Pathfinder 1E Cheating with leadership

RangerWickett · Mar 24, 2017

I'm playing Iron Gods, an adventure path with sci-fi technology. You can acquire walkie-talkies.

We're 14th level now. One PC has taken Leadership. The GM is basically planning this to be his last time playing Pathfinder, so he's pretty blase about people using broken stuff, since he wants to see how crazy the system can be.

So now the PC has 40 1st level bard followers with Lingering Performance. Each gets 15 rounds of Inspire Courage per day, performed over the walkie-talkie, which is a solid hour of buffing from the comfort of home. I'm not sure yet what they're doing to inspire us, since they're just performing for one round out of every three. Imagine listening to your favorite album only 6 seconds at a time, then waiting 12 seconds before playing the next bit. Seems more distracting than inspiring.

Anyway, Pathfinder is silly.

Lwaxy · Mar 25, 2017

Thi is.... really that is so silly beyond words.

As a GM I'd never allow bardic performances to work while transmitted by technology. The magic just doesn't transfer. And 40 bard followers? Not over my torn GM screen.

But my guess is they inspire you to fight faster so you don't have to endure any more 6-second performances.

Starfox · Mar 27, 2017

Followers are generally NPC-class, so this is GM silliness more than Pathfinder silliness.

Lwaxy · Mar 29, 2017

Nah, most GMs allow regular classes. It is just the magnitude that's silly.

Starfox · Mar 29, 2017

Back in 3.5, the bard limit was on the number of performances, not on the duration. Each performance could be infinite (well, until you fell asleep or cast a spell). I remember marathon joke sessions with Perform (comedy)

Yes, off topic, I know.

Lylandra · Mar 30, 2017

Is it just me or is the silliest part the fact that the DM allowed the PC to magically find 40 people with the same class/feat combination? You only have 1 feat at 1st level (2, if you are a human), so I guess the chances of finding a number of bards that large would be next to 0.

And yes, having Bardic Performance work through walkie-talkies is just as silly. Because BP is a charisma dependant, supernatural class skill and I guess a bard's "vocal charisma" transmitted through a bad-quality walkie-talkie signal would not suffice. At least not in my campaign

Oh and my interpretation of lingering performance (as I'm playing a PF bard in our current campaign) would be that you don't actually stop performing. You just stop the "performance magic" from being tapped into (and tapping into it requires attention, so you have to give up a certain kind of action to start a BP). If you run out of BP rounds for the day, you can still choose to perform, you just don't do any magical stuff with it. So I see no inherent problem with simply "stopping the magic" during an ongoing performance.

Brandegoris · Apr 6, 2017

RangerWickett said:
I'm playing Iron Gods, an adventure path with sci-fi technology. You can acquire walkie-talkies.

We're 14th level now. One PC has taken Leadership. The GM is basically planning this to be his last time playing Pathfinder, so he's pretty blase about people using broken stuff, since he wants to see how crazy the system can be.

So now the PC has 40 1st level bard followers with Lingering Performance. Each gets 15 rounds of Inspire Courage per day, performed over the walkie-talkie, which is a solid hour of buffing from the comfort of home. I'm not sure yet what they're doing to inspire us, since they're just performing for one round out of every three. Imagine listening to your favorite album only 6 seconds at a time, then waiting 12 seconds before playing the next bit. Seems more distracting than inspiring.

Anyway, Pathfinder is silly.

Ive said it before and will say it again. bards are f8c*in stupid in general. I don't allow them in my games. If I was fighting an Orc and some dick behind me was clapping his hands and doing spoken word poetry I would kick his ass.
Secondly , where did this dips*it recruit 40 bards? That's a DM mistake. lame

Lylandra · Apr 6, 2017

Brandegoris said:
Ive said it before and will say it again. bards are f8c*in stupid in general. I don't allow them in my games. If I was fighting an Orc and some dick behind me was clapping his hands and doing spoken word poetry I would kick his ass.
Secondly , where did this dips*it recruit 40 bards? That's a DM mistake. lame

I don't want to derail, but... what?!

I guess your interpretation and mine of what using a "bardic performance" means doesn't really overlap. To me, a bard can be an inspiring, even leader-like figure. For example, my own bard is a dancer and singer. When she's performing combat-related inspiring, she's actually doing a combat dance, using a routine full of jumps, flourishes etc. that makes her seem like an untouchable, highly professional fencer.

The other interpretation would be to offer music or rhythm so awesome that it actually bolsters your morale. Just think of your favourite action movie, once with and once without a soundtrack. Or imagine fighting a war where you have that one drummer who just perfectly leads your strokes with his drumming. Fighting alongside a Manowar-esque figure who sings gritty songs about glory in battle while slashing his enemies. And I don't want to even start talking about the whole "magical music" trope.

But I guess I just like bards

Tuft · Apr 6, 2017

Lylandra said:
For example, my own bard is a dancer and singer. When she's performing combat-related inspiring, she's actually doing a combat dance, using a routine full of jumps, flourishes etc. that makes her seem like an untouchable, highly professional fencer.

Yep, what I do with my bards too - especially love the bard/monk hybrid my GM has written and even gotten published.

Imagine combining Perform Dance, Acrobatic jumps and tumbles, Unarmed Combat and Combat Maneuvers into a whole smooth, powerful combo. Think "Avatar: The Last Airbender" combat styles for those who have seen that TV series.

We did the Skull & Shackles adventure path with just three characters: Bard, Barbarian and Sorcerer, and had very little problems with the encounters in that one. Nothing like inspiring yourself and the barbarian with your dance, at the same time using the same acrobatic dance steps to jump up on the railing, tumbling along it, and tripping your opponent from behind, thus providing your fully raging, fully power-attacking, fully buffed barbarian with attacks of opportunity both when the opponent falls prone and rises again, as well as your performance buffs, your spell buffs, your flanking bonus, and even the opponent prone bonus. (Of course the barbarian has Combat Reflexes when you tend to do that!)

If you have problem with silly performances, don't do silly performances - do cool ones instead!

Brandegoris · Apr 6, 2017

Once again. if I was battling and ORC to the death and some whiny little skinny weirdo with a rapier came dancing into the combat and singing " hey Ho, Poke him in the nose whole.. THERE you go!"
I would stop fighting the ORC, Turn around and slap the sh*t out of that guy. its NOT inspiring. It silly as hell and something a drug addict would do. Bards should be playing music in taverns. they are musicians, not combatants. I HATE D&D for making them a character class.

LOLOLOL

Pathfinder 1E Cheating with leadership

RangerWickett

Legend

Lwaxy

Cute but dangerous

Starfox

Hero

Lwaxy

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Starfox

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Lylandra

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Brandegoris

First Post

Lylandra

Adventurer

Tuft

First Post

Brandegoris

First Post

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