Bard of Blood (Homestuck Classpect PEACH)

[Zetapup]

Bard of Blood

You sent an army? That's adorable.
-A Bard of Blood, shortly before said army massacred itself

A Bard is one who allows destruction of their aspect or who invites destruction through their aspect. The aspect of blood involves unity, teamwork, and, in its most literal form, blood. Therefore, a Bard of Blood is one who invites destruction through teamwork and allows the destruction of the unity of their enemies.

Abilities: Charisma is the most important ability for Bards of Blood, as several of their class abilities depend on it. Constitution is also important since Bards of Blood have a relatively low hit die for someone who is expected to be in close range combat. Wisdom is helpful to make up for the low will save, and Strength or Dexterity are needed for hitting, but they're not as vital as Charisma and Constitution.

Role: Bards of Blood are secondary combatants and force multipliers. They vastly improve the combat skills of those around them while doing some damage themselves.

Background: Bards of Blood just innately know their abilities. There is no academy for Bards of Blood, and no amount of training can make someone into a Bard of Blood if they aren't meant for it. They may realize their calling in battle or any other field in which teamwork is necessary.

Organization: Bards of Blood are very rare, so there is no formal organization.

Alignment: Bards of Blood tend to be lawful due to their nature of teamwork, but they can be of any alignment.

Races: Any race can be a Bard of Blood, though there are more Bards of Blood in races that have a large amount of unity/teamwork and in warfaring races.

Religion: Bards of Blood usually worship gods that encourage teamwork and/or gods that encourage war. This can sometimes lead to worshipping opposing deities.

Other Classes: Bards of Blood get along nicely with melee classes and archers, due to the synergy they have. They're neutral towards casters, although they're friendly with gishes. Rogues like Bards of Blood because they find it easier to get sneak attack damage with a Bard of Blood nearby. Bards and Bards of Blood tend to be competitive towards one another, due to their overlapping abilities.

Hit Die: d8. Bards of Blood aren't quite as tough as barbarians or similar classes, but they can take a few hits.

Starting Gold: 5d4x10 gp.


Class Features

Class Skills: The Bard of Blood's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all, Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at First Level: (6+Int Mod)x4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6+Int Mod
Bard of Blood
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+1|
+1|
+0|Rad Teamwork Skills +1

2nd|
+2|
+2|
+2|
+0|Bleeding Strike

3rd|
+3|
+2|
+2|
+1|Improved Flanking

4th|
+4|
+2|
+2|
+1|Turncoat

5th|
+5|
+3|
+3|
+1|Rad Teamwork Skills +2, Bonus Feat

6th|
+6/+1|
+3|
+3|
+2|Share Skills

7th|
+7/+2|
+4|
+4|
+2|Demoralising Aura

8th|
+8/+3|
+4|
+4|
+2|Really Improved Flanking

9th|
+9/+4|
+4|
+4|
+3|Unflankable

10th|
+10/+5|
+5|
+5|
+3|Rad Teamwork Skills +3, Bonus Feat

11th|
+11/+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+3|Godtier

12th|
+12/+7/+2|
+6|
+6|
+4|Share Health

13th|
+13/+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+4|Super Really Improved Flanking

14th|
+14/+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+4|Boiling Blood

15th|
+15/+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+5|Rad Teamwork Skills +4, Bonus Feat

16th|
+16/+11/+6/+1|
+7|
+7|
+5|Destabilizing Aura

17th|
+17/+12/+7/+2|
+8|
+8|
+5|

18th|
+18/+13/+8/+3|
+8|
+8|
+6|Share Feats

19th|
+19/+14/+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+6|Avasculate

20th|
+20/+15/+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+6|Rad Teamwork Skills +5, Share Strength, Bonus Feat[/table]

(Editor's note: the saves are a bit funky because fort and ref are using the average save progression. If you dislike this, feel free to replace it with a good save progression.)

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Bards of Blood are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, all types of armor, and with shields.

Rad Teamwork Skills (su): The Bard of Blood's presence helps their allies fight together more effectively, letting them know when to best time their attacks and catch enemies off guard. Whenever allies within 60ft of you are adjacent to another ally or flanking with another ally, they receive the listed number as a morale bonus to AC, attacks, and damage. You may turn this ability on and off as a free action.

Bleeding Strike (su): At second level you gain the ability to make a bleeding strike. As a standard action, you may make a bleeding strike attack. If the attack hits and does damage, the wound starts bleeding. Whenever the bleeding enemy takes damage from an attack, they take an additional (class level divided by 4, rounded down, minimum 1) damage. The additional damage from multiple bleeding strikes stacks. The bleeding stops when the enemy goes further than 60 ft from you or receives healing equal to the amount of damage they are taking from the bleeding strikes. This ability only works on creatures with a discernable anatomy that are capable of bleeding.

Improved Flanking (ex): At third level, your teamwork skills allow your allies to flank more effectively. When allies flank an enemy within 60ft of you, the enemy is treated as flat-footed. Additionally, whenever an ally deals damage to an enemy they flank, they may make a trip attack against that enemy as a free action. The enemy can't attempt to trip back even if the attempt fails.

Turncoat (su): At fourth level, you gain the ability to make an enemy believe everyone around them is an enemy. As a standard action, you may attempt to make an enemy within 60ft of you become hostile towards their allies. If they fail a will save (dc 10+1/2 class levels+Cha modifier), they can't consider anyone an ally for their abilities and become hostile towards all creatures within 60ft for a number of rounds equal to your Cha modifier. This is a mind affecting ability.

Bonus Feat (ex): At fifth level and every five levels afterwards, a Bard of Blood gains a bonus feat from the list of fighter bonus feats. They must meet the prerequisites for this feat.

Share Skills (su): A 6th level Bard of Blood knows how to let a whole group benefit from one person's expertise. Allies within 60 ft of you are treated as though they have the number of ranks in a skill that another ally within 60ft of you has if this would be higher than the number of skill ranks they currently possess. These skill ranks do not count as actual skills ranks for prestige classes or feats.

Demoralising Aura (su): At 7th level, the group cohesion of enemies starts to fall apart due to the Bard of Blood's presence. Enemies lose any morale bonuses they have as long as they're within 60ft of you. You may turn this ability on and off as a free action.

Really Improved Flanking (ex): At 8th level, allies flank even more effectively due to your amazing leadership skills. When allies flank an enemy within 60ft of you, any movement that enemy makes provokes attacks of opportunity from the allies flanking it (this includes movement that normally doesn't provoke, such as tumbling, 5ft steps, and withdrawing). Additionally, if enemies don't move during their turn, allies flanking them get an extra attack against them at their highest base attack bonus.

Unflankable (su): At 9th level, your enemies can't team up as effectively. Enemies flanking allies within 60ft of you do not receive any bonuses from flanking and the ally is treated as if they are unflanked.

Godtier (ex): At 11th level, you have ascended beyond the level of petty mortals. You gain fast healing (class levels minus 10), +2 to two ability scores of your choice, and the ability to fly at your land speed with good manueverability. This fast healing stacks with other fast healing. Also, once per month, you may come back to life when you would have died. All negative status conditions affecting you are removed (within reason. You can't blow up the sun as a vampire, but you would remove exhaustion and paralysis), all ability damage/drain is removed, and your hitpoints are restored to full. Additionally, you gain a swanky outfit that looks really cool. This has no mechanical benefit, but everyone agrees that it looks amazingly cool.

Share Health (su): At 12th level, you can have your compatriots share each other's wounds. You may link together a number of allies equal to your class level. Any damage that would be taken by one ally is instead distributed equally between all linked allies, before applying damage reduction, energy resistance, immunities, vulnerabilities or other damage-modifying effects. Allies that are further than 60ft from you stop sharing health, but they can continue sharing health if they enter within 60ft of you again.

Super Really Improved Flanking (ex): At 13th level, a Bard of Blood's teamwork skills improve yet again. When allies flank an enemy within 60ft of you, they ignore any concealment and miss chances that enemy has.

Boiling Blood (su): At 14th level, your powers start to have more literal manifestations, causing enemies' blood to rebel against them. Enemies within 60ft of you take 1 damage each round. Additionally, they lose any fast healing or regeneration they have as long as they're within 60 ft of you. Casters affected by this ability can't cast spells as swift or immediate actions, due to distraction. You may turn this ability on and off as a free action.

Destabilizing Aura (su): At 16th level, any teamwork your enemies have falls apart when you come nearby. Each round that enemies are within 60ft of you, they must make a will save (dc 10+1/2 class level+Cha modifier) or be affected by Turncoat, except the effect lasts for a round instead of Cha modifier rounds.

Share Feats (su): At 18th level, your allies can share some of their experience with each other. Allies within 60ft of you may pick one feat they qualify for that another ally within 60ft of you has. As long as both allies are within 60ft of you, the ally picking the feat they qualify for gains the benefits of the feat. Allies may choose a different feat as a free action, losing the benefits of the feat they picked before and gaining the benefits of the most recently picked feat.

Avasculate (su): At 19th level, a Bard of Blood can drain the blood from an enemy's body. You may cast avasculate Cha modifier times per day. Avasculate loses the Evil descriptor when cast by a Bard of Blood.

Share Strength (su): At 20th level, your allies fight as well as the best warrior amongst you. Determine the highest base attack bonus of your allies within 60ft of you. Allies within 60ft of you may use this base attack bonus as their own base attack bonus. Additionally, all allies within 60ft of you gain the bleeding strike ability, with their character level being treated as their Bard of Blood levels for the amount of damage dealt.


Some of the ability names are bit lackluster (cough rad teamwork skills cough), so any suggestions would be appreciated. Fortitude and Reflex saves are using the average save progression because I dislike saves either being great or terrible. I may end up making more Homestuck classpect classes, but there are a lot of them (144 if you don't include muse and lord) and I only have so much time. This is my first homebrewed base class, so please let me know if I messed up on formatting, power level, or anything similar! The class is intended to be low tier 3 or high tier 4.

[VoodooPaladin]

First, Homestuck. I approve. :smallsmile:


The fluff seems confused. Bards of Blood are "fragile" and yet they have a d8 HD, Con is their secondary stat, and have heavy armor proficiency. They are "not front-line fighters" but none of their abilities require the use of free hands or nonweapon implements, and most of them are 60' auras. How are they not in reality the blood-soaked champions of the chaos in warfare, wading into the melee and trusting in cold steel and his foes' delusions and weak wills to protect him?

Bleeding Strike is kind of piddly, and could benefit from a redesign to be more cohesive with the other features. Since the class likes team combat, how about it inflict magical hemophilia, which makes all made against them to deal a little extra damage due to blood not clotting and wounds not healing properly?
It also doesn't say if you can make a Heal check to stop the bleeding; this isn't a problem in Pathfinder, but 3.5 doesn't have rules for that. Furthermore, it doesn't have a clause that states it fails to work against things without discernable anatomy. Skeletons don't bleed. :smallconfused:

Improved Flanking doesn't do anything. Flanking already renders enemies flat-footed. Unless you meant "also flat-footed against your attacks until they are no longer flanked."

How is Turncoat supposed to work? Is it mind-affecting, making them perceive people as though they are always looking at who they perceive to be their enemy at the moment? Does it function like an illusion, wherein the target develops the inability to tell the difference between their enemies and their allies? Is it a directed Rage effect? I like the part where this immediately prevents anyone from being considered an ally by their own abilities, but it needs a bit more clarification.

Share Skills is skill bonus creep. My advice? Let everyone affected use each others' skill ranks when that would be better. If that is deemed too powerful, give it a X/day uses cap, possibly with a duration so you can actually accomplish things with it.

Demoralising Aura probably doesn't need to grant the saving throw. They're just morale bonuses, especially if any permanent or semi-permanent morale bonus would come back after a little bit.

Really Improved Flanking could kind of use a bit more oomph. While they can hit, unless one has Stand Still it isn't very powerful. Maybe a Sneak Attack-like benefit for foes who hit while flanking, or perhaps a status effect is inflicted due to a deft combo attack if they try to slink out and get hit?

Unflankable is clever and neat.

Godtier is a surprisingly low-powered ability. Simple and conservative. Not bad, but... it just feels like there should be something more here. Like being able to come back from the dead X times/(let's say month).

Share Health is piddly for its level. While health-sharing is cute, it would be more level-appropriate if it let you have some control over how the damage was distributed. Like: "You may distribute damage received by all linked parties as you please, before applying damage reduction, energy resistance, immunities, vulnerabilities or other damage-modifying effects."

Super Really Improved Flanking is surprisingly weak, actually. Anyone who wants to trip will be doing it all day, every day by this level. Also, most monsters at this level are too big to trip effectively, fly as a passive effect, or both. The ability to ignore concealment and total concealment for flanking and to ignore miss chances on flanked enemies is more in-line with high-level combat.

Boiling Blood is... pretty cool, actually. Great for killing trolls and other Regeneration-based pests. The damage is inconsequential, however. Maybe boost it, or have Boiling Blood make it hard to cast spells due to the pain?

Destabilizing Aura is kind of underwhelming - one attack at this level is nice, but the action denial is more impressive. Perhaps you could instead have it make Turncoat a passive effect, and everyone within range saves or has to attack their allies for a turn? That would be better, and way more powerful than what is effectively Aura of (Stagger plus Damage).

Does Avasculate still have the Death and Evil descriptors when you cast it as an SLA? Not much to say, it's a simple, clean ability, although it could probably be boosted safely to a Supernatural ability so that it'll ignore the ever-present SR of high-level D&D.

Share Strength is neat. Very neat. What amuses me about it is that I now imagine having a buddy with a bag of rabid rats follow me around, and he throws it onto people when we fight. They're my allies, and so get +20/+15/+10/+5 BAB, and even though they don't do much damage my enemy's line of sight is blocked so I just sit there and throw more bags of rats at my foe until he is bitten to death by magical rats. Bard of Blood +Hivemind =all the win. All of it. But seriously, I think this should be more involved than it currently is: it's powerful, just not... as flashy as a capstone ought to be.

In general, I think this class is really cool, and I want it to be polished up. This should have a lot more... customization in it. Fighter bonus feats, martial disciplines, bard-progression themed spells, invocations, whatever. Just something to help smooth out the class and give it a stronger sense of continuity from level to level.

On a side note, this class made me imagine a high-level ability that makes someone's own mind rebel against itself, driving them mad in a matter of seconds as their own psyche tears itself apart. Things like that are why I know you're on the right track. :smallbiggrin:

[Zetapup]

Spoiled for length.


The fluff seems confused. Bards of Blood are "fragile" and yet they have a d8 HD, Con is their secondary stat, and have heavy armor proficiency. They are "not front-line fighters" but none of their abilities require the use of free hands or nonweapon implements, and most of them are 60' auras. How are they not in reality the blood-soaked champions of the chaos in warfare, wading into the melee and trusting in cold steel and his foes' delusions and weak wills to protect him?

Oof, yeah, sometimes I forget that the difference between a d8 and a d10 is just one hitpoint, on average. I'll rewrite the fluff when I get a chance.


Bleeding Strike is kind of piddly, and could benefit from a redesign to be more cohesive with the other features. Since the class likes team combat, how about it inflict magical hemophilia, which makes all made against them to deal a little extra damage due to blood not clotting and wounds not healing properly?
It also doesn't say if you can make a Heal check to stop the bleeding; this isn't a problem in Pathfinder, but 3.5 doesn't have rules for that. Furthermore, it doesn't have a clause that states it fails to work against things without discernable anatomy. Skeletons don't bleed. :smallconfused:

It was intended to just be a low level option for dealing damage over time, or an option if you're moving and attacking in the same round. As for the heal check, the effect ends when they're further than 60ft from you. It'd be pretty odd if someone tried to use a heal check in combat, but if you want a fluff reason, the bard's presence keeps their wounds open/something similar. The lack of a clause was to prevent any confusion over stuff like "does this enemy have blood? Does ichor/ooze/whatever count as blood?". No discernable anatomy works reasonably well though.

I like the hemophilia idea. Would something like this work: "As a standard action, you may make a bleeding strike attack. If the attack hits and does damage, the wound starts bleeding. Whenever the bleeding enemy takes damage from an attack, they take an additional (class level divided by 4, rounded down, minimum 1) damage. The additional damage from multiple bleeding strikes stacks. The bleeding stops when the enemy goes further than 60 ft from you or receives healing equal to the amount of damage they are taking from the bleeding strikes. This ability only works on creatures with a discernable anatomy that are capable of bleeding."

I don't really want to put a duration on this because that would be a headache to remember and wouldn't make a difference in most cases. I'm tempted to possibly let the bard of blood make full attack bleeding strikes at higher levels, since it loses its use once you get iterative attacks.


Improved Flanking doesn't do anything. Flanking already renders enemies flat-footed. Unless you meant "also flat-footed against your attacks until they are no longer flanked."

I thought flanking just gives you a +2 bonus to attack against them as is? :smallconfused: If I'm wrong, I'll have to work something else out for the ability.


How is Turncoat supposed to work? Is it mind-affecting, making them perceive people as though they are always looking at who they perceive to be their enemy at the moment? Does it function like an illusion, wherein the target develops the inability to tell the difference between their enemies and their allies? Is it a directed Rage effect? I like the part where this immediately prevents anyone from being considered an ally by their own abilities, but it needs a bit more clarification.

Mind affecting sounds right. The ability is supposed to make the target hostile against its allies while it still retains its hostility towards you/your allies. I wasn't quite sure how to best write that out. I'll add in that it's a mind affecting ability.


Share Skills is skill bonus creep. My advice? Let everyone affected use each others' skill ranks when that would be better. If that is deemed too powerful, give it a X/day uses cap, possibly with a duration so you can actually accomplish things with it.

That sounds fine. Share skills is there to give Bards of Blood an out of combat use since their abilities are really combat focused as is. I'll put in a clause that these skill ranks don't allow people to qualify for prestige classes/feats/etc.


Demoralising Aura probably doesn't need to grant the saving throw. They're just morale bonuses, especially if any permanent or semi-permanent morale bonus would come back after a little bit.

Alright, that'd let me simplify the wording a bit too.


Really Improved Flanking could kind of use a bit more oomph. While they can hit, unless one has Stand Still it isn't very powerful. Maybe a Sneak Attack-like benefit for foes who hit while flanking, or perhaps a status effect is inflicted due to a deft combo attack if they try to slink out and get hit?

Hrm, yeah, it'd be nice to give the enemy a reason to move away. Maybe allies get an extra attack against enemies that don't move during their turn? The sneak attack idea could also work.


Unflankable is clever and neat.

Awesome.


Godtier is a surprisingly low-powered ability. Simple and conservative. Not bad, but... it just feels like there should be something more here. Like being able to come back from the dead X times/(let's say month).

Godtier is something that I plan on giving to all classpects, so I want it to work pretty well with all the classes. It could use a little boost though. Let's see... "Godtier: At 11th level, you have ascended beyond the level of petty mortals. You gain fast healing (class levels minus 10), +2 to two ability scores of your choice, and the ability to fly at your land speed with good manueverability. This fast healing stacks with other fast healing. Also, once per week, you may come back to life when you would have died. All negative status conditions affecting you are removed (within reason. You can't blow up the sun as a vampire, but you would remove exhaustion and paralysis), all ability damage/drain is removed, and your hitpoints are restored to full. Additionally, you gain a swanky outfit..." Does that look good?


Share Health is piddly for its level. While health-sharing is cute, it would be more level-appropriate if it let you have some control over how the damage was distributed. Like: "You may distribute damage received by all linked parties as you please, before applying damage reduction, energy resistance, immunities, vulnerabilities or other damage-modifying effects."

I was a little hesitant about giving them that much control over damage taken, since it'd make it very difficult to take down any group with a Bard of Blood through hp damage (It'd have some interesting synergy with Share Strength and a box of rats though). I suppose at this level there's a lot more ways to incapacitate a party besides sheer damage, so I'll see what I can do.


Super Really Improved Flanking is surprisingly weak, actually. Anyone who wants to trip will be doing it all day, every day by this level. Also, most monsters at this level are too big to trip effectively, fly as a passive effect, or both. The ability to ignore concealment and total concealment for flanking and to ignore miss chances on flanked enemies is more in-line with high-level combat.

Good point. I could add the tripping ability to Improved Flanking and let Super Really Improved Flanking ignore concealment/etc.


Boiling Blood is... pretty cool, actually. Great for killing trolls and other Regeneration-based pests. The damage is inconsequential, however. Maybe boost it, or have Boiling Blood make it hard to cast spells due to the pain?

Excellent. I don't want to boost the damage much since it's meant as a debuff for the most part, but making it more difficult to cast spells would work nicely. (Forcing a concentration check to cast would be pitifully easy for any caster to pass if it's based on damage. Maybe prevent casters within 60ft from casting as a swift or immediate action? That'd hamper their action economy quite a bit)


Destabilizing Aura is kind of underwhelming - one attack at this level is nice, but the action denial is more impressive. Perhaps you could instead have it make Turncoat a passive effect, and everyone within range saves or has to attack their allies for a turn? That would be better, and way more powerful than what is effectively Aura of (Stagger plus Damage).

A passive aura of Turncoat wouldn't be too difficult to write up. I'm thinking will save each round or attack allies?


Does Avasculate still have the Death and Evil descriptors when you cast it as an SLA? Not much to say, it's a simple, clean ability, although it could probably be boosted safely to a Supernatural ability so that it'll ignore the ever-present SR of high-level D&D.

I think the Evil descriptor on most spells is pretty silly, since the spell itself is just a tool/weapon, so Avasculate would definitely lose the Evil descriptor. Death could go either way. Making it a supernatural ability wouldn't boost it too much, so I'll do that.


Share Strength is neat. Very neat. What amuses me about it is that I now imagine having a buddy with a bag of rabid rats follow me around, and he throws it onto people when we fight. They're my allies, and so get +20/+15/+10/+5 BAB, and even though they don't do much damage my enemy's line of sight is blocked so I just sit there and throw more bags of rats at my foe until he is bitten to death by magical rats. Bard of Blood +Hivemind =all the win. All of it. But seriously, I think this should be more involved than it currently is: it's powerful, just not... as flashy as a capstone ought to be.

Yup, it's intended to be used with large amounts of allies. I agree that it's a little boring as is though. Maybe all allies also gain the revised bleeding strike ability? Since it stacks, you'd be looking at quite a bit of damage.



In general, I think this class is really cool, and I want it to be polished up. This should have a lot more... customization in it. Fighter bonus feats, martial disciplines, bard-progression themed spells, invocations, whatever. Just something to help smooth out the class and give it a stronger sense of continuity from level to level.

The fighter bonus feats would work, I think. Somewhere around a feat every 5 levels? Maybe access to a few ToB schools would also work, but I don't think I'm familiar enough with ToB to do that well.


On a side note, this class made me imagine a high-level ability that makes someone's own mind rebel against itself, driving them mad in a matter of seconds as their own psyche tears itself apart. Things like that are why I know you're on the right track. :smallbiggrin:

That's great! Thanks for the critique. The Bard of Blood was annoying to come up with related abilities for because "allows destruction of aspect/invites destruction through aspect" is pretty vague and we haven't seen many bardic abilities in comic. I'll edit in the changes in abilities when I find some more time.

Edit: Alright, I changed the abilities as suggested. I'm a little wary of adding fighter feats/martial disciplines until I get feedback on the changes.

[VoodooPaladin]

Bleeding Strike: You're right about the Heal check not being needed for Bleeding Strike - I hadn't thought about the 60' cutoff in relation to that. And a duration would also not really help. The new writeup looks pretty good. Carry on!

Improved Flanking: Flanking does not actually do that. Sorry, forgot that Sneak Attack has a special clause in it to make Flanking Buddies a thing, not the actual flanking rules. Whoops. :smallredface: The new version still doesn't seem broken to me, but you might want to find a second opinion on that. I don;'t know how good a literal Aura of Wolf Pack Tactics is, but I do know that it's pretty cool.

Turncoat looks okay as it is right now, actually. Just saying that they can't consider anyone an ally for their abilities and must attack the living thing closest to them regardless of allegiance, for (Cha mod) rounds is probably the simplest way to handle it. A more complicated approach would be to go full “chaos of warfare” and claim that it renders them unable to distinguish their allies from their enemies in any fashion. My favorite option would be to have it inflict a complex delusion that makes whoever they are looking at at any given point appear to all senses exactly as who they think their current enemy is, which in practice means they have a perfectly valid reason to attack the guy next to them, whoever that may be.

Really Improved Flanking: Is the free attack a bonus to your full-attack routine, or a free-action attack triggered immediately upon their turn ending after having not moved?

Your comments on Share Health make sense, and perhaps a slight roll-back on that ability is in order. What if it were to distribute damage equally across all members of the link before applying the mentioned damage modifying effects? Perhaps the ability to effectively share all resistances and immunities to damage without complication is a bit... unreasonable.

Boiling Blood: This is a good choice. High level mages really like their quickened magic. And it cuts down on per-turn rolls, since if you were to make the Concentration check matter, that would still be 2 to 4 more “screw you” rolls per caster turn. So, nicely done, I wouldn't have thought of that!

Destabilizing Aura look simple, but it's hard to adjudicate. How much do they have to attack their ally, and can they hold back when they do? Are they allowed to not do so if it would bring them direct harm, and if not, do they get the second save due to dangerous circumstances? And so on.
If “Aura of Turncoat” is the effect you're going for, you could easily change it to “or be affected as though by Turncoat for one round.” and spare yourself at least one brick of text.

Share Feats looks new, cool. At first glance, I'm conflicted. Feat prerequisites are the Devil's work and will steal your soul if you consort with them, but down the other path lies Rogue Talent > Gape of the Serpent and other such silliness. Maybe if you let them ignore prerequisites on shared feats relating to class levels, skill ranks, BAB, or ability scores?

Share Strength is still cool. All hail the Pied Piper! I would have made the granted bleeding strikes use your class level, since it would be easier to keep track of when used in large numbers, but it's not a big deal by any means.


The fighter bonus feats would work, I think. Somewhere around a feat every 5 levels? Maybe access to a few ToB schools would also work, but I don't think I'm familiar enough with ToB to do that well.

Yeah, bonus feats were what I thought of first. One per fifth level, since those levels were looking a little weak. ToB schools is a lot of work and I don't think it's really needed here. I'm pretty sure I said half of those options purely for effect.


That's great! Thanks for the critique. The Bard of Blood was annoying to come up with related abilities for because "allows destruction of aspect/invites destruction through aspect" is pretty vague and we haven't seen many bardic abilities in comic. I'll edit in the changes in abilities when I find some more time.

The Bard is a fool and a madman, capable of anything, good or ill, without destiny and beyond cosmic justice. Like if Don Quixote had Ultimate Cosmic Power. It's clearly incredibly powerful, and also apparently a hard class to live up to, with one in two shown examples flunking out.

On the other hand, I'm entirely sure the author is making all of this up as he goes along. At times I wonder if making sense out of it has less in common with literary study and analysis and more with finding messages from aliens in your alphabet soup. :smallamused:

[Zetapup]

Spoiled for length

Bleeding Strike: You're right about the Heal check not being needed for Bleeding Strike - I hadn't thought about the 60' cutoff in relation to that. And a duration would also not really help. The new writeup looks pretty good. Carry on!

Cool


Improved Flanking: Flanking does not actually do that. Sorry, forgot that Sneak Attack has a special clause in it to make Flanking Buddies a thing, not the actual flanking rules. Whoops. :smallredface: The new version still doesn't seem broken to me, but you might want to find a second opinion on that. I don;'t know how good a literal Aura of Wolf Pack Tactics is, but I do know that it's pretty cool.

Eh, melee deserves some nice things. I don't think it's too overpowered, since it requires flanking and that's not always doable, due to numbers or other factors.


Turncoat looks okay as it is right now, actually. Just saying that they can't consider anyone an ally for their abilities and must attack the living thing closest to them regardless of allegiance, for (Cha mod) rounds is probably the simplest way to handle it. A more complicated approach would be to go full “chaos of warfare” and claim that it renders them unable to distinguish their allies from their enemies in any fashion. My favorite option would be to have it inflict a complex delusion that makes whoever they are looking at at any given point appear to all senses exactly as who they think their current enemy is, which in practice means they have a perfectly valid reason to attack the guy next to them, whoever that may be.

I think I'll use the simple approach. The fluff's pretty mutable, so if you want to see it as them thinking everyone they see is an enemy, that's totally cool


Really Improved Flanking: Is the free attack a bonus to your full-attack routine, or a free-action attack triggered immediately upon their turn ending after having not moved?

Bonus to full-attack routine.


Your comments on Share Health make sense, and perhaps a slight roll-back on that ability is in order. What if it were to distribute damage equally across all members of the link before applying the mentioned damage modifying effects? Perhaps the ability to effectively share all resistances and immunities to damage without complication is a bit... unreasonable.

Sharing damage equally makes sense and is pretty easy to write up. I'll change that then.


Boiling Blood: This is a good choice. High level mages really like their quickened magic. And it cuts down on per-turn rolls, since if you were to make the Concentration check matter, that would still be 2 to 4 more “screw you” rolls per caster turn. So, nicely done, I wouldn't have thought of that!

Awesome, thanks.


Destabilizing Aura look simple, but it's hard to adjudicate. How much do they have to attack their ally, and can they hold back when they do? Are they allowed to not do so if it would bring them direct harm, and if not, do they get the second save due to dangerous circumstances? And so on.
If “Aura of Turncoat” is the effect you're going for, you could easily change it to “or be affected as though by Turncoat for one round.” and spare yourself at least one brick of text.

Wow I can't believe I didn't think of changing it to being affected by Turncoat for a round. Eesh. I'll have to rewrite that.


Share Feats looks new, cool. At first glance, I'm conflicted. Feat prerequisites are the Devil's work and will steal your soul if you consort with them, but down the other path lies Rogue Talent > Gape of the Serpent and other such silliness. Maybe if you let them ignore prerequisites on shared feats relating to class levels, skill ranks, BAB, or ability scores?

Eh, I'm really hesitant to let prereqs be ignored for feats, but then again, it is an 18th level ability. I'm not quite sure how to write that simply, so I'll revise it later.


Share Strength is still cool. All hail the Pied Piper! I would have made the granted bleeding strikes use your class level, since it would be easier to keep track of when used in large numbers, but it's not a big deal by any means.

Sweet. The bleeding strikes being based on the ally's character level is to prevent rats from doing 5 stacking damage every time they hit. Given that they're almost certain to hit (+20BA, +5 from Rad Teamwork Skills, and possibly more bonuses from flanking), that amount of damage gets ridiculous pretty quickly.


Yeah, bonus feats were what I thought of first. One per fifth level, since those levels were looking a little weak. ToB schools is a lot of work and I don't think it's really needed here. I'm pretty sure I said half of those options purely for effect.

Alright, a bonus fighter feat every 5 levels isn't going to overpower the class. It'd allow them to nab some archery feats so they have a way to deal with people further than 60ft away, which is nice.


The Bard is a fool and a madman, capable of anything, good or ill, without destiny and beyond cosmic justice. Like if Don Quixote had Ultimate Cosmic Power. It's clearly incredibly powerful, and also apparently a hard class to live up to, with one in two shown examples flunking out.

On the other hand, I'm entirely sure the author is making all of this up as he goes along. At times I wonder if making sense out of it has less in common with literary study and analysis and more with finding messages from aliens in your alphabet soup. :smallamused:

If Homestuck is what happens when Hussie makes stuff up as he goes along, I would love to see what would happen if he planned a comic out in excruciating detail. I'm glad you like the class.


I think I'm going to increase the Godtier resurrection thing from 1/week to 1/month. 1/week just seems too often even for adventuring. It'd be nice to use the just/heroic death idea straight from Homestuck, but I feel like the power of that would depend heavily on the dm.

[DeusMortuusEst]

Why the weird save progression? Was the first thought that came to my mind.

EDIT: Disregard that, I read the last part of the post. I recommend moving that to the top as a 'editor's notes' spoiler.

I'd recommend adding fluff to the 'rad teamwork' ability. Right now it just comes of as strange as I have no idea how that is supposed to work. Is it a magical aura, the bard's powerful presence etc?

[Zetapup]

Why the weird save progression? Was the first thought that came to my mind.

EDIT: Disregard that, I read the last part of the post. I recommend moving that to the top as a 'editor's notes' spoiler.


Alright, I'll put that right below the table, above the armor/weapon profs.


I'd recommend adding fluff to the 'rad teamwork' ability. Right now it just comes of as strange as I have no idea how that is supposed to work. Is it a magical aura, the bard's powerful presence etc?

Bit of both. I'll type some fluff up in a bit.