3PP Release New 3PP Release: Thematic Toolkit: Storyteller!

[Timespike]

This month's Thematic Toolkit release is live!

For August, the combination is bard/druid, and I took some (very loose) inspiration from Celtic mythology.

Bards can become an Ollave, a bardic priest/historian with an even greater breadth and depth of knowledge and versatility than normal bards, including the eventual ability to gain temporary new capabilities to fit whatever situation they find themselves in!

Druids can take the new Elder archetype, which is a mystical leader and mentor. They are better than normal at researching rare spells, can become mystical ravens that can even visit the dreams of others, recharge their magic from ley lines, and eventually even establish a permanent base of operations.

And the new Storyteller synergy feat chain allows you to combine the bard and druid classes into a mystical, versatile whole. As always, the synergy feat chain is fully generic and works with any archetypes, not just the two in this product.

Thematic Toolkit: Storyteller - Purple Martin Games | DriveThruRPG.com

 

[Pedantic]

I'm not totally clear on what the first feature of the World Speaker feat does, precisely:

If a spell appears on both the bard and druid spell lists (including any modifications to either list from your bard and/or druid archetypes) you gain access to it when you gain a spell slot of the appropriate level and may cast it as a druid spell.

Assuming the most efficient path through the feat tree, does this mean at level 12 for the list of bard/druid overlap spells you're effectively unbounded by your level in bard or druid for spells prepared by your actual level in each class? And if so, is that true for only preparing druid spells, or also for adding new bard spells known?

 

[Timespike]

Basically if a spell appears on both the bard and druid lists, and you have a spell slot of the appropriate level, you can prepare it as a druid spell. You're still limited by your usual cap on the number of druid spells prepared, and it has no effect on learning new bard spells.
.
For example, let's say your character is a bard 8/druid 4, you have WIS and CHA scores of 18 each, and you just took this feat. Your spell slots are 4/3/3/3/2/1. You know 11 bard spells of levels 1-4, and those are always available as long as you have slots to cast them.

You can prepare 8 druid spells whenever you prepare them (4 levels of druid and +4 WIS bonus). You can choose any spells on the druid spell list from levels 1 & 2 as normal. However, you can also choose any spells that appear on both the druid and bard lists from spell levels 3, 4, 5, and 6 too.

 

[Timespike]

The reason for this working the way it does are as follows:

Druids, by default, always get full access to their class's entire spell list, so it's not inflating the power of the druid class. You also have to pick and choose with a limited number of choices, which means that you have to balance whatever low-level useful druid spells you want with higher-level "punch," and the fewer levels of druid you have, the more difficult (and limited) the access to this feature will be.

 

[Timespike]

You will probably see this again, but it will only appear when one of the classes is a "preparation" caster rather than a "known" one; so cleric, druid, maybe herald, and possibly wizard with additional restrictions in place. It's also likely to always be reserved for the third feat.

 

[Pedantic]

Gotcha! That makes sense, and it's a cool power. My immediate reaction is that wording it to focus more specifically on spell preparation might make it clearer at a first read. "Access" felt a little vague, and I didn't really have a handle on what it might mean until I reviewed the multiclassing preparation rules. Something like this might have made it clearer to me:

When preparing druid spells you may prepare any spell that appears on both the bard and druid spell lists if you have at least one spell slot of its level. This includes any spells that appear on both lists through modifications from your bard and/or druid archetypes.

 

[Timespike]

That is some good wording. Do you mind if I swipe it?

 

[Pedantic]

That is some good wording. Do you mind if I swipe it?

Oh definitely not, feel free!

Thinking about it harder, it make more sense to do something like "This includes any spells that appear on both lists through modifications from bard or druid class features," as a general template, instead of referring to archetypes. Right now the only class that has a non-archetype feature that grants expanded spell knowledge is the Artificer, but that feels like something that could absolutely come to pass with future classes.

 

[Timespike]

Hmm. Good point. I'll roll it over in my head a little and see if I can come up with some good future-proofing.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

For August, the combination is bad/druid

bard haters be rejoicing