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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Nov 2007
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    Boston, MA

    Default The Grand Conductor (3.5 Bardic PrC, PEACH)

    Greetings, Playgrounders. I have returned with some more homebrew, and it needs a bit of elbow grease to get it ready to use. I'm hoping it will eventually be able to pass the DM's inspection so my Captain Tombeau can prestige into it in a level or two.

    The general premise of The Grand Conductor is this: sailors love music, and what better way to motivate them to put their backs into it than to conduct them like an orchestra? It's meant to be a prestige class built off the bard class that diverges around level 7 to focus on boosting a large number of weak allies a small amount rather than boosting a small adventuring party by a lot. They can also boost the capabilities of the ship or hinder an enemy ship and its crew by belting out their songs.


    Requirements

    Alignment: Any nonlawful.
    Skills: Perform (any musical) 9 ranks,
    Special: Bardic Music. I'm thinking there should be a feat requirement, but I'm not sold on any feats I've come across yet. Suggestions welcome.


    Game Statistics
    Conductors have the following game statistics.

    Hit Die: d6.
    Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Swim (Str). I can't decide if I should add more skills or not.
    Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier. If I do add more skills, I may increase this to 6 + Int Mod.


    Class Features
    All of the following are class features of the Conductor.

    Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Conductors gain no additional proficiencies with weapons or armor.


    {table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|Special

    1st|
    +0
    |
    +0
    |
    +2
    |
    +2
    |Presence of the Conductor, Overture

    2nd|
    +1
    |
    +0
    |
    +3
    |
    +3
    |Accent

    3rd|
    +2
    |
    +1
    |
    +3
    |
    +3
    |Dilettante

    4th|
    +3
    |
    +1
    |
    +4
    |
    +4
    |Scordatura

    5th|
    +3
    |
    +1
    |
    +4
    |
    +4
    |Medley

    6th|
    +4
    |
    +2
    |
    +5
    |
    +5
    |Formata

    7th|
    +5
    |
    +2
    |
    +5
    |
    +5
    |Accelerando

    8th|
    +6
    |
    +2
    |
    +6
    |
    +6
    |Ritenuto

    9th|
    +6
    |
    +3
    |
    +6
    |
    +6
    |Virtuoso

    10th|
    +7
    |
    +3
    |
    +7
    |
    +7
    |Grand Finale [/table]


    PRIMARY NOTE: ALL of the Conductor's powers, with the exception of Presence of the Conductor, require you to spend a daily use of Bardic Music to activate it.

    Presence of the Conductor: Levels of this prestige class stack with levels in the Bard class to determine how many uses of Bardic Music you get per day as well as which Bardic Inspirations* you have access to (For example, a Bard 6/Conductor 3 would have Inspire Courage grant a +2 morale bonus and be able to use Inspire Greatness).

    In addition, I'm thinking this should apply a bonus to certain sailing-specific skills (especially Professtion[Sailor] ), with the possible limitation of working only on a ship the Conductor is attuned to.

    *A 'Bardic Music Inspiration' is any Bardic Music ability with 'Inspire' in its name.

    Overture: - As a standard action, you may activate any Bardic Music Inspiration you have, and the effect lasts for as long as you continue to sing, ignoring any normal length limit (for example, Inspire Competence can last longer than 2 minutes). Overture must be active before any other conducting musics can be activated and persists while they are active. None of the following music powers can be used while others are also active.

    Accent: - boosts everyone's damage, but only for one round (Generally used to make a devastating first strike, grant a sudden turning of the tides, or make a finishing blow)

    Dilettante: This power would be used to grant the Conductor a reasonable self-buff for 1 round / 2 Conductor levels.

    Scordatura: - "out of tune" - Effect similar to the Entropic Shield spell. 10% miss chance to all projectiles fired from outside of the ship (AoE's like dragon breath are not effected), and adds 5 to the DC to Spot the ship.

    Formata: - target ship continues to move using the last command given by its Captain or Master. Medium range, Duration 1 round per 2 Conductor levels, requires concentration (1 Standard Action spent per round to maintain the effect), effects the entire target ship or ship-like vessel.

    Medley: - Overture now activates up to 2 Bardic Inspirations in addition to its normal effects, but still only takes one Standard Action to activate.

    Ritenuto: - "suddenly slower" - Slow, as the spell cast by a bard. Medium range, Duration 1 round per 2 Conductor levels, effects the entire other vessel and its crew. Reduce ship speed by 1 wind category.

    Accelerando: - Mass Haste, effects your whole ship and all crew, duration 1 round per 2 Conductor levels, and (if you so choose) increases the speed of ship by one wind factor. This may make checks to control the ship more difficult (Check Stormwrack for details).

    ((Perhaps I should have Ritenudo and Accelerando only effect the ship or the sailors in one use, and not both.))

    Virtuoso: - This power would be an improved version of Dilettante, granting a large self-buff to the Conductor, probably having a duration of 1 round / 2 Conductor levels.

    Grand Finale: - Think of the rooftop scene from V For Vendetta. Once per day, make a Perform Check. Enemy ship is now damaged based on a chart that still needs to be drawn up, regardless of other factors like hit points. Overture (and all other bardic music powers) automatically ends. Effects vary from partial destruction of hull sections to totally disabled and sinking. Theoretically, blowing the entire powder magazine is possible at DM discretion.

    {table=head]Perform Check DC|Effect

    25|
    Holed

    30|
    Disabled

    35|
    Sinking

    40|
    Destroyed
    [/table]


    Holed means the ship has a hole in it, so it should immediatley lose the movement-advantage in a fight (check out the rules in Stormwrack if you've got it). Disabled means the rigging's busted, so the ship can't advance without oars or extreme use of magic. Sinking is pretty straightforward, as is Destroyed.

    I'm considering having this power only be useable once per week--otherwise, the players would try to blow up a ship every day and probably drive the DM nuts. Then again, at sea, a week isn't that long, so I'm not sure how to discourage abuse.





    I know that this class seems a bit unfinished to be posting here, but I'm planning on editing it a lot over the next few days as suggestions roll in. I welcome any and all critiques, and if anyone has any ideas of where I should look for powers used by official classes that may be similar to anything I have here, that would be useful as well.

    Thanks in advance, everyone, and happy commenting!
    Last edited by Hootman; 2010-11-22 at 11:26 PM.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Silverscale's Avatar

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    Default Re: The Grand Conductor (3.5 Bardic PrC, PEACH)

    So Grand Finale triggers some form of AOE that does an amount of damage depending on a perform check and possibly also scaling by Caracter Level?
    Last edited by Silverscale; 2010-11-19 at 08:44 AM.
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  3. - Top - End - #3
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: The Grand Conductor (3.5 Bardic PrC, PEACH)

    Quote Originally Posted by Silverscale View Post
    So Grand Finale triggers some form of AOE that does an amount of damage depending on a perform check and possibly also scaling by Caracter Level?
    That's the idea, except instead of dealing damage in hit points, it would go straight to special effects in ascending order of awesome-ness. My roommate had a pretty decent chart of what might work, so I'll throw that up real quick. I'll edit it once I can get in touch with him--I feel like I'm missing something...
    Last edited by Hootman; 2010-11-22 at 11:28 PM.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Zeofar's Avatar

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    Default Re: The Grand Conductor (3.5 Bardic PrC, PEACH)

    It seems that you want damage to be automatic for Grand Finale, but perhaps having the semi-random chance of different options could curb abuse, since you're never sure what is going to happen and some of them may put you at risk. For instance, you could summon a tidal wave, a lightning strike, a maelstrom, a kraken, direct damage "tentacle from the deep/mystical summoned monster jumping out of the water" that just smashes into the other boat, have the target crew pass out/become undead/join your side if they fail a save, a flying Dutchman type spectral ship pops out of the water to attack the enemy, or stormfire spreads over the enemy ship. All of these have different possible outcomes that aren't always "I win this battle" and don't necessarily line up with your intentions, meaning that you can't just use it willy-nilly unless you are reasonably prepared.

    As a side note, this class should have Profession(Sailor) as a prerequisite considering how strongly it is tied to ships.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Titan in the Playground
     
    Lix Lorn's Avatar

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    Default Re: The Grand Conductor (3.5 Bardic PrC, PEACH)

    I quite like it. I'm imagining a pirate ship led by a grinning man in a goatee singing Voltaire songs.
    It is good.
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  6. - Top - End - #6
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    Noremak's Avatar

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    Default Re: The Grand Conductor (3.5 Bardic PrC, PEACH)

    The addition of random elements sounds like a good idea, but based on the flavor you seem to be going for I'm not sure the Dutchman showing up is what you want. Green fire and such would be cool though...

    Also I agree Prof(Sailor) should be added into the class as a requirement. Also, to stick with bard, the use of certain powers should require X many ranks in perform in order to use the power.

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