The Sound of Music... In Combat


Advice


Hey all,

My girlfriend has recently taken an interest in pathfinder, and I'm considering running a one-on-one game with her. She expressed particular interest in the bard class, but when I asked her if its the actual class or the music-y flavor she likes, she said flavor.

Considering how bards are more team players than single adventurers (though I do like the idea of a lone, traveling bard), what are some other class options that have something to do with music/dance?

So far, other than bard, I've found the maestro bloodline for sorcerers. Is that any good?

And before you say "anyone can use the perform skill," she wants more than that, and I see no reason to refuse.

Thanks,
I Hate Nickelback

Shadow Lodge

I don't know much about running a solo character game, but you might take a look at the Dervish Dancer bard archetype. It's schtick is that its bard powers only benifit itself, not buffing others. So it might be a step in the right direction.


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If it's a solo adventure you're making it up based on what she wants. This isn't a video game where things have to be 100% constant. Have her save villagers from harpies, discover plots under the guise of a troubadour, use knowledge checks to figure out what sort of beast is plaguing the village. Play to the class's strengths and play what she'll have the most fun with. I ran a campaign for my little sister when she was just tiny and the whole thing was her riding a unicorn and saving forest animals from poachers. It was precious, and she had a blast because she got to make the story with me.

I also ran a two-player campaign where my friends were just merchants/thieves, hiding from the law and eventually trying to make their way from their Keleshite homeland to Tian Xia. Every session was just, "Hey! Want to run the Khavid Chronicles after work?" And I'd make something up and let them control where they wanted to go. Don't play the game based on what a bard can do in a party, base the game off of what a bard can do on its own, with optimization bull completely out of the picture.


Very nice advice. I think I'll do that. Of course, a lot of monsters may be a challenge for a bard. JUST IN CASE, any other music-y classes? I found the spell dancer magus. Music or dance related is what she wants. :P


You can reskin another class. Maybe your sorcerer casts spells by belting out opera.


That would be the maestro bloodline :P

Grand Lodge

Bards can be quite versatile.

I am not sure why you are against it.

Just be happy she doesn't want to play a Rogue, or Monk.

I have seen too many new players greatly disappointed in those classes.

Bard, is often underestimated in capability.


I have no problems with bard. None. Zip. I LOVE the bard class. However, it is a fact that, at least with vanilla bards, they buff. With nobody to buff, they're less useful. I could give her an NPC fighter to buff, but then who is the star? Oh yeah, the fighter I control.

Grand Lodge

Dawnflower Dervish, or Dervish Dancer are good archetypes for what you are looking for.


From MCArchetypes there is the Fey Minsrel. Part bard, mostly druid

From the same site is the Desperado. Part bard, mostly gunslinger. Problem here is that it seems to be based on the Mysterious stranger where you don't get the Quick Clear Deed.


<shrug> Re-skin the world and use the game rukles as a framework. You want music as the core thing? Great.... Work with me here for a minute guys... Assume that music is the core of MAGIC.

Clerics are now doing their channels and spells through hymns. Their music is a resonance across the planes that allows gods / devils / demons / whatevers to reach through to this world and touch it.

Wizards... well.... wizards do a Lord of the Rings and try to sing down mountains. They take to the hard end study of magic as their core focus, with their musical exploits being a side effect. In the same way that a master blacksmith learns how to haggle as a side effect of having to sell things, wizards learn music as a side effect of having to handle magic.

Bards approach the magic equation from the other end. They delve into music and what music means, in the process finding out that music crafts the world around them through seemingly magical effects.

Sorcs and oracles are drawn to magic / music by their bloodline and have an inherent understanding of it. Maybe as a generic rule they don't even see the two as different things, but rather different aspects of the same thing. Same as modern understanding of heat and movement.... it's all movement really, but try telling that to someone who didn't do physics / chem.

Identify what school of magic something is by what key it's written in. The more complex a piece of magic is, them more complex the music for it is. For a cantrip, you might have something the complexity of 'Twinkle Twinkle little star'. On the other hand, Gate might be a 5 part harmony dirge in F sharp minor. Oh.... and just in case it wasn't clear, you have to sing all the parts as well. At the same time.

There. Music is now central to every casting related class. It's up to you to come up with the rest of the world to go with it. Is magic just reactive to music when it's sung by the right sort of mind. Maybe creation was brought into being though the OneSong and all music is just a fragment of that song, and each fragment provides mastery over an 'aspect' of the world.

That's about an hour of thinking on making music integral to a world. I'm sure others can do better with more time. Now go forth and play whatever you want.


I second the 2 Dervish archetypes. They are much less aimed at party buffing and are strong combatants. Dawnflower would be my solo pick. double the performance effect and dex to attack and damage. Very solid melee bard.


I actually think a bard is a great class if you plan on writing the adventures for a single bard specifically. You won't be able to just plop her in a published module, but you would be hard pressed to have any class succeed solo.

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