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Song and Silence: A Guidebook to Bards and Rogues
Finesse and Versatility Make Powerful Allies
Bards and rogues rely on a stunning array of skills and abilities to give them an edge over any adversary. Packed with new ways to customize even the most artful characters this book
New feats, prestige classes, weapons, spells, magic items, and equipment.
Complete guidelines for trapmaking, including 90 sample traps.
Descriptions of a wide range of thieves' guilds and bardic colleges.
Detailed rules for flanking opponents in combat.
Dungeon Masters and players who want to add a new dimension to their bards and rogues will find a wealth of indispensable material within these pages.
To use this accessory, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player's Handbook , the Dungeon Master's Guide , and the Monster Manual . A player needs only the Player's Handbook .
Bards and rogues rely on a stunning array of skills and abilities to give them an edge over any adversary. Packed with new ways to customize even the most artful characters this book
New feats, prestige classes, weapons, spells, magic items, and equipment.
Complete guidelines for trapmaking, including 90 sample traps.
Descriptions of a wide range of thieves' guilds and bardic colleges.
Detailed rules for flanking opponents in combat.
Dungeon Masters and players who want to add a new dimension to their bards and rogues will find a wealth of indispensable material within these pages.
To use this accessory, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player's Handbook , the Dungeon Master's Guide , and the Monster Manual . A player needs only the Player's Handbook .
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
231 people want to read
About the author
John D. Rateliff
29 books38 followersJOHN D. RATELIFFmoved to Wisconsin in 1981 in order to work with the Tolkien manuscripts at Marquette University. He has been active in Tolkien scholarship for many years, delivering papers on Tolkien and the Inklings. While at Marquette, he assisted in the collation of their holdings with those Christopher Tolkien was editing for his History of Middle-earth series. A professional editor, he lives in the Seattle area with his wife and three cats, only one of whom is named after a Tolkien character.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 14, 2020
Song and Silence is a rather slim book giving extra options to the bard and rogue classes of 3rd Edition D&D. There's some interesting stuff here, but probably not enough to be worth the money spent buying it.
The book starts of with a chapter on new prestige classes suitable for rogues and bards. Some are interesting, others are boring or too specific... but what is notable is that only one of them (the Virtuoso) seems actually geared towards the bard class. Bards can qualify for the other classes, but would then need to give up their bardic music and spellcasting advancement, making them more useful for rogues.
Second chapter gives a selection of new feats, new skill uses, and (probably most useful) more info on designing and creating traps and poisons, as well as a long list of example traps. Chapter 3 gives a list of mundane and magical equipment suitable for rogues and bards, including a long list of musical instruments along with extra bardic music effect caused by choosing said instrument (like bagpipes causing a morale penalty on fear saves, poor bagpipes).
Chapter 4 gives a list of different structures for thieves' guilds and some example bardic colleges. I found this interesting actually, especially the discussion on the guilds. Chapter 6 covers general info about the rogue and bard class, such as common character motivations and how they relate with other classes, followed by a discussion on tactics useful for rogues (flanking and garrote attacks). The final chapter contains new spells suitable for the bard and assassin classes, although some of these spells - the ones which aren't obviously musical - should have been suitable for sorcerers and wizards too.
The book starts of with a chapter on new prestige classes suitable for rogues and bards. Some are interesting, others are boring or too specific... but what is notable is that only one of them (the Virtuoso) seems actually geared towards the bard class. Bards can qualify for the other classes, but would then need to give up their bardic music and spellcasting advancement, making them more useful for rogues.
Second chapter gives a selection of new feats, new skill uses, and (probably most useful) more info on designing and creating traps and poisons, as well as a long list of example traps. Chapter 3 gives a list of mundane and magical equipment suitable for rogues and bards, including a long list of musical instruments along with extra bardic music effect caused by choosing said instrument (like bagpipes causing a morale penalty on fear saves, poor bagpipes).
Chapter 4 gives a list of different structures for thieves' guilds and some example bardic colleges. I found this interesting actually, especially the discussion on the guilds. Chapter 6 covers general info about the rogue and bard class, such as common character motivations and how they relate with other classes, followed by a discussion on tactics useful for rogues (flanking and garrote attacks). The final chapter contains new spells suitable for the bard and assassin classes, although some of these spells - the ones which aren't obviously musical - should have been suitable for sorcerers and wizards too.
April 23, 2013
Didn't like this at all. This sourcebook is mediocre at best. Since it's for the 3rd edition, there's little reason to bother with this at all.
The prestige classes, aside from one, are very generic and hardly "prestigious".
The items, musical instruments, and spells are ok I suppose, as additional options, but I found the spell list lazy - many of them seem suited for wizards and clerics yet they were made exclusive to assassins and bards. There are a handful of tactical options, but felt like just more complications.
About the only notable sections are the ones on trap construction, sample traps, sample thieves' guilds and sample bardic colleges.
The thing that I can't stand most is the almost frivolous approach in describing things about the bard class. It almost felt like they weren't even being serious.
The easiest place to have scored was to highlight more role-playing and non-combat opportunities for rogues and bards, yet this was barely examined.
The prestige classes, aside from one, are very generic and hardly "prestigious".
The items, musical instruments, and spells are ok I suppose, as additional options, but I found the spell list lazy - many of them seem suited for wizards and clerics yet they were made exclusive to assassins and bards. There are a handful of tactical options, but felt like just more complications.
About the only notable sections are the ones on trap construction, sample traps, sample thieves' guilds and sample bardic colleges.
The thing that I can't stand most is the almost frivolous approach in describing things about the bard class. It almost felt like they weren't even being serious.
The easiest place to have scored was to highlight more role-playing and non-combat opportunities for rogues and bards, yet this was barely examined.
March 8, 2010
3rd edition D&D, a short lived edition of Dungeons and Dragons that changed the game greatly and sent it off in the direction that it has continued to move in. These books were planed to aid in the building of the different character classes (there was a set of these).
If you decided to use some of the ideas from this book and adapt them to another edition I suppose you could. I decided I wouldn't care to and sold the set. To each his own, each later edition has somewhat simplified the game (read dumbed down) so I plan to try and stay with 2nd edition.
If you decided to use some of the ideas from this book and adapt them to another edition I suppose you could. I decided I wouldn't care to and sold the set. To each his own, each later edition has somewhat simplified the game (read dumbed down) so I plan to try and stay with 2nd edition.
February 7, 2020
Basic Premise: A supplement for D&D 3.0 for skills-based characters.
Much like all of the books of this type, it gives new feats, spells, abilities, and sundry details to add to the game. It's a combination of mostly crunch and a little fluff to make things interesting. The book is useful to players, but not indispensible.
Much like all of the books of this type, it gives new feats, spells, abilities, and sundry details to add to the game. It's a combination of mostly crunch and a little fluff to make things interesting. The book is useful to players, but not indispensible.
April 28, 2015
Options would be hard to use for a bard. Traps section is very good.
April 3, 2012
good book about rouges & bards!
June 11, 2015
Muy útil para sacar algunas ideas, buena info.
November 14, 2017
I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14678153
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14678153
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews