Plane of Song?

[Ascension]

...or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bard.

Noticing this for the first time in its 22 day lifetime, it made me think of something almost completely different...

The per-day limitations could be explained away as a game balance mechanism that would have no bearing on the fluff, but simply singing well can't be what gives bardic music that extra kick. Anybody can have perform ranks out the wazoo, but it takes a bard to do the fancy stuff with music. Perform ranks don't explain bardic magic, either. You could blame the whole thing on bloodlines or sheer charisma, but that's the sorcerer's shtick.

My theory? Bards are chosen at birth as the avatars of the semi-sentient Plane of Song in a manner similar to the favored soul's choosing. A few times per day when they sing a gate to the Plane of Song opens in their throat, and bardic music happens. Bardic magic also calls upon the power of the Plane of Song. Bards have their own spell lists and can cast in some-but-not-all armor because the Plane of Song's magic is neither arcane nor divine, but something else entirely.

This is still a thought-in-development, but what do you think so far?

[Icewalker]

And non-singing Bards can open the portal through their instrument? Sounds pretty awesome. I haven't read the Embodiment of Song entry through, so I don't fully get the context.

[ThrustVectoring]

portals to the Plane of Song would imply that you could shut off bardic abilities by shutting off connections to other planes. Which you can't, according to RAW.

I think it is far more likely that bardic music's special abilities are simply a way to structure an instinctual ability to bend reality to one's will. Without the song, there is no structure to the attempt to reshape reality, and thus no net effect.

[Ascension]

portals to the Plane of Song would imply that you could shut off bardic abilities by shutting off connections to other planes. Which you can't, according to RAW.

Work with me here. This is a reflavoring, mechanics could be tweaked to fit.

As I said, the Embodiment of Song thing is almost completely unrelated, I just thought I should properly cite the original inspiration.

And yes, non-singing bards would use their instruments to open the portal.

For orator-bards... I got nothin'. I haven't ever seen one played, though, so... *shrug*

[Fishy]

portals to the Plane of Song would imply that you could shut off bardic abilities by shutting off connections to other planes. Which you can't, according to RAW.

Well, you also can't do the same trick and shut off a Wizard's Evocation spells or a Cleric's Turn Undead, which draw energy from the Elemental and Positive Energy Planes.

but simply singing well can't be what gives bardic music that extra kick. Anybody can have perform ranks out the wazoo, but it takes a bard to do the fancy stuff with music.

I think that's just the difference between being talented and being inspirational. Someone with high ranks in Perform plays complex music with great technical accuracy, Bards play the music that demands you drop everything and listen to it. It's too loud and there are wrong notes everywhere, but you don't care because the raw emotion behind it connects directly with your soul and makes you feel invincible.

Aaaaanyway. Elemental Plane of Song. I think that's as awesome a name as you're going to get, though Perform(Oratory), Perform(Dance) and Perform(Weapons Drill) would like to have a word with you. I'd make it something like the Psionic interpretation of the Astral plane. They have a plane filled with thoughts, ideas, and memories; Bards have a plane filled with emotion, passion, legends, and stories.

The difference between the Plane of Song and the classical planes is that Elements are a thing, and Song is a signal. Everything in the Elemental plane of Water is made out of water; whereas The Song is made up of everything in the Elemental Plane of Song. Which makes it more dangerous to visit than the Negative Energy Plane: as soon as you plane shift in, the plane grabs you and uses your body as an instrument.

Bards are able to tap into this energy, in a more-or-less, mostly controlled way. It's less like a 'gate' and more like a resonance- though if that's how they need to explain it to wizards, then sure. When a Bard starts performing, he recites lines from part of the Song, or plays part of the Song's melody, and for just a moment, he synchronizes himself with the Plane. In effect, he becomes something like a loudspeaker that bridges the planes, and broadcasts part of the Song into the world around him, saturating the area with the power of human emotion. (Or Elven, or Orc as appropriate).

It's arcane magic, tapping into an elemental (ish) energy reserve, rather than requesting power from a deity. Gods of Music and Performance don't grant spells, for exactly the same reason that a director doesn't come on stage during a performance, and push around the actor playing the villain.

Bards don't have an afterlife. When the final curtain comes for them, then they're either immediately forgotten, or their names and stories will become part of the Song, to be echoed across the Plane for all eternity. It's the best they can hope for, and it's all that they need.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The power of the Elemental Plane of song, when properly channeled, can even banish demons (Or space-demons if you're JAM Project), much as how the raw power of the Upper Planes can be channeled by people like the Knights of the Chalice.

[Fishy]

And then he asked us, "Be you angels?" and we said "Nay! We are but men! Rock!"

[The Rose Dragon]

I never realized that word there was "rock".

Of course, later, you lose all ability and have to use a loophole and the Power of Friendship to banish the less shiny demon.

What about dancing bards? All my bards are dancing bards.

[Ravens_cry]

I never realized that word there was "rock".

Of course, later, you lose all ability and have to use a loophole and the Power of Friendship to banish the less shiny demon.

What about dancing bards? All my bards are dancing bards.

Dance is based on rhythm, movement. You become one with the song, you are the song.Many traditions of musical 'magic' and ritual are based on dance.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Also, you can't technically use Perform (Dance) or any other non-sonic medium with Bardic Music.

And I'm pretty sure that was the same event as in "Tribute". They were just really stoned and didn't remember it at all.

[Heliomance]

I'm playing an orator bard at the moment. Mainly due to the fact that my DM decided it could give a synergy to Diplomacy. He's something of a diplomancer.

[Fishy]

Because Diplomacy doesn't have enough skill synergies.

[Heliomance]

Hehe. To be fair, we're not using the flat DC version of diplomacy. It's more run as how favourably they look upon what you're asking them to do - less "you really like me now" and more "you can't think of a good reason not to do as I ask"

[Blackfang108]

Because Diplomacy doesn't have enough skill synergies.

No. No it doesn't.

[KevLar]

I think that's just the difference between being talented and being inspirational. Someone with high ranks in Perform plays complex music with great technical accuracy, Bards play the music that demands you drop everything and listen to it. It's too loud and there are wrong notes everywhere, but you don't care because the raw emotion behind it connects directly with your soul and makes you feel invincible.

Aaaaanyway. Elemental Plane of Song. I think that's as awesome a name as you're going to get, though Perform(Oratory), Perform(Dance) and Perform(Weapons Drill) would like to have a word with you. I'd make it something like the Psionic interpretation of the Astral plane. They have a plane filled with thoughts, ideas, and memories; Bards have a plane filled with emotion, passion, legends, and stories.

The difference between the Plane of Song and the classical planes is that Elements are a thing, and Song is a signal. Everything in the Elemental plane of Water is made out of water; whereas The Song is made up of everything in the Elemental Plane of Song. Which makes it more dangerous to visit than the Negative Energy Plane: as soon as you plane shift in, the plane grabs you and uses your body as an instrument.

Bards are able to tap into this energy, in a more-or-less, mostly controlled way. It's less like a 'gate' and more like a resonance- though if that's how they need to explain it to wizards, then sure. When a Bard starts performing, he recites lines from part of the Song, or plays part of the Song's melody, and for just a moment, he synchronizes himself with the Plane. In effect, he becomes something like a loudspeaker that bridges the planes, and broadcasts part of the Song into the world around him, saturating the area with the power of human emotion. (Or Elven, or Orc as appropriate).

It's arcane magic, tapping into an elemental (ish) energy reserve, rather than requesting power from a deity. Gods of Music and Performance don't grant spells, for exactly the same reason that a director doesn't come on stage during a performance, and push around the actor playing the villain.

Bards don't have an afterlife. When the final curtain comes for them, then they're either immediately forgotten, or their names and stories will become part of the Song, to be echoed across the Plane for all eternity. It's the best they can hope for, and it's all that they need.

Awesome. I never quote walls of text, but that was freaking awesome.
Thank you.

If you really want to include Oratory and Act and even Weapon Drill, shift the focus from song to tale. Bards are not lute-players, they are storytellers. The Plane of Tales, then. It's still "a plane filled with emotion, passion, legends, and stories", and it's essentially the tale of all tales, the place where dreams go in the morning, the never-ending story in the flesh. Truth and lie and exaggeration are equal, as long as Memory keeps them all alive.

Nothing is ever forgotten here, except the bard's name - unless he's a part of another tale. "No one will ever know our names, but the bard's song will remain" kind of thing.

But if Memory fails, if people back on the material plane ever stop telling stories, the Plane of Tales will die, and all emotion will die with it. What an Epic Adventure if something like that comes to pass... and what a tale it would make.

[Ascension]

Awesome. I never quote walls of text, but that was freaking awesome.
Thank you.

I don't quote walls of text either, so I'll quote KevLar breaking her general policy rather than breaking mine.

As she said: AWESOME.

[Fishy]

Somewhere I started using Song in a metaphorical sense, and didn't make it clear. You could go one further from Tales, and make it the Elemental Plane of Art, the place where all creativity comes from and goes to. Song is just a cooler word, though.

EDIT: Incidentally, drop what you're doing and go read Songs of Earth And Power by Greg Bear, in which the world is almost destroyed by Mahler's 10th Symphony.