Portable Keyboard Instruments for a Performer?

[JBPuffin]

What are some handheld keyboard instruments in DnD-esque canon? Don't really care about if they're from a specific setting or not, but for the life of me I can't think of any.

[tomandtish]

What are some handheld keyboard instruments in DnD-esque canon? Don't really care about if they're from a specific setting or not, but for the life of me I can't think of any.

Handheld? Or portable. These are not quite the same thing.

There's a pretty good list of medieval instruments here (http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/medieval-musical-instruments.htm). However, most hand-held keyboard instruments are more modern.

[Troacctid]

I suppose a keytar is probably a stretch. Does your setting contain accordions?

[daremetoidareyo]

marimba is as close as you're gonna get.

[Afgncaap5]

Well... it might be worth going over a few options in Song & Silence, but as has been pointed out it sort of depends on your definition of "handheld" and "portable." There's also a few keyboard-like instruments that are technically percussion (like the Bones) or stringed instruments (like the Hammered Dulcimer, which doesn't have a keyboard but mechanically produces sound much like a piano) instead that might work in that list, but if you specifically need it to be a keyboard those wouldn't help. Heck, D&D even includes a Harmonica which shares some tenuous connections with pianos by way of the accordion (and assuming that the difference between button accordion and keyed accordion isn't too big a gap...) There's one really long-shot item that might work, though...


The Clavichord: At 1 foot wide and 3 feet long, it's probably stretching beyond what you mean by "portable" and it's certainly not handheld, but if you could make it have collapsible legs and happened to be a large-sized character you might just be able to justify it, barely. It grants a nearly meaningless penalty to Countersong attempts you make but can give bonuses to Fascinate and Suggestion (and to Diplomacy and Gather Information if you look beyond the scope of bardic music abilities.) But still... almost certainly too big and bulky for a standard character.

Also... I don't know if a Hurdy-Gurdy has ever been officially included in D&D anywhere, but a Hurdy-Gurdy technically includes a keyboard and is portable. The instrument's old enough that it could work. I'd let it count in my games, though I've got no idea what it would cost.

Having said that... a keytar, while unlikely, could be inventable. A mad luthier might have crafted one one day, and it could be bequeathed to your character. It'd likely be very different from either the modern concept of the keytar or from the medieval instruments of the time, but if your GM would be willing to include it as a story hook...

And then you reach the horrible day where the keytar breaks, and only one luthier in the world knows how to fix it properly. Simply tragic.

[ExLibrisMortis]

You could use an illusion of an instrument. Major image illusions can include sound, so if you have a continuous item of that (3 * 5 * 2000 = 30.000 gp), you can 'play' a 10.000 pipe organ in the field.

[Cerefel]

Something that looks like a keytar but is just an item of at-will ghost sound could probably work and would only cost about 1000gp by item creation rules.

[Warrnan]

My vote is accordian. I am a musican in a traditional irish band. Our piano player uses her accordian when we are in certain settings. I actually prefer it as she gets bagpipe sounds from it sometimes. Very cool sounding instrument if you know what you're doing.

[Xellpher]

Hurdy-gurdy. You vibrate the strings by turning a handle but produce the notes by pressing keys.