3.5 performance skill[s]

[darkbard]

i've got a player with a bard character who is very eager to understand the revisions to the performance skill for 3.5. anyone out there kind enough to give a break-down of the skill's function and a listing of the subskills?

thanks in advance.

 

[babomb]

The Perform skill works like Craft/Knowledge/Profession. I.e., there are different sub-categories with separate ranks. The sub-categories are:

Act
Comedy
Dance
Keyboard instruments
Oratory
Percussion instruments
String instruments
Wind instruments
Sing

 

[Malin Genie]

Doesn't that badly disadvantage bards - who got +2 skill points per level but now have nine different 'Perform's into which they will have to put ranks to be a competent all-round performer?

I can feel a House rule coming on.....

 

[Staffan]

Well, I think the point is that being a very competent all-round performer doesn't leave much room for other pursuits. Most performers will use one, maybe two, types of performance and ignore the others - just like most performers in real life.

That said, there ought to be synergy bonuses involved somehow. While spending time learning to play drums won't help your guitar skills as much as actually learning to play the guitar, someone who has a basic grasp of one branch of performance should get a bit of a bonus to other branches as well.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Doesn't that badly disadvantage bards - who got +2 skill points per level but now have nine different 'Perform's into which they will have to put ranks to be a competent all-round performer?

I can feel a House rule coming on.....

Does it nerf Bards? I guess it does.

Does it make a lot more sense now? Hellz yeah.

 

[Celtavian]

re

I like this change. The performance arts should not be so easy to learn that you both learn a new type of art and become better at everything you've learned previously. I just hope Perform (Act) has some kind of synergy bonus with Disguise.

 

[pppo]

There is an interesting discussion on perform on this board:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?threadid=54780

 

[Poltergeist]

From a practical, real world point of view the change makes sense. After all, being a really good singer does not in any way translate into being a really good dancer.

From a meta game perspective, I don't like it. There is really no game use to having multiple perform skills...it doesn't really matter from a mechanics perspective if you can perform in more than one medium. Essentially, if from a role playing perspective, you want to be an all around excellent performer "just for the fun of it", bard players will have to burn all their skill points in skills that are essentially useless (beyond the one perform skill you need to use your "bardic music" abilities). Different craft and knowledge skillls, conversely, can be useful.

 

[Glyfair]

From a practical, real world point of view the change makes sense. After all, being a really good singer does not in any way translate into being a really good dancer.

I agree that in the real world this makes sense. I do think a synergy bonus is in order. After all, once you become proficient in a performance type, you have a general idea of things to do to please audiences and can carry that over to other performance types.

There is really no game use to having multiple perform skills...it doesn't really matter from a mechanics perspective if you can perform in more than one medium.

While I agree that you can run a bard with only one performance type, I do disagree with this. There are many examples where it is useful from a gamist perspective to have several types of perform skills.

The most obvious is the instrument skills. You found a magical lute, a shame you took acting as your performance skill. Now you take stringed instruments, that's not going to help you play the magical pipe organ.

The second case ties into spell components. If your opponent ties you up but leaves your hands free, that lets you use your bard abilities if you took "Act" or "Oratory." You have been made mute by some magical spell? Good thing you have taken Dance as your ability.

The third case is the prestige classes. Certainly different prestige classes will have different prerequisities (some will probably have multiple ones).

Overall, I have mixed feelings. I think it takes more away from the game as it adds. However, I don't think it's clear and it certainly will depend on your specific game.

Glyfair of Glamis

 

[Apok]

A quick fix (other than to just use the 3.0 version of Perform) would be to allow each rank in Perform to apply to two different sub-groups. This way, you still keep it "real" and give Bards a break.