Bard

Bards are those who have learned history, oral tradition, music, and performance. They travel widely, looking for inspiration for the next great ballad or epic poem. Bards are welcome additions to most adventuring crews as they have several useful skills to assist other characters.

A Bard must have a minimum Charisma score of 13, a Dexterity score of 11, and an Intelligence score of 11.

Bards receive a +2 bonus on any saves associated with music, dance, performance, song, or singing, whether by spell or by a creature’s special ability (other bards’ songs, siren’s song, pipes of pan, or similar effects).

A Bard is limited to one-handed melee weapons, and they may use short bows, light crossbows, or slings. A Bard may wear light armor and shields. A Bard can utilize magical items as a thief and may use musical magical items at increased proficiency (as determined by the DM).

Having strong musical background, a Bard’s ear for music grants them the Thief ability to Listen at an equivalent level. The ability is generally used to listen at a door, or to try to listen for distant sounds in a dungeon. The DM must decide what noises the character might be able to hear; a successful roll does not mean that a noise has been heard, but rather that a noise might have been heard. The GM should always make this roll for the player. Also note that the Bard and their party must try to be quiet in order for the character to use this ability.

Bards are also very inclined to acrobatic performance and dance, allowing Bards to Tumble and Evade quite well. When subjected to an area-affecting spell or similar situations, the Bard takes 1/2 damage if successful with their tumble check; 1/4 damage if the relevant save is also successful. The tumble ability may also spare the Bard from situations such as parting shots by opponents when retreating. The DM may reference this ability for other such situations as they see fit.

A Bard may learn two additional languages beyond what their race and intelligence score normally allows, however these additional languages are not part of the beginning set and must be learned during the course of game play.

Because a Bard travels widely collecting historical details, legends, and various bits of locale lore, they have the ability to come up with useful information. Often this Lore ability allows a Bard to intuitively put together details regarding locales, notable persons, or even details about magical items. In any event, the DM is warned not to give out full or detailed information, but rather vague bits of lore that may or may not be entirely accurate. Information outside the milieu or other meta-game information is never made available to characters.

This collecting of information from various sources also predisposes a Bard to be able to translate or read various writings (regardless of language used) through comparison, deductive reasoning, and sometimes a bit of guesswork. It takes about 10 minutes to Decipher text consisting of a page of normal sized handwriting, whether successful or not in translating the script. The DM may adjust the chance of success and time requirements for various factors such as size of texts, obscurity of language, or even penmanship.

The Decipher text ability can also used by the Bard to cast spells from scrolls, regardless of the scroll’s associated class. The reading takes the entire round, and the Bard can do nothing else during that time, not even defend themselves (-4 penalty to AC and no shield or dexterity bonus). Any such spell scroll is consumed by the attempt, and the chance of success is modified by -5% per level of the spell. For instance, a 9th-level Bard (50% basic chance) consuming a fireball spell (-15% for 3rd level spell) has a 35% chance of success. Such spells are always cast at the minimum level that such a spell can be cast by its associated class. The mentioned fireball spell would be at 5th-level caster, the minimum that a Magic-User could otherwise produce the spell.

When in a non-violent situation or at least a situation where active combat has not yet been initiated, a Bard may attempt to Influence the reactions of nearby individuals or groups. The targets must be intelligent or otherwise capable of appreciating the music or performance (as determined by the DM); mindless undead, constructs, animated objects, slimes, or other similar beings are always immune. Using the Bard’s preferred performance style (see Chosen Instrument below), the subjects must make a save vs. Spells to resist the influence. The target’s save is adjusted by its wisdom modifier (if any), but is penalized by the Bard’s charisma modifier and a further 1 point for each 5 levels of the Bard (5th +1, 10th +2, 15th +3, 20th +4). Those that fail their save have their reactions shifted in the direction the Bard desires, while those that succeed recognize the attempt and their reactions are shifted in the opposite direction. Each subsequent attempt to further modify reactions gives the targets a cumulative +2 bonus on their save, with any failure erasing all gains by the Bard at once. See the Monster Reactions in The Encounter section of the Basic Fantasy RPG Core Rules for more.

Bards can produce effects collectively called Bard Songs that enhance other characters in various ways, usually by playing of instruments and/or singing (detailed below).

Bards have musical talent enough to play most common instruments at least marginally well, but at 1st-level must declare a chosen instrument to master (stringed, bow & stringed, reed horns, brass horns, drums, or rarely keyboards, to name several but not necessarily all). The Bard requires one of their chosen instruments to produce various effects collectively called Bard Songs (detailed below). At each 5th level (5th, 10th, 15th, etc) they may choose another class of instrument to master. Given time and reasonable resources, a Bard has the skills to maintain, repair, or even produce instruments they have mastery in.

Occasionally one might find Bards who specialize in other forms of performance such as epic poetry, witty comedy, acrobatics, dance, or other more rare displays. The DM may have to improvise any particulars of such characters to determine how abilities work in conjunction with these chosen specialties. It is recommended that Bards begin play utilizing the standard types of instruments and learn these other performance techniques later during the course of the campaign.

In all other ways, the Bard operates as a Thief.  (The Bard is a Thief with the Bard quasi-class applied.)