bard questions and melodic casting clraification

[titans4ever]

Bardic music questions:
Fascinate and inspire competence, song of freedom says you have to concentrate to keep the effect going or concentrate for so long for it to work. So every round you need to spend a standard action to keep them fascinated or keep the song going. Inspire courage, inspire greatness, and inspire heroics all don't say anything about concentration yet it lasts for as long as you hear the bard sing and +5 rounds. How does that work if your bard plays drums or some instrument as their perform skill? The RAW says sing, can a drumming bard sing to keep that song going and do whatever he wants the next round for his standard action? Make a full attack? Do a double move as long as he stays in range for others to hear him to keep the bonuses going? Does this mean an instrument based bard doesn't need his instrument out to keep these songs going?


On to some feat questions for clarifications

#1)Melodic casting:
Whenever a Concentration check would be required to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability (such as when you cast defensively or are distracted or injured while casting), you can make a Perform check instead. In addition, you can cast spells and activate magic items by command word or spell completion while using a bardic music ability. Bardic music abilities that require concentration still take a standard action to perform.

I don't quite understand the benefit of taking this feat. The obvious advantage of not having to take ranks in concentrate and use your preform check is obvious. It opens up skill points to go somewhere else. It is the rest that I am fuzzing and need clarifications. I don't quite understand the mechanics behind it. If I start singing inspire greatness for example, the next round I can use my standard action to cast rage or some other spell and not break the song? I could activate my flaming sword by using the command word? This feat just opens you up to do more things while singing the songs inspire courage, inspire greatness and inspire heroics that don't require concentration to use as your standard action?

#2) Lingering song
If you use bardic music to inspire courage, inspire greatness, or inspire heroics, the effect lasts for 1 minute after an inspired ally stops hearing you play.

This doubles the duration after you stop playing from 5 to 10 rounds. Since most encounters don't last much more than 10 rounds this turns all those songs into a one round event. You quick sing and then you can stop playing and move on to do other things and all the party member will hopefully get the benefit of the song for the rest of the encounter and you are now free to do whatever else you want to do. Is that the advantage of this feat?

Does a bard character more focused on singing, skills and spell casting need to take both lingering song and melodic casting? It seems if you took lingering song, you sing for one round and then don't worry about it so you are now free to cast any spell, activate a magic item, use a wand or whatever else you would want to do. Is it worth the feat of melodic casting just to dump the skill concentration from your skills you have to keep up? There is no requirements for lingering song yet you have to dump 4 skill points into spellcraft to take melodic casting. Guess that is still better than trying to keep concentration maxed.

[Keld Denar]

"Sing" with regard to bardic music seems to be mostly a generic replacement for perform.

Melodic Casting only applies to songs that don't require concentration. Normally, you can't cast a spell while performing Inspire Courage not because you are busy, but simply because it says you can't. It is an explicit rule that makes no difference what kind of performance you are doing. You can't cast spells while performing a sing that required concentration, however, because of the rules for concentration, and Melodic Casting doesn't change that.

Lingering Song only applies to songs that linger. IC stays around for 5 rounds after you quit. Double that and you get 10 rounds, a minute. If a song doesn't linger at all, then doubling 0 rounds gets you 0 rounds.

I personally like Melodic Casting over Lingering Song. The extra skill point saved from Concentration is like half of the human racial bonus, well worth a feat alone. When you add in spellcasting and spell trigger items, there is little that you need to stop performing for. You could literally keep a song going indefinitely, although that might cause other issues. Lingering Song is better if you are twinning songs together, like IC and Dragonfire Inspiration, or if you regularly find yourself stunned or otherwise disabled regularly.