DreadCast: Pathfinder Experiences, Bard Hate, and the Amalgamation of 4e

So I’m not entirely sure why we went and did this but, but we figured we’d give a short podcast a whirl. You see Momanatrix and I have some pretty good conversations (see also: arguments) about RPG’s and gaming, and a bunch of other nerdy stuff. There have been plenty of times where we’d wished there were more voices to contribute to our conversation, so here’s exactly that opportunity. I’m not sure if we’ll ever do another one of these  but, we figured hey, why not?

Based on how feedback goes (not sure my audience cares for audio) we’ll see if a second episode ever arises, if that does turn out to be the case we promise to keep it brief just like this one. We hope you enjoy listening and would love to hear your feedback any way you’d like to give it to us – hit up the facebook or google+ pages, catch @momanatrix or myself on twitter, comment below, whatever floats your boat! Topics should be pretty self explanatory based on the title of the post here, maybe someday we can argue over pixies or whatever else comes to mind. Enjoy!

Just click play or [download_link link=”https://dreadgazebo.net/audio/DreadCast_Episode1.mp3″ variation=”red” target=”blank”]Download It[/download_link]
[audio https://dreadgazebo.net/audio/DreadCast_Episode1.mp3] Intro: “Where Eagles Dare” by The Misfits | | Outro: “Songs from the Earth” by Son of Sam.

10 Comments

  1. I find your lack of faith disturbing…..about the bard that is. I have played a bard a few times in my life , once recently in a 4e game.( ok just level one ) . i found it to be challenging and fun. The character felt worthless and the other players had bad mouthed the Bard before i had even arrived, but by the time the game was half way through i was loving him and the way it played or that may have just been me. All classes are down to the way they are played. I for one only choose a fighter if i have no real drive or interest in how the story goes. Please do not think that i do not enjoy and have fun as a fighter. but the one off games. well look i’m rambling.
    any way be nice to the bard, after all he tells the world your stories.
    Thanks for a good first podcast look forward to the next one.

    • Really glad you enjoyed the podcast! Yeah I understand most classes are what you make of them, and the YMMV factor that comes into all of them, personally I think bards are comical at least though I’ve never worked up the RP courage to play one. This could also be due to acting as the DM 99% of the time…anyway, thanks for stopping by and commenting Symatt. I’ll keep on pushing the bard agenda, she’ll keep resisting, but I’ll try!

  2. Hey, long time lurker. I really enjoyed the Podcast. I would totally listen if you made this a weekly or monthly thing. I liked that it was quick and digestible. A couple quick comments because you asked:
    1) I feel like the skill problem can happen in any system that uses Dice as a metric for resolution. With 4E’s skills system if you want to be highly competent all the time you need to focus very highly on optimizing specific skills. A skill system that uses Tiers (Novice, Master, ect.) like Monte Cook proposed would solve that. I think in general dice based skills aren’t a great idea, but at this point I feel like there would be so much resistance to change how skills work that Wizards/Paizo won’t change anything.
    2) In terms of Character variation and other things, I think that even though there are lots of powers that do effects that same (Damage+Prone or Damage+Blind ect.) you need to look at all the different options you can make to build around it. I don’t really feel that in a game with so many options that you are hurting for ways to make each character feel unique.
    3) In terms of the Bladesinger, I think you’re over looking some of the awesome stuff a Knight gets. Knights have Power Strike with riders and feat support. The Bladesinger encounter doesn’t do half the stuff a Knight can in terms of encounter powers. Bladesingers may have Magic Missile, but Knights get 4 stances you can use all the time. Bladesingers have good AC. Knights can have other good defenses without seriously penalizing their At-Will powers. Having played a Bladesinger and a Knight through good chunks of Paragon and Heroic, I don’t see the Bladesinger as overpowered (Unless you’re going for hard optimization in which case you have better classes to start with than Knight and Bladesinger) just very flashy.
    4) The Bard is awesome. Heroic poets inspiring people to heights they can’t reach alone. Bards have a power that no other class can match: Without magic or prayer they can inspire hope in the most downtrodden of people. They aren’t the best warriors, the strongest caster, the smartest or most learned. They are clever, and they have the enthusiasm it takes for an almost normal person to keep up with archmages and kings.

  3. Good evening!
    I justo found your site recently and wanted to post a reply for you about your podcast.
    1. Like the format, short focused podcasts are a good thing. Too many podcast era people get diarrhea of the mouth.
    2. Been playing since 1979, yep, ancient, wanted to comment on your power creep concerns. Best way to work this is to be proactive with your group. Control classes and races available, don’t give out constant magic items. If you lose control on those, it’s hard to get it back. Focus on the three main items pc’s need, throw a few other cool items to each, it’s fun then.
    3. Combat speed ups- current campaign is 19th level, we decided to tweak the monsters in most fights. Lower their defense scores and raise the damage they do. No one likes getting an attack every 5 minutes and missing. First fight we did that on kept people busy and involved for a 2 hour boss fight.
    K, that’s enough rambling, thanks for you passion for the game.
    PAX

  4. Jareth was obviously an eladrin bard/warlock hybrid.

    Bards are more fun for roleplaying than a mechanical powerhouse – very flexible if you have them doing a lot of multiclassing and make them your Swiss army knife. Best as a 5th character if all the roles are filled already.

    And yeah, I don’t get the point of bladesingers/ ribbondancers also.

  5. Bards. They are the most fun character class for people who like to talk. And skill monkeys. But what’s more, with the addition of the Skald, they become much more the warrior-poet that people wish they were. Their strength is their diversity. You want a striker, be a striker. You wanna heal, be a cleric. You want a lot of skills… plus heal and whack things? Be a Bard. 🙂

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