But I want to know what special stuff I get access to when bards gather in numbers.
As far as I know, nothing. In fact, being so similar, they're likely to just overlap because their bonuses will be the same type, and thus not stack.
|
don't quite need to house rule anymore...seriously there are so many bards archetype out there. Flame dancer make a bard, a master of fire, Voice of the wild grants you access to druid spells at specific levels, Arcane duelist, transform a bard from into a melee magic warrior, Magician to be like those stage magicians and pulling crazy tricks etc...basically your best bet is to play around with the bard archetypes.
|
Dance off?
Now, the party is PL8, so the highest possible CR would be 11. That's 3xlv8 or 6xlv6. Honestly, I'd prefer to see a bard buffing martial characters, but that's just my opinion. For this though, you'd have to make it more than just a battle. Bards give a good opportunity for roleplay and storytelling. (As shown in part 2 of Kingmaker.) You could make the players hate him with just a little bit of effort.
I do like the idea of a barbershop quartet though.
You could turn them into swindlers, robbing the players of their fortunes after their adventures. Or use espionage to stay 2 steps ahead of the players and clean out the dungeon before the players can.
One other thing I'd like to do is make a halfling bard crimelord with a gray render as his bodyguard. The gray render would be the big challenge, but if the players would take out the weaker bard first they would end his buffs which would help significantly.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well if your only using humans then my answer is "not as much as you could". Bards are similar to clerics in that you can have a whole party of em and all of em be different but with only humans your nerfing some of them. What was your reason for pure human? If they need to look human then I could add several races and builds to my list in my head. Half orcs and aasimars have tremendous potential with bards and half elves aren't bad either.
Will think on this a bit.
-1 disagree. With the exception of archeoligst bards, human is a top tier race.
Anyway for the OPs benefit I'd suggest the following if this is a combat encounter:
1. Regular bard with improved inituative and all other feats as archery feats. He will cast move action inspire, quickened good hope (meta magic rod) and haste and will then start shooting.
1. Court bard archer who will move action satire, quick action blistering invective and slow
1. Archeologist bard with a 2h str build using a longspear who is there to do damage. Will use bladed dash as a pseudo pounce.
1. Arcane Dualist bard with a 2h str build using a long spear who will run dirge of doom. His job is to harass casters. Will use bladed dash as a pseudo pounch.
1. Cheliax Diva bard who will run Scathing Tirade on whoever seems the most dangerous. Will use bladed dash.
1. Magician bard who will run spell suppression and will try to counter spell. In addition he will know the various pit spells and will also try to use cacophonous call, silence, mad monkeys, sculpt sound etc to debuff.
All the bards will have saving and purging finale memorized several times. All will have mirror image memorised.
No need to make this easy :)
Could have a thunder caller too. If the level is high enough some of the masterpieces are worth using against the PCs, such as symphony of the Elysium heart, the quickening pulse. Remember these are not regular bardic performance but happen to use the same resource pool so you can have a performance plus a masterpiece at the same time.
|
I guess I want to know what the bards are doing traveling together, and why they want to attack the party rather than just get on with their performances and shows. Has the party done something to offend a temple of Shelyn? Are they out for revenge on a fallen comrade? Are they looking to reduce the competition for an upcoming contest?
I could totally see a group of bards performing, and then fascinating the PCs, tying them up and taking their stuff. I'm not sure that I see an outright attack encounter unless there is a very good story motivation involved.
Hmm
Remake these guys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEYNuU6Xtms
There is a lot you can do with Bards cause they can be pretty versatile with all the various archetypes. But it might take some work to make sure people take the right mix.
As your question about what happens when they use their performance together. Nothing. There are no rules for this sort of epic bard concert equals summon huge monster.
If I had that many bards I would have them take over a traveling circus and that would be the campaign.
While traveling they run into wilderness issues. When they get to town help is required of them. And so on. But also the show must go on.
Thinking more about this.
If you make them all better than 7th level then perhaps they have each attracted some pretty amazing cohorts. Which could go to town when they play.
Bards are very knowledgeable, gather information easily, and have access to glibness and alter self. Would the players even know them when they meet? They should have a secret plot, such as seek X powerful magic item/artifact to further their goals, or overthrow a kingdom that has imprisoned bards or outlawed music/dance (Pathfinder Footloose).
They could probably just outright replace government officials with themselves and convince everyone that nothing is wrong. The power of bards is best represented with what they can do outside a 3-5 round combat.
Bards have interesting personalities. Don't neglect that.
Bards have interesting personalities. Don't neglect that.*All* characters have interesting personalities. Class/Level/Race has no effect whatsoever on character personality in roleplay, it's just fluff to get you started.
No. Not all characters are interesting. That said no one said that interesting is tied to class ( a fighter who has a dark is interesting), but the pathfinder concept of a bard, unless using Archetypes, is a "master of one or many forms of artistry... have talents from any where, and have an edge in getting information, and their magic class abilities are centered around influence, and thus should be interesting. A "boring" bard character, such as a teetotaler lawyer, still dazzles everyone with their influence, and still is interesting in spite. A bard that is boring/ uninfluential literally has a lower Charisma score. Boring characters are better suited to play a class not centered around Chatisma or Perform. Although, a Bard putting up a front of being boring could be really fun, now that I can consider it.
Bards can cast magic. In addition, have them bring in some illusion specialists, and they can create full on 3D music "videos" live wherever they are, with extra amplified sounds and instruments.
Each bard (and illusionist) handles a different aspect of the overlapping illusions and music in order to create some very vivid and interacting scenes, all laid out to the music and the beat.
(If I were ever sucked into the world of pathfinder, that's what I would do).
Yeah honestly, if you've got multiple bards as a group I would let you fight them one by one. No cohorts though, they can just get hirelings. Leadership is strictly for PCs.
And now I have to figure out how to make a campaign with bards as villains.
It would really show off the versatility of Bards when you put them in tiered array, fighting them one by one (with their respective minions of course). Each "room" would have a different theme/style, so it would stay a separate encounter from the others; Magician encounter styled as a control encounter, Court Bard de-buffs you while his horde of lesser minions (peasant militia?) surround you, and then you would enter the "Realm of the Sandman" where time halts and everything just slowly fades into darkness (Sneak Attacks!).
Point is, your PCs might not even realize they're fighting Bards every time! Plus, you can really show off their potential by keeping their level reasonably high and letting the mooks deal all the damage - their biggest drawback as a class IMO is their damage potential, but that's a separate discussion.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
What can you do with a party of bards?
Rock, like you've never rocked before!!!!
(Sorry. I know this was pointless and contributed nothing meaningful to the thread, but...it had to be said.)