Bardic Music Range?

[CirclesAllOver]

Hello forum-goers. I have a question for you.

Recently in a one-shot the question of how far a bard's song/performance can be heard came up. Does anyone know anywhere where this has been discussed, or have any suggestions/rules?

For example, the text for Inspire Courage says that the bard's allies must be able to hear the bard's performance.

This doesn't apply much during combat, but when trying to use debuffs on an enemy(a dragon flying way above the bard) it becomes important.

[Keld Denar]

While there are no hard, fast rules for this, you could use the Listen rules. The DC to hear bardic music might be -10 or -20, with the usual -1 penalty to listen checks per 10'. DM figures out what the enemies listen check is, rolls the check with the range penalty, and figures out what the range would be.

There is an item in Stormwrack, the Admirals Bicorn, which on top of boosting certain skills and being CRAZY AWESOME looking, also allows you to project your voice out over a mile's distance. Thats pretty useful in your case.

Yarrrrrrrrrrrrrr.............

[Optimystik]

Dragons also have pretty good hearing, so he'd be Blessed with Suck in that case.

[CirclesAllOver]

Thank you for your help. My boyfriend/DM suggested the same, but said that it would end up being an enemy's skills and not the bard's that affect the results.

And then, it gets to the point where one needs to decide how loud instruments are in comparison with others.

[SocratesOnFire]

Perhaps it could simply be 10' per point of the perform check?

[Keld Denar]

Alternatively, the DC could be the negative of whatever your skill check is. So if you roll a 32 on Perform, the DC to hear you would be a -32. That means that 320 feet away, the DC to hear your song would be 0, and 420' away the DC to hear your song would be 10, etc.

That way it kinda scales with your skill (which scales with level).

[SocratesOnFire]

But to avoid unnecessary roles, we could just assume they make their listen check unless the DC exceeds 0, amounting to a 10' per point of Perform check of automatic hearing followed by actual checks if the creature is beyond that range.

[CirclesAllOver]

Socrates is my DM/boyfriend.

And, I think that's what we're going to go with. We just need to clear it with the rest of our group.

I play bards often, so it'll come up often.

Thank you Keld Denar.

[Optimator]

When in doubt, cast Resounding Voice from Heroes of Battle.