Inverse Bard

[Angelalex242]

Has anyone ever thought of a Bard whose bardic music debuffs enemies instead of buffing allies?

Ya know...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R-elD0qRzE

The bard sings something like that, and actually inspires incompetence in his enemies (at rates exactly equivalent to the bonuses he'd be giving his allies if it were used on them)

[Rebel7284]

Pretty sure that exists somewhere, perhaps in a dragon magazine.

[justiceforall]

Look up the Haunting Melody feat. It's a good place to start if nothing else.

[eggynack]

I think you want the dirgesinger, from libris mortis. Seems pretty close to what you're looking for.

[Terazul]

Haunting Melody (Heroes of Horror), Inspire Awe (Dragon Magic). They're around.

[toapat]

Winter Unseelie fey gives -Cha to saves to anything within 5 feet of you

[AuraTwilight]

The Harbinger, from Dragon Magazine 337, does exactly this, effectively an ACF that switches out all bardic music for the exact inverses.

[Talya]

Then there's the bardic feat "Doomspeak."

[Flashy]

I once tried to play a bard with a bagpipe and only a single rank in perform. My DM refused to let me...

[AuraTwilight]

I once tried to play a bard with a bagpipe and only a single rank in perform. My DM refused to let me...

Ugh, that sucks, man. DMs that don't allow evil PCs are no fun.

[Coidzor]

There's a feat that causes a save vs. shaken when you play bardic music in exchange for using up another use of bardic music. (Haunting Melody, thank you Terazul)

There's an ACF called Inspire Awe, IIRC, that replaces Inspire Courage and debuffs enemies. IIRC it's from Dragon Magic or Draconomicon or something Dragony.

There's the Jester variant class from Dragon Magazine.

[Diovid]

There's also the Inspire Hatred acf from Exemplars of Evil.

Which makes one wonder what is better: a Jester, a Harbinger or a normal bard with Inspire Awe and Inspire Hatred?

[prufock]

If you want to consider "music" to be fluff, you can also go Hexblade and maybe Luckstealer as a PrC.