Bard

A D&D version of the ever-charming rogue

Bards are rogues who earn their living by providing entertainment through music and verse, songs and poetry, and parlour tricks of illusion and sleight of hand. As showmen, bards are welcome wherever there are people to be entertained.

Nearly all bards know a smattering of local songs and tales, but the best bards travel widely, adding as much of the lore and verse of various locales to their repertoire as they can. This practice insures that the bard's offerings grow and diversify, thereby increasing the bard's value as an a showman. Through extensive travel, the bard keeps his audiences entertained with new material and, at the same time, guarantees that his pockets will be richly lined for the effort.

To travel safely, bards often join—for a temporary basis, at least—adventuring parties, and many bards earn their keep among such bands by composing ballads or writing songs about the party's questing exploits. During his quests, the bard often improves his own talents, and there are many bards who take up the life of an adventurer, plying their trade for cash or a night's lodging as they traverse the countryside.

Guilds of bards are known as Colleges, and these institutions exist in only the largest of the campaign's cities. Bardic Colleges serve as an environment for improving one's artistic skills (the Reader might consider a Bardic College akin to a liberal arts university). Beyond the aesthetic disciplines, Bardic Colleges teach students the history of the world, for such histories form the backdrop of a bard's tales, ballads, and verse. As a result, bards tend to be well-educated individuals, and bards of great prominence are sought after as much for their historical knowledge as for their skill at entertaining.

Because they entertain folk of all stations, bards are frequently at home among both the upper and lower classes; competent bards are capable of performing in a prince's court or a common tavern with equal ease. This facet of the bard's vocation makes them somewhat immune to the typical prejudices borne by members of any class, and bards tend to be welcomed without judgement in all circles.

As might be expected, this sometimes places the bard in intriguing circumstances—is not hard to imagine a band of thieves pressing a bard for information about the layout of the merchant house where he performed the night before. Consequently, most bards have one foot mired within the seedy elements of society while the other foot steps lightly upon the marbled floors of the nobility.

Class Details

Primary Attribute: Charisma.
Experience Bonus: 5% for Charisma 13-15, 10% for Charisma 16-18.
Hit Dice: 1d4 per level up to 9th level. Starting with 10th level, +2 hit points per level, and Constitution adjustments no longer apply.
Maximum Level: 36.
Armour: Leather armor only; shield not permitted.
Weapons: Any missile weapon; any one-handed melee weapon; Weapon Mastery as normal PC (RC/75).
Combat: Attacks as thief of equal level.
Special Abilities: At 1st-level – General Skills of Etiquette*, Knowledge (campaign lore)*, Music (1 instrument), Storytelling, Language (Common and two others), and the thievery skills of Climb Walls, Hear Noise, Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, and Backstab as Thief of equal level (RC/22-3); at 3rd-level – Read any normal language 90%; at 4rd-level – Charm Person as 1st-level Magical spell (RC/44) (level/4 times per day); at 10th-level – Read any clerical spell scroll (20% backfire).

Special Abilities

At 1st-level, bards receive training (from their College) in the General Skills of Etiquette*, Knowledge (campaign lore)*, Music (one instrument), Storytelling, and Language (2 languages in addition to Common). If the general skills rules (RC/81) are not used, assume that these skills are automatic abilities; if general skills are used in the campaign, the skills above do not count against the bard's normal skill slot allotment.

To help them along in what is likely to be a life of at least middling adventure, Bardic Colleges also teach the thievery skills of Climb Walls, Hear Noise, Hide in Shadows, and Move Silently; all skills are practised as a thief equal to the bard's level (q.v., RC/22). As an augmentation to their meagre combat skills (taught to ensure the bard's survivability in the wide world), bards are trained to backstab (RC/23) as a thief of equal level. At 3rd-level, bards, as a result of their extensive written and verbal training, may read any normal language with 90% accuracy; this ability is similar to that of a thief (RC/23).

At 4th-level, the bard gains the valuable talent of evoking emotional responses through his musical artistry. This requires a full bardic performance (playing and singing) of a song with the appropriate emotive quality (e.g., a ballad to evoke feelings of kindness and love, a dirge to evoke sadness and despair, or a stirring march to evoke bravery and aggression). The song's result is similar in effect to the 1st-level Magic-User spell Charm Person (RC/44) and must be performed for an entire round before manifestation of emotion. The song's effects are non-magical, lasting for as long as the song continues uninterrupted. The song affects one living creature per level of the bard, though each target is allowed a saving throw vs. Spells to avoid being controlled by the emotion evoked. The bard may use this ability a number of times equal to his current level divided by four (round down) each day.

At 10th-level, the bard, by now thoroughly conversant with the legends and lore of the campaign, may read clerical spell scrolls. There is a 20% chance that any such reading will backfire with unexpected results (alternately, our spell-casting and spell failure rules may be used). This ability does not permit the bard to scribe clerical scrolls of his own.

Higher Experience Levels

At name level (9th-level), the bard is known as a Master Bard and may take one of three paths:

Land-owning Bards
A master bard may construct a Bardic College of his own, attracting 2d6 1st-level bards in the process. These worthies will come to the school to learn the bardic arts, paying a base annual tuition of 100gp per level of the master bard, nominally earning 1d2 levels per year, and departing the school around 6th- to 8th-level of experience. Being the sole instructor, the master bard must spend at least half the year at the college (allowing one term of formal instruction and one term of "field" instruction (during which time the bards embark on adventures) per year). The college may be built anywhere the bard has permission to build, and while the cost of such construction is typically high, many bards establish schools by cashing in on favours dealt to various wealthy nobles earlier in their careers. Students at the Bardic College are generally loyal to the master bard, and for each level the master bard attains, an additional 2-7 (1d6+1) 1st-level students enroll. This option is recommended for high-level campaigns wherein the characters carve out and rule their own dominions.

Bonded Bards
Some master bards are talented enough to garner permanent employment within a noble or royal court. As a court attendant, the bard lives a life of intrigue, and is often the target of those who seek information (for good or ill) about internal goings-on. In turn, the bard's employer may use the bard as a spy of sorts to gather information from court visitors or from other courts. In some cases, bonded bards are assigned to officially commissioned adventuring parties to document their exploits and lend their knowledge of lore to certain quests of import to the bard's employer. This option is recommended for high-level campaigns where political intrigue figures prominently.

Travelling Bards
Those master bards who do not construct their own Bardic Colleges or gain bonded employment are called travelling bards, and they make their living by traversing the campaign world. Such travel is the meat and drink of such bards, who gather all manner of legends, tales, and songs as they move about. Most travelling bards join adventuring bands for security, though some are independents who travel from settlement to settlement. Such bards gain reputations as worldy adventurers witness to far-off sights and sounds otherwise unknown. This option is recommended for high-level campaigns where adventure and treasure-seeking still play a regular role.

Experience Table