A Bard Idea

[kinfoe]

I am building a bard who tells dad jokes. i am wondering is there a way to make inspiring courage to give enemies -1 instead of +1 to party or something along those line. by the way this is a home game

[Dave Justus]

The Court Bard does exactly that.

The issue is though it isn't as powerful. You can pretty much count on inspire courage working on your party all the time. Satire, being mind effecting and language dependent will only work some of the time.

That isn't to say you can't make a fun character like this, but the numbers won't be as good as other choices.

[Oli Ironbar]

Bewildering Koan is a gnome feat. It forces an enemy to lose its next action and has a relatively static DC for you to beat instead of a save for the enemy to make.

Perhaps the Dad jokes are so bad it pauses all conscious thought.

Just looked at the pre-req and you would need a Ki pool (which you can get with another feat, Perfect Style).

[Arachnofiend]

Given it's a home game it'd be a reasonable house rule to make Satire just be as "always on" as Inspire Courage is; it isn't going to make you too powerful if you can debuff enemies that don't speak Common.

[strayshift]

Having played a Court Bard believe me it is a beast of an archetype, one of the best. The debuff (dad joke) is language dependant yes but you have ways around that (lingustics and tongues) and there is a flat footed debuff performance which has won battles for us (and made the rogue very happy). The main debuff however makes you an enchantment caster monster second only to the kitsune sorcerer (at 12th level I have save dcs of 30)as well as giving an ac and damage reduction boost to your party.

When monsters are immune to your performance/enchantments you can buff (haste, heroism, etc) and skillwise you are effectively a diplomancer as well with rerolls to diplomacy and the ability to use performance skills to have exceptional bluff/intimidate/sense motive skills.

Then there are the eldritch heritage possibilities... (Maestro, and be able to tell bad jokes to anyone?)

[Mysterious Stranger]

Since this is a home consider the +1 the party gets as being caused by the reaction of the opponents to your jokes. Keep the game mechanics and simply change the fluff of your inspire courage. As long as your GM is ok with this it should be fine.

Any penalty you impose on your opponents will probably get a will save, so it is best to give the party a bonus.