Also, by their very nature, are reliant on other party members (this was specifically one of my goals when creating my own version). Their abilities enhance others (or hinder enemies), but they can be downright feeble mano e mano against other classes. Most of the abilities that I utilized have very little direct effect for combat (i.e. language, decipher, lore, etc), except for the songs...and those are really for other party members... so yeah, overall, sub-par to even MU for most stuff.Solomoriah wrote:Despite access to all weapons, my "pure" bard (non-combo) is very nearly a non-combatant/support character. This is the main reason their progression is so cheap... they don't get all that much for gaining levels.
So my point is that giving all weapons certainly won't break any sense of balance, however, I feel like since the character concept really is non-combative overall, I am not sure it makes sense to give such access to all weapons. Fine for a Fighter-Bard (skald) or Roguish-Bard to fight decently, but not the other combos (or the single class version). I can see the bard throwing on some armor and grabbing a shield to protect himself, but I don't feel the same about access to all weapons. Two-Handed Sword wielding on an (otherwise vanilla) bard seems goofy to me, but I know others have differing opinions.