How Long Can A Bard Sing For?

[Maldor]

don't forget you don't have to sing for bardic music talking or playing a insterment count as
well so how long can you talk or give a speach for or play say the triangle(just because it's funny)
but i wound have the magic run out at 1 min. x the check

 

[Allegro]

I personally wouldn’t worry about it. If the PCs use this tactic, monsters will get a nice easy listen check. After one or two ambushes the rest of the party will encourage the bard to be quiet.

 

[Deset Gled]

Just going from popular music examples, 'American Pie' is over 10 minutes 30 seconds, isn't it?

For the record, American Pie is 8:30. But your point is correct, people can sing for much longer.

The easy rebutal to this point, though, is that a bard's song isn't just music, it's also magic. So there's no way to determine how long you can really do it by using a real life example. Remember, Power Word spells take a standard action to cast, despite the fact that speaking a word is a free action.

 

[Nifft]

I was referring to the time frame of historic engagements, where it would take a while to get troops arrayed, move units around, etc. As I said, battles involving PCs tend to be over in less than a minute (barring extended running battles or something of the sort.)

So, you meant to be discussing something irrelevant to D&D? :\

Well, whatever. In a "historical" context, I'd argue you'd have one orator or musician per company (if not per platoon) -- and certainly not one per army. It's impossible to hear distant orders over the din of battle, let alone the nuances of music.

And at that scale, tens of minutes works fine. One company's engagement time is going to be far more constrained than the army's engagement time.

Cheers, -- N

 

[blargney the second]

From a game mechanics standpoint, I'd still go with my original recommendation of 1 minute/rank of the Perform skill being used.

Here's why:
1) The benefit of inspire courage is comparable to spells that last either 1 minute/CL or 1 round/CL.
2) It gives a slight edge to bards over clerics and makes level and skill matter.
3) At low levels you'll get one fight, maybe two if your party acts fast.
4) At high level you'll get three to five fights depending on how fast you all go.
5) All that is from a single use of a single class ability.

 

[Mistwell]

I personally wouldn’t worry about it. If the PCs use this tactic, monsters will get a nice easy listen check. After one or two ambushes the rest of the party will encourage the bard to be quiet.

Subsonics feat nullifies that issue however.

 

[Slaved]

If we are talking about pure House Rules then why not make it a Perform Check each Round?

At the end of the Bards Turn each Round Roll a Perform Check where the Difficulty Class starts at 0 and increases by 1 each Round plus an Additional 1 if the Bard did something Strenuous that Round.

Low Level Bards will be able to keep their Bardic Music going for longer than the length of most Combats as long as they are not working too hard at it and even Very High Level Bards will need Magical Help to Inspire an entire Battlefield for the length of a Large Engagement.

 

[Folly]

Again, constructs (and undead) Win. They do not get tired, their throats do not go dry, and exhaustion rules are meaningless to creatures without a Con score.

Interestingly enough neither are affected by it. Most constructs are mindless, and undead are immune to morale effects.

The undead immunity can be circumvented with feats & prcs, and not all constructs are mindless.

 

[Shape D.]

RAW: the rules do not say either way, so it's the GM's call.

IMHO: limiting Bardic Music to a "per encounter" duration makes sense.

"Realistically": look at how long musicians usually can go for without taking a break. A long "set" might be 30 minutes, and even then they're taking a few rounds to breathe between individual songs.

Cheers, -- N

Most bands I know would consider 30 minutes a very short set, and even 45 minutes a short set.

My band usually plays an hour to an hour and a half for a set depending on the show, and when needed have pulled off a two hour set before.

A bard isn't really performing a set, or series of songs though, they're performing one song. Most songs are between 3 to 5 minutes long, and I've seen many a band play longer than that. And though I've seen talented bands play 10 minute long songs, I got bored after a few minutes.

I'd just say 3 minutes, Chances are anyone who's listening to the song will become less effected by it after listening to it for that long. Not to mention if your bard can manage to sing for three minutes and the fight isn't over yet, they should probably stop and do some healing. (Unless they have the "sing and cast" feat that I can't remember the name of.)

Respectively there's many divine, and arcane spells that buff just as well, and have minute per level durations

 

[Artoomis]

...A bard isn't really performing a set, or series of songs though, they're performing one song. ...

That's an incorrect assumption.


"...they can all be activated by reciting poetry, chanting, singing lyrical songs, singing melodies, whistling, playing an instrument, or playing an instrument in combination with some spoken performance..."

This sort of thing could easily be kept up a long time.

Of course, while maintaining some ability, "...a bard cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), spell trigger (such as wands), or command word. "

That's the primary control over these abilites being kept up forever. That plus the noise he is making (unless using subsonics) or the fact that he is basically prevented from making any social interactions (even when using subsonics).

There is no real need to add in any new rule for this.