It’s been said that 4th edition had two major challenges to solve when it came to fixing 3rd edition. First, to make the fighters (and barbarians) interesting to play, not just “Oh, is it my turn? Well I guess I’ll use my one option and hit him again with my sword”. Check! They did a good job of that. Second? To make the bard not suck. The 3rd edition bard could do just about everything, but wasn’t good at anything. A bit of an overstatement perhaps, but there’s some truth to it.
I’ve tested the 4th edition bard by playing a gnome bard based on the “Players handbook 2″ excerpts. The bard plays the role of a leader, manipulating the battle field and providing healing. He is an arcane caster and rely on an implement (wand, songsword or musical instrument) to channel his powers.
It’s all in your mind
The bard is all about tweaking the minds of opponents and allies. From healing others by telling them how great they are, to killing opponents by mocking them. I actually ended two bosses by telling them how worthless they were.
What I liked
The bard fit the role of leader nicely. The playtest class gave him two ways to manipulate the battle field. An at will power that marks a monster on behalf of another player — at range 10 and an encounter power that slides an opponent on a successful melee hit. The major healing power, Majestic word, heals two characters per encounter. There’s also the ability to help people heal outside of combat (granting them a bonus when spending healing surges) and a daily granting 5 temporary hit points to allies when they hit a single target you’ve selected.
The +5 to diplomacy checks (encounter power) really made me the faceman of the group. I was able to make good deals with people and sway them to our way.
The daily powers both have an effect even on a miss, which is nice. It really sucks to blow a daily power and not get anything in return.
What I didn’t like
Killing people by verbally abusing them? Doesn’t fly with me.
Wrapup
It was good fun playing the bard. Figure I’ll pretend the “Vicious mockery” and similar powers isn’t about bullying people, but more like a silent mind affecting magic attack.
If you want to play a bard you should like being the faceman of the group and have fun helping others in combat instead of doing damage yourself. Also, you’ll have to hide behind others, as you’re no frontline fighter.
Tags: 4th edition
Leave a Reply