TOPIC: Question about Bardic Instruments

The question that I can't find the answer to is: Can a bard use monster lore while playing Briano's? Does monster lore count as a spell and what kind of action does a bard need to expend to use it?

Randy wrote: The question that I can't find the answer to is: Can a bard use monster lore while playing Briano's? Does monster lore count as a spell and what kind of action does a bard need to expend to use it?

I'm pretty sure Briano's doesn't work with monster lore, but I'm interested to hear the official answer. If not, that leaves an opening for a third UR Bard instrument that would work with monster lore.

Per the DMG page 14, a Bardic Lore check is a full-round action. Other than a Free Action, bards may not perform any other action on the same round. Currently there are no instruments that allow bards to perform bardsong as a Free Action.

That said, if you played Lyre of Echoes on one round, you could perform a Bardic Lore check on the following round and maintain the bardsong effect.

What about descriptions on the items themselves? Is tokendb wrong? tokendb.com/token/brianos-blessed-bodhran/

The bodhran allows the bard to cast spells - the bardic lore check is not casting a spell.

Right, it looks like the monster lore check and reading scrolls could be abilities of future Bard instruments

Hmmm. Those wouldn't actually be bad Rare-level abilities. Especially the Bardic Lore one.

I could see a Bard UR that allowed a monster knowledge check while singing.

I just don't see the bardic knowledge check as being as valuable as other UR instruments - Casting or Attacking are MUCH more important and work through an entire combat. Bardic knowledge is a one-time per monster check at best.

Plus, it would be nice to have some additional Rare-level instruments

I'd buy a UR Bard instrument that allowed either the monster lore check or casting of scrolls for our Bard.

I would buy a UR for Scroll Casting. I would think Rare more appropriate for Monster Lore, although you could get this same effect by using Lyre of Echos round 1, Monster Lore round 2, then switch to Widseth's or Briano's for rest of combat. Only downside is you need to wait until second round to get Lore information.

mage124 wrote: I would buy a UR for Scroll Casting. I would think Rare more appropriate for Monster Lore, although you could get this same effect by using Lyre of Echos round 1, Monster Lore round 2, then switch to Widseth's or Briano's for rest of combat. Only downside is you need to wait until second round to get Lore information.

The other downside is the Lyre of Echos isn't as powerful as the UR Lyres, they add an extra +2 Damage. A UR Bard Instrument that allowed you to do a monster check while doing a bard song at +2 damage seems pretty appropriate. It would allow several free checks per Dungeon which seems pretty powerful.