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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Class Minstrel - Peach



Jirachi
2017-03-09, 05:57 PM
The Minstrel




Why I made this class: Bards (somewhat) suck mechanically. Everyone wants full casting, and bards don't have particularly good class features that really compensate for this. Conventional Gishes are better gishes, so I am going to only somewhat go for that angle. So, A tier 2 to low tier 1 class is a go!
It is said that there is a magic inherent in the telling of a narrative, be it in song, or in a poem or dance. Perhaps that is untrue, and Minstrels simply draw on arcane magic in exactly the same way that a wizard does, picking up esoteric tricks with there trade. Certainly, Minstrels almost always believe that they are tapping into a more exotic and perhaps particularly powerful source of magic that manipulates people perceptions and minds.
Minstrels often obsess around there personal ideal of heroism, and telling people of the deeds of there personal favorites. Good minstrels tends to be paragons of virtue, and tend to be openly optimistic about the nature of reality, and believed that everyone can be redeemed to whatever there moral standards. Neutral and Evil Minstrels are often more pragmatic about life, believing that stories are simply delusions that people subject themselves to hide themselves from the reality of the world, and there magic is simply an extension of the yearning for escape that everyone possesses.
Minstrels have varying opinions about the truth with some believing that people have to make there own decisions with them simply telling it as is, and an occasional nudge of an illusion is more than fair. Others lie simply because they are aware that they were designed by the Gods with the capacity, and it would be a waste to not use it.

Making a Minstrel: You have a large array of skills and spells that allows you to preform a wide variety of functions that can make you very versatile member of a party. You can function well as a secondary arcane caster and can mimic some of the stealth functions of a Rogue. You lack some access to a number of schools of magic but you do gain limited access to schools other than divination, illusion and enchantment. Your main strength is your ability to manipulate your enemies, on and off the battlefield.
Races Every race has there fair share of Minstrels, but races such as Half-elves and Gnomes are notable for containing large numbers of notable minstrels because they understand how stories play with peoples mind, academically or personally.

Alignment: There is no inherent alignment disposition for Minstrels, as there philosophies tend to shy away from the real world and focus in on the narritives. Chaotic Minstrels are free spirits, guided only by there own whims and there sense of drama, while Lawful Minstrels often are an important part of cultural instutions.
GAME RULE INFORMATION
Minstrels have the following game statistics.
Abilities: Intellegence is very important for you, as it governs your skills, class features and casting. You may wish to invest in Charisma to help with your personability
Alignment: Any
Hit Die: d8
Starting Age: As Bard
Starting Gold: 6d4 x 10 Gp (150 Gp average)

Class Skills
The Sublime Champion's class skills: Appraise, Balance, Bluff, Climb, Concentration, Decipher script, Diplomacy, Disable device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather information, Hide, Knowledge (All skills, taken individually), Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Spot, Swim, Tumble, Use Magic device
Skill Points at First Level: (6 + Int modifier) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 6 + Int modifier



Saves

Spells Per Day


Level
BAB
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
0th
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th
8th
9th


1st
+0
+0
+2
+2
Bardic Knowledge, Student of the mind, Sound Master, Scribe scroll
3
1










2nd
+1
+0
+3
+3
Minstrel's Musings, Weapon Finesse
4
2










3rd
+2
+1
+3
+3
Diversified learning
4
2
1









4th
+3
+1
+4
+4
Spell Mastery, Canny defense
4
3
2









5th
+3
+1
+4
+4
Still spell
4
3
2
1








6th
+4
+2
+5
+5

4
3
2
2








7th
+5
+2
+2
+5
Diversified learning, Acrobatic Charge
4
4
3
2
1







8th
+6
+2
+6
+6

4
4
3
3
2







9th
+6
+3
+6
+6

4
4
4
3
2
1






10th
+7
+3
+7
+7

4
4
3
3
2
2






11th
+8
+3
+7
+7
Diversified learning, Acrobatic skill mastery
4
4
4
4
3
2
1





12th
+9
+4
+8
+8

4
4
4
4
3
3
2





13th
+9
+4
+8
+8

4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1




14th
+10
+4
+9
+9

4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2




15th
+11
+5
+9
+9
Diversified Learning
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1



16th
+12
+5
+10
+10

4
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2



17th
+12
+5
+10
+10

4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
2
1


18th
+13
+6
+11
+11

4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
3
2


19th
+15
+6
+11
+11
Diversified learning
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
3


20th
+15
+6
+12
+12
Minstrel's mastery
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4


Weapon and armor proficiencies: You are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, as well as light and medium armor.
Spellcasting: You gain spellcasting much as a Wizard does, as a preparing arcane spellcaster. you have a spellbook, as a wizard. However, You do not suffer arcane spell failure from light or medium armor.
Your spellcasting is governed by your intellegnece score, meaning it determines saving throws, if you can cast spells of that level and bonus spells.
Your spell list is a composite of a variety of things. Your spell list contains all wizard illusion, enchantment and divination spells, and all conjuration (healing) spells learnt as a Cleric. You also learn all Wizard spells a level higher than normal if they are not on this list from other sources.
Scribe Scroll: You gain the feat of the same name as a bonus feat at first level.
Student of the Mind(Ex): At first level, your study of the stories and performances has given you a remarkably good intellectual understanding of many things. You may use intellegence as the ability modifier for Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Perform, and Sense Motive.
The idea of this is to make the Minstrel almost entirely Cha independent. The study of stories and performance can give you a purely intellectual understanding of many social ideas, which reflects sense motive as a skill covered by this feature.
Sound Master (Su): As a magical master of the vocal arts, your mastery of sound is entirely unparalleled. As a free action, you may make yourself unaffected by magical silence, and even manipulate magical silence so that sound dies exactly where you want it to in any silence field. You may even make verbal components of spell while tied up by using this feature.
Bardic Knowledge (Ex): As the Bard class feature.
Minstrel's Musings: At second level, you gain access to a form of bardic music. Replace all instances of bard level with 'number of perform ranking in any one perform skill - 3' and add access to Sublime chord bardic music effects, qualifying for them as a Sublime chord with there 'bard level' minus 10.
Spell Mastery: You gain the feat of the same name as a bonus feat.
Diversified learning (Ex): At third level and every four level thereafter, you add a wizard spell to your spellbook and spell list. You learn it at the same level as a wizard would.
Canny defense: At foruth level, you gain the Duelist class feature.
Still spell: At fifth level, you get the feat of the same name as bonus feat.
Acrobatic Charge (Ex): As Swashbuckler class feature.
Acrobatic Skill mastery (Ex): As swashbuckler class feature.
Minstrel's Mastery: Your mastery of the bardic arts, music and magic alike, have reached an immense high. Bardic music usages are per encounter, not per day, and you gain one High Arcana.
Adaptations: Divine Minstrel: Your mastery of magic is divine, not arcane. Your spell list composes of all Cleric Illusion, Echantment and Divination spells, as well as all Healing spells. You learn all other Cleric spells one level lower than normal. You also gain two domains.
Spontaneous Minstrel: You gain known spells and spells per day as a sorcerer instead of a wizard.

Note sure I got this quite right, the features are somewhat sparse for my liking near the end. This will probably be a low tier 1 to high tier two class.

Blu
2017-03-09, 11:10 PM
Sorry, but could you specify how the spells know work for a Minstrel? Is it like the wizard? Start with a spellbook with 3 lvl 1 spells plus INT mod and 2 spells know for level?

Chassis wise i think is a bit too strong depending on campaign. For a low level campaign a full caster starting with 6d4*10 Gp is a little too much, the bard starting money(4d4*10) sounds a little more apropriate.

For a combination of music caster and arcane caster, medium armor and ignore ASF for up to medium also seems a little strong. The martial weapon proficiency also sounds like should be more like the bard.

Provided he is not up to the same shenanigans other casters like wizards and clerics do. But he has full divination and can have any other spells up to lvl 8 so he is kinda of strong.

How many skill points by level?

But the thing is this class completly outshines bards, has better proficiencys, better hitdie, better casting, has bardic knowledge and even can use what seems to be a more limited form of bardic music. It can completly dump CHA and still be face or skillmonkey, with UMD to boot.

Jirachi
2017-03-10, 08:04 PM
Thank you for the reply.
This class was intended to be a higher tier class than the bard that is comparable or better in all ways.
6 skill points a level.
The intended balance point was above bard but below the seriously cheesy casting classes.
Exactly as the wizard entry says. I thought I could get away with it because of the Archivist but...