Originally Posted by Cloud302
Nerf? How? It's not like "This thing does 1d10 damage, and now it does 1d6 damage" or "radius of 25 ft decreased to 15 ft". This is just giving you less choice, in a game centered around creative choice. And the bard class especially is about skill versatility (especially the college of lore).

In my case, I was already proficient in Arcana. So certainly, if this was by design, they'd give you expertise instead. Nope. It was just wasted. And I read some people who really wanted to go Lore had some of those proficiencies via either race or background, so they couldn't even fix it via respec (which was 100 gold I'd have rather spent on magical gear, rather than having to undo Arcana via my original character creation selection). They'd just have to eat wasted skill bonuses, which is a huge part of the appeal of Lore bard. It lead to them playing other subclasses.

I also am not playing (roleplaying, if you will) an intimidating character. She is small and cute.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RemtsIOewcEWVFw_9CC4IKvlTzTHBSil/view?usp=sharing
She has expertise in persuasion and proficiency in deception. That's all she needs, socially. Having her waste a proficiency in Intimidation is so disheartening. I'd much rather have her have History or Nature, which matches more with the "Lore" theme.

A nerf is anything that lessens the effectiveness of a character. I do agree with the frustration, my character was a sage so she never got the third proficiency either and it was a real "feels bad" moment. But Lore Bards are still the one of the best class and subclass combinations in the game.