Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 PhyrexianKitsune Aug 28, 2015 10:04:47	As the title says. I usually hate the musician/performer fluff of bards, but like their mechanics. However, the musician/performer fluff is REALLY annoying for me...REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY annoying...so I hardly ever get the chance to actually play a bard. However, I'm going to be in a game where the DM is generous enough to allow refluffing to the point of totally and fundementally transforming what a class actually is fluff-wise(Our "wizard" is going to refluff all his magic as inventions/clockwork tech and play an "aritifcer" type character who uses machines rather than spells, with his spellbook being a book of invention desgines/blueprints and his non-cantrip and ritual spells being 1-use items that get destroyed after their use(such as explosives/bombs for stuff life fireball, sleep(knockout gass bomb), Grease(oil bomb) etc...)..so I thought if there was ever a time to play a bard, it was now.   So I got the idea to refluff a Lore bard with some necromancy spells as a sort of spirit speaker/necromancer who uses words-of-power/black speech/word-based magic to create their magical effects instead of music. This character will have ZERO ties to music, performance or any form of art/creative profession. As a result, I'm looking for advice on a few things on how to fully realize this character concept..   A) I need something to replace the annoying, lame insturment profiencies bards get. As a character with ZERO ties to music, the insturment profiencies make ZERO sense for them to have, so I need to suggest something to replace them with to the DM that would not be too strong mechanically. I was thinking profiency with alchemist tools would make some themeatic sense, but this may be too strong mechanically. If anybody has any ideas on what to do about the insturment profiency issue, please, give your suggestions.   B) Spell list suggestions. I know I'll be using Lore Bard to grab Animate Dead and regular Magical Secrects for Create Undead later on, but after that I'm not sure what spells to grab that are both -on theme- but also effective mechanically. Dissonant Whispers defiently looks like something I'd be grabbing because it dosen't even need refluffing to fit the character, and obviously speak with the dead would be approprate. However, I'd love other ideas on what spells to take on this character that would have a sutiably dark/evil/necromancer-y feel to them, espcally when it comes to magical secrects.   Also note that, to play up the necromancer-theme, I'd be taking magical initate(Sorcerer) at level 1 to grab both the chill touch cantip(so I don't have to spend a magical secrects to get my necrotic damage cantrip, which I feel is mandatory for a necromancer build like this fluff-wise.), and Mage Armor 1/day for the ability to walk around in the approprate black hooded robes/gothic lolita dress/whatever other fitting attire you can think of for a necromancer and mantain a respectable AC.   So yeah, if any of you have ideas on how to help me realize this character concept without going into the "musical" territory I'd be grateful!
#2 Piscodemon Aug 28, 2015 11:21:01	Even without knowing what level this character is supposed to be, there's lots of spells, including non-necromany spells, that could work. If you're refluffing your spells like the wizard is, then spells like Evard's Black Tentacles or Entangle, or really any spell that grasp or immobilize foes could be refluffed as skeletal limbs breaking forth from the ground to drag your enemies down with them, for example. Many illusions such as Phantasmal Force could be refluffed as summoning a Shade to choke the life out of someone. Animate objects on a sack of skulls gives you... flying, biting skulls that attack on your command.   Obviously some spells require more stretching than others, but the sky is essentially the limit. So on that note, what exactly are you trying to do? Do you want chill touch and spells like that because you see yourself wading into combat with your servitors, bad touching stuff left and right, or do you want things like that because its necrotic? If waltzing into melee isn't your thing, then do you plan on hanging back and slinging spells while everyone else holds the line? If you're not even thinking about the combat side of things, then that's a separate set of suggestions altogether.   Without knowing what you're going for, my recommendation would be to pick spells you like, and try to refluff them to fit your concept. You're already ditching all your fluff for your class, you may as well do the same thing with the spells you use. Mellored's Bard guide has a decent section on Magical Secrets, located here: http://community.wizards.com/comment/51340926#comment-51340926 My advice would be to look into some of those spells and see if any strike your fancy.
#3 rgoodbb Aug 28, 2015 11:38:41	I'm playing a voodoo woman/witch doctor Bard/Warlock   Reaper Doll and pins are my arcane focus, It could be a skull or bone, a ravens feather, a lump of coal or something else you feel is symbolic   Musical proficiencies I just wave and don't replace with anything. (although I have Thieves tools from background) to rob graves? Cartog for mapping gravesites Masons for knowledge of gravestones?   Tashas is death again whispering to your enemy and making them mad as V. Mockery could be as well Mage Hand -  a bone hand Bane could be bodies from the ground grabbing and distracting Dissonant you've got   If you are using power words, thats; Charm person, Thunderwave and Healing Word sorted if you want them. Silence and suggestion next level etc.   Enjoy your reflavouring
(Reply to #3) bid	rgoodbb wrote:
#5 OB1 Aug 28, 2015 14:18:08	PK - I know you don't usually like the musical fluff of the bard, but what if this bard made a pact with a fiend to become a great guitar player?  This commong theme from Blues and early Rock music could tie in nicely with your Voodoo theme as well.
#6 DemoMonkey Aug 28, 2015 14:22:59	Whatever your replacement proficiency is, if you are going to stick to the bard mechanics, it needs to be something you have to hold hold in a hand in order to manifest your bardic abilities.   I suggest "Skull".
#7 PhyrexianKitsune Aug 28, 2015 15:32:33	I'm actually fluffing it as a form of "black speech" if you will rather than words of power in the skyrim dragon shout sense. The PHB bard fluff stated that their magic was something of an attempt to emulate the god's ability to speak things into creation, so I ran with that and have my character using speech-based bardic magic rather than music based bard spells. However, since the PHB makes no other references to word/oration bards being a thing and reference music a ton, I'm fluffing using words instead of song to acssess bard magic as being TOO CLOSE to what the gods do and thus an afront to the laws of reality that results in the effects produced being twisted, perverted versions of actual bardic spells. Essentially, this character would be a bard that's "doing it wrong."   Due to this fluff, I'm thinking that a 2-level dip into Great Old One warlock would be thematic, af a GOO would very much be in line with the kind if force that could grant knowledge of this kind of power, though in my original concept it instead came from my character's own research. They would have no musical talent themselves, but would none the less have been fascinated by the bard's songs having power supposedly akin to the god's speech an would have tried to see if it was the words themselves rather than the music that carried the magic. What resulted was them discovering and using a magic that should not exsist...a "glitched" form of bardic casting that is missing the key component of music. A Great Old One could very well be a source of such lore, so a GOO warlock dip may be on the table.
#8 Kron-Karn Aug 28, 2015 15:55:10	Preformances are easaly reskinned into chanting incantations as touched on in the dark words of Power thread. You hold your skull out and begin to chanting dark incantations "shal-na sor mi-na" (some thing that sounds like saruman said it). Though non around you understood the evil tounge in which you speek the words shake your enemies to their core (cutting words). Your skull held close to you, you begin to wisper a barly audible encantaion. Slowly other wispers join yours and soon it seems As though a chior is whispering around you as the corpses of those fallen are brought forward with unlife (animate dead or create undead).
#9 PhyrexianKitsune Aug 28, 2015 16:37:18	Thanks for all the advice! Also, I do have another question. Could you have a actual, not totally refluffed bard who was still not a musician? Are verbal/oration/word bards, as exsists in past editions, still a thing? If so then I may not need to do all that much refluffing of the class as it's only the music part of the bard I dislike' not the lore seeker and storyteller aspects. A verbal/word based bard who's "performance" was writing, delievered through the spoken word, would be something I could really find myself getting behind. Something of fantasy Edgar Allen Poe expy, with a morbid fascination with death and taboo topics who wrote horror stories instead of heroic epics.. That would be pretty darn cool.
#10 drizzt_zylo Aug 28, 2015 18:49:07	There is a whole thread about refluffing a bard you can describe anything how u want to u can describe your spells as altering theminds around you as such yyou blind them to whatever your making them invisible. You can call yourself a Jedi if that's what u like grab shileglgh and call it a light saber or that voodoo doll or skull its totally up to you. The only thing all that class fluff they put up there is for inspiration and beginners.
#11 BRJN Aug 29, 2015 13:03:58	Although you don't like music, you might want to pull this out at a fancy-dress noble ball: Brunehilda's High Note = PH-as-written Shatter In this case, you un-pocket an obviously-magical tuning fork, tick it with your finger, and toss it up at the chandelier.  (Ask the DM how the ballroom's windows hold up, too.)  Nobody will expect you, the death-obsessed mage uttering dread Words of Power, to do THAT - you hate music !