BARDS: The Entertainer Inside You
“Troy sees his Barbarian friend in trouble. With his finely tuned lute in his hands, he takes a second to wink at the buxom barmaid, and then plays a few notes meant to inspire his friend to victory.”
The cliche Bard can be enjoyable at the table, and work well in the right situation. Sam Riegel of Critical Role put on a masterclass with Scanlan Shorthalt. But the Bard class provides so many amazing options that no two Bards need to be alike. One day, I plan to fulfill my dream of running a One-Shot where the party plays a group of entertainers at the annual festival known as Bardic Inspiration!
Here are some ideas to spark your creativity when creating a Bard character. We’ll start with deciding on their Motivation - what drives them to cast spells through the art. Next, we’ll jump into Methods - various art forms that can be used as your spell focus. And finally, we’ll explore more ways to spice up your build with Added Flavor.
MOTIVATION
Bards are an interesting Class - partly in the Skilled category with Rangers, and partly in the Arcane category with Wizards, Sorcerers and Warlocks. Generally speaking, your character is going to find themself expressing their art in order to help their group during adventures. So what’s the driving force to do that? What long-term goal are they trying to achieve? Here’s a few ideas to start the brainstorm:
To Write an Epic Tale of Adventure - for the history books or for their own monetary gain
To BE in an Epic Tale - Maybe they’re tired of singing songs about other heroes. Maybe it’s time people starting singing about them instead.
Needing a Benefactor - They have a whole album of songs, a Band that has a great sound, or a dream to build a new stadium for performances. All they need is a ton of platinum. They need to collect benefactors and sponsorships!
Becoming a Master - There’s only one way to show true mastership over your craft, and that’s to find a worthy apprentice. For every town you visit, you check out the local talent in the bars and maybe even run some American Idol type talent shows to find that the right person or people to mentor.
METHOD
Alright, you decided on what makes your Bard tick. Next, you get to have fun deciding your chosen art form. The musical instrument is a tried and true method, as is being a singer. But let’s look at some alternate options:
Orator - You’re a true wordsmith. You give speeches meant to inspire or persuade large crowds. You can debate anyone on any subject. Your poems are breathtaking, and your insults can cut so deep as to drive the largest Orc Barbarian to tears.
Comedian - You’re quick with the one-liners, and feel at ease making large crowds laugh at your stand-up routines.
Magician - This would especially work in a setting with little magic. Your “tricks” awe and distract while the rest of your group is pick-pocketing or slashing at their combatants.
Painter - Your works of art hang in every castle, and tend to put people under spells. Even a basic sketch quickly drawn on a bar napkin has been known to cast the Friend spell on an unsuspecting patron.
FLAVOR
So now you have your motivation and method for your Bard character. Whether you’re a musician looking for sponsorship, a painter in need of muses, or comedian in search of the ultimate joke - let’s sprinkle just a little extra flavor on the build to finish them:
Genre - Choose a music genre for your musician - Punk Rock, Hip Hop, Disco, Grunge, etc.
Unsure - People keep telling you how great you are, but you just don’t have the confidence to see it in yourself. Maybe you left your family and friends behind to see if complete strangers also think you have talent.
Perfectionist - Practice makes perfect. And each battle, or “performance” as you call it needs critiquing afterwards.
Amateur - Your singing is off pitch, your lute is constantly out of tune, your jokes aren’t funny, and your stories don’t seem to have a point. But that’s okay, because it seems the worse you are at your art, the more powerful your magic becomes!
Shiny Things - You HAVE to have a new instrument all the time. Maybe you have a collection of exotic harps. Or maybe you just keep smashing lutes at the end of each performance. Either way, you NEED 2 things - more gold, and to spend more gold.
