D&D 5E bards and instruments

[CapnZapp]

Some instruments require two hands to play. Some instruments require you to blow air through them using your mouth.

The game is otherwise reasonably strict in controlling what you can do and can't do with your hands (you can't carry a lantern, a shield, wield a greatsword and cast somatic spells at the same time if you only have two hands)

Wouldn't it be impossible to cast a spell with a somatic component if you use a guitar as your spellcasting focus? Casting a spell with verbal component using a flute?

Or rather (getting to the point finally) shouldn't the bard rules say:

You can use a musical instrument (found in chapter 5)
as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells. Using a musical instrument with both hands and/or your mouth can replace the somatic and verbal component of the spell.

...or something to that effect?

 

[delericho]

Wouldn't it be impossible to cast a spell with a somatic component if you use a guitar as your spellcasting focus? Casting a spell with verbal component using a flute?

Maybe. It depends, really, on whether each spell has exactly one form (and so needs one specific set of Verbal and/or Somatic components), or whether there are many forms and so there could be variants. In which case, rather than chanting the specific mystic words, the Bard could instead play a specific set of notes with his flute; and of course the forceful gestures, when played on a guitar, would be an unusual chord progression or similar.

Or rather (getting to the point finally) shouldn't the bard rules say:

You can use a musical instrument (found in chapter 5)
as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells. Using a musical instrument with both hands and/or your mouth can replace the somatic and verbal component of the spell.

...or something to that effect?

Short answer: yes.

 

[Paraxis]

How much music do you expect in whatever fraction of a six second round the bard's action on his turn takes?

The only requirement is that they have the instrument in hand, so pick a small instrument like a flute, horn, tambourine, maraca, or something similar and use it the same way other spellcasters use wands and holy symbols, they just sort of wave them around a bit.

Now can a DM say that blowing into the flute count as the verbal component, and finger movements count as somatic ones, sure sounds wonderful, but mechanically speaking the bard just has to have an instrument in hand to use it as a focus.

 

[iserith]

[video=youtube;Q_b9MnUFeL0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_b9MnUFeL0[/video]

[video=youtube;6QFdvxnI3DY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QFdvxnI3DY[/video]

Anyway, my bard Falsetto Jones plays a haunted glockenspiel. I can choose to use one or two mallets as necessary.

 

[delericho]

How much music do you expect in whatever fraction of a six second round the bard's action on his turn takes?

In a 6-second combat round, the bard's action takes 6 seconds to complete. The individual turns within that round are just an artifact of the combat structure needed to help the people at the table make sense of the action.

As for "how much music": bagpipe music is commonly played at ~80 beats per minute, so that would be 8 beats per round, or about 4 bars of a 2/4 march. That is, the top line here. There's plenty of embellishment and expression there for the Bard's use.

(And, of course, that's just normal music played by an amateur. I'd expect the Bard's magic to be rather more involved, especially at higher level!)

 

[DEFCON 1]

I've always gotten the impression that WotC made the "components" of 5E so non-specific just so that every table could make their own decisions on it. So those that wanted to completely ignore V,S,M could do so... those that wanted to use a focus rather than find individual spell components could do so... and those that wanted to make as intricate or as general what the verbal or somatic components of a spell could be could do so.

So in this case... they say a particular bard spell might have V,S,M... with the implication that a DM might say "For the bard, the instrument is the Material, playing the instrument is the Somatic, and singing a tune is the Verbal", and that completely works and fits. Whereas another DM can require hand motions, spell components, and incantations for the bard spells just like they do for the wizard.

Once again, another place in the game where they decided "Rulings not rules."

 

[Kobold Stew]

This was a hobby horse for me through the play test (various thoughts to developing ideas listed here), and I feel it's one of the places where the final rule is loose and "rulings not rules" really isn't an answer, since the common sense understanding of "using" an instrument (two hands, playing music) places an additional burden on the one class, leading to special pleading.

 

[PnPgamer]

In a 6-second combat round, the bard's action takes 6 seconds to complete.

I do always find it funny that when people start to talk about a 6 second combat round, they assume that taking the action takes the whole 6 seconds. Does a character go to faster than light speeds if he moves?
or rather, LUDICROUS SPEED!
[video=youtube;ygE01sOhzz0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygE01sOhzz0[/video]

 

[Ashrym]

I don't think it's really any different than a holy symbol on a shield still allowing for somatic gestures with the shield arm or a wizard using the wand hand with the wand to include somatic gestures. A character is allowed to use the same free hand for somatic components as for material components or spell focus so there is no conflict within the rules.

A person either determines a narrative of some sort or ignores it as a combined mechanic and minor detail but it's specifically allowed.

 

[CapnZapp]

The only requirement is that they have the instrument in hand, so pick a small instrument like a flute, horn, tambourine, maraca, or something similar and use it the same way other spellcasters use wands and holy symbols, they just sort of wave them around a bit.

Whatever rules you use, they need to work for all instruments provided. That is, there shouldn't be any unwritten consequences of choosing a guitar or trumpet over a flute or maraca.

I agree you can read the rules as "just wave it around". But how uniconic and lame is that? Not to mention illogical (why do your focus need to be an instrument if you're not supposed to play it, to create sounds with it?)