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Several years ago I posted a homebrew prestige class to the Wizards D&D 3.5 Forums with the goal of making the ultimate Heavy Metal, Combat-Worthy Bard. What began as a curiosity quickly grew into a fervent project of its own. An overview of the class can be described as follows:
* Focuses on making the Bard into a BAMF fighting machine, rather than a pansy 5th wheel spouting knowledge and paltry buffs. The first few levels alone practically redefine the entire concept of what once-was-a-mere-Bard.
* One of their signature features is that they get to turn a magical weapon into their musical instrument, so they are literally killing people with their guitar-Axe. (Sort of like Pentakill Mordekaiser from League of Legends, come to think of it.)
* To balance it out, the class loses 1/2 of its caster progression, but it's totally worth it. As well as armor proficiency and significantly increased fighting ability, they gain scaling class abilities that empower their bardic music and allow them to use the power of Metal to create spell-like effects: storms of fire, the ruin of castles, animating the dead, and more.
* You get to pick almost all of the class features from large lists, so two different Disciples can be built focusing on different themes. The final version has about 40 abilities to pick from.
* Every ability is named after a Heavy Metal song. The titles range from 80s Classics to modern Heavy Metal to well-known songs in the Power or Death Metal genres, and so forth.
I have updated and revived the Disciple of Metal so that it is more awesome than before, and plan to release it as a roughly 20-page PDF for sale at about 1-2 dollars a copy. Doing this will first require me to launch a Kickstarter project for roughly a few hundred dollars so I can give fair pay to a talented artist to draw some brutal, badass cover art for it.
So, here is a preview/abridged version of the class:
* * * * *
Disciple of Metal
Aliases: Badass Bard, Battle Bard, Heavy Metal Bard, Iron Man (Maiden), Brother (Sister) of Metal
Role: Disciples are not like other pansy mewling bards. A Disciple of Metal finds his home on the frontline, where fresh blood is spilt and heads are split atwine. His music and his weapon are one and the same.
Alignment: Disciples inherently represent the annihilation of axioms and boundaries. Though oft worshippers of Metal gods, Disciples forge their own path, write their own rules, and don't take shit from anyone. Thus, it is especially common for Disciples of Metal to be Chaotic aligned, especially Chaotic Badass.
Requirements
To prove themselves worthy of bloody baptism into the ranks of Metal, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Alignment: Any chaotic, unless the non-chaotic character is sufficiently brutal and awesome (this is between you and the DM).
Feats: Power Attack, Toughness.
Skills: Perform (anything that can be called Metal) 5 ranks.
Spells: Ability to cast 2nd level arcane spells.
Special: Bardic performance, inspire courage +2
BAB Fort Ref Will Special
+1 +2 +0 +0 The Gods Made Heavy Metal, Instruments of Destruction, Disciple
+2 +3 +0 +0 Euphony, +1 caster level
+3 +3 +1 +1 Cacophony
+4 +4 +1 +1 Euphony, +1 caster level
+5 +4 +1 +1 Disciple
+6 +5 +2 +2 Cacophony, +1 caster level
+7 +5 +2 +2 Euphony
+8 +6 +2 +2 Cacophony, +1 caster level
+9 +6 +3 +3 Disciple
+10 +7 +3 +3 Brutal Legend, +1 caster level
The Gods Made Heavy Metal (Ex): … and they saw that it was good. Henceforth, all of the Disciple’s bardic magic is considered, for all intents and purposes, divine magic. He gains proficiency in medium and heavy armor. Since his magic is divine now, even the heaviest of metal apparel won't interfere with his spellcasting or abilities. The Disciple becomes so inured to the impossibly loud noises demanded by his vocation that he gains 10 points of sonic resistance and automatically succeeds on Fortitude saves against deafness.
The Disciple adds his class levels in Disciple of Metal to his Bard levels for the purpose of determining daily uses of bardic performance, their effectiveness and what performances are available to him.
Instruments of Destruction (Ex): The Disciple’s weapon… becomes his instrument! By making a sacrifice of 2500 gp to the Metal Gods and ritualistically headbanging for eight hours, he may turn any magical melee weapon into a masterwork instrument; it’s still a goddamn weapon. An axe, for example, may double up as a guitar. As a result of his Metal training, he has no difficulty jamming out in the thick of battle whilst surrounded by ravenous foes (although the restrictions for what actions can be taken while maintaining bardic performance still apply). This instrument grants the Disciple (and only the Disciple) a competence bonus to Perform checks equal to 1/2 his hit dice, in addition to the +2 circumstance bonus for being masterwork. A Disciple can only have one such weapon glorified at a time.
Disciple: At levels 1, 5, and 9, the Disciple grows closer to becoming the epiphany of all things Metal. He chooses an aspect of Metal from the list below.
Deathbringer from the Sky (Ex): The Disciple becomes no mere man. Monstrous and wicked is he, such that he gains a +5 circumstance bonus to Intimidate checks but suffers a -5 circumstance penalty to Diplomacy checks. He gains a climb speed of 30' and a +10 competence bonus to Jump checks. At 10 hit dice, the Disciple gains fly speed equal to his base speed. These changes cannot be reversed by any means short of mutilating the Disciple and remaking his form anew.
Defender of the Faith (Su): The Disciple becomes a champion crusader… of Metal. He gains a +2 sacred bonus to attack rolls against the enemies of Metal, and his attacks deal an additional 2d6 damage against them. (If your DM isn’t up to the nebulous task of determining what constitutes an enemy of Metal, have the bonuses apply to other Bards, Lawful-aligned entities, and creatures of the Fey subtype.) This applies only ot those who fight
Louder than Hell (Su): By means of sundering the veil between worlds and turning it up to eleven, the Disciple of Metal makes his sonic effects louder than the incessant screams of tortured, tormented souls. He treats his hit dice and caster level each as 4 higher for the purpose of determining the range of Bard spells and Cacophonies. Whenever he deals energy damage with a Bard spell or Cacophony, he increases that amount by +1 per die.
Warriors of the World (Ex): The Disciple's personal magnetism reaches so far and wide that he gains the Leadership feat. If he obtains Leadership without the benefit of this class feature, he attracts a great many more warriors by adding his Disciple of Metal class level to his Leadership score for the sole purpose of determining followers gained.
************* and many more choices. ****
Spellcasting: At every even-numbered level in Disciple of Metal, he adds one to his Bard level for spellcasting purposes, granting him new and more powerful spells.
Euphony (Su): At levels 2, 4, and 7, the Disciple selects a Euphony. Euphonies enhance the empowering effects of bardic music and are magnificent for mortal ears to behold. Whenever the Disciple of Metal uses Inspire Courage, Inspire Greatness or Inspire Heroics, his otherwise inferior bardic music becomes Metal by taking on the aspect of a chosen Euphony. He can invoke a known Euphony at will as part of the same action used to create bardic music, and the effects end when the bardic music ends. Only one Euphony may be in effect at any given time (unless multiple Disciples are present, in which case the universe collapses under the sheer weight of the epic splendor to follow). These Euphonies have additional effects when used in conjunction with more potent performances, as listed.
Heaven Can Wait: Those affected gain the ability to defy the grave, resulting in a +4 morale bonus to Will saving throws against channeled negative energy, Fortitude saving throws against Necromancy spells, and the supernatural abilities of the undead (such as energy drain).
Inspire Greatness: They also gain the benefits of Death Ward, making them immune to many such effects.
Inspire Heroics: As Inspire Greatness, except that all saving throw bonuses granted by this Euphony are +8 instead.
Refuse, Resist: Those affected become resistant to magical influences upon the mind, gaining a +3 bonus to saving throws against mind-affecting spells or abilities.
Inspire Greatness: The bonuses are increased to +5.
Inspire Heroics: As Inspire Greatness and they may immediately make a saving throw against any such influences currently upon them.
Through the Fire and Flames: Those affected gain resistance 10 against a single energy type (specified upon activation between acid, cold, fire, electricity or sonic), allowing them to carry on. The Disciple grants 15 points of resistance at 10th level and 20 points at 20th level. The Disciple may wish to rename this ability from time to time to more appropriately match its function, e.g, acidofilia, ride the lightning, under the ice....
Inspire Greatness: They gain double the listed amounts of resistance, up to 40 points at 20th level.
Inspire Heroics: As Inspire Greatness, and the resistance applies against all available energy types instead of one. Yaaaaaaah!
******* ... and many more. ***
Cacophony (Su): At levels 3, 6, and 8, the Disciple selects a Cacophony. Cacophonies wreak destructive havoc upon the battlefield and are generally unpleasant for non-Disciples to listen to. In order to successfully invoke the Metal Gods' power thusly, the Disciple must expend the specified number of daily rounds for bardic performance and make a successful Perform check; if he fails his check, he will have wasted his daily music and his enemies will mock him ‘til death (their death, not his).
Most of these Cacophonies duplicate existing spells, and the manner of spell grows with the Disciple's level. Thus, a single Cacophony might grant him the power to invoke multiple related spells or versions of the same spell with varying DCs and uses of music; in such instances, the Disciple chooses which spell to invoke each time he activates the ability and prior to rolling his Perform check. All spells duplicated through the use of a Cacophony have a save DC of 10 + the spell level + the Disciple’s Charisma modifier, and use the Disciple’s hit die in place of caster level for all purposes.
Children of the Grave: The Disciple's music awakens the dead to do his bidding, as per the spell below.
8th Level (DC 30, 1 rd): Animate Dead
12th Level (DC 35, 3 rds): Create Undead
16th Level (DC 40, 5 rds): Create Greater Undead
Holy Thunderforce (DC 25, 3 rds): The Disciple imbues his instrument of destruction with holy thunderforce: on the weapon's next successful attack, it deals an additional 1d6 damage per character level of the Disciple (max 20d6) to the initial target and all other hapless souls within 10' of them (excluding the attacker); half of this damage is electric, and half of it is divine awesomeness. A Reflex save (DC 10 + ½ Disciple’s hit dice + Charisma modifier) halves this damage. The imbue lasts for 1 minute per caster level or until discharged.
Master of Puppets: The Disciple twists the mind and pulls the strings of a single poor bastard, as per the potent enchantment below. There are two important differences between this cacophony and casting the spell. First, the duration is reduced to eighty-six rounds (8 minutes, 36 seconds). Once under the effect, victims suffer a -2 penalty on saving throws against it triggered by being forced to act against their nature.
8th Level (DC 25, 3 rds): Dominate Person
16th Level (DC 45, 6 rds): Dominate Monster
Some Kind of Monster (DC 25, 3 rds): The sheer brutality of the Disciple of Metal’s playing becomes so monstrous that he attracts the attention of extraplanar entities bent on total destruction. This cacophony invokes Summon Monster of the highest level that a Sorcerer of the Disciple's caster level could cast, e.g Summon Monster VII for a 14th level Disciple. The Disciple of Metal can only summon “monsters” of non-good alignment; once summoned, such creatures proceed to attack anything in sight that’s nearby or possibly perceived as threatening. It will not attack Disciples of Metal, but he cannot control it and it will probably devour his allies at some point.
Symphony of Destruction (DC 25, 1 rd): The Disciple deals 1d6 sonic damage per two caster levels to enemies and unattended objects within 100' from him, plus 10' per caster level. Since nothing is harder or heavier than Heavy Metal, this damage bypasses hardness. It is considered an important rite of passage for Disciples with this ability to level at least one fortified stronghold through repeated uses of this song.
*** ... and at least a dozen more. ***
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So, there ya go. The reason I'm posting this topic is to see if I can gauge and spark interest in the Disciple of Metal. I'll be starting the Kickstarter pitch soon and it'd be cool to know what sort of reception to expect. Thanks everyone for your time and your input.
I've got a homebrew class that is basically what you are setting out to make. A couple Campaigns back a player presented his creation, the Cleric of Rock. One of the key features was Face-melting Solo, where a Cleric of Rock would spontaneously substitute a spell for a AoE sonic attack. He replaced Bardic knowledge with Knowledge of the Roadie. Another cool ability was Windmill, a feat for Clerics of Rock who use guitars that allows the PC to "windmill" the guitar and do ranged touch attacks for 1d10 sonic damage. There was also level progression for drug and poison resistance. I'll post the pathfinder adaptation I created later this week.
Im not going to take away from your awesome project, be we at little red did the rockstar base class in our gonzo book that would be a good full bab companion to your disciple of metal.
That's awesome. It's refreshing to see there are others who appreciate a healthy dose of Rock/Metal in their adventuring.
O-K. The Kickstarter for this project is UP. Pardon the present lack of an embedded video, I've outsourced that to YouTube for the time being:
Rock on.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461682152/disciple-of-metal