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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9369526" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon/Polyhedron Issue 99/158: June 2003part 5/8We're with the Band: The ability scores are the same as ever, but you substitute mental ones for physical ones when engaging in musical battles. Charisma replaces strength in determining how many Vibe points you inflict on the opponents psyche. Wisdom replaces dexterity in determining your ability to avoid enemy influence, while intelligence replaces constitution in determining how many “hits” you can take before being beaten. Unless you’re doing a crossover with some other D20 game, everyone is human, removing that avenue of customisation. However, the whole group gains a minor benefit based on what style of music they play, with 7 fairly basic genres listed here to choose from. That’s a concept that could probably be ported back to D&D in some way to represent team training. Similarly, there are 7 classes listed, each based around playing a particular instrument, which means there’s plenty of room to homebrew more should you be so inclined. These are interesting enough that they deserve individual examination.Vocalists are fairly obviously based on Monks, as they have medium base performance bonus, but don’t need an instrument to be able to perform, plus their damage scales in a similar way, their base performance bonus for iterative attacks only decreases by 3 per time rather than 5 and they can deliver a stunning attack at higher levels. They’re a lot more tanky than Monks though, with not only d12 cool points per level, but the ability to shrug off an increasing amount of bad vibes from everyone on the opposing side apart from the Lead. (ie, probably the opposing singer) Make sure you share the spotlight at least occasionally. Guitarists are probably the Fighter analog, with full BPB and special powers based around delivering the greatest number of vibe points per attack, but low skill points and not a lot of other features. If you want a simple character to play they’re the one to pick, which definitely doesn’t fit the stereotype of real world guitarists. Bassists are a little bit Cleric, a little bit Barbarian, with the ability to restore cool points to their allies and increasing amounts of DR representing their ultra laid back ability to ignore bad vibes. Not a very good solo character, but invaluable to a party, which is definitely a case where the mechanics and fluff match up. Drummers are a bit Ranger and a bit Bard, with lots of supportive effects, but also the ambidexterity/two-weapon fighting chain to represent that each limb is playing a different instrument simultaneously, giving them more attacks per round than otherwise. Keyboardists are a mix of spellcaster and rogue, once again having some healing ability, but also the ability to fade into the background so no-one will attack you, boost the defence of other band members, switch their focus, have multiple focuses at once and become more powerful if one of your bandmates is taken out. All this flexibility is offset by being the only one with a 1/2 BPB, so they aren’t so great at actually attacking though.DJ’s are pure rogue, with tons of skill points, sneak attack and the ability to steal the moves of others and turn them back on their user. Their big weakness is having the shortest range for their attacks, forcing them to get up close and personal with the enemy to use their powers to full effect. Horn players are the exact opposite, with the longest range of all, AoE burst attacks and the ability to neutralise audience bad vibes with their sexy solos. They definitely don’t map neatly to any D&D equivalent. So the notable thing here is just how many of the powers are based on helping other members of your group rather than directly attacking the opponents. Being a musician is a team activity and you need to build your band together for maximum effectiveness. Getting an ego and trying to go solo is an even worse idea than in regular D&D, which is definitely good game design.</blockquote>

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