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Old 12-21-2022, 12:18 AM   #1
corwyn
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Default Bards and Prot from Evil

So I just noticed bards have a special dispensation to know this spell.
Do they add Bardic Talent to skill? I am pretty sure the answer is no.
Should they?
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Old 12-21-2022, 05:43 AM   #2
sir_pudding
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Default Re: Bards and Prot from Evil

Why wouldn't they? Bardic Talent counts a level of Magery for learning spells.
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Old 12-21-2022, 10:50 AM   #3
sjmdw45
 
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Default Re: Bards and Prot from Evil

Quote:
Originally Posted by corwyn View Post
So I just noticed bards have a special dispensation to know this spell.
Do they add Bardic Talent to skill? I am pretty sure the answer is no.
Should they?
Hmmm! Good point.
Bardic Talent enables you to buy Bard-Song abilities; add its level (maximum six) to all rolls required to use such powers. It also allows you to learn and cast wizardly spells from the Communication and Empathy, Knowledge, Mind Control, and Sound colleges – count it as an equivalent level of Magery (p. 41) for this specific purpose, adding to your IQ, helping you meet Magery prerequisites, and in some cases letting you produce more potent results.
Adventurers pg 17 says Bardic Talent counts as Magery for purposes of learning and casting spells from (only) those four specific colleges. So a strict reading says that Protection From Evil doesn't benefit from Bardic Talent.

On the other hand, it certainly looks like Bardic Talent is intended to affect all spellcasting learned "as a bard," and since Spells doesn't give any special rules for how bards learn it except that they can, it's probably just an oversight.

On the gripping hand, the game is better and simpler if you just pencil in a modification to Protection From Evil, e.g. "Bards treat the bardic version of this spell as belonging to the college of Communication and Empathy."

Last edited by sjmdw45; 12-21-2022 at 12:06 PM. Reason: Typo: "all" not "as"
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Old 12-21-2022, 11:03 AM   #4
Kromm
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Default Re: Bards and Prot from Evil

It's unambiguous: "When you buy a spell, add a permanent bonus equal to your level with the associated spellcasting talent" and "spellcasting talent: Bardic Talent, Magery, or any type of Power Investiture" (Spells, p. 4). "Bards cast wizardly spells. For the most part, these work normally . . . Bardic Talent (Adventurers, p. 17) replaces Magery. The same level is needed as a prerequisite, and it gives a permanent bonus to spells" (Spells, p. 7). The special dispensation for Protection from Evil is irrelevant to the discussion because it does not say that it's an exception to the spellcasting rules for bards, only to the available colleges.

Writing "the Communication and Empathy, Knowledge, Mind Control, and Sound colleges, and the Protection from Evil spell" is simply excessively wordy, which is why it's "the Communication and Empathy, Knowledge, Mind Control, and Sound colleges" everywhere. That's neither here nor there for the general rules right at the start of Spells, though.
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