Bard
Bard
Bards bring news of the outside world, entertain kings, act as cultural diplomats, and pass along rich oral traditions to commoners and nobility alike. Some call them jacks-of-all-trades, saying that they are generalists, never specialists, but this isn't true. Bards specialize as repositories of histories and carriers of legend, versed in the mythologies of lands across the world. Their knowledge brings them power, but their greatest power derives from their understanding of the intricacies of art—whether that art is musical, dramatic, or comedic, bards understand the power and allure of story, song, and dance, and tap into this knowledge to create supernatural powers that fashion legends of their own.
This section introduces masterpieces—specialized uses of the bardic performance class ability that allow a bard to do amazing things. Following the masterpieces are new bard archetypes.
Masterpieces
Talented bards can learn or create masterpieces, unusual applications of the bardic performance ability requiring special training. Masterpiece descriptions adhere to the following guidelines.
Masterpiece Name
In addition to the name of the masterpiece, this line indicates which Perform skill or skills the masterpiece relies upon.
Prerequisites
Like feats, masterpieces have prerequisites that a bard must meet in order to learn them. Only bards may learn masterpieces.
Cost
Each masterpiece has an associated cost to learn it. Typically, a bard must spend one of his bard spells known of a specific spell level or select it in place of a feat. The bard can spend a bard spell known of a level higher than the listed level to learn a masterpiece (for example, spending a 4th-level spell known to learn a masterpiece that requires spending a 3rd-level spell known).
Effect
This brief description summarizes what occurs when a bard performs the masterpiece. Unless otherwise stated, a masterpiece's effects are supernatural. Unwilling creatures may attempt a Will save against the effect of a masterpiece; the save DC for masterpieces is equal to 10 + 1/2 the bard's level + the bard's Charisma bonus. Masterpieces that duplicate spells use the bard's caster level for the spell's caster level.
Use
This line specifies how many bardic performance rounds the bard must use to activate the masterpiece. In some cases, the bard can extend the duration of the masterpiece by expending additional rounds of bardic performance, just as if it were any other use of bardic performance. The bard expends the listed number of bardic performance rounds when he starts performing the masterpiece; if he is interrupted, the attempt fails and the spent performance rounds are lost.
Action
This line indicates the type of action performing the masterpiece requires. If it only requires a standard action to activate, being able to activate a bardic performance more quickly (at 7th level, activation is a move action, and at 13th, it becomes a swift action) applies to the masterpiece as well.
Unless otherwise stated, effects or feats that extend the duration of bardic performance (such as the Lingering Performance feat) do not apply to masterpieces.
GMs can use these masterpieces to inspire their own ideas for other masterpieces. Masterpieces should generally be no more powerful than a cleric or sorcerer/wizard spell available to a caster of the same level as the minimum level needed to select the masterpiece (a masterpiece requiring 7 ranks in Perform requires a 7th-level bard, and thus should not be more powerful than a 4th-level cleric or sorcerer/wizard spell).
At the Heart of It All
Your song pierces to the heart of a creature's identity, weakening it against you.
Prerequisite
Perform (string) or Perform (wind) 7 ranks.
Cost
Feat or 3rd-level bard spell known.
Effect
This haunting melody teases at the veils of understanding and drills into the bedrock of truth. Upon completing this performance, the target attempts a Will save. Failure means you understand the target's primal nature; you gain a +4 bonus on Charisma-based checks to influence the target, and the DCs of your abilities and spells that would influence the creature or its actions (including charm and compulsion effects) increase by +2. These bonuses last for 1 day.
You must have an idea of who the creature is when you begin to play the song, either through researching the creature or by observing it directly from no farther than 100 feet.
Use
5 rounds of bardic performance.
Action
5 full rounds.
The Cat-Step
Your agile dancing allows you and others to fall safely and land gracefully.
Prerequisite
Perform (dance) 5 ranks.
Cost
Feat or 2nd-level bard spell known.
Effect
This quick dance is a series of small steps culminating in a series of leaps. When you complete the performance, for the next 10 minutes you treat any distance fallen as if it were a number of feet shorter equal to half your bard level × 5. You may spend the first minute of this effect demonstrating the dance to up to one creature per two bard levels; if these students succeed at a DC 15 Perform (dance) check, they also gain the benefits of this masterpiece for the remainder of its duration.
Use
4 bardic performance rounds.
Action
4 full rounds.
The Dance of 23 Steps
This complex dance makes you difficult to strike.
Prerequisite
Perform (dance) 4 ranks.
Cost
Feat or 2nd-level bard spell known.
Effect
The shuffling steps, bends, and leaps of this intricate dance make you a difficult target to hit, but also make it more difficult for you to perform other actions. When using this masterpiece, you take a –2 penalty on melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, and you must make a concentration check to cast any spell (DC 15 + the spell's level), but you gain a +2 dodge bonus to your Armor Class. When you have 8 ranks in Perform (dance), and every 4 ranks thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the dodge bonus increases by +1. You can combine this masterpiece with fighting defensively and Combat Expertise, but not total defense. When you use this masterpiece, it lasts until the start of your next turn. Abilities that extend the duration of a bardic performance (such as Lingering Performance) affect this masterpiece; this allows you to get multiple rounds of its benefit (and its penalties) at the cost of only 1 round of bardic performance.
Use
1 bardic performance round.
Action
1 free action.
The Depths of the Mountain
Your drumming skills can break solid rock.
Prerequisite
Perform (percussion) 15 ranks or Perform (wind) 15 ranks.
Cost
Feat or 5th-level bard spell known.
Effect
Like a singer shattering a wine glass with a perfect note, your music cracks stone, shivering solid rock until it snaps. When you complete the performance, you create a tremor identical to an earthquake spell.
For each round you continue to expend bardic performance rounds, the area experiences a round-long aftershock, which has the following effects.
Caves, Caverns, or Tunnels
Smaller collapses cause 4d6 points of damage (Reflex DC 5 half) and pin any creatures caught inside.
Cliffs
More cliffs crumble, creating a landslide that travels half as far horizontally as it falls vertically. Any creature in the path takes 4d6 points of bludgeoning damage (Reflex DC 5 half) and is pinned beneath the rubble.
Open Ground
Each creature standing in the area must make a DC 5 Reflex save or fall down. Fissures open in the earth, and every creature on the ground has a 25% chance of falling into one (Reflex DC 10 to avoid a fissure). The fissures are 20 feet deep, and these fissures remain open at the end of the quake.
Pinned Beneath Rubble
Any creature pinned by the effects of the aftershock takes 1d3 points of nonlethal damage per minute while pinned. If a pinned character falls unconscious, she must make a DC 5 Constitution check or take 1d3 points of lethal damage each minute thereafter until freed or dead.
Rivers, Lakes, or Marshes
The area drained away by the earthquake remains drained for the duration of the aftershock.
The concentration DC to cast during an aftershock is 15 + the spell's level.
Structure
Any structure standing on open ground takes 50 points of damage. A collapsing structure deals 4d6 points of bludgeoning damage to creatures inside it (Reflex DC 5 half), and the creatures inside are pinned beneath the rubble.
Use
10 rounds of bardic performance, +1 round for each round of aftershocks.
Action
10 full rounds.
The Dumbshow of Gorroc
Your acting conjures hellfire and salt to destroy plants.
Prerequisite
Perform (act) or Perform (comedy) 6 ranks.
Cost
Feat or 2nd-level bard spell known.
Effect
This pantomime tells the tale of Gorroc, a foolish farmer who failed to control the weeds that grew so quickly upon his land. In desperation, Gorroc bargained with a devil, who blasted the earth with salt and withering heat, leaving the fertile land desolate for a century. When you complete the performance, you can create a 30-foot cone or a 60-foot line that is blasted with scorching air and hot salt. Plants and oozes in this area take 1d6 points of damage per bard level (maximum 10d6); half this damage is fire damage, half is piercing damage. A Reflex save reduces the damage by half. Creatures other than plants or oozes take half damage, or no damage on a successful save.
Use
2 bardic performance rounds.
Action
1 full round.
The House of the Imaginary Walls
You can trap opponents with the power of your acting.
Prerequisite
Perform (act) 10 ranks.
Cost
Feat or 4th-level bard spell known.
Effect
You silently mime building an invisible wall, flattening your hands along linear planes to indicate its location and orientation. This "wall" is only real for creatures that see you perform this masterpiece (Will negates); you and your allies may automatically fail your saves if you want to treat the wall as real (for example, if you want to use the wall as a bridge to cross a chasm). For creatures who believe the wall is real, it has hardness 8, 90 hit points, and a break DC of 30 (multiple believing creatures can attack the walls, breaking through it more quickly as if they were all attacking a real wall rather than each attacking separate mental constructs). This is an illusion (phantasm) effect. Because the wall is a mental image, it blocks incorporeal creatures that fail their saves (because they perceive it as a magical barrier that excludes them), though they can still go around the wall or through the floor or ceiling to bypass it. It does not affect objects or creatures immune to mental effects (which can result in situations like an archer firing through the wall but unable to physically cross it).
You can create one 10-foot-square wall per use of this ability; over several rounds you can extend this square or create other walls, all of which persist until you stop using bardic performance rounds to sustain them. The wall is immobile once created. Part of the wall must be in or along the edge of your space, and you cannot create a wall that extends beyond your natural reach (though you can create a wall, move, and create another by using this ability again). Once created, the wall exists until you end your performance or affected creatures "break" it. Abilities that extend the duration of a bardic performance (such as Lingering Performance) affect this masterpiece.
Use
1 bardic performance round per round.
Legato Piece on the Infernal Bargain
Your skilled playing can conjure up supernatural servants.
Bard Archetypes