The Complete Bard’s Handbook (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition, Player’s Handbook Rules Supplement/PHBR7)
User Ratings and Reviews
1 Stars ANOTHER DISAPOINTMENT FROM THE 2ND EDITION OF D&D
The complete handbook serie has to be one of the most disappointing serie to be put out by the folk at D&D. The lack of concision and the overall usefulness of those books are extremly disappointing. Let me first tell you what you won’t find in the bard handbook : good illustrations, usefull charts, interesting new skills, or magic items worth mentionning. The reason for this is quite simple, there was no real reason to put out the book in the first place. All you need to know to play your bard caracter, can be found in the 2nd edition player’s handbook and the few interesting novelty of this book should have been added there. I’m trying very hard to find something positive or new to mention about this book but there is nothing to find here, just 124 pages of things I already knew or would have rather ignored. If you really feel like you need to know more about how to play a bard character in your campaign, I suggest you look for historic books about bards rather then try to make sense of this one…
5 Stars Gotta Love It
This book is probably the most useful book out of the ….. handbooks. If you were to create a Bard, which I would prefer, this book tells you about amazing kits, out of this world special abilities with magical weapons, spells, and more. I hope this would be of good use to you.
5 Stars A must for all role players
This book not only has great kits, it also has some very helpful charts in it concerning the off-combat role playing of the Bard. There is a table for legend lore rolls, money made playing in taverns, reputation and what kind of followers you can have. The kits are astounding and they really explore how far the rules let you go with the Bard. I am a musician in real life and playing the Bard with this book in hand makes D & D so much fun. I recommend this book to DM and player alike.
4 Stars Good historical value.
At the time it was first published, this book gave the bard class much to use. More so than the others in the “Complete” series, the kits are actually new character classes that just call themselves bards.
However, this book does not translate very well into d20, although it should provide inspiration for new prestige classes.
4 Stars Bests Kits of any of the Handbook Supplements
I recommend this book highly if you use kits. I have several of the handbooks and this one truly has the best kits of any of them. My players use to never play bards, but after getting this book we always have one in our groups.
If you don’t like kits this book proably isn’t for you. However, it does have a good chapter on roleplaying bards as well as optional rules for a reputation system that is pretty interesting. There is a section on music which has a list of instruments with pictures and short descriptions. There is also a couple of new proficiencies, spells, magic items; however, I didn’t find these particularly useful.
Filed under: Dungeons and Dragons Book Reviews
