Perform & Linguistics

[Laithoron]

Well my copy of the Beta rules finally arrived in the mail yesterday. :) So instead of just referencing things in the PDF, I decided to go AFK and spend some quality time reading on the sofa. (Curse You WotC for trying to shackle us to our monitors!)

Anyway, I was reading over my favorite classes and noticed that the Bardic Music abilities all specify which types of Perform skills they can be used with. I thought that was interesting, but it has me concerned that my bards are going to have a rather high "skill tax" associated with them.

Spoiler:

Now I realize that we're officially discussing only the first couple chapters, but I wanted to at least get this written down before I forget.

I was thinking that perhaps a better way of handling this might be to give the Perform skill the same treatment as the Linguistics skill. i.e. For each skill point placed in Perform, the character becomes skilled in another performance type.

This way, a low-level bard will still closely mirror a Real Life™ performer — they are good at only one or two types of performance and have to pick and choose what they are good at. However, by the time they have far surpassed what their non-adventuring counterparts (and more interesting treasures start to appear), the restrictions would start to fade away. In essence, their understanding of how to inspire and awe is so complete that they can do so regardless of the [performing] art form. This would parallel the way that a polyglot's understanding of communication breaks down the differences between languages.

Thoughts?

[Kyrinn S. Eis]

** While your idea does have precedent in the Real World, ** I offer that there is no Linguist Class that is dependent upon their Linguistics Skill Ranks for their Class Abilities to function. Given that, the real issue with the Bard is not so much what forms of Performance a Bard is capable of (though I am sensitive to your plight in that regard), but rather, that Performance ought to be a Class Feature which increases as the Bard levels.

* My preferred formula is (Class Level + Cha mod. + 3)

This would remove Perform as a Point-Increasable Skill, and would move the non-magical aspects of the 'old' Perform skill to Profession: Performer (Singer, etc.) since anyone ought to be able to play/sing/orate/etc. to make a point or gain coin.

Only the Bard, however, is dependent upon their Perform ability for their 'Songs' to function, and that without their magical songs, they are little more than Rogues minus Trapfinding, Sneak Attack, and other Rogue Feats, etc. with a modicum of specialised Arcane Spells.

This is one area where I couldn't care less about Backward Compatibility, as it would be easy-enough to determine in a second of math, and would free-up Skill Points for 3.x NPC Bards.

[Laithoron]

I was actually considering something like that, but I figured it would be too radical a departure for people to swallow.

Mind You, I also think it's odd that classes like the Wizard, Sorcerer and Cleric have 2 skill points and don't automatically get ranks in their mainstay knowledge categories (i.e. Knowledge [arcana] or [religion]) when they still need to also sink a point into the Spellcraft/Concentration skill.

While that's not so bad for an Int-based casting class like the Wizard, for Clerics, Sorcerers, and even Bards it starts to add up quickly.

I'm looking forward to when the playtest officially gets to the classes and skills chapters...