Simple Bardic Music question

[prufock]

I've never played a bard, and I can't find the answer to this in the SRD.

Do bardic music uses overlap for the songs that linger for 5 rounds? For example:
Round 1: Start Inspire Courage (it lasts as long as you sing +5 rounds).
Round 2: Start Inspire Greatness (it also lasts as long as you sing +5 rounds).
Round 3: Start Inspire Heroics.

Do my allies gain the benefits of all 3, or is there some clause that says starting a new bardic music use ends the previous one?

If they DON'T overlap, are there feats/class abilities that change that?

[Diarmuid]

Are you asking you can sing multiple "songs" at the same time, or if starting them one after the other would stack?

AFAIK, this works.

Round 1: Start Inspire Courage
Round 2: Start Inspire Greatness, Inspire Courage lasts for 5 more rounds
Round 3: Start Inspire Heroics, Inspire Courage lasts for 4 more rounds, Inspire Greatness lasts for 5 more rounds

On round 3 your allies would have all 3 effects going, but only for a few rounds.

You cannot start IC, then go into IG or IH w/o "ending" your active IC.

[Mari01]

The same is also true for different versions of the same song. You can have standard Inspire Courage running alongside Dragonfire Inspiration.

[Diarmuid]

But not maintained at the same time.

[Chronos]

And multiple copies of the same one (even from different bards) won't stack, because they're the same bonus type (usually morale). A +5 morale bonus together with a +3 morale bonus is just a +5 morale bonus.

[prufock]

Thanks folks, that makes sense to me as well.

[Palanan]

This fits with a question of my own, about two or more bards working together. I figured two harmonizing bards wouldn't make any difference for Inspire Courage, because of the identical morale bonus.

But is there anything a second bard can do to help the first? I've never played a bard, but I'm working on a bard NPC in a setting where there might be additional bards around as backup (so to speak). Is there anything a second bard could do, or would he be essentially useless?

[Mari01]

This fits with a question of my own, about two or more bards working together. I figured two harmonizing bards wouldn't make any difference for Inspire Courage, because of the identical morale bonus.

But is there anything a second bard can do to help the first? I've never played a bard, but I'm working on a bard NPC in a setting where there might be additional bards around as backup (so to speak). Is there anything a second bard could do, or would he be essentially useless?

In the example I gave, two bards could be giving both Inspire Courage AND Dragonfire Inspiration simultaneously. One bard could also be giving Inspire Heroics or Greatness. So long as it's not the same song or same energy type (in the case of DFI) two bards can work together using musical abilities.