Right, not fully clear about this, nor could I find the answers on the forum.
I suppose one cannot use bardic performance while using bardic masterpiece unless one of the two is done with Exquisite Accompaniment. It should work as bardic masterpieces are bardic performances after all.
EDIT: Could Dance of 23 steps be an exception? It only takes a free action, so could I continue a oratory performance while making this little dance?
Now the bit I don't fully understand. Lets say Vindictive Soliloquy. It costs 5 bardic performances and takes 5 full rounds to get the call thunderstorm effect.
In those 5 rounds, do I have to spend a standard action on the performance each round? Is it 5 full round actions and I stand there like a brick tumbling with no more than a 5 foot step? Or may I move around shoot and cast while only maintaining the performance up for 5 rounds?
I mean from my standpoint I'd love the last option the most, otherwise I'd find it useless and I'd be angry at the developers for not thinking of people who like to recite or sing as they cut peoples heads off. :I
Just not fully clear on this matter.
If anyone has an idea I'd be sooo glad.
Hugs and Kisses in advance
According to JJ (admittedly not a rules guy) they use performance rounds, but are not performances in themselves.
As he put it, they require the same pool of resources but are not the same thing. So you may have one of each, performance and masterpiece, active at a time, (but with that interpretation they couldn't be the performance maintained with the spells that carry regular performances).
Otherwise, the ones that last minutes/hours would be useless as soon as you started your normal inspire courage.
As stated in the masterpiece section, you expend the full number of rounds of performance the first round you activate the masterpiece, and then must spend the time listed for each particular masterpiece, and it can be interrupted which means the rounds are lost with no effect.
So, for Vindictive Soliloquy, you would spend 5 rounds the first round, and then spend 5 full rounds performing, if you are interrupted (I would guess that it was meant to be a concentration check in the case of damage, or not being able to take a full round action for some reason, but it isn't stated anywhere) then you lose the 5 rounds with no effect.
Thanks... Interesting, do you happen to have a link to that discussion. In case my GM will want to see as well? Also what DC would you make the concentration be? And would I use the spellcasting concentration or a different performance based one?
Also is there a way to somehow prod the developers to clarify this part a tiny bit. So far the masterpiece seems very loftily written.
Isn't there something that helps a bard use performance to avoid using concentration checks? I seem to remember something about that though not certain where or what it was...
Alottatexttoquote
Thanks, that pretty much is what I wanted to hear.Still wish they'd have a clearer definition...since they over-clarify almost anything else.
Isn't there something that helps a bard use performance to avoid using concentration checks? I seem to remember something about that though not certain where or what it was...
Spell-song feat mayhaps? Uses bardic performance instead of concentration.
AlottatexttoquoteThanks, that pretty much is what I wanted to hear.Still wish they'd have a clearer definition...since they over-clarify almost anything else.
Isn't there something that helps a bard use performance to avoid using concentration checks? I seem to remember something about that though not certain where or what it was...Spell-song feat mayhaps? Uses bardic performance instead of concentration.
Nope. It is Melodic Casting from Complete Mage (3.5):
Melodic CastingType: General
Source: Complete Mage
You can weave your music and magic together into a single perfect voice.
Prerequisite: Perform 4 ranks, Spellcraft 4 ranks, bardic music class feature.
Benefit: Whenever a Concentration check would be required to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability (such as when you cast defensively or are distracted or injured while casting), you can make a Perform check instead.
In addition, you can cast spells and activate magic items by command word or spell completion while using a bardic music ability. Bardic music abilities that requite concentration still take a standard action to perform.
Normal: A bard can't cast spells or activate magic items by command word or spell completion while using bardic music.
It's a requirement for my favorite Bard prestige class: Lyric Thaumaturge (which needs a little more "oomph", in my opinion, so I gave it some).
In bardic performance it says to start a new performance you must end the previous one.
Lingering performance says you cannot have more than one affect active at a time and allows for the affect to last longer than the performance.
Bardic masterpieces specifically do not work with lingering performance unless the individual masterpiece says otherwise, some of them do.
Some Bardic masterpieces provide an affect that lasts after the performance ends. All of these cannot be use with lingering performance.
In my opinion the text of a feat should not be able to effect an ability that can not be used with said feat.
So in my opinion bardic masterpieces that last after the performance ends, such as triple time and tales of twisting steel, can be performed and then allow other bardic performances to be done along side their affect.