How do Bardic Implements work?

[Katuchan]

Firstly, my apologies if this has been asked before, but I don't have access to the search function.

I am playing my first 4e bard character, and I have a question regarding implements/instruments. I have the Mac-Fuirmidh Cittern as my implement, and aside from that I'm geared toward ranged attacks...but most bard attacks are melee attack only. Am I meant to just switch back and forth between my instrument and my weapons?

Ideally I would like to stay out of combat as much as possible, using only my bow and my lute. Do you think it would be game-breaking to change melee weapon attacks to ranged weapon attacks?

Also, how do you pronounce mac-fuirmidh? >.>

 

[Siberys]

Yes, you are meant to switch between implement and weapon. If you don't want to, there are several songblades/bows, which operate as both. If you're careful about power selection, you should be able to make a ranged bard without any problem. I'd be wary about switching melee attacks to ranged, though.

As for pronunciation - I may be wrong on this - but I think it's basically "Mack Fur-me". The i before the dh makes it "slender", and a slender dh in Irish Gaelic is pronounced as a y, according to this site I've used for figuring out how to pronounce Gaelic words. All my knowledge of Gaelic comes from "translating" via internet articles, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[Spatula]

If you want to just use the lute, there are plenty of bard implement attacks. You don't have to take the melee weapon attacks (or the ranged weapon attacks, for that matter). If you don't want to keep switching between two weapons, the aforementioned songbow is the way to go.

 

[Katuchan]

Thank you so much for the advice, I appreciate it!