Drow Mute Mime Bard, and other Madness
- Thread starter smootrk
- Start date
the Jester
Legend
Being an Insane Clown Posse fan, I've long considered running an adventure set in a Dark Carnival of evil clowns, twisted mirrors and unsettling bystanders. Haven't gotten to it, yet, but it's on the list for sure.
That said, you could have the 'bearded lady' (a female dwarf tall and thin enough to pass for human)... you could have any number of deformities as well (see the old movie Freaks if you need some examples)... you could have a druid or ranger animal trainer who is the 'lady with the big snake' or whatever.
Maybe a Houdini-style escape artist, too? And a barker- someone who's good at wrangling the rubes? The circus' "face man" as it were?
That said, you could have the 'bearded lady' (a female dwarf tall and thin enough to pass for human)... you could have any number of deformities as well (see the old movie Freaks if you need some examples)... you could have a druid or ranger animal trainer who is the 'lady with the big snake' or whatever.
Maybe a Houdini-style escape artist, too? And a barker- someone who's good at wrangling the rubes? The circus' "face man" as it were?
Stormrunner
Explorer
Sounds like the owner/barker of the Moulin Rouge (Ziegfield? Ziegler? something with a Z): "EV-rybody CAN-can!"yennico said:
The one problem with the mute bard is almost all bard spells have a Verbal component. Yeah, you can take Silent Spell, but then your spellcasting is even less effective than the usual bard. Might almost be better off taking Rogue with Skill Focus
erform (multiclassing into Thief-Acrobat at higher levels) and having the barker/ringmaster be the party bard. If you allow Forgotten Realms stuff then the Spelldancer prestige class lets you metamagic by substituting increased casting time for increased spell slot level.Since the suggested theme is "misfits/circus freaks", consider other character concepts that go way against type:
The World's Strongest Halfling
a centaur acrobat/contortionist
a "gypsy fortuneteller" - who happens to be a crossdressing minotaur
the Dreaded Weresheep
the Jester
Legend
Stormrunner said:
Actually, by the RAW, bards can't use Silent Spell. The mime requires either some serious house ruling or maybe a special prestige class or something.
I'd prolly just make a special exemption for the mime, maybe burn a feat on it or something. But I'm a big fan of alternate styles of bardism, like riddle masters, the sports announcer, the master of sarcasm, etc.
TroyXavier
First Post
I do as well. Bards shouldn't be pigeonholed. It would take a little ruling, but I think it could be done.
smootrk
First Post
the Jester said:
I am making some houserules for the Mime Bard. The verbal component of spells are being houseruled to mean "auditory component" which can be played/performed with an instrument, rather than just verbalized. It may cross the line for Rule Hard-liners, but it is only a variation that I will use with Bards, whom I consider most of their spells as performance based rather than the blood/inate type like sorcerers.
The party so far as I am aware of it consists of:
Drow Mute Mime Bard
Halfling Strongman (barbarian... someone mentioned this one above)
Warforged Sorcerer (Amazing Clockwork Man, an oddity because this is in the Forgotten Realms not Eberron)
Still looking for 2 more characters types for 2 undecided folks in our group.
the Jester
Legend
How about a Jim Rose style tatooed guy who dangles heavy weights from his nipple rings, lays on beds of nails while cinderblocks get broken on him by a hammer, etc (monk or psion)?
TroyXavier
First Post
That sounds interesting. You really need to have someone who does mental stuff as well. It wouldn't be a proper circus otherwise.
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