Demoquin said:
I am using alterself as an alternative healing spell and like you said to infiltrate. I also get the stats and i think some of the abilities of the form, but not the mannerisms (which is what the disguise check is for).
Alter Self is a good swiss army knife spell. It can grant:
1. A disguise bonus when attempting to disguise oneself as another creature of the same race, or other humanoid race.
2. Exotic movement types such as a Climb speed, Swim speed and, if there are Avariel or other winged humanoids in your campaign world, a Fly speed.
3. Combat bonuses, such as +5 natural armor (troglodyte), and skill bonuses (goblin, gnome, several others.)
Overall it's a very, very good spell for a bard, or bard/assassin, to have.
About Silence, if i cast Silence, then everyone in that area cannot not hear my beautiful music or my speech. Will that be a problem? If not i think i will add that spell.
Silence negates all Bardic Music and all bardic spellcasting (bard spells cannot be cast using Silent Spell.) A bard should stay far, far away from
Silence if he wants to use those abilities. However, since
Silence can be cast on an object or other willing person, it can be used beneficially, even by a bard. Use it to
silence the party while infiltrating a location by casting it on a stone, then cover up or toss away the stone when you need to cast/sing. Or cast it on a companion that is sure to be far enough away not to catch you in the effect, and have him attack the enemy spellcaster, etc. etc.
also with the pipes of sounding .. what would the DC be to realize that the 'sound' isnt from the source the person thinks it is? The perform check? I plan on using the Pipes for creating footsteps that will lead away from me (while i am hidden) then strike out when he turns and tries to discern the direction of the footsteps.
The sound has no "source." Nor does it have any power to make a listener believe it does. Others simply hear the sound, and react accordingly. If they interact with the sound (which as I rule it, means have a reason to question/pay close attention to the sound) they get a Will save to recognize the sound as false, with the DC based on your spellcasting ability.
So in the case of your example, I'd first determine if the listener had a reason to doubt the sound. If he's in a ballroom where the sound of footsteps walking away from him would be normal, he'll take it for granted and not get a save. If he's a guard on top of a quiet wall and hears footsteps walking away from him, he's going to be suspicious, and will get a will save. If he succeeds, he'll recognize that someone has created false sounds. If he fails, he'll believe he's hearing footsteps walking away from him, and act accordingly (which may or may not help you.)
I picture my character as a lore seeker that doesnt really care for the performance that the average bard will go through. though i probally will as my evil side always liks to make a quick buck. Entertains audience with a magic show. Hips into the crowd, Use Hat of Disguise, Sleight of Hand a 'volunteer' then cast some Dancing Lights to my reappearance while saying "Tada!!!" I dont know something like that.
It all comes down to your Perform (magic show) check. If you do really well, people will be amazed and awed. If not, they'll recall that anyone with a couple thousand gold can buy a
Hat of Disguise, and boo you off the stage.
I am an orphan living in an inn that happens to be the headquarters for the Assassin's Guild. So i was looking for a 4th class to round him out. And assassin seemed to fit perfectly along with the SD lvls. I mean no one would ever suspect the bard
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
People
always suspect the bard, IME. They're roguish strangers who often depart quickly. If I'm a constable who's investigating a murder, the first thing I
do is prevent the bard from leaving.
You'd need a good Bluff check to pull this off in my game.
...if lvl 3 bard spells are worth it or more asn for an exrtra d6 and 2DC on death attacks. 160ft is a lot of times i can Shadow jump compared to 40 at lvl 6 and 80 at lvl 8. My reflex will be 15 before the DEX bonus ... so i dont think i will need imp evasion.
There are a metric ton of good 3rd-level bard spells, though as a low-level bard, you won't be able to cast many of them per day in any case.
Knowledge Planes. What kind of info can i get from it? As i see myself as a 'Shadow Walker', i think i should have some knowledge of what i am doing. Like the Plane of Shadows.
This depends entirely on the DM. I allow all sorts of things to be known through Knowledge skills, though rarely actual monster stats. Depends on the question the player has, and the skill check he comes up with.
You'll really have to ask your DM about this one. Only he can say what the skill can net you, and how useful it will be in the campaign.
