Topic: A question for those who swap bards & monks to Amthorian style

[Mhairtrym]

Okay I have read the debates and so forth on Having Monks be from Mentalism, and Bards of Essence.  And I can see the merits for both.

My question is more for a Bard that is swapped from Metalism to Essence.  Do you change the cost of certain skills?  For example now that the bard is of Essence his armor skills should really go up correct?  Anyhow I always wondered if certain skill costs should have minor adjustments? Or do you just move the spelllists to the new realm and now he has a different set of open and closed lists.
For the monk it is not so bad as you have multiple versions in MaCo so I guess this is really tied to the Bard. 

[markc]

 I can see the Bard be either a ment or an ess user and depending on my game I might change the skills you proposed above. I also might create an Bards instrument list like the warrior mages mage weapon [? could be wrong name], the magic staff spell list, the armsmaster personal weapon list, the Wyrd Bow from the Guild Companion or the Druid staff spell list form RM2.
 That was the Bard would not receive penalties for casting spells with his instrument in hand. I think I would leave the spell list as they are but it really depends on the role I want bards to play in my game. ie bards from land A might be different from bards from land X 1/2 way around the world.

MDC

[Nders]

Also I would suggest changing the cost of runes and attunement as essence deals a lot more with these skills than mentalism.

[Marc R]

It would certainly help get the danged healing out of essence. . . those monk lists are mentalism lists, really. . . .

Monk magic: Generally Self Directed

Bard magic: Generally Other directed

Which sounds like essence, and which like mentalism?

Other than that, I'd suggest:

Raise bard armor costs, since they will be unable to wear armor as essence users anyway.

Drop Monk armor costs. . .they can choose to be an Adrenal Defense monk, or an armored monk now in mentalism.

Drop the attunement and runes costs for Bard

Raise them for Monk.

Technically, you should also raise the bard's weapon costs, and lower the monks, since the bard will be hard pressed to even carry weapons due to essence realm limitations. . .(Frankly, a mentalism semi is perfect for an armored-armed warrior. . .which you get in the companions) But you can ignore that, and just advise the bard to orient toward bows or clubs to avoid metal.

[rdanhenry]

But then what happens to my Tuba-playing Bard?

[Marc R]

Need to switch to one of those white fiberglass sousaphones marching bands use. . . .

[Nders]

or use the trandsendence skill 

Or even better get your self a Læn Tuba, blade and armor that should solve your metal problem

[RandalThor]

For me, I generally see the Bard as an essence user, while the Monk can be either. But, ultimately that is a flavor issue.