The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Song and Silence is the latest in Wizards of the Coast's series of class-specific supplements for 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons. Subtitled, "A Guidebook to Bards and Rogues", it follows in the footsteps of Sword and Fist, Defenders of the Faith, and Tome and Blood as a collection of expanded information and options for the rogue and bard classes, with some nods given to the assassin prestige class.

I've often heard other players dismiss the 3rd edition class books as overpriced and under-playtested. Generally, I disagree with this. I think that Sword and Fist was a great start, and the successive books are, at the very least, enjoyable to read. If they don't alway contain material that I feel is necessary, they at least contain material I think is cool.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Song and Silence. As a big fan of bards (as an amateur musician of 15 years, I have a soft spot in my heart for them), I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, I've come away from the book feeling pretty disappointed. In general, the book feels poorly-researched and lacking in creativity. The interior illustrations are also atrocious, something almost inexcusable given Wizards' lavish attention to good presentation evident in most of their other products. Still, there are some gems here but, like the stereotypical D&D rogue, you need to slog your way through a lot of obstacles to get to them.

The book is divided into six chapters: "Prestige Classes," "Skills and Feats," "Bard and Rogue Equipment," "Organizations for Bards and Rogues," "You and the World Around You," and "Spells." I'll first examine each chapter in detail, and then step back and assess the product as a whole. As an additional caveat, given my partiality to bards, the review will tend to focus more on the bard-related elements of the book.

Chapter 1: Prestige Classes

Like the other class books, Song and Silence contains a helping of new prestige classes, all aimed at rogues and bards: Dread Pirate, Dungeon Delver, Fang of Lolth, Outlaw of the Crimson Road, Royal Explorer, Spymaster, Temple Raider of Olidammara, Thief-Acrobat, Vigilante, and Virtuoso.

My main gripe here is that only one of these prestige classes is at all applicable to bards, i.e., the Virtuoso. The Virtuoso is essentially an expert bard with the added abilities to use her performances to sustain unconscious allies, slander, sharpen weapons, dominate, enhance allied caster levels, enrage, and cast true seeing. The weird thing, however, is that any character with ranks in Perform, Intimidate or Diplomacy, and the ability to cast arcane spells can qualify for the class. It seems an all-too-easy, XP-penalty-free way to add levels of bard to a wide range of character types. Some restrictiveness to make this prestige class more unique to bards would have made more sense.

The most bizarre prestige class is the Fang of Lolth, which essentially transforms the character into a spider-being as they progress in levels. Seeing as the description of the class implies that it's more something that gets inflicted on a character than gets chosen, it seems a weird inclusion. The closest analog to this, Tome and Blood's Acolyte of the Skin prestige class, at least makes sense in that it's a path chosen by the character. As another reviewer has opined, Fang of Lolth would have been better implemented as a template than a prestige class.

The other prestige classes offer some common "flavors" of the rogue archetype: rogues on the high sea (Dread Pirate), rogues in dungeons (Dungeon Delver), Robin-Hood-style rogues (Outlaw of the Crimson Road), rogues in dungeons with wealthy patrons (Royal Explorer), rogue spies (Spymaster), holy rogues (Temple Raider of Olidammara), nimble rogues (Thief-Acrobat), and rogues with a grudge (Vigilante).

The Thief-Acrobat stands out among these as probably one of the most useful and, frankly, fondly-remembered, having originally appeared in the 1st edition AD&D supplement Unearthed Arcana. The class gives the character the ability to stand up from prone as a free action, make extraordinarily long leaps, move full speed while balancing, make improved trip attacks, slow fall like a monk, and various other cool abilities related to acrobatic prowess. I can see a lot of players using this prestige class.

Chapter 2: Skills and Feats

This chapter focuses on presenting new ways to use existing skills, as well as new feats of particular interest to bards and rogues. An all-too-brief section on making poisons is followed by an extensive discourse on the Craft(trapmaking) skill. A system is provided that codifies a set of standard attributes for traps: trigger, reset, Search DC, Disable Device DC, attack bonus/saving throw, and damage/effect. The values for each of these attributes determine the Challenge Rating for the trap, the cost of manufacturing the trap, and the DC for the Craft(trapmaking) skill check. Some sidebars also give tips on trap repair, variant Disable Device rules, and the concept of helpful "traps," i.e., traps that do something beneficial for the victim. A listing of names and stats for 90 different (for the most part) traps is given, grouped by CRs from one to ten. Nothing earth-shattering here, but it's a solid set of rules that I can see DMs using to guide their designs. Short sections on using Hide to tail people or blend into a crowd, using Pick Pocket to conceal weapons, and some additional combat uses for Tumble round out this part of the chapter. All in all, this is good stuff.

Next, we have a set of 26 new feats. A number of feats that enhance bardic music abilities: Disguise Spell allows a caster to cast spells unobtrusively, weaving them into performances in such a way that no one notices that they are casting a spell; Extra Music lets bards use their musical abilities more often and can be taken multiple times; Green Ear lets bardic music affect plants and plant creatures; Lingering Song doubles the duration of bardic music effects; Requiem (a great name) lets bardic music affect undead; and Subsonics allows a bard to use his musical abilities subliminally, i.e., playing so softly that no one can really hear it, but effective nonetheless.

We also see feats that enhance some of the "soft" skills: Alluring is a bonus to Diplomacy checks and mind-affecting spells; Charlatan adds to Bluff and Disguise; Multicultural lets the PC blend in particularly well with a chosen race; Persuasive gives a bonus to Bluff and Intimidate checks; Obscure Lore adds to bardic knowledge abilities; and Trustworthy grants a bonus to Diplomacy and Gather Information checks. Other than having qualms about the use of the word "multicultural," which just has too much associated baggage for my taste, seeing feats that emphasize something other than combat and spellcasting is very welcome.

Not that these other important areas get left out, of course. For the rogues and the more combative bards we have: Acrobatic, a bonus to Jump and Tumble checks; Arterial Strike allows your sneak attacks to cause profuse bleeding, and thus persistent damage; Athletic is a bonus to Climb and Swim checks; Chink in the Armor allows PCs to ignore some of their opponent's armor; Dash lets PCs move faster than normal; Expert Tactician allows extra attacks against foes denied their Dex bonus (this version supercedes the version from Sword and Fist); Fleet of Foot lets the PC make turns when running or charging; Flick of the Wrist gives the ability to draw a light weapon and attack in a single action; Hamstring lets the PC reduce an opponent's ability to move; Jack of All Trades allows the use of any skill untrained; Pyro ,eams the PC is good at setting things on fire; Quicker than the Eye gives the character the ability to misdirect others in order to take a surreptitious partial action; PCs with Shadow sre good at tailing people; and Snatch Weapon lets them disarm a foe and pluck their weapon out of the air (very Errol Flynn!).

Again, all good stuff.

Chapter 3: Bard and Rogue Equipment

The next chapter presents a lengthy section on musical instruments, new weapons, thieving gear, and magic items. While well-intentioned, I think that this chapter begins to demonstrate the lack of thought and research that went into the book.

The first section talks about instruments. At first glance, this seems like a really great idea; bards are short-changed in the previous chapters, but maybe now we'll get down to some nitty-gritty. Alas, it is not to be.

Granted, we are given quite an impressive list of instruments; everything from alphorns to clavichords to fiddles to lyres to pipe organs to whistle-pipes. For the most part, the instruments are appropriate to the assumed "time period" of most fantasy campaigns, though more than a few lean more towards the Renaissance era. I was surprised to see the omission of hurdy-gurdys and citterns, and a bit puzzled at the inclusion of bongo drums, but mayve that's nitpicking. Still, there's a good assortment here, and each instrument is given adequate description. There is also a smattering of information about which instruments are favored by the various D&D races, e.g., kobolds are apparently quite fond of the mandolin.

The description of the shell horn (i.e., conch shell) is a bit puzzling however: "A shell horn makes an excellent signal device—particularly underwater, since sound travels faster in water than in air." The authors go on to mention some aquatic races that use the shell horn to play songs of "deep, haunting grandeur." I'm not an underwater acoustics expert, but I feel pretty sure that air blown through a shell underwater isn't going to produce much more than bubbles, and water blown through a shell (as would be the case with a water-breathing race), is not going to do diddly. Nitpicking? Maybe, but the reasoning still seems fundmentally flawed.

The instrument listings provide bardic flavor for the most part; it's always handy to have a bard who knows the difference between a shawm and a hautbois. Masterwork versions of these instruments, however, add a wrinkle. They imbue bardic music with various enhancements, depending on the instrument, e.g., a masterwork harp imposes a -2 morale penalty on the listener's saves against charm effects.

I think that this is a great idea, and a great way to help individualize your bard. However, it seems that despite giving us a healthy list of some 35 different instruments, there are only a couple of distinct "masterwork effects". The majority of the instruments bolster fear or charm saves, reduce them, or add a bonus to Perform checks. There are a few other unique effects, but they seem few and far between. I also felt that some of the choices for the effects were a bit off. For example, it didn't seem obvious to me that drums should decrease the bonus granted to saves vs. charm effects.

Of the unique effects, the most interesting is the ability for an instrument to allow a bard to sustain one bardic music effect while beginning another. By itself, I thought this was a great idea. It's counterpoint, basically; a very good rules interpretation of a musical concept. However, the choice of which instruments possess this ability seem a bit arbitrary. A number of keyboard instruments are described, which seem a natural choice. They allow more than one distinct line to be played, e.g., you play a bass line with your left hand and a melody with your right. However, the pipe organ is the only keyboard instrument granted this ability. Other than that, only fiddles, lutes, and lap-harps are capable. I'll grant the lute and lap-harp, but the metaphor totally breaks down when it comes to including the fiddle while excluding clavichords, harps, harpsichords, banjoleles, and even certain types of drums. I understand that fiddles, lutes, and lap-harps are the most common bardic instruments, but should that have been the only criteria the authors considered?

It should also be noted that, in a glaring omission, there are no prices or weights listed for any of the instruments. I suppose that it was assumed the prices from the Player's Handbook would be used, but this is rather shortsighted. According to the PHB, a musical instrument either costs 5gp if "common", or 100gp if masterwork. Either way, it weighs three pounds. That's right, your bard can have a full-size pipe organ for 5gp, and he can strap it to his back with no encumbrance penalty! Very shoddy.

In the grand scheme of things, I think that while the instrument list was a good concept in general, the implementation leaves something to be desired. I would have liked either to see each instrument given more individualized attention, or else simply left completely as "flavor" and the "counterpoint" and other special effects made into feats.

Next, we get a number of new weapons and tools "that bards, rogues, and assassins find especially useful." Yes, that's a quote. It's followed soon after by: "Some uncommon weapons lend themselves particularly well to the battle strategies that rogues and bards prefer." Why we needed to be reminded of this, twice, while reading a "guidebook to bards and rogues", I don't know. Unfortunately, this same introductory fluff text appears in other areas of the chapter as well.

There is some good stuff here, such as grapple-firing crossbows, three different kinds of garrottes, expandable poles, double-sided clothes (for quick disguises), and thieves' tools mounted on long poles. We also get a few duds, such as a bayonet for attaching to the end of your lute, which I think wins, hands down, the "Someone Forgot That This Isn't a 2nd Edition Splatbook" award. A close runner-up is the waterproofing salve that is "useful for protecting...precious instruments from inclement weather and sudden dunkings." I guess they forgot about the bloody great sound holes most fiddles and lutes have. But, hey, if you want to grease up your zither, you go right ahead.

Next we get a selection of magic items, most of which are geared towards rogues. There's a bit of a layout snafu here, as the section is set off using a completely different font style than the previous sections. Some of the notable ones include: the Possum Pouch, a small bag which can be attached to a character's abdomen and "blend in" so as to be almost undetectable; the Nondescript Box, a storage box that causes characters to simply fail to notice it's existence; the Barricade Buckler, a buckler that can transform for into a tower shield with a command word; and the Spool of Endless Rope, which should be pretty self-explanatory. There are a few choice magic instruments, my favorite being the Strings of Spell Storing, which are mandolin or lute strings that can store up to six levels of spells, releasing them when a particular sequence of notes is played.

The one big clunker here is the Jumping Caltrop. These are diminutive animated objects, complete with a stat block that takes up half the item's description. Since they are animated, they can make more attacks than standard caltrops when a creature moves through a square they occupy: four if the creature is moving at full speed, two if half speed, and none for quarter speed. Yes, by moving slowly enough, one can completely avoid taking any damage from Jumping Caltrops, just like normal caltrops. In addition, the Jumping Caltrops are only animated the first time you use them. After that, they become normal caltrops (aren't you glad they included the stat block?). I don't know about you, but I'd be hesitant to pay the 150gp market price to buy caltrops that are almost no different from the 1gp variety.

In all, this chapter is where the book really starts to flounder. The instrument list has great potential but lousy execution, and the list of rogue and bard gear simply feels like there's a lot missing. For instance, I seem to remember a host of magic lutes and lyres from the 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide that would have fit perfectly here.

Chapter 4: Organizations for Bards and Rogues

I have found the "organizations" sections of the class books to be my least favorite; these are usually the ideas that I end up mining the least for my campaigns. Still, the comparable chapters in the preceeding class books were at least somewhat fun to read. Song and Silence, however, proves itself to be the all-time stinker when it comes to this subject.

First, we have what the authors claim are "Ten Thieves' Guilds." Really, what we are presented with is a very general overview of the guild concept, followed by eight variants and a mildly-differentiated assassins' guild. The overview, "The Traditional Thieves' Guild" is so utterly basic that you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with even a passing familiarity with the fantasy genre who doesn't already know all of this. Honestly, this is "beginners only" material to the Nth degree. What follows are various guild variants, such as "The Mob" (a la the maffia), "Neighborhood Gang," "Assassins' Guild," "Thieves behind the Throne," "Spy Network," "Smuggler Cartel," "Thieves' War!" (sic), "Monster-Based Guild," and "Remnant Guilds and New Guilds." There's a lot of repetition in each of these entries, as each differs from the general guild description in only a few key ways. Really, most of them are more like "hooks" than actual organizations of their own, e.g., "Thieves behind the Throne." I suppose that this is okay, as it helps compensate for the utter uselessness of the actual "hooks" section in each entry. Most of these include such nuggets as: "A new character is the sole survivor of the local guild. Now she's on the run from the law and always looking over her shoulder." C'mon, that's not a plot hook; that's something you write down on your character sheet under "Background." The Mob entry also felt a too "Greyhawk PD Blue" for my taste. There's even an illustration of a half-orc rogue kissing his "godfather"'s (orcfather's?) ring. I guess I'm nitpicking again, but it really just doesn't seem to fit with the genre.

It's also a glaring oversight that none of the organizations relate in any way to the prestige classes mentioned in Chapter 1, save for Spy Network. What about bands of merry men (Outlaw of the Crimson Road)? The Royal Explorers (same)? The Temple Raiders of Olidammara? Famed pirate crews? Revolutionaries (Vigilante, perhaps)? And what about rogues of good alignment? Do all rogue organizations have to be criminal? Someone give the authors a B-12 shot!

In the second half of the chapter we have a collection of bardic colleges: the College of Concrescent Lore, Talespinner's League, College of Arcanobiological Studies, Watchers for the Coming Sunset, Conservatory of the Ineffable Chord, and the League of Boot and Trail. Unlike the precious section, this is a collection of very specific, and very different, groups, more akin to the entries found in the other class books. The main problem here is that most of these groups don't really seem to have anything to do with bards. Most are based on the bardic knowledge and lore aspect of the bard class, but most of them so much so that they're really better suited to other classes entirely. The College of Concrescent Lore concerns itself on hoarding knowledge and keeping it among its own members, something I find rather un-bard-like. The College of Arcanobiological Studies' main goal is the study of monsters (zoology, essentially), and really belongs in Tome and Blood (Dragon once featured an article on a band of monster-hunters/xenobiologists, and there wasn't a bard among them). The Lamenter's Order studies death, even to the point of peddling in assassination, and belongs either in the Thieves' Guild section or in Defenders of the Faith. Watchers for the Coming Sunset are, in effect, eschatologists, and also belong squarely in the clerical arena. The League of Boot and Trail, sort of a D&D version of Triple-A, seems equally as useful to rangers as it does bards. The Talespinner's League (storytellers who share their lore with anyone) and the Conservatory of the Ineffable Chord (Greyhawk's equivalent of Julliard) are the only organizations that seem even remotely to be bard-specific. The single bardic college described in Magic of Faerun does an infinitely better job than what's provided here.

The sheer lack of ingenuity here astounds me. What about acting troupes? Those who've seen Shakespeare in Love can attest to the possibilities for intrigue and swashbuckling rife in that concept. Or how about travelling minstrel bands? Orchestras? Or a Greyhawk equivalent of the Harpers of the Forgotten Realms?

In all, this whole chapter could have been dropped and the book would be none the worse.

Chapter 5: You and the World Around You

Speaking of "could have been dropped," we have the "who are these people and what do they want" chapter. The first two sections deal with the role of bards and rogues in the game, their motivations, and how they relate with the other classes. If you're playing a walking stereotype, there's a lot of useful information here: bards and rogues get along very well with each other (I suppose they have to, seeing as they share the same class book), rogues turn to clerics for healing, bards are jack-of-all-trades, rogues are sneaky, bards play music, etc. If you found the Hero Builder's Guidebook too arcane, this is the chapter for you. Skip it entirely; you're not missing anything.

Thankfully, the chapter ends with a short section on Special Combat Options which redeem it somewhat. Here we are given some elaborations on how to adjudicate unusual flanking situations, such as reach weapons and handling creatures who occupy more than one square on the battle map. Good stuff, though there are quite a few errors. First off, there are a number of diagrams presented akin to those on pp122-123 in the PHB, i.e., a top-down view of a battle map. For the most part, they make sense, but some glitches are evident. First, while the iconic character of Lidda the rogue is used as one of the counters, the text consistently refers to other, generic counters as "the rogue". Why they used the iconic D&D rogue to not represent the rogue in the example seems silly. The text also occasionally refers to the counter being referenced as "she," even though the counter in the diagram is male. Lastly, I noticed one instance where the diagram was essentially incorrect (a two-square counter is referenced as if it is a four-square counter). I realize that the authors probably didn't have the final artwork in front of them at time of writing, but it mars an otherwise useful section of the book. The chapter concludes by outlining rules for garrotte attacks, and this is very well done.

Chapter 6: Spells

Finally, we have spell listings for a handful of new assassin and bard spells. The four assassin spells deal with, as you might guess, useful effects for stealthy killings. The choicest of these is Sniper's Eye, which allows the assassin to make ranged sneak and death attacks, adds a whopping bonus to Spot checks, and grants the caster darkvision.

The bard spells range from silly to inspiring, and thankfully the latter outnumbers the former. Fine-Tuning is a 0-level spell that transforms any instrument into a masterwork item for a short period of time. Otto's Resistible Dance is a slightly-less-powerful version of the well-known spell. Ambient Song masks bardic music effects as sounds of the surrounding environments. Focusing Chant is a mantra the bard repeats to improve concentration in battle (which brought to mind: "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die." *Whack* "Stop saying that!"). Listening Coin transforms an ordinary coin into an eavesdropping device.

There are a few duds, however. The 0-level spell Easy Math allows the bard, with a successful Perform check, to make quick calculations, such as how many coins are in a pile, or how many feet wide a chasm is. First off, it's goofy that this is linked to a Perform check (which brought to my mind the horrific image of Devis the bard singing "How Much is that Doggie in the Window"). Second, the margin of accuracy didn't seem much better than what I'd normally allow any PC who was making a guesstimation. Percussion, another 0-level spell, creates percussive accompaniment to a bard's performance... and that's it. The percussion has no game effect whatsoever. Why any bard would ever choose to use either of these cantrips over Fine-Tuning is totally beyond me. Lastly, Harmonize, which allows multiple bards to pool their talents in a performance, is a very cool idea, but I think that it would have been better implemented as a feat, a la Cooperative Spell from Tome and Blood.

Nonetheless, most of spells here are very good. Any bard or assassin would be well-advised to add them her repertoire.

Summary

As I said in the beginning of this review, most players seem to dislike the current class books. While I still disagree, Song and Silence certainly isn't helping my argument any. The book feels overwhelmingly like filler material, as if Wizards simply felt obligated to round out the remaining spots left open for class books. I can only hope that the forthcoming Masters of the Wild fares better.

The biggest crime evidenced by Song and Silence is a lack of creativity. The prestige classes are lackluster and seem to overlook a lot of possibilities. The organizations chapter even makes tangential references to roles such as "scout" (how could they miss that one?), "maestro," "composer," and "troubadour". Why not start with some of those ideas? The trap-creation system presents a wonderful codification of the subject, but no truly innovative ideas are presented with which to implement it. The instrument listings are a very good idea, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The organizations are next to useless, and the "role in the game" section is even moreso. There are just so many ideas that seem never to have occurred to the authors, as well as a lot of previously-published material that they have inexplicably neglected to mine. With the other class books, I felt that, at the least, I learned something new about the subject matter. Song and Silence, on the other hand, hasn't really told me much of anything I didn't already know.

I also feel the need to mention a disturbing trend: David Roach. His illustrations grace 99% of the interior of the book (the other 1% belongs to the excellent Wayne Reynolds, and includes the same picture of a severed hand holding a symbol of Pelor that seems to appear in every single supplement Wizards publishes). You may also remember the work he did for the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil mega-adventure. Why is this a disturbing trend? Frankly, because he's horrible. Roach's work demonstrates fundamental problems the man has with basic concepts of proportion, perspective, anatomy, and, well, pretty much everything else. I get the feeling that he's pasting in clip-art or copies of art from US government publications of the late 70's and then adding the "fantasy bits" as necessary. I know that there is a lot of dissention among gamers about the quality of art in 3rd edition products. I'm of the opinion that most of it is very good, including the excellent cover piece on this book by the amazing Todd Lockwood. It's quite a sucker-punch to go from his excellent work to the shoddy scrawlings that ruin the interior of this book. About David Roach there can be no doubt: he's horrible, and Wizards needs to stop using him.

In the end, while I don't feel that I completely wasted my money, I am still very disappointed. I generally consider the class books to be a "must-buy". In the case of Song and Silence, I'd consider it a "must buy used" if you're a completist, and a "must borrow from someone else" if you're not.

Song and Silence: A Guidebook to Bards and Rogues