) in a Fourth Age Wheel of Time campaign. He’s a noble who grew up on the stories of the Third Age and wants to be like Thom Merrilin, at least the version he knows from centuries old stories. So much fun to be a gleeman in the wheel of time world!
There is so much to say on this topic and much of it will depend on the campaign world the characters inhabit. What I’m saying here applies to looking at the bard through a more traditional ancient and medieval fantasy lens and how D&D has sought to incorporate this class in the past. For instance, historically, Homer of the Iliad and Odyssey was a bard, a person who was trained from a very young age to preform epic length poetry and tales from memory. Anglo Saxon scops and Norse skalds were bards, and in societies which kept their histories through oral tradition, they were highly respected and essential members of the community. These were the people who would go with kings and princes on expeditions raids to both entertain and compose new ones about the exploits of the royal or noble they are serving. They are among the gatekeepers of tradition in pre-literate societies. There is a documentary, In Search of the Trojan War, I recently re-watched where they went to a remote area of Turkey where there are still preforming Bards. I think that is episode three of the series. First Ed. AD&D tried to reflect this by making a character who wanted to be a bard first be a fighter for at least 5th-8th level, then drop back to first to become a thief 5th-9th level, and then drop to being a first level bard with druid spells not mage spells, so in many ways bards were attached the priesthood and the established order, and would be consulted when it came to issues like the lineage of kings. To be a bard in 1st ed. AD&D, you really had to have a clear character concept in mind before you went through all of those levels to be a bard. In literate societies, many bards lose a good deal of its social influence and standing, and this is where many of the more common schools of thought about bards come into being as the performance aspects of the class come to the foreground. The bard becomes a more specialized performer, who if they are successful, will still be dependent on noble or royal patronage, whether it's a courtly 12th century troubadour, or a member of a circus or an acting troupe in a late medieval context. Actors for instance were seen as an unclean profession, one step away from prostitutes. The notion of the “sexy/horny bard,” might actually be a condition of the power dynamics a bard might find him or herself in. The Borgias with Jeremy Irons showed how performers in acting troupes were at the whim of the courts that employed them. In second ed., the bard goes from being a priest to being a magician, and from a social gate keeper to a performer. The 2nd Ed. Complete Book of Bards has some really interesting character concepts I still use, from the stately Herald and learned member of a Royal Court, to a knife throwing blade, to the romantic troubadour poet, to a circus juggler, or tight rope walking acrobat, to the thespian commanding center stage in the theater of the round, to an opera diva, etc. The possibilities and concepts for a bard are very broad, and lots will depend on the world setting for the kind of bards that would make sense. All of this said, in my experience, most bards I've seen played wind up being back up mages in an adventuring context
My primary character is kind of a different take on the "horny bard" stereotype. He's your typical wise-cracking, smooth-talking performer - and he also happens to be a vampire who wants to eat pretty much every NPC the party runs across. It leads to wonderful shenanigans
My very first character was a bard noble who's a youngest child of an incredibly wealthy family and as a result she spent her teenage years partying so hard that her reputation began throwing shade on her family's name. So she was sent far away to one of her brothers, and nobody took her seriously. Her whole reason for adventuring was to stop being seen as a spoiled child while battling this part of her nature. She fought her desire to screw every hot guy in her way, fell in love and got happily married while subverting expectations of her family and gaining her own lands and wealth through adventuring. The fact that in-game she accidentally killed a person she was trying to save from the cultists while followers of Tiamat were burning her newly-acquired lands, making a statement of her inability to defend them, definitely helped to speedrun that journey xD
My last Bard was a fortune teller, College of Spirits, I even used an Tarot deck, the DM loved me trying to decipher the cards with what was happening.
My bard, Thea, started the campaign as a socially awkward and shy person who only feels confident when she's performing. Her connection to music is so deep that her craft makes her a person she wants to be, this is why her magic is strong. Throughout the game she was getting more confident but it never manifested in seduction and flirting. If anything, she actually might be a virgin. And her charisma comes from genuine kindness and refusal to see anyone as what they're stereotyped to be unless they prove it with their actions. I'm so proud of her and I'm glad I built her based on what I want her to be, not what internet told me she was.
I love how so many of your episodes have an alt-personality, it's so cool how you implement them! also i love how charisma can also be a "very scary appearance" stat. However i find it really hard to use charisma classes as a person of low RL-Charisma
Never played a bard, not because of the horny or silly thing, it's just always been hard for me to be inspired by the class. I'm reeeaaally picky at class selection. But your particular way of explaining how to start a bard REALLY helped me see the potential here. Thanks 😌
I always view charisma as force of personality not necessarily just being charming. My next character once my campaign finishes is a half drow lore bard who is shy and introverted. Sometimes she'll just begin to talk and her mouth will go faster than her brain, or she'll inspire her party by pointing out lore aspects.
My first D&D character was a bard, and I'm so happy I got to make her without knowing about the horny bard joke - she actually ended up being asexual, which was kind of funny because it went straight against the stereotype that I didn't know existed 😄 A huge part of her charisma was that she was not super confident in herself, but had an open, endlessly curious mind and a way to make people feel comfortable around her. She's a character that will always be close to my heart, learning about the world of D&D through her got me falling in love with this game and I grew a lot both as a player and as a person during my time with her. She's still probably my favorite character that I've ever played, it was so much fun! I'll always love my little Zeletha 💛
Same...Honestly, I know Sam played a horny bard on Critical Role, but I didn't realize that it was apparently something that extended beyond that. Would never have thought of my Bard being Horny...and I started in 3rd edition.
I'm currently playing a tiefling satire bard, and so far he's been my favorite character to play. He's very eloquent and can be flirtatious, but it's largely a front for his lack of confidence and fear of abandonment. He's been able to find found family with his group, who have been slowly helping him break down his walls and confront his fears and trauma, helping him gain a new passion for his profession and slowly building a new confidence. It's fun to play around with bards in this way, and he's been a nice way for me to process my own troubles through creativity just like he does.
Saw this in a suggestion after watching Viva La Dirt League vid, and your clear voice, sound advice, and excellent delivery made watching your advice-which I was already well onboard with-really engaging and pleasant. I've now got a queue of more than a dozen of your videos that show up in the suggested column, and it's just growing longer. You're exceptionally skilled at this narrative instruction. Your expressive, inflected, and-moreover-highly insightful & well-put advice, makes watching even your (super creative) sponsoring breaks so entertaining. You are incredible. Thank you for these videos; I'm even willing to let go of my Pathfinder fixation so I can explore D&D 5E (which I've resisted since its arrival). You rock, Ginny Di.
Playing a Changeling Eloquence Bard from Thelanis (Eberron fey and story plane). My arts are writing and acting. I cast my spells like a narrator describing a scene and bringing it into existence. I also rename spells to have a storytelling feel to them. For example, Healing Word becomes "Your story continues". My character was tired of being an extra in someone else's story, so they're trying to write their own story in which they can be the main character and are going on adventures to get inspired. They are also good at espionage, which is relevant for Eberron.
I’m working on a bard who has a low charisma stat. They learned art and bardic spells because that’s how they were raised. Music and stories are ways they find comfort, focus, and connection to their community. I’m really excited to play them.
My current bard is a Grandma who inspires people by telling them how proud of them she is. She also uses cutting words as only a disappointed grandma can. I didn't originally set out to make a grandma, but I love this character!
oh wow that is sweet :)
"tsk tsk..."
1d6 radiant damage!
Honestly, this is the best inspiration for a bard ive seen ever.
omg love it! 😂
you are a genius
I'm not a naturally charismatic person (shy, introverted, lying is hard and I can't sing a note), but I love stories, so when I finally got around to building my first bard, he was an elderly dwarfish librarian who'd read every book in his library a hundred times and knew all the old legends. After his son mysteriously disappeared while adventuring, he decided to seek him out, and in the process, write his own adventure down in a book, which may one day sit in someone else's library and be read by other bards. His bardic inspiration mainly comes down to him quoting famous heroes and encouraging his allies not to give up.
You're definitely doing D&D right. That's what it's all about.
Bardo Baggins
I would love to play alongside that character
I made a very similar character. I think people underestimate how much charisma can come from a shy but sweet old bard character. I remember one player in my group was an incredibly bubbly person, and she was trying to play a hardened badass character and kept having to break character to say how bad she felt giving my character the cold shoulder. It's super fun to have a character that everyone loves so much.
DnD as intended
bards have so much potential man. I once played an elf bard that grew up amongst humans so when she noticed her mentors and friends grow old and realized that she will outlive generations of humans she concluded that gathering their stories and pass them on was a way to keep their memory and help them live as long as she would. So let no one tell you bards are a silly class, the sillyness comes not from your class but only from your bard getting hit with silence-effects at the most inopportune moments lmao.
@@theuncalledfor I mean that's great lmao, my bard tho was (pathfinder 1e) very much reliant on verbal performances, I dont recall any somatic only spells she had that weren't reactions to being hit and most importantly she was a soundbreaker bard, meaning she could attack with sonic-based attacks (think like high-pitched singers breaking glass etc) so every time she got hit with silence it was time to bust out the old reliable rapier and hope that she could atleast help the paladin flank lmao.
@@theuncalledfor well in high level 3.5/pathfinder bards (though not full casters) were still reliant on their spells and performances, you do not ever want to enter melee combat ever unless you are a d10+ hit die martial class or a striker like the rogue or monk. Bards were skill monkeys, face characters and support casters for the most part - silence shuts down most if not all of their combat utilty.
And yeah the video was about stereotypes in general, so it's pretty system agnostic :D
that is such a heartwarming idea. Really creative.
Some of my favorite occupational twists on the bard:
- Bartender
- Comedian
- Symphony conductor ("Bardthoven," followed around by a phantasmal orchestra)
- A doctor (that one was kinda weird)
- Con artist
- Don Draper style marketing hotshot
- Fighter-bard multiclass who was a pirate who sang sea shanties while bludgeoning people with an enchanted oar
- Edit: I forgot about the Twitch-streamer bard in a Starfinder game some years back
A few of those are already covered by the rogue, Fighter/Bard Pirate is covered by a Rogue Swashbuckler Con Artist is the rogues shtick in general and so on.
I had one bard with Chef feat, proficiency with cooking utensils, and expertise on said tools. His chosen art was cake decorating!
@@ColonelBragg I think a point you're missing is that no class should be so pigeonholed that there's only way to play them (as the video shows) - and if you have an idea for an archetype (pirate), you shouldn't feel constrained to only one class. To you, a swashbuckler should be Rogue because ... well ... it's already in the rules book. But a fighter or bard being a pirate makes complete sense to me as well.
The first D&D campaign I was ever in was a seafaring, island-hopping adventure. Only two of us were technically "pirates" at the start of the campaign, but by the end, we basically all were. And we had a Rogue (Inquisitive subclass Sea-Elf) - but also a Druid (a Water Genasi who was good at swimming and talking to fish), a Fighter (good for sword fighting), a Warlock (who was tied to a deep sea deity), and a Cleric (of the moon ... and tides). We all made our characters knowing we were going into a "Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker" style campaign and planned accordingly. It would have been rather boring if we were all just Swashbuckler Rogues.
Bardtoven!! Love it.
very hilarious xD
The last bard in my group was a drill sergeant. His inspiring abilities came from him insulting you, challenging you, and getting you fired up for action. It was amazing.
So basically a commisar? ;)
Haha I love that, amazing.
Gunnery Sargeant baRd Lee Ermey? :-)
:,(
@@Vektordeformacio Except with less field executions, I presume.
My main bard is based on Orpheus
He lost the love of his life, and was so haunted by his failure that his spouse manifests as ghost who haunts him, literally making the air around him gloomy. He sings mostly durges and laments, but when he gets really into it and remembers his passion for music his spouse joins him in a duet
This sounds wholesome and heartbreaking at the same time
College of Tragedy!!!
Holy smoke, someone else use opheus myth (although I play orpheus as a cleric). Currently on a quest to get my love back to me from the dead.
I love it. I would take the opportunity whenever possible to re-flavor his spells as song/poems so mournful they make the very ground heave with sobs (Earth Tremor). Most Enchantment-school spells could easily be mechanically the same but described as inducing intense melancholy instead of Hideous Laughter or Dissonant Whispers.
One of my favorite characters was a bard/warlock who would steal people’s souls, for their patron then use soul energy to put on magical plays about how their battle skills were
As great as you cosplay is, your ability to shapeshift into almost a totally different person with a pair of glasses and a demeanor is some impressive, and understated, acting
A bard who gained even more renown after their newsletter about their adventures found their way to people, and thus a subscription service to the newsletter was a good source of income. After one adventure led slightly awry and they were left with the curse of lycanthropy, their new slogan "Don't forget to Lycan subscribe" became very memorable.
One of the character ideas I want to stat out is a sports announcer bard, who casts spells by narrating their target's actions like a radio sports announcer.
this is AMAZING
That's the spirit!
my idea has been a William Shatner style Spoken Word bard. But have not found the right campaign for them yet.
Im writing one up in a little project im working on, they use a magical microphone to project their voices over the battlefield and can help or hinder characters theyre actively commentating on, really awesome support flavour! I always inagine a 1920s radio voice like in Korra
@@FluffieXStarshine She packed her bag
Last night
Preflight.
So a friend of mine made a Math teacher bard. She would inspire us by complimenting us like a teacher would and her vicious mockery were chastising and math problems.
Also steel my heart is an amazing book title.
That's an amazing character idea
*Kills enemy with vicious mockery*
Bard: F
Party: To pay respects?
Bard: No, that's his grade
I played a PE teacher Bard for a one shot once, a lot of "way to keep your heart rate up!" "gold star!" type of encouragement. It was so fun!
My asexual college of swords bard appreciates this kind of bard media! ⚔️
Ow! I made a bard teacher too! She's more of a field reasearcher, but she's actually a history teacher and her goal is to compile tomes to further enrich her academy's library. Very austere though, not the encouraging type at all. More of the intimidating into compliance sort. XD
Two of my favorite so far
An actual disney princess conjuring animals with their voice, not knowing of their heritage they traveled the world looking for their one true love.
A psycotic manipulative evil bard which power was to gaslight the world into narrating what "actually happened" to cast spells
Needless to say, there is a lot of room to work with XD
I multiclassed a Pally with 1 level of Bard. The idea was he'd be like that annoying youth pastor, spreading the good word of his deity.
I don't think I've pulled off the execution very well, he's more of a Pally that can give bardic inspiration but I don't think I've given up on the concept yet.
@opiemurray the problem is that bards aren't annoying if they're effective bards. Charisma means you know how to handle people.
I’ve been wanting to play a fitness trainer bard - think Richard Simmons. His performance is demonstrating proper form and aerobics. He inspires people by leading meditation, leading breathing techniques, and encouraging self esteem. He likes to play the party’s therapist and get them to “tell their stories” and be their “best selves.”
Bardic Richard Simmons would be hilarious, omg.
LOL I hope you have the right group for this, cause it would drive me up the wall -- but go forth and inspire!
my bard is exactly like this, he's a yoga instructor and guides meditations with the party to help them grow hahahaha it's actually pretty helpful! he helped the druid reconnect with his druid circle for instance. and with his noble background, he gives hot yoga classes to the kings we meet on the way!
Leliana from Dragon Age is one of my favorite examples of a bard. Her backstory story and character arc throughout the game series is so compelling. She definitely breaks the mold of the bard stereotype and I took a lot of inspiration from her when making my own bard for D&D
On the surface Leiliana is the most stereotypical bard, who plays the lute and has a fair bit of horniness in what you see from the beginning. Then there is te cool subplot of *spoiler* being trained as an assasin thats unfurls ass you get to know her. Sounds like a great inspiration to play a bard or an assasin rouge with expertise in deception.
I love Leliana! Dragon Age: Origins is one of the few video games i played as a teen and i think really set up the framework for my love of DND as an adult :)
On a similar note, I think Varic is a great example too. A storyteller by heart who everyone loves, but is actually unromancable as his heart belongs to someone else.
College of Whispers, @@Tvillingklippan; no questions asked!
@@Tvillingklippan Not just an assassin but a spy as well.
My bard is actually a therapist and all of her bard stuff is actually like therapy things. Her bardic inspiration is giving the other players positive motivation, and for her vicious mockery she yells the enemy has poor coping skills. I also gave her inspiring leader and she has the party do guided meditation or other relaxation techniques to get their temporary hitpoints.
Should probably throw in some quip about childhood trauma and blame it on their parents. That's what my psychologist tried to do.
I rolled a successful save and told her she was wrong. She tried it again but I'm already buffed against that attack.
Antonio Demico (known in RUclips and Twitter as Pointy Hat) got me hooked into playing a bard, especially one who's academically inclined as shown in one of his examples. Honestly, his DnD With A Twist series are great sources of inspiration for spicing up classes, monsters, and races in your games and I couldn't recommend it enough.
Bard at our table is SO amazing! He is a centaur war veteran, raising a young human mage to be a good man and a fighter. He is being played by my female friend, and boy is she charismatic. If needed, she fights with two axes, but mostly she inspires us with her words. She uses very intricate language to sound like a very pompous and eloquent medieval person. But also she uses so much flattery! And I love how her class is being roleplayed.
We had an amazing session few weeks ago, where we suddenly got sucked into another dimension and couldn't get out, so we needed local higher ups help. They wanted to know who we are and where are we from, so our bard went on a 10 minute rant, retelling all the events of our previous sessions, and she managed that on a day when she kinda lost her voice. I wasnt even sure she was breathing. We almost passed out from laughter. It was so in character, cause her centaur was pissed by how everyone is stupid and there is no discipline. It was briliant. She is funny, but she can also is very serious and threatning, when anyone harms her protege. At the same session she almost killed our warlock, cause he accidentally almost killed her protege.
So to me bard is a wonderful class with a great variety, and we love having one at our table.
that's amazing, I love when people really get into character
A friend who is, in my opinion, destined for Broadway, wanted to play a Bard in our campaign because she was new to the game and didn’t want to have to worry about difficult roleplay and learning the rules at the same time. Her bard is a High Elf of the Noble background who left her home kingdom to be with her Half-Elf violinist girlfriend. I was quite blown away that her entire motivation for adventuring was to make a life with her girlfiend. When she was picking her art form, she asked me “What’s the least High-Elf instrument I can take proficiency in?” And we settled on the bagpipes. So now, all our party’s healing is in the form of ‘Green hills of Tyrol’, and it’s GLORIOUS!
Have her look up "Lords Of Iron" by Antti Martikainen (the super gorgeous video is right here on RUclips, and the song is like 9 minutes long but well worth the time). Might be good mood music for your campaign, or at least inspiration for her character.
"Look at that gorgeous elf taking the stage! I wonder what she'll play?" *Whirling up bagpipe drone*
I ALWAYS take the worst instruments as a running gag - Bagpipes are a good regular, the saw is quite fun, the nose flute is another classic and of course the didgeridoo.
Wasn't a bard... But I played an Artificer who was proficient with the cowbells. The little different sized ones you put on a table and ring. 🔔
@@iggysdinners7092 Following that same line of thought, I once had a bard character in a joke campaign, whose adventuring instrument was a Hardart (IRL, a musical instrument invented in the early 1960s by Peter Schickele and Philip Glass, which was made out of one entire wall of a 50s-era diner). DM agreed to let me have him be able to carry it around easily as though it weighed nothing and were small enough to actually fit through dungeon corridors, and he was endlessly confused at why other people seemed to think he had some sort of magical secret that let him do so, because he wasn't smart enough to understand why they'd expect it to be hard to lift or maneuver, when he'd never found it to be such.
My Bard PC is a changeling that was raised among elves and faced a mild existential crisis as he grew up and realized that his lifespan was miles shorter than all of his peers - reaching adulthood for his species where any elf would barely be considered more than an infant in comparison. He sought music as a way to try and leave an impact on society that would be able to outlive him and find purpose for himself in that. He's a wonderful little ball of emotions who just wants to be helpful to those he meets and leave smiles behind wherever he performs.
Oh my goodness, I have a character who is very similar! She's an air genasi Bladesinger born to famous elven adventurer parents. Her focus is more on academia and swordplay than dance and music, but she does those too, and is super ambitious. She has a similar goal, going down in history to make up for her shortened lifespan. She's not a bundle of sunshine though: cunning, sassy, somewhat arrogant, and true neutral.
Dorian Storm is my favorite bard I've seen played. A socially awkward bard who is charming in his humility yet who is super competent and impressive when people aren't watching is really fun.
Ginny: "Bards don't have to be silly or horny."
Scanlan: "And I took that personally."
That's right where my mind went too. Sam was _so_ awful in Campaign 1! His first character was an over-the-top caricature of every bad bard stereotype ever, and when Matt finally tried to force some character development on him, he decided to take his ball and go home, replacing obnoxious troll character Scanlan with even more obnoxious troll character Taryon.
Thankfully he's gotten a lot better in the later campaigns, but _wow_ was he ever painful in Vox Machina!
@@masonwheeler6536 you understand that your opinion is really unpopular and most people do not agree with that take, specifically finding Scanlan to be one of the more enjoyable characters.
Scanlan had a fuck ton of character development and Tarry was not a troll character.
@masonwheeler6536 I'm sorry but you need to watch more than one episode before talking character development. Scanlan had some of the earliest development, from believing that nobody truly cared for him, to realizing how much his absence actually hurt his friends (especially Grog) to realizing that the love he seeked should've been the love of his daughter whom he had forgotten about, there was a lot going on with that character.
@@underthependulum3484 I went through the entire series. And what I saw was that when Matt got sick enough of Sam's antics that he tried to finally push some character development on Scanlan, Sam chose instead to take his ball and go home. And then he replaced Scanlan with someone even more obnoxious purely out of spite. He did _eventually_ come around, but the whole thing left a very, very bad taste in the mouths of a lot of fans.
@@masonwheeler6536 Yeah, I highly doubt it left as bad a taste in fans' mouth as you're making it out to be. The amount of fans I've seen who disliked Taryon are in the single digits. And Scanlan leaving the party, while many were sad for him to go, nobody from what I've seen disliked the decision. Along with that, saying that Sam left out of spite due to character development being pushed on him is absurd. Sam had Scanlan stick around with the party even after finding out about Kaylie for nearly 50 more sessions. And he was more than willing to roleplay serious moments for Scanlan
I’m playing a lawyer bard for an upcoming Pathfinder campaign, and I’m really proud of the concept. He’s a goblin with a poor upbringing, so he knows basically nothing about the legal system, but through incredible adherence to justice, highly persuasive manner and sheer dumb luck he’s super good at it. My DM and I are really into Ace Attorney, so I’m highly anticipating some insane legal shenanigans and turnabouts
Objection!
I love this so much
Somehow the character reminds me of Saul Goodman, the idea seems great!
I LOVE THIS 😂 who’s is miles…oh no the green miles 😰
My favorite bard from film is Paul Bettany's character Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale (2001). As both public orator and close friend everything he says is quite sincere and moving. Also he forges documents and has a gambling problem. What a fun character.
I dropped Paul Bettany's Chaucer into my campaign as a random person you could meet while traveling. They did help him to a town but after one insulted him he's vowed to 'eviscerate him in fiction'. I'm just waiting for the perfect opportunity for it to happen, likely when they only half remember meeting him.
As they get levels and become more socially important, have him spread rumors about them.
His intro hype speeches for "Sir William" were works of genius.
Bard is my favorite class too! I started playing it before I'd seen any of the memes, and I'm glad because they really would've put me off. I play a half-deaf, animal-loving College of Spirits bard who is a writer and started seeing the ghosts of his friends after a traumatic event. He has a (seemingly) upbeat, witty personality, and helps others because he doesn't want anyone to go through what he went through, and he tends to accidentally trap ghosts in his magic book.
I played a Tabaxi College of Whispers Bard who used Tarot cards instead of instruments. She was part of a circus that was a front for a secret organization and joined the party because she had a premonition that something important was going to happen with them at the centre. She also really loved making new friends and eventually multiclassed as an Archfey Warlock after travelling awhile with a pixie and forming a deep connection to the Feywild. She's definitely one of my favourite characters that I've played.
I had a bard named Torynth the Tall who was only 5'2". He gained his moniker by acting with a troupe of halfling actors who always typecast him as the giant. He began adventuring in order to write a script that truly showcased his talent as an actor, so he became the group's scribe writing up the last week's adventure in verse and presenting himself as the hero of every conflict. The group did not stay together long, but it was a fun schtick for what was otherwise a fairly straight forward dungeon exploration game.
Oh that is both funny and cute!
Makes me think of a carnival that showcases the "Shortest Giant".😁
My dream bard is a Tiefling who loves to tell scary stories, who dresses all in black and uses her natural Thaumaturgy cantrip to change the color of the fire in the room she is telling stories in for mood lighting. She tells tales of curses, monsters, the downfall of evil rulers and sings murder ballads. In battle, she uses spells that frighten opponents, demoralizes them or creates illusions of ghosts coming to get them. I just love the idea of being the Gothic Bard, a cross between Edgar Allen Poe and Siouxsie Sioux.
That's the way to have fun in D&D, good for you!
This sounds dope. The College of Spirits Bard in Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft sounds perfect for it too.
Make this character as soon as possible. It's too awesome an idea not to actually do.
Now that has to be my next character.
Until I went online, I had never heard about the cliché bard.
My first bard recited poetry instead of singing and she lived a very sheltered life before being throw into an adventure. The DM wanted to start us all at 10th level and so all our characters first met after being kidnapped by a lich. She was a gloura and from what I read about the underdark fairy race, no one bothered them, so that let me give her a happy childhood. I was was going opposite to the cliché: whole village destroyed/tortured backstory.
My next bard loves jokes and so that is how she fights: sharp barbs and playful encouragement.
Originally, poetry was recited to a background tune. Thus, Homer "sang" the Iliad, not recited without music.
My first big "bard" that completely broke the mold was a valor bard. He was a grizzled war veteran who had seen "a little of everything" over the course of his travels during his campaigns. The spells he used, despite being done as a "caster" were flavored as spells he'd seen done by other mages. The bardic inspiration was flavored as tactical advice, healing spells as battle medicine, healing word was even literally "Get up, I know you've still got some gas left in you!" etc.
My Bard was a military strategist and tactician. He didn't play songs so much as tell war stories to inspire. He used Glamour bard skills to reposition allies on the battle field, and had a few levels of battlemaster fighter so he could order other people with more power to attack in his place. He was a super dignified, thoughtful, larger-than-life halfling general.
I was just thinking how a bard in a pike-square would be incredibly useful. Drummers to communicate orders long distance and weave spells to protect and boost the square.
I miss the Warlord class.
I had a Valor Bard who was a Commissar. He was a blast. (Literally, when he was dropping Shatter on people.)
>Larger-than-life
>halfling
I love this character
That's metal as hell
I was helping my friend build a character for a "Strictly Ballroom"-inspired campaign. His character was a competitive ballroom dancer, and instead of making her a bard (like we initially assumed), we made her a barbarian, and it was the best decision. Her "rage" was when she was in the zone dancing, and it fit her much better than a bard would have.
that actually fits to the D&D v1.0 barbarian shaman that had a dance that would influence the party and encounters.
I'm likely showing my age, but as I started reading your last sentence "Maniac" from Flashdance started playing in my head. :-)
@@warrenmadden2586 She's a maniac, maaannniiiaaac in her rage / While she's dancing she will throw you 'cross the stage
My favorite Bard that I've played was a Kitsune named Yoko. She was a princess who used both her pan flute and gentle words to inspire and bolster her allies... and also stop the party from killing both each other and everything around them. One Bard type I wanna play is a Bard who's a commander. Someone who barks orders and rallies their comrades on the front lines of the battlefield.
I love playing bards as the strong silent type. Quiet until he has something to contribute to the conversation that leaves a strong impression on everyone and commands the room. Someone who hardly ever speaks, but when he does everyone listens, they can't help themselves.
I love putting dark twists on the bard: Funeral performers/dirgesingers, zealots who violently defend/protect the arts, or researchers seeking the note that started the universe (and hoping to sing a new one into existence).
don't mind me taking some of these for use at some point
@@muhammedtahir786 Use them in good health, friend!
This video is fantastic, but can I just say I adore Temper and "Steel My Heart" as a book title? Because I adore both her and the pun.
I totally want Ginny to actually write it. I'd read it and love it, I'm pretty sure of __that__.
Temper is the literal best name for a blacksmith
@@majorzipf8947 Especially for blacksmith Bard.
@@Alche_mist Seconded. If Ginny actually wrote this book I'd definitely read it. And considering how many different talents she has I wouldn't be surprised if that's in her skillset.
A great example of a bard is from the 1985 Disney film “The Black Cauldron”. The character Fflewddur is indeed a bard and he has a magical harp. That tiny side note character to me was a great example of a bard. He was struggling but it got the point across and it was well done in my opinion.
He has a slightly bigger role in the books and is way cooler.
My last bard was a good-natured heroic himbo with a romantic streak - not horny, romantic! He actually ended up being in the only romance subplot in any of our group's games so far, and it was kept very PG and sweet, which is how to make it not weird for everyone else around you 😆
my first ever character was a teenage dragonborn bard named Mikira. Everone joked that her name sounded like Shakira and so i associated her a bit with dance as well as her lyre. she holds such a deep place in my heart. Now i am remaking her to be an older mother figure who sings folk songs along with her traditional drum set
I have a Tiefling Eloquence Bard who really leans into the deal with the devil thing. His art isn't so much about song, dance, or drawing. It's more an art of manipulation, finding out what exactly people want and stoking that fire until they would do anything to get it. Making sure that he and his party always get the better end of a bargain and making sure those who made a deal with him get EXACTLY what was written on the contract.
He's easily the scariest fucking character I've ever played.
I am now picturing your character as Tom Ellis from the show "Lucifer", complete with a posh British accent.
When my regular DM gets to play in a game one of the rest of us runs, he usually plays a tiefling bard named Prince who is such a consummate manipulator that it makes me genuinely afraid of the man in real life
So your character is an attractive lawyer? Okay.
I'm making a warlock that has a pact with your Bard
I had just finished taking a latin class when I was creating my bard, so he ended up being a historian who was traveling the world looking for content to write his next epic. A poet and reciter rather than a singer and I had so much fun with him!
In Old School Essentials I currently play a Bard which is proficient with a bow and was a former soldier, but now he is a relatively famous theater actor, with exciting trick-shots, who carries his signature role into the real world. An almighty anti-hero that did everything, at least if you believe his epic tales. He once organised and wrote a play with the party as actors to defeat an art obsessed demon.
Jest character I have ever played, I love him so much! Bard rules!! I will definitely play another one.
I played a kenku ventriloquist bard. I decided that the ventriloquist doll was cursed and started taking levels in warlock too. Wicked fun to play.
I'm gonna have to unashamedly steal this character idea, I'm sorry 😅
Me too, I just stole this!
Please tell me your DM let you use the dummy as your spellcasting focus, that would been a lot of fun to describe.
@@asheronwindspear552 They did and I did and it was. Most of my spells were shitty one liners that I would look up long lists of. My warlock patron made me rip out an eye and add it to the doll also the hand controling it began to get black and shrivled. If I ever DM my #BirdBard is going to be the big bad.
I love that I chose to make my first character a Bard, and I didn't really know what I was getting into - I just wanted to play epic music while casting lightning bolt because she just put so much confidence and effort into the music that magic happens
One of my favorite styles or concepts for a Bard is Skald, or a warrior poet. The type of character that will regale crowds of people at a tavern with the exploits of their home heroes, or of the party's own deeds.
I picture the way he inspires through words of encouragement, uplifting their spirits, or becoming a rallying point for his party by blowing war horn. Perfomative and thematic, but noble in concept
My bard was basically a shell shocked soilder who seen his brother die in front of him. He use music to calm his soul, but he was really introverted, but when it came to bettles he was the one that everyone relied on due to his soilder background. He was a leader in the battlefield, but he would usually let the paladin and rouge do more of the talking, but when a brawl was coming up he would lead the group.
ROGUE, not powder you put on your face.
I love this so much! Our bard, who is a first time player, is a quiet, socially awkward prankster... and a literal Troll. He makes a great effort to use non-combat spells to deal with combat situations to solve the situation without hurting anyone. The creativity is AMAZING!
I think Ahmad ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas) from 13th Warrior is one of the most interesting "bards" in cinema. Arguably, as an ambassador, he get's his power from making connections with other people and learning what motivates them. I could have easily seen him starting the "Lo there do I see my father" speech at the end of the film as the ultimate act of connection and inspiration.
Havent seen that movie in a while, one of the more creative movies i must say
He is the 13th warrior not the 13th bard, but whatevs...
damn I haven't seen this in forever, I got it on VHS around here somewhere
Outstanding, Ginny! Just wanted point out that the word "music" comes from the classical Greek muses, who represented ALL the arts - including dance, poetry, drama, comedy, and oratory or rhetoric. I actually made a bard - thanks to your suggestions here - who is a priestess of Eilistraee who grew up as a temple performer, while living with exiled parents in the Upperdark. She is an expert dancer & acrobat, and, as an artist, her perception is expert, as well. She simply uses body motions & vocalizations to cast her spells. She also uses a drum or a bell to cast certain spells, and she plays a noisy double reed instrument, too, but she only has basic proficiency. Having the sage/scholar background (working under her parents), oratory, rhetoric, and poetry are also a part of her spellcasting focus. She enjoys making up short rhymes as her verbal component to embody each unique circumstance in which she casts a spell. Thank you for nudging me to do it!
Honestly one of my characters that i enjoyed the most was a Bard/Monk, he was convinced that everyone had goodness in their souls in some shape or form, and travel the world to understand the human heart. He was specialized in illusion magic, that he conjured using a bell on his staff while performing martial moves with it.
He was positive, inocent and very naive person, with led him to all sort of situations. He was defo one of my most beloved characters.
I once made a bard who was a firedancer and she told her stories dramatically with minor illusion fire, and prestidigitation fire. I loved her so much and really want to play her again!
I made one bard I’m the most proud of: Tulip.
He is a skeleton who, upon rising from the ground and realizing that he didn’t remember anything, clings to the one source of identity in his otherwise unmarked grave: a simple wooden plank with the name Tulip carved into it. He wandered about for ages, picked up an abandoned Sun dress, and continued his search for meaning. He is a glamour bard who, despite being a skeleton, has a supernatural charm.
whoa, my son has a bard named Lotus, who is a warforged in the shape of a skeleton!
He uses a conductor's wand as his focus, instead of an instrument, and plans to open a casino when he retires.
I definitely thought you were going to say he plays his ribs like a xylophone.
Please forgive me, but I cant resist making that stupid joke
He is literally a... Boner bard
The 2nd Edition Bard's Handbook is one of my favorite source books of all time. It has widely varying inspirations on different takes and approaches for a bard. If you can get your hands on a copy it's a great jumping off point to the very things Ginny is talking about. There is so much fertile ground in the Bard if you look for it.
Some of my favorite examples are:
The Blade, who is skilled in fantastic displays of whirling, juggling, and spinning weapons, so much that they can intimidate foes that they are a greater threat than the more dangerous Fighter in their group.
The Loremaster is compelled to hunt for lost and arcane lore, an adventuring scholar with a deep knowledge of obscure information, ancient societies, and little known legends.
The Dwarven Chanter, who specializes in deep percussion and rhythmic chants that are used to make hard tasks like mining, smithing, extended marching or even battle easier and give great endurance to all that hear them.
There are a bunch of other ideas, and they all contribute to a wide range of inspiration for other ways to play such a versatile class.
We had a bard play a mime and it was epic. Literally didn't say a word in or out of character, conveying everything through gestures.
I've really been wanting to play a Bard that isn't even a musician for a while now. But i haven't had the courage because I was afraid my group was still gonna make jokes about my character being "weird" just because it's not what they expect.
I feel more motivated now thanks to this video❤️
I'm currently playing a fairy bard from the college of eloquence. She grew up in the Seelie court and learned the power that lies in diplomacy and speech from Titania herself. Her true passion however lies in drawing and at some point she discovered, that she could bring some aspects of her paintings to life by using the fairy dust from her wings as pigment. So, her spell focus is a brush made from her own hair and she casts by drawing pictures into the air. I really love that character and no one has had any complaints about her.
@@XMaster340 That's awesome~
@@XMaster340 My Bard idea wasn't even an artist. He's more similar to a wizard, but he's learned all his magic through Oral Practice. His spells are being cast by speaking words and verses from a magical language (Much like when Gandalf was speaking the Dark Tongue of Mordor).
My Bard is an entertainer. Sure he can play instruments and carries lute, as that is the easy thing to do, but he is also master of card tricks (to a point where many of my spell effects are just reskins of him using his "enchanted" card deck to do magic). He's a war veteran who had innate magic and good skillset and was part of few spec ops operations, but after the war decided that he had seen enough suffering of the common folk and decided to just wander, see the world and people and try to leave every person a better, or at least happier than he found them.
Of course he had to run into this bunch of muppets trying to save the world. Or something. Not sure.
@@CutePoisonEU That's freaking great😂
My friend new to DnD had me help her make her first character and she chose Bard. I helped her understand the bard mechanics and pick spells. She made her bard a "lazy" food obsessed musician. She never really went out of her way to engage in a fight but she was very skilled in use of Polymorph and Bigbys Big Hand (bear claw). She was a clutch member of the group and she had a blast being, in her words, a tourist at Disney/ren fair with her turkey legs
Edit: she even got a statue of her riding her bearclaw as it crushed a Boneclaw. She was a fun bard.
My most favorite bard was a goblin motivational speaker. His bardic inspiration took the form of motivational quotes. His vicious mockery were demotivational quotes. My favorite attack was using Dissonant whispers where the target heard all of the negative things that had ever been said to them or they thought about themselves, with Fury of the Small added in for extra salt if he felt like it. If we had gotten far enough he would have used suggestion and mass suggestion to get guards or enemies to do team building exercises.
All the bards I've played with are absolutely scary. There are three major bards in my d&d lifetime. A bard who almost never spoke and danced instead, he had some warlock cultist vibes and eventually took 2 warlock levels later in the campaign. He started a cult, and at the end of the campaign left into the underdark looking for new opportunities.
Second one's a college of Eloquence bard who was sort of our party leader in our second campaign. Our Necromancer/fighter was the smart guy, our tanky halfling druid was the big guy, I, a rogue/monk was the lancer, the kid we adopted was the heart and he was the protagonist. He never showed any romantic interest, and instead played 'the great game', which is the name of one of our world's poltical system. He grew a resentment for nobles, mostly because of his father and kind of invented communism together with a rogue mastermind that I made in a short campaign before our current big one. He started a revolution and him and my monk helped eachother to gain controll over their countries of origin.
The third one I don't know much about. She's more into the horny stereotype, but has a funny dynamic with her wizard half sister, with her being the serious one.
My favorite bard character I've made is a Tiefling named Hope. She first learned violin from a minstrel that stopped at the tavern her mother worked in and she was inspired how the otherwise worn and weary patrons of the tavern's spirits were lifted by his music and stories. Her motivation for adventuring is twofold: to spread the hope and joy she saw that day, and to find that minstrel to thank him for the inspiration
One of my favorite ways to play bards is as a storyteller. I have a lot of nostalgia around traveling storytellers from them coming to school when I was a kid, but it's also a really common thing historically for someone to travel as a storyteller and entertain the village children with tales of heroism by day and the adults in the tavern with bawdy exaggerations by night. So many folk stories we have were preserved not by being written but by being collected and spread by these storytellers over the course of generations, and I love the idea of a character who travels collecting stories both of their own life and of those they encounter along the way, building a cannon of fables that will long outlast the bard themself.
In the last campaign with my wife she played a elderly gnome bard in search of the killers of her granddaughter. Her Character was a cold and gloomy. Her bardic performance was neither through song or dance - she channeled her powers by foul mouthed cursing
I just started playing a bard and I already love her. She comes from a tribe of travelling entertainers whose whole life revolves around music. They dance to perform their music ala riverdance or flamenco, weaving in fire imagery due to their tiefling origin. Mine is pretty much the product of her culture, living for the dance, but ran away in order to prove that her grandmother's stories about their family having a dragon guardian were true. The only thing she knows about it however was that the dragon left a scaled ornament for them and that they liked the dance her ancestor performed. It's comedic since she basically will step in front of a white dragon and dance just in case they were the ones to visit her family, but the motivation itself is still noble and she desperately wants to return.
One bard character I really enjoyed was a Dwarven bard. He was a clan loremaster in training. Part of being a loremaster involved advising the clan rulers and passing down the clan history in annual festivals. And, most notably, leading the naming ceremony (names being traditionally given by an elder). With all of this, he was adventuring to establish his own personal authority in the world to bring back to his clan before ascending to be full loremaster.
My bard is actually a soldier. She doesn't sing, she is an expert in communication and strategies, she inspires by controlling the battlefield, telling her allies about their advantages and the enemies weaknesses.
In our RNG game, I play a hobgoblin bard that was a soldier. Very different style of play than the common trope.
Yeah it's pretty easy to make a Bard into a military leader because of the whole buffing other characters thing, it makes it easy to flavor them as a "squad leader".
Ive been creating a few characters and 1 is an elf bard who just chooses to hang out with his party. He isn't too large in music but will play a guitar if it'll help the members calm down or to lure them to sleep. His way of story telling is through dance or music as he doesn't like speaking much. He enjoys listening to others and gets excited with new info while also being incredibly protective of his party members. That doesnt stop him from trusting people like they are his family, just he hears and sees more than some of his other members who may or may not have heightened senses. There are 9 other members which he will protect for the rest of his life.
Ginny, you've made my day with this video! The best bard I have ever played was Jarred, the balding tavern-keeper in his 50's with an ex-soldier background, with loose ties to the local criminal gangs. Since his magic was based on "music or oration", I've choosen the latter and made him act like a stand-up comedian, entertaining the folks at his tavern every evening, but also to weave magic in his witty words creating spells like "Tasha's Hideous Laughter" to throw out drunken people when they ended up prone on the spells effect. As a College of Lore bard I gave inspiration by telling the party the adequate stories of my former (soldier) carrier, and provided them the suiting poems or fairy tales as the Song of The Rest.
Ginny, I just wanted to say thank you so much! Thank you for making this video, and for putting so much time, effort, thought and care into it! Thank you for opening my mind to the broader possibilities of what the Bard class could be, other than just "stereotypical horny Bard". I personally had a very low opinion of Bards as a class before I watched your video, mostly due to the "stereotypical horny Bard" trope. However your video got me to re-think all of the creative possibilities that this class could be. I will definitely be sending this video to my DM, and keeping Bard in mind when I am building my next character for an upcoming campaign!
This makes me SO happy to hear!! Thank you for listening!
This video came at the right time.
Yesterday, me and my friends were creating our characters for our new campaign, and I created a bard that doesn't sing (they are a tales writer) and aren't physically attractive. All the table made fun of my character and acted like I was going to play a bard the wrong way.
But this video gave me a little bit of confidence to play them the way a wanted... thank you!❤️
I've got several bard characters, but my favourite (whom I've been playing 3+ years) is Adelaide.
Her concept was a mix of snow white, esmerelda, and typical fairytale princesses.
She's a bard-druid multiclass, so she does the typical thing of singing a pretty tune and having all kinds of birds and forest animals flocking to her because of it. It's also been a swarm of rats on occasion. She also talks to animals (circle of the shepherd) and sings to summon them to combat. Basically like that scene in Schrek the Third with snow white and the ents guarding the gate. 😆
She also uses dance to fuel her ritual spells and often performs to earn money or befriend npcs. She's the mom-friend of the group but also very much a goody-two-shoes and her good heart leads her to be too trusting sometimes.
As a nod to the stereotype of horny bards that she very much does not embody, I made this her backstory:
She was born to a travelling bard troupe, and her mom was the stereotypical flirty bard who got pregnant by a certain elven scholar who loved her performances every time they passed through his city. She worships Liira (goddess of dance, festivals and joy) and Sune (goddess of love, beauty and passion) and believes deeply in true love. Part of her story arc was saving her boyfriend from the feywild, where he was sent by a friend who betrayed them.
She's an absolute joy to play and the two classes she's got fit her perfectly, even though neither are played in their typical way.
For me, the bard's greatest show was the Red Mage from Final Fantasy. It was intended to be the bard, and he was great.
my next character is a halfling college of lore bard, who’s in the process of getting her phd in anthropology; she’s writing her dissertation on alternative methods of documenting and discussing history. i based her character around the theme of memory- of collecting, telling, and chronicling stories and experiences so that nobody is ever forgotten. she uses stories and folklore that she’s collected and learned from people to inspire and influence others. she is also not a horny bard- just a lover of love!
My fave bard I've seen is a friends bard who just....didn't have performance.
Just didn't have it.
It was 3.5, and her whole shtick was just "I'm the Pretender"
Very Charisma for spells and persuade, but high Int and Wis for other skills, and very high Dex
Absolute wet noodle elsewise, but can do nearly anything.
My first Bard was a multi-class that didn't pick up Bard until level 3. So... I had him never touch a musical instrument before! And he was on a quest to learn formal music skills once he figured out he had magic based around music.
@@kin2naruto Our current bard uses a wooden whistle as his "musical instrument" spell focus.
A traveling druid carved it, and we bought it for the price of a lunch for the druid.
What's cool is that the whistle can leave both of his hands free if he doesn't need to talk.
My favorite bard I played was essentially a Gilderoy Lockheart type. He was an adventure novelist who wrote stories of his many great adventures even though he'd never been on one. Even though he had low strength, he'd carry around a Longshore that he'd constantly cast light on so he could claim it was a legendary magic sword
My first bard was build from a newly adult halfling who started as a rogue but wanted to be sure everyone knew the story of her found family. She didn't really understand sex at first and once she did she made a couple jokes here and there but literally got out of scaps by talking her way out of them, and sang stories about their tales for extra cash while they were out and about. The way our story ended no one knew of what we'd done but I had an ability that allowed her to convince crowds of their tales as folklore that was praised everywhere they went.
My dm did try and put her in sexual scenarios but she just picked at it.
My favorite bard character I ever made was an eloquence bard with a criminal background. She was a grifter. She sometimes played the "horny" bard troupe so people with underestimate her. She functioned a lot like a rogue since she usually liked to rob her "hits" blind after. She was based around the "mean girl" character type. She was a queen bee and could organize people underneath her accordingly.
As someone creating an ace/aro bard who struggles to find the magic and joy in her music due to PTSD after surviving a horrific massacre during her performance, this speaks to my soul.
The desire to know more intensifies
@@firestorm165 Katernin Brightwood grew up in a happy home in Sigsbee, where her love of music was encouraged and allowed to flourish. She went to bard school to study the college of valor, where she and her five friends formed a music group called the Sigsbee Six. They enjoyed moderate fame performing all over the province. They were invited to perform at the birthday party of their beloved countess, Esvele Softwood. But rebels infiltrated the party guests and poisoned the drinks, and not long after their performance, the rebels attacked the poison-weakened partygoers. Katernin, who didn't drink any poison, survived by hiding. Her friends weren't so lucky. Investigators determined the massacre was the work of a cult. But as the sole survivor, Katernin saw the truth: the killing was orchestrated by Softwood's advisor Corvin Tallstag and his wife, who quickly filled the power vacuum and now rule under increasingly martial law. Everyone believed there were no survivors. Katernin went on the run, fearing for her life, and struggles with PTSD, survivor's guilt, and a fear of trusting people, especially people in authority. But she longs to exact revenge for the innocent lives lost, and she will gladly sully her hands with the Tallstags' blood.
@@sarahb.7175 Turn that story into a book and I will read the shit out of it
Wait an Aroace bard?
I made my first bard character recently she is absolutely adorable she’s a southern bell/golden retriever kinda personality. It’s the least traumatized character I’ve ever written. Too bad she’ll probs be traumatized by the end of the campaign. She may not be super serious but she’s not a flirt either just wants to be everyone’s friend. I’m like in love with her.
One of my favorite characters to date is a bard/warlock I made called Jovi Banjo, who in fact, played a banjo and lived in a swamp community with her family. She was the friendliest, funniest and more entertaining character I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing
This video came around just in time. My current character is a girl whose mother forced her to attend magic school because of her natural skills as a spellcaster even though she wanted to travel the world as a singer/songwriter. Over the course of the playthrough, she's finding her balance between Bard and Sorcerer, eventually weaving the two together both in and out of combat. (Our DM asked all of us what our character's dream end goal was and I told them she wants to be recognized as the first of what we know to be a world-renowned singer.)
Did you grow up in a castle in a swamp (the FOURTH castle, that is)?
The only bard I played was a drow bard themed around black metal. He was a maniac, gathering dying moments of different creatures to inspire his music, his lyre's strings were made of tendons of his house's enemies, and he had psychic spells themed as sending the horrors he witnessed (and caused) to the target's mind.
Seeing Ginny Di in a Dungeon Dudes shirt fills me with joy. So wholesome to see RUclipsrs supporting each other.
The fact that at 1:10 you hear the door after the scene change in your right ear is such a cool detail!
There was a book series about an occult detective who uses a slide whistle and a deck of cards the rythem of playing then out as his way of reacting to the pulses of the weave of magic emanating from different spirits. I built that in dnd as a bard college of spirits with even his magic deck as part of his instruments because it's part of his performance.
What's the name of the series? That sounds interesting.
Felix Castor. The first book is The Devilyou Know
@@Docsun1635 Thank you! I looked into it and it isn't a genre I have read recently, but definitely something I want to check out.
@@Docsun1635 Okay, not check out...yet. But put on hold at my local library. 😏It is popular enough I need to wait to listen to it.😄
@Teresa Ellis I will warn you if you listen to audio book I think the third book in the series dropped the original guy for someone very dry and bland. I had to read them normally because I couldn't stand it XD
I am currently playing a Minotaur Bard (skinned as a Yak, though!), and his whole thing is telling scary stories around the campfire, playing bone flutes, and blowing a big alpine horn. His biggest struggle is he speaks common as a second language and isn't up with all the current trends in fashion. He's also never seen a tiefling before, so he calls them "strange yak, but good yak."
Two things. No, actually three! You are amazing and inspiring in so many ways i almost can't comprehend. Thank you for youtubing!
Second, the realtalk about actually talk about things in DnD with your table outside of the game is so good. I often find myself wondering, why we don't talk outside of the game and express feelings exept for ingame communication. it feels wrong to not include the fact that everyone has different oppinions and gains fun differently from the game.
And thridly, a friend of mine had this amazing idea of making a DnD book to adress the different expectations of a campain and how to even them out. It's not finished, but it turns out to be a magical instrument in session 0 where the players can connect and not only tell the DM what they want to play but exchange that with the other players. I certainly will link the book when it's finnished but let me tell you this before: Talk to one another about how you have fun in a game, and what kills this for you. everyone at the table wants to have fun and i assure you, nobody wants you to not feel this fun when you play with them.
Leliana from dragon age is an interesting take on the bard. Very charismatic and charming - and in her youth she would tell stories and sing, but she was also a person of great faith and a spy by trade. She becomes jaded and bitter and comes to be a ruthless spymaster for the pope allegory lady. She's really interesting.
As the GM of the group, I got a chance to be a player when we did a mini campaign set 200 years prior to the main campaign during a war between two continents. As the main campaign's GM and world builder in a different system, it only seemed natural to me to choose Bard when making my D&D character. I played a non trope storyteller bard who was well traveled throughout the game's world and I wrote poems and short stories to read for inspiration, etc. He was insane at the beginning due to repeated head trauma when he was captured as a spy, but by the 6th of 8 sessions things happened that snapped him back to reality and he actually became the most outwardly somber member of the party. He also wasn't horny either, he had lost the love of his life 20 years prior and still carried the torch for her within his heart. It was when he had a couple encounters with the time weaver and saw his, his beloved's, and a couple NPCs' lives play out in her tapestry that he was snapped back to reality and his personality became more gloomy.
Personally when I think bard, I think Thom Merrilin in the Robert Jordan "Wheel of Time" series. He didn't use magic and wasn't the D&d type bard, but he personifies exactly what I imagine a fantastic bard character to be like. He is wise and experienced, dangerous in surprising and subtle ways, supremely self confident, and is basically the unseen puppet master in any area he happens to be in. While he has his fancy gilded instruments that he carries _everywhere_ it is his ability to tell stories in a way that makes the listeners feel like they are the characters in his stories and are transported into whatever they are listening to. There is obviously no single way to make or play any character type, but while I recognize the usual tropes, I have never just assumed that a bard would be the horny joke type and always imagine creating one more along the lines of Thom.
He is not a bard, he is but a humble gleeman.
Though Thom did pull some notable lovers.
@@Maybonics lol, I was thinking about saying this as well.
I’m actually playing a gleeman/bard (College of Eloquence) in a Fourth Age Wheel of Time campaign. He’s a noble who grew up on the stories of the Third Age and wants to be like Thom Merrilin, at least the version he knows from centuries old stories. So much fun to be a gleeman in the wheel of time world!
There is so much to say on this topic and much of it will depend on the campaign world the characters inhabit. What I’m saying here applies to looking at the bard through a more traditional ancient and medieval fantasy lens and how D&D has sought to incorporate this class in the past. For instance, historically, Homer of the Iliad and Odyssey was a bard, a person who was trained from a very young age to preform epic length poetry and tales from memory. Anglo Saxon scops and Norse skalds were bards, and in societies which kept their histories through oral tradition, they were highly respected and essential members of the community. These were the people who would go with kings and princes on expeditions raids to both entertain and compose new ones about the exploits of the royal or noble they are serving. They are among the gatekeepers of tradition in pre-literate societies. There is a documentary, In Search of the Trojan War, I recently re-watched where they went to a remote area of Turkey where there are still preforming Bards. I think that is episode three of the series. First Ed. AD&D tried to reflect this by making a character who wanted to be a bard first be a fighter for at least 5th-8th level, then drop back to first to become a thief 5th-9th level, and then drop to being a first level bard with druid spells not mage spells, so in many ways bards were attached the priesthood and the established order, and would be consulted when it came to issues like the lineage of kings. To be a bard in 1st ed. AD&D, you really had to have a clear character concept in mind before you went through all of those levels to be a bard.
In literate societies, many bards lose a good deal of its social influence and standing, and this is where many of the more common schools of thought about bards come into being as the performance aspects of the class come to the foreground. The bard becomes a more specialized performer, who if they are successful, will still be dependent on noble or royal patronage, whether it's a courtly 12th century troubadour, or a member of a circus or an acting troupe in a late medieval context. Actors for instance were seen as an unclean profession, one step away from prostitutes. The notion of the “sexy/horny bard,” might actually be a condition of the power dynamics a bard might find him or herself in. The Borgias with Jeremy Irons showed how performers in acting troupes were at the whim of the courts that employed them. In second ed., the bard goes from being a priest to being a magician, and from a social gate keeper to a performer. The 2nd Ed. Complete Book of Bards has some really interesting character concepts I still use, from the stately Herald and learned member of a Royal Court, to a knife throwing blade, to the romantic troubadour poet, to a circus juggler, or tight rope walking acrobat, to the thespian commanding center stage in the theater of the round, to an opera diva, etc. The possibilities and concepts for a bard are very broad, and lots will depend on the world setting for the kind of bards that would make sense.
All of this said, in my experience, most bards I've seen played wind up being back up mages in an adventuring context
My primary character is kind of a different take on the "horny bard" stereotype. He's your typical wise-cracking, smooth-talking performer - and he also happens to be a vampire who wants to eat pretty much every NPC the party runs across. It leads to wonderful shenanigans
My very first character was a bard noble who's a youngest child of an incredibly wealthy family and as a result she spent her teenage years partying so hard that her reputation began throwing shade on her family's name. So she was sent far away to one of her brothers, and nobody took her seriously. Her whole reason for adventuring was to stop being seen as a spoiled child while battling this part of her nature. She fought her desire to screw every hot guy in her way, fell in love and got happily married while subverting expectations of her family and gaining her own lands and wealth through adventuring.
The fact that in-game she accidentally killed a person she was trying to save from the cultists while followers of Tiamat were burning her newly-acquired lands, making a statement of her inability to defend them, definitely helped to speedrun that journey xD
My last Bard was a fortune teller, College of Spirits, I even used an Tarot deck, the DM loved me trying to decipher the cards with what was happening.
My bard, Thea, started the campaign as a socially awkward and shy person who only feels confident when she's performing. Her connection to music is so deep that her craft makes her a person she wants to be, this is why her magic is strong. Throughout the game she was getting more confident but it never manifested in seduction and flirting. If anything, she actually might be a virgin. And her charisma comes from genuine kindness and refusal to see anyone as what they're stereotyped to be unless they prove it with their actions. I'm so proud of her and I'm glad I built her based on what I want her to be, not what internet told me she was.
I love how so many of your episodes have an alt-personality, it's so cool how you implement them!
also i love how charisma can also be a "very scary appearance" stat. However i find it really hard to use charisma classes as a person of low RL-Charisma
Never played a bard, not because of the horny or silly thing, it's just always been hard for me to be inspired by the class. I'm reeeaaally picky at class selection. But your particular way of explaining how to start a bard REALLY helped me see the potential here. Thanks 😌
I always view charisma as force of personality not necessarily just being charming. My next character once my campaign finishes is a half drow lore bard who is shy and introverted. Sometimes she'll just begin to talk and her mouth will go faster than her brain, or she'll inspire her party by pointing out lore aspects.
I love drow
My first D&D character was a bard, and I'm so happy I got to make her without knowing about the horny bard joke - she actually ended up being asexual, which was kind of funny because it went straight against the stereotype that I didn't know existed 😄
A huge part of her charisma was that she was not super confident in herself, but had an open, endlessly curious mind and a way to make people feel comfortable around her. She's a character that will always be close to my heart, learning about the world of D&D through her got me falling in love with this game and I grew a lot both as a player and as a person during my time with her. She's still probably my favorite character that I've ever played, it was so much fun! I'll always love my little Zeletha 💛
💜 Thats amazing! Bard is my first class and the only class I enjoy playing.
Same...Honestly, I know Sam played a horny bard on Critical Role, but I didn't realize that it was apparently something that extended beyond that. Would never have thought of my Bard being Horny...and I started in 3rd edition.
My bard is asexual, too! (though not aromantic)
I'm currently playing a tiefling satire bard, and so far he's been my favorite character to play. He's very eloquent and can be flirtatious, but it's largely a front for his lack of confidence and fear of abandonment. He's been able to find found family with his group, who have been slowly helping him break down his walls and confront his fears and trauma, helping him gain a new passion for his profession and slowly building a new confidence. It's fun to play around with bards in this way, and he's been a nice way for me to process my own troubles through creativity just like he does.
Saw this in a suggestion after watching Viva La Dirt League vid, and your clear voice, sound advice, and excellent delivery made watching your advice-which I was already well onboard with-really engaging and pleasant. I've now got a queue of more than a dozen of your videos that show up in the suggested column, and it's just growing longer. You're exceptionally skilled at this narrative instruction. Your expressive, inflected, and-moreover-highly insightful & well-put advice, makes watching even your (super creative) sponsoring breaks so entertaining. You are incredible. Thank you for these videos; I'm even willing to let go of my Pathfinder fixation so I can explore D&D 5E (which I've resisted since its arrival). You rock, Ginny Di.
Playing a Changeling Eloquence Bard from Thelanis (Eberron fey and story plane). My arts are writing and acting. I cast my spells like a narrator describing a scene and bringing it into existence. I also rename spells to have a storytelling feel to them. For example, Healing Word becomes "Your story continues". My character was tired of being an extra in someone else's story, so they're trying to write their own story in which they can be the main character and are going on adventures to get inspired. They are also good at espionage, which is relevant for Eberron.
That ad was amazing. I laughed out loud.
I’m working on a bard who has a low charisma stat. They learned art and bardic spells because that’s how they were raised. Music and stories are ways they find comfort, focus, and connection to their community. I’m really excited to play them.
I think my favorite part of the dnd RUclips community is just how all the dnd RUclipsrs are freinds and get along