"The bard is an unusual class that starts out similar to the thief class, representing something like a medieval wandering troubadour, but at higher level is accepted into the secret society of bardic colleges and becomes a master of law, lore, and hidden knowledge, allied with the ancient druidic hierarchy."
-The Heroic Legendarium, p24
But OSRIC doesn't have a bard!
It does now.
Not having a bard felt limiting to me; I could hack one together with a multiclass thief/magic-user, but a classic bard class felt like it would push me more toward a 2E clone, like For Gold & Glory. We have an excellent bard, found over here in the Heroic Legendarium, an expansion for 1E material, but it works perfectly with OSRIC and any 1E game.
We have a d8 hit die and thief abilities that progress as thieves, but stop at 8th level. We get a morale buff, singing that negates monster singing attacks, and enthrall. What makes this version of the 1E, 2E, or 3E bard the best is that the book includes entirely unique "bard songs" used for the spells. Yes, bards, here you get your very own spell list. This is the premium deluxe; nothing held back. This book is mine, 1E bard. 96 music-based spells, all yours.
Since these are written for 1E, all spells have casting times and include segments. This is where BX spell lists break when trying to use them for 1E, and you can't claim 1E compatibility unless you include casting time all the way down to the segment, since 1E needs this for caster balance. Without segment-based casting, casters begin to become far too powerful. Time has always balanced casters, and lesser designers simplified the concept, thinking the audience couldn't handle the depth.w
Gygax knew how to balance casters: put them on the clock, let them get hit, and the spell gets lost. Instant martial advantage, and a huge buff to ranged, and rogues, the party's fast attackers were the anti-caster "spell defense" of the party. What do we get today? MMO DPS classes with a few skill tricks.
The more you see how Wizards removed the time factor in its versions of D&D, the more the house of cards starts to collapse. Even BX is weak to this comparison, and all BX derivative games share 5E's problems because of oversimplification. I have to call this out. I love BX, but I will call out its weaknesses and point to a superior design that fixes the fundamental flaw of oversimplifying casting time.
These bards are cool. They are the bards we deserved, and this book plus OSRIC is a match made in gaming heaven. You are not borrowing spells from other caster lists in a lazy hack, some sort of "house band" that never plays its own stuff. You get your own spells here, never borrowed, and you are not a "cover caster" recycling the greatest hits of other spellcasting classes.
Well, that makes a lot of my books useless, and it puts a lot of these other lazy game designer bard implementations to shame. If I see another bard implementation that sloppily borrows from everyone else's spell lists, I'm tossing the book out the window.
If you want 1E's superior design and a bard the game deserves, check out the OSRIC 3 plus Heroic Legendarium combination.
It's music to my ears.
