Essentials Bard: the Balladeer

[captainspud]

Yes, it's a dumb name.

Background: I've never played Bards and always thought they were a bit silly. I've never used an Essentials character myself, though I have no inherent problem with them-- some of my players use them, and I love them for demo games. So, on no level is this me creating "my kind" of character-- it's simply something that evolved from a mental concept and clicked extraordinarily well as I started piecing it together.

Long story short: I'm building an Essentials party for a demo I'm running in a few months, and I decided that on a fluff level, the party really needs a bard. Given that Wizards hasn't published an Essentials bard yet, I took a few minutes on my drive home yesterday to think of how that would work.

I came up with a mechanic that I quite like. The Balladeer has a number of at-will Songs (mechanically they're mostly the same as stances) that grant benefits in a fairly wide aura; then, as the bard's encounter power, he can fire off a Crescendo that does more damage and concludes the song with a strong effect, and then the song ends and can't be sung again this encounter.

I tossed together a sample level progression to demonstrate the concept. None of these are "final" powers (and some are probably broken or underpowered), they're just showing how the idea would work in practice.

Balladeer (Bard)

Power Source: Arcane/Martial
Role: Leader

Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, simple range, rapier
Implement Proficiencies: Instrument, Wand
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chain

Lv 1: At-Will Attacks:

• Cha-based MBA
• Cutting Verse (implement, RNG5, target suffers -2 to attacks)

Lv 1: At-Will Songs
Songs are at-will stances that activate with a minor action.
Choose two:

• Song of Triumph (allies within 10 gain INT THP on a hit)
  • Crescendo: One ally gains +CHA to damage for one round
• Dirge of the Nameless Fallen (allies within 10 gain +1 to defenses while bloodied)
  • Crescendo: One ally can spend a healing surge
• Fable of the Darting Hunter (allies within 10 gain +4 to defenses vs AoO and gain +2 to damage while flanking)
  • Crescendo: Allies within 10 can shift half their speed
• Verse of the Final Clash (allies within 10 can push 1 square on a hit)
  • Crescendo: One ally knocks prone on a hit for one round.
• Limerick of the Underdog (allies within 10 gain +1 to hit larger creatures and gain CA vs targets they miss)
  • Crescendo: One ally can make a melee basic attack.
• Ballad of the Perseverent (while adjacent to an ally, allies within 10 never grant CA and gain CA vs creature that hits adjacent ally)
  • Crescendo: One ally gains +INT to all defenses for one round.

Lv 1: Encounter attack - Crescendo
Choose the Victorious Crescendo or the Mocking Crescendo.
Your Crescendo is an encounter attack that triggers on a hit. When you use it, you trigger the Crescendo of your current Song, and the song ends and can’t be sung again this encounter.

• Victorious Crescendo: Additional 1d10 damage and one ally within 5 squares of you gains +INT to damage for one round.
• Mocking Crescendo: Additional 1d10 damage and target suffers -2 penalty to hit for one round.

Lv 2: Utility Power

• Fairly standard Bard utility powers

Lv 3: Encounter attack
Choose either the Harmonious Duet or the Resounding Solo

• Harmonious Duet: Standard, burst 5. You and an ally in the burst each charge or make a basic attack. If both attacks hit, each ally within 10 squares of you regains CHA hit points.
• Resounding Solo: Standard, burst 5. You or one ally in the burst charge. On a hit, the attack does 1d10 additional damage and the target and all enemies adjacent to it are knocked prone.

Lv 5: Additional Song
Gain one additional Lv 1 song.

Lv 6: Verse of Expertise
Gain the following Encounter song:

• Verse of Expertise (choose one skill. Allies within 10 gain a +2 bonus to that skill)

Lv 7: Improved Crescendo
You gain an additional use of Crescendo each encounter.

Lv 9: (something)

Lv 10: Utility Power

• More fairly standard Bard utility powers

Lv 13: Paragon Songbook
Swap one Lv 1 song you know for a song from the following list:

• Chorus of the Avenging Knight (when an ally within 10 is damaged by a creature, that ally gains +CHA to its next damage roll vs that creature)
  • Crescendo: One ally makes a basic attack with a +INT bonus to the attack and damage rolls.
• Rime of the Mist Walkers (allies within 10 gain concealment. Once per round when an ally hits with an attack, a different ally can make a saving throw)
  • Crescendo: Allies gain a +2 bonus to saving throws until the end of your next turn. One ally may make a saving throw against each effect on him.
• Anthem of Justice (allies within 10 can’t grant CA. When an affected ally shifts to a square adjacent to an enemy, he may slide that enemy to a different square adjacent to him).
  • Crescendo: Each enemy within 2 squares of one ally suffers CHA radiant and thunder damage.

Lv 16: Utility Power

• Still more fairly standard Bard utility powers

Lv 17: Improved Song
Swap an additional song you know for a level 13 song.

Lv 23: Epic Songbook
Even more awesome songs

and so on.

So, yeah. I still think bards are a bit silly, but if they're going to end up being Essentialized, I wouldn't mind seeing them done this way. And either way, I think I have a pretty good framework for my demo pregen.

 

[Camelot]

That's a brilliant idea! You need to add a class feature to allow the bard to use his or her implement for weapon attacks, so it doesn't require a magic weapon and a magic implement to be effective. I know this is not complete, but as it's being fleshed out, stick in more 1st level features (like skill versatility or something akin to the mage's apprentice mage feature) and features at higher levels to make up for loss of rituals and keep up with other Essentials classes.

I have been thinking of a way to do an Essentials style bard, and the song/crescendo idea is just perfect. Mind if I steal it and make my own version?

 

[captainspud]

That's a brilliant idea! You need to add a class feature to allow the bard to use his or her implement for weapon attacks, so it doesn't require a magic weapon and a magic implement to be effective. I know this is not complete, but as it's being fleshed out, stick in more 1st level features (like skill versatility or something akin to the mage's apprentice mage feature) and features at higher levels to make up for loss of rituals and keep up with other Essentials classes.

I have been thinking of a way to do an Essentials style bard, and the song/crescendo idea is just perfect. Mind if I steal it and make my own version?

You absolutely can. This was mostly a thought experiment for me, so if anybody else wants to flesh it out a bit more, be my guest.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=94481]captainspud[/MENTION]
I demand a "And they ate the minstrels" as a power, possibly the epic destiny 'once per day when you die' power.

Looks fun! Hope your demo game is a smash

 

[Ferdil]

The Skald

Sorry to spoil your fun, but somebody already did it, and quite well.

 

[jeffh]

I assume you get Majestic Word as well?

This looks like it could be fun to play. Are the crescendos you choose at first level in addition to, or alternatives to, the ones specific to each at-will power? I assume in addition.

 

[jeffh]

The Skald

Sorry to spoil your fun, but somebody already did it, and quite well.

That link doesn't seem to work. However, clicking "Blog" on the left-hand side will take you right to the relevant entry.

 

[captainspud]

The Skald

Sorry to spoil your fun, but somebody already did it, and quite well.

That isn't really anything like mine, though...

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=94481]captainspud[/MENTION]
A while back I was working on an essentials style bard and I was going the same route you are with an MBA modified by stances a la the e-fighter. I called it the Rake and there was a strong "gutter bard" vibe to it, more a swashbuckling scoundrel boosted by magic, a leader/controller hybrid.

Take a peak over here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/300390-essentialized-bard.html

I didn't get to the spellsong auras like you have, but I did come up with some fun ranger type knacks called "The Bardic Arts". Anyhow, feel free to pillage from
there.

 

[captainspud]

I assume you get Majestic Word as well?

I'd probably go with Healing Word just to stay consistent with the other Essentials leaders; the Balladeer could then pick up augmentations to it as level features (maybe in place of one of the Utility slots..?).

This looks like it could be fun to play. Are the crescendos you choose at first level in addition to, or alternatives to, the ones specific to each at-will power? I assume in addition.

The two crescendos you choose from are encounter powers. When you fire them, you get the effects from that crescendo, and you also fire the crescendo effect of your current song.

That might end up being too complicated in practice; if so, the crescendo encounter could easily be made generic (just the +1d10) with only the song effect added.

Yaknow, the more I think about this, the more I kinda want to flesh the rest of the class build out...

@captainspud
A while back I was working on an essentials style bard and I was going the same route you are with an MBA modified by stances a la the e-fighter. I called it the Rake and there was a strong "gutter bard" vibe to it, more a swashbuckling scoundrel boosted by magic, a leader/controller hybrid.

Take a peak over here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/300390-essentialized-bard.html

I didn't get to the spellsong auras like you have, but I did come up with some fun ranger type knacks called "The Bardic Arts". Anyhow, feel free to pillage from
there.

One thing I really like about the Essentials class structure is that you can have separate and totally divergent builds to accommodate different character concepts. In this case, your build represents the active, "dashing swordsman" type of bard, while mind represents the more passive "inspirational singing" type. If I were working at WotC and actually building an essentials bard for a third Heroes book, I probably WOULD try to do both of those as their own builds, in the vein of the Hunter/Scout and Slayer/Knight.

Essentials may not appeal to me as much as a player (I thrive on complexity, so AEDU's more my cup of tea), but as a designer it's WAY more interesting to work with.

(It occurs to me that I also have notes for an Alchemist class in an old Google Doc somewhere... it stalled under AEDU structure, but essentials would probably solve all the problems I was having with it... hmmm...)

Oy... I better stop before I get too excited about this.