Dominion > Variants and Fan Cards

A more interesting Bard

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JW:
Bard
$4
Types: Action, Fate
+$2. Receive a Boon.

Bard seems both weak and boring. Bard is boring because there are two more interesting terminal actions that also give coin(s) and a Boon (Tracker and Sacred Grove). Making it cost $3 instead of $4 would increase its power, but it would still be boring.

tastor suggested allowing Bard to choose one of the top two boons to receive. The basic idea seems good, though you'd probably want to discard the Boon not chosen. However, this change might make Bard too strong. A weaker alternative would be: "Look at the top card of the Boon deck. You may discard it. Then receive a Boon."

A bigger change to Bard would be to make it a source of +2 Actions (thematic with Wandering Minstrel). Nocturne could use another source of +Actions, because Cursed Village has bad synergy with the Night cards, and Conclave is hard to get many extra +Actions out of. A non-terminal action that gained a Boon on each play would take too long to resolve, so maybe something like:

Revised Bard
$3
Types: Action, Fate
+$1. +2 Actions. If you do not have any other Bards in play (besides this), receive a Boon.

Another alternative is to make the card more like Crossroads as a limited +Actions effect (and in wording as well, as suggested by GendoIkari). Something like:

Alternate Bard
$3
Types: Action, Fate
+$1. Receive a Boon. If this is the first time you played a Bard this turn, +2 Actions.

Awaclus:
But it's not weak or uninteresting. Receiving a Boon is a really big deal on a $4 terminal Silver.

Gazbag:
I agree with Awaclus here, Bard has seemed way better than Monument in my limited experience with it. It's certainly stronger than Navigator and Fortune Teller at least.

There are 8 Fate cards in the whole of Dominion, out of which only Tracker and Bard straight up give you a Boon on play (even then Tracker's topdecking changes a decent number of the boons). Boons are a pretty complex mechanic on their own so I really don't see what the problem is.

trivialknot:
I would want to actually play with Bard more before trying to fix it.

However, earlier I was imagining some "fixes" to boons and hexes for people who don't like randomness.  You could, at the beginning of the game, select 3-4 Boons and Hexes to include in the game.  Instead of shuffling the boons/hexes, you cycle through them deterministically.  And you can always look through them to see what's coming up.  This would, incidentally, give Bard a slight buff.

I don't mind the randomness, but maybe some other people could give this a try.

JW:

--- Quote from: Gazbag on November 17, 2017, 03:28:34 pm ---I agree with Awaclus here, Bard has seemed way better than Monument in my limited experience with it. It's certainly stronger than Navigator and Fortune Teller at least.

There are 8 Fate cards in the whole of Dominion, out of which only Tracker and Bard straight up give you a Boon on play (even then Tracker's topdecking changes a decent number of the boons). Boons are a pretty complex mechanic on their own so I really don't see what the problem is.
--- End quote ---

Bard is a better opener than Monument, but I don't see Bard changing the way you approach a board in the same way that Monument sometimes does. I agree that it's stronger than Navigator and Fortune Teller, but both of those are weak.

Sacred Grove also gives a Boon on play. Bard is boring because there are two more interesting terminal actions (Tracker, Sacred Grove) that also give coin(s) and a Boon.

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