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[+]"Instrument of the Bards" Alternative/Reflavouring for Non-Musician Characters?
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<blockquote data-quote="Rocker26a" data-source="post: 9256396" data-attributes="member: 7042495"><p>So, it feels relatively uncontroversial to say that Bards shouldn't be necessarily <em>required</em> to choose between either a musical instrument or a components pouch for their spellcasting focus (despite the rules as written suggesting that is exactly the case). Even just in general, nevermind considering the existence of Bard subclasses that explicitly lean away from that sort of flavour.</p><p></p><p>This is somewhat complicated by the fact that, Bards have a pool of signature magical items, "<em>The Instrument of the Bards"</em>. Which are, y'know. <em>Instruments</em>. Mechanically, they are absolutely the sort of thing a Bard player begs their DM for. They lessen the misery of being a spells known caster. Getting a daily cast of a few standard spells would be great on it's own, but each variant having a unique grab bag of additional spells besides is the Cherry on top! Only wrinkle is... Yeah. If your character is not a musician, you've either gotta ignore that detail, or commit and forego them.</p><p></p><p>So yeah, I feel like a token non-instrument entry to the "Instruments of the Bards", <em>or</em> an equivalent pool of non-instrument items with basically the same function, would be nice. Problem being, I'm a bit stumped on how would be best to go about it.</p><p></p><p>There's the "what the actual physical objects could be" problem; I've seen some posts on the subject suggest things like a conductor's wand, or an orator's quill, things like that for a non-musician Bard's focus. Those <em>could</em> work I think, they just don't immediately grab me like "oh yeah, that's perfect". I've also seen gaming sets suggested. Decks of Cards, Dice sets. I like those a little better, but again somewhat particular.</p><p>And then there's also how they ought to be worded, mechanically set up. It's not as simple as rewording a magic weapon, turning a Shortsword into a Longsword or what-have-you, the language of the item(s) in question is very particular about the musical instrument bit. So I'm unsure how much I should adhere to their structure. Assuming I should at all, or if I might be better served following the logic of other items like staffs or something.</p><p></p><p>What do you folks reckon? I'll take suggestions/recommendations/ideas!</p><p></p><p>(For the sake of clarity, this is particularly nagging me because I'm mulling over an Eloquence Bard. They're <em>not</em> a musician, they're a smooth-talker, a fixer, one of those people that seems to know everyone. They could've just as easily been a Rogue if not for my specific desire for spells on them. Just, yeah, there is not necessarily an item you'd immediately associate with that sort of character carrying. And even if something works, would take some doing mechanically.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rocker26a, post: 9256396, member: 7042495"] So, it feels relatively uncontroversial to say that Bards shouldn't be necessarily [I]required[/I] to choose between either a musical instrument or a components pouch for their spellcasting focus (despite the rules as written suggesting that is exactly the case). Even just in general, nevermind considering the existence of Bard subclasses that explicitly lean away from that sort of flavour. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that, Bards have a pool of signature magical items, "[I]The Instrument of the Bards"[/I]. Which are, y'know. [I]Instruments[/I]. Mechanically, they are absolutely the sort of thing a Bard player begs their DM for. They lessen the misery of being a spells known caster. Getting a daily cast of a few standard spells would be great on it's own, but each variant having a unique grab bag of additional spells besides is the Cherry on top! Only wrinkle is... Yeah. If your character is not a musician, you've either gotta ignore that detail, or commit and forego them. So yeah, I feel like a token non-instrument entry to the "Instruments of the Bards", [I]or[/I] an equivalent pool of non-instrument items with basically the same function, would be nice. Problem being, I'm a bit stumped on how would be best to go about it. There's the "what the actual physical objects could be" problem; I've seen some posts on the subject suggest things like a conductor's wand, or an orator's quill, things like that for a non-musician Bard's focus. Those [I]could[/I] work I think, they just don't immediately grab me like "oh yeah, that's perfect". I've also seen gaming sets suggested. Decks of Cards, Dice sets. I like those a little better, but again somewhat particular. And then there's also how they ought to be worded, mechanically set up. It's not as simple as rewording a magic weapon, turning a Shortsword into a Longsword or what-have-you, the language of the item(s) in question is very particular about the musical instrument bit. So I'm unsure how much I should adhere to their structure. Assuming I should at all, or if I might be better served following the logic of other items like staffs or something. What do you folks reckon? I'll take suggestions/recommendations/ideas! (For the sake of clarity, this is particularly nagging me because I'm mulling over an Eloquence Bard. They're [I]not[/I] a musician, they're a smooth-talker, a fixer, one of those people that seems to know everyone. They could've just as easily been a Rogue if not for my specific desire for spells on them. Just, yeah, there is not necessarily an item you'd immediately associate with that sort of character carrying. And even if something works, would take some doing mechanically.) [/QUOTE]
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