Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatula" data-source="post: 4730423" data-attributes="member: 2198">The Gypsy-Bard, the Herald, and the Jester! (and the Hafling Whistler, kinda)Gypsy-Bard (Dance / Instruments / Singing)“[Gypsies] travel the lands in caravans comprising cats, wagons, horses, and the gypsy folk.  These people are well known for their strange gypsy music and dances.  Some caravans survive by entertaining the communities they encounter.“Gypsy ways are strange to others and poorly understood by most.  They do not recognize the existence of private property.  The fruits of the land belong to all… Likewise, gypses use only what they need and do not seek wealth or possessions for their own sake, or for the influence or power that they bring.“Gypsy-bards wander the land, experiencing life as they go.  They travel until they find something of interest: a beautiful glade, an interesting village, an audience to sing and dance before, or someone who wants to trade with them.  Then they establish a temporary camp and remain until their need to see more of the world overpowers their desire to stay.”Ideal Races: Human, Halfling.Alignment: Cannot be Lawful Good.Ability Scores: Dex 13+, Int 13+.Bardic Virtue: Cunning.Skills: Acrobatics, Nature, Thievery (requires feat).Feats: Expert Ritualist (PHB2), Sneak of Shadows.Powers: No preference.  Gypsy-bards function as oracles and should seek after Divination rituals, as well as those that require the Nature skill.  They can treat animal friendship (PHB2) as a bard ritual.Equipment: Gypsy-bards love gaudy jewelry, and wear garments that are loose-fitting and comfortable.  As a result, they prefer cloth or leather armor and shun armors with skill check or movement penalties.  They favor light blades or curved heavy blades (such as the scimitar or khopesh) for weapons.Instrument/Implement: Dance, song, any musical instrument, wands, songblade.“Gypsy-bards have an entire collection of unconventional concepts that make up their philosophy of life:•    Gypsy-bards are free thinkers.  For example, many do not marry, seeking companionship only for as long as both parties agree to the arrangement.•    Gypsy-bards love nature.•    Many gypsy-bards don’t worship deities (although certain deities may look over them).  Instead, they worship the concepts of nature, free will, and life.•    Gypsy-bards draw their energies from their free will, their brethren, and from their natural surroundings.•    A gypsy-bard is loyal and protects his friends, but friendship must be earned, and it is not gained easily.•    Possession and ownership are the same.•    Money is useless unless it brings you pleasure; trade is a better form of commerce.•    You should always dress and act naturally and comfortably.•    The rigid customs and beliefs of non-gypsies are foolish and should be ignored.”Herald (Linguist / Orator)“There are two types of heralds.  One travels from place to place, relating current events across the land.  They sell their tales of travel and the news they learn to those who will listen.  Most medieval commoners cannot read or write, so it is up to such heralds to relate local events.“The other type of herald secretly serves a king.  It is the royal herald’s duty to uncover plots against the king and royal family.  The royal herald is quick witted and fast talking… Royal courts often employ them to preside over jousting tournaments, announce the arrival of important foreign envoys, and for personal counsel.”Ideal Races: Human, Half-elf, Hobgoblin.Alignment: Cannot be Chaotic Evil.Ability Scores: Con 13+.Bardic Virtue: Valor.Skills: Diplomacy, History, Streetwise.Feats: Linguist (common languages).Powers: No preference.Equipment: A royal herald is similar to a courtier, and will be dressed in fine clothes when not adventuring.Instrument/Implement: Oratory, horns, songblade.Jester (Pantomime / Acting / Dancing / Jokes)“Jesters are comedians at heart.  They love to have a good time and enjoy sharing their mirth and merriment with others (even when they aren’t welcomed).“Jesters are flamboyant, outrageous, and ridiculous.  Many sages believe that jesters live in a constant state of borderline insanity.  It is known that they live for attention and feel relaxed only when they are the focus of events.”Ideal Races: Human, Gnome, Halfling, Goblin.Alignment: Cannot be Lawful Good.Ability Scores: Dex 13+, Int 13+.Bardic Virtue: Cunning.Skills: Acrobatics, Athletics, Bluff, Thievery (requires feat).Feats: rogue and/or defender multiclass feats.Powers: Jesters should look for spells with the Charm or Illusion keywords, as well as those that hinder their enemies.  Good rogue utility exploits to choose for power-swaps are those that require training in any of the skills listed above.  Picking up a defender multiclass feat or powers that allow the character to mark opponents is a good represenation of the jester’s taunts, especially with some reflavoring.   For example, consider the paladin multiclass feat that gives the character Divine Challenge 1/encounter.  If the challenge dealt psychic instead of radiant damage, and required that the character stay within 5 squares of the target and spend a minor action each round to maintain the challenge (rather than the requirement to attack or be adjacent), it would be an appropriate substitute for the kit’s “jesting” ability.Equipment: “Jesters almost always act and dress in the most outlandish manner.  Even when danger is imminent, jesters still hop around in their flashy suits with tassels and foppish hats.”  Jesters wear only light armor, so as to maximize their mobility.Instrument/Implement: Humor, tumbling, any musical instrument, wands.---As for the Halfling Whistler, it's an odd case.  It and the Dwarven Chanter could not cast spells; they learned spells as a normal bard would, but that knowledge instead gave them resistance to those particular spells.  There's no good way to translate that into 4e, and in any case, a character that can't cast spells is not a member of the 4e bard class.  I would be inclined to treat the Whistler as a druid that never uses Wild Shape or Beast evocations - a nature priest, basically.  The character should have a good Cha score (perhaps even swapping Cha for Wis with the druid powers) and invoke his abilities via whistles and "chattering" ("...a process of whistling, trilling, and emitting an occasional squeak...").Also, I would use the Shire Halfling race (from the Advanced Player's Guide) over the PHB Halfling for the class. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification