| Indi523 |
So this is my idea for a campaign.
The party starts out as members of a circus troupe. They are all experienced newbies. They can be any race or class but not repeat classes. So only one Bard, one Rogue etc, The way to start characters as being similar I would limit the backgrounds to the following list:
Acrobat (Trapeze Artist)
Animal Whisperer (Lion Tamer)
Artisan (Tent Builder and Design)
Charlatan (Side show barker)
Entertainer (Clown)
Fortune Teller (Spiritualist)
Laborer (Tent Raiser)
Merchant (Master of Ceremonies)
Teamster (Animal Hustler)
Street Urchin (Little boy or girl that ran away and joined the circus)
The party would not see themselves as "adventurers". Instead they would go from town setting up shop to entertain and would you know it they would always find themselves having to save the town from some monster or problem every week..
It would start out as a "monster of the week" serial show and eventually would have a running plot line with recurring villians and goals.
At second level members can multiclass as normal but for them the Bard Dedication would be a free feat if they want to take it. They still have to pay for other Bard archetype feats and cannot take an additional Bard acrchetype feat at 2nd level and must take a class feat. Also they still can't take a 3rd dedication until they have two other Bard Dedication feats and must meet the Bard Prerequisites. Characters do not have to take the Bard Dedication if they do not want to. I am considering those that don't should be able to take one of the following for free instead ( breath control, feather step, fleet or Experienced Professional).
Lastly every party member gains the Skill Lore: Circus for free.
What do you guys think.
Obviously this will work better when they eventually release all the unusual races that they have in 1e but still cool idea right!
| Ron Lundeen Developer |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
You know we've got this coming, right? It's a great idea, and one we're doing very much like you describe!
| Staffan Johansson |
I probably wouldn't give them the free Bard dedication feat - the bard is a class that melds performance with mysticism, and that's not appropriate for all sorts of performers. The dedication feat gives cantrips, Occultism, and Performance - so it's about 2/3 about the mystical aspect.
What I might do instead if I wanted to encourage a bit of bardery would be to allow them to take the Bard Dedication feat without enforcing the "two more dedication feats" rule for it. That would allow those who want to dip their toe into it without locking them in.
| Indi523 |
I probably wouldn't give them the free Bard dedication feat - the bard is a class that melds performance with mysticism, and that's not appropriate for all sorts of performers. The dedication feat gives cantrips, Occultism, and Performance - so it's about 2/3 about the mystical aspect.
What I might do instead if I wanted to encourage a bit of bardery would be to allow them to take the Bard Dedication feat without enforcing the "two more dedication feats" rule for it. That would allow those who want to dip their toe into it without locking them in.
That is a good point. It is why I thought they could take the other four feats without taking the Bard feat. I don't mind the occult theme to the party however as it is the Circus so it should have that 19th century spiritualist vibe to it.
Still that might be a better idea.
| Sabazius |
I love this as a campaign premise, but giving the bard dedication feat out for free, while thematically interesting, is equivalent to giving everyone two free occult cantrips (and a muse which doesn’t do anything). For anyone who wants to pursue bardic stuff further, I guess it’s one feat you don’t need to take, but the dedication feat is hardly a tax anyway. Meanwhile, this would really discourage me from playing a bard, since all the other players would have a mechanical incentive to encroach in my niche.
Alternative option 1: give everyone trained proficiency in performance, let them use their classes’ key ability instead of charisma to make performance checks.
Alternative option 2: give everyone trained rank in performance, have them pick a suitable skill and let them substitute a performance check for that skill. If you want a more cartoony feel, let them do it with any skill checks, maybe cha mod times per day. Basically looney tunes rules!
| Seisho |
An alternative to the bard dedication could be the dedication to a divine caster of any sorts with Shelyn (or another god(des) of arts and creation) as their patron god - that gives them perform or craft as trained skill
generally, performance for everyone on the performing site seems like a good idea, some though probably should get different skills
the guy who builds up the tent has more likely athletics
the acrobat, well I don't have to write down this one :P (but additional performance might also be fitting)
the ringmaster has probably 'Lore: Circus'
in general, Lore Circus seems like a somewhat likely thing to have
| Indi523 |
I love this as a campaign premise, but giving the bard dedication feat out for free, while thematically interesting, is equivalent to giving everyone two free occult cantrips (and a muse which doesn’t do anything). For anyone who wants to pursue bardic stuff further, I guess it’s one feat you don’t need to take, but the dedication feat is hardly a tax anyway. Meanwhile, this would really discourage me from playing a bard, since all the other players would have a mechanical incentive to encroach in my niche.
Alternative option 1: give everyone trained proficiency in performance, let them use their classes’ key ability instead of charisma to make performance checks.
Alternative option 2: give everyone trained rank in performance, have them pick a suitable skill and let them substitute a performance check for that skill. If you want a more cartoony feel, let them do it with any skill checks, maybe cha mod times per day. Basically looney tunes rules!
Hi, may take on this was the Bard's abilities which I believe they call composition spells. The ability to fascinate crowds, inspire courage etc. was something that I felt would be a given for the circus. From a DM's perspective I was not worried about the cantrips affecting power that much. As to the stepping on other's niche I felt that in this case the theme of the campaign is such that it is essentially about a group of bards i.e. performers and artists and thus one would have to find levels of bardic performance abilities to stand out. One person may be the dancer, the other can sing, another can fascinate the crowd as an announcer while others play act out on stage. Everyone including the guy who puts up the tent would be expected to learn some ability with that. However, checking the details of the Bard class it appears they do not have a focus spell for the one thing from 1e I was thinking about. The fascination ability with their performance.
The closest thing I am seeing is the spell hypnotic pattern which while useful to a character in this setting is not what I envision. So I may have to rethink this altogether. I am not sure how to fix this as I don't see any mention of using performance to fascinate crowds in the book. ?!? I must be missing something.
| Indi523 |
Hey Guys
Someone just pointed to me where it was and it fixes the whole Bard dedication issue.
The feat Fascinating Performance covers the old 1e Bard ability and anyone can have it. It is a performance skill feat not a bard class feat.
Therefore the modification I am going to make is instead of getting the Bard Dedication feat for free everyone gets the Fascinating Performance feat at first level regardless of prerequisites. Still not useful if one does not have at least trained in Performance though so maybe they get that skill gratas as well but probably not. This encourages every character to take that skill.
This could result in interesting roleplaying. The tent maker for instance could wait till higher level to take the feat and the way we played this out is they surprise everyone by making a performance for the first time. This way players have fun with it. They can't wow the crowd since the start of the campaign but through roleplaying come out with a virtuoso performance. This would give options to add fun to the campaign.
I like it! Thank you guys for pointing this out.