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I'm running a rather silly adventure involving rival adventuring parties, all of whom also play together as bands. This means there will be a large number of major NPCs and so I was wondering if anyone could recommend specific archetypes and/or race combinations well-suited thematically and/or mechanically to the different bands. It doesn't need to be optimized, but it does need to be at least functional. I'm also making Perform a class skill for everybody.
So far I have:
Stakes n' Bones, a hair metal band who hunt vampires
On vocals and guitar: dhampir inquisitor (kinslayer)
On solo guitar: half-elf skald (Fated Champion)
On bass: human sorcerer (shadow bloodline)
On drums: catfolk bloodrager (Destined bloodline, Prowler at World's End archetype)
could maybe also use a paladin or cleric on keyboards or something
Putrid Chalice, a death metal band who worship disease
On vocals: human spiritualist (Grim Apostle, with the pestilence phantom)
On lead guitar: aasimar (angelblooded) antipaladin (blighted myrmidon)
On drums: ratfolk alchemist (ectoplasm adept, plague bearer, vivisectionist)
On keyboards: probably a human bard (provocateur)?
Might also give these guys a cleric of Apollyon or some other disease god
Thud and Blunder, an orcish metal band along the lines of Lordi or Gwar
On vocals and guitar: orc barbarian (invulnerable rager)
On backup vocals: half-elf skald (demon dancer)
On drums: orc brawler (constructed pugilist)
On keyboard: half-orc sorcerer (red dragon bloodline)/dragon disciple
The Silver Mountain Band, a country band who hunt monsters
On guitar and lead vocal: human bard (silver balladeer)
On harmonica: human ranger (two-weapon style, not sure about animal companion)
On string bass and backup vocal: dwarf druid (menhir savant)
On banjo and backup vocal: tengu gunslinger (pistolero)
Vvviper, a glam metal band who are part of a snake cult
On guitar and lead vocal: vishkanya skald (serpent herald)
On backup guitar: vishkanya sorcerer (serpentine bloodline)
On bass: vishkanya gunslinger (mysterious stranger)
On drums: nagaji monk (scaled fist)
On keytar: human shifter (weretouched, deinonychus focus)
Also considering an occult-based R&B group and a Cthulhu-worshiping prog rock band.
Any more character options I should consider or ways to improve what I already have?
looks pretty good. Reminds me of a Nightbane game I ran(Palladium books product) where the group were all part of a band prior to their transformation. They too battled rival bands of Hounds and other nasties, in Rock-Offs (I came up with a whole system for writing songs and hitting power cords, ballads, knee slides, etc. to "damage" the opposition and win the battle of the bands) It was silly but great fun.
The iron maiden
Guitar: Yalexia succubus bard
Bass: Katrina erinyes Inquisitor
Drums: Killha kiton summoner
Singer: Shanna harpy sorcerer (maestro bloodline)
This girl's will sing your last song
Updates:
A zydeco band (most of whom are scaleheart skinwalkers), a southwestern rock band along the lines of Tom Petty or Kansas (fronted by an acid dragon sorcerer), an anarchist sludge metal band, and a riot grrrl group (including a changeling witch, a triadic cleric, and a half-orc sister-in-arms cavalier).
The main villains are an easy listening quartet of a vampire antipaladin crooner, a ghoul cleric who sings duets with him, a lich piano player, a kyton skald saxophone player.
The thing I'm having trouble with now is that I'm trying to come up with a doowop/early Motown type band, because it's one of my favourite genres but I also feel like it's not as personality-driven or as theatrical as some of these other genres. Aside from the frontman being a thundercaller bard (in honour of "Shout" by the Isley Brothers) I have nothing.
Might also add a '70s funk band but the only idea I have there is some kind of fire mage or pyrokineticist (in honour of "Fire" by the Ohio Players).
Any character options that work with either genre?
A band that spends its time battling undead versions of previous drummers, all of whom died in mysterious circumstances.
Updates:
A zydeco band (most of whom are scaleheart skinwalkers), a southwestern rock band along the lines of Tom Petty or Kansas (fronted by an acid dragon sorcerer), an anarchist sludge metal band, and a riot grrrl group (including a changeling witch, a triadic cleric, and a half-orc sister-in-arms cavalier).
The main villains are an easy listening quartet of a vampire antipaladin crooner, a ghoul cleric who sings duets with him, a lich piano player, a kyton skald saxophone player.The thing I'm having trouble with now is that I'm trying to come up with a doowop/early Motown type band, because it's one of my favourite genres but I also feel like it's not as personality-driven or as theatrical as some of these other genres. Aside from the frontman being a thundercaller bard (in honour of "Shout" by the Isley Brothers) I have nothing.
Might also add a '70s funk band but the only idea I have there is some kind of fire mage (in honour of "Fire" by the Ohio Players).
Any character options that work with either genre?
A catman psychic with psychedelia discipline to emulate a hippie of the 70
A band that spends its time battling undead versions of previous drummers, all of whom died in mysterious circumstances.
Would definitely need a dwarf druid in there somewhere.
A catman psychic with psychedelia discipline to emulate a hippie of the 70
Hippies didn't really listen to funk, though. A psychedelia psychic would definitely fit into one of the other bands (probably the southwestern guys, who have kind of an acid rock vibe).
Have you seen the Rockstar from Gonzo? How about the Breakdancer, Harmonicist, or Cantor from Composition Magic on the Spheres of Power wiki? These four classes lend themselves well to adventuring parties as bands.
I was thinking of a Josie and the Pussycats type vibe through your favorite campaign world!
Have you seen the Rockstar from Gonzo? How about the Breakdancer, Harmonicist, or Cantor from Composition Magic on the Spheres of Power wiki? These four classes lend themselves well to adventuring parties as bands.
I was thinking of a Josie and the Pussycats type vibe through your favorite campaign world!
It feels a bit cheap to me, using third-party content that's already in there as a joke. This whole thing is only funny if it repurposes things that are fairly serious for comedic effect.
A quartet of cavaliers, all Order of the Blossom, use their Enthrall ability as part of their act; they are of course called The Corsairs (make them Mowtown in genre).
A trio of changeling witches form a Coven, singing their coven spells around a unique cauldron that, instead of boiling things in they burn things in instead. They keep rhythm by snapping and generally one takes the lead while the other two "Oohh" a harmony (doo-wop) and call themselves The Shrew-Ells (y'know... like the Shirelles?)
A trio of spellcasters: an Ifrit sorcerer with the Elemental (Fire) bloodline, one an Evangelist Cleric with the Earth Domain and one as a Sylph Sky Druid, perform funk-rock and disco with panache! They call themselves Fire, Earth and Wind...
Oh wait I forgot to ask: are puns ok?
Some great ideas here but I don't get all of them. Not quite sure what the Order of the Blossom Corsairs joke is. That would be a solid name for a motown act, definitely. I'm also trying to have a bit more variety in each band, and give each one either a bard or skald on deck.
I do have a riot grrl trio (currently called Brat Worst, but I'm open to suggestions on that one) who are a changeling witch, a half-orc Sister-in-Arms cavalier, and a human cleric with the triadic priest archetype.
Don't know why I didn't think of an Earth, Wind, and Fire-inspired elementalist group. That's brilliant.
Yes, puns are okay. I have an all-catfolk metal band whose lead singer is an oracle with the Deafened curse. You might call him a deaf leopard.
Also, the drummer is a Constructed Pugilist brawler.
This might be too ambitious but I'd love to have another funk band with like a sci-fi motif, the way Parliament Funkadelic were always singing about spaceships and things.
i had a group of npc performing as a band called 'the children of the night'. they were all out of the closet (coffin?) vampires. they refused to charm their fans, but had little problem getting a meal out of them (fans do crazy stuff after all). the party's paladin had to deal with the fact that beside being an unholy abominations they didn't break any law or forced anything on anyone (at least that the party could find)