I'm not sure why you're claiming that bards was interpreted as musicians only.
Actually, I may not have phrased this ideally. I didn't mean to say that Bards are cast as 100%, monomaniac, one-dimensional musicians, who won't shut about playing music and won't talk about anything else. Let me rephrase my issue more accurately :
it is not satisfying to be a Bard who doesn't play an instrument, and is more generally not into music (slight distinction here since singers and whistlers are certainly into music, I'll leave aside the debate of whether the voice is an instrument). As I said, Bards are generally
orators and artists. Not all artists play music.The musician aspect is imposed at character creation : as part of our
starting equipment, we must choose our instrument.
I wish we could simply choose "None/Voice".
Side note 1 : This actually links up with a broader issue at character creation (much discussed in other, dedicated threads), which is that we don't really choose our starting equipment. Let's say that I want to play a Strength-based Ranger Knight. I can certainly pick up a heavier armour, a shield and a longsword in the game. But I still get to start with a light armour, a bow and a short sword, which screams Dexterity-based Ranger.
Side note 2 :
That’s, unfortunately, a price we pay for high production value - a beauty of a more vague presentation (like with limited or no VO) is that players can fill the blanks with whatever they want.
I have touched on a similar point before - like Barbarian whose special dialogue choices fit a very specific vision of a barbarian.
Yes. It's a bit similar indeed.
This reminds that, in a similar vein, the Race-specific dialogues for Halflings and Dwarves also fit a very specific vision. And what's ridiculous is that what they say is 100% personality-based. There would be nothing preventing an Elf with the matching personality to say the same things, but Larian locked these dialogue options behind specific Races. Which I find a rather poor idea, especially given that WotC is precisely trying to decouple your character's Race and their culture or personality.
And then Bards receive a new, and essentially Class-specific, Ability. However,
the Perform action comes with different Performances, all of which are songs. This, again, imposes the musician aspect on your Bard. Or rather, if you want to stick to a non-musician bard, you miss out. (Or, if you really need to set up a distraction, you can have your Bard whistle one of these songs in-game, and you player have to pretend in your head that they're doing something else. Not great.) So
I wish that Larian adds non-musical performances, such as story-telling. Or reciting poetry. Or dancing, or juggling, as were suggested.
On a final side note, I've been thinking about why I thought Volo was a Bard (other than the fact that I never particularly researched what class he officially had, if any). Well, firstly, his clothes are reminiscent of those given to a Bard at character creation. Secondly, inn the PFH 6, Nick goes to demonstrate Performance next to Volo, and Swen later says that if you find Bards elsewhere in the game, they'll come perform with you. Finally, when walking into the Goblin camp, a companion says "looks like they found themselves a Bard". So, I'm wondering if Larian made Volo a Bard in BG3.
