I really agree with this. You HAVE to be able to get a weapon and an instrument if you are under level 30 or you can do nothing except kick and punch and maybe throw in a roundhouse. Xandrya died a few times just because I didn't know how or where to get gear and had no way to defend myself when I became unghosted.

Learning where to get gear is really hard for a newbie playing a bard. Because you literally get totally lost trying to find your way around ...you waste all your time as a ghost just trying to get where your friends have probably told you to go, then you die to either a mob or some stupid pk'er who doesn't care that you're naked and wants an easy kill. If I didn't think being a bard was really fun for RP reasons I don't think it would ever be a class I would pick to learn this game with. Too late now, huh?

But aside from that mild little rant...Not being able to sing as a ghost, even if only to protect yourself with some effects, makes it even harder so I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestion that it be tweaked a bit so that your songs don't affect your groupmates till you become unghosted, but they should affect you at the very least, and probably the mobs as well.

To go along with this was the other suggestion made by someone that Resisting (and I also think Shield of Words as well) might be tweaked so that you can sing it to your group even if the bard is already affected by it. That way if you come out of your ghosted state and have the songs on you, you would be able to sing them again for your groupmates without them having to wait till it wears off of you.