Creating a Bard's Guild

[SilverLeaf167]

I'm building a Bard character and actually growing quite fond of him. He's a Bard 6/Lyric Thaumaturge 4/Sublime Chord 2, planning to take rest of his levels in Virtuoso. Fairly focused on spellcasting, as might be apparent, but can be pretty motivational if he has to.

So, I picked up the Leadership feat for mostly fluff purposes. I have a Leadership score of 20 without adjustments, so I get a level 10 cohort and about 130 lesser followers. The cohort shall be the "vice president" of the guild and take care of things while the leader is out adventuring, most likely on some world-shakingly important business (the campaign hasn't started yet and probably won't for a while), but should also be directly helpful if ever necessary. The followers won't be the only members of the guild, but rather the management that answers straight to me.

Pretty much all I know about the setting is that there is a huge hub of culture and trade, most likely where the guild's main headquarters will be located, and some smaller but still large cities that can be easily accessed from the central and will probably have branch offices. The guild will focus on, well, performing, but will also deal in information. This will happen mostly in the open, but particularly juicy or delicate matters will be reported straight to me.

Beyond that, what could I do to make the guild be useful and unique? Also, how should I build the cohort? He should be capable of handling the guild while still being useful in action as well. I don't want him to be another Bard.


EDIT: Forgot to mention that the character is Chaotic Good with rather strong Chaotic Neutral tendencies.

[Inferno]

Bards are social characters and tend to have plenty of points to spare after perform (x) is maxed. Members of a bards guild would also spend a lot of time in the company of nobility, royalty and other assorted people of influence.
Instant intelligence agency/spy network, with a built in cover. Your local(or foreign?) king/queen/ambitious noble could be a power behind the guild or it could be all you, depending on how much you like/trust the local(foreign?) government.

Edit: also, about that cohort: Monk, Rogue, and Factotum both get perform as a class skill (I'd think that necessary as a main member in a Bards Guild, especially if you like my advice about using it as a spy network.)

[SilverLeaf167]

I'll see about obtaining noble allies, that probably depends a lot on how the setting turns out to be. From what I've heard (I gave a lot of assorted help to the DM , since I have more experience in the field), the royal family in the setting is rather secretive, but for all I know he might have changed everything since then. It's been a while and we only discussed a rough draft of the setting.

For the cohort, I suddenly thought of making him a straight Binder. A lot of Charisma synergy and handy abilities. At this level he could bind two vestiges at once. Naberius, Malphas, Andromalius, Dantalion, Haures and Desharis seem to be particularly useful vestiges that he could currently bind. Any comments on this?

[Larkas]

Consider adding the services of Travel Bureau and Tourist Information. To your guild. The city is a major cultural hub, after all, and it is composed by pleasant and mostly helpful people.

On the cohort, can you by any chance use Pathfinder material? A Summoner, Synthesist or no, could complement your abilities very much, and is also keyed off of Charisma! If needed, get ranks in Profession (Administrator) and/or Profession (Entertainer). If you're using this in an otherwise fully 3.5 environment, it might be wise to consider using the Bard's Spells Known and Spells per Day tables for it, though.

[SilverLeaf167]

Well, the DM doesn't seem totally opposed to Pathfinder, since he let one player use the PF Barbarian and has implied willingness to allow the PF Paladin as well. Summoner could be interesting, but sort of feels like a lot of work and bookkeeping for what is already an extra character in a full party. I'd have to keep track of his eidolon (or power armor), his spells and probably a bunch of summoned monsters, compared to the Binder where I'd only have a few passive abilities and a couple active tricks with unlimited use.

The travel bureau idea sounds interesting though. Dealing in information, indeed, now from a specially made and clearly marked Information Desk. :smalltongue:

[Ardantis]

I have to agree with either Factotum or Binder for the cohort. Both are low-upkeep (asides from Factotum spells), and both fit the bill as an administrator- although the Binder would be more of a personality and the Factotum a man of details and knowledge. Both would be great (and complementary to you) in combat.

As for the above-board aspects of your guild, tourism and information of the public kind are hilarious, considering the world-shaking antics of the guild leader. It's like McDonald's being owned by Rob Roy MacGregor.

[Larkas]

Well, the DM doesn't seem totally opposed to Pathfinder, since he let one player use the PF Barbarian and has implied willingness to allow the PF Paladin as well. Summoner could be interesting, but sort of feels like a lot of work and bookkeeping for what is already an extra character in a full party. I'd have to keep track of his eidolon (or power armor), his spells and probably a bunch of summoned monsters, compared to the Binder where I'd only have a few passive abilities and a couple active tricks with unlimited use.

The travel bureau idea sounds interesting though. Dealing in information, indeed, now from a specially made and clearly marked Information Desk. :smalltongue:

Oh! True that, Summoner does need a little bookkeeping. Hmmm... Aside from the aforementioned Binder and Factotum, then, I think that Dragonfire Adepts can be easy to maintain and useful too! I'd also say Warlock, since it is very Charisma SAD (some would say NAD), but only if you can work within its fluff and get a pact with something non-evil and sane. Anyways, I think that you're pretty much set! :smallsmile:

[Shaynythyryas]

I actually did that before, and me and my group struggled a bit to answer this very question.

We ended up creating a Guild of All Arts and Pleasures, which happen to be a bard college (regrouping performing acts, education and archives), as well as a courtesan guild (Firefly inspired) thinly covering the real activity : a spy guild.

It's quite recent in our game, but it seems really promising.

(however, our DM made it cost us a LOT of money.)

[Socratov]

Well, I could echo the spy business, however, I could also suggest another course: education, arts and preservation of knowledge. Basically in the past (real world history) tales were told to remember history, so why not making your bards college/guild a place where knowledge is gathered and preserved? meshes well with arts (songs, sgas and poetry) and education (knowledge, people make best knowledge repositories, many backups and you have a great bard's guild)