Bard

Untold wonders and secrets exist for those skillful enough to discover them. Through cleverness, talent, and magic, these cunning few unravel the wiles of the world, becoming adept in the arts of persuasion, manipulation, and inspiration. Typically masters of one or many forms of artistry, bards possess an uncanny ability to know more than they should and use what they learn to keep themselves and their allies ever one step ahead of danger. Bards are quick-witted and captivating, and their skills might lead them down many paths, be they gamblers or jacks-of-all-trades, scholars or performers, leaders or scoundrels, or even all of the above. For bards, every day brings its own opportunities, adventures, and challenges, and only by bucking the odds, knowing the most, and being the best might they claim the treasures of each.

Bards capably confuse and confound their foes while inspiring their allies to ever-greater daring. While accomplished with both weapons and magic, the true strength of bard’s lies outside melee, where they can support their companions and undermine their foes without fear of interruptions to their performances.

Armor: Due to the difficulty heavy armors can imposing on singing and playing most instruments; Bards can only wear up to Light Armor.

Weapon Proficiencies: Bards are skilled with the following weapons: Short Weapon, Medium Weapon, Bow, Thrown, and gain the Florentine Power for free. Furthermore, they can use instrument based/shaped weapons of the previously mentioned sizes.

Energys: Bards utilize Energy to fuel their techniques and are limited to a max of 30

Additional Note:

The first 2 Knowledge (Area) skills the characters purchases are considered Basic Class skills, and do not require an instructor. These can not be Rare Knowledge (Area)’s.

Class Features

Hidden Lore: As a master of the road, the character has learned much about the world; in every town they travel to, they pick up a little more. This allows the character to summon up some small bit of information from a Knowledge (Area) without need of having that skill, and the information that can be garnered is equivalent to rank 4 in that Knowledge (Area). This skill can be used once each reset.

Perform: This gives the character the ability to affect more targets by giving an extended performance. For reasons dealing with combat safety, in combat this skill can be a 30 counted action, so as not to damage actual instruments. While performing the character must maintain concentration and interruption or stopping before the time is reached will prevent the skill from having affect and will waste the energy for the skill. When this skill is used the player must announce it before the skill to be affected, IE Perform Song of Healing. At the end of the performance the character will announce, in a tone no louder than the noise generated by the performance, “All Allies Voice <Effect>”, paying the Energy cost only once but still affecting many targets. If this skill is used with Dirges, then the attack becomes delivered as “<Target> Voice <Effect>”, this will only affect a single target but greatly improves the range at which it can be used. This skill can be used 3 times each reset, and an additional time for each 5 character levels (5^th, 10^th, 15, etc.). Using this skill in conjunction with a performance art outside of combat; instrument, singing, prose, etc; will waive the times per day usage.

Bard: Basic Skills
Skill	Cost	Prerequisite	Techniques	SP Cost	Use Cost
Precision +2	15		Mobility	3	1 Energy
Precision +4	15	Precision +2	Silence Strike	3	1 Energy
Precision +6	15	Precision +4	Song of Healing	3	1 Energy
			Charm Strike	4	2 Energy
Spell Pool I	5		Roll	4	2 Energy
Spell Pool II	10		Song of Purity	4	2 Energy
Energy 1-15	1		Dirge of Command	5	3 Energy
Energy 16-30	2		Escape	5	3 Energy
			Sleep Strike	5	3 Energy
			Dodge	6	4 Energy
			Song of Resistance	6	4 Energy
Bard: Advanced Skill
Skill	Cost	Prerequisite	Techniques		Prerequisite
Encore	4		Song of Guidance	3	1 Energy
Stash	3		Dirge of Harm	4	2 Energy
Dirge of Wipe Mind	3		Song of Inspiration	5	3 Energy
Song of Mental Focus	3		Dirge of Slow	6	4 Energy
Allegro!	6		War Cry	6	4 Energy
Strike a Chord	8

Bard Skills

Spell Pool:

Sometimes the right song or verse can transport you to a place in a magical way. Sometimes you ain't got the time for that and instead elect to just push unshaped emotion and wail! Doing this is faster and less stressful than what is done by formal spellcasters. One point of spell pool generates 1 point of healing or wind specific elemental damage, to a limit of 10 points at a time. This is cast as "I summon X <healing | wind>" and packet delivered. Every rank of Spell Pool (I & II) adds 25 points of usable pool. Spell Pool can be refreshed with five minutes of uninterrupted time, or immediately refreshed via the 9th level spell Evocation. In the unique case of Bards, they have access to both healing and damage pools and can cast form their pool either way as they see fit.

Allegro!

This skill allows the character to give a quick performance that affects nearby allies by speeding them up. With a call of 'Hasten Magic Burst' the Bard allows all their allies withing melee distance to cast their next spell via Magic Delivery

Dirge of Command:

This skill allows the character to strike a chord of dissonance against their foe. This attack is delivered as “<Target> Voice Command” against a target in line of sight and will cause the target to be affected by Command.

Dirge of Demoralize:

This skill allows the character to strike a chord of dissonance against their foe. This attack is delivered as “<Target> Voice Weakness” against a target in line of sight and will cause the target to take the Weakness effect.

Dirge of Harm:

This skill allows the character to strike a chord of dissonance against their foe. This attack is delivered as “<Target> Voice 10 Body” against a target in line of sight and will cause the target to take 10 points of Body damage to living creatures.

Dirge of Mind Wipe:

This skill allows the character to remove part of a targets recent memory, acting as a Forget (1 Hour). This skill takes 5 minutes of performance, and if the target is conscious they can choose to ignore the effect.

Dirge of Slow:

This skill allows the character to strike a chord of dissonance against their foe. This attack is delivered as “<Target> Voice Slow” against a target in melee weapon range and will cause the target to be affected by Slow.

Encore:

This skill is used at the end of a use of Perform, the character can continue the performance so long as they maintain concentration. Each 60 count the Song/Dirge will repeat and the character can announce the effect again. This will allow the performance to continue for as long as the character maintains Concentration up to a maximum of 15 minutes.

Song of Guidance

This skill allows the character to give a quick performance that affects up to 3 targets, within melee weapon range, excluding the performer. The targets will gain 1 Temporary Common Knowledge Point; or grant the target +1 Bonus on their next Contested Roll. This effect lasts for the next Hour or Module, or until used. Song of Healing

This skill allows the character to give a quick performance that affects nearby targets with "I summon 5 Healing Burst".

Song of Inspiration

This skill allows the character to give a quick performance that affects nearby targets, with "Inspiration Burst".

Song of Mental Focus

This skill allows the character to give a quick performance that affects up to 3 targets, within melee weapon range, excluding the performer. This allows the character to reduce a targets next counted action, which must be used within the next 5 minutes. The time for the counted action is reduced by 50%, additionally the target gains the benefits of the Improved Concentration power during the action. This cannot be stacked with itself or other Temporary Reduction effects. Song of Resistance

This skill allows the character to give a quick performance that affects nearby allies, excluding the performer, with "Barrier Burst". This effect last for an Encounter or up to 5 minutes.

Song of Purity

This skill allows the character to give a quick performance that affects nearby allies, excluding the performer with "Purify Burst".

Stash:

This skill allows the character to hide an object, which may contain other items, for up to 3 hours. The object to be hidden can be no larger than 1 cu.ft. in total area. When this skill is used the character must place a “Stash” tag on the item and write the time the skill was used on the back of the tag. While similar to Secret Box this item can be found though not easily. To notice that there is a stash a character must have at least rank 10 in the Track skill, and even then, must make a Contested Roll that is considered to have 10 levels of counter tracking.

Strike a Chord

Music soothes the savage beast and does not stop there. With a short performance you cause certain target types to drift into an entranced state, this allows your party of up to 10 players to move past the encounter without engaging. This skill only works when dealing with creatures that are not Immune to Mental Effects.

War Cry

The standard War Cry effect

Bard Powers

Amp

When wielding an instrument weapon the base damage of the weapon is increased by 1 point.

Power Chord

When wielding an instrument weapon the Bard may change their call for beneficial songs from 'Burst' to 'All allies' or for Dirges instead of 'Target' they may call 'all enemies'. This may be used twice per reset.

Sling Arrow

This power all the character to use a stringed instrument weapon (Lute, Harp, etc.) as both a melee and a ranged weapon. The rep must be appropriately constructed for the type of combat it will be used for. Bards may use 1/2 their Precision damage as an increase to their range damage.

Bard Heroic Powers

Reverberate

This Power allows the Bard to unleash a mighty chord that lingers in the air long after they have finished their song. Twice each reset, they can gain the benefits of Encore without needing to continue the performance. Once activated, the performance will last for 5 minutes or one Encounter, allowing the Bard to take other actions and still announce the effect every 30 seconds.

Hype Man

A good Bard can put on a stellar performance but a great Bard can help put others over the top. This is exemplified by being their 'Hype Man'. To do so the Bard will call "Allies Voice Delivery" which will allow all allies to deliver their next Energy or Mana driven skill via voice delivery. This may be used once per reset. Even Lil' John can get repetitive, the magic is in the moderation.