Shattered Kingdoms

I have often wondered why bards do not get the meditation skill when their cords and songs all spend mana when used? The biggest problem I've had with playing my bard is the length of time it takes for him to get his mana back, it really puts a damper on leveling and exploring with a group. I feel giving them meditation would be a big plus, but I don't feel they need Trance. Since they are the 'jack of all trades' class, they should get a little help with mana regen through meditation, but not maximum mana regen with trance.

I would also gladly trade fast healing for meditation if you need something to take away, although I don't feel adding meditation alone is game breaking.

Let me make a DA comment:

Bards are fine, adding meditation would make them overpowered. You can already get a bard to GM in 5 hours or so if you know the right places...

I concur with the original post

Sure you can level them quickly, but when you go with a group some where to help support them with your songs eventually everyone will need a mana break. After your mana break is over, your group is ready to go when the bard has barely half his mana back, which causes a lot of wasted time. Not everything is about leveling speed.

Unless you are trying to be a smart [REDACTED] whocarez62, you will need to explain to me exactly how giving a bard meditation is overpowered because I don't see it. Every other mana using class has meditation and no one complains they are overpowered. I really don't see a differance, so please enlighten me unless you are just trying to be a smart [REDACTED] and I missed it.

I also suggested taking away fast healing for meditation if need be. You'd bump up mana regen in exchange for a loss in hp regen, which would be balanced, but I don't see how increasing mana regen would make it unbalanced either way since they wouldn't get trance.

D has said in the past that he envisions bards to be closer to caster classes than melee classes. So, he gave them front-line melee attack skills.

I agree, I personally think that they don't need fast healing and should have meditation instead.

I actually think they should have Trance without getting Meditation, since Meditation is active whether you're resting or not, and Trance is active only when resting.

EDIT: Assuming they need a mana regen ability, which is a little bit of a sketchy assumption. They DO take forever and a day to regen the mana that can be burned stupidly fast via high-level songs, but at the same time I think a bard should have the RP to keep a group entertained while they regen it.

While I agree, you also have to realize that you can't have everything. Were meditation given to bards, they need to trade something out, IMO.



Every other mana using class doesn't have the array of fighting skills and autos that we get as bards. Getting everything we get and the abilities to offset it is not balanced.



So yes, there is a need, and as a bard I would happily trade off fast healing or third attack for meditation. Third attack would be my suggestion, as I never did understand why we get so many of them on a class where variety is emphasized and casting is the core principle.

Because without third attack, leveling bards would be a lot suckier.

Well, maybe. This one time a friend of mine and I leveled 2 bards together by just chording NPCs, and then swapping out on songs of healing to regen. Wicked fast.

Fast healing should go before third attack.

Bards are adventurers (not clerics or casters) so their melee capability is not an accident, IMO. Nerfing their combat skills in favor of meditation is a short-sighted take on the class as a whole. The mana drain is already manageable if you are careful about your song choice and timing. Also, songs are not the only thing a bard is good for in a group.

Meditation combined with songs of healing would turn a bard into a practically infinite hp/mana/move battery too.