Oh, the sacrifices that Philo makes as an agent of the Elvish crown... ;)
I've obviously always had a soft spot in my heart for bards; often the butt of jokes in the gaming community, bards can actually be pretty fun to play. My wife ran one for the Eberron campaign I ran when I lived in Las Vegas and was perhaps one of the few people to have ever played a bard and actually been able to play not just one, not two, not three, but four instruments while at the game table (not all at once, though - the woman does have her limits); it helps that she has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in music. She had a blast running her halfling bard, a correspondent for the Korranberg Chronicle. Yes, I'm one of those extremely lucky gamers that managed to marry someone who shares my hobby, although I'm a bit more gung ho about it that she is; then again, I don't have anywhere near the fascination with genealogy that she has.
Take care,
~Rob
I can foresee a possible kobold, elf, changeling child in a possible timeline. This may or may not effect the party in the future. One thing is for sure. That possible child will be very good at making faces and perhaps, acting.
Woo! Bards for the win! Also, while I may not be very musical in real life, I too have experienced the awesome that is the halfling bard. Please pass my respect along to your wife, she has good taste. ^^ And thank-you for letting the bard be as cool as the other characters in your story. 🙂
I admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for Bards. For one 3.5 campaign I did a savage bard and she did rather well (the party loved her ability to boost them with two bard songs at once) until the rogue failed to spot a trap and I failed the save by 1 on it’s “save or die” effect.
*I* thought you kept a bard around so your wizard didn’t have to waste an Identify spell.
Clearly, you need a bard to lead your Band of Adventurers ^_^
I like bards in theory. In practice, I often don’t like their actual ability sets. A lot of it goes to my general preference in RPGs, where mechanics and identity reenforce one another. D&D is almost utterly devoid of mechanics which inform personality that it’s kind of a black hole as far as bards go, but on the other hand, when only specific kinds of performance link to specific effects, I often feel that’s too limiting, forcing the character into contortions for a narrow interpretation of the gaming world.
For “Poxy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6iD7fSXGDA yes, every girl is pretty in her own way and any port in a storm. The interesting thing is he seems to be only one getting any in this party.
I recall an old Dragon magazine article about the biology of the doppelganger, suggesting that this is more-or-less how they reproduce — by seducing female members of other species. Which begs another question: being saurian (or draconian), do kobolds lay eggs or have live birth?
I have never been musically creative enough to play the bard properly, and have never been impressed with the later interpretations of bard. Now, a First Edition Bard was a Bada$$! 5th level Fighter, 7th level Thief, and only THEN do you get to play a Bard! 12 levels of hit dice and all the abilities of the previous classes, plus bardic abilities. ( wanders off muttering about spoiled kids these days wanting everything Right Now and not taking time to earn it…)