Yeah, the Bards are their own creature now and they better fit what I personally expect a Bard to be. For their attack powers, there's a mixture of implement (read: spell-like) and weapon powers to choose from, so you can go for the "dashing swordsman" or the spellcaster type, or mix and match between them. The Arcane Power supplement adds bows and prophecy to their repertoire. One of my favorite utility spells in the prophecy vein lets you roll 3 d20s at any point in an encounter and save the best result, which can then be switched for an ally's roll at a later point... that might not seem like much, but it usually means you can all but guarantee that someone in the party will hit with one attack, chosen by you. We've set up some pretty impressive chains of events to wrap up a battle based around that.
The implement-based attacks are a mixture of things that are all very distinctly bardic... one of my favorite PCs I've used carries no weapon, she insults her enemies to death.
(A Paragon tier feat, Arcane Admixture, lets you add a second damage type to any arcane attack... I used it to change her Vicious Mockery from psychic to psychic/fire... she cusses people out so hard they catch fire. It doesn't change the use of the spell directly that much, but fire damage is more often specifically useful than psychic damage so it's good mechanically to have... but I mainly took it for the image.)
All their attack powers are magic using Charisma for hit and damage bonus, even if they're weapon based, so you can switch between them with few optimization issues.
Bards are also the only class that can double (or triple, or quadruple, or so on) dip into the game's multiclass feats, retaining the "jack of all trades" feel. They can also take a feat to use Charisma for hit rolls with any other class's powers that they've acquired through multiclassing.
Outside of pure combat, Words of Friendship gives them a +5 to Diplomacy once per encounter, which combined with their Charisma generally makes for an impressive roll. A feat extends this to cover Bluff as well.
As a Leader class, they can heal twice per encounter using Majestic Word (think a rousing speech or words of encouragement bolstered by magic) and they can boost healing while the party is at rest if they play music.
The musician aspect is also highlighted with bardic rituals... Bards have a special subset of rituals that they can perform without expending costly reagents but which require the Bard to play music for the ritual's casting time.
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The implement-based attacks are a mixture of things that are all very distinctly bardic... one of my favorite PCs I've used carries no weapon, she insults her enemies to death.
(A Paragon tier feat, Arcane Admixture, lets you add a second damage type to any arcane attack... I used it to change her Vicious Mockery from psychic to psychic/fire... she cusses people out so hard they catch fire. It doesn't change the use of the spell directly that much, but fire damage is more often specifically useful than psychic damage so it's good mechanically to have... but I mainly took it for the image.)
All their attack powers are magic using Charisma for hit and damage bonus, even if they're weapon based, so you can switch between them with few optimization issues.
Bards are also the only class that can double (or triple, or quadruple, or so on) dip into the game's multiclass feats, retaining the "jack of all trades" feel. They can also take a feat to use Charisma for hit rolls with any other class's powers that they've acquired through multiclassing.
Outside of pure combat, Words of Friendship gives them a +5 to Diplomacy once per encounter, which combined with their Charisma generally makes for an impressive roll. A feat extends this to cover Bluff as well.
As a Leader class, they can heal twice per encounter using Majestic Word (think a rousing speech or words of encouragement bolstered by magic) and they can boost healing while the party is at rest if they play music.
The musician aspect is also highlighted with bardic rituals... Bards have a special subset of rituals that they can perform without expending costly reagents but which require the Bard to play music for the ritual's casting time.