how is retrieveing a drum from your hip faster than drawing a blade from its sheath?You wouldn't "retrieve" it. You'd literally start hitting it in place as-is. The drum doesn't move.Should probably add some context here, I suppose.
If you're playing a bard, the fact you can use an instrument in place of somatic and material components is really nice and wonderful for class flavour.
The "frustrating" part of it is that if you're e.g. ambushed and have no instrument in your hand, you have to spend an action to pull one out before you can cast somatic or material spells with it. This means you're better off just having a component pouch, because you can handle those unexpected situations at full efficiency without loss of actions.
The unfortunate situation right now is that if you want to be as flavorful as possible, you need to hedge against not having an instrument in hand.
It would have been nice if Summon Instrument was a free action to account for this, but that ship has sailed. It's not a big deal, but it would be nice to have reliable casting through instruments without explicitly carrying an instrument at all times. :)
Retrieving your focus your instrument is part of the spell unless you are using a divine or primal focus. You don't need to spend an action to cast a spell that you need your instrument for. So there is no issue here.
I'm not sure I have a great answer here, simply to say that in general the easiest thing is going to be to have a spell component pouch and some sort of instrument, if that's the route you want to go.
On the bard I built I went with perform oratory as their primary performance focus, but also had castanets as a backup (since oratory doesn't work to substitute spells).
Honestly, the whole instrument thing for substituting spell components doesn't actually work very well.
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The answer is easy his problem is based on the premise that you have to draw your instrument as a separate action but that is not the case. The problem is based on an action that is completely unnessary.
" A focus is an object that funnels the magical energy of the spell. The spell gains the manipulate trait and requires you to either have a free hand to retrieve the focus listed in the spell or already be holding the focus in your hand. As part of Casting the Spell, you retrieve the focus (if necessary), manipulate it, and can stow it again if you so choose.
Foci tend to be expensive, and you need to acquire them in advance to Cast the Spell." Core Rulebook pg. 303
I think the goal is not having an instrument choice that is better or worse than others.
The answer is easy his problem is based on the premise that you have to draw your instrument as a separate action but that is not the case. The problem is based on an action that is completely unnessary.
" A focus is an object that funnels the magical energy of the spell. The spell gains the manipulate trait and requires you to either have a free hand to retrieve the focus listed in the spell or already be holding the focus in your hand. As part of Casting the Spell, you retrieve the focus (if necessary), manipulate it, and can stow it again if you so choose.Foci tend to be expensive, and you need to acquire them in advance to Cast the Spell." Core Rulebook pg. 303
You've said this twice now I believe, and I'm not sure whether or not it's true or whether or not I agree with it.
Certainly if it's true it removes the problem the OP is having trouble with.
But the rules about bards substituting an instrument don't call it a focus. It simply says you can replace material and verbal components and don't need an extra free hand.
You draw upon magic from esoteric knowledge. You can cast occult spells using the Cast a Spell activity, and you can supply material, somatic, and verbal components when casting spells (see Casting Spells on page 302). Because you’re a bard, you can usually play an instrument for spells requiring somatic or material components, as long as it takes at least one of your hands to do so. If you use an instrument, you don’t need a spell component pouch or another hand free. You can usually also play an instrument for spells requiring verbal components, instead of speaking.
Where are you finding rules that clearly indicate that the instrument is a focus?
The answer is easy his problem is based on the premise that you have to draw your instrument as a separate action but that is not the case. The problem is based on an action that is completely unnessary.
" A focus is an object that funnels the magical energy of the spell. The spell gains the manipulate trait and requires you to either have a free hand to retrieve the focus listed in the spell or already be holding the focus in your hand. As part of Casting the Spell, you retrieve the focus (if necessary), manipulate it, and can stow it again if you so choose.Foci tend to be expensive, and you need to acquire them in advance to Cast the Spell." Core Rulebook pg. 303
You've said this twice now I believe, and I'm not sure whether or not it's true or whether or not I agree with it.
Certainly if it's true it removes the problem the OP is having trouble with.
But the rules about bards substituting an instrument don't call it a focus. It simply says you can replace material and verbal components and don't need an extra free hand.
Where are you finding rules that clearly indicate that the instrument is a focus?You draw upon magic from esoteric knowledge. You can cast occult spells using the Cast a Spell activity, and you can supply material, somatic, and verbal components when casting spells (see Casting Spells on page 302). Because you’re a bard, you can usually play an instrument for spells requiring somatic or material components, as long as it takes at least one of your hands to do so. If you use an instrument, you don’t need a spell component pouch or another hand free. You can usually also play an instrument for spells requiring verbal components, instead of speaking.
"Page 303: In the Component Substitutions sidebar,
replace the second paragraph with the following to avoidimplying changes to action traits.
If you’re a bard Casting a Spell from the occult tradition, you
can usually play an instrument for spells requiring somatic or
material components, as long as it takes at least one of your
hands to do so. If you use an instrument, you don’t need a
spell component pouch or another hand free. You can usually also play an instrument for spells requiring verbal components, instead of speaking."
This is form the first errata I think I found the source of the confusion. Before the errata, you had to have it out beforehand but know you don't need too. This change of removed the " Unlike the normal rules for a focus component, you can’t retrieve or stow the
instrument when making this substitution." So the confusion came from a rule that was changed or an error.
Man, if you only use the PRD as your rules resource (like me) I doubt you would ever find that sidebar.
It's really useful in explaining things, but putting important pieces of information like this in sidebars has made for a bad online experience, couple with this being changed in errata from the understanding we had.
So it does work as you suggest, but only since that errata.
It's also kind of weird because you can whip out your accordion (from your backpack?) to cast a spell very quickly, but if you just want to play it normally it's going to be much more challenging to get it out quickly...which is really weird.
But does mean that trying to use an instrument in place of spell components is actually viable.
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It's also kind of weird because you can whip out your accordion (from your backpack?) to cast a spell very quickly, but if you just want to play it normally it's going to be much more challenging to get it out quickly...which is really weird.
But does mean that trying to use an instrument in place of spell components is actually viable.
Presumably it follows all the normal rules for getting out an item, like having to use an extra Interact action to access your backpack unless it's stowed more accessibly. I'd guess that the change was exactly so that you can say that you're wearing your sax with a strap or using a harmonica-bandolier or performing a psionic iado with a boomwhacker or, y'know, any of that flavourful stuff.
As far as getting it out quicker for a spell than otherwise... It's only relevant for spells cast quicker than two actions (since Perform is a single action anyway), but that's not a bad point. It does, however, lead to the scenario where most any Bard could just as easily draw their instrument with a quick strum and a flourish to self-cast Guidance, which is very thematic and cool.
(That's assuming that you can still auto-draw it to provide Verbal components rather than just Material, which I might not be correct about. If not, it's pretty moot since Material spells tend to be longer than it takes to draw-and-perform anyway.)