Weapons outside the Box
Dartenian said, think outside the box, not all bardic bang HAS to come from our enchantes. So what does that leave us with?
Mime, ballet, more wheels in the pudding, rhyme-activated powers, shoes, drums and trumpets, bells, mundane music, sympathy, crushed herbs, new scents, candles and trances, meditations, the chocolate goddess monument to Melodia, woot, those drama things I was thinking of earlier! Also Pychometry, but I think I over-covered that. The Palladium Superheroes book: Ideas gleaned from it: Bardic Spellcasting, the ability to enchant weapons with chants of rhyme and verse, requires that the hero be holding their weapon in the bard's group for this to work. It really doesn't enchant the weapon though, but it gives the attacker an enchantment-like bonus, believing that the sword has been enchanted. It's all in the mind, people believe because they want to have a legend fixated on an object to believe in, causing them to attack at maximum skill level + 1 rank = to some mathematical equation involving the bard's charisma and skill in Lore. When using this ability a bard must first Recall the weapon to see if it has yet been named, then they need to name it when prompt using this ability and Psychometry of some sort, before the weapon can be Spellcasted upon.
Perhaps a separate naming system for weapons to tie into this ability? Barbarians with named swords could get a bonus to MR, or something, and bards could name the swords with Psychometry-like powers, and perhaps get tipped a bit of coin for doing so. Using Psychometry to find a weapon name, would only tell you it's name, it wouldn't tell you it's owner, so you'd still need to search around a bit to find the proper owner.
Tar and Feather: Someone just pisses you off, not enough for a direct challenge, but you feel the need to get even. Taking some lessons from some villagers who occassionally have to deal with the occasional pest or moron in a village where there may not be a police force, you learn the art of Tar and Feather. While in town/village/home areas: You yell out, Miscreat! Let's get em! This can be for anything from nabbing a few gold pieces to agravated assault, if it's a crime and you see them do it, you can take matters into your own hands, and lead a tar and feathering gathering of civilians. Watch out for the town guard though, they may take your crime of Vigilanteeism as a serious offense.
Villagers might look at someone who is tarred and feathered and interact with them differently.
Anything from, you might want to get that mess cleaned up, to (if you try to steal in their shop) miscreat! Commiting crimes again?! We'll just see about that, Guards! Guards!
Tar and feathers can be removed by going to The Baths and waiting there for 15-20 minutes.
Build Campsite: You build a temporary campsite for yourself and your companions, it lasts a few days, and then collapses in on itself. This can be in the middle of gargoyles, or some other super-dangerous place, it provides an emergency safe-haven for the injured, perhaps built off the main road and if a ranger is in the group, they can use their woodsmanship skills to Disguise Campsite. This is a temporary room for a bard to rest in during their travels, others can come in, unless you have a Ranger disguise the campsite as perhaps a pile of branches, or a Paladin can ward the enterance. Bards have always been great travelers, often on the roads sharing songs and rumors, sometimes they've found the need to make camp on the roadside to rest.
Fly as the Eagle: You feel so instilled with your own ups and downs from your mundane music, that through the power of your own song, and some lingering enchante magic that you find yourself transformed into an eagle capable of flying to another bard, anywhere in the lands but the bard must be above ground!
Countersong: You sing an earth-grounding melody that keeps you and your party well protected from the songs of other bards, and mental spells. Not an enchante, just another mind-effecting bardic ability.
Gather Information: extension of Rumor: Gather Information enables the bard to induce a simple hypnotic suggestion upon any intelligent being or monster such as "you like me" or 'Were best friends now", "you trust me" or "let us pass" This can be used to get into just about anywhere depending on the charisma and mojo of the bard. The verbval suggestion should be weaved into a sentence or brief conversation. The enchanted person responds only to simple suggestions and can not be forced to do bodily harm to himself or friends. The tactics used are similiar to getting information by getting the person drunk. Subtlety is key. There are dozens of places in the realms today where such an ability would prove to be more than useful.
Another Psychometry addition: Mystic Alarm, The bard can protect his possessions and domicile by placing mystic alarms on them. By invoking the mystic alarm spell, invisible ward-like symbols appear on any one object. If this object is touched/disturbed in any way, an instant, silent alarm will buzz in the bard's head. Reverse Psychometry, alerting him to the intrusion. Giving the bard a vision of the person touching/handling said item.
Amplify: Ability to enhance the effects of enchantes. For example: Desert's Maelstrom, with amplify in effect an additional effect comes into play, Amplify makes the whirlwind of desert's Maelstrom much more deadly, knocking people down, knocking riders off mounts, shifting the location of objects up to 3 rooms away to another adjacent 3 rooms away. Amplify drains Bardic mojo and can only be used by a bard not leading an enchante, but must be singing with one.
Words of Truth: Works on NPC's and GMPC's only. The being affected by this ability is compelled to answer all questions truthfully. The bard must be within the same room, and group, and it is wise for bards to keep questions simple and clear to avoid confusion. Saving Throw: Charisma and Intelligence of the GMPC or NPC vs. Bard's Charisma.
Additions to Bluff: Once a successful Bluff self is made, a bard can attempt to invoke one of these 3 responses: friendship/trust, power/fear, successful deception. A statement of friendship, peace, or trust will inspire those sentiments with everyone effected. The bard cannot be attacked, advanced, sniped or hurt by anyone effected by Bluff Friendship. If someone attempts to do as such they might get the message: You wouldn't do that to your best friend would you?
A statement of power, anger, strength, or vile intent will strike awe and fear into anyone effected. If someone tries to attack the bard after that statement is made they might get the message: Shouldn't you just bow your head and worship the greater person?
The first 2 can wear off more quickly over repeated attempts to attack/injure said bard.
The third one: Successful Deception: This enables the bard to successfully lie like a con-man. There is an 80% chance that those affected will believe anything he tells them. For example: PracticalJokester Bard pulls off a successful Deception, "I'm the town-guard, really, and I mean it, you have to hand me your weapons before I'll let you pass." If the bard is guarding something a room, then if you choose to enter the room twice, then you pass any weapons your holding to the bard in question.
Mask of Deceit Bardic Spell. Range: Self or other. Duration: 20 minutes.
A useful tool in deception, it magically creates an illusionary mask over the enchanted person's features. The mask is mentally molded by the bard into any facial features changing color, race, gender, etc. However the spell only affects facial features and not any other part of the body. This spell is an illusion; The original, true physical features are hidden, but unchanged.
The mask can also be placed on someone else, but the bard must do the mental molding of the illusion and the intended recipient must be in the same room. Lore is used to counter someone seeing through the disguise through the use of Perception, however all attempts must be directed as Perceive Person.
Stage Illusion Bardic Spell. Range: Room effect. Duration 40 minutes. Temporarily changes the room appearance through the use of Illusion, to what the bard wants. Does not disguise exits, unless they are mentioned in the room text.
Turn Self to Mist: Some wily bards found a way to escape imprisonment and entrapment by adapting a series of mental exercises and spells to their own uses. Turning into mist is particularly useful for escaping prisons, traps, and all sorts of unpleasant situations. An angry mob for example. While in this form the bard cannot speak, cast spells/enchantes or carry anything but he can hear and think. Only the physical body is affected, not any possessions, weapons, or clothes; these simply drop to the floor after the transformation. Runs off of Bardic Mojo.
Powder of confusion: This takes a bit of alchemical skill and mech lore for a bard to whip up, but essentially it's a special bardic recipe that can be tossed into the room and have the effects of causing chaos for 1-2 minutes. Giving the bard in question enough time to escape.
Mime, ballet, more wheels in the pudding, rhyme-activated powers, shoes, drums and trumpets, bells, mundane music, sympathy, crushed herbs, new scents, candles and trances, meditations, the chocolate goddess monument to Melodia, woot, those drama things I was thinking of earlier! Also Pychometry, but I think I over-covered that. The Palladium Superheroes book: Ideas gleaned from it: Bardic Spellcasting, the ability to enchant weapons with chants of rhyme and verse, requires that the hero be holding their weapon in the bard's group for this to work. It really doesn't enchant the weapon though, but it gives the attacker an enchantment-like bonus, believing that the sword has been enchanted. It's all in the mind, people believe because they want to have a legend fixated on an object to believe in, causing them to attack at maximum skill level + 1 rank = to some mathematical equation involving the bard's charisma and skill in Lore. When using this ability a bard must first Recall the weapon to see if it has yet been named, then they need to name it when prompt using this ability and Psychometry of some sort, before the weapon can be Spellcasted upon.
Perhaps a separate naming system for weapons to tie into this ability? Barbarians with named swords could get a bonus to MR, or something, and bards could name the swords with Psychometry-like powers, and perhaps get tipped a bit of coin for doing so. Using Psychometry to find a weapon name, would only tell you it's name, it wouldn't tell you it's owner, so you'd still need to search around a bit to find the proper owner.
Tar and Feather: Someone just pisses you off, not enough for a direct challenge, but you feel the need to get even. Taking some lessons from some villagers who occassionally have to deal with the occasional pest or moron in a village where there may not be a police force, you learn the art of Tar and Feather. While in town/village/home areas: You yell out, Miscreat! Let's get em! This can be for anything from nabbing a few gold pieces to agravated assault, if it's a crime and you see them do it, you can take matters into your own hands, and lead a tar and feathering gathering of civilians. Watch out for the town guard though, they may take your crime of Vigilanteeism as a serious offense.
Villagers might look at someone who is tarred and feathered and interact with them differently.
Anything from, you might want to get that mess cleaned up, to (if you try to steal in their shop) miscreat! Commiting crimes again?! We'll just see about that, Guards! Guards!
Tar and feathers can be removed by going to The Baths and waiting there for 15-20 minutes.
Build Campsite: You build a temporary campsite for yourself and your companions, it lasts a few days, and then collapses in on itself. This can be in the middle of gargoyles, or some other super-dangerous place, it provides an emergency safe-haven for the injured, perhaps built off the main road and if a ranger is in the group, they can use their woodsmanship skills to Disguise Campsite. This is a temporary room for a bard to rest in during their travels, others can come in, unless you have a Ranger disguise the campsite as perhaps a pile of branches, or a Paladin can ward the enterance. Bards have always been great travelers, often on the roads sharing songs and rumors, sometimes they've found the need to make camp on the roadside to rest.
Fly as the Eagle: You feel so instilled with your own ups and downs from your mundane music, that through the power of your own song, and some lingering enchante magic that you find yourself transformed into an eagle capable of flying to another bard, anywhere in the lands but the bard must be above ground!
Countersong: You sing an earth-grounding melody that keeps you and your party well protected from the songs of other bards, and mental spells. Not an enchante, just another mind-effecting bardic ability.
Gather Information: extension of Rumor: Gather Information enables the bard to induce a simple hypnotic suggestion upon any intelligent being or monster such as "you like me" or 'Were best friends now", "you trust me" or "let us pass" This can be used to get into just about anywhere depending on the charisma and mojo of the bard. The verbval suggestion should be weaved into a sentence or brief conversation. The enchanted person responds only to simple suggestions and can not be forced to do bodily harm to himself or friends. The tactics used are similiar to getting information by getting the person drunk. Subtlety is key. There are dozens of places in the realms today where such an ability would prove to be more than useful.
Another Psychometry addition: Mystic Alarm, The bard can protect his possessions and domicile by placing mystic alarms on them. By invoking the mystic alarm spell, invisible ward-like symbols appear on any one object. If this object is touched/disturbed in any way, an instant, silent alarm will buzz in the bard's head. Reverse Psychometry, alerting him to the intrusion. Giving the bard a vision of the person touching/handling said item.
Amplify: Ability to enhance the effects of enchantes. For example: Desert's Maelstrom, with amplify in effect an additional effect comes into play, Amplify makes the whirlwind of desert's Maelstrom much more deadly, knocking people down, knocking riders off mounts, shifting the location of objects up to 3 rooms away to another adjacent 3 rooms away. Amplify drains Bardic mojo and can only be used by a bard not leading an enchante, but must be singing with one.
Words of Truth: Works on NPC's and GMPC's only. The being affected by this ability is compelled to answer all questions truthfully. The bard must be within the same room, and group, and it is wise for bards to keep questions simple and clear to avoid confusion. Saving Throw: Charisma and Intelligence of the GMPC or NPC vs. Bard's Charisma.
Additions to Bluff: Once a successful Bluff self is made, a bard can attempt to invoke one of these 3 responses: friendship/trust, power/fear, successful deception. A statement of friendship, peace, or trust will inspire those sentiments with everyone effected. The bard cannot be attacked, advanced, sniped or hurt by anyone effected by Bluff Friendship. If someone attempts to do as such they might get the message: You wouldn't do that to your best friend would you?
A statement of power, anger, strength, or vile intent will strike awe and fear into anyone effected. If someone tries to attack the bard after that statement is made they might get the message: Shouldn't you just bow your head and worship the greater person?
The first 2 can wear off more quickly over repeated attempts to attack/injure said bard.
The third one: Successful Deception: This enables the bard to successfully lie like a con-man. There is an 80% chance that those affected will believe anything he tells them. For example: PracticalJokester Bard pulls off a successful Deception, "I'm the town-guard, really, and I mean it, you have to hand me your weapons before I'll let you pass." If the bard is guarding something a room, then if you choose to enter the room twice, then you pass any weapons your holding to the bard in question.
Mask of Deceit Bardic Spell. Range: Self or other. Duration: 20 minutes.
A useful tool in deception, it magically creates an illusionary mask over the enchanted person's features. The mask is mentally molded by the bard into any facial features changing color, race, gender, etc. However the spell only affects facial features and not any other part of the body. This spell is an illusion; The original, true physical features are hidden, but unchanged.
The mask can also be placed on someone else, but the bard must do the mental molding of the illusion and the intended recipient must be in the same room. Lore is used to counter someone seeing through the disguise through the use of Perception, however all attempts must be directed as Perceive Person.
Stage Illusion Bardic Spell. Range: Room effect. Duration 40 minutes. Temporarily changes the room appearance through the use of Illusion, to what the bard wants. Does not disguise exits, unless they are mentioned in the room text.
Turn Self to Mist: Some wily bards found a way to escape imprisonment and entrapment by adapting a series of mental exercises and spells to their own uses. Turning into mist is particularly useful for escaping prisons, traps, and all sorts of unpleasant situations. An angry mob for example. While in this form the bard cannot speak, cast spells/enchantes or carry anything but he can hear and think. Only the physical body is affected, not any possessions, weapons, or clothes; these simply drop to the floor after the transformation. Runs off of Bardic Mojo.
Powder of confusion: This takes a bit of alchemical skill and mech lore for a bard to whip up, but essentially it's a special bardic recipe that can be tossed into the room and have the effects of causing chaos for 1-2 minutes. Giving the bard in question enough time to escape.
posted by Skaldi | 10:47 PM
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