Bard class development (yes, again)

[Joe the Rat]

I wouldn't worry too much about the spell list additions - it's just a bit of added versatility in choices, not additional powers. The Song ability and Lore Knowledge of Skalds and Minstrels give some significant options over Fighters and Thieves. I'm still pushing for spell scroll use at higher levels (to go along with the whole mastery of Lore and Knowledge thing) - if you think the stabby classes need something to compensate for the bard-only spells, this might be an option. That or give some other bardic bonuses (Minstrels are really good at Listening and Picking Pockets, Skalds get some sort of Lore-related attack bonus, from knowing some obscure fact about a given creature and how it fights.)

On Names:
I like Troubadour. For me it's a "cellar door" kind of thing - I just like the sound of it. I did a little quick poking, and on a surface level, it might be a good one to use for Bardic Knights. The "classical" songbook tends towards chivalry and courtly love (as well as bawdy satire... it could work somehow), and the troubadour was something of a Court-based wandering minstrel. Da Wiki suggests early ties to nobility. So you have a noble and valiant fighter type, who leads and inspires, and has great skill in song and poetry. a bit more martial than the historical Troubadour, perhaps, but it "feels" right.

Spellsinger - "Master of Lyric, Lore, and Legerdemain." There we go.

You can always call the Druidic Bards, well, Bards. That's sort of where the name started.

The "singing woodsmen" alone might be justification to not do it that way.

Oh, no! You had to go and do that ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7n5mEmXJo