Bardic Inspiration Upkeep

[Doppleganger]

We have a game with a gnome bard who maintained his "bardic inspiration" song/poetics ability for the party and simultaneously attempted to activate his spell-like ability speak with burrowing mammals to use the lyrics to communicate some questions and suggestions to the animal.

This brought up some questions.

Can the singing bard listen to people and manipulate his lyrics to answer questions, ask questions, and give ideas? In this case, the player is clever enough to make entertaining lyrics that rhyme and provide a story that sounds like an old folk tale, but also with this he is able to duplicate direct conversation and interaction with multiple PCs/NPCs around him. Is that reasonable?

What *can* a bard do while maintaining his singing of "bardic inspiration" magic? The book says "fight but not cast spells", but gives no more guidelines besides some talk about verbal stuff. Can the bard do all other everyday actions besides spellcasting? Can he write passages in a journal? Can he use skills like Disable Device or Heal? Would this require a house rule like a Concentration check or Perform check to maintain the singing magic?

There's no cap on duration either. So if some of the above actions are possible while singing, can the bard potentially keep inspiration up for 16hrs a day and merely stop only when sleeping?

Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

He could keep the Badic Music as long as he wants, but as far as I know, he cannot use any spells, spellike abilities (like Speak with Burrowing Animals from Gnomes) or spell completion devices (like Wands and Scrolls)

I think a Bard worth his salt is able to sing and listen to others at the same time, but he is probably not capable of speaking at the same time (unless he improvises the text of the song).
Any other actions are probably possible as well, though something like scribing in a manual will probably ask to much.

When in doubt, let him make a Concentration Check. Maybe DC 10 (since their is no "spell level" for his Bardic Abilities) or DC 15 (some kind of "Combat Casting"?)

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[orbitalfreak]

On-the-fly thought here:

Possibly some sort of Innuendo skill check to put "real speech" into a performance? Say DC 10 to transmit a basic message, 15-20 for more complex messages (as the skill says). Since you need Innuendo to receive the message, though, this could be a problem. Maybe make it a straight Wis check for the listeners to discern (receive DC == transmit DC)?

 

[Samhain California]

bard song...

the song portion of that is a misnomer, you can use any sort of performance to make that work, chant buffonery, limericks, dance, etc

some where it says that for every point of perform you get a new type of perform, use that.

i still wouldnt allow a bard to activate a spell like ability while "singing" but i would nto penalize a character for "speaking to a burrowing animal"

fascinate is language dependant still, but inspire courage is not.

-josh

 

[Janos Antero]

Song and Silence discusses alternate methods of activating bardic music. The default method of activation for Inspiring Courage and Greatness is song, but it discusses other methods as well.

The problem with alternate methods being that you must be using some part of the body so to speak. If you use an instrument, but don't sing, you could then cast vocal spells, but would either have one hand occupied (if you had a one-handed instrument), or both hands, and would loose out on semantic components, and the ability to fight.

Using song or other vocal methods mean you can not use any vocal components and the like (discussed in PHB p28). Since he can't activate spell completion, magic items by magic word, or cast spells, essentially he couldn't speak while singing or using another vocal method.

Specifically relating to the gnome, it is not possible to sing Inspire Courage and activate Speak with Burrowing Mammals because it has a vocal component, and you can not activate any vocal aspects of magic.

So a bard can have his hands free to fight and the like, but not speak, or he can speak, but have his hands occupied.

Theoretically they could dance and have both hands and speech free, but that would still basically eliminate combat, and other actions requiring movement outside the course of specific dances.

So either way of activation, the methods are roughly balanced.

As a personal suggestion, I wouldn't allow incorporating speech into bardic song, or dance movements into combat sheerly for balance reasons. No more than you can cast a spell while mute without a Silent Spell feat.

Bard's already have access to a feat that allows magic to be incorporated into normal performances (Disguise Spell), I'd suggest allowing Inspire Courage to be worked into another feat, such as Subsonic, or as some modified extension of Disguise spell, but really, removing one of the casting components of the ability should require a feat.

 

[Doppleganger]

The gnome's speak with burrowing animals is described as a spell-like ability. We checked and spell-like abilities have no vocal components, nor somatic, nor material, nor any other spell type requirements. That makes it more troublesome to interpret.

It's the other stuff that gets even more hazy. What are the limitations on other actions that the bard can do? Can he use skills like Use Rope? Disable Device? As you skim down through the skill list you can see that the DM has to make alot of "on the spot" decisions, it would be nice if there were some more concrete rules guidelines.

Let's say the DM doesn't allow words to be worked into the song. Can the bard determine the subject matter? The main protagonists? The plotline? How many details?

Also the bard likes to vary the inspirational volume so as to "turn it off" but actually keep it going in super-quiet whispers, then "turn it back on" when needed by raising the his voice up loud so the party can hear it again. This allows him to keep it on all day without disrupting the adventuring. Is this reasonable?

 

[Janos Antero]

Also the bard likes to vary the inspirational volume so as to "turn it off" but actually keep it going in super-quiet whispers, then "turn it back on" when needed by raising the his voice up loud so the party can hear it again. This allows him to keep it on all day without disrupting the adventuring. Is this reasonable?

Well, all those to benefit from Inspire Courage have to be able to hear it, so it isn't really likely he can keep it super quiet. To get around this limitation requires the feat Subsonic. If at any point any individual stops hearing the bard sing for a round or longer, his particular duration of Inspire Courage becomes 5 more rounds, then ends. There is not a specific clause if the ally can hear the song again after skipping it a round, and that would be a DM call (reasonable if the bard himself never interrupted his own song).

The default for Inspire Courage is singing, and you must be able to speak to use Speak With Animals, while the Somatic component of the casting itself doesn't apply, the ability to speak still does.

Theoretically I suppose you could have a character versed in Drow sign language activate his Speak with Animals and the animal would then be able to understand and act upon his actions, but the spell uses tangible communication rather than telepathy, so some language the character is proficient in and can currently use is going to be required.

If the bard is singing, excluding the afore mentioned loss of vocal ability, all other skills/feats/actions are possible. His hands are free so yes he can use rope, disable a trap, etc. Basically, if it takes vocal sound, he can't do it. If it doesn't take vocal sound, he can do it.

Note, the above is based solely upon the concept of a bard Singing.

If you have a bard whom uses an instrument rather than singing, then he could take any action that didn't require use of his hands.

And there is nothing to stop a bard from creating custom songs to work within his Inspire Courage, but if he's trying to fight, create the song with words relating to the current battle, and Inspire Greatness for example, the DM at the least should require a Perform check to come up with good words/verses/lyrics/tunes, with some sort of penalty for too much action/inability to focus.

Now granted, whether or not a bard can write the song during action is crossing into the realm of house rules, in that regard the rules are vague.

And if you're going to make a house rule on that, I'd strongly suggest a house rule requiring endurance checks of some sort to keep playing that long. A bard needs fine tuned instruments, be it his voice, or his fingers, and neither is intended to play for hours upon hours on end. He's going to run out of breath, ruin his lute, rip up his fingertips, go hoarse, etc.