Bard Versatile Performance

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Frankly, I think Versatile Performance should simply be replaced with the Magician's Expanded Repertoire ACF, to better reflect the Bard's status as a dabbler in magic. The only problem is that nearly every other Archetype also replaces Versatile Performance with something.

If you're tired of Intelligence-based casters outshining the dedicated skillmonkeys, you'd be better off by giving those skillmonkey classes some other benefit for improving their Intelligence. Canny Defense and Insightful Strike seem like perfectly reasonable candidates for Rogue talents, and if Ninjas and Mysterious Strangers can use Charisma for ki and grit, why can't Rogues use Intelligence?

That leaves us with Rangers, Inquisitors, and Bards-- all of which are based on other ability scores for good reason. Just bump them up to 8 skill points and call it a day.

 

[Erik the Red]

Versatile Performance's design goal was to give bards more skill points without artificially increasing their total skill points AND to put an emphasis onto the Perform skill for them after the Perform skill's importance regarding bardic performance lessened from its importance in 3.5's version.

The result isn't perfect, alas. And it's something that I very much would like to see addressed in FAQs or errata or, most likely, in the upcoming Advanced Player's Guide.

The two basic elements: bards should be able to "reschedule" their skill ranks in skills that Versatile Performance duplicates every time the gain a new Versatile Performance; this allows a bard to be good at, say, Fly and Acrobatics until he gets Versatile Performance (dance), and once he DOES get that, lets him reapply skill points previously spent on Fly and Acrobatics to other skills. This'd work similarly to how sorcerers get to repick spells periodically.

The other element is that when you use Versatile Performance to use a Perform skill for another skill, bonuses you'd get to that other skill from things like Skill Focus or other Feats, racial modifiers, magic items, and the like SHOULD apply to your Perform skill check when you're using it for those particular versatile skills. In effect, Versatile Performance gives you a pair of "phantom skills" with the corresponding "phantom skill points" each time you gain it.

If instead you want to just kill the Versatile Performance ability entirely, my suggested fix would be instead to increase the base skill ranks per level granted to bards by 2 each time they would normally gain Versatile Performance. These skill rank increases should probably be retroactive.

ANYway. It's something that I might call a personal crusade to get fixed. Might be a while before it sees print, but them's my thoughts, anyway.

I know this is an old post, but I haven't seen anything 'newer'. Was this ever resolved by rules?
I have a bard that has acrobatics with Boots of Elvenkind and by the wording, it does seem that it would work with using Perform (dancing) and +5 with the Boots. Thanks for your knowledge!