Perform vs Bluff (aka consequences of the bard item nerf)
Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2021 2:22 pm
Before bard items were nerfed it made sense to choose whether one wanted to invest in perform over bluff, for any character, not just bard.
This was the case because while bluff had some useful extra features perform had items that allowed to reach a higher value, at the price of taking levels in a class that allowed to allocate point in it (mostly bard, swashbuckler, specialist and some others).
With the nerf to these items, however, barring some special items like jester jubilant attire that was not touched (and whose bonus is anyway comparable to inception of nightmares, i.e. +4), the advantage of perform over bluff vaporized.
In other words, now perform is a skill tax for bards, which for them works mostly like bluff, but not entirely.
The biggest difference I could find is essentially area skill checks for entrance, like the silver mines, which are not extremely big for many characters.
If there are advantages of perform over bluff, in any context, I am missing them.
At this point logic would want two courses of action though:
a) Make perform work as bluff in almost every circumstance, as it already does for 99% of the things, after all pretending to be another person falls within acting, i.e. in the case of the area checks acting as a person with access.
b) Find some opportunity where perform offers options that bluff does not. Like being able to perform in some inns, gaining access to areas for bards or anyway performers, etc.
Of the two I would prefer the latter personally, but I realize it would require a lot of work. The former, on the other hand, is not truly necessary as bards do get a lot, and the people who chose perform over bluff are perhaps not that many, still, it would be consistent with how perform is used in the context of mimicry and disguise already.
This was the case because while bluff had some useful extra features perform had items that allowed to reach a higher value, at the price of taking levels in a class that allowed to allocate point in it (mostly bard, swashbuckler, specialist and some others).
With the nerf to these items, however, barring some special items like jester jubilant attire that was not touched (and whose bonus is anyway comparable to inception of nightmares, i.e. +4), the advantage of perform over bluff vaporized.
In other words, now perform is a skill tax for bards, which for them works mostly like bluff, but not entirely.
The biggest difference I could find is essentially area skill checks for entrance, like the silver mines, which are not extremely big for many characters.
If there are advantages of perform over bluff, in any context, I am missing them.
At this point logic would want two courses of action though:
a) Make perform work as bluff in almost every circumstance, as it already does for 99% of the things, after all pretending to be another person falls within acting, i.e. in the case of the area checks acting as a person with access.
b) Find some opportunity where perform offers options that bluff does not. Like being able to perform in some inns, gaining access to areas for bards or anyway performers, etc.
Of the two I would prefer the latter personally, but I realize it would require a lot of work. The former, on the other hand, is not truly necessary as bards do get a lot, and the people who chose perform over bluff are perhaps not that many, still, it would be consistent with how perform is used in the context of mimicry and disguise already.