Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Thelon Fairblade 01-06-05, 12:05 PM	I was thinking, for my new campaign, how to fit the bard's abilities into the background. I also wanted to make bardic spellcasting unique from all other casting methods. Then I was thinking of old games I used to play, notably Bard's Tale: Bard's abilities are entirely tied to their music, and limited to 1/day/level. That triggered a comparison to Psionics, the fact that a Psion, if using full power all the time, has essentially 1 power per day per level (actually, roughly 1.25 per level). So I was thinking perhaps this: Take away bardic magic. Instead, in addition to his bardic songs, he learns additional spellsongs -- essentially, the psionic equivalents of his bardic spell options. The downside is that each use of a spellsong counts against his bardic music for the day. The upside is that each spellsong is "cast" at "maximum power". for example, a 7th level bard using Charm Person would either be able to affect all creature types upto and including dragons and aberrations (+4 augmentation to "3rd level") or be able to charm a humanoid for 1 day per level (+4 augmentation). Or, just an hour per level (base), but DC 13 base (+2 "spell level" Heighten). The bard would end up with much fewer powers, but each power would be at his normal maximum spell power. Perhaps to much of a power down? (It works well for the campaign, though, since bards don't have the elemental link of sorcerers, or divine favor of clerics, or the connection to nature of the druids...)
Cade Hedger 01-06-05, 12:26 PM	so basicly waterdown the bard spell list even more (basicly restricting bards to mind affecting spells only), lessen the number of times he can cast per day even more, but make all his spells have maximum effect... i dont like it, it specialzes the bard too much, the whole point of the bard class is to be ok at anything. once you start restricting the already limited choices the bard has then you run into problems
Thelon Fairblade 01-07-05, 08:13 AM	Well, I wasn't going to restrict the bard to mind-affecting "spells" only. Most spells have a psionic equivalent, including fireball (Energy Ball, Energy Burst). And if a given spell didn't, I would either rule something up or ask for suggestions on the Psionics board. "Fewer times per day" might be mitigated by granting 1 additional use per spell level gained? That's be +1 at 2nd, +1 at 4th, +1 at 7th, etc. And/or grant CHA bonus to # per day (well, maybe "CHA bonus spells") So a 7th level bard with 17 CHA would have 7 + 3 (3 spell levels) + 3 (CHA bonus) = 13 maximum power "spells" or music effects each day. See, I'm thinking one or the other, not both. Probably just CHA bonus spells, gained when normal. so that 17 CHA would have been +1 at 2nd, +2 at 4th, and +3 at 7th. At 8th, the CHA will increase to 18 through level up, but the bonus won't be gained until 10th when 4th level spells are gained.
Thelon Fairblade 01-10-05, 09:41 AM	stumble, trip, :bump: