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Bard

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Bards often serve as negotiators, messengers, scouts, and spies. They love to accompany heroes (and villains) to witness heroic (or villainous) deeds firsthand, since a bard who can tell a story from personal experience earns renown among his fellows. A bard casts arcane spells without any advance preparation, much like a sorcerer. Bards also share some specialized skills with rogues, and their knowledge of item lore is nearly unmatched. A high Charisma score allows a bard to cast high-level spells.

Bards are very difficult to classify as they are part scholar, part thief, part spy, part spell caster and part warrior. With so many routes to focus on a common error is to try and be good at everything and that leads to being mediocre at all. To play a successful Bard a player must think about what sort of character they would want to play and select certain parts to emphasize. For example, a combat based Bard would focus on his physical attributes over Cha (which determines spell ability) and take a few spells that aid directly to fighting. On the other hand, a player who wishes to be a spy or entertainer would focuses on persuasion and more Charisma-based skills.

Making the Best Bard

As mentioned above Bards use Cha to determine spells. If you wish access as many spells as possible as you gain experience and move up you must set your Cha high upon creation. For example, if you only have 11 Cha then you will only be able to cast 1 level spells (12 Cha allows 2nd level spells, 13 Cha allows 3^rd level spells and so on). If your Cha is 9 you will not be able to cast spells at all and this miss out on a huge advantage to being a Bard. A player should have at least decided whether the use of spells is going to be a big part of his or her Bard at the very start because increasing Cha is much harder after the initial creation of a character.

After deciding on Cha the player needs to decide sort of abilities, skills and equipment would complement them. High Dex or Str for Fighter- Bards (keep in mind that the casting of Bard spells are not affected by wearing armor and Bards are proficient in any type of armor- so if you're considering a fighter-type then you can invest in some good armor), High Int (used to determine Skill points) for more spy/storyteller types.

Here is the breakdown of what the Bard class benefits:

• Hit Die: d6
• Proficiencies: All simple weapons, all armor, and shields
• Skill Points (x4 at 1st level): 4 + Int Modifier
• Spellcasting: Arcane (Charisma based, armor-related chance of spell failure has to be taken into account)

Skills

Second only to the Rogue in sheer diversity of skills that can be taken the Bard has a wide range of skills that can be developed. Be careful in how you use you points as even the Bard cannot excel in every one of his or her skills. This is where a solid character concept can be of great value in deciding where to put those very valuable skill points. The Bard is the only class that can take Perform and so should use it to their full advantage.

Class Skills (skill descriptions):

• Concentration
• Diplomacy: Persuade
• Discipline*
• Heal
• Hide
• Listen
• Lore*
• Move Silently
• Parry*
• Perform (The Bard is the only class that can take this skill)
• Pick Pocket
• Spell Craft
• Taunt
• Use Magic Device

*Notes:

Discipline is a Neverwinter Nights skill. It is not a part of the Dungeons & Dragons® game experience but is a necessary part of the Aurora Engine technology.

Lore can be considered a subset of the Dungeons & Dragons® Knowledge skill.

Parry is a Neverwinter Nights skill. It is not a part of the Dungeons & Dragons® game experience but is a necessary part of the Aurora Engine technology.

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