The "Complete Bard's Handbook" significantly expanded on the 2nd edition bard, allowing bards of any race, reasoning that most races would have an analogous role for keeping oral and/or artistic traditions. The sourcebook also allowed a wide variety of multi-classing options, even Bard/Thief combinations. Bards of races that allowed no wizards, including the core races dwarf and halfling, could not cast spells, but gained immunity to spells instead. Gnomes, who could be wizards, but only specialist illusionists, could be bards, but were restricted to the spell schools allowed an illusionist.