Hail all! I for one am very happy to be a bard. Still, some stupid things
do occasionally cause me to grind my teeth. Though I lack the experience of
the master bards out there, here are my two coppers' worth, cobbled together
from a few earlier posts:

1. Do not cap our skills so low, like forage (40), and sneak (70) - absurd.
Raise the caps.

Absolutely. Why in the world can I never get better at foraging, when I do
it all the time? I understand that there is likely a balance concern with
forage, since it can keep you fed and provide brewing supplies - but level
caps deal with that adequately. Likewise, rogues are weak enough that it
hardly seems fair that we should be able to do everything they do as well as
they do it... still, our caps are so low that by the time we get the skills
they will only be useful against green MOBs so far below us we could ignore
them anyways. If our pick locks is capped so low that we can't pick any
locks, why have the skill? There aren't exactly a plethora of locks around
Norrath right now... Likewise, what is the point of having Safe Fall capped
so low? We get these skills at far higher levels than our peers do, which
is fair, and they are never as good as our peers', which is fair, but they
should at least be useful to us when we get them...

2. Fix our broken songs - there are some that do not appear to do anything
(Disenchanting Melody) and others that are silly (random short distance
teleport that tends to put you in a basement of a zone or at the bottom of
the ocean - I waited 21 levels to get that?)

The only good use I have yet heard for this song is in traveling, and I have
to say this sounds like hogwash to me. We already have an excellent
traveling song in Selo's Accelerando, so if the only good use for another
(MUCH higher level) song is to duplicate (with some risk and randomness) the
effects of Selo's, get rid of it. Considering we only get 1 song per level,
instead of batches of 6 or 8 every few levels, I would hope that all of our
songs did something useful. I personally don't care that Chant and Anthem
are similar - they have some minor differences, and they stack with
different songs, so that is fine by me. Still, how many songs do we have
(out of 50) that either don't exist or do nothing as far as we can tell? I
will bet there are at least 5, or 10%... this is pretty amazing really.
What would you hear if 10% of the wizard spells did nothing or were
unimplemented?

3. Do something about the Z-axis bug - I don't care how well sound travels,
it does not travel through several feet of earth and stone into a basement,
thereby drawing out uber-mobs who are hell-bent on destroying the bard, and
generally do so before he knows what hit him (often then don't even need to
leave the basement to do it!).

This one is a pet peeve of most bards. Why do the Chords only travel a
little ways on X and Y but a great distance on Z? If it were just sound
carrying, we should have a much greater range. Yes, I know that is a
two-edged sword, insofar as it would end up having bards piss off NPCs more
often, but it would make kiting easier. Just make it consistent, either
way.

4. I love the idea of a harmony skill.

I have to agree... I have no problem weaving three songs most of the time,
but when I hit a laggy area I sometimes have trouble holding two songs up.
Considering this skill is crucial to bard success, and (as far as I can tell
by conning) is figured into our ability to fight, we should not have to have
amazing reflexes to do this. No, it does not take amazing reflexes to weave
two songs... but it can be very hard to weave three, and is mostly
impossible for me to get the mythical "3.5" songs.

5. I think we should get a message if we succeed in hiding like the rogues
do.

Why wouldn't we? This makes no sense... must be a bug.

6. As far as binding goes, I am indifferent. From a role-playing stand
point it seems logical, but I can see why we do not have it also, so flip a
coin.

Considering we travel more than any other class, we should be able to bind
ourselves, or there should be NPCs that will bind for a few plat. Either
way is fine by me, but occasionally I have been in situations where I could
not get a bind, and was frustrated for some time. I was in Halas once and
found not a single caster in the zone (out of about 6 people), much less one
who could bind me. In Erudin two nights ago I was the only person in the
city, as far as I could see... it was late at night PST, and the place was a
ghost town... considering the length of the trip I had just made, if I had
planned to explore Toxxulia or the Kerra Ridge I would have been SOL.
Thankfully I was only there for our largely pointless 14th level song and
some Erud's tonic.

7. Bard weapon / instruments

I heard a funny idea for this the other day... make a "Paino" for bards...
it's like a small piano, but hurts more. = ) Percussion instrument, 1H
Blunt maybe something like 6 damage 30 delay. Or how about a Hammered
Dulcimer? We could wield the hammers in combat... ok, this one is not
important to me at all, but would be a nice touch.

8. More magic instruments

Somewhere in the game there should be magical wind and string instruments,
and I do not mean nonfuctional quest items. = ) Something that does for
Hymn of Restoration what the MM Battle Drum does for Selo's Accelerando...
make it rare, make it hard to get, but make it available!

9. Why not make a Perform Skill?

This is the bard-only version of begging... if you perform well enough, NPCs
will give you money. I have had great success with roleplaying this for
PCs, but it seems to me that a young bard should be able to sit on a street
corner and make a few silvers by strumming his lute... level caps can keep
this balanced, and perhaps this skill could work in conjunction with the
Carillion? OK, this is just another random idea, not important to the
class, but it sounds good right now = )

Well, just a few thoughts off the top of my head. Anything to avoid work...
= )

May your voices ever be sweet,

Aloro (E'ci)
Bard of the 14th Song