The Other Complete Books

The Complete Bard's Handbook is the seventh book of the PHBR series. If you find this book useful in your gaming, you may want to look into the other PHBRs.

Table 1: THE COMPLETE PHBR LINE

Designator	Topic	Stock #
PHBR1	Fighter's	2110
PHBR2	Thief's	2111
PHBR3	Priest's	2113
PHBR4	Wizard's	2115
PHBR5	Psionics	2117
PHBR6	Dwarves	2124

All of these books contain much information that can enhance your bard. Some of the more useful information is listed below.

The Complete Fighter's Handbook: The "Character Creation" section provides an in-depth look into the armorer proficiency. Those bard kits able to wear non-standard armor will find this topic particularly interesting. Weapon quality and its effects on combat are also discussed. The "Role-Playing" section provides a list of warrior personalities, some of which could be adopted by bard characters. Since some bards are adept with numerous weapons, the section on combat rules applies to certain bards (particularly the expanded weapon proficiency rules, which allow a character to learn multiple weapons while expending only a few proficiency slots). Fighting styles, martial arts, and other odd combat rules are also presented here. Even jousting tournaments are covered (ideal for the Gallant kit). Within the "Equipment" section is a sizable collection of new weapons, new armor, and new magical items.

The Complete Thief's Handbook: As you might expect, this handbook has a great deal of useful information for the bard class. Within are more useful rules than can be listed here. However, general topics you may find helpful include the following: role-playing thieves, new proficiencies, guilds (construction, maintenance, and types), thief tools, thief equipment, new magical items, classic cons (especially good for the Charlatan), new thief rules, and a description of the thief-based campaign.

The Complete Priest's Handbook: There is little information in this handbook that is pertinent to the bard character class.

The Complete Wizard's Handbook: Chapter 4 discusses campaign worlds with varying levels of magic. Chapter 5 covers wizards and combat. Chapter 6 describes spell casting under water, spell functioning on various planes, and impaired casting. Chapter 7 presents a commentary on new applications for old spells, adjudicating illusions, spell research, and magical item research. Chapter 8 gives all-new spells ranging from 1st to 8th level. Finally, Chapter 9 contains a number of useful wizardly lists.

The Complete Psionics Handbook: There are two useful elements within this book. Most important are the wild talents in Chapter 1. It is possible for a bard to have a few wild psionic talents (the process for determining this is given in Chapter 1). If a wild talent is discovered, the bard player will find the rest of this book invaluable, as it contains all the information needed to run a psionically endowed bard. Also, note that all player character Gypsy-bards are wild talents. The psionics book also contains a number of challenging psionic monsters.

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