What I don't understand is why Circle of Protection is Uncommon while Divine Aura isn't. Divine Aura is just the higher level version of it. Anyway, a few months to see what the APG will bring for divine casters (my main PFS character is an Angelic Sorcerer).Ok, I get it (I thought the last point was just Demoralize or Dirge of Doom). Yes, clearly, it's a lot. But I don't think Bard is overpowered. In my opinion, these bonuses (especially the status bonus) shouldn't be limited to the Bard. I hope they'll add more buff spells to the Divine spell list, which was a great buffing list in PF1 and is nowhere close now.4 point offensive swing is +2 to hit, -2 ac from frightened from a spell. Critical successes are even crazier, but not worth worrying about. The "defensive" portion of that is that the frightened also is a to hit penalty...
Success rate on Inspire Heroics is pretty good if you're legendary and have a good item - and worth blowing a hero point on. The focus point cost of keeping it going is offset by additional focus point recovery granted by feats.
Frightened 2 is unreliable against some targets (because spells) until you get Scare to Death, which i believe you can run off of your legendary Performance.
I mean, I do think bards are off the top of the curve, but no one really hates on overpowered support. Not too much at least...
I'm playing in my first game (mostly GMing) as a Cleric, alongside one of my players who runs a bard in one of my campaign. You should hear the disappointment in his voice every time I cast bless and he asks, "So its just +1 to hit? Not damage? And only so close to you?"
Divine spells aren't actually bad... but Inspire Courage is just that good.
I will say that there's no way a bard could have kept this campaigns party alive, but my Cleric has. Most of the players are shared between my other campaigns, and we've all been spoiled by having a Champion in both.
Then we start a new campaign and no one has a shield, and suddenly incoming damage is terrifying.
The lesser Spellcasting oomph due to lack of some sort of bonus spell slot means a Bard cannot fully replace a Cleric or Divine Sorcerer.
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What I don't understand is why Circle of Protection is Uncommon while Divine Aura isn't. Divine Aura is just the higher level version of it. Anyway, a few months to see what the APG will bring for divine casters (my main PFS character is an Angelic Sorcerer).
Because divine aura isn't just the higher level version of circle of protection. Circle of protection includes the very relevant clause "Summoned creatures of the chosen alignment can't willingly enter the area without succeeding at a Will save; repeated attempts use the first save result." Divine aura only gives defensive bonuses and maybe a reactive chance to blind, whereas circle of protection can completely shut down entire encounters based on a single save for at least an entire combat encounter and potentially much longer.
It also means that Harmonize has to be your first action, followed by your harmonized composition, followed by a regular composition (which can be subject to Lingering Composition, if you want) if you want to get two compositions active in the same round prior to level 20.Found this way back in the discussion, and since I had talked this over with a player recently I figured I should mention that this does not work the way you think it does, because of the way Harmonize is written. Harmonize says that the harmonized composition does not itself get turned off by another composition. It does not, however, work the other way around: starting a harmonized composition still shuts other compositions down.
So you'd start with, say, Harmonize followed by Inspire Courage. You then follow up with Lingering Performance + Dirge of Dread, and roll a Performance check to have it run for, say, three rounds. Those are your three actions, so now your turn is over and other combatants get to do stuff.
Your next turn comes around, and your Harmonized Inspire Courage turns off because it's a new turn. Your lingering Dirge is still running though. But when you go for Harmonize + Inspire Courage again, that still stops the Dirge.
In other words: Lingering Performance + Harmonize is a bombo. Lingering is for when you want one performance to keep going without you spending actions on it, and Harmonize is for when you want to spend your whole turn keeping two compositions running at the same time.
That’s exactly the way I think it works.
That’s exactly the way I think it works.It also means that Harmonize has to be your first action, followed by your harmonized composition, followed by a regular composition (which can be subject to Lingering Composition, if you want) if you want to get two compositions active in the same round prior to level 20.Found this way back in the discussion, and since I had talked this over with a player recently I figured I should mention that this does not work the way you think it does, because of the way Harmonize is written. Harmonize says that the harmonized composition does not itself get turned off by another composition. It does not, however, work the other way around: starting a harmonized composition still shuts other compositions down.
So you'd start with, say, Harmonize followed by Inspire Courage. You then follow up with Lingering Performance + Dirge of Dread, and roll a Performance check to have it run for, say, three rounds. Those are your three actions, so now your turn is over and other combatants get to do stuff.
Your next turn comes around, and your Harmonized Inspire Courage turns off because it's a new turn. Your lingering Dirge is still running though. But when you go for Harmonize + Inspire Courage again, that still stops the Dirge.
In other words: Lingering Performance + Harmonize is a bombo. Lingering is for when you want one performance to keep going without you spending actions on it, and Harmonize is for when you want to spend your whole turn keeping two compositions running at the same time.
And considering that Harmonize and Lingering both cost a focus, that's not entirely terrible. By default its a limited use thing. At most, you'd only get two rounds out of it anyway even if it worked without shutting down the Lingering Composition.
Harmonize does not cost Focus - it is simply an additional action. It can't be used with Lingering Focus because of this:
You can perform multiple compositions simultaneously. If your next action is to cast a composition, it becomes a harmonized composition. Unlike a normal composition, a harmonized composition doesn’t end if you cast another composition, and you can cast another composition on the same turn as a harmonized one. Casting another harmonized composition ends any harmonized composition you have in effect.
Both Harmonize and Lingering Composition require your next action to be casting a composition. A free action is still an action, so casting Lingering Composition wastes your Harmonize action.
You add a flourish to your composition to extend its benefits. If your next action is to cast a cantrip composition with a duration of 1 round, attempt a Performance check. The DC is usually a standard-difficulty DC of a level equal to the highest-level target of your composition, but the GM can assign a different DC based on the circumstances. The effect depends on the result of your check.
GD Mondays! Don't know why I thought it was a composition. This is what I get for not double checking before posting lol. Thanks for the correction.
You're welcome. I'm finding the bard really enjoyable in this edition, and I've been doing a lot of test building with the class.
I agree, it definitely feels like a fun class to play and especially offers some great out of combat opportunities as well. Bard is definitely one of those classes where I think just about everyone loves having one in their party, even if they don't want to play one themselves.
Note that the occult list has True Strike, so even a current current non-battle Bard can start using their low level slots for the fortune to their attack roll, which is worth +5 or so, which happens to be exactly what you're behind the fighter by if you max out the stat, since charisma is what hard gives.