Unsung Bard (a very simple variant bard) PEACH

[Jon_Dahl]

Bard loses
Bardic music. All class skills related to Perform-skill.

Bard gains
1st-level: Vagabond's Luck (ex)
All chances for random encounters are halved. This special ability only functions if the bard and his companions are taking reasonable precautions to avoid random encounters and try to keep low profile.
Vagabond's Luck is only effective for groups of ten creatures or less.

Spells from Travel domain are added to the bard spell list, thus becoming arcane spells. Because there are no 0-level Travel spells, he is unable to choose any spells from Travel domain at 1st-level.
He doesn't gain any special abilities associated with Travel-domain.

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Most of my players hate bard because of the signing and playing. I'm just trying to fix that. This variant would be called as the Wanderer.

[Dumbledore lives]

So you give up your best feature for a feat, Arcane Disciple, and an ability which is more up to the Gm and game than anything else. This is definitely not worth it, I don't know what to suggest, other than to refluff bardic music as inspirational speeches or something, because it is so important to the concept and playability of a bard.

[Steward]

The Travel Domain idea is clever, but I'm not too sure about the Vagabond's Luck ability. It doesn't seem like it would really do anything in most games. It would really only have a noticeable effect if the random encounters really were random -- that is, if the DM rolls a d4 each session and says, "If you land on this number, there will be a random encounter; if not, then not" (or something like that). I get the feeling though that a lot of DMs (most?) just put in random encounters whenever they want to, and there's no numerical probability that can be manipulated by an in-game mechanic.

[Jon_Dahl]

How about replacing Vagabond's Luck with Urban Tracking?

[Veklim]

How about replacing Vagabond's Luck with Urban Tracking?

Aye, that and maybe Streetwise (Survival for urban environments, I have a separate skill for it in my games). You might also wanna think about maybe giving them a series of luck feats and an ability which allows them to apply these feats to other creatures/players. So you could force an ogre to re-roll his critical threat attack, or allow an ally to re-roll their awful save against that phantasmal killer spell... This way the bard retains a little bit of BFC (after a fashion) and still works on morale-type effects, whilst being useful to the group.

Just a thought.

[Serafina]

What's worse is that Vagabouns Luck doesn't scale at all AND is a first-level ability.

So (assuming it matters in the campaign in the first place), someone in the Group will just take a single level of Bard - or you just hire a low-level Bard to accompany you on your travels (and cower in a corner in a fight).

Additional spells on your class list (not even your spells known, of which the Bard has a limited amount) aren't worth that much as well - nowehere near enough to replacing a passive ability with huge benefits (which Bardic Music essentially is).



Here is what you could actually do if you want a non-singing Bard:
- Just take the Beguiler-class if you want a social, rogue-ish spellcaster.
- Take a look at the Pathfinder Archaeologist Archetype - he grants himself short boosts to attack, saves and skill checks due to being lucky and gains a few rogue-abilities.
- Or at the Dawnflower Dervish Archetype - which uses Performance in the form of Dancing that only applies to himself.

[Veklim]

Adding the domain spells to spells known would be far nicer, yeah. Bardic Music is a massive and rather essential element of the Bard, you need to give it something beefy if you're gonna take that away.

[Waker]

Aside from the suggestions that others have made, you might consider replacing Perform and Bardic Music with:
-Search/Survival and the Ranger's Combat Style.
-Search, Trapfinding and the Pyshic Rogue's Sneak Attack progression.
-Fast Movement and Rage as a Barbarian.
-Metamagic Reducers X/day, increase spells available to the Bard.

You could also consider remaking Vagabond's Luck into a reroll ability or add to an existing roll. Say that as he levels up he gains access to new uses of the power. You could use it to confirm criticals, allow a second chance at saving, deny criticals and so on.

[Veklim]

You could also consider remaking Vagabond's Luck into a reroll ability or add to an existing roll. Say that as he levels up he gains access to new uses of the power. You could use it to confirm criticals, allow a second chance at saving, deny criticals and so on.

This is pretty much what I was suggesting anyhow, and honestly I think it's a great idea, and it would appear that you agree!

Might work on typing up a few ideas for this actually...

[Draz74]

Note: If random encounters exist (and you're not playing with Saph), then they tend to be among the better sources of XP for a party. So ... avoiding them could be seen as a drawback.

[NakedCelt]

Now pick a different name for the class. A bard is by definition a musician; it's what they do. If you don't want musicians, you don't want bards. ("Vagabond" might do.)