Pure Bards

[Knight Of Pentacles]

Extremely self-serving suggestion but as it is there's little incentive to take more than 8 levels of bard, making bard 8/fighter builds the better choice. Returning the +1 APR many songs got for pure bards would go a long ways to fixing this.

[Hound]

I wouldn't say +APR is a good idea. Bards shouldn't be able to make of themselves superior fighters to fighters themselves just because they can sing a jaunty little ditty.

Bards are, fundamentally, meant to be a support class at their core. Perhaps bards should receive additional powers to their songs to complement this when pure, rather than +APR - if a bard wanted to specialise as a warrior, they can multiclass as a fighter without much difficulty as KOP says.

Bonuses might be additional damage dice to their song when pure, increased rate of healing, bonus to skill checks such as discipline and concentration - just accentuate the power of the default songs for pure bards.

[Knight Of Pentacles]

I meant return the apr bonus to certain songs like how it was for many years.

[The Samophlange]

The problem is that Bards can already rival Fighters and Barbarians fairly well with the aid of their songs, and with the APR from many songs they were in many ways becoming better. Bards are still an insanely strong class on Efu.

[SilkHidingSteel]

I think a select few songs could or perhaps even should be buffed, given a tendency for the same two or three to be spammed to death when there are dozens available in EFU. I don't believe that +1 APR being returned to certain songs is the answer--its not as though pure Fighters get any such thing until level 11 themselves.

I'm not otherwise sure bards should be given any more mechanical power given, as has already been pointed out, they're already an incredibly strong class for something that was originally a support in NWN.

Plus, they get to use wands.

[el groso]

Bard song should be meant to empower a group rather than becoming a singular individual fighting machine that can kick real fighting classes arse. That said, a good incentive for bards over 8 (if you find more spells and caster levels not enough) would be making bard song progression after 8 more interesting and flavorful, without transforming bards into an even better fighter, I'd rather see one who empowers even more his peers, and not so much himself.

[Hound]

Bards in EFU at present remind me of the republic medic from Battlefront one, where you could throw down medipaks and wield your shotgun to mow down entire enemy armies because your ability to support/heal outweighed your enemy's offensive capabilities quite drastically.

Bards shouldn't be as viable as they are as melee combatants, and should instead be more focused on enhancing the capabilities of their party members imo.

[Knight Of Pentacles]

The problem lies in the fact that you can take one to two levels of fighter in addition to 8 levels of bard and be exceptionally better than a level 9 or 10 bard.  Songs continuing to scale up after 8 could help remify this.  And returning the Apr bonus some songs once got is one way of doing this.

[SilkHidingSteel]

Unless I'm mistaken, songs do continue to get more powerful after level 8, its just that level 8 is the peak of them getting stronger, and everything else after that isn't as noticeable. Might just be a matter of semantics that its just not strong enough to make it worth continuing to take levels as a bard.

[Stranger]

The next major interval of strength, after 8 bard levels, is 11 bard levels.

[Decimate_The_Weak]

I think that distinguished and prominent bards should have access to an assortment of songs that can be given as special reward. We are talking about notable PCs who are deserving of this perk, which I am sure exists anyway.

I'd also suggest reserved songs to boost the bard while maintaining standard effects on party members. Whether this is +1 apr, stat and save bonuses, SR or immunities, I don't think its entirely unbalanced. Bards do use heavy consumables.

So long as the songs replace the PC's default and aren't transferrable via songbooks, I'd welcome it.