So, as the title says, I want to rework and reskin the Kolold only bard archetype, The Dragon Herald, into a herald of Asmodeus.
So here's the context; I'm GMing a group through Fire Mountain Game's very enjoyable Way of the Wicked, and we just finished book one (Don't worry, no spoilers ahead). I used the break between books one and two to allow characters to change characters, and reskinned it as members of different knots being reassigned and shuffled as they move on to new phases or are destroyed. It lets people change their characters as they learn more about what an evil campaign has to offer. A martial character was unhappy with the lack of face skills and out of combat abilities his class offered, which are very important in WotW, and decided to move to a bard build. He asked about reworking the dragon herald and I dug into it.
First off, I re-skinned everything to be a herald of Asmodeus. I removed the kobold only restriction, made them select Asmodeus as their patron, swapped the free language from draconic to infernal, and set the resistance to fire.
Next (and here's the part I am looking for feedback on) I wanted to re-work the archetype since I already had it under the knife. The dragon herald trades out Countersong and Fascinate for Diplomatic Immunity, but keeps Suggestion. Suggestion seems to require Fascinate to work, so I instead swapped the trade to Countersong and Distraction. This makes a bit more thematic sense anyway, as they are both similar effects, just targeting visual or auditory effects. This also lets them have suggestion without it being a dead class feature. Does this sound reasonable, or do you foresee problems with this?
Finally, I am very suspect of the Rebuke Foes performance. When you get it at level 12, that's 24 fire damage to 4 targets a round (Ref for half), up to 26+cha rounds per day, and it only takes a move action to start, and a free action to maintain. Worse, It goes to a swift action at level 13. At level 13 its basicly That is basicly a 7d6 selective quickened widened fireball. At lvl 20 it's effectively 11d6 worth of selective intensified quickened widened fireball usable 44 times per day. Add in the standard ways to get more out of your performances, and this just strikes me an eminently abusable ability.
I talked to the player and he said he would not mind if that needed to be rebalanced. He wanted a more diplomatic face/skill-monkey, and the blastings is not something he would miss. So I am looking for a potential replacement. Either something along the same lines but better balanced, or a new ability. Any suggestions would be appreciated, or arguments backing up Rebuke Foes power level. Bonus points for anyone who has ever played or Gmed for a Dragon Herald and can share their findings. Thanks in advance.