Does Soothing Performance require you spend four Bardic Performance charges, or can it be activated after having been in effect by Lingering or Harmonic spell?
This makes a huge difference.
A bard at level 12 will have 26+Cha Bardic Performances, and 25+Cha spell casts.
If the Bard needs to be actively performing, Soothing Performance can only be used 6+(2+Cha)/4 times.
If the Bard does not need to be actively performing and can have the performance carried through spellcasting and lingering, the Bard only needs to spend 1 Bardic Performance charge and 1 spell to meet the 4 round requirement.
This means a Bard can effect a Mass Cure Serious Wounds at least 25+Cha times. Significantly more Soothings than before.
Another pair of questions in this same vein of thought:
- Does Harmonic Spell reset Lingering Performance? Worded differently, can casting a spell in lingering rounds lead to more lingering rounds?
- If you perform Soothing Performance for 5 rounds, does it count as having performed for 4 continuous rounds twice? Or do you have to perform for 4 distinct sets of rounds to effect Mass Cure Serious Wounds twice?
If the answers to both questions are "yes", then Soothing Performance can be used far more times than listed above. The bard would simply alternate between spellcasting and harmonic spelling in between lingers to add 50+2*Cha extra rounds of performance.
This means the Bard performs Soothing Performance for at least 150 rounds. This is at least 38 distinct sets of 4-round performances OR at least 147 overlapping sets of 4-round performances.
