Negative Bardic Music?

[Skysaber]

Does anyone know of Bardic Music (or equivalents) that apply penalties instead of bonuses? Feats, ACFs, or prestige classes are fine, and sources don't matter.

I know I've run across some, but now I don't remember where.

[Verditude]

The Inspire Awe ACF lets you use bardic music to produce fear effects.

Edit: it's from Dragon Magic, but it replaces your Inspire Courage, so probably not a great trade.

[gorfnab]

Harbringer Bard ACF - Dragon 337
Doomspeak feat - Champion of Ruin

[StreamOfTheSky]

Yeah, there's at least one from dragon mag. Harbinger sounds familiar, I also remember a "Jester." Also check Dragon Compendium volume 1.

[DuncanMacleod]

If your talking Pathfinder, the satire performance of the court bard archetype from the APG is exactly what you describe. Stacks very nicely with the anti-paladin's aura of cowardice and then the clerics aura of doom. Pretty brutal... so long as your foes are vulnerable to mind-affecting effects...

[StreamOfTheSky]

If your talking Pathfinder, the satire performance of the court bard archetype from the APG is exactly what you describe. Stacks very nicely with the anti-paladin's aura of cowardice and then the clerics aura of doom. Pretty brutal... so long as your foes are vulnerable to mind-affecting effects...

If the foes are vulnerable to mind-affecting, bard already has more spells than one could count to win the fight with. Specializing even further down that road at the expense of the bard's strongest "good in any combat situation" ability seems...unwise...

[DuncanMacleod]

If the foes are vulnerable to mind-affecting, bard already has more spells than one could count to win the fight with. Specializing even further down that road at the expense of the bard's strongest "good in any combat situation" ability seems...unwise...

I didn't say it was a good idea, was answering the OP's question:

"Does anyone know of Bardic Music (or equivalents) that apply penalties instead of bonuses?"

That said, a bard has a very limited number of spells, so softening up the enemies to fear effects from others in the party as often as you like may not be so bad, depends on the group... if it's mainly casters, satire is good, if it isn't, inspire courage is better. Although you're still screwed against those immune to mind, as I said.

[DuncanMacleod]

Think about satire + (free, permanent) aura of cowardice from the anti-paladin giving -6 to fear effects, which means the cleric's cast once and last all battle aura of doom is virtually a sure thing, leading to -8 to fear effects... then both cleric or wizard could cast fear, or wizard can cast relatively low level phantasmal killer for a save or die with a very low chance to save. Not saying that strategy is uber, but it's certainly not bad. As good as inspire courage?... perhaps.

[Skysaber]

Think about satire + (free, permanent) aura of cowardice from the anti-paladin giving -6 to fear effects, which means the cleric's cast once and last all battle aura of doom is virtually a sure thing, leading to -8 to fear effects... then both cleric or wizard could cast fear, or wizard can cast relatively low level phantasmal killer for a save or die with a very low chance to save. Not saying that strategy is uber, but it's certainly not bad. As good as inspire courage?... perhaps.

I love it.

These types of things, like the Harbringer, are exactly what I am looking for.

[Skysaber]

If the foes are vulnerable to mind-affecting, bard already has more spells than one could count to win the fight with. Specializing even further down that road at the expense of the bard's strongest "good in any combat situation" ability seems...unwise...

Bardic Music is almost unique in that most things that have immunity to mind-affecting, can have that immunity bypassed by a bard with the right feat.

Spells have their own limitations, and anyway this is not a PC bard we are talking about. So their general capabilities to face a variety of situations are less important. It just has to fit a specific niche in the campaign.

Edit: That Harbinger bard is scary. A no-save paralysis effect? That's just evil.

[DuncanMacleod]

Ignore this post, realized I was talking ****e and edited.

[Chronos]

The Jester variant (though it's never explicitly called out as a bard variant, it clearly is) is found in the Dragon Compendium, which might be a bit more accessible than individual issues of the magazine.

[ericgrau]

If the foes are vulnerable to mind-affecting, bard already has more spells than one could count to win the fight with. Specializing even further down that road at the expense of the bard's strongest "good in any combat situation" ability seems...unwise...
Multi target > single target though. And once it's a move/swift it isn't mutually exclusive with spellcasting. The problem is that the penalty is equal to bonus of inspire courage. So applying only part of the time makes it worse.

Might be nice if your party doesn't have many people with attack rolls though, and/or the campaign is against a certain organization (which tend to be populated by things with minds), and/or the party already has a regular bard.