Some Bard Suggestions

[MAGIC]

Overall I think bard is in a great place this chapter!

Bards should get access to the following spells:
0: Dancing Lights
1: Crafter's Insight


Mislead could be verbal only like Displacement. This will enable shield/armor wearing bards cast it on struggling friends in the middle of combat.


Vicious Mockery (and some other spells?): Add some damage scaling based on your perform skill (similar to Starblight) when holding a musical instrument in your main or offhand.


Lingering Song: Give +50% to the total song duration instead of a flat 5 rounds. With the bonus to song duration that EFU grants based on perform & level this becomes a less attractive feat compared to Extra Music. This change would put it back on par with Extra Music.
If we look at a lvl 8 bard with 20 perform:
Each song lasts 10 rounds + 6 rounds + 1 rounds, 17 rounds. They have a total of 136 rounds of music.
If they get Extra Music they get a total of 204 rounds of music, a bonus of +68 rounds.
If they get Lingering Song, they get a total of 176 rounds of music, a bonus of +40 rounds.
With this change Lingering Song would give that lvl 8 bard a total of 200 rounds of music instead of 176.

With both Extra Music and Lingering song, the total duration of music would be:
Before: 264 rounds of music
After: 300 rounds of music



New spell: Inspirational Boost. Gives +1 to your bard level for the next bard song. Must sung within the next 1 turn. (instead of +1 to its effects as the pnp spell does, 1 turn instead of round to give some leeway with timing/action queue wonkiness)

Why? Bard 7 and Bard 9 can be rough levels for a bard. Bard 8 is where the class really takes off, the songs get stronger, they get a 2nd apr, they get their 1st lvl 3 spell cast (if they don't have 16+ cha). It really is a night and day difference. Allowing a lvl 7 bard to tap into some of the lvl 8 bardsong bonuses ahead of time would help smooth that gap.

As for bard 9 - it has often been suggested to me that I multiclass after bard 8 since bard doesn't get much until 10 and that might not be achievable. Bard 9 doesn't get any new spells known and only gets a single spell cast/day (it is level 3 though, which is strong). Allowing someone who sticks with pure bard to boost a few of their songs up to the lvl 10 bonuses seems like a nice perk of staying pure.

Perhaps this could be a lvl 2 spell since those are much more valuable and some of the lvl 10 song bonuses are strong?

INSPIRATIONAL BOOST
Enchantment (Compulsion) [Mind-Affecting, Sonic]

Level: Bard 1
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 swift action
Range: Personal Targets: You
Duration: 1 round or special; see text
When you play your instrument, sing your song, recite your epic poem, or speak your words of encouragement, you fill your allies with greater confidence than normal. While this spell is in effect, the morale bonus granted by your inspire courage bardic music increases by 1.

The effect lasts until your inspire courage effect ends. If you don't begin to use your inspire courage ability before the beginning of your next turn, the spell's effect ends.