Many have tried to stop the Metal...

[Toy Killer]

So in my campaign, I have a bard that plays death metal. At first, I didn't like it, but the player has a perfect personality to play an evil bard, so I finally shrugged and allowed it.

I'm setting up encounters for each of the players to shine. The bard has made it abundantly clear that he wants to be the very best guitarist as his primary motivation in the world, So i figure i'm going to play on the old 'Game vrs Death' Trope and let him fiddle against a Devil.

At first, the idea was they were going to simply come across the concert hall and the devil would have some levels in bard, with a handful of minions that the party could beat down upon while the two bards rifted it out against one another.

But... I don't know if I like the mundane-ness to it, and the bard has a pretty amazing diplomacy/bluff check to him (with little chance to use it). Plus, I wanted each of the five characters to have a true horror movie spectacle feel to their little portions to the story. So I want the 'Agreed' Battle of the bands against the bard and the devil (Plausibly, with the LG Clerics soul as a prize).

...

How would you approach this, keeping the rest of the party involved, with out them aiding the bard in actually playing. I considered having a stage with both contestants on either side, the audience full of cheering zombies, and if the Bard wins, they burst past the stage guard and devour him alive in a fan rage. The big question is how do I keep the party involved and not just spectating.

[herrhauptmann]

Gambling for souls is good, but it has to be the soul of someone the contestant cares about.
If your NE/CE bard doesn't like the LG cleric, why would he go against the devil to save the guys soul? How did the devil get his soul in the first place?

Slightly better bet, the devil has the soul of the bards girlfriend, or parents, or his puppy. Whatever. Has it lawfully, legally, irrevocably. The bard could diplomacy the devil into the game. Dont' let it be just:
Bard: I use diplomacy to tell him that it would be a good idea to gamble for their soul. *roll d20* Yup, got a 48 on the check.
Please make sure he actually acts out the part.

Anyway,
Devil's got the soul. But the bard offers to gamble his own soul in a wager to get back the other person. Devil wins, he gets two souls. Devil loses, he's got none, and the bard gets the other person returned to life (or free to go to heaven).
If you do this, there's a chance the bard will lose. Which will be the end of his character. So give him a chance to save his character, but don't tell him about it, let him figure it out...
scenario:
Perhaps, there's a scroll of Holy Word a few rooms back.
If they use Holy Word at the start, while the devil is holding the soul, he'll go back to hell, and so will the soul. But, if the devil lets go of the soul (puts it in his pocket, and gets his pocket picked, or just lets it drop), and then they use Holy Word, the devil goes back to hell without either soul.

[Deepbluediver]

When you said "Battle of the Bands" I immediately started thinking "what if the Bard can't do it all himself"? After all, if this is THE devil we're talking about, he probably has access to all the souls of every performer and entertainer who every sold their soul for success and fame.

The bard will need to convince the rest of his group to back him up some how, maybe by spending a few skill points next time they level on perform skills of spending some gold on magical instruments. And since most systems don't let you Diplomance PC's, he'll have to really roleplay it out.

Or, if you don't want to go that route, maybe have the bard up against one or more soul-stolen musicians, while the rest of the party fights the devil to distract him and keep him from cheating at the competition.

[Eldest]

My first thought is that the next time the character dies, he gets a chance out of it. No idea what to do with it, though.

[nedz]

The Devil is not The Devil, but rather a minor fiend. The contest isn't about anyone's soul, but rather a plot point — some information perhaps. You could even drive ride a whole plot around this: where The Devil knows what's going on and functions as a 'cheat' mode for when the players get stuck — The Bard plays against the Devil for a clue. The hard bit may be stopping the other PCs from just offing The Devil, but I guess that just depends upon the party.

[Toy Killer]

Well, In game, the plane is descending into hell. After a number of days, if the process isn't reversed, all the souls on the plane will be in hell (Deserving or otherwise). The thought is something along the lines that this Devil won't be guaranteed their souls personally, (and the Cleric is going to earn the Pure Soul feat for his personal encounter) and the Cleric's soul is especially valuable because of it.

So, if the Devil wins, he gets the soul of the Cleric for himself (likely, following a similar beat to Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny "If you win, you get Dayton's soul. Trust me, Dayton, this is the only way" ... "Okay then" ), where if the Bard wins, they get to escape... and The Devil still has an opportunity to claim to their souls if the plane merges (They might know that fact with a successful knowledge check).

I kinda wanted to put a Pit Fiend against them (in an E6 game) just to harp the point that he could easily kill them if he so chose, forcing it into a diplomacy battle with the only openly evil character in the battle, whom happens to be an excellent diplomancer.

I'm looking at it as having the party find a means to neutralize the circumstance bonuses the Devil has, but everything comes off... cheesy. Back up dancers that the party has to disrupt? Lame. Defending the bard from ravaging zombie fans while he performs against the Devil? Maybe, I dunno, we have a grappler in our party that would probably be really tired of it really quickly. Destroy the set ('speakers', and props and the like?) while they battle it out? *eh* it's kinda boring to attack inanimate objects...

For the encounter though, I plan to give him a custom feat named something like [Be you Angels!?] which will give him a bonus to use his spells and bardic abilities against devils and demons from there, or maybe some kind of stun by burning a bardic music ability.

[docnessuno]

I don't know how it's possible noone linked it, but this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOBKxUT9Da4) might be of inspirtion. Lyrics (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/tenaciousd/beelzebossthefinalshowdown.html)if you want them.

[Warning] Links contain foul language.

[Malroth]

Those Ideas are Lame only if the DM spoon feeds them to the PC's, If the contest is going to happen and the players see a dozen tricks the Devil is using to stack circumstance bonuses on top of aid another bonuses on top of morale bonuses on top of insight bonuses and the rules don't expressly forbid things like killing backup dancers or rebuking the crowd into cheering Let them think they're getting away with something when they themeslves think up these or other solutions to the problem.

[Sduser]

Could add in as the Devil beings playing, he inadvertedly summons things that may cause a problem with the Bard's preformance, and will give the party a challenge to keep the bard safe while he preforms.

Including a few changes in the landscape, that could force more difficult checks from the Bard as he tries to play while, say, spires of demonic nature sprout around him.

I had a similair situation only replace a Bard with a monk, and replace the challenge with basically Human Pong where the Monk and the Daemon kept sending a ball of energy at each other. (Or, think Legend of Zelda where in a few of the games you have to hit an attack back and forth. Usually, agaisn Ganondorf.) However, as the ball grew in force, the shockwaves from it being stuck began to cause a cave in, and openings allowed subterrainious creatures to attack the party. It was rather difficult, but I don't aim to kill, I aim to challenge.

Edit: Depending on what instrument he uses, could also, when he is winning, add a cheating element where the Devil converts his instrument into one similair, like from a Flute to Windpipes, then see if he can suddenly learn to play on the spot as an added challenge. Of course, only so the Devil can "Catch Up" not as a cheap way to force a loss. It comes down to your preference and how your Devils are.

[limejuicepowder]

Bass Battle, Scott Pilgrem style - definitely the first thing I thought of.

How to do something like this with the written rules, I have no idea.

Here's how I would do it by fiat though: The devil has a pack of slam-dancing groupies that follows him everywhere. Never one to get his hands dirty, when the devil wants something killed he just busts out a riff and his crowd goes crazy, smashing the crap out of everything living thing in the immediate area. They are in fact so inspired by the death-tastic face-melting jam they are completely immune to harm.

Here's where the bard comes in: the only way to lift the crowd immunity is to best the devil, basically interrupting the song.

Each round, the bard and the devil make opposed perform checks; if the bard wins the crowd loses their immunity; if the devil wins, they can't be harmed and dance with increased vigor. Allow to bard take other actions as well, as long as they have some direct use of music (spells, bardic music, etc.), otherwise the whole battle will for him will just be skill checks.

I don't know what level your players are, or what level of OP they play at so I can't give any numbers, but the crowd should definitely fight as if they were slam-dancing: lots of overrun, bullrush, and trample attacks. When the devil has the upper hand, they are of course immune to damage, but change their tactics as well - maybe they only use the above tactics when they are really slamming, otherwise they just use a weak natural claw-type attack.

Use some dungeon setup so the players can't just attack the devil - maybe he's playing from a (force)cage or something. This wouldn't be entirely unrealistic, as there is real-world precedent for metal and hardcore bands to perform in a cage of somesort. For this reason, probably have this showdown take place at the devil's house of pain concert hall.

Edit: whether you play music during your sessions or not, this battle practically requires it. I recommend some combination of this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPRt6Tt6RyM), this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6artm2JN3yE), this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-4L46xyqg), this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbp60IX_jFQ), this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkFqg5wAuFk), and this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhoZxAwTFXc).
Or something by these bands.

[Malroth]

I'm imagining this as a Best 3 out of 5 opposed roll contest with the Devil's normal Perform bonus being 7 or 8 points less than the bard, but the first round of opposed checks the Devil doesn't know this so he hasn't brought out his cheats yet. The first roll off should almost certianly wind up in the Bards favor If it doesn't then the Devil continues playing fair and if the bard Wins then the Devil brings out every skill boosting trick in the book for round 2+ and from that point its up to the clever players to offset the sudden +20 or more the Devil added in thanks to all the help he's getting.

[Slipperychicken]

The Devil sets the terms of the Rock Battle in a 666-page document, no leaving the stage, no "pussing out". Everything's ready to go. The Bard and the Devil are on stages (rock-style stages. Devil will have an appropriately awesome/demonic stage) separated by an entire performance venue filled with infernal revelers (complete with mohawks, tattoos, lip-rings, glowsticks, recreational drugs, and other concert paraphenalia). The party acts as bodyguards at 1-3 (depending on party size) entrances to the stage, possibly including a back-stage door.

But right as the first chords are struck, angry devils spill out in the Bard's direction! The party must defend their Bard against the infernal army for the whole performance, which should be at least a few minutes (15-30 rounds?). If the Bard takes damage, he needs to make a Perform check against the damage dealt (DC = Damage). If he fails three such checks in the same round, he loses the beat and all is lost (if you have multiple "rounds" of performance, like best 2 out of 3, then the Bard loses that round). The Bard cannot leave the stage, or else he forfeits the Rock Battle. Thankfully, the Bard is not helpless in this encounter: he may produce Bardic Music and cast musical spells to help his party while fighting the Rock Performance/Battle, or even take one Move or Standard action other than performing, like attacking (which must be seamlessly impovised into his performance with a DC 25 Perform check, of course, or else his Perform Check takes a penalty), but not Full-Round actions.

It turns out their contract with the Devil said nothing about attacking performers, and the Devil is milking every advantage he can. If the party truly wipes the floor with the demonic hordes, they can press the fight to the Devil himself, and give him a taste of his own medicine. But they should be wary; the Devils' minions may resume attacking the Bard while his bodyguards (the party) are distracted.

I also recommend having the Bard (sometime early/mid-campaign) first encounter some mortal guitarists who consider themselves the best in the world, and gloat endlessly until the Bard challenges them. After a few of these (of increasing skill and cheating-attempts), they encounter one which has very clearly exchanged his soul for infernal guitar skill approaches and challenged him. This will help give the feeling of conquering "mortal" musicians, so progressing to the Devil feels more natural. Maybe even have him face off against some other Outsider musicians first, like Elementals or Modrons.

[Toy Killer]

Slippery: I would have allowed earlier rock battles and saved this for a culmination, except the fact that the campaign is supposed to be fairly short lived (Starting on day 4, they have 13 days to allow the flow of positive energy back into the plane.)

This is a level 6 campaign and fairly low OP, though a couple tricks are utilized here and there.

So, the adventure thus far with everyone's wonderful input (Thank you, everyone, btw!)

Early on, I'll let the bard (Abbot) know about a near-by all-girl school for musical finesse and classical music or some such. When they finally get to the college, all the students and staff have been struck down. oddly, the bodies are missing but the clothes are laying as though they were still there, arrows struck through and blood splatter against the wall.

Music can be heard coming from the concert hall, and if or when they make it there, the audience is a blood bath of nude students moshing to an Erinyes bard, rocking out. Their forearms are burned crisp to the bone from large bursts of flames emanating from the stage. when the doors shut behind them, everyone stops and turns around. The Erinyes takes flight, threatens them, they are out numbered, out matched and so forth.

Abbot strikes a deal, a rock challenge against the Devil. The devil isn't interested in his soul (Being chaotic evil, chances are it will get to hell eventually) but the cleric in the party is very tempting. If Abbot wins, he will give them the location of the missing High Priest of Palor (Who went missing when the positive energy became blocked), If the Devil wins, He gets the soul of the Cleric.

The stage has 6 entry points on it, with too numerous to count fans flocking to get on stage. The Devil has three Lemures blocking the stairs to the stage. The two will roll off, 3 sets of 3, one roll each per round. Or... you know, to the death. The fans are simple and frail zombies, attempting bull rushes against whomever is on the stairs (But not necessarily attack, I have a clothie in my party). If one rolls a check 10 higher then the other, flames burst out of the stage, clearing the fans back except the ones actively on the stairs. The four other players can defend, heal others in the clerics case and whomever isn't on the stair way can attempt to kill the lemures defending the Devil. At the start of the third round, he can summon at least two in two seperate rounds while casting.

for the third and final rock off, the rules change. The ground starts to rumble, the concert hall is starting to crack. not wining causes a balance check, playing prone is a -4 penalty. The fans continue to bull rush, unless that side isn't winning, in which case they start to grapple.

while grappled, other fans can swarm over the grappled member and get to the respective musician.

Any undefended stair will allow fans to get through based on which round (I.E., 1 on the first round, 2 for the second round, etc) and the fans will attack the musician. This will be handled something like concentration, but with music instead.

Around the 2 round, if the Erinyes is losing, he'll cast something that will boost his Charisma for that extra edge, if he's tied in the third round, he'll start singing while playing and get an extra +2 bonus from it (There is a feat that does something like this, but I don't know what it is off the top of my head)

If he loses the rock off, fans swarm the stage, eat him alive, shred his guitar (literally, mind you) and clothes and such and then start dropping like flies, no longer bound by the power of rock.


So, what do you think?

[Phelix-Mu]

Words and music can be directly involved in whatever dark magic is drawing the Prime into Hell. Think many cultists chanting the Dark Speech, presided over by some handsome, unique devil (pit fiend seems like hitting the party over the head...too much intimidation may be counterproductive), and whatever instrument or vocalism thing seems appropriate.

To undo this Dark Speech grand spell, the player characters must coordinate efforts to undo various levels of the spell, possibly traveling through the dungeon/evil temple complex/concert hall to disable various spell focus-elements for the Dark Speech, battling fanatical cultists and minor demons. If you want to make it even more elaborate, maybe they must research some kind of advanced countersong effect to neutralize the Devil's Dark Speech magic. This may involve Knowledge checks, questing, traveling to learn bits of song from various npcs/celestials/long dead bards (Diplomance away). Seeker of the Song flavor here would be kind of cool (PrC from Complete Arcane).

Finally, they must perform the countersong, possibly needing the voice of a Pure Soul (the cleric) as some kind of harmonic counterfocus thingummy to cancel out the evil music. This will take time, and the Devil may resort to violence to protect his grand plot, so non-artistic characters can have a role holding the line while the countersong is executed.

Scale it up or scale it back as necessary.

[mcv]

Those Ideas are Lame only if the DM spoon feeds them to the PC's, If the contest is going to happen and the players see a dozen tricks the Devil is using to stack circumstance bonuses on top of aid another bonuses on top of morale bonuses on top of insight bonuses and the rules don't expressly forbid things like killing backup dancers or rebuking the crowd into cheering Let them think they're getting away with something when they themeslves think up these or other solutions to the problem.

I like this. The Devil has every great musician ever in his back-up band. Or at least the ones that sold him their soul, and the ones that were evil, greedy or decadent enough to go there automatically, which is likely not a small number. The bard will probably recognize some unexpected legends. And with their support, the devil gets so many bonuses that the bard cannot possibly win.

So while the bard gets the limelight, the rest of the party gets to slaughter and distract the devil's band, which is probably going to be extremely fun. Every evil band member probably has some special attacks based on the instrument they play. The drummer is dual wielding two sticks, the backup singers have some sonic attack (siren? banshee? just damage?). A fire-spitting brass section maybe? Some special abilities may not be directly related to their instrument, but there's tons of room for wild weird fun here.

And once the backup band is dead, the bard still has to do his performance to win. I suppose the contest requires a check each round, over a period of 10-20 rounds or something? The devil starts with huge bonuses, so towards the end, the bard has to make up for it.

Also, battling for souls is very metal. I suggest going with the souls thing, risky though it might be. Even if the bard loses, it'll still have been epic.

[Toy Killer]

As campy as it may be, I like the current set up. I like the idea that it's not just the party saving the day for the bard, the bard IS the spectacle, the players are allowing it to happen.

with the two team fight (Evil band, vrs Bard and Party), it's like a casual combat scenario with really deep impact; but with deeper impact. The bard is still doing what he always does, just with an opposed skill check. I want the encounter to be focused primarily on the bard.

[Toy Killer]

I apologize for the thread necromancy in advance.

So, after the first two secessions, Abbot, the Death Metal Bard, is getting tired of standing in the back and playing music. He chose a lot of social build stuff, which leaves him standing around in combat doing little but plucking strings and... well... not much else. So I decided the Succubus (Changed from Eryines for story reasons) is going to have a Guitar that has something of a spit fire Lesser Orb of Sonic ability and a Dragon Fire Inspiration effect that makes it Abyssal Damage instead of Elemental. I'll work in some Sonic mind effecting abilities into the game so he can counter song a bit and try to find a way to stack his fear influencing abilities.

But this still leaves one problem. During his event, he's still going to just be rolling skill checks vrs skill checks with someone of reasonable level. And a D20 has a large amount of sway And he's been getting tired of 'Just playing music'.

So... I was thinking about something like 9 cards that each would play and would either boost their current skill check and give them negatives later, or remove a margin of their current penalties. (I made tagboard Amps that can crank up to 49 to keep track of each others checks) Maybe a few that have combat maneuvers on them (Bull rush, Disarm, and Trip, for example) That will allow them to literally Bass Battle each other out across the stage.

What do you think?