Has anyone made a lore bard like this? Someone who is a polymath but not really a musician, sure they may play an instrument but its not their thing, but they are a scholar of a wide variety of subjects? Think St Germain from the Castlevania, but not as much of a ******bag. Or would bard not be the best class? Wizards are my go-to 5e class, Ive played sorcerers, sorlocks, clerics and even a straight warlock (not my fav at all) so im looking for a fun concept for a bard and to try that in my next campaign.
I think if you wanted to flavour your bard as more of a story-teller rather than a musician that would work - they do go to Colleges after all! Someone super into studying and re-telling myths and legends, stories, poems, etc. Especially if you wanted to play up the anti-musical piece, you could even take a musical instrument and make a face playing a single note at key points in your tales - maybe part of the mandatory musical courses you were required to take as part of graduation or your certification. You could even throw one of your 3rd level expertises at History skill.
Bards get some great abilities, but I have always shied away from playing one because I just don't have the extroverted musical personality to do the role justice. So I would envision a gold dragonborn lore bard who is basically a middle-aged classics professor, complete with a tweed jacket and pince-nez glasses. Instead of singing to inspire others he would recite stories reminding them of the valiant deeds of the great heroes of legend. And he would "harrumph" a lot in his speech patterns, with little wisps of smoke rising from his nostrils. A bard who doesn't sing tawdry songs in a pub for coin, but who can perhaps open diplomatic relations with the nearby dwarven kingdom by regaling them with a dramatic retelling of the odes of their ancestors. A bard who drinks tea and who prefers libraries to brothels. A bard who is a tad absent-minded, but who will spend hours intently fixated on the mysterious runes he found in the dungeon. A bard whose ink-stained fingers have never touched a weapon, but who can stop an orc in his tracks with a cold stare.
Constan Vertarrim. One of over a dozen characters that I have made who I hope to get the chance to play someday.
One thing we’ve have talked about is letting me swap out the instrument proficiencies for additional skills, tools and languages.
As for the nuts and bolts of the build my stat emphasis aside from CHA will be INT and CON. I’m going either Vhuman or custom lineage and probably gonna take magical initiate warlock for hex and EB for offensive abilities. Since I’ll have a low Dex weapon usage will be less than stellar.
Has anyone made a lore bard like this? Someone who is a polymath but not really a musician, sure they may play an instrument but its not their thing, but they are a scholar of a wide variety of subjects? Think St Germain from the Castlevania, but not as much of a ******bag. Or would bard not be the best class? Wizards are my go-to 5e class, Ive played sorcerers, sorlocks, clerics and even a straight warlock (not my fav at all) so im looking for a fun concept for a bard and to try that in my next campaign.
I do it with lore bards regularly because the historical and legendary Celtic or Welsh bards were scholars and advisors. So were similar role under other names in many cultures because oral tradition to teach traditions and legends is universal predating written works. The bard is an excellent class for the concept mechanically and thematically.
The traditional area of lore for a bard is history (arcana for wizards, religion for clerics, nature for druids) as one of the thematically scholarly classes. In game flavor, that knowledge can be information gleaned from legends and songs or it can be learned knowledge with the specific task of maintaining it to transfer to future generations. Bards in the actual historical sense went to colleges for ~20 years and were the super-scholars of the time. Going that route you might focus on genealogy, history, heraldry, linguistics, religion, and medicine as examples of that which bards would have been expected to be familiar.
I have a Spirits Bard waiting in the wings with a similar premise, travelling to learn and record stories of the dead. It is a little annoying how a bunch of the Bard abilities are tied to performing music, but it shouldn't be too hard to re-flavour it to something a little less performance-y.
Yes, my DM let me model my Bard more as a private investigator then entertainer. They let me swap out the musical instruments for other tools so I took Cartographer's Tools, Forgery Kit, Poisoner's Kit for the knowledge uses for them. College of Eloquence and uses a component pouch for spell casting, verbal is chanting, somatic is finger tucking. I actually play him as tone deaf and unable to carry a tune but can he talk.
My current Bard is a College of Eloquence bard. He's not musical, not super confident, and sucks at all traditional magic. Basically the only magic he has is his words, so it's what he uses to fight with, and he's pretty timid and non-confrontational, so he sticks to more control tactics. I love non-traditional uses of classes, so a history based bard sounds really fun, like a traveling archivist. Waiting in the wings I have a Hexblade Warlock military chef who fights with a frying pan and a dex-based acrobat paladin.
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Has anyone made a lore bard like this? Someone who is a polymath but not really a musician, sure they may play an instrument but its not their thing, but they are a scholar of a wide variety of subjects? Think St Germain from the Castlevania, but not as much of a ******bag. Or would bard not be the best class? Wizards are my go-to 5e class, Ive played sorcerers, sorlocks, clerics and even a straight warlock (not my fav at all) so im looking for a fun concept for a bard and to try that in my next campaign.
I think if you wanted to flavour your bard as more of a story-teller rather than a musician that would work - they do go to Colleges after all! Someone super into studying and re-telling myths and legends, stories, poems, etc. Especially if you wanted to play up the anti-musical piece, you could even take a musical instrument and make a face playing a single note at key points in your tales - maybe part of the mandatory musical courses you were required to take as part of graduation or your certification. You could even throw one of your 3rd level expertises at History skill.
You could homebrew a magic camera and have your bard just be David Attenborough or some other narrator for a nature documentary.
If you don't want to be lugging a musical instrument around you could use a component pouch.
I haven't yet but I have always wanted to!
Bards get some great abilities, but I have always shied away from playing one because I just don't have the extroverted musical personality to do the role justice. So I would envision a gold dragonborn lore bard who is basically a middle-aged classics professor, complete with a tweed jacket and pince-nez glasses. Instead of singing to inspire others he would recite stories reminding them of the valiant deeds of the great heroes of legend. And he would "harrumph" a lot in his speech patterns, with little wisps of smoke rising from his nostrils. A bard who doesn't sing tawdry songs in a pub for coin, but who can perhaps open diplomatic relations with the nearby dwarven kingdom by regaling them with a dramatic retelling of the odes of their ancestors. A bard who drinks tea and who prefers libraries to brothels. A bard who is a tad absent-minded, but who will spend hours intently fixated on the mysterious runes he found in the dungeon. A bard whose ink-stained fingers have never touched a weapon, but who can stop an orc in his tracks with a cold stare.
Constan Vertarrim. One of over a dozen characters that I have made who I hope to get the chance to play someday.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Tayn of Darkwood. Human Life Cleric. Lvl 10.
One thing we’ve have talked about is letting me swap out the instrument proficiencies for additional skills, tools and languages.
As for the nuts and bolts of the build my stat emphasis aside from CHA will be INT and CON. I’m going either Vhuman or custom lineage and probably gonna take magical initiate warlock for hex and EB for offensive abilities. Since I’ll have a low Dex weapon usage will be less than stellar.
I do it with lore bards regularly because the historical and legendary Celtic or Welsh bards were scholars and advisors. So were similar role under other names in many cultures because oral tradition to teach traditions and legends is universal predating written works. The bard is an excellent class for the concept mechanically and thematically.
The traditional area of lore for a bard is history (arcana for wizards, religion for clerics, nature for druids) as one of the thematically scholarly classes. In game flavor, that knowledge can be information gleaned from legends and songs or it can be learned knowledge with the specific task of maintaining it to transfer to future generations. Bards in the actual historical sense went to colleges for ~20 years and were the super-scholars of the time. Going that route you might focus on genealogy, history, heraldry, linguistics, religion, and medicine as examples of that which bards would have been expected to be familiar.
My non-musically inclined theory crafted bards take drum as their instrument. And then they drum their fingers in impatience.
Lore and Eloquence bards a great choice for a non-musical Bard.
Plus actually more fitting. A bard in real history wasn't a musician - they were storytellers and poets. The musician variant was called a Minstrel.
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I have a Spirits Bard waiting in the wings with a similar premise, travelling to learn and record stories of the dead. It is a little annoying how a bunch of the Bard abilities are tied to performing music, but it shouldn't be too hard to re-flavour it to something a little less performance-y.
As soon as you said "scholarly bard" my mind immediately went to Niel deGrasse Tyson. I would say Eloquence Bard.
Tyson describing what happens when you fall into a black hole right before he casts Reverse Gravity could be his use of Unsettling Words.
Yes, my DM let me model my Bard more as a private investigator then entertainer. They let me swap out the musical instruments for other tools so I took Cartographer's Tools, Forgery Kit, Poisoner's Kit for the knowledge uses for them. College of Eloquence and uses a component pouch for spell casting, verbal is chanting, somatic is finger tucking. I actually play him as tone deaf and unable to carry a tune but can he talk.
My current Bard is a College of Eloquence bard. He's not musical, not super confident, and sucks at all traditional magic. Basically the only magic he has is his words, so it's what he uses to fight with, and he's pretty timid and non-confrontational, so he sticks to more control tactics. I love non-traditional uses of classes, so a history based bard sounds really fun, like a traveling archivist. Waiting in the wings I have a Hexblade Warlock military chef who fights with a frying pan and a dex-based acrobat paladin.