My favorite Bard I ever played was Dad. He made dad jokes. He inspired his allies with phrases like, "you've got this, son" and "keep your chin up!" He would give insightful, thoughtful speeches and often told the same stories over and over again. He was basically a caricature of my extremely supportive father. He was awesome.
This is more or less the Bard I’m playing right now. I gave him a single level dip into Artificer for his Dad-like tinkering in the shed with more enthusiasm than knowledge 😅
Sorcerer twin spell and quicken meta magic, maybe even a warlock dip for dissonance whispers... and just live out your real slim shady battle rapper dreams of shaming your enemies to literal death...
I play a lvl 12 insult comic, I deal damage by insulting my enemies and inspire my allies by reminding them that they suck marginally less than our enemies
My favourite Bard I've heard about was from my friends campaign. The Bard in their party was an accountant, and would "encourage the party" by "finding funds in the budget to sharpen that sword" or "giving you a little bonus to your pay for the exceptional work you've done this quarter" Their spellcasting focus was an Abacus, and they'd move the beads around in order to "tune it" to the correct spell
My two favourite bards were played by my father and cousin. My father, who has played guitar for most of his life, had written actual small songs for every single one of his spells and also wrote an epic about our campaign we could all sing. My cousin, in a different campaign, asked me to play a bard who performed their magic through origami, including a vicious mockery where she would fold the paper into insulting words. She finished the BBEG with it and it was one of the best campaigns we've had.
My most recent bard was a grandmother who tells stories and had a huge storybook of fairytales and such as her “instrument.” Her bardic inspiration was grandmotherly advice and encouragement, and her charisma being high was shown through her being both respected as an elder and generally the adult of the group. One of the players was even her actual granddaughter! She’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever played to date.
I have always liked using the Bard role to make a drill instructor, inspirational phrases like "get in there maggot!" Or "make yourself useful or di us a favor and go home!" . Such a charmer
I read a story about a 3.5-era Paladin who would do that. The verbal component of his anti-fear buffs was calling his allies cowards. He would smack party members to Lay on Hands. Unpleasant fellow, but useful in a fight.
Shakespeare's title of "The Bard" is from his use of Iambic Pentameter, so poetry in motion. Couplets and ryhmes are traditional too. I love in Sleeping Beauty when Flora enchants the Prince's sword, "Magic sword fly swift and sure, that evil die, and good endure." True-strike from the bard fairy, no music necessary.
Jess of the Shire has an excellent video titled 'Bards: The Most Misunderstood Class' that I think you might enjoy because it nicely covers their real life history and importance.
Sleeping Beauty is such an underrated masterpiece, and Flora is a badass! Not many people realize the 3 middle aged women are the protagonists [Spoilers: they even save the prince and slay the dragon!] Everyone knows Maleficent is the greatest Disney villain of all time, but the film itself doesn't get nearly enough recognition, and it's my favourite!
Shakespeare started out as a poet selling sonnets and ballads in broadsheets. That’s where The Bard came from. His contemporaries were poking fun at him by calling him that instead of calling him a playwright. It was meant to belittle his work.
@@scetchmonkey007Actually there was some big change to the College of Dance from the playtest. Such as moving the Group Evasion feature from lvl 6 to lvl 14, based on what was mentioned in the video.
My favorite bard i've played was for a one shot. The one shot was basically us exploring a creepy mysterious mansion. So i made my bard a paranormal investigator like from some ghost hunting show. He had a magic orb that followed him and "broadcasted" his show back to the people of his home town so anytime they'd meet someone he'd announce to them "welcome to the show! You're on Hazardous Hauntings with Finn Wilder!" And leave all the NPCs very confused. He'd also wildly overdramatized everything, always speaking as though to his audience at home and being as flashy as possible. He loved to stir up trouble and also acted like he had sooo much experience in these type of "haunted" houses so he would very confidently (and with absolutely no context clues) do things like throw back a tapastry announcing there was going to be a secret hidden behind it... only to accidently stumble upon secret passageways by doing so. His musical instrument was a soundboard which he used to add background music and soundeffects to a "scene". He was a horrible person but and awesome character to play.
I play tested this as a Dwarf belly dancer with a jingly hip scarf and tambourine, and had a great time with it! Of note, the unarmed damage you do doesn't add a Bardic Inspiration die, you can just replace the damage with the value of your BI die.
@templarw20 I am determined to eventually run a 70's/80's style Band Show campaign, like Josie and the Pussycats, the Partridge Family, Jabberjaw, or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, where the adventures keep happening on the way to the next gig.
I want to create a mime... who talks. Exiled from mimekind because of his vocalizations, he's forced to seek a life of adventure where his talents may be more appreciated.
I've always wanted to play a kenku bard who can't play any instruments but just perfectly mimics any song they have ever heard, but maybe their magic comes from the dance moves they do along to their music
I have a bard character who is painter, and my friend is currently playing a baking bard. So I love the fact that we’re getting more options of what a bard can be! and I hope it expands further in future
Same. I'm going to buy a subscription to one of the music generating AIs. So I can make bardcore versions of punk rock songs, in my own voice. My instrument will be a magical floating microphone. Both hands free.
a magic item for bards thats just a radio. it picks up songs other bards are singing or have sang and you just put it down and use that as your spell focus. then you just find a bard you like that does metal and mosh away
Back in the good old days of 3.5, you had perform (X), and X could be basically anything: oratory, singing, jokes, dancing... even doing tricks with your weapon could be a type of perform, and that was what your abilities used. It lead to really interesting and weird characters.
Yeah, when I switched from 5e to Pathfinder 1e I was thrilled to see bards actually felt like bards. 5e's implementation of bards is honestly terrible, not just because they're so tied up in musical instruments specifically, but because nothing about them mechanically is really "bardic". You're a glorified sorcerer that occasionally does guitar riffs to inspire an ally, versus older DnD Editions/Pathfinder bards who have a wide selection of magical performances they can do, which happen over multiple rounds of combat, and affect multiple creatures. Special shout out to Pathfinder's Masterpieces which are particularly powerful performances requiring a bard have sufficient skill points in a particular Perform skill (Acting, Comedy, String instruments, etc.) to learn at all
quoting @JoCat, Bards can "Sing, Dance, Paint, Prance, Make a pretty dirt drawing with a Lance plenty of ways to further enhance the battlefield if given the right chance Now you know how to play Bard, you're welcome"
My current Bard is actually a bodybuilder, his spells manifest when he does various poses and the like which has been really fun. He also is a sculptor, with the goal of creating a sculpture of himself in the future, we've gotten creative with how Bards can work
[LeSigh] some version of songblade / singing sword or other preternatural weapon has always been a GOOD extension in the TTRPG I grew up with... Too bad that my most recent acquisition of a songblade was by a non-Bard -- and it was a battleaxe, to boot...
My most recent "bardlike" was a Skald in Pathfinder. "Beerfiend", who got his name because Beer spontaneously disappeared in his presence, was: --Roughly Till Lindemann from Rammstein proportioned, fought with a massive greatsword --Used Rammstein and Sabaton, altered to a fantasy setting, to inspire great rage among his comrades and himself. Examples like "Fight, we will resist and bite! Although the fiends tastes shite!" --Fought bravely in the frontlines --Always had a one liner ready --Used a Pathfinder feat to gain additional boni while drunk, which he always was --Had a special mythic spell to create industrial quantities of booze, which he then used for interplanar terrorism against the demonic hordes invading his homeland --Discovered a mythic item, which he used to inject himself with steroids, because booze is not enough. --His father died from biting a pestilence demon to death, so he never actually did any bite attacks.
I play a mute bard with artificer initiate feat. I use tiny sphere and cube shaped gyrocopters that make sound and project light to cast spells through (example: instead of cutting words, one of my little copters flys in someone’s face and explodes in a shower if sparks trying to hinder attacks, or minor illusion is cast through a cube copter with a tiny projector on every side to create the “hologram”)
One of my favourite characters I ever did was a warforged bard with a butler background; his name was Marion and he was essentially a very fancy toy for a noble girl, but eventually she got too old for him so her parents made her throw him away. In my mind, he looked like the clockwork people from Doctor Who, and he mosty performed physical comedy, circus tricks, and some poetry. The only songs he knew were childrens songs and lullabys because that's what he was made for. He also had a blank mask that he'd use minor illusion on to show emotions, like a theatre mask. I imagined him as something of a lighthearted joke character but because of the Toy Story background (which I suppose I should've forseen) everyone at the table became super attached to and very defensive of him. They always prompted him with all these questions about free will and servitude and like he got to help a teenage NPC get out of a cult at one point. It was all nice. The moral of the story is, I had a warforged bard and I never once thought to do the robot with him. Curses OTL
My Bard is a collector of stories and myths from his travels. He warships a knowledge diety by burning books and stories which sends them to the collection and allows him to recall them perfectly forever. Definitely an odd bard but 200% fun
Street magician and juggler. I love the idea that slight of hand, cups and balls, while not themselves magic effects weave a magic effect. Imagine flavouring hold person as pulling a coin from behind their ear, and they are just... Stunned.
My last bard was an actor who's bardic inspiration was him quoting inspiring lines from his favorite novels and plays. Its awesome to hear that things are moving closer to this being normal!
@@naomi.j.m.I didnt hear any sarcasm personally, and please steal this idea and enjoy! My character took up the persona of an action hero from a novel I made up called "The adventures of Darrington Dare!" when he was in the field.
Between College of Dance Bard and Drunken Master Monk, there is definitely space to have a party that is functionally the 3 Stooges, and I love that for them. Slapstick as fighting style is truly under-utilised
I love playing bards and almost always go a different route whenever I make a new one. My latest iteration is someone who is basically an actress with incredible storytelling capabilities. Before joining her current adventuring party she invented adventures and wrote herself as the lead and then passed those stories on as truth. Through this, she was a well known and renowned adventurer before she even went on any adventures. Main reason she actually became an adventure was because she made it sound so fun in her own stories, she subliminally influenced herself in wanting to try it out for real.
@@BothanJedi That is only a part of her character. Ty Lee is a high charisma circus performer. You can hit like Ty in 5e but playing the character takes some creative multi-classing and then ignoring most of your bard skills so you don't loose the core of the character. Even just placing the stats is hard since she would be a high Dex, charisma, wisdom and con.
I love that the green room is a closet. It's like a little extra dig towards towards the dancer bard. Side note: Now that the dance bard is a thing, I can finally recreate my dream of a Chris Farley Chippendale's dancer bard. Let the dance-off commence!
I AM looking forward to seeing a 'contemporary circus artist' bard specialised in one arm hand balancing! Also as a Circus artist I can say the following things are performancing arts: Fire-, hat-, disk-, sword-, bottle-, club-, smoke- or card- juggling, hand balancing, hand to hand acrobatics, teeterboard jumping, Cyrwheel acrobatics, fire-breathing, fire-eating, wire-, (slack)rope- & edge- walking/balancing, aerial acrobatics on rope, silks, chains, trapeze, straps, hoop, (Chinese) pole, wooden pole (mallakhamb for example), Lion dance (partner acrobatic in a lion costume on poles), contortionism, (trick) horse riding, sword swallowing, lasso-, flag-, poi- & staff swinging. The list goes on for quite a long while... Maybe a good extra would be that a lot of circus arts stem from older traditional ways of dancing, acting, impressing, re-enacting & re-living, ritualising stories. So when you want to make a 'new kind of bard' maybe I could be an idea to research on on art forms like Butoh, Mongolian horseback riding contortionism, Chinese sword juggling, Capilotractées, Icarian games or Antipodism Cheers! Bert (not really a bard)
Example of high-level bardic dance in combat is the character of River Tam in the movie Serenity. Summer Glau had a background in ballet and the fight scenes were choreographed to exploit her background and it definitely reflects that.
I love thinking of bards as just “artists”. I had a player who was a bard of creation and they used performance painting to use said creational powers. Add little eyes and a mouth to a furniture? You just cast animate object! It was fun theming that subclass around it and it matched so effortlessly
In one game I played, we had a bard whose performance was cooking. He carried an artificer-made portable stove and made food during combat. Bardic Inspiration was a waft of delicious aroma, and all of his somatic components were hibachi knife moves.
My favorite bard was a Yuan-ti knife juggler and carni. He could sing, and rhyme, he could bareknuckle brawl for a bloodthirsty crowd, he could juggle balls or knives or (once) live snakes, and he could dance. (His yuan-ti snake-appearance thing turned out to be mostly internal, he had a snake's spine but looked otherwise like a bald human, so he did a lot of dancing and contortionist work). I loved playing him as a wandering scoundrel, entertainer, and mercenary.
My favorite bard doesn’t actually singing or dance at all. My very first bad who was my second character ever was actually a painter. She would go into every fight trying to find inspiration to make new art pieces. Or she would turn the fight into art price by defeating enemies with her paints and swords. I love playing her!!!
I'm actually planning on taking College of Dance when my Tiefling bard reaches level 3. Hell, she's even named after a dance. Her name is Balania, which is a feminized version of Baladi, which is a traditional Egyptian dance similar to the Arabic Belly Dancing. It's a very Middle Eastern/North African flavored campaign. Although, she's kind of the opposite of your college of dance bard. She's a valley girl, kind of ditzy (mostly thanks to my rolls) and chaotic, but very sweet, generous, loves to perform for its own sake, often joining in the performance of others (EX dancing to a street performer, joining in a religious dance, etc) and teaching and encouraging others how to express themselves through the arts (IE teaching one of her teamates how to play the tambourine, commissioning a portrait of she and her allies to a local artist, etc.)
Errr, only as a secondary / tribute to previous incarnations (the WFRR Singing Sword parodies the earlier version[s]). (dredging through memory...) Robert Wagnoer? PRINCE VALIANT? at least some even earlier appearances in literature?
No but I had a flashback to an early 90's sci-fi show called " Space Rangers" where the "warrior alien" (Zylyn or something like that-the actor played Shang Tsung in the first "Mortal Kombat" movie) picked up a sword that I thought was called a "song blade". When the blade is used, it makes a distinctive sound from air going through the holes on the blades. Before posting I was able to find out the blade is called a "flute sword".
I really really hope there’s a spell called Choreography which would allow a co-ordinated attack by the entire party (for one turn all the players have the same initiative level).
I am autistic and sometimes I go full nonverbal I chose a bard for a Pathfinder 2E one shot last year, but when game day came around, I was having one of those days. The idea of improvising lines and such was something I really wasn't up for. So I played my bard as an *actor* whose bread-and-butter was in physical expression. Highlight of the session was when I gave the party inspiration by just. *Confidently stepping* towards a scary enemy. Not a word, not a song, just a *demonstration of confidence*
My bard is a dramatic storyteller. His origin was in the military where he was part of the drum corps, inspiring troops to battle. When he left the army he developed a performance based on using drumming and lighting effects to enhance the telling of his dramatic stories.
For years I've been wanting to do a Bard/Monk multiclass to do dance fighting. Never got around to it for reasons. So imagine my absolute joy when College of Dance got revealed. Will totally be the next Bard I play.
I really like the idea of a painter's collage of creation bard, who paints his created items and to animated things he adds like legs and wings. I pushed it even further and my bard is a tattoo artist and he doodles some simple cartoonish wings and legs to his animated objects, but the best part is that his Vicious Mockery is drawing doodles over people like we used in school books. He uses mostly conjuration and illusion spells like color spray when he shoots out ink at people. (Yes I drew inspiration from that one Miraculous' bad guy who drew stuff on his tablet and it appeared irl.)
I designed a pokemon kinda like that back as a kid. It was for a competition, didnt win oh well doesnt take away any coolness of the idea though. Would be cool to see a bard use these abilities.
Bards are one of my favorite classes. I find them the most fluid because they can really encompass any type of performance if you are inventive. Two of my most notable Bard characters in this vein are my Bard pirate whose performance was sea shanties which he'd use to inspire his crew and call up gust of wind to fill his ship's sails, and my Halfling Bard Brehon (basically the Celtic term for lawyer) whose artform was speechcraft (for dramatic courtroom moments) and his specialty was wish contracts and arbitrations. The Brehon's name was Berry Freemason btw.
My newest character is an idol-inspired bard. She's a college of glamour bard whose goal is to inspire and bring hope to those who are struggling. I even re-wrote some lyrics of well-known songs to use as her bardic inspiration (some taken from Ginni's older videos, even!). I am having SO much fun playing her
I wanted to make a Kenku, bard that’s a storyteller, but all the stories are public domain characters “And so, the great detective Sherlock Holmes solved the case, but lost a friend” “And that Willie kept riding, on that boat of Steam”
I've played two bards in my DnD career. One used puppets and puppeteering as his mode of entertaining. My second bard was a Valkyrie named Hlokk from the Poetic Edda. Her mode was reciting poetry and creating heroic stories about the party.
I played as Bris, a changeling actor who always uses jester clothes dancing and acting is how he use magic acting as several characters with his mimic and never changed shape without the jester outfit and he creates all kinds of stories, not just comedy
My favorite bard that I made, but have yet to play, is this Magician who performs card tricks and illusion magic to audiences of many, basically doing stage magic to use real magic.
The Glass Cannon Podcast Side Sesh Side Quest had a bard who was a nervous try hard lounge singer. He had one bedazzled glove, and he activated his magic wand by tapping it with his finger and saying the activation phrase, "Is this thing on?"
Back in 2nd edition, in the Rogue handbook (thieves and bards were both considered to be in the "rouges" grouping), jongleur (juggler) was one of the performance/specialty options for a bard.
Holy moly... The ability to use Bardic Inspiration *visually* is amazing! Like - not just for nonmusical bards- if for some reason your party member can't hear you but can still see you you can give them a Bardic?! Heck yes! That's amazing! And that new subclass sounds so cool! (I will admit - I was getting Fabian Seacaster from D20 vibes from the description, not going to lie!)
I'm now planning on making a david gogins bard "I've been running for the last 3 days, you better land that sword strike AND DONT STOP UNTIL ITS PERFECT"
I think Esmerelda from Hunchback is a really good example of thinking outside the box where performing and dancing is part of her fighting style and her character.
My favorite Bard I ever played was Dad. He made dad jokes. He inspired his allies with phrases like, "you've got this, son" and "keep your chin up!" He would give insightful, thoughtful speeches and often told the same stories over and over again. He was basically a caricature of my extremely supportive father. He was awesome.
This is more or less the Bard I’m playing right now. I gave him a single level dip into Artificer for his Dad-like tinkering in the shed with more enthusiasm than knowledge 😅
@@keatsmeister that's awesome. I wish Artificer existed when I played that character. Dad may be making an appearance in a one shot now
Dad Jokes and Puns are the highest forms of comedy!
This is a good bard. More like these please.
Have you listened to Dungeons and Daddies? Great podcast, and i dont like podcasts
I've always wanted to play a bard whose "instrument" was the spell Vicious Mockery. The reason? He'd be a stand-up comedian, who heckles his opponents
Now I want a Don Rickles bard.
“Boom, roasted”
Sorcerer twin spell and quicken meta magic, maybe even a warlock dip for dissonance whispers... and just live out your real slim shady battle rapper dreams of shaming your enemies to literal death...
I play a lvl 12 insult comic, I deal damage by insulting my enemies and inspire my allies by reminding them that they suck marginally less than our enemies
@@davidcassell4659this. This and only this.
Bard: :::Performs The Robot:::
Warforged: Are you mocking me?
Muhahaha. You gain Inspiration!!
😂😂
Bard: "Indeed I am Mocking you. Viciously so, you might say."
Warforged: *Short-circuits*
Bard gets cancelled for racism, banned from all stages in the kingdom
Warforged are technically closer to cyborgs, being humanoids. Autognomes however are playable constructs.
My next Bard shall be a Ballerina who specializes in the refined Art of the Nutcracker.
Please tell me they have a finisher move for combat that is literally just kicking someone in the nuts called The Nutcracker
Lol 😂@@aSipOfHemlocktea
😂😂😂
Princess Tutu?
Mine be a "Mijaíl Barýshnikov" inspired one.
My favourite Bard I've heard about was from my friends campaign. The Bard in their party was an accountant, and would "encourage the party" by "finding funds in the budget to sharpen that sword" or "giving you a little bonus to your pay for the exceptional work you've done this quarter" Their spellcasting focus was an Abacus, and they'd move the beads around in order to "tune it" to the correct spell
Did they know "Power Word: Embezzle"? Because that would be a really useful spell.
My two favourite bards were played by my father and cousin.
My father, who has played guitar for most of his life, had written actual small songs for every single one of his spells and also wrote an epic about our campaign we could all sing.
My cousin, in a different campaign, asked me to play a bard who performed their magic through origami, including a vicious mockery where she would fold the paper into insulting words. She finished the BBEG with it and it was one of the best campaigns we've had.
Hell yeah, I've been wanting to play an origami bard for so long
ORIGAMI BARD THAT IS AMAZING! 😂
Damn, what a cool dad to have 🫶
Vicious mockery... through Mime.
Finally! Someone else also points out how ludicrous it was to take away the Songblade was.
THANK YOU! 🙏
Honestly, is anything really "taken from us"? No. It's D&D. House rules for the win.
...maybe they hated Prince Valiant?
Isn't the Songblade just... Bladesingers?
@@BigusGeekusYou reference his singing sword?
The way Ginny and her characters interact and play off each other I often forget they are all her. Ginny deserves an award for that.
One neat thing is how the way Ginny sets up the shots makes the Bard look considerably taller than Ginny.
Yeah, I was seriously questioning who is playing the bard 😅
My most recent bard was a grandmother who tells stories and had a huge storybook of fairytales and such as her “instrument.” Her bardic inspiration was grandmotherly advice and encouragement, and her charisma being high was shown through her being both respected as an elder and generally the adult of the group. One of the players was even her actual granddaughter! She’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever played to date.
I have always liked using the Bard role to make a drill instructor, inspirational phrases like "get in there maggot!" Or "make yourself useful or di us a favor and go home!" . Such a charmer
I read a story about a 3.5-era Paladin who would do that. The verbal component of his anti-fear buffs was calling his allies cowards. He would smack party members to Lay on Hands. Unpleasant fellow, but useful in a fight.
A Bard that only uses quotes from Oblivion NPCs for spells would be awesome.
Shakespeare's title of "The Bard" is from his use of Iambic Pentameter, so poetry in motion. Couplets and ryhmes are traditional too. I love in Sleeping Beauty when Flora enchants the Prince's sword, "Magic sword fly swift and sure, that evil die, and good endure." True-strike from the bard fairy, no music necessary.
Jess of the Shire has an excellent video titled 'Bards: The Most Misunderstood Class' that I think you might enjoy because it nicely covers their real life history and importance.
@@sebastianevangelista4921Underrated comment 💫
Sleeping Beauty is such an underrated masterpiece, and Flora is a badass!
Not many people realize the 3 middle aged women are the protagonists [Spoilers: they even save the prince and slay the dragon!]
Everyone knows Maleficent is the greatest Disney villain of all time, but the film itself doesn't get nearly enough recognition, and it's my favourite!
Shakespeare started out as a poet selling sonnets and ballads in broadsheets. That’s where The Bard came from. His contemporaries were poking fun at him by calling him that instead of calling him a playwright. It was meant to belittle his work.
@@almitrahopkins1873 Wow!
"That's my secret, Cap. The pun is always intended."
I understood that reference!
Thank you. I was confused and thinking "cap" might be short for "caption" until I read your comment. Then the switch flipped and I got it.
The fact I haven't gotten to see the new Bard or Paladin Classes yet is KILLING ME 🤣
Hey, nothing wrong with a little antici....
@@GinnyDi say it! Say it!
@@GinnyDi ...pation! -Tim Curry
They are in the playtest... infact all these tidbits that wotc has given out have all been in the playtest. With little to no changes.
@@scetchmonkey007Actually there was some big change to the College of Dance from the playtest. Such as moving the Group Evasion feature from lvl 6 to lvl 14, based on what was mentioned in the video.
My favorite bard i've played was for a one shot. The one shot was basically us exploring a creepy mysterious mansion. So i made my bard a paranormal investigator like from some ghost hunting show. He had a magic orb that followed him and "broadcasted" his show back to the people of his home town so anytime they'd meet someone he'd announce to them "welcome to the show! You're on Hazardous Hauntings with Finn Wilder!" And leave all the NPCs very confused. He'd also wildly overdramatized everything, always speaking as though to his audience at home and being as flashy as possible. He loved to stir up trouble and also acted like he had sooo much experience in these type of "haunted" houses so he would very confidently (and with absolutely no context clues) do things like throw back a tapastry announcing there was going to be a secret hidden behind it... only to accidently stumble upon secret passageways by doing so. His musical instrument was a soundboard which he used to add background music and soundeffects to a "scene".
He was a horrible person but and awesome character to play.
oh my god he's just a vlogger. i love it. that's so good
I play tested this as a Dwarf belly dancer with a jingly hip scarf and tambourine, and had a great time with it! Of note, the unarmed damage you do doesn't add a Bardic Inspiration die, you can just replace the damage with the value of your BI die.
*hastily creates a bard who juggles while on a unicycle*
Make em a Grung
Background: Outcast, raised not by wolves, but by clowns.
Folk hero for that land vehicle proficiency
don't name them Cabaji!
It'd be fantastic to see a College of Jugglers bard subclass at some point. There's so much to work with in the concept of throwing things.
Can't dance on the ceiling?
Me, slipping on my slippers of spider climbing: amateur! Watch me cut this ru- I mean roof!
Spider climb with this subclass WOULD be great, tbf!
Or just play a Dhampir. Which would also let you do the Monster Mash!
@@ajdynon oops all bards, with a dhampir, shifter, reborn... I've heard stranger party comps.
@@ajdynon Him , interesting. Now if I could convince a DM to let me play a Dhampir.. They all say no for some reason.
@templarw20 I am determined to eventually run a 70's/80's style Band Show campaign, like Josie and the Pussycats, the Partridge Family, Jabberjaw, or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, where the adventures keep happening on the way to the next gig.
im now getting ideas for a mute bard who only uses dance and motivational gestures
Yes! I'd love to play a mime bard. There's so much comedy potential
I am fond of the silent spell WISH... interpretive dance... so do it.
I want to create a mime... who talks. Exiled from mimekind because of his vocalizations, he's forced to seek a life of adventure where his talents may be more appreciated.
I've always wanted to play a kenku bard who can't play any instruments but just perfectly mimics any song they have ever heard, but maybe their magic comes from the dance moves they do along to their music
I was just thinking about this myself as I came across your comment.
I have a bard character who is painter, and my friend is currently playing a baking bard. So I love the fact that we’re getting more options of what a bard can be! and I hope it expands further in future
> "Dancing on the Ceiling..."
Dhampir, "Did someone call for a Bard?"
I used to play a bard who travelled with a skilled pickpocket. they performed as Lute and Plunder.
Thats incredible omg
😄
Respect.
The bard of the college of DANCE not responding to a AUDIBLE cue might be the funniest joke in the whole video!
Ready to play a punk rock Dance Bard who treats the battlefield as a mosh pit
Bardbarian who shreds with his axe.
As a punk rocker who appreciates martial arts film choreography and especially drunken boxing I feel this in my bones
Same.
I'm going to buy a subscription to one of the music generating AIs.
So I can make bardcore versions of punk rock songs, in my own voice.
My instrument will be a magical floating microphone. Both hands free.
a magic item for bards thats just a radio. it picks up songs other bards are singing or have sang and you just put it down and use that as your spell focus. then you just find a bard you like that does metal and mosh away
They don't do an initiative roll, they only attack when the beat drops 😂
Back in the good old days of 3.5, you had perform (X), and X could be basically anything: oratory, singing, jokes, dancing... even doing tricks with your weapon could be a type of perform, and that was what your abilities used. It lead to really interesting and weird characters.
Yeah this video kinda left me confused. A bard not necessarily being tied to music is not a new thing.
Yeah, when I switched from 5e to Pathfinder 1e I was thrilled to see bards actually felt like bards. 5e's implementation of bards is honestly terrible, not just because they're so tied up in musical instruments specifically, but because nothing about them mechanically is really "bardic". You're a glorified sorcerer that occasionally does guitar riffs to inspire an ally, versus older DnD Editions/Pathfinder bards who have a wide selection of magical performances they can do, which happen over multiple rounds of combat, and affect multiple creatures.
Special shout out to Pathfinder's Masterpieces which are particularly powerful performances requiring a bard have sufficient skill points in a particular Perform skill (Acting, Comedy, String instruments, etc.) to learn at all
I want a bard that does foley for spells, like smacking two steaks together when casting "Wigby's Witchslap".
quoting @JoCat, Bards can
"Sing, Dance, Paint, Prance,
Make a pretty dirt drawing with a Lance
plenty of ways to further enhance the battlefield
if given the right chance
Now you know how to play Bard, you're welcome"
Who else read that in his voice?
*plays the cazoo*
(jaunty lute theme plays)
Got the 69th like
Mic drop (ice cream cone) 🍦
My current Bard is actually a bodybuilder, his spells manifest when he does various poses and the like which has been really fun. He also is a sculptor, with the goal of creating a sculpture of himself in the future, we've gotten creative with how Bards can work
College of Gains
College of Flexing
College of Zyzz
College of the Chad
@@TheCBoysDotComI was just about to say the "Chad of all Chads"
I love the idea of a character being inspired by seeing a bard pulling of a sick dance move.
ALSO PLEASE BRING BACK BARDERELLA FOR FUTURE VIDS
"That's rad!"
More like Bard-zilla if you ask me...
[LeSigh] some version of songblade / singing sword or other preternatural weapon has always been a GOOD extension in the TTRPG I grew up with...
Too bad that my most recent acquisition of a songblade was by a non-Bard -- and it was a battleaxe, to boot...
*twerks inspiringly*
My most recent "bardlike" was a Skald in Pathfinder.
"Beerfiend", who got his name because Beer spontaneously disappeared in his presence, was:
--Roughly Till Lindemann from Rammstein proportioned, fought with a massive greatsword
--Used Rammstein and Sabaton, altered to a fantasy setting, to inspire great rage among his comrades and himself. Examples like
"Fight, we will resist and bite!
Although the fiends tastes shite!"
--Fought bravely in the frontlines
--Always had a one liner ready
--Used a Pathfinder feat to gain additional boni while drunk, which he always was
--Had a special mythic spell to create industrial quantities of booze, which he then used for interplanar terrorism against the demonic hordes invading his homeland
--Discovered a mythic item, which he used to inject himself with steroids, because booze is not enough.
--His father died from biting a pestilence demon to death, so he never actually did any bite attacks.
She might not dance in the ceiling, but there’s an old and very famous bard who can fiddle on the roof.
Ba-dum-tssssss 🥁
Finally, my scrapped Broadway bard will have his big dance number in the middle of combat
The real definition of dying onstage.
Instantly envisioning Neil Patrick Harris' opening number at the 2013 Tony awards during a big battle
@@mevrouwroos *Path of the Giant barbarian goes into a rage*
"And now he's BIGGER!"
Make them a teifling and you got an extra from hazbin hotel
Oh, it would be so fun! Getting out of trouble like the mask with cuban pete
brb, working on a capoeira-themed Dance Bard. Thanks for the sneak peek Ginny!
I had exactly the same thought. Axé, camará!
Would love that idea, I should design around that for an NPC, that'd be a good foil for one of my players
My Bard uses "Yo Mama" jokes for his Silvery Barbs spell and Cutting Words fearure.
As they should, I do the same
I play a mute bard with artificer initiate feat. I use tiny sphere and cube shaped gyrocopters that make sound and project light to cast spells through (example: instead of cutting words, one of my little copters flys in someone’s face and explodes in a shower if sparks trying to hinder attacks, or minor illusion is cast through a cube copter with a tiny projector on every side to create the “hologram”)
Longtime artificer player here, that's amazing! I love that so much.
One of my favourite characters I ever did was a warforged bard with a butler background; his name was Marion and he was essentially a very fancy toy for a noble girl, but eventually she got too old for him so her parents made her throw him away. In my mind, he looked like the clockwork people from Doctor Who, and he mosty performed physical comedy, circus tricks, and some poetry. The only songs he knew were childrens songs and lullabys because that's what he was made for. He also had a blank mask that he'd use minor illusion on to show emotions, like a theatre mask.
I imagined him as something of a lighthearted joke character but because of the Toy Story background (which I suppose I should've forseen) everyone at the table became super attached to and very defensive of him. They always prompted him with all these questions about free will and servitude and like he got to help a teenage NPC get out of a cult at one point. It was all nice.
The moral of the story is, I had a warforged bard and I never once thought to do the robot with him. Curses OTL
I dig the concept of tangoing your dance partner to victory.
My Bard is a collector of stories and myths from his travels. He warships a knowledge diety by burning books and stories which sends them to the collection and allows him to recall them perfectly forever. Definitely an odd bard but 200% fun
reminds me of library of ruina
"What if I put you on the thumbnail?" 🤣... that got me good! Thanks Ginny!
The College of Dance bard sounds like I a wrestler waiting to happen. Maybe even a Barbarian multiclass.
Street magician and juggler. I love the idea that slight of hand, cups and balls, while not themselves magic effects weave a magic effect. Imagine flavouring hold person as pulling a coin from behind their ear, and they are just... Stunned.
My last bard was an actor who's bardic inspiration was him quoting inspiring lines from his favorite novels and plays. Its awesome to hear that things are moving closer to this being normal!
Wow, I love this :)
Edit: in case that sounded sarcastic, I’m serious. If you don’t mind, I might steal this idea or be inspired by it one day
@@naomi.j.m.I didnt hear any sarcasm personally, and please steal this idea and enjoy! My character took up the persona of an action hero from a novel I made up called "The adventures of Darrington Dare!" when he was in the field.
@@batmanboy9794 oh I love that! I think it’d be fun to make one who randomly quotes Shakespeare
"Of course I can read! I simply choose not to" LMAOOOO
Between College of Dance Bard and Drunken Master Monk, there is definitely space to have a party that is functionally the 3 Stooges, and I love that for them. Slapstick as fighting style is truly under-utilised
😂😂 I need to see that fight
@@GinnyDi Watch any Jackie Chan movie!
I love playing bards and almost always go a different route whenever I make a new one. My latest iteration is someone who is basically an actress with incredible storytelling capabilities. Before joining her current adventuring party she invented adventures and wrote herself as the lead and then passed those stories on as truth. Through this, she was a well known and renowned adventurer before she even went on any adventures. Main reason she actually became an adventure was because she made it sound so fun in her own stories, she subliminally influenced herself in wanting to try it out for real.
I am so playing a savage Russian prima-ballerina next time I get a chance
honestly, very fitting that ginny got the bard sneak peak. everyone knows she’s got the charisma and love of performance for it :)
Literally all I can think is "Hey, now I can play Ty Lee."
I always saw Ty Lee as a fairly standard Open Hand Monk. Her Chi blocking is basically Stunning Strike.
@@BothanJediOpen Hand Monk with Performer background, easy.
@@BothanJedi That is only a part of her character. Ty Lee is a high charisma circus performer. You can hit like Ty in 5e but playing the character takes some creative multi-classing and then ignoring most of your bard skills so you don't loose the core of the character. Even just placing the stats is hard since she would be a high Dex, charisma, wisdom and con.
I really like Swords Bards being Blade Dancers. Just dancing at your enemies!
I've always loved making blade dancer style characters :3
That's what I assumed was the intention when I first saw them.
Made a bard who was a news reporter. His 'Instrument' was scribe's tools and spells were writing notes.
I am so calling when my bard pulls someone else into a dance a pas de deux
I love that the green room is a closet. It's like a little extra dig towards towards the dancer bard. Side note: Now that the dance bard is a thing, I can finally recreate my dream of a Chris Farley Chippendale's dancer bard. Let the dance-off commence!
You can sing, dance, paint, prance, draw a pretty dirt picture with a lance, plenty of ways for you to enhance the battlefield if given the chance
I AM looking forward to seeing a 'contemporary circus artist' bard specialised in one arm hand balancing!
Also as a Circus artist I can say the following things are performancing arts:
Fire-, hat-, disk-, sword-, bottle-, club-, smoke- or card- juggling, hand balancing, hand to hand acrobatics, teeterboard jumping, Cyrwheel acrobatics, fire-breathing, fire-eating, wire-, (slack)rope- & edge- walking/balancing, aerial acrobatics on rope, silks, chains, trapeze, straps, hoop, (Chinese) pole, wooden pole (mallakhamb for example), Lion dance (partner acrobatic in a lion costume on poles), contortionism, (trick) horse riding, sword swallowing, lasso-, flag-, poi- & staff swinging. The list goes on for quite a long while...
Maybe a good extra would be that a lot of circus arts stem from older traditional ways of dancing, acting, impressing, re-enacting & re-living, ritualising stories. So when you want to make a 'new kind of bard' maybe I could be an idea to research on on art forms like Butoh, Mongolian horseback riding contortionism, Chinese sword juggling, Capilotractées, Icarian games or Antipodism
Cheers!
Bert (not really a bard)
I'm about to start playing a new campaign as a bard sword swallower!
You forgot hoopdance!
I love this list though, getting lots of ideas
@BeesOTC ohhh nice! (In the older English showmanship some artists also ate broken glass, rocks or coals or hammered nails in their noses)
@bellrose2659 yes!! Both Hoop jumping (acrobatic jimping through hoops and hoop juggling)
Example of high-level bardic dance in combat is the character of River Tam in the movie Serenity. Summer Glau had a background in ballet and the fight scenes were choreographed to exploit her background and it definitely reflects that.
I love thinking of bards as just “artists”. I had a player who was a bard of creation and they used performance painting to use said creational powers. Add little eyes and a mouth to a furniture? You just cast animate object! It was fun theming that subclass around it and it matched so effortlessly
Now I have a vision of an all bard party that travels from town to town as the medieval equivalent of a modern pro wrestling show.
AND HIS NAME IS...
In one game I played, we had a bard whose performance was cooking. He carried an artificer-made portable stove and made food during combat. Bardic Inspiration was a waft of delicious aroma, and all of his somatic components were hibachi knife moves.
Recently just made a siren-themed Triton Bard lady and honestly not having them play instruments can, flavor-wise, make them really fun
I did this too! My DM was kind enough to have the Triton race have an entire defense corp of Sirens to keep ships away from their territory.
My favorite bard was a Yuan-ti knife juggler and carni. He could sing, and rhyme, he could bareknuckle brawl for a bloodthirsty crowd, he could juggle balls or knives or (once) live snakes, and he could dance. (His yuan-ti snake-appearance thing turned out to be mostly internal, he had a snake's spine but looked otherwise like a bald human, so he did a lot of dancing and contortionist work).
I loved playing him as a wandering scoundrel, entertainer, and mercenary.
My favorite bard doesn’t actually singing or dance at all. My very first bad who was my second character ever was actually a painter. She would go into every fight trying to find inspiration to make new art pieces. Or she would turn the fight into art price by defeating enemies with her paints and swords. I love playing her!!!
I'm having my first session in D&D this saturday wish me luck! :)
Good luck!!
Advice I give to every D&D newbie is don't get hung up on the rules and mechanics. Have fun with the roleplay.
@@GinnyDithank you my dad is actually the dm. His first time too im playing it with 3 of my friends
@@Vitaee13thank youu😁😁😁
Good luck! I’m sure it’s going to be great!
I'm actually planning on taking College of Dance when my Tiefling bard reaches level 3. Hell, she's even named after a dance. Her name is Balania, which is a feminized version of Baladi, which is a traditional Egyptian dance similar to the Arabic Belly Dancing. It's a very Middle Eastern/North African flavored campaign. Although, she's kind of the opposite of your college of dance bard. She's a valley girl, kind of ditzy (mostly thanks to my rolls) and chaotic, but very sweet, generous, loves to perform for its own sake, often joining in the performance of others (EX dancing to a street performer, joining in a religious dance, etc) and teaching and encouraging others how to express themselves through the arts (IE teaching one of her teamates how to play the tambourine, commissioning a portrait of she and her allies to a local artist, etc.)
Did anyone else visualize the Singing Sword from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? when Ginny mentioned the Songblade? 😊
GREAT reference 🤌
Errr, only as a secondary / tribute to previous incarnations (the WFRR Singing Sword parodies the earlier version[s]). (dredging through memory...) Robert Wagnoer? PRINCE VALIANT? at least some even earlier appearances in literature?
No but I had a flashback to an early 90's sci-fi show called " Space Rangers" where the "warrior alien" (Zylyn or something like that-the actor played Shang Tsung in the first "Mortal Kombat" movie) picked up a sword that I thought was called a "song blade".
When the blade is used, it makes a distinctive sound from air going through the holes on the blades.
Before posting I was able to find out the blade is called a "flute sword".
"well....we cant all have taste" what a line!
That "gauche" "we can't all have taste" dialogue really killed me for some reason.
Great work.
I really really hope there’s a spell called Choreography which would allow a co-ordinated attack by the entire party (for one turn all the players have the same initiative level).
I am autistic and sometimes I go full nonverbal
I chose a bard for a Pathfinder 2E one shot last year, but when game day came around, I was having one of those days. The idea of improvising lines and such was something I really wasn't up for.
So I played my bard as an *actor* whose bread-and-butter was in physical expression. Highlight of the session was when I gave the party inspiration by just. *Confidently stepping* towards a scary enemy. Not a word, not a song, just a *demonstration of confidence*
That is an absolutely perfect moment. Well played, indeed!
Glad so many RUclipsrs are giving a peek at what's to come in the player handbook :3
I can't wait to watch everyone else's videos. 2024 rulebook RUclips marathon, anyone? 😂
@GinnyDi Time to decode the whole textbook off of hundreds of Videos
My bard is a dramatic storyteller. His origin was in the military where he was part of the drum corps, inspiring troops to battle. When he left the army he developed a performance based on using drumming and lighting effects to enhance the telling of his dramatic stories.
I love the idea of expanding the bard to more forms of performance; a dancing diva bard is such a cool idea
I've been kicking around a dancing bard idea for years, I even had planned it as a Monk multi-class. Sounds perfect for that idea.
Impressive foresight!! Any more clues on future subclasses? 😂
I'm so excited about this new bard change! Great video :)
Same! There are some great little changes in the new rulebook
For years I've been wanting to do a Bard/Monk multiclass to do dance fighting. Never got around to it for reasons.
So imagine my absolute joy when College of Dance got revealed. Will totally be the next Bard I play.
🎵 "Everybody was Kung Fu fighting..." 🎵
I'm assuming the unarmoured defence abilities don't stack and you wouldn't be able to add wisdom and charisma to your AC, right?
7:09 so now Bard's can give inspiration with simple line of sight, instead of being close enough to hear.
Ty Lee. The college of Dance is made to play Ty Lee.
Ginny's been on the grind !!
I really like the idea of a painter's collage of creation bard, who paints his created items and to animated things he adds like legs and wings.
I pushed it even further and my bard is a tattoo artist and he doodles some simple cartoonish wings and legs to his animated objects, but the best part is that his Vicious Mockery is drawing doodles over people like we used in school books. He uses mostly conjuration and illusion spells like color spray when he shoots out ink at people.
(Yes I drew inspiration from that one Miraculous' bad guy who drew stuff on his tablet and it appeared irl.)
My idea for this would be going around and sticking googly eyes on everything :D
I have an Artificer/Spirits Bard that is a performance painter. LOVE IT
I designed a pokemon kinda like that back as a kid. It was for a competition, didnt win oh well doesnt take away any coolness of the idea though. Would be cool to see a bard use these abilities.
I’m living for the Muppet Show shenanigans in this video
It's time to play the music- wait, no 😂
@@GinnyDi "Good grief, the comedian's a bear!"
"No he'sa not, he'sa wearin' a necktie!" 😅
Bards are one of my favorite classes. I find them the most fluid because they can really encompass any type of performance if you are inventive. Two of my most notable Bard characters in this vein are my Bard pirate whose performance was sea shanties which he'd use to inspire his crew and call up gust of wind to fill his ship's sails, and my Halfling Bard Brehon (basically the Celtic term for lawyer) whose artform was speechcraft (for dramatic courtroom moments) and his specialty was wish contracts and arbitrations. The Brehon's name was Berry Freemason btw.
One of my favorite characters is a cleric/bard of Selune, quiet spoken till she sings then blasts out music like a Rock Goddess.
My newest character is an idol-inspired bard. She's a college of glamour bard whose goal is to inspire and bring hope to those who are struggling. I even re-wrote some lyrics of well-known songs to use as her bardic inspiration (some taken from Ginni's older videos, even!). I am having SO much fun playing her
I wanted to make a Kenku, bard that’s a storyteller, but all the stories are public domain characters
“And so, the great detective Sherlock Holmes solved the case, but lost a friend”
“And that Willie kept riding, on that boat of Steam”
A kenku would be SO good at oral storytelling. They'd never struggle to remember something like the Iliad or Odyssey 😂
Giacomo! King of jesters and jester to Kings!
My heart knows a lovely song . . .🎵
It whistles it all day long . . . 🎶
Such an underrated classic. One of my all time favorites
🎶Life could not better be…🎶
Get it?
Got it!
Good
Yea, verily, yea!
The Duke, the Duchess and the Doge
I love the idea of a Bard that gives inspiration by handing out little origami trinkets to their party members.
I've played two bards in my DnD career. One used puppets and puppeteering as his mode of entertaining. My second bard was a Valkyrie named Hlokk from the Poetic Edda. Her mode was reciting poetry and creating heroic stories about the party.
Alternate title: Changing of the Bard, amazing video Ginny. I loved the through story with the bard. ❤
I played as Bris, a changeling actor who always uses jester clothes
dancing and acting is how he use magic
acting as several characters with his mimic
and never changed shape without the jester outfit
and he creates all kinds of stories, not just comedy
My favorite bard that I made, but have yet to play, is this Magician who performs card tricks and illusion magic to audiences of many, basically doing stage magic to use real magic.
The Glass Cannon Podcast Side Sesh Side Quest had a bard who was a nervous try hard lounge singer. He had one bedazzled glove, and he activated his magic wand by tapping it with his finger and saying the activation phrase, "Is this thing on?"
I'm so glad about this more mechanical backing. In some ways, this also allows a lot more feeling of freedom in said "reskinning".
Back in 2nd edition, in the Rogue handbook (thieves and bards were both considered to be in the "rouges" grouping), jongleur (juggler) was one of the performance/specialty options for a bard.
Holy moly... The ability to use Bardic Inspiration *visually* is amazing! Like - not just for nonmusical bards- if for some reason your party member can't hear you but can still see you you can give them a Bardic?! Heck yes! That's amazing! And that new subclass sounds so cool! (I will admit - I was getting Fabian Seacaster from D20 vibes from the description, not going to lie!)
Not my dhampir bard being able to dance on the ceiling 😅
Not gonna lie, I was really apprehensive of this subclass. Now, though, I can't wait to play my Maori-inspired asskicking master of the Haka.
the image in my head of a dancer bard giving bardic inspiration by doing a little boogie is very amusing
I'm now planning on making a david gogins bard
"I've been running for the last 3 days, you better land that sword strike AND DONT STOP UNTIL ITS PERFECT"
My bard is a travelling stand up comic, specializing in the magic mouth spell!
They are releasing college of dance? Finally, my Drow that worships Eilistraee can finally be released into the wild as pure bard.
"well, we can't all have taste" that one got me
I think Esmerelda from Hunchback is a really good example of thinking outside the box where performing and dancing is part of her fighting style and her character.