How to make an Aura of Protection for Bards

[Gwin Thornspear]

I have been developing a set of classes for playing D&D in a low or even no magic setting. Since there would be no paladin class I was considering giving aura of protection to my equivalent of a spell-less bard.

I immediately ran into the issue that if you wanted to have a creature benefit from the aura, you would have to be on the front lines of combat (but without the heavy armor of a paladin). So I then considered extending the range of the aura to 30 feet (60 feet at 18th). This of course would mean I would need to lessen the auras effects, but by how much exactly?

In everybody's experience how powerful is an aura of protection at 30 feet. I was thinking of doing something like you and your allies gain a bonus to saves equal to half your proficiency bonus (not sure if it should round up or down).

Any insight on this would be appreciated.

[Amnestic]

If Bardic Inspiration is still a targeted feature (and not an on/off aura like it was in 3.5) then you could have the aura originate from any creature that has a BI dice and/or recently expended one.

Something like...

Inspire Greatness
From xth level when you grant a Bardic Inspiration die to a creature, the power of your inspiration radiates off them. They, and any other friendly creatures within 10 feet, gain a bonus to all saving throws equal to your Charisma Modifier. This lasts for 1d4+1 rounds after being initially given, and for an additional 1d4+1 rounds when the dice is expended. These two durations can stack together.

Inspire Greatness does not stack with Aura of Protection.

This allows the Bard to stay off the front line still, and ties it into an existing feature.

[Gwin Thornspear]

If Bardic Inspiration is still a targeted feature (and not an on/off aura like it was in 3.5) then you could have the aura originate from any creature that has a BI dice and/or recently expended one.

Something like...



This allows the Bard to stay off the front line still, and ties it into an existing feature.

Yes, bardic inspiration still functions virtually the same, as it does in regular 5e.

I like the idea of using inspiration for the aura, but am a little concerned that the number of rounds the aura lasts could get confusing, if you gave it to multiple people.

Still its something to think about, thanks for the suggestion.

[Amnestic]

Yes, bardic inspiration still functions virtually the same, as it does in regular 5e.

I like the idea of using inspiration for the aura, but am a little concerned that the number of rounds the aura lasts could get confusing, if you gave it to multiple people.

Still its something to think about, thanks for the suggestion.

I chose 1d4+1 rounds to make it short but-not-gone-immediately, but you could bump it up to a minute for simplicity's sake, that basically makes it last for "one combat" (you could just outright say it lasts until the end of combat too, tbh). If you did so I'd probably only have the aura only take effect when it was first given OR expended, rather than both.

[Silly Name]

I mean, the easiest conversion I can think of is making this Aura a sort of Bless effect, like the Emboldening Bond feature from the Peace Domain. So, limited number of uses per day (perhaps scaling off Bardic Inspiration?) is the way to go, imho.

A 30 feet wide Aura of Protection is powerful mostly because it makes positioning way less of a worry - your allies don't have to huddle around you if they want to get the boost to their saves, which can also help with lessening the impact of AoEs against the party.

[stoutstien]

Off the top of my head:

-You could make the aura take some form of action or inaction (don't move) to activate and/or to keep running

- you could limit the number of times in total it can be used per round.

- make it a smaller range but stays active until start if next turn if you move past them as well.

-pick only one save type per round at first with the ability to cover more and more as you advance.

-make it part of bardic inspiration.

[Gwin Thornspear]

I chose 1d4+1 rounds to make it short but-not-gone-immediately, but you could bump it up to a minute for simplicity's sake, that basically makes it last for "one combat" (you could just outright say it lasts until the end of combat too, tbh). If you did so I'd probably only have the aura only take effect when it was first given OR expended, rather than both.

Yeah I definitely would want it to last for a minute for ease of play. This is where I am at right know with the feature.

Words of Confidence
Starting at 7th level, when you grant a Bardic Inspiration die to a creature you may choose to grant Words of Confidence to them as well. If you do so they, and any other friendly creatures within 10 feet, gain a bonus to all saving throws equal to your Charisma Modifier. This effect lasts for 1 minute, or until the original target is knocked unconscious. You may not target another creature with Words of Confidence, while a target is already benefiting from it.

This feature may not be combined with a Paladins aura of protection, instead a creature chooses which feature to benefit from when entering its range.

At 18th level, the range of Words of Confidence increases to 30 feet.

Its more versatile than Aura of Protection, but I think thats balanced out by the fact that you are probably not going to often benefit from it yourself, and if you run out of bardic inspiration you can't use it.

[Amnestic]

Looks good to me! Though there doesn't seem to be a reason not to give them a Word of Confidence (unless it's mutually exclusive with some other feature's use as an either/or thing?), so the wording on "choose to give them a word of confidence" could be clarified.

[Gwin Thornspear]

Looks good to me! Though there doesn't seem to be a reason not to give them a Word of Confidence (unless it's mutually exclusive with some other feature's use as an either/or thing?), so the wording on "choose to give them a word of confidence" could be clarified.

I just didn't want the first creature to receive bardic inspiration to also have to get your words of confidence.

For instance, maybe I want to give inspiration to the Rogue, who is within 60 feet, but I want to save my words of confidence till I can reach the Fighter whose currently out of range of my inspiration. Because you can only put words of confidence on one creature at a time, I thought it would be useful to have the option (although you are correct that in most situations it wont come up).