I was sad to hear that the "give Bards 0% Arcane Spell Failure in Light Armour" thing was bugged, as it was a
really cool idea. It would be nice for Bards to have reasonable access to their class armour, rather than Mage Armour being the foolproof choice unless you have a mithril shirt. Even with Spellsinger, you're best off with Mage Armour, as chains weight more and still have 5% failure. Which will regularly bite you in the arse. Might as well use that -15% to be able to cast with a large shield and Mage Armoured clothing. Not least as I've only ever seen clothing with Bard spell slots, not armour.
So what about just giving -10% spellfail to all Bards? That would mean:
- All Bards can now use padded armour or leather without penalty. Making them a little less buff reliant and adding a bit of variety in what PCs wear.
- Bards with the Spellsinger perk can use +1 AC studded leathers or a chain shirt without penalty, saving them a L1 pick of Mage Armour.
- Small shields become desirable, as normal bards can combo them with Padded Armour and Spellsingers can combo them with chainmail. Meaning someone might, for once, use padded armour.
- Mithril shirts remain useful as they give normal bards the option to wield a small shield at no risk or a large shield at low risk.
- Even with Spellsinger, your odds on Heavy Armour casting are still terrible. Losing 1 in 5 spells as a PC with few spells is very bad.