A potentially very diplomatic way for players to enjoy a union between music and magic without playing a bard. Though the concept could potentially work for any kind of mage musician, it's written with singing sorcerers in mind. If the balance is out of whack (which I suspect it may be), please let me know! My group may let me use this!
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Bardic
The power of musical magic runs in your family. You may be the descendant of a legendary bard or perhaps the blood of satyrs or harpies flows through your veins.
Class Skill: Perform.
Bonus Spells: charm person (3rd), silence (5th), deep slumber (7th), shout (9th), greater heroism (11th), mass charm monster (13th), mass hold person (15th), greater shout (17th), wail of the banshee (19th).
Bonus Feats: Alertness, Extra Performance, Leadership, Persuasive, Skill Focus (Perform), Spell Focus, Spell Penetration, Still Spell.
Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell with the sonic descriptor, increase the spell’s DC by +2.
Bloodline Powers: You have powers of music, sound, and silence. Your improvement as a performer is reflected by magical growth.
Song Bolt (Sp): At 1st level, you can use the power of song to bombard an enemy with sonic energy, targeting any creature within 30 feet. If the creature fails a Fortitude save equal to 10 + ½ your sorcerer level + your Charisma modifier, it takes 1d4 points of sonic damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. A creature that fails its save is also deafened for one round. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Bardic Magic (Ex): At 3rd level, you can add any one spell from the bard spell list to the sorcerer/wizard spell list. From this point on, you may learn the spell and add it to your list of spells known as if it were any other sorcerer/wizard spell. These spells can also be exchanged in place of old ones, just like any other. You can also add one additional spell at 7th level, 11th level, 15th level, and 19th level.
Spellsong (Su): At 9th level, you can use your music to bolster your sense of self and empower your magic. As a move action, you can make a Perform (any music) check against a DC of 10 which, if successful, grants a +1 bonus to caster level for the next spell that you cast before the end of your turn. For every 10 points that your Perform check result exceeds the DC, the bonus increases by 1 to a maximum of +4. The spellsong ability counts as the bardic performance class feature for the purposes of qualifying for (and using) feats and magic items. Each daily use of the spellsong ability counts as a number of rounds of bardic performance equal to 4 + your Charisma modifier. Additional rounds of bardic performance granted by the Extra Performance feat do not grant any additional uses of the spellsong ability, but can still be used to start (and maintain) bardic performances and can be spent to use certain feats that require them. At 9th level, you can use this ability once per day. At 17th level, you can use this ability twice per day. At 20th level, you can use this ability three times per day.
Shattersong (Su): At 15th level, whenever you cast a spell that deals sonic damage, it deals an additional number of dice of damage equal to the spell’s level. The type of damage dice is determined by the type used to deal the original sonic damage (for example, a 4th level spell that deals 5d6 sonic damage deals an additional 4d6 points of sonic damage). If multiple types of dice are used in the spell, use the lowest die type when rolling the bonus damage. This additional damage is applied only once (that is, it only applies during the first round of a spell that deals ongoing sonic damage or only to one missile, ray, etc. for spells that produce multiple damaging effects).
Legend (Ex): At 20th level, your music touches every aspect of your being. You gain immunity to sonic damage and your sorcerer spells no longer require somatic components. You can cast spells with verbal components in areas of magical silence and creatures that are in areas of magical silence are no longer immune to your sonic and language-dependent attacks, spells, and effects.
Song Bolt Sounds awesome, but only because I have the image of a long haired sorcerer doing the "air guitar" *Meedleemeeedleemeedleemeedleemeedlee MEEEEEEEEE!*
Heresy!
It is a well known fact that the air guitar doesn't go *Meedleemeedleemeedlee MEEEE*. It goes *Weeaowwww weaow weaow weeaaOOOOO*
Air guitar phonation notwithstanding, any other thoughts? I have concerns about balance, particularly with the shattersong ability, but I feel like it's thematically in a good place (though I could also be wrong about that, since it has a 'blaster bard' kind of vibe).
"Each daily use of the spellsong ability counts as a number of rounds of bardic performance equal to 4 + your Charisma modifier."
So, it costs more to use it the higher your charisma is, effectively punishing you for having a high spellcasting stat? When you say that at 9th level they can use it 1/day, does this mean they are supposed to have 4+CHA rounds of Bardic Performance per day, orrrr....?
Being able to use an ability 1/day, and being able to use an ability by expending 4+CHA rounds of Bardic Performance are really very different, and your description of the ability includes both.
Also, at no point in the Bloodline Abilities does it ever say that the bloodline grants the Bardic Performance ability. The wording of the Spellsong ability implies that you unlock the ability to use Bardic Performance by taking the Extra Performance feat ("additional rounds of bardic performance granted by the Extra Performance feat do not grant any additional uses of the spellsong ability, but can still be used to start (and maintain) bardic performances and can be spent to use certain feats that require them"), but do they get ANY uses of Bardic Performance without Extra Performance, or does taking the feat allow them to use Bardic Performance for 6 rounds period-end-of-story?
Ditto what Anetra said. It's unclear what exactly is gained by adding the bardic performance nomenclature to the Spellsong ability.
If you cut that part from the spell, what you are left with is: "If you do not move this turn, increase your caster level by ~2 (or sometimes more)." That's not really very impressive for a 9th level ability (which, per sorcerer precedent, should increase at 13th and 17th, rather than 17th and 20th).
Shattersong is mostly just very narrow; there are a few sonic spells that might get a bit of a damage bump, but at 15th level a sorcerer has a hundred better things to do than just deal damage. It's hardly worth worrying about. Frankly, I'd say the real issue is that it's not very musical or bardlike, doing extra sonic damage to things...
Yeah, I'm still trying to work out the spellsong mechanic.
I wanted the bardic bloodline sorcerer to not necessarily have bardic performance in the most literal sense, but by virtue of having the spellsong ability, could still qualify (and USE) feats that use bardic performance as a finite resource (Metamagic Song, Lyric Spell, etc.). Plus, I've also come across magic items that allow the user to expend bardic performances (or music, as the case may be since it was 3.5) and I wanted the bardic sorcerer to have access to that as well.
However, I realize now that you've brought up an interesting problem. Let's say you're 17th level, and at one point during the day you use some rounds of bardic performance and then later you want to use your spellsong, but the BP rounds:spellsong ratio is no longer viable. Does that mean you have to spend 4 + your Charisma in rounds to use the spellsong ability because you only have X rounds left?
An excellent point, thank you for bringing it up! ^_^
As of right now, the spellsong ability is no longer gonna be used as written, so I heartily welcome any suggestions on replacement abilities.
Also, how do the bonus spells, feats, and other abilities look?
The bonus spells are not the choices I would have made from the Bard spell list. However, you gave them an ability which grants additional spells off of the Bard list, so you're letting characters pick and choose the bard spells that they want.
charm person (3rd)
Charm person works.
silence (5th)
Other suggestion: Enthrall from the Bard list, or Hypnotic Pattern or Shatter from the Sorcerer/Wizard list.
deep slumber (7th)
Glibness, Sculpt Sound, or Secret Page from the Bard list, or Suggestion, Rage or Illusory Script from the Sorcerer/Wizard list.
shout (9th)
You do need those Sonic spells, yes. Other options: Rainbow Pattern, Confusion, Crushing Despair from the Sorcerer/Bard list, or Zone of Silence or Modify Memory from the Bard list.
greater heroism (11th)
This is a 6th level spell for Sorcerer/Wizard. Actual 5th level spell options: Mirage Arcana, Seeming, Mind Fog, Dominate Person. 5th level spells from the Bard list you could give them: Song of Discord. This is a viable option because it's a bard-only spell, not a spell the bard gets at a lower spell level.
mass charm monster (13th)
Veil, Greater Heroism, Mass Suggestion, Symbol of Persuasion are also all solid options. Also, please note that Mass Charm Monster is an 8th level spell for Sorcerers and Wizards, and you're trying to give it to this Sorcerer at 13th level? No, you should really stick to a 6th level spell.
mass hold person (15th)
Really, I would probably give a "Bard Sorcerer" Project Image instead.
greater shout (17th)
Sonic spells are quite necessary on this spell list to make their ability viable, however, don't forget that "Demand" is also an option here.
wail of the banshee (19th)
I look at this and I really can't think anything other than "why." As a spellcaster the Bard is clearly tipped toward Enchantment, and most of the other spells on this list are Enchantment, so why would you possibly top it off with Necromancy? I would suggest instead 1) Freedom, 2) Dominate Monster or 3) Mass Hold Monster.
Dude, Anetra, you've got a good sense of what I'm going for and some wonderful suggestions to boot.
I agree that I should probably stick with more enchantment spells for the spell list and should also avoid taking advantage of the bard's early entry for certain spells (especially because this screams imbalance).
I want to avoid illusion spells that don't focus on sound, so as to thematically keep the emphasis on music and sound. I'm definitely going to revise what I've got so far and post an update once it's ready.
I'm always open to more critiques and suggestions, so keep 'em coming!
Okay guys, I've made a number of adjustments: spells, feats, and class features. I've replaced the previous spellsong ability with what I'm calling "metamagic spellsong" which basically replicates the effects of the Metamagic Song feat (Races of Stone), but expends daily uses of the song bolt class feature (from 1st leve) instead of bardic music.
Let me know what you guys think!
Bardic
The power of musical magic runs in your family. You may be the descendant of a legendary bard or perhaps the blood of satyrs or harpies flows through your veins.
Class Skill: Perform.
Bonus Spells: charm person (3rd), enthrall (5th), deep slumber (7th), shout (9th), song of discord (11th), greater heroism (13th), mass hold person (15th), greater shout (17th), mass hold monster (19th).
Bonus Feats: Alertness, Extend Spell, Leadership, Persuasive, Skill Focus (Perception), Skill Focus (Perform), Spell Focus, Still Spell.
Bloodline Arcana: Whenever you cast a spell with the sonic descriptor, increase the spell’s DC by +2.
Bloodline Powers: You have powers of music, sound, and silence. As your music improves, so too does your magic.
Song Bolt (Sp): At 1st level, you can use the power of song to bombard an enemy with sonic energy, targeting any creature within 30 feet. If the creature fails a Fortitude save equal to 10 + ½ your sorcerer level + your Charisma modifier, it takes 1d4 points of sonic damage + 1 for every two sorcerer levels you possess. A creature that fails its save is also deafened for one round. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier.
Bardic Magic (Ex): At 3rd level, you can add any one spell from the bard spell list (that is also not already on the sorcerer/wizard spell list) to the sorcerer/wizard spell list. From this point on, you may learn the spell and add it to your list of spells known as if it were any other sorcerer/wizard spell. These spells can also be exchanged in place of old ones, just like any other. You can also add one additional spell at 7th level, 11th level, 15th level, and 19th level.
Metamagic Spellsong (Su): At 9th level, whenever you cast a spell that is modified by a metamagic feat, you can spend a number of daily uses of your song bolt ability equal to the number of extra levels that the feat imposes on the spell rather than raising the spell’s effective level. You cannot use this ability to add metamagic feats that would make the spell’s effective level higher than the highest level of spell you can cast normally. When applying a metamagic feat to a spell, you either must use this ability to completely offset the increase in the spell’s effective level or apply the metamagic feat normally and cast the spell at it’s highest level. You cannot use this ability to modify a spell with the Silent Spell feat. At 13th level, the number of daily uses of your song bolt ability granted by your Charisma modifier is multiplied by two. At 17th level, the number of daily uses of your song bolt ability granted by your Charisma modifier is multiplied by three.
Shattersong (Su): At 15th level, whenever you cast a spell that deals sonic damage, it deals an additional number of dice of damage equal to the spell’s level. The type of damage dice is determined by the type used to deal the original sonic damage (for example, a 4th level spell that deals 5d6 sonic damage deals an additional 4d6 points of sonic damage). If multiple types of dice are used in the spell, use the lowest die type when rolling the bonus damage. This additional damage is applied only once (that is, it only applies during the first round of a spell that deals ongoing sonic damage or only to one missile, ray, etc. for spells that produce multiple damaging effects).
Legend (Ex): At 20th level, your music touches every aspect of your being. You gain immunity to sonic damage and your sorcerer spells no longer require somatic components. You can cast spells with verbal components in areas of magical silence and creatures that are in areas of magical silence are no longer immune to your sonic and language-dependent attacks, spells, and effects.
... you can add any one spell from the bard spell list (that is also not already on the sorcerer/wizard spell list) to the sorcerer/wizard spell list...
You might want to be careful with the presence of the Cure spells (and a few other divine types) on the bard's list. Since the Celestial bloodline doesn't get these, I don't think the Bard bloodline should.
Maybe only the spells of the bards' list that are also available to wizards/sorcerer (not just to them but they must be part of the availability) or only to bard should be allowed to be added. Or just disallow Healing sub-school spells maybe?
That's true, but the bardic sorcerer would still have to select the spells as spells known . . . you may be right though, perhaps disallowing spells with the healing descriptor would be best. I'll take it under advisement!
Any other suggestions on any of the other class features?
Should I assume that the class is perfect as is then? ::sarcasm::