Customer Reviews

Song and Silence: A Guidebook to Bards and Rogues (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Core-Class Guidebooks are more than half finished (with only the Rangers, Druids and Barbarians left) and it looks as if WOTC has finally figured out what the readers want.

This 96 page handbook is less of a Guidebook and more of an appendix to the Dungeon Masters Guide... but that's a GOOD thing.
Song and Silence cuts through the effluvia and gets down to business on page one.

First presented are the Prestige classes (including the much missed Thief-Acrobat) and moves straight to the Feats and Skills. As you can see below, the book is laid out in a economical and no-nonsense manner.

Chapter 1 - Prestige Classes
-Dread Pirate
-Dungeon Delver
-Fang of Lloth
-Outlaw of the Crimson Road
-Royal Explorer
-Spymaster
-Temple Raider of Olidammara
-Thief-acrobat
-Vigilante
-Virtuoso
Chapter 2 - Skills and Feats
-Primer on Poison
-Do-it-yourself Traps
-New ways to use skills
-Feats
Chapter 3 - Bard and Rogue Equipment
-Bards and their instruments
-Undead Bards
-New Weapons
-Thief Gear
-Magic Items
Chapter 4 - Organizations for Bards and Rogues
-Ten Thieves Guilds
-Bardic Colleges
Chapter 5 - You and the world around you
-The Rogue
-The Bard
Role in the Campaign
-Role in the Game
-Motivations
-Relationship with Others
-Special Combat Options
Chapter 6 - Spells
-New Assassin Spells
-New Bard Spells
-New Spells

Finally, Song and Silence is of equal value to players and DM's alike, the artwork is first rate and the prose is entertaining as well as enlightening.

Another win for WOTC.

Flavor-wise Rogues and Bards are definitely the most 'with it' classes, street smart and savvy. Rules-wise, they do okay single-classed; Rogues get some decent scratch at higher levels with thier special abilities and ever-increasing Sneak Attacks while Bards flesh out into reasonable spellcasting capability, plenty of Bardic Music to go the distance, and near omniscience from Bardic Knowledge. Bards are also very friendly to Multi-classing since thier Bardic Music is skill based rather than level based. Thus, perhaps it isnt that big of a deal that there are only 10 prestige classes presented herein.

Of the 10, none seem like loosers outright, but none of them are particularly gripping either. Dread Pirate is interesting but seems much more useful as an NPC pClass outside of very specific pirate-oriented campaign settings (in which most everyone would want to take it). The Dungeon Delver gets some pretty cheesy supernatural abilities with no apparant source (IMO spell-like and supernatural abilities should have some source of origin and not just be handed out to dial in the cool factor); further it doesnt compare well to some of the 3rd party material out there in supplements like Traps & Treachery. The Fang of Lolth is (Im sorry) asinine from the top down. Outlaw of the Crimson Path is quasi-interesting and helps a player that wants to be a Robin Hood highwayman sort of character but seems ill-suited to an adventuring PC; again another NPC-centric pClass. The Royal Explorer is somewhat interesting and one of the few classes semi-friendly to the Bard, but mostly focuses on lots of bonus languages and a very weakly justified skill boost with a list of applicable skills expanding every 2 class levels; the class does give a free Exotic Weapon proficiency at 1st level and the supremely useful Track feat at 2nd which helps fill the class out. The Spymaster is a super-sweet class with very useful abilities that essentially serve to allow a character concept that the rules would otherwise hamper or make impractical; unfortunately it also seems most well suited to an NPC (but PCs in a city campaign with heavy political overtones could get some benefit from it as well). The Temple Raider of Olidammara is a decent class, but thier connection with Olidammara doesnt sit well with my mental image thru the years of Olidammara as a Dionysius-like deity that is also a patron of the arts; a Thespian of Olidammara friendly to Bards in thier role as actors would have been more fitting (particularly if slanted to the aspect of spy-actors that use acting troupes as thier cover); however the actual pClass is solid and would better fit the demi-god Rudd or one of the other more straight-rogue gods IMO. The Thief-Acrobat returns once again and are sure to be a popular choice for pure-rogues as they get a plethora of good abilities; a Rogue 10/T-A 10 would be formidable; however the class as a rather pointless requirement of membership in a thieve's Guild. The Vigilante is next up and basically serves to waste a really good pClass name on a rather lackluster pClass; the class is okay (except for a dependence on 'home turf' ie a single city for one of thier better abilities) aside from a cop-out reliance on spell casting as a sorceror for a collection of spells to help them track down and catch baddies; sorely lacking in the classes criminal hunting repetoire is the Track ability or the GATHER INFO skill as a class skill, even though one of the classes preRequisites is 8 Ranks of Gather Info {stupid but true}. Finally the Virtuoso basically is just a better bard; there is absolutely no reason for a 10th level Bard not to take this pClass for his last 10 levels; trading thier Strong Reflex Save, Bardic Knowledge, and Intermediate BAB, the Bard/Virtuoso gains full spellcasting progression and gains 9 new Bardic Music abilities.

A long chunk on designing Traps follows and seems okay at first blush.

The Feats are short and sweet, with a couple of Winners like the much needed Dash (which adds +5 Movement, although as an aside no blurb exists stating that the Feat can be taken more than once though IMO you should be able to take it multiple times up to 60 feet of movement), and Fleet of Foot (which allows a single up-to-90 degree turn when running or charging but requires the otherwise lackluster Run feat), several +2 this and that skill feats, an erratad Expert Tactician, a few 'trade Sneak Attack for X' feats that are very cool (read 'very open to abuse') and sure to cause many arguments in days to come. My favorite is Snatch Weapon (Martial Takeaway anyone?) which is a better form of Disarm. The Bards get a few goodies as well that enhance thier Bardic Music abilities in several useful (Subharmonics) and non-useful (Green Music) ways.

The rest of the book is pretty much lackluster IMO, with a lot of description of musical instruments, some lame magic items, some sctick-laden Bardic Colleges, a rather laborious explanation of unusual flanking situations, 4 new Assassin spells, and a mixed bag of Bard Spells.

Despite some flaws, I thought Tome & Blood was superior to this splatbook in every area. If you are a hard-core Rogue or Bard player you might want to buy this, but you would be smarter (and more in-character) to sucker your DM or another player to get it and then mooch off of them on the rare occasion when you gain Feat.

Still, I noticed fewer errors and editing mistakes at first glance than any of the previous splat books and this book, while not gripping, was at least not as bad as Defenders of the Faith.

If the rating system allowed it I would rate this a 3.5, but since it doesnt I will round up to a 4.

The supplimental class books released by WoTC this year have helped as reference material with characters I've played. I started a rogue in a recent campaign with anticipation of finding some nifty new prestige class class to gear toward, or some inspiration for a yet-unplayed bard.

I do feel, as another reviewer mentioned, that it traps the characters within a human or half-elven standard, and I think that's being extremely limited. I've found the feats quite nifty in this book, and the trap-making extremely informational, but I really wasn't that impressed with the prestige classes as a whole. They just kinda seemed there, and having watched someone play a Shadowdancer, they pale in comparison, IMHO. Of course, this might change if I see someone pull it off.

Reading the book, I felt that just about everything, except for the trap making, seemed much more geared toward bards than rogues, and perhaps that's what's disappointing me. Lots of great stuff for bards in here. Particularly feats against undead, and the subsonic music. Quite cool.

Regardless, I think that for the feats and ideas with trap making, the book is worth a read. And perhaps someone will find some sweet... way to get a rogue through this book.

--Mel.

I waited for this with baited breath. My current character is a rogue, and after seeing the Blade Dancer in Oriental Adventures, the idea of having my character be a Thief-Acrobat was all I could think about.

And so, when I heard it was at my friendly local gaming store, I ran to get it.

And I'm just a tad disappointed.

Basically, this is the bard & rogue splatbook for D&D3. In it, we find 10 prestige classes, rules for creating traps, new uses for skills, new feats, new items, both mundane and magical, organizations, role-playing tips, and new spells for bards and assassins (because, you know, assassins are rogue-like...).

Things that I liked, well, the dungeon delver, royal explorer, and thief-acrobat prestige classes were pretty cool. The skill discussions and feats are nice and useful, and I like having a system for creating traps that's not painfully stupid (thankfully, no treadmills here!). The bardic organizations are quite interesting.

Now, unfortunately, the remaining prestige classes...I consider them uninteresting at best (Virtuoso, Outlaw of the Crimson Road) or obscenely stupid (Fang of Lolth) at worst. Most of the prestige classes suffer from reduced skill points from what rogues have.

And...now, this is a personal bias, but, to be frank, it affected what I thought of this book. I don't really care for bards. I've thought about playing bards, but I can't, really. I would've appreciated the parts devoted to bards to have been replaced with things that are useful to rogues. I realize the classes are related, and that not a lot of people are going to share my disdain, but...still.

All in all, I'd really hoped to give this 5 stars. I'd give it 3.5 if I could, but out of memory for my anticipation, I'll round it up to 4 stars.

The class-specific series of books have been very hit and miss. Parts or some are better than parts of others. The most valueable part of this book, with mediocre prestige class ideas (exception given to the thief-acrobat) and a few new interesting feats that only a rogue could love, has to be the sections on making your own traps and poisons. It seems like instead of shipping a bunch of new directions for rogues to go, they're giving rules on how to run rogues in a game. That is a minor gripe, though, because even the provided rules are excellent.So, while this book is lighter than the others (in quantity and in quality) in terms of new "goodies" for thieves, playing a thief in a game with this book incorporated will be much cleaner and smoother in a lot of ways.

From my experience, the rogue is considered by most gamers to be pretty well balanced, while the bard is generally looked upon as somewhat lacking. In fact, I've seen more bard variants than any other class except the ranger. So, how did WotC do expanding on the bard & rogue classes? Let's take a look.

ARTWORK: Almost all painfully bad. Check out page 79 for Lidda the halfling's giant-sized hand holding the crossbow. WotC employs some of the finest fantasy artists in the business, but it looks like one of their kid brothers got their big break in Song & Silence. Wayne Reynolds saves the day in places, but those are few and far between.

PRESTIGE CLASSES: To get an idea of the prestige classes, let me run some of the names by you. Dread pirate (Roberts?), dungeon delver, spymaster, temple raider (just call it tomb raider!), vigilante. What word would I use to describe those? Generic! That seems to be the general fault of these PrCs: Little or no flavor. There are exceptions. How does the fang of lolth sound? Much more interesting, right? That one is so much cooler than the rest, it seems almost out of place. The thief-acrobat is an old favorite which is nice to see done up for 3E. The virtuoso is debatably what the core bard should have been in the first place!

TRAPS: This part can help DMs design cool traps. There are also 90 example traps by CR -- very handy.

FEATS: One of the stronger elements of the book. Nice mix of bard and rogue feats.

EQUIPMENT: Huge section on bardic instruments. The descriptions are explicit. The unique strengths and weaknesses of each instrument is a great idea. Why no actual stats? Where's the price, weight, size, etc? No idea why this wasn't added. Where are the rules for designing your own instrument? The other equipment is decent, but not terribly inspired. That is, unless you absolutely love garrotes.

SPECIAL RULES: This aspect is, to me, the main saving grace of the book. There are variant tumble rules. DMs: Too used to seeing your tumbling players dance away from AoOs with the simple DC 15 check? Well, now there are rules for counter tumble, and environment variables that modify the tumble DC. My favorite part of the whole book is the essential elaboration of the flanking rules. How does flanking large creatures work? How does flanking with reach weapons work? You can find out in Song & Silence.

SPELLS: Nice assortment of new bard spells, and a few thrown in for the assassin too!

OVERALL: Sorry to say, but I consider this to be one of the weaker class book overall. Don't get me wrong, there is some essential stuff in here, such as the new flanking rules. Still, overall, I walk away with a very generic feeling from Song & Silence. I wish the rogue got a lot more attention; it seems the bard kind of steals the show. In my game, I've switched over to Monte Cook's variant bard from his Book of Eldritch Might 2. I highly recommend that version of the bard for deeper bardic flavor. All in all, this is no Tome & Blood or Masters of the Wild, but it does have some things you'll want in your game. As with all WotC's books, keep an eye out on their website for downloadable errata!

Granted, I am one of WOTC's consumer drones: put a new source book for D&D on the market and I will buy it for my gaming group's library. The section on traps is definitely worth the cost of buying this book especially if your DM will permit your rogue to earn XP for defeating a nasty trap. Otherwise, the prestige classes offered simply give people options for player development. Myself, I favor a cleric/rogue multiclassed character. The saving throws tend to be well-rounded and no one minds that you have a tendency to shun melee combat. Well, except for that lunatic half-orc paladin in the front row.....

This book is pretty good, I'd say. The prestige classes are pretty good, particularly the Outlaw of the Crimson Road, in my opinion. The feats are nice, too, and the primers on poison and traps are a godsend. Also, the Thieves' Guilds and Bardic Colleges are good, and Nuth's Laws help me immensely. It just seems as though it could have been better. Some of the prestige classes were lacking, to say the least, and some of the feats were less than useful.

The artwork was good, especially the sketch of a rogue using many of the "surgical strike" feats in the books. Some of the advancement tips were also quite useful. It was a pretty good book, and helped me out, but it definitely could have been better.

3rd Edition is supposed to be dedicated to providing good materials, not making products for mass marketing. WOtC are supposed to be making money on the PHB, not through mass supplemets. Although the Guidebooks in this series have some decent material, this one seems to digress back to 2nd edition theme of "pump out the material as fast as possible". The book is centered on the theif class and, aside from instruments, has little of value concerning the bard. In fact only one bard prestige class is present. As for the details on theives, the material lacks imagination. While very new players may find the supplemental interesting, experienced players will place it on the shelf next to the D&D Basic Set. It is becoming abundantly clear that a single book with every prestige class could have easily replaced these multiple guides. The notes on societies, guilds, knighthoods, colleges, monasteries, brotherhoods, and everything else designed to fluff the fluff could have been included in the Hero Builders Guidebook (and then maybe someone would buy it). There are plenty of other prestige classes out there that would make a far more intersting theif or bard than anything in this book. If you, like me, are one of those unfortunates that feels compelled to collect everything that comes out - then pick it up. If you are serioulsy interested only in materials to aid your gaming then skip this book. You ain't missin' nothin' baby!

I guess that I was expecting a book that was as good as the "Complete Thief's Handbook" from a few years ago. I think that the book is geared a bit more towards bards with all of the spells. If you are planning on getting all of the guidebooks, this is as good as the rest.

All in all not bad, but some of the prestige classes were a bit un-imaginative. i.e. Tomb ... er... I mean Temple Raider. Come on guys. But, if that is what people want, I guess that is fine.