What do you guys expect from the Chanters?

[Zenning]

So far we know that chanters will be sorta like bards. The issue is, bards are a little bit of everything, and really just plain sucked until third edition, and then just mostly sucked until Pathfinder (Where they got their masterpieces, like being able to mime a 10 foot by 10 foot wall in less than a turn). I personally though, despite the massive suckage that they had, loved me my bards. I don't know why, but the idea of singing or dancing my way into combat, and making terrible puns while I bash people upside the head with my Axe (Bass) just really appealed to me, so I plan on Chanting it up for my first character.

 

I'm personally thinking that the Chanters are probably just going to go the way of dedicated passive buffers. Maybe something like Song of Hero's, courage, and skills, but with more versatility. Maybe throw in a Fascinate as well, and you've got your standard Buffer/Mesmer archtype.

 

Where do you guys think they're going to go with the Chanter?

[Sacred_Path]

Versatility. [/obvious]

 

I expect a few nice buffs, possibly offensive effects too. They'll have their very own spell list so they'll be passable casters. And since even mages can fight in melee in PE I expect the Chanter to be an ok combatant.

 

As far as skills go, we don't know yet how that will work out so maybe a chanter won't have more skills than a fighter. I hope they avoid the "charisma bound to spell casting bound to talking" trap, so the chanter wouldn't be the only sensible choice for a conversationalist.

[jivex5k]

Probably will end up as a dedicated buffer/debuffer, with a lot of charisma.

I'd like to hear some songs as well, they wouldn't be audio clips, but talking to him and getting a recap of your journey in lyrics would be awesome!

Other than that...I'm at a loss, I'm sure obsidian is a lot more creative than I am though.

[JFSOCC]

I suspect something similar to the Guild Wars Paragon class

[Tsuga C]

I'd expect them to be skalds, offering buffs and tales and songs of derring-do to encourage bolster the morale and competency of the party. They should also be the natural charmers of the party (with or without arcane enhancement), often called upon to persuade a stubborn clerk or imperious city official to give/allow the party what it desires.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Tsuga C

[rjshae]

Well I hope they are decently good at taking care of the pack animals. Because that's where I'll be leaving them.

 

I really need to be sold on the idea that a chanter(bard) contributes their weight to a party. If bards are merely a buffing character, and they are taking the place of a useful back line character like a wizard or a psion, then they better be improving the capabilities of all the other five party members by more than 20%. Otherwise they're ineffective baggage. Beyond that, anything a chanter(bard) can do, some other class can usually do at least as well, if not better.

 

I guess they could write poems and sell them.

Edited December 10, 2012 by rjshae

[Monte Carlo]

I expect the Chanter's, like every other class, to grovel and bow and scrape lest I run them through repeatedly with a variety of sharp objects.

[Somna]

I'm expecting something similar to the Dervish Dancer archetype in Pathfinder, only with singing instead of dancing. Well, for one possible aspect of Chanters that is, although bards fighting with step-dancing/jig or tap dancing kind of tickles my mind.

Edited December 10, 2012 by Somna

[Wirdjos]

The way I'm imagining P:E at the moment, the whole versatility of the bard will be a trait shared by every class to some extent. It looks like the chanter will be a passive buffer, as some else mentioned, but I'm hoping for a little more out of him. Buffs and debuffs are one thing, but what if the chanter could affect the entire environment. I'm thinking combination debuff and damage songs. Songs that bring rain and lightning or snow or turn soild ground to quicksand. Perhaps these things are summoned or maybe they are just ideas implanted in everyone's (in earshot) head. (Remember both sides of the battle can likely hear the chanter and he is supposed to be hitting on universal motifs)

 

Either way, the idea of a character that is singing as he runs through his enemies is too good to pass up. By the class description alone, I will likely use a chanter for my first playthrough.

[Lephys]

I expect... CHANTMENT!

 

I'm sorry, but SOMEone had to make that terrible, terrible Dragon Age joke.

 

Seriously, though, I don't see them as being limited to buffs. In fact, I sincerely hope NO class is simply "a buffer." That, of course, is a bit of a different topic... But, I'll just say that, if Skyrim did one valuable thing, it showed how awesome vocal-based abilities can be.

 

From the description we have so far, it sounds like they're kind of... a summoner... of souls in the soulstream, or whatever it's called (I can't recall if it's called anything yet). They don't necessarily summon souls, though, as in "this is the creature/entity you've summoned, and it has now manifested itself and will do battle." Although, they COULD... technically, the souls could do ANYthing. What I'm getting at, though, is that they chant, but not like a bard, really. They sing ancient music to those souls not currently inhabiting bodies, and the souls respond to it. It seems like it sort of... gives them direction. Sort of like creating wind for a group of children with kites, and saying "Hey, look at this awesome wind!". The children will now excitedly go fly their kites. That is how they will respond.

 

So, maybe they have a lot of short-duration, sustained effects, amongst other things? For example, they could chant about city defense and stone materials or something, and the souls/spirits who react would be masons. As long as the Chanter's chanting and keeping that direction going, those souls build an ethereal wall that stops enemies and projectiles from passing through.

 

I don't know exactly how all the mechanics are going to work, and the abilities wouldn't necessarily just be summoned things that real, ordinary people could do in life (like constructing a wall), but I see the potential for a pretty cool class style that we probably wouldn't even think to compare to the bards of previous games. *shrug*

Edited December 11, 2012 by Lephys

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I think that the chanter(like every other PE class) should function in a similar manner to their Pathfinder analogues(Pathfinder > D&D 3.x simply it allows more versatility and has more abilities) because that is how they are described and what most of us are familiar with.

 

That means.....

1. Some spellcasting, mostly support and debilitating, with a small bit of damage and healing
   
2. Wide variety of skills(or whatever the PE analogue is)
   
3. Competent combat training(more than a wizard, less than a fighter)
   
4. Variety of songs that have a multitude of effects
   

[Gyor]

Well rereading the chanter on the wiki I expect they will chant

 

Seriously though the main ability will be their chanting which sounds like a series of minor magical effects strung together. I think you'll beable to add more effects to you chant as you level and you may be able to put together multiple chants you can choose from.

 

I also expect you'll be able to continiously chant, no fire and forget or cool down.

 

Also I expect you'll have to search for new sounds, verses to add to your chants.

 

So you'll be able to find verses and then string them together to form chants, almost like designing your own spells.

 

I also expect that the bard will beable to select low level combat moves and spells, although weather it will be from thier own unique spells/attacks or from a limited selection of minor spells/attacks from other classes. Of course the question becomes from which classes can the bard use magic/attacks. Wizard, Cleric, and Fighter seem most obvious, but what about others like Cipher, Barbarian, Druid?

 

 

[AGX-17]

Well, I was expecting some sort of Gregorian chanting of some kind but I guess that's not going to be the case.

 

Though it couldn't hurt to have THE POWER OF ROCK defeat Lovecraftian abominations beyond human comprehension. *mad guitar solo from Brian May*

Edited December 11, 2012 by AGX-17

[Monte Carlo]

I'm expecting something similar to the Dervish Dancer archetype in Pathfinder, only with singing instead of dancing.

 

Guffaws. Really? A dancer? REALLY?

 

Howabout a Mime prestige class that irritates it's foes to death.

[NerdBoner]

heh, I'm actually hoping for an awesome Chanter companion...someone obsessed with writing his/her epic tale and just kind of latches on to you because their is no one else around.

 

I want this companion because at least this way i'll be able to experience a Chanter...because as everyone knows a Bard should never write about themselves, thus excluding them from ever being the main character.

 

Also Rogues and Ciphers prevent me from playing lesser classes [/elitist]

[jezz555]

Never played a bard, probably never will

[Sedrefilos]

I expect they have actually recorded some songs that chanters will play and sing throughout the combat

[cyberarmy]

I expect a good voice or...

 

 

 

[Osvir]

For some reason I'm thinking some Banshee stuff (Marvel, or Greek Mythology~Siren). Supersonic abilities like a bat, can shatter mountains with a beaming voice (figuratively~). I can see some glass doors or glass floors, Hidden passages that only a Chanter can open by taking a high tone and shatter it into pieces like an Opera singer.

 

In a popular manga/anime (which shall be left unnamed) the "Chanter" variant is a Ninja with tools to enhance their "sound" abilities. Could a Chanter be a "Tinkerer"? Megaphone.. or some sort of sound blasting Gun. Probably not..

 

I like the standard, Bardic idea. Having instruments (Harp, Guitar, Flute) but in my opinion should be a great fighter without it. A Guitar Sword would be badass (similar to a Cane Sword, but you pull out the sword out of the Guitar neck). Maybe even the Guitar body could be a Shield.

[Nonek]

No singing or music, but the recitation of heroic near Homeric stanzas, tales that inspire and maybe summon up the souls of heroes long past.

[Sabotin]

Well the standard would be various chants that give various buffs.

I think it'd be interesting to expand on that a bit. Maybe make the song start out weak and then get progressively stronger and stronger as the chanter continues. I think it'd be a nice power-up for defensive play, which is kinda sub-optimal everywhere.

Or maybe some very strong spells that have an extreme cast time. Think true name reciting in NWN2.

Perhaps another idea would be to have some customizing mechanic, where you "compose" pieces (buffs) into a chant. And maybe learn additional pieces from other people or even as you progress through the game.

I think a debuff orientation would be more realistic, the aoe debuffs will probably be more in the paladins' domain, with their auras and stuff.

[Amentep]

I hope that they don't look at the D&D "jack of all trades" approach to Bards. Partially because I've always thought the class kind of weak compared to a wizard-thief and partially because I'd like them to do things different with a new IP.

 

Anyhow, I'll be dissapointed if Chanters can't do something like the following:

 

 

or

 

 

 

I'm kind of kidding, but the description for chanters "... ambient spirits respond to the evocation of ancient, common story elements and play their part in reconstructing the chanter's tales." makes me think that part of the Chanter's skill set may be something akin to "summoning".

[JFSOCC]

No singing or music, but the recitation of heroic near Homeric stanzas, tales that inspire and maybe summon up the souls of heroes long past.

or the prose edda

[Azrayel]

It could be intersting if the player (or NPC) chose which special words to include in an individual "chant" and stringing them together attracted different types of souls to come together and produce different effects.

 

For example, you might have a dozen syllabals or runes or whathaveyou and the chanter picks x many for an x level chant taking x amount of tactical resources and then gets their basic effects as they're said-- then either compounding with the others, forming an entirely new effect discovered by gamelogic\experimentation/lore basis, or a combination of the two.

 

As for the whole "passive buffer"-- they're putting (or allowing) wizards in plate; the perspective of Obsidian for PE seems to be utmost freedom for every class: if you want to dance about in a lute and frilly attire recitiating it iambic pentameter, run naked into your foes with a battle "Axe" chanting up the spirits of your fallen kin, or barrel through foes with a warhammer pelting out haikus, I think they're going to let you spec your Chanter that way.

 

Outside of combat...

 

iWould like to see some instances of actually being able to talk to spirits using Chanting to summon them though; if the PC isn't one they'll just need to drag one along (or an alternative method could be provided, like a nearby Priest who has another way to summon the soul but must be bribed/forced/seduced\whathaveyou).

[NerdBoner]

an interesting idea could be "script" magic...were the chanter (outside of his chants) could also use the runes/symbols of his secret oral traditions to inscribe places that cause particular magic to occur depending on the inscription put in place.

 

for example: Chanter inscribes a runic passage near a threshold and as soon as an enemy crosses it a certain magical effect is activated, say an invisible wall that cuts him off from his comrades for X amount of time. It could lead to interesting tactics and still remain true to his "artsy" style magic.