User:Spazalicious Chaos/Bard, Revamped (3.5e Class)

Bard
You are a Bard. To be a Bard is to live and breathe the past of your clan. To be a Bard is to be the face of your people, be it a face of peace or a face of war. To be a Bard is to be a collector of the stories of your people, as well as to bring those stories to life. To be a Bard is to have the power to make others immortal.

Making a Bard
Bards are trainned to be largely self-suffiecient, and thus do not really "need" to be in a party at all. However, in groups Bards make the ultimate backup character, able to fill most roles easily.

Abilities: While a half-way decent fighter and caster and an excellent diplomancer, a Bards true power lies in the Stories she collects. As she advances her Stories grow in number and can do more for her party, eventually becoming the ultimate multi-tool. As a result, Bards rely on Charisma, and to a lesser extent Intelligence, Dexterity and Constitution.

Races: Typically only the savage races need a Bard, thus they are common among Orcs, Gobliniods and other such beings. However, any nomadic or tribal race produces Bards.

Alignment: Bards are as varied as the stories they collect, thus they have no true "favored alignment", though their savage upbringing often produces a tint of chaos.

Starting Gold: 3d6 x 10

Starting Age: Complex

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the Bard.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Bards are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, light armor, medium armor and shields (but not tower shields.)

A Bards Intelligence determines if the Bard can know bonus spells, but otherwise being able to cast spells is based purely off Charisma. These spells are chosen from the SRD:Bard Spell List.

While these abilities fall under the category of bardic music and the descriptions discuss singing or playing instruments, they can all be activated by reciting poetry, chanting, singing lyrical songs, singing melodies, whistling, playing an instrument, dancing or playing an instrument in combination with some spoken performance. All bardic music abilities are tied to a Perform skill of the Bards choice, which must hold maximum ranks possible for the Bards level. Holding less ranks disallows use of bardic music abilities of a higher Bard level than would be suggested by by the Bards ranks. For example, a 1rst level Bards with less than 4 ranks in his chosen perform can not use bardic music at all, while a 5th level Bard with only 7 ranks in his chosen perform has access to Story of Faith +2 and Echo Story, but not Summon Story.

Starting a bardic music effect is a move action. Some bardic music abilities require concentration, which means the bard must take a move action each round to maintain the ability. Even while using bardic music that doesn’t require concentration, a bard cannot cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), or activate magic items by magic word (such as wands). Just as for casting a spell with a verbal component, a deaf bard has a 20% chance to fail when attempting to use bardic music. If he fails, the attempt still counts against his daily limit.

 : Bards are defined by the stories they collect. A "story" is a creature or heroic/villainous character that the Bards has met and studied for a number of minutes equal to the targets HD. A Bard can keep a number of stories in her possession equal to half her Bard level, rounded up, as detailed in Stories Known. After the study period is over the Bard makes a Perform check with her chosen Perform skill with a DC of the targets HD+10, expending a use of Bardic Music to do so. Success indicates the Bard has captured the creature as a Story, and can use the targets Exemplified Traits, defined as the following attributes for the Bards various Story abilities: Some Story effects actually call up the target as a summoning or a calling, and thus use the full creatures statistics as they were when the Bard first captured the story. Trap the Story as no ill effect on the target, and thus is not subject to Spell Resistance.
 * BAB- only if the target had a full BAB progression.
 * Abilities- only if the target had +5 or more in an ability over the normal for it's type.
 * Saves- only if the target had a Good progression in the Save category.
 * Skills- only the class skills the target had maximum ranks in.

Bards may freely swap Stories, forgetting Stories they have already captured for new or updated Stories. Once forgotten, a Story can not be recaptured unless the Bard re-examines the Stories original subject, as per capturing a new Story. Two Bards can also trade Stories on a one-for-one basis, esentially swaping Stories in a process that takes one hour. However, A Bard can never exceed her maximum Stories Known via any of these methods.



Finding a nonmagical traps has a DC of at least 20, or higher if it is well hidden. Finding a magic traps has a DC of 25 + the level of the spell used to create it.

Bards can use the Disable Device skill to disarm magic traps. A magic traps generally has a DC of 25 + the level of the spell used to create it.

A Bard who beats a trap’s DC by 10 or more with a Disable Device check can study a trap, figure out how it works, and bypass it (with her party) without disarming it.

 : By spending one Daily use of her bardic music, a Bards can grant a +1 bonus to any ally or herself to any one roll that matches one of her Story's Exemplified Traits. This bonus improves by 1 every two levels after 1rst level.

 : Because Bards are to be diplomats first and warriors second, they all recieve basic training in resisting control by foreign powers. A Bard may choose the greater of her Diplomacy ranks or base Will save when resisting an Enchantment spell or spell-like ability.

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Epic Bards
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Epic <-class name-> Bonus Feat List: <-list of bonus epic feats->.

<-Sample race of your choice-> <-class name-> Starting Package
Weapons: <-Weapon selection for starting at 1st level with this class.->.

Skill Selection: Pick a number of skills equal to 4 + Int modifier.

Feat: <-1st-level feat selection->.

Bonus Feats: <-1st-level feat bonus feats due to class or sample race. remove this section if this sample doesn't get any bonus feats at 1st level. ->.

Gear: <-Starting armor and other equipment outside of weapons.->.

Gold: <-Starting gold using this package.->.