Bardic College
Comments from the Finger: You know, I always imagined the Dirge Singer prestige class from 3.5 was basically a thin veneer for a bard of heavy metal. Upon further inspection, I decided that this class could be so much better than that.
College of Dirges
Bards of Songs rarely sing about the death that awaits us all; predominately they sing about heroism. Yet the Bards in the College of Dirges sing melodies of sorrow, love lost, faithlessness, and most importantly, death. It is these songs, written and performed from the depths of the human soul, that bring catharsis to the mourning and soothing to the heartbroken. Dirge Singers can mend the emotionally wounded, or rip them asunder.
Bonus Proficiencies
When you join this college at 3rd level, you gain proficiency in Performance. If you already have proficiency in Performance, you may add double your proficiency bonus to checks made with this skill.
Song of Sorrow
Beginning at 3rd level, you may expend a Bardic Inspiration die to lull a single enemy into a deep, inescapable melancholy. As an action, select 1 creature you can see within 30 feet to make a Charisma saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is unwilling to attack any creature for up to 1 minute, and only does so in self-defense. The creature may repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.
Creeping Dread
Starting at 6th level, when you score a critical hit against a creature or when a creature rolls a 1 on a saving throw made to resist the effects of one of your spells, that creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is frightened of you for 1 minute.
Song of Death
Beginning at 14th level, as an action expending a Bardic Inspiration Die, you can sing a melody of death to one creature. If this creature can hear you and is within range, you cast the spell finger of death targeting it without expending a spell slot. After using this ability, you must complete a long rest before using it again.
Changelog: 9/21/15: Creeping Dead now activates when a creature "critically fails" a saving throw.
Song of Death is now finger of death once per long rest.
Cool class, but the picture is all wrong. It screams jester to me more than melancholy.
ReplyDeleteIf you can find something better (at a largeish size), I'll totally put it in the pdf. I had a tough time finding an image, but perhaps you'll fare better.
DeleteWould this suit?
Deletehttp://img05.deviantart.net/1ee3/i/2013/301/3/8/dia_de_los_muertos___male_by_chronoperates-d6s69sg.jpg
I guess that's a little closer, but I was looking for something a little less 'dia de los muertos' and more 'badass evil bard'.
DeleteHow about this one it need a bit of croping but I think it fits http://smg.photobucket.com/user/noir-neko/media/bards.jpg.html
DeleteOn the capstone ability, what's the rationale for the minimum DC being 9 if the most they can lose is 50? That seems like it'd be a pretty disappointing use of a once per long rest ability. Most CR 14 and higher creatures would be less bothered by the max DC of 20 even.
ReplyDeleteI was primarily trying to find a way to incorporate the bardic inspiration die as something to be rolled, instead of something to be expended like a spell slot. Thankfully, this particular feature has a lot of bits that allow for fine tuning for balance. Too weak? Make it 75 or half of current HP. Too easy to resist? Make it 10 + bardic die.
DeleteThe one thing I want to be careful of is not the lowest possible roll, but the highest possible roll. I really don't want to create a save DC that is impossible to make. 8+d12 at max is 20, which is about the ceiling of save DCs so far as I know, and that works out.
I feel like the 6th level ability is underpowered (especially since the other abilities of this bard mesh better with a caster than with melee.) I think it would be better for it to be "using an inspiration die" rather than "on a crit" for a spell-based character who probably uses Vicious Mockery (which can't crit) as the primary means of attack. This is compounded by the fact that there are other spells available around the same level (namely Phantasmal Killer) that do crazy damage and cause fear.
ReplyDeleteOn the note of the capstone ability, the DC can get kinda... low. Maybe 8+cha mod+1/2 inspiration die? Also, since it's a once-per-day ability, assuming it hits like a 9th level spell, it should do 19d10 (single-target spell that has no effect on a failed save), which comes out to about 105 damage. 8th level spell would get you 83 damage average. (As per the spell balancing rules on page 284 of the DMG.)
Yeah, I might tweak the 6th level ability to instead interact with the bard's songs or casting in some way.
DeleteWhy on earth would it act like a 9th level spell? You get this at 14th level, at a time when you can cast 1 7th level spell each day at maximum! And it's pretty well balanced for a 7th level spell, assuming it deals damage (I'm working on a solution to the spell save DC thing.)
If I might, and this is purely suggestion, you could have the last ability work as Finger of Death (a 7th level spell) which fits the flavor of the class very well right down to the original PrC and have the DC be something like 8+Charisma + roll? Just a friendly suggestion.
DeleteThat's actually pretty good. A 7th level spell seems really powerful, so this will be contained to once per long rest.
DeleteWhat is the saving throw DC for Song of Sorrow?
ReplyDeleteUse your spell save DC.
DeleteSo can the target of song of sorrow act freely outside of they can't attack unless attacked first? Such as run around and use the help action, dodge action, or cast buffs for party member etc....
ReplyDelete