The bardic lore

[Emili]

Replace Arcane lore with Bardic lore on bards ... adding in another option.

Then add Bardic knowledge ability from DnD and create check rolls when opening certain dialogs/options of other x lores when a bard deals with these things. That will add back something to the class - though small - been missing in flavour of it for a very long time.

Also... brings to mind, any plans on adding in Martial Lore? or is that off hands being tome of battle?

[learst]

/signed.

Bards need more flavour and lovin'.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

I'd like to see different instruments with different abilities, too.

Wizardry 8 was the last RPG I remember having a good outlined Bard class.

[sebastianosmith]

I'd like to see different instruments with different abilities, too.

Amen! I am so tired of that lute.

I'd like to be able to attack my own sound snippet to it as well. Just a little one, five seconds at most. I mean really, would not the opening chords of Master of Puppets be perfect for a facinate?

[Jay203]

just for fun, portable Grand-Pianoes that a bard carries around with him to play epic classics as bard songs

[InsanityIsYourFriend]

bardic lore yes yes and more yes!

[Emili]

I'd like to see different instruments with different abilities, too.

Wizardry 8 was the last RPG I remember having a good outlined Bard class.

I ask for more "bardic" lute ... err, "Loot" once a year. http://my.ddo.com/emili/2009/12/15/a...e-bardic-lute/, But ya... Ta' me' ag mealladh chuig mo oidhreacht n' hE'ireann.

bardic lore yes yes and more yes!

This is my main point... when they were speaking 'bout Lore back on Lammania, I meantioned that of all classes the Bard should be more in "tune" (pun intended) with such matters as...

Bardic Knowledge
A bard may make a special bardic knowledge check with a bonus equal to his bard level + his Intelligence modifier to see whether he knows some relevant information about local notable people, legendary items, or noteworthy places. i.e. (If the bard has 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (history), he gains a +2 bonus on this check.)

A successful bardic knowledge check will not reveal the powers of a magic item but may give a hint as to its general function. A bard may not take 10 or take 20 on this check; this sort of knowledge is essentially random.

... is a DnD class ability which be missing from DDO since head start.

Knowledge itself... is a skill in DnD...

Knowledge (Int; Trained Only)
Like the Craft and Profession skills, Knowledge actually encompasses a number of unrelated skills. Knowledge represents a study of some body of lore, possibly an academic or even scientific discipline.

Below are listed typical fields of study.

•Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, cryptic phrases, constructs, dragons, magical beasts)
•Architecture and engineering (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications)
•Dungeoneering (aberrations, caverns, oozes, spelunking)
•Geography (lands, terrain, climate, people)
•History (royalty, wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities)
•Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids)
•Nature (animals, fey, giants, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin)
•Nobility and royalty (lineages, heraldry, family trees, mottoes, personalities)
•Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead)
•The planes (the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, outsiders, elementals, magic related to the planes)
Check
Answering a question within your field of study has a DC of 10 (for really easy questions), 15 (for basic questions), or 20 to 30 (for really tough questions).

In many cases, you can use this skill to identify monsters and their special powers or vulnerabilities. In general, the DC of such a check equals 10 + the monster’s HD. A successful check allows you to remember a bit of useful information about that monster.

For every 5 points by which your check result exceeds the DC, you recall another piece of useful information.

... and the Bard tends to pick up a thing or two along the way in their endevors just as inspiration to the lyrics, poems an' chants they compose or learn.

Much as they done with "Druid" - who practiced in draÃ*ochta (magic) - DnD took the name "Bard" an' modeled a class after them ... "the Celtic Bard". In Ireland, Scotland and Wales these were the chroniclers and satirists whose job it was to praise their employers ... however they served greater purpose - to hold all the knowledge and lore of our heritage 'fore the pre-christian and modern world... Bards of legend such be Coirpre Mac Etaine, Amairgin and Mongan...

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

I guess that the general outline was to make DDO a "fight game" in general, that's why, I guess, the inclusion of Knowledge would have been making things too complex ... I guess that the developers might have thought this way.

Because - and we're here in game engine philosophy now - the implementation of any "meta" skills is something that just hasn't been developed within the last 20 years.

Example : Sneaking. In a distant discussion on the first Divinity RPG, we discussed on how to give a charcter experience points for successfully sneaking past an enemy. How do you do that ? How do you measure - in-game - the distance ? And : How would you prevent a player of indevinitively sneaking past the ame enemy for experience points farming ?

Another Example : Knowledge of Architecture. A Bard would see that an ancient, half-forgotten or imply obscured temples bears architectural elements that only temples of the Dark Six have. Let's take the in-game "totems" of Trolls, for example. These green shiny things with a skull atop.
Or the wall of an ancient, but still in use, temple bears graphitti that the Bard - because of his/her Knowledge - identities as texts about the Dark Six.

The question now is : How to handle that ? From which distance on would the DM's voice inform the player of this finding ? Would the whole group benefit from it ?

I believe that in the whole gaming industry the attempts of creating an immersive FPS environment have succeeded very, very far.

What has not at all succeeded are non-FPS environments. Or engines. There's simply no-one interested in that. Because FPS sells much, much btter.

I must say that I'm impressed at how "sneak attacks" are implemented in DDO. And spells with a distance radius. I consider this as quite a deed.

But, however, I believ that there needs to be done much, much more.

But IF it is done - THAT clearly depends on the game's philosophy.

And that is currently for DDO : Action RPG. As a tendency, at least.