<Homebrew Review> Bard College of Performance Arts

[RandyH]

I am looking for a review of this homebrewed Bard College. Critiques, suggestions, etc. are all welcome. Neither of the Bard colleges fit my character (I am reusing a character I played in an old NWN server), and an Assassin/Lore bard is the closest I can probably get to what I want core-wise, but the flavor is still off, so I would have to alter the Assassin roguish archetype a bit to fit better…but since I’d be altering, I may as well just homebrew a new college to fit the flavor even better, while retaining full caster progression. So from that, the College of Performance Arts was born.


The Consensus of the College of Performance arts is that no matter what your craft is (thief, street game con artist, magician, musician, tavern singer, jester, actor, etc) it is very beneficial to have a Stage Name or an alias…whether it’s protection from the law, a crazy fanatic, persecution, or even just stress reduction.

Bonus Proficiencies at lvl 3 entry:
Deception skill, Performance skill, and Disguise kit. Additionally you can pick Disguise Kit as one of your Expertise skills (much like how the rogue can pick Thieves’ tools for Expertise), however you can only do this when you gain Expertise as a Bard.

Level 3 feature- Stage Name:
Just as the Assassin’s Infiltrate Expertise Feature. If you already have RP’ed that you obtained a fake identity or have one from the Charlatan’s False Identity background feature, then you can use this as your stage name without paying the cost (7 days and 25 gold)…Always at the DM’s discretion though.

Level 6 feature- Skilled Performance:
Similar to the Lore Bard’s Peerless Skill ability except that you can only use it on Skill and tool checks that you have Expertise in…It is A LOT dumbed down from Peerless Skill, in that Peerless Skill can be used for ANY ability check…regardless of proficiency or not.

Level 14 feature- Alter-Ego:
You can designate one of your Stage Names as your Alter-Ego. Basic premise is you are in this Alter-Ego persona just as much, if not more, than your true persona, therefore it becomes just as much real as your real identity. If you are currently portraying yourself as your Alter-Ego, then a successful detect alignment would treat you as whatever your Alter-Ego’s alignment would be rather than your own. Lies cannot be discerned if what you are saying is in your false identity’s back-story and/or their nature. Detect thoughts would only gain surface thoughts of the Alter-Ego as a real identity, and you gain advantage is the caster of detect thoughts tries to delve deeper…if they succeed though, then the spell acts normally and they can read your real thoughts.

 

[RandyH]

My own review of it. Plus attached Word Doc of it

Proficiencies seem pretty straight foreword. All three are flavorful to it, and 2 skills and 1 tools seems to be about on par. The disguise to expertise is a bonus I threw in, because why not. It makes sense that a person who specialized in continual use of a disguise could be an expert in using it compared to those who are just proficient with it. Would many people chose to expertise in it rather than another skill? No…Would some? Maybe…Lets say you want to help disguise an ally. You use the disguise kit on them and their disguise. They now get the bonus expertise benefit since you are the one who disguised them. Makes sense, flavorful, far from OP, and gives options. Hell, maybe a character wants to have Makeup Artist, or Costume designer as their profession…a 3 level dip in Bard, and now they can have a very flavorful addition to their PC.

Stage Name- Yeah you get the assassins Infiltrate Expertise ability at a much earlier level, but does that seem too far off? An Assassins first priority isn’t typically creating a false identity. First, they need to learn how to deal this extra damage from nothing (ergo they get Assassinate at lvl 3) and plus they tend to pull off their assassinations in a huge variety of ways. So wouldn’t it make sense that a character who’s primary focus is creating a fake identity to live by would get this feature quite a bit earlier?

Skilled Performance was the last one I threw on. I knew that I wanted them to get their stage names as soon as they can, because this entire archetype is based off of creating these stage names; also, I figured the capstone (lvl 14) feature should be something where they pretty live as one of their Stage Names all of the time, essentially becoming that person in away. So I was left with the middle feature. Originally I wanted something that would give me some protection from mind effecting spells that would be able to out my characters true identity, but everything seemed to powerful, so I made that the lvl 14 ability. I thought Slippery Mind would be good to get the Wisdom prof., but again, that seemed too powerful for a 6th level ability. I ended up with the conclusion that Bards of the Performing Arts would want to boost up their craft while also helping to keep their identity hidden, so then I came up with this dumbed down version of Peerless Skill. YES, peerless skill is a level 14 feature, but just look at the differences between my Skilled Performance vs Peerless skill. Peerless skill lets you add your Bardic Inspiration to ANY ability check (whether you are proficient or not)…That’s a whole lot of different circumstances that could use that buff. Now with Skilled Performance, you are only able to use it on Skills and tools that you have Expertise in (not only do you have to be proficient in said skill/tool, but you have to have picked it as one of your Expertise skills). That leaves you with probably only 4-6 skills. Sounds far from OP to me. Does it fit fluffwise though?...I think it does. While some Bards might strive for the Jack-of-all trades route, Performance Arts bards are focused primarily on their Craft and their Stage Name…So for non-multiclass PA Bards, that is most likely Performance, Deception, Persuasion, then whatever other skill they picked for Expertise or Disguise Kits. To me that sounds about right as a lvl 6 feature, and quite flavorful.

Lastly we come to the lvl 14 feature, Alter-Ego. This is the one that seems like it could be a tad bit broken. Flavorwise it fits perfectly, it is exactly what I wanted for the capstone ability to be. Think of David Bowie and his Ziggy Stardust persona. You become that character for such a long time, that it almost becomes the real you, and your real identity mirrors that more of a false one. So flavorwise I feel I am right on. Now how does that translate to mechanics though? Now keep in mind that NONE of these features effect my combat abilities at all really. They are all geared towards keeping my deception up, until the point where I don’t really need that deception anymore, then I feel like I lose out on a lot of possible paths I could have gone. So yeah, these bards ability to keep their real identities is off the charts, however they don’t gain much outside of that.
Not to mention Alter-Ego only benefits the bard while he is in this form, and not in any other disguises.

So what do you think?