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So right off the bat, a lot of you are thinking "What?! The bard is great! You don't unchain a class that already does its job! Psh, this guy must not know what he's talking about."
I understand your concern. The bard is a very balanced and great class. It performs (pun intended..?) well at buffing folks, and knowing things and it's got a pretty versatile spell list.
The reason I've spent the time to put together my own take on unchaining the bard is its complete lack of customization, the necessity to rely on archetypes for interesting flavor, and the massively low number of class features for a 6th level caster (I mean, come on! Look at the magus and the inquisitor).
Paizo has made it a habit to give their classes abilities that allow players to customize their characters to their liking (magus arcana, rogue talents, bloodlines etc.), but when you look at the bard, he has none of this. Sure, masterpieces add some customization, but those are costly and outside of the bard's actual class features. I've added the ability to gain masterpieces through normal progression as well as made bardic performances something you pick to learn as you level up. All this and I've also written an ability called Muse; granting the bard a unique flavor as well as some bonus abilities (many of which have been pulled directly from archetypes since the bard has the most number and a lot of them are great).
As always, this is a first draft and I really hope for some good feedback. Like I always say, you guys have been nothing but helpful on the various homebrew classes I've posted recently (aegis, warlock, artificer, and monster hunter) and I thank you for that!
May the constructive criticism commence!
So right off the bat, a lot of you are thinking "What?! The bard is great! You don't unchain a class that already does its job! Psh, this guy must not know what he's talking about."
I understand your concern. The bard is a very balanced and great class. It performs (pun intended..?) well at buffing folks, and knowing things and it's got a pretty versatile spell list.
The reason I've spent the time to put together my own take on unchaining the bard is its complete lack of customization, the necessity to rely on archetypes for interesting flavor, and the massively low number of class features for a 6th level caster (I mean, come on! Look at the magus and the inquisitor).Paizo has made it a habit to give their classes abilities that allow players to customize their characters to their liking (magus arcana, rogue talents, bloodlines etc.), but when you look at the bard, he has none of this. Sure, masterpieces add some customization, but those are costly and outside of the bard's actual class features. I've added the ability to gain masterpieces through normal progression as well as made bardic performances something you pick to learn as you level up. All this and I've also written an ability called Muse; granting the bard a unique flavor as well as some bonus abilities (many of which have been pulled directly from archetypes since the bard has the most number and a lot of them are great).
As always, this is a first draft and I really hope for some good feedback. Like I always say, you guys have been nothing but helpful on the various homebrew classes I've posted recently (aegis, warlock, artificer, and monster hunter) and I thank you for that!
May the constructive criticism commence!
Well, I think all the core classes are 'chained'. So, as far as I'm concerned, unchain away!! My problem is, I am limited to what I can use with HeroLab. Well, that and my group is allergic to large rewrites of classes. I am just glad we all agree the unchained classes we have are usable.
No critique, but carry on!
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I liked the inspire/ heckle idea, plus muses was a fun addition.
However some things I think should remain in certain classes unless it's a specific archetype that trades away some major things for it.
Spell kenning and fighter feat qualifications, as some examples, shouldn't come standard. I think taking the abilities that copy things only certain classes should do should be stripped out.
I loved the layout.
Well, the advanced versatile performance you mentioned that allows all the fighter stuff is actually from a Pathfinder Player Companion (Blood of the Beast?) and so is available to standard bards. I included it because it's a really neat ability and is already Pathfinder content.
The spell kenning ability is from the skald. The first time I read it when I got my copy of the ACG I immediately thought it should have been a bard ability. There are a handful of spells that I really feel like should be on the bard spell list (like fly/overland flight) and instead of just rewriting their spell list (which I entertained and realized, once again, that writing spell lists is my least favorite thing to do), I would give them the spell kenning ability.
It has awesome bard-ish sort of flavor and is part of a class based on the bard in the first place.
Thank you so much for the compliments and critiques!
Also, if you're wondering I use http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/ to make the PDF's. As a GM, I use it for loads of materials and it's super handy. It's technically for making 5e content, but I jerry-rigged it to make PFRPG-looking stuff. ;)
Also, if you're wondering I use http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/ to make the PDF's. As a GM, I use it for loads of materials and it's super handy. It's technically for making 5e content, but I jerry-rigged it to make PFRPG-looking stuff. ;)I thought that looked like the PH. Nice work. It's too bad there isn't a Pathfinder style equivalent.