As someone who plays Nordic roleplaying games, Bard is such a weird class in general.

[Xerio]

In our games (Drakar och Demoner for example, our version of D&D), Bards are simple just someone who plays an instrument and entertain people. It's not really something you play as a character since playing an instrument is only helpful if you want to gain some coin in a village.

[ExcaliburV]

You're not wrong. It's why they mostly run with the whole "using your music as a means of channeling your magic" idea.

I dunno if that idea has roots in some folklore or another. To me it just feels like a way to make the class relevant while letting some people play out their inner thespian/performer.

[desrtfox071]

Originally posted by Xerio:

In our games (Drakar och Demoner for example, our version of D&D), Bards are simple just someone who plays an instrument and entertain people. It's not really something you play as a character since playing an instrument is only helpful if you want to gain some coin in a village.

Nice story I guess, but Bard is a D&D class, so what's your point?

[Edstyles]

Its not that weird. Like all the spells used by magic casters are used by voice, reason to why you cant cast when silenced. Using your voice is a powerful thing either by using enchantments or in this case as a bard using your voice to sing.
Have to remember that what they sing is not just sound , its magic.
Charming is 1 particular bard trait that they have and this is not just due to performance but magical.

[Whismirk]

In D&D bard is not just someone who plays music. Any class can just pick up instrument proficiencies and play something, and in fact, some bard subclasses (like eloquence) are not even required to play any music at all. 'Bard' is just a common denominator for people who use a form of art (whether that be music, speeches, storytelling, acrobatic performance...) to channel magic and creation.

[Samsquamch]

Jack Black in Brutal Legend was a bard, if that helps.

[Yojo0o]

Why not both? There can exist both a professional bard, like Jaskier from the Witcher series who simply plays music and collects coin for it, AND a magical archetype of spellcasters who weave magic into their music or oration, within the same universe. The 5e PC class Bard has an immense flavor and mechanical difference from wizards, sorcerers, and other caster classes. Why object to their existence?

[RealDealBreaker]

Originally posted by Yojo0o:

Why not both? There can exist both a professional bard, like Jaskier from the Witcher series who simply plays music and collects coin for it, AND a magical archetype of spellcasters who weave magic into their music or oration, within the same universe. The 5e PC class Bard has an immense flavor and mechanical difference from wizards, sorcerers, and other caster classes. Why object to their existence?

Exactly. People seem to forget that the class names are a rule/mechanical reference first and foremost and not necessarily what a character would be called in world. Not all rogues, clerics, and fighters are Rogues, Clerics, or Fighters.

[Xerio]

Originally posted by desrtfox071:

Originally posted by Xerio:

In our games (Drakar och Demoner for example, our version of D&D), Bards are simple just someone who plays an instrument and entertain people. It's not really something you play as a character since playing an instrument is only helpful if you want to gain some coin in a village.

Nice story I guess, but Bard is a D&D class, so what's your point?

It's just a really strange concept. I have a really hard time to "accept" it as a serious thing. For me, it feels like someone who really is good at washing clothes that suddenly makes magic. Or the "cheese-cutter" who cuts all kinds of cheese and depending on cheese, you cast healing or destruction spells.

[desrtfox071]

Originally posted by Xerio:

Originally posted by desrtfox071:

Nice story I guess, but Bard is a D&D class, so what's your point?

It's just a really strange concept. I have a really hard time to "accept" it as a serious thing. For me, it feels like someone who really is good at washing clothes that suddenly makes magic. Or the "cheese-cutter" who cuts all kinds of cheese and depending on cheese, you cast healing or destruction spells.

More so than goblins and vampires and spells and....

OK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GQs5pniZSA

I mean a wizard is just some dude in a bath robe, no?

[RealDealBreaker]

Originally posted by Xerio:

Originally posted by desrtfox071:

Nice story I guess, but Bard is a D&D class, so what's your point?

It's just a really strange concept. I have a really hard time to "accept" it as a serious thing. For me, it feels like someone who really is good at washing clothes that suddenly makes magic. Or the "cheese-cutter" who cuts all kinds of cheese and depending on cheese, you cast healing or destruction spells.

I realise stories like the pied piper are not nordic, but I suspect you are at least broadly familiar with the story (or can easily look it up). Stories like that are part of the inspiration for the magic of music (specifically charm/enchanting kinds of magic) but fantasy inspiration is rife with magical music references (e.g., harpies and the songs can charm and seduce, various fairy stories). Even looking to the real world, we have plenty of examples of music being used to inspire performance or coordinate maneuvers in combat which while not 'magic,' the psychological effects music can have could very well be construed as 'magic' by the ignorant. And given all the other imaginary stuff in d&d, it isn't much of a stretch to go from music being capable of charming or enhancing performance to causing actual damage or manifestation of various other magical effects.

[xposethedarkside]

Originally posted by Xerio:

Originally posted by desrtfox071:

Nice story I guess, but Bard is a D&D class, so what's your point?

It's just a really strange concept. I have a really hard time to "accept" it as a serious thing. For me, it feels like someone who really is good at washing clothes that suddenly makes magic. Or the "cheese-cutter" who cuts all kinds of cheese and depending on cheese, you cast healing or destruction spells.

It's a weird concept to me as well, like I personally would never play a bard. I want to bring a sword to a fight, not a lute.
But, alot of people do like Bards, so for them, I'm happy they got the class they wanted. Having more people happy is never a bad thing, even if it's not for me personally.

[Panic Fire]

Originally posted by xposethedarkside:

Originally posted by Xerio:

It's just a really strange concept. I have a really hard time to "accept" it as a serious thing. For me, it feels like someone who really is good at washing clothes that suddenly makes magic. Or the "cheese-cutter" who cuts all kinds of cheese and depending on cheese, you cast healing or destruction spells.

It's a weird concept to me as well, like I personally would never play a bard. I want to bring a sword to a fight, not a lute.
But, alot of people do like Bards, so for them, I'm happy they got the class they wanted. Having more people happy is never a bad thing, even if it's not for me personally.

Bards bring both a lute and a sword to a fight though. "a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one"

Bards are party buffers
Skill monkeys
Melee combatants
And full casters in 5e.

They do everything.

Conceptually bards are performers of events. They tell or sing tales of glory and adventure much like they did historically in the context of the OP is thinking of. In D&D though they are also adventures who go out and experience the story they are telling. They didn't just hear about the adventures fighting the dragon. The bard was with them in the thick of it fighting the two dragons. Casting spells, passing checks, inspiring the party to great heights as they fight the trio of dragons.

[wirednight]

Think of the Bard as a Skald and you won't be far from the truth. Just a person who sits around singing and telling poetry.

Just with magic.

[Sкiткj3ll]

I played a bard in Pathfinder. Not really a valid comment, since I regret that decision today, but it had its moments ^_^ I got to be the skill monkey for once xD

And yes. Bards are a weird class. I guess it has its charm *shrugs*

[Young Clancey]

There are stories in western religion and mythology about music and sound being used to accomplish incredible feats. In the Old Testament, Joshua and his army use ram's horn trumpets to cause the walls of Jericho to collapse. In Ancient Greek mythology, Orpheus used a golden lyre given to him by Apollo to resurrect his wife, among other things. Plato believed that different musical modes had the power to provoke and calm passions and manias in predictable ways, a tradition that passed through transitional figures like Boethius into music theory of the middle ages. Ideas and traditions like these probably influenced the D&D bard class.