Bard

You are a storyteller, a jester, a clown, an orator, a singer, the greatest of all performers!
You are that special person that brightens up the room, that lifts up the heart, that gives hope to the hopeless, that brings a smile to the heartbroken, and comfort to the bereaved. You revel in the audience’s adulation of your acts. Your masterful and natural talent shines forth as you perform, eliciting a wide range of emotions from your audience.
As you travel you realize that no society or culture is complete without its bards. You are that one person that records the great events and tragedies, who remembers the fallen and lost causes. The one whose performances can inspire people to greatness.
Hit Points: A bard gains 1d6 hit points at each level.
Weapon Training: A bard is trained in the following melee weapons club, dagger, quarterstaff, hand axe, and spear. A bard is also trained in the following ranged weapons; spear, dagger, shortbow, crossbow, and sling. At each level increase a bard may add one weapon to his list that he is not already proficient with. Choose from long sword, twohanded sword, battle axe, etc. A bard is proficient in any armor and shield. Though they suffer the normal check penalties to spellcasting and skill checks. Armor Check penalties do not affect Bardic Talents.
Alignment: Chaotic bards revel in challenging performances. They might dance on the edge of a cliff or walk on a tightrope over a pit of alligators. They may be spies working to bring down nations or simple con-men seeking to deprive the unwary of their gold. Neutral bards are fairly common and most often found in taverns and inns. They travel to learn new tales and spread their specially crafted versions, singing songs of love won and lost. Actors and performers of traveling troupes and circuses are often neutral bards.
Lawful bards are the type commonly found in most villages and towns. They fill the role of entertainer and historian for the village. In peasant villages, the bard is likely the only person that can read and write. High level bards may become heralds for kings and emperors.
Magic: Unlike wizards, bards are dabblers in the arcane art. Their inquisitive nature and tendency to collect odd bits of lore and old tales exposes them to the arcane. A few display some small measure of skill in the successful application of such knowledge.
Acquiring Spells: Bards acquire spells completely randomly. Even if they find a complete recipe/formulae of a spell, chances are almost nil that they can master it. Bards lack the formal training and natural aptitude to the mystic arts, its more by luck and overlap with the musical/audio field that bards are able to grasp, let alone master spellcasting. When the bard reaches a level to acquire a new spell, the player rolls to determine which spell the bard is able to cast. (See Sidebar) Reroll if the bard already has the spell.
Bardic Talents: A bard is able to perform a variety of bardic talents. A bard can use his talents to Call to Arms, Challenge or Calm his audience in or out of combat. The performance is auditory or visual. Auditory performances (singing, oration, shouts, etc.) must be heard by the target to take effect else the result is always negated. Visual performances (acting, juggling, card tricks, etc.) require the audience to be able to see it, else the result is negated on the target.
As their only action, bards may use a Talent Die (See Table B-1: Bard) to perform Bardic Talents. They perform their talents as an action by making a Talent Check on the Table B-2: Bardic Talent Checks. Instead of an action die, the check is made by rolling the Talent Die + Personality Modifier. The results state the failure or success of the die roll.
Call to Arms: Through oration or song, the bard can inspire his audience to greater deeds and supplant fears. A successful talent check can negate a morale failure check of henchmen . Higher results can provide greater boons to his audience’s morale or fear in allies. This talent does not affect oozes, undead, and audiences with less than 3 intelligence.
Challenge: The bard through act, song, oration, or instrument is able to lead or control his target’s rage and attacks. Upon a successful talent check, the bard gains the bonuses indicated. This talent does not work against undead, oozes, and other creatures of less than three intelligence.
Calm: Whether performed by act, song, oration, or instrument, the bard can change the emotions of his targets. The type, species, size, alignment, and other factors (per the judge) of the target audience may apply a penalty or bonus to the die roll. In addition, animals and audiences with intelligence scores lower than 3 can be tamed, commanded to stop attacking or just be less threatening.
Lore: A bard is always learning, always seeking that one kernel of knowledge that will lead to the next great story, the next catchy song or tune. Thus, as bards advance in level they become fountains of knowledge. The bard can use his talent die to make lore rolls (see Table B-1: Bard). A lore roll is for knowledge checks outside the bard’s existing skill sets and not for common knowledge the judge determines the bard should already know. The die roll is Talent Die + Intelligence Modifier.
Languages: At 1st level, a bard automatically knows Common. A bard knows one additional language for every point of Intelligence modifier. In addition, should his intelligence go up a bard is able to pick up new languages as he adventures.
Luck: At first level, a bard must choose a to apply his Luck modifier to Bardic Talent Checks or Lore rolls. That modifier does not change as the bard’s Luck score changes.
Action dice: A bard can use his first action die for attack rolls and spell checks. At 6th level, a bard can use the first die to attack or cast a spell. The second action die may be used for an additional attack or to cast a spell, but it may not be used to cast a second spell.

Career

Career Progression

Lvl	Attack	Crit Die/ Table	Action Dice	Talent Die	Ref	Fort	Will	Known Spells	Max Spell Level
1	+0	1d6/I	1d20	1d14	+1	+0	+1	1	1
2	+1	1d8/I	1d20	1d14	+1	+0	+1	2	1
3	+1	1d8/II	1d20	1d16	+2	+1	+2	2	1
4	+2	1d10/II	1d20	1d16	+2	+1	+2	3	2
5	+2	1d12/II	1d20	1d20	+2	+1	+3	3	2
6	+3	1d14/II	1d20+1d14	1d24	+3	+2	+4	4	2
7	+4	1d16/II	1d20+1d16	1d30	+3	+2	+4	4	3
8	+5	1d20/II	1d20+1d20	1d30+1	+3	+2	+5	5	3
9	+6	1d24/II	1d20+1d20	1d30+2	+4	+2	+5	5	3
10	+7	1d30/II	1d20+1d20	1d30+3	+4	+3	+6	6	4

Bard Titles

Lvl	Lawful	Chaotic	Neutral
1	Minstrel	Daredevil	Thespian
2	Chronicler	Trickster	Troubadour
3	Scholar	Infiltrator	Virtuoso
4	Herald	Capo	Spellbinder
5	King’s Bard	King Breaker	King’s Man

Other Benefits

Bardic Talent Checks

Roll	Result
1 or less	Failure: All- You are so terrible, the complete opposite of the desired result occurs, -2 to performance rolls versus this crowd hereafter.
2 - 6	Boo, hiss: All- You are bad, negative reaction from crowd, -1 to performance rolls versus this crowd hereafter.
7 - 12	Successful Performance: Call to Arms- Negate morale failure in all retainers and allies within 20’. Challenge- One target, up to the bard’s level in HD, must make a Will Save vs bard Talent Check result. If failed they must attack targets determined by the bard for 1 round. Alternately, a bard gets +1 to attack rolls and AC against that target for 1d3 rounds. Calm- Targets, up to the bard’s level in HD must make a Will Save vs Talent Check result or be enthralled for 1d3 rounds. Target(s) may not attack, though they may defend themselves normally.
13 - 18	A Great Performance: Call to Arms- Negate morale failure in all retainers and allies, within 40’, allies and henchmen gain +1 to all Will saves for 1 turn. Any allies subject to a fear effect may reroll their saving throw. Challenge- Targets, up to twice the bard’s level in HD, must make a Will save vs bard Talent Check result. If failed, they must attack targets determined by the bard for 1d3 rounds. Alternately, a bard may receive +2 to attack rolls and AC against those targets for 1d3 rounds. Calm- Targets up to twice bard’s level in HD must make a Will Save vs Talent Check result or be enthralled for 1 turn. Target(s) may not attack, though they may defend themselves normally.
19 - 24	A Phenomenal Performance: Call to Arms- Negate morale failure in all retainers and allies, within 40’, allies and henchmen gain +1 to all Will saves, attack and spell casting rolls for 1 turn. Any allies subject to a fear effect may reroll their saving throw. Challenge- Targets, up to three times the bard’s level in HD, must make a Will save vs the bard Talent Check result. If failed, they must attack targets determined by the bard for 1d4 rounds. Alternately, a bard may receive +3 to AC, attack and damage rolls against those targets for 1d5 rounds. Calm- Targets up to three times the bard’s level in HD must make a Will Save vs Talent Check result or be enthralled for 1 turn. Target(s) may not attack, though they may defend themselves normally. Alternately, a target may be affected similar to a Charm Person spell result of 14-17 (See Charm Person )
25 - 29	A Noble Performance: Call to Arms- Negate morale failure in all retainers and fear in allies, within 40’, allies and henchmen gain +1 to all Will saves, and +2 to all attack and spell casting rolls for 1 turn. Challenge- Targets, up to five times the bard’s level in HD, must make a Will save vs the bard’s Talent Check result. If failed, they must attack targets determined by bard for 1d5 rounds. Alternately, a bard may receive +4 to AC, attack and damage rolls against those targets for 1 turn. Calm- Targets up to five times the bard’s level in HD must make a Will Save vs Talent Check result or be enthralled for 1 day. Target(s) may not attack, though they may defend themselves normally. Alternately, a target may be affected similar to a Charm Person spell result of 18-19 (See Charm Person )
30 or more	A King’s Show: Call to Arms- Negate morale failure in all retainers and fear in allies, within 60’, allies and henchmen gain +2 to all Will saves, and +2 to all attack and spell casting rolls for 1 day. Challenge- All targets within audible or visual range must make a Will save vs the bard’s Talent Check result. If failed, they must attack targets determined by bard for 1 turn. Alternately, a bard and his allies may receive +4 to AC, attack and damage rolls against those targets for 1 turn. Calm- All targets within audible or visual range must make a Will Save vs Talent Check result or be enthralled for 1 day. Target(s) may not attack, though they may defend themselves normally. Alternately, a target may be affected similar to a Charm Person spell result of 20-23 (See Charm Person )

Bard Spell Selection

Lvl 1-3	Animal Summoning Charm Person Color Spray Detect Magic Ekim’s Mystical Mask Ventriloquism
Lvl 4-6	Detect Evil Detect Invisible ESP Forget Magic Mouth Scare
Lvl 7-9	Dispel Magic Haste Slow Runic Alphabet - Fey Write Magic
Lvl 10	Lokerimon’s Orderly Assistance Wizard Sense