"I believe it is a logical addition to the D & D scene and the one I have composed is a hodgepodge of at least three different kinds, the norse ‘skald’, the celtic ‘bard’, and the southern european ‘minstrel’. The skalds were often old warriors who were a kind of self appointed historian whose duty was to record the ancient battles, blood feuds, and deeds of exceptional prowess by setting them to verse much like the ancient Greek poets did. Tolkien, a great Nordic scholar, copied this style several times in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (for example Bilbo’s chant of Earendil the Mariner). The Celts, especially in Britain, had a much more organized structure in which the post of Barbs (sic) as official historians fell somewhere between the Gwelfili or public recorders and the Druids who were the judges as well as spiritual leaders. In the Celtic system Bards were trained by the Druids for a period of almost twenty years before they assumed their duties, among which was to follow the heroes into battle to provide an accurate account of their deeds, as well as to act as trusted intermediaries to settle hostilities among opposing tribes. By far the most common conception of a Bard is as a minstrel who entertained to courts of princes and kings in France, Italy and parts of Germany in the latter middle ages. Such a character was not as trust worthy as the Celtic or Nordic Bards and could be compared to a combination Thief-Illusionist. These characters were called Jongleurs by the French, from which the corrupt term juggler and court jester are remembered today . . .I thought to myself, "Should I, or shouldn't I, work with this 'muddle'?"
I wanted to put the Bard into perspective so that his multitudinous abilities in Dungeons and Drageons can be explained. I have fashioned the character more after the Celtic and Norse types than anything else, thus he is a character who resembles a fighter more than anything else, but who knows something about the mysterious forces of magic and is well adept with his hands, etc."
Skalds were generally poets. (The term skald (or skáld) means ‘poet’.) During the Viking Age, they composed for the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders.The following is from All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World, Volume 1 by Ruth A Johnston.
Bards were storytellers, most often employed by a patron. Their subjects tended to be the patron's ancestors, or the patron's own accomplishments.
Minstrels were performers (singers/musicians), often (but not exclusively) retained by high society. The songs of the minstrel told of distant places or of existing or imaginary historical events (often memorizing and embellishing the works of others). Later, minstrels were replaced in the court by troubadours, and the minstrels became wanderers. The subject of the troubadours was courtly love and chivalry.
"There were essentially three categories of minstrels, although the dividing lines are fuzzy. Musicians sang and played many different instruments, and, although they were ranked below the noble troubadours, they were at the top of the generally minstrelsy sacale. Next were the jongleurs and mimes, who could do nearly anything else. They did literal tumbling, acrobatics such as headstand and handsprings... others had learned magic tricks while in the Middle East on Crusade... A third group, the smallest, was made up of dropout scholars. They traveled with minstrels and and used their learning to entertain."Okay, so let's see... we have music, and magic, and lore, and thieving... all from different types of minstrels, but all present in Schwegman's original concept.
"...the common minstrels gained a reputation for thieving and causing trouble."
The bard is a half-ass thief... literally. Per Schwegman, a bard operates as a thief at half the bard's level, rounded down! And they get no bonuses for striking from behind.It's not a bad mix of abilities, though you'll likely still need a magic-user and thief in the party. However, in the BX context of party mix, where race is class, the bard is a good second-tier choice (e.g., in place of an elf or halfling). In some ways, this makes the bard almost a better fit for BX. In AD&D (and LL AEC) multi-classing serves generally the same purpose. But those things don't really exist in pure BX or LL. That's sort of where the bard makes sense... to round out the party in the absence of another class with abilities that cross over between the four base classes (cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief).
The bard is also half-ass as a workhorse magic-user. At fifth level, the bard has 3 spells (all 1st level) and a MU (per the LBBs) has 7 (4 first, 2 second, 1 third). However, the bard's charm ability is far superior to the MUs, and the bard's saving grace (from a magic standpoint, anyway). For MUs, charm person is a 1st level spell and charm monster is a 4th level spell, and each affects a single target. By comparison, the bard's charm affect all in hearing range (not just a single target), and it also affects undead (though at a penalty). The bard's charm ability is balanced by reducing the bard's chances based on the HD of the creature. That happens for MUs based on the target's saving throw (which increases with HD/level). The use of the bard's charm is limited, though, to a number of uses per day equal to the bard's level. Honestly, though, that ability is worth it's weight in gold, almost like having a bunch of sleep spells.
When you get to combat abilities, the bard can hold his own, fighting and saving as a cleric, able to use any weapon, and allowed to wear leather armor (or magical chain, but this nullifies chances for climbing and moving silently), and not allowed to use a shield. But the lack of really protective armor and the use of a shield kind of makes the bard a little susceptible (AC-wise).
 DESCRIPTION When Xumaltet, the petty god of primal emotions and savage urges, first found his way to the Prime Material Plane from the darkest realms of the Dream Lands, his arrival created a massive cloud of subconscious residue. This residue lingered there, mutating the early nematode life living there, and creating the genetic forefathers of the large, semi-intelligent race of creatures that have since come to be known as the scrä-worms. The same subconscious residue that gave them semi-intelligence, also gave their ids dominance, causing these creatures to be driven by their needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly their sexual appetites and aggressive drives. If they see something they want, they take it, and they’re not opposed to killing other scrä-worms to get it. These slender, hammer-headed flatworms measure nearly 6' in length, with a head approximately 12" wide. They are moderately slow, but attack with a forceful blow from their hammer-heads, doing 2d6+2 on a successful “to hit” roll. Additionally, on a natural “to hit” roll of 20, a scrä-worm will strike the head of its target, creating confusion in its victim, with one of the following effects (roll 2d6): Scrä-worms are incredibly resilient. They take only half damage from acid and fire-based attacks, take no damage from cold though it slows them to half movement (2d6 rounds), and electrical attacks restore their hit points (up to their normal maximum). Given their libidinous behavior, there is a 50% chance a scrä-worm lair will have 2d4 young with half the stats of an adult. Scrä-worms are the natural enemies of the gorloght, the race that Xumaltet enslaved to fend off the ever-growing population of scrä-worms. * See Petty Gods: Revised & Expanded Edition | Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Very rare NO. APPEARING: 1-4 ARMOR CLASS: 7 MOVE: 6" (6") HIT DICE: 5 % IN LAIR: 50% TREASURE TYPE: D NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 4-14 SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Semi- ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil SIZE: L (6' long) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 7 HIT DICE: 6* MOVE: 60'(20') (60'(20')) ATTACKS: 1 slam DAMAGE: 4-14 NO. APPEARING: 1-2 (2-20) SAVE AS: Fighter:3 MORALE: 11 TREASURE TYPE: D ALIGNMENT: Chaotic |
 DESCRIPTION These 2’-long, maggot-like creatures are typically found in areas of rot, and are particular fond of the rotting flesh of animals. Any hive-mite within 10' of another hive-mite automatically shares its mind with that hive-mite. Subsequently, all hive-mites contiguously within a 10' range of one another share their minds with all of the others in the “chain.” Solitary hive-mites have a psionic level of 1 (5 PSPs), and may opt to make a psionic attack (with id insinuation) during the round, rather than their standard bite attack. Hive-mites which are sharing their minds have a psionic level equal to the number of hive-mites in the group of shared minds, but collectively get only 1 psionic attack per round (which only one of the mites in the chain may use in lieu of its bite attack). When making a psionic attack with a shared mind, PSPs may be cannibalized from other hive-mites in the chain, deducting the cannibalized PSPs from the reservoir of those hive-mites. Psionic saving throws for any hive-mite in a chain is made as a fighter equal to the shared mind’s psionic level. Any clairsentient or telepathic ability (psionic, magic, or otherwise), as well as any attack mode, targeted against any hive-mite (or hive-mites) in a chain has a chance to affect the other hive-mites in the chain. Each member of the shared mind must make a successful psionic saving throw or suffer the ability’s/attacks effects. Hive-mites are always protected by a tower of iron will with no PSP cost. Psychometabolic, psychokinetic and psychoporative sionic abilities which target an individual “externally” (e.g., disintegration), affect only the single hive-mite against which the ability is targeted. All other (non-psionic) saving throws are made as a 1st level fighter. The morale of any hive mite is dependent upon the number of minds being shared as outlined below:
| Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Very rare NO. APPEARING: 2-8 ARMOR CLASS: 7 MOVE: 3" HIT DICE: 1+1 % IN LAIR: 40% TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: Poison SPECIAL ATTACKS: 1 psionic attack per hive-mite "chain" SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Low- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: S (2' long) PSIONIC ABILITY: 15 (per hive-mite) Attack/Defense Modes: D/J BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 7 HIT DICE: 1+1 MOVE: 30'(10') ATTACKS: 1 bite or special DAMAGE: 1-4 or special NO. APPEARING: 1-4 (2-8) SAVE AS: See below MORALE: See below TREASURE TYPE: Nil ALIGNMENT: Neutral PSIONIC LEVEL: See below (5 PSPs per hive-mite) ATTACK MODES: id insinuation DEFENSE MODES: tower of iron will* (no PSP cost, always on) |
"It should be noted that Tim (Kask) got everything as sheets in a large bowl and told to work with it. He did amazing work given the conditions. As for where material came from, Tim would get clues when Gary would put the credits together..."Yes. Tim had a literal BOWL on his desk that Gary would dump things into as work in progress. [Steve mentioned to me that the "WIP bowl" is something he himself only learned of last month when talking to Tim Kask at the recent NTRPGCon.]
"I LOVED psionic combat and had great fun devising it with all of its tables and charts. Apparently I was in the tiny minority. I guess mental combat was too esoteric for most D&Ders; not enough of them shared my fondness for the Dr. Strange Marvel comics and Mindflayers."So here's my interpretation of the formula for how psionics developed for OD&D: