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So, I decided to work on an all-bard campaign idea. I had been messing around with bard builds and realised the sheer diversity of stuff that can be done with bards & their various archetypes, and I thought, why not? The premise is pretty straight-forward: an archeologist discovers old texts that point to 4 ancient bardic artifacts that, when assembled & used in a kick-ass show, would summon the god of bards to grant every band member a wish.
Basic premise, silly country names & all are set, but I am having trouble on the 4 "bardic artifacts" that could be of use. They would each be different, with each being known in advance so that each band member could "claim" one.
So, I have 2 artifact ideas for the moment:
1) Banner of ancient kings (artifact version):
The sight of the banner enflames crowds. (still working on exact powers, it will at least have those of the base banner).
2) The guitaxe: Silly, but cool.
3 & 4...?
Any ideas?
I'd just ask my players what instruments they're using (ban oratory, they're musicians!) and retroactively have each artifact match the character's instrument.
Now that I think of it, the guitaxe doesnt work well, or any instrument for that matter. I want the artifacts to be interesting, and a mere "better instrument" seems too simple. I'm thinking maybe I should focus on non-instument items. One (mechanical) idea I had was an item that gave everybody within 20 ft the benefits of the "Ensemble" teamwork feat.
What do you guys think is better? Avoid instruments or not?
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I see you will have an adventuring band.
If I were to do this concept it would likely be campy and very silly. The artifacts should invoke a Pick of Destiny sort of feel.
Of course, that's just me and you might disagree.
Oh, I quite agree that this would be a very silly campaign.
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Electric guitar, ice flute, fire drums (based off goblin fire drums).
Maybe give each instrument an element based spell that requires its lvl in bardic performance rounds to activate, ie. Electric guitar has chain lightning (using bards caster lvl, 6 rounds bardic performance to use), ice flute - cone of cold, fire drums, contagious flame. I remember jokingly going through which instruments to which elements with my group, but I cant remember the instrument for earth (acid).
Well yes, but the Bard is very well designed for a silly, foppish, asshat with a musical instrument.
My Bards generally don't play to the stereotype but this campaign begs for exaggeration.
I think the idea is that it's a sort of "get the legendary ancient band back together" game. I dig the concept, are we using Heavy Metal magazine as inspiration here? A full electric rig could be an artifact, consisting of a magical (guitar, bass, whatever), that connects to an ancient forgotten amplifier mountainside, hidden deep under a glacier...or whatever.
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One of the items should be either a magic book or a scrying focus, and it should have abilities related to Bardic Knowledge. Maybe anybody can use it to make knowledge checks untrained, but in the hands of a bard, it can do so much more...
Another should be some kind of magic horn, like the Horn of Blasting but more artifact-feeling. Maybe each note on the horn mimics a different Bardic Performance?
On a tangent from the original post, I was briefly in a humorous campaign where the PCs were barbarian / bards. They formed a sort of fantasy heavy metal band. Suddenly a group of 30-40 year old players became young teenagers again. Silly, yet very fun.
On a more serious note, bards can be built for a wide variety of tasks. The group could form shadows of the four man band (healer, martial, mage, thief) or even build closely to each other to see if that can work as well.
As for the McGuffins, that depends on the tastes of the players. You know them better than we do, would they prefer all, some, or none of the McGuffin items as musical instruments?
If you were to go a rock band angle it could be amusing to use references to performers from other genres as bosses. Daft Punk as a pair of constructs.