It's a sweet ability from the Bardic Performance, but is there a limit on how many foes are targeted at once, or is it one target per three levels?
Thank you, much.
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"an enemy must be within 30 feet and able to see and hear the bard's performance."
The number of targets is unlimited, but they need to be able to both hear and see the bard performance. Blind or deaf opponents, creatures that close their eyes, darkness can all stop it. In that, it is different from most other performances, as they can be either visual or auditive.
On the plus side, it has no limit based on HD or saves.
Plus, it is a "mind-affecting fear effect", so people immune to fear or mind-affecting effects are unaffected.
Generally, I prefer Inspire courage, but it depends on the number of opponents and the party composition.
As a Bard, I have found that there are very few instances where it is better to debuff than to buff.
Some very situational debuffs may be clutch [when they are needed], but when I can give all my allies within 30' a +9 to attack and damage, plus 1D6 sonic damage, plus Haste... we can generally chew up full strength enemies just fine...
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As a Bard, I have found that there are very few instances where it is better to debuff than to buff.
Some very situational debuffs may be clutch [when they are needed], but when I can give all my allies within 30' a +9 to attack and damage, plus 1D6 sonic damage, plus Haste... we can generally chew up full strength enemies just fine...
If for some reason your party is made of full spellcasters and a bard, Dirge of Doom would be more powerful.
;-)
If you want to be really good with Dirge of Doom, you could take Dazzling Display and max your Intimidate and get Improved Dirge of Doom for 60ft radius no max target Frighten. Round1 Dazzling Display, Round2 Dirge of Doom/Frighten. Your DM will consider nuking you from orbit every sesh ;)
As a Bard, I have found that there are very few instances where it is better to debuff than to buff.
Some very situational debuffs may be clutch [when they are needed], but when I can give all my allies within 30' a +9 to attack and damage, plus 1D6 sonic damage, plus Haste... we can generally chew up full strength enemies just fine...
If for some reason your party is made of full spellcasters and a bard, Dirge of Doom would be more powerful.
;-)
If they are made up of full casters, it would be better to just use inspire greatness and give them +2 CL. Granted you have to wait a level after you gain Dirge of Doom, and it's single target until level 12, but still way more useful than dirge.
If it was a party of all spellcasters, the Bard would probably be a Magician to help out with CL and concentration checks. Or possibly even a Dwarven Scholar handing out Allied Spellcaster...?
Either way, that boss fight in Crimson Throne sounds ridiculous... I love Bards, but WTF?
The best part is because of some of the spells and abilities bards get, they become some of the best AC tanks around level 15.
@Avatar-stealing-afon, emphasis mine.
A bard of 9th level or higher can use his performance to inspire greatness in himself or a single willing ally within 30 feet, granting extra fighting capability. For every three levels a bard attains beyond 9th, he can target one additional ally while using this performance (up to a maximum of four at 18th level). To inspire greatness, all of the targets must be able to see and hear the bard. A creature inspired with greatness gains 2 bonus Hit Dice (d10s), the commensurate number of temporary hit points (apply the target’s Constitution modifier, if any, to these bonus Hit Dice), a +2 competence bonus on attack rolls, and a +1 competence bonus on Fortitude saves. The bonus Hit Dice count as regular Hit Dice for determining the effect of spells that are Hit Dice dependent. Inspire greatness is a mind-affecting ability and it relies on audible and visual components.
There's two ways I have seen people interpret this: It's specifically referring to just how many HD you have when determining if someone else's abilities target you, not necessarily your abilities, for example checking if someone has too many HD to be dazed by a daze spell or the holy word spell and its variants. The other interpretation is that it's raising your HD with all aspects of spells, and the HD are just "normal HD" which isn't really anything. Assuming the former explanation isn't correct (at least that's how I've ruled it in the past), why wouldn't "normal HD" in a normal circumstance be a class level in whatever your class is?
The only reason I see that it wouldn't work is that you can multiclass, but that's not the expected norm by Paizo. And even if you did, your spell casting is already nerfed, so why is getting +2 CL to multiple casting classes so bad; it doesn't grant you new spells or slots, it just raises CL as if by spell specialization.
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The best part is because of some of the spells and abilities bards get, they become some of the best AC tanks around level 15.
@Avatar-stealing-afon, emphasis mine.
A bard of 9th level or higher can use his performance to inspire greatness in himself or a single willing ally within 30 feet, granting extra fighting capability. For every three levels a bard attains beyond 9th, he can target one additional ally while using this performance (up to a maximum of four at 18th level). To inspire greatness, all of the targets must be able to see and hear the bard. A creature inspired with greatness gains 2 bonus Hit Dice (d10s), the commensurate number of temporary hit points (apply the target’s Constitution modifier, if any, to these bonus Hit Dice), a +2 competence bonus on attack rolls, and a +1 competence bonus on Fortitude saves. The bonus Hit Dice count as regular Hit Dice for determining the effect of spells that are Hit Dice dependent. Inspire greatness is a mind-affecting ability and it relies on audible and visual components.There's two ways I have seen people interpret this: It's specifically referring to just how many HD you have when determining if someone else's abilities target you, not necessarily your abilities, for example checking if someone has too many HD to be dazed by a daze spell or the holy word spell and its variants. The other interpretation is that it's raising your HD with all aspects of spells, and the HD are just "normal HD" which isn't really anything. Assuming the former explanation isn't correct (at least that's how I've ruled it in the past), why wouldn't "normal HD" in a normal circumstance be a class level in whatever your class is?
The only reason I see that it wouldn't work is that you can multiclass, but that's not the expected norm by Paizo. And even if you did, your spell casting is already nerfed, so why is getting +2 CL to multiple casting classes so bad; it doesn't grant you new spells or slots, it just raises CL as if by...
HDs don't change the effect of spells, what matters is CL.
For some class or racial ability your HD count as CL, but only those that say that you use your HDs to calculate your CL.I fail to see how someone can read it the second way, as it is against the rules.
It is even against the actual text of the ability "The bonus Hit Dice count as regular Hit Dice for determining the effect of spells that are Hit Dice dependent." Very clearly limited.
In fact, the only time I have ever used Dirge of Doom for a bard, was the final boss fight of Crimson throne, where [SPOILERS!]
Please, edit your post if you can^^
Please, edit your post if you can^^In fact, the only time I have ever used Dirge of Doom for a bard, was the final boss fight of Crimson throne, where [SPOILERS!]
Unfortunately you can't edit after like a couple minutes after you post. My bad. Flagged for deletion, maybe someone will notice.
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Unfortunately you can't edit after like a couple minutes after you post. My bad. Flagged for deletion, maybe someone will notice.Please, edit your post if you can^^In fact, the only time I have ever used Dirge of Doom for a bard, was the final boss fight of Crimson throne, where [SPOILERS!]
You can edit for 1 hour after you post.
You can flag for the insertion of spoiler tags.
I could swear I have gotten errors trying to edit like only 5 minutes after I post... but also I have never flagged anything before, so thanks for the tip.
If someone quotes your post, you cannot edit it anymore. And if you edit it TOO quickly, the spam filter will deny it.
I copy all the text of pretty much everything I post on this site before hitting Submit... specifically because this site has eaten hours worth of typing before or as I try post it. So, like Bethseda games and AutoDesk programs, save/sync often, because a crash is inevitable.
If you want to be really good with Dirge of Doom, you could take Dazzling Display and max your Intimidate and get Improved Dirge of Doom for 60ft radius no max target Frighten. Round1 Dazzling Display, Round2 Dirge of Doom/Frighten. Your DM will consider nuking you from orbit every sesh ;)
Improved/Greater Dirge-O-Doom goes very well with the Memorable trait.
Still not sure if it's that much better than any other Inimidation build... given it comes at the expense of the Bard buffing. Theres so many "display" and "finish" feats that do not require you to be an 8th level Bard, or a Bard at all, for that matter.
Not saying a Bard (or Shadowbard) using Dirge-O-Doom is bad, and nothing is stopping a Bard from using the aforementioned "display" and "finish" feats... an Adventurer's Guide Ringleader Bard Grippli can extend the range of Dirge-O-Doom with their FCB, and gets Dazzling Display with a 120' range. Lol.