3.X: Trading away Bardic Song

[ChudoJogurt]

I dislike barding song a lot. Its not fun, it calls for a lot of marginally-useful-but-boring bonus work for the whole party and its just so narrow in focus that it instantly pidgeonholes what could in my mind be cool versatile class into that guy with mandolin.
Bleh.

And yet there are no ACFs that I've been able to find that allow to trade it away to anything. If anyone knows any homebrews that are accepted as decent or even official material - please share. Some prestige classess stop the song progression, effectively trading it out for other features, but it still usually leaves you with at least five levels of singing.

If not, then what, do you think, would be a fair trade for bardic song, that woukd not break anything?

-Rogue Sneak Attack progresion.
-Less-than-rogue sneak attack progression (+1d6 every 3 levels?)
- Fighter bonus feats (1st and all levels divisible by 3)
- Posion use
- Trapfinding
- Both poison use and trapfinding
- Familiar, as per sor/wiz rules
- Some sort of charisma-to-saves bonus dependent on level, (1 point if Charisma bonus every 3 levels?)
- Some sort of Charisma-to-AC like the Duelists Canny defence
-Something else? All suggestions welcome.

[Thunder999]

Why would you play a bard if not for their performance? Inspire courage is one of the best party buffs around, a scaling bonus to attack and damage for the entire party available pretty much constantly after just a few levels (between the plentiful uses and good duration).

If you don't want the performance just play a beguiler, it's got a similar spell list and just as many skill points.

[Doctor Despair]

Bardic Sage trades out two rounds of music duration for bonus divinations and bonus on barsic knowledge

Eberron Bard ACF lets you trade away bardic songs for bardic music feats

Lyric Spell converts bardic music into spells:



You can expend daily uses of your bardic music to cast any arcane spell that you know and can cast spontaneously. You must still use an action to cast the spell (following the normal rules for casting time), but using the Lyric Spell feat counts as part of the spellcasting action. Casting a spell requires one use of your bardic music ability, plus one additional use per level of the spell. For example, casting a 3rd-level spell requires four daily uses of your bardic music ability.

[Crake]

Bardic music doesn't necessitate using an instrument, or even singing. I've fluffed bards as commanders, commanding their troops and thus giving them bonuses to hit and damage, you can also get feats like lingering song allowing your bardic music to last for 10 rounds after you stop performing. Also keep in mind that inspire courage doesn't require concentration to continue using, so it only requires a standard action to start using, and then no actions beyond that, so you can keep doing other things, and there are feats to get around not being able to cast while performing etc.

[ChudoJogurt]

>Why would you play a bard if not for their performance

Its a good chassis for a jack-of-all trades charismatic character. Beguiler or Factotum are also somewhat similar, but the former cant really gish due to low BAB amd not quite suitable spell list, while the latter lacks spellcasting, and both are Int not Cha oriented. I think bard has potential for a better flavor and suits better to what I have in mind.

>Lyric Spell.
Ooh, thats nice, thank you. Still makes you wait for six levels (or is it nine?) before you can pick it up, though.

> I've fluffed bards as commanders, commanding their troops.
Theres some things that can be done, for sure (though commanding troops is more of a Marshal/White Raven thing, I think),but its still a very generic buff that requires the whole party to track when you're doing the thing and who's in range for a very bland +2 to attack and damage.
Unkess you use Dragonflame Inspiration, but thats an even more narrow and specific thing.

[Particle_Man]

Coming at it from another angle, cloistered cleric gets bardic lore and six skill points per level.

[ChudoJogurt]

But gives away BAB and is Wisdom, rather than Cha oriented.
Besides, even with 6+ skillpoints the skill list still isnt very inspiring, lacking Bluff or sneaky skills

[Doctor Despair]

Iirc there's another one that trades away bardic music for metamagic like DMM

There's actually a ton of feats that eat the charges. One popular one is Doomspeak

[Troacctid]

Take the animal companion variant from Unearthed Arcana. It doesn't trade away all your music, but it trades away all the songs you care about. Frankly, I think it's criminally underrated in general. Animal companions are great. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bard

On non-buffing bards, I also like inspire awe, which trades away inspire courage for the ability to force enemies to make a save vs. your Perform check or be shaken. The DC is so ridiculously high that it's very easy to combo it with other fear effects to escalate them to frightened or panicked, or just use it as a -2 penalty against one of your mind-affecting spells.

[Maat Mons]

I mean, Beguiler and Cloistered Cleric both tie Bard on base attack bonus for the first two levels. They fall 1 point behind at 3rd level, but they don't fall any further behind until level 7. You can easily switch over to a prestige class before then.

Rogue 1 / Sorcerer (or whatever) 4 / PrCs rest has base attack bonus 2 + whatever the PrCs give. Bard 5 / PrCs rest has base attack bonus 3 + whatever the PrCs give. I'm not sure a single point of base attack bonus is worth stressing too much over, even on a gish build.

Anyway, it only costs 18,000 gp to buy a Skillful weapon. Once you do that, you have a medium base attack bonus, even if your classes say you have less.

If you take one level of Rogue and the Able Learner feat, the class skills for your remaining levels are pretty much irrelevant. For practical purposes, you have all Rogue skills as extra class skills for all their classes going forward.

The Sacred Outlaw feat (DR 337) stacks your Cleric and Rogue levels for Sneak Attack Progression. You need Sneak Attack +3d6 to qualify, but don't take 3 levels of Rogue. Instead, take 1 level of Rogue and 3 levels of Shadowbane Stalker. Or 1 level of Rogue and the Martial Stance feat.

It's not actually first-party, but one of the Dragonlance books has a feat that can mostly change your Cleric casting to key off Charisma. You still wind up using Wis for saves, but that only matters if you cast spell with saves. If you're a self-buffing gish, your save DC isn't very important.



For homebrew options, I'd say your +1d6 / 3 levels Sneak Attack progression winds up being somewhat better than Psychic Rogue, but not overpowered.



If you use Pathfinder material, there's an item that just gives you max ranks in a skill. It's slotless, so you can have as many as you can afford, each attuned to a different skill. They cost 8,000 gp apiece, if I recall.

[ShurikVch]

Not a complete removal of Bardic Music, but you can trade off some of its components:
Harbinger (Dragon #337) - debuff-focused variant of Bard: Instill Fear, Encourage Failure, etc
Gnome Bard (Races of Stone) - Phantasmal Song: All enemies within 30’ become Shaken; replaces Suggestion
Half-Elf Bard (Races of Destiny) - Calm Emotions instead Countersong, and Command instead Suggestion
Also:

Inspire Courage
Inspire Awe (Dragon Magic) - for completeness, was already mentioned

Inspire Greatness
Inspire Hatred (Exemplars of Evil)

Inspire Competence
Lightbringer Bard ACF - Inspire Turning (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft)

Countersong
Mimicking Song (Dungeonscape)
Spellbreaker Song (Complete Mage)

Suggestion
Lightbringer Bard ACF - Repel Domination (Expedition to Castle Ravenloft)

Drow Bard (Drow of the Underdark) gets Poison Use, loses Bardic Knowledge and 1 daily use of Bardic Music

Planar Bard (Planar Handbook): replaces Suggestion with Portal Dissonance, and Song of Freedom - with Planar Discordance


Feats which use Bardic Music daily uses:
Blasphemous Utterance (Dragon #336): Creatures within 60 feet become unnerved
Captivating Melody (Complete Mage): +2 DC on the next Enchantment or Illusion spell (in the same round)
Chord of Distraction (Complete Scoundrel): opponent is rendered flat-footed against an ally of your choice
Doomspeak (Champions of Ruin) - for completeness, was already mentioned
Enchanting Song (Races of Stone): +1 CL and DC on a spell of Enchantment school
Haunting Melody (Heroes of Horror/Eberron Campaign Setting): unnerve enemies within 30'
Ice Harmonics (Frostburn): You can use your voice to shatter ice
Lyric Spell (Complete Adventurer) - for completeness, was already mentioned
Metamagic Song (Races of Stone): pay metamagical adjustment with uses of Bardic Music
Misleading Song (Races of Stone): +1 CL and DC on a spell of Illusion school
Sickening Sonata (Dragon #336): Creatures within 60 feet become sickened, nauseated, or paralyzed
Snowflake Wardance (Frostburn)
Sound of Silence (Complete Scoundrel) You can channel the power of your bardic music to deafen your foes
Talfirian Song (Races of Faerûn): "free" Heighten Spell for Illusion - +1 level for every daily use of Bardic Music spent
Warning Shout (Complete Scoundrel): grant one ally within 30' on their next Reflex save +5 morale bonus and Evasion
Windsinger (Stormwrack): You can use song or a wind instrument to compel the winds to obey you.