3.5E: Bardic styles

Since different bards play different kinds of music, why not give them
slightly different abilities? I'm thinking of something comparable to
the totem barbarian variant in Unearthed Arcana. Each bard could
choose a style of music and have the strength and weakness that came
with it. Four styles to start us off:

Style: Angry
Benefits: Allies affected by Inspire Courage gain a double bonus to
damage rolls. Those affected by Inspire Greatness gain 3 bonus HD
instead of 2, and they're 12-sided instead of 10-sided. Those affected
by Inspire Heroics gain an extra attack per round at full BAB.
Drawbacks: Lawful creatures get +8 to saving throws against your
bardic music effects, and creatures who are neither lawful nor chaotic
get +4. You can't use Suggestion or Mass Suggestion to suggest a
lawful act.

Style: Depressing
Benefits: When creatures cease to be Fascinated by your music, they
must make a Will save or suffer the effect of your choice of Fear or
Crushing Despair. The DC is your Perform modifier plus the number of
rounds they spent Fascinated (to a maximum of 20).
Drawbacks: You can't Inspire Competence, and your Song of Freedom
doesn't work against enchantments other than charms.

Style: Inspiring
Benefits: Allies affected by Inspire Courage gain a double bonus to
saving throws against charms and fear. The bonus you can grant with
Inspire Competence increases to 3 at 7th level, 4 at 11th level and a
maximum of 5 at 15th level. Inspire Greatness grants +2 instead of +1
to Fortitude saves, and Inspire Heroics grants +6 instead of +4 to
saves.
Drawbacks: You can only fascinate creatures for up to 2 rounds.

Style: Soporific
Benefits: Whenever you use Fascinate, the targets must first make a
Will save. If they fail, they fall asleep for the duration of the
music plus 1 minute per level; instead of taking -4 to Listen and Spot
checks, they take -10. If they succeed or are immune to sleep effects,
they must then save against Fascinate's normal effects.
Drawbacks: While creatures you have put to sleep can still receive
Suggestions and Mass Suggestions, they get +5 to their saving throws.
You can use Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness and Inspire Heroics
only as though you were two levels lower and had two fewer ranks in
each Perform skill than you actually do.

On Aug 26, 8:27 pm, SeaHen wrote:
> Since different bards play different kinds of music, why not give them
> slightly different abilities? I'm thinking of something comparable to
> the totem barbarian variant in Unearthed Arcana. Each bard could
> choose a style of music and have the strength and weakness that came
> with it. Four styles to start us off:
>
> Style: Angry
> Benefits: Allies affected by Inspire Courage gain a double bonus to
> damage rolls. Those affected by Inspire Greatness gain 3 bonus HD
> instead of 2, and they're 12-sided instead of 10-sided. Those affected
> by Inspire Heroics gain an extra attack per round at full BAB.
> Drawbacks: Lawful creatures get +8 to saving throws against your
> bardic music effects, and creatures who are neither lawful nor chaotic
> get +4. You can't use Suggestion or Mass Suggestion to suggest a
> lawful act.
>
> Style: Depressing
> Benefits: When creatures cease to be Fascinated by your music, they
> must make a Will save or suffer the effect of your choice of Fear or
> Crushing Despair. The DC is your Perform modifier plus the number of
> rounds they spent Fascinated (to a maximum of 20).
> Drawbacks: You can't Inspire Competence, and your Song of Freedom
> doesn't work against enchantments other than charms.
>
> Style: Inspiring
> Benefits: Allies affected by Inspire Courage gain a double bonus to
> saving throws against charms and fear. The bonus you can grant with
> Inspire Competence increases to 3 at 7th level, 4 at 11th level and a
> maximum of 5 at 15th level. Inspire Greatness grants +2 instead of +1
> to Fortitude saves, and Inspire Heroics grants +6 instead of +4 to
> saves.
> Drawbacks: You can only fascinate creatures for up to 2 rounds.
>
> Style: Soporific
> Benefits: Whenever you use Fascinate, the targets must first make a
> Will save. If they fail, they fall asleep for the duration of the
> music plus 1 minute per level; instead of taking -4 to Listen and Spot
> checks, they take -10. If they succeed or are immune to sleep effects,
> they must then save against Fascinate's normal effects.
> Drawbacks: While creatures you have put to sleep can still receive
> Suggestions and Mass Suggestions, they get +5 to their saving throws.
> You can use Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness and Inspire Heroics
> only as though you were two levels lower and had two fewer ranks in
> each Perform skill than you actually do.

Looks good - but could these be changed as a wizard chooses spells so
the music choice suits the situation (requring a period of rehearsal
to change - i.e. 8 hours).