Fleshing out the essentials bard

[shdwrnr]

Using the post by captainspud as inspiration, here is the essentials bard (balladeer) fleshed out (at least the heroic tier).

Original concept: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/306155-essentials-bard-balladeer.html

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Using the post by captainspud as inspiration, here is the essentials bard (balladeer) fleshed out (at least the heroic tier).

This is great follow-up to a great idea! I like how you can "augment" your songs with Crescendos and Finales.

I kind of like how songs require a Standard action to initiate, and then are Sustain Minor. The Standard action clearly marks the start of a song and suggests it's a big deal, and then of course Sustain Minor let's the bard attack and stuff while singing.

Is there any particular reason not to make the zones for the various songs auras instead? I can't recall if there's any special difference between zones and auras.

Setting game mechanics aside for the moment, from a narrative perspective why can balladeers do only one Finale per day? It seems to me that if you start singing a song, you "should" be able to craft a Finale. I don't mind the rule being what it is, I'd just like a fluffy explanation.

I'll try to look at it a bit more closely, but, again, I think it's great!

 

[shdwrnr]

I thought about the aura thing after I had already written everything and was too lazy to go through and change it. Mechanically, there's no difference though I think.

The songs are standard actions because your leitmotif has a prelude; an effect that occurs when you start a song.

As for the finale, think of it as a GRAND finale; a riff so hardcore, it drains a lot of arcane power from the bard when it's invoked. You can only turn it up to eleven for so long after all.