D&D 3.5: All Bards Party [UN] (Still looking for players!)

[Inerrant Lust]

So I've stolen an idea from my sister's boyfriend's D&D group; An all bards campaign.

Rules are; at least one level in bard- no multiclassing penalties, but nothing too silly like eighty-million friggin classes and prestige classes.

Everyone starts at...say...5th level.

You all know eachother, because you are all part of a travelling troupe of minstrels. You may or may not have ulterior motives. A background is heavily suggested, since it helps me personalize some of the plothooks.

I tend to go overboard with preperation when I'm bored (Schnookums knows. :-P) but I've been somewhat busy lately, so you guys don't have to worry about me swamping you with maps and other useless crap. Plus, I've only recently recognized it as a fault, so I will be quick to slap myself if I get the urge to be too bookkeeper-y. From now on, I will prepare only as it becomes neccesary.

Players I'm looking for- 3 or 4? Maybe 5, if enough people are interested.

Generally, the larger my games are; the more open-ended they are. I tend to give control to the players in where they go, what they do, and how they go about doing it. This doesn't mean that I don't drop plot hooks everywhere I can, though. ;-)

In the same vein, I imagine I would have alot less control over what happens regarding sex scenes as well. In fact, I'd encourage the players to hook up with one-another, because it's less work for me as a GM and only natural with more than one player and a GM in a sexualized game.

That being said, I'm very capable of providing naughty situations if it's desired- even to one or two players at a time (if say, one person's ON is another person's OFF)

I like to think I can manage splitting the party up (if only briefly) in play-by-post games pretty well. It's harder in tabletop, since the GM can't simultaneously reply to everyone's plotline in the same post. ;-)

I may also pitch this idea on another (non-sexual) forum. It has a MUCH larger playerbase than Elliquiy, so it might be easier for me to find 4 or so players. And, if there's no sex, then it will be much easier, since no one will have conflicting tastes. :P Registration on that site doesn't require a waiting period, since it's PG-13- and I won't mind if any Elliquians want to join in on the game there.

I pitched the game idea here first, but if I can't get a sizable party, it's going on over there.

Speaking of which, as the GM- I might be hesitant to do sex-scenes with any of my offs and maybes included. However, another player can take the role of relevant NPCs in that case. :P I can continue to handle anything outside of that scene if the party is seperated, for example.

Again, speaking of which... My rule on sex is the same as my rule on combat; A supplement, not replacement. I might throw a wayward unimportant battle at you if I'm unsure of your current capabilities.

Also, I'm rather generous with EXP if it serves the plotline. This all bard party may go into the epic levels, and you might level with each encounter/plotarc.

I expect a fair mix of combat challenges, and non-combat challenges, with a little sex. If you guys make the story into a comedy or dramedy (I really woulden't mind, anyone who has spoken to me for long knows I love a good joke), there would be more sex and the scenes would be... less plot-oriented. :P

Any questions? Don't hesitate to ask.

[Zaer Darkwail]

Hmmm, I am intrested to this game. Had idea for tribal backgrounded bard/barbarian who is somesort 'singing warrior' type. Races are human or half-orc, or perhaps catfolk (a +1 LA races from Races of Wild).

[Inerrant Lust]

I might be inclined to overrule my previous 'at least one level in bard' to 'a good deal of balance', since it would kind of go against the spirit of the game if someone took a level and forgot about it.

If I recall, there are an assortment of prestige classes and feats/abilities that take the bard into different directions, so even in a party of all the same class, there would be diversity. I would like everyone to be good at something, but able to fall back on their bardic knowledge/song.

For instance, a melee bard, a magical bard, a song bard, a skill-monkey bard. Ect.

[Transgirlenstein]

I could definatly get behind this.  I have played at least two bards in the past I really enjoyed: one was an oriental kabuki actor who played the female roles, the other was a half vampire bard/dirge singer who was the bastard child of a vampire lord (strahd)

[shadowheart]

Oh dear .. *g*

I have this image of a medieval rock band jamming on the lyres and flutes by night and slaying monsters and clearing dungeons by day.    :D

Register this as half-interest, since I'm not fond of 3.5 but the idea itself raises my curiosity. :)

[Zaer Darkwail]

Hmmm, now that you mentioned 'metal bands' a tiefling bard/rogue has been long in my list 'must try on' ;). Well, 3.5 edition is bit sketchy at times to some but I like versatility of the system and can be quite rules light after char creation process has been done.

For easy char sheet creation I have good online DnD charsheet generator; http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm

[Caia Tenn]

I like the idea as well, I've seen a few threads on various forums about the idea of groups of bards rocking through dungeons and cities all across faerun or other worlds.

Personally I kinda like the idea of them on Krynn, facing of against Takhisis, a thunderstorm rattling the city as fights between dragons fill the sky as the bards battle against the queen of chromatic dragons armed only with the power of magical music.

But maybe that's just me.

[Muse]

Oh! 

This would be so much better in Second Edition with the complete book of bards! 

Still, with you overruling the at least one bard level rule, I do actually have a bladesinger concept who is very heavily into performing. 

[RubySlippers]

Ohhhhhh can I be a Rogue acrobat and dancer who also is a cat burglar and thief. Well its a performer and she could be known for her atheletic pleasure dancing. And not as know be  a formidable cat burglar and theif when the mood strikes her and she wants to make some extra money.

[Transgirlenstein]

I think I'll play the corssdressing kabuki actor bard.  Maybe multiclass into somethnig else..don't know what...rogue or ninja maybe?

[Zaer Darkwail]

Ohhhhhh can I be a Rogue acrobat and dancer who also is a cat burglar and thief. Well its a performer and she could be known for her atheletic pleasure dancing. And not as know be  a formidable cat burglar and theif when the mood strikes her and she wants to make some extra money.

What is my tiefling rogue/bard then? Social scheamer XD. But if no one takes 'fighter bard' concept I could play the tiefling as bard/swashbuckler to add more melee combatant skills with finesse and performance skills.

[Inerrant Lust]

Oh dear .. *g*

I have this image of a medieval rock band jamming on the lyres and flutes by night and slaying monsters and clearing dungeons by day.   

Register this as half-interest, since I'm not fond of 3.5 but the idea itself raises my curiosity.

Well, I'm hesitant to get too silly. :P I would like to throw some drama (and a thick helping of plot) in every once in awhile, as long as it doesn't become jarring as we alternate from humorous to dramatic.

As the GM setting the pace (hopefully... :P), I think I have enough confidence in my story-telling that I can weave in and out of drama and humor without it looking too forced.

That being said, the inherent premise should be open to humor, yet not exclusive to a little seriousness. So I'll have to ask for only mildly silly concepts. ;) Oh wait... *rereads*

Medieval rock band. I thought you meant literally; tight leather pants and screeching vocals. :P But yeah, that was pretty much my intention. I'd also suggest everyone figure out what instrument they play. It's not quite important in game-play (unless you're using those mastercraft instruments from Complete Adventurer) but you would all need to mesh together as a band. So 4 people on drums... yeah. :P

Hmmm, now that you mentioned 'metal bands' a tiefling bard/rogue has been long in my list 'must try on' . Well, 3.5 edition is bit sketchy at times to some but I like versatility of the system and can be quite rules light after char creation process has been done.

For easy char sheet creation I have good online DnD charsheet generator; http://www.pathguy.com/cg35.htm

Please no black leather pants and white-and-black makeup! :P

I am very fond of ability checks, and granting circumstance modifiers to said checks. :P I try to allow my players as many options outside the rules as there are within them, so I might just say "Make a strength check to hold onto the giant fish as it swims underwater, with a +2 bonus for every 5 ranks in climb."

Generally, though, I'm a DM that enjoys it when my players enjoy myself- I don't mind going 'rules lite' for some portions of the game, but I can also amp up the frequency of challenges or simple downtime to roleplay. The OOC thread is there for a reason. :)

I've always used mythweavers, It's rarely down and my sheets haven't been obliterated yet. Though, some of the text entires at the bottom have a habit of not going through. :-\ Eh, you don't need a sheet to write down character background and appearance and such.  ;)

I like the idea as well, I've seen a few threads on various forums about the idea of groups of bards rocking through dungeons and cities all across faerun or other worlds.

Personally I kinda like the idea of them on Krynn, facing of against Takhisis, a thunderstorm rattling the city as fights between dragons fill the sky as the bards battle against the queen of chromatic dragons armed only with the power of magical music.

But maybe that's just me.

Really? Aw, I feel so much less original for stealing an idea that wasn't as original as I originally thought...

I can't say I'm all that familiar with specific campaign settings. I know a bit of Faerun, but haven't heard of Krynn. I generally start with a generic 'swords-n-sorcery' setting and expand it as it becomes neccesary. If you guys get to epic levels, expect the entire world to be defined by that time. :P

Oh! 

This would be so much better in Second Edition with the complete book of bards! 

Still, with you overruling the at least one bard level rule, I do actually have a bladesinger concept who is very heavily into performing.

I've only gotten into D&D within the last few years, so I only have the 3.5 books. ^_^ There's always adaption, though. As long as it's balanced, I tend to allow homebrewed stuff in my game. And even if one of my players abuses a rule into becoming unbalanced, I tend to push back. ;) I don't think anyone on Elliquiy came here to try out that new WTFBQQPWN build on Wizards' character optimization board, though. :P

As for the concept,

New Rule; Preform is a class skill for anyone, regardless of actual class. :P Sure, it doesn't mean much mechanically if you neglect your bard levels- but barring things like skill focus and mastercraft items, everyone should more or less preform as a band and not 'three guys and a dude on cowbell.'  ;D

Ohhhhhh can I be a Rogue acrobat and dancer who also is a cat burglar and thief. Well its a performer and she could be known for her atheletic pleasure dancing. And not as know be  a formidable cat burglar and theif when the mood strikes her and she wants to make some extra money.

Sounds interesting. Smexy, even. :P

It looks like we have alot of people interested in this game. Totally not what I was expecting. Considering that we'd all be playing as one big happy family, I'm inclined to decide who gets in by virtue of secret ballot; Basically just a PM to me with 4 or 5 other players on it. Hopefully no ties. ::)

Mainly because I would like that everyone is comfortable with one another, and so that everyone's more or less comfortable with the other players' ons and offs. :P Then again, I could easily just make a seperate thread for each participant if the party splits up, and bring them back into the central thread when they return.

But yeah, we're all writers of the same story here- comfort and cohension between players is a priority, or else the story suffers. ^_^ Anyone who has played a solo with me knows that I spam their inboxes with PMs at every opportunity, in an effort to make the story as good as possible. It should roughly be the same this time around, except in an OOC thread. :P

So, character concepts we have thus far-

Zaer Darkwail
Human/Half-Orc/or Catfolk Bard/Barbarian who sings tribal chants as he/she rampages all over Tokyo?
Or
Tiefling bard/rogue, possibly of the heavy metal variety. :P

Trippingsatyr
Undefined

Shadowheart
Undefined

Caia Tenn
Undefined

Muse
Bard/Bladesinger who emphasizes the bard song with a bit of melee combat/spellcasting, I would assume. What book is bladesinger again? Nevermind, found it. ^_^ Whoa, lots of requirements.

Rubyslippers
Rogue/Bard with Preform(Dance) who is sneaky, and possibly; seductive. :P I'd rule that you get a bonus to fascinate and suggestion bard songs via dancing, but might have trouble with alot of the other songs. Countersong, for instance, is sound-based- and 'athletic pleasure dancing' would be a very visual preformance, I imagine. ::)

I can be flexible and offer similiar homebrew rules to anyone else. Even though everyone is the same class, I'd like you to have specialties that the others can't steal the spotlight from when they become applicable. :P

Hmmm. I'll use pointbuy to determine stats, and somewhat generous pointbuy at that, considering that you will likely be using more than one ability score in your role. So, Point Buy 30.

You can squeeze an 18 and a 17 out of that at level one, but I will abuse your dump-stats until you're sore. :P Then again, if you can roleplay it well enough, I don't mind. :P

Max HP at 1st level, and fixed afterwards (Half at every even level, half+1 at every odd level)

I think I'll play the corssdressing kabuki actor bard.  Maybe multiclass into somethnig else..don't know what...rogue or ninja maybe?

Do note, your in a party. While I'm fine with different races and cultures together, a kabuki theatre preformance might...clash. :P

What is my tiefling rogue/bard then? Social scheamer XD. But if no one takes 'fighter bard' concept I could play the tiefling as bard/swashbuckler to add more melee combatant skills with finesse and performance skills.

I am the type of GM who tries to make things as versimiliar as possible, so playing a tiefling might earn you a bit of trouble unless you do a good job of hiding it.

Also, don't hesitate to start throwing some character backgrounds around, guys. :P

[RubySlippers]

I never said I was considering taking bard unless you make me after all rogues also get perform and lots of skills perfect for a jack-of-all-trades at Level 1 then specializing in skills like dance, balance, jump, tumbling, climb and bluff (perfect for seduction as well as the usual BS when she is caught with a couple choice items. Anyway most bard skills are going to be useless.

[Inerrant Lust]

I never said I was considering taking bard unless you make me after all rogues also get perform and lots of skills perfect for a jack-of-all-trades at Level 1 then specializing in skills like dance, balance, jump, tumbling, climb and bluff (perfect for seduction as well as the usual BS when she is caught with a couple choice items. Anyway most bard skills are going to be useless.

Not in my game. ;)

Well, it is an all bards campaign, and I would like to adhere to the concept at least in beggining before all the multi-classing and such gets out of hand. :P

[RubySlippers]

In any case you are wrong to a degree about dancers there are dancers instruments all percussion that include bells (carried or can be worn on the body), tambourines, small hand drums, castanets and there are others. I can see her wearing well almost nothing save bells on wrist/ankle/waist bands and jiggle just right during her dance to Countersong and be really distracting. All she would need is sufficient ranks in Percussion Instruments and Dance to pull it off.

[Zaer Darkwail]

Hmmmm, I checked some my books last night and I got idea for very cool tiefling artist concept but it depends do DM allow the 'Book of Nine Swords'. I had idea for tiefling crusader 3/Bard 1 who belongs to special knight order know as 'knights of black rose'. It is basically knight order where all 'tragically born' individuals go (tieflings, bastard children, children who had caused tragedy since birth etc).

So, my char would focus on White Raven style and be some sort the romantic version of knight (a gentleman warrior with charm and grace and virtue) but he would actively seek pursuit romances which are doomed to fail (as his eternal quest to find a doomed romance which ends happily) and make sad poetry/music/performances inspired by it.

As tiefling to initiate romance with anyone will be hard/doomed to fail, especially with fellow tieflings who do not trust each other anyway. Any case class function wise my tiefling would suit quite well as front line combatant and focusing on Devoted Spirit he is able heal others without being cleric and also can receive a lot punishment even while naked (if using some right stone dragon powers and feat).

[Inerrant Lust]

I'm afraid I don't have that book. :P

[Zaer Darkwail]

Damn :P. Oh well, then I play bard/swashbuckler tiefling then (a melee combating bard).

[RubySlippers]

I'm not sure about my characters race yet. Is this going to be in the Forgotten Realms or a homebrew world?

[Inerrant Lust]

I'm not sure about my characters race yet. Is this going to be in the Forgotten Realms or a homebrew world?

I think homebrew. Basically going to wing it, expanding the setting as it becomes relevant. For instance, you may start in a city... and as the game progresses, you travel through a nation, and then the entire world.

I don't mind campaign-specific feats or races, though. Although warforged are a bit cliche...

Damn :P. Oh well, then I play bard/swashbuckler tiefling then (a melee combating bard).

I might be able to get ToB within a few days, but it still might be veto'ed. From what I recall, those classes are in a league of their own- and it woulden't quite be fair to the other players if someone had alot of power.

And remember, you'll have to hide your tiefling-ness in public. Demonic horns/evil eyes/sharp teeth/tail and such. I'm hesitant to make any setting where all the 'cool' races are commonplace. :P

[Zaer Darkwail]

Ok, I wait until you get the book and give decision regarding the content in there. Ok, I keep my race in mind in social interactions (just buy hat of disguise and be done with it basically and high bluff and disguise skill ranks).

[Inerrant Lust]

Some ideas to consider, courtesy of the lovely folks over at Giant In the Playground forums.

[Zaer Darkwail]

Nice suggestions, I could go dirgesinger with my tiefling and be debuffer bard XD (just need somehow able get animate dead or summon undead as spell to fulfill the role as 'dead metal' look and able summon undead which are affected by my music). But I still like my original idea that I would go into as bard/crusader, as the feat mentioned allows my crusader levels stack with bard when it comes to determine inspire courage bonus. So, bard 3/crusader 17 is treated to have 20lvl bard inspire courage but only 3 daily bardic music abilities.

Also crusader class itself makes for very tough 'tank' as it can heal itself or others infinity amount, prevent AoO occurring from foes and also able stand a lot damage.

[Inerrant Lust]

Nice suggestions, I could go dirgesinger with my tiefling and be debuffer bard XD (just need somehow able get animate dead or summon undead as spell to fulfill the role as 'dead metal' look and able summon undead which are affected by my music). But I still like my original idea that I would go into as bard/crusader, as the feat mentioned allows my crusader levels stack with bard when it comes to determine inspire courage bonus. So, bard 3/crusader 17 is treated to have 20lvl bard inspire courage but only 3 daily bardic music abilities.

Also crusader class itself makes for very tough 'tank' as it can heal itself or others infinity amount, prevent AoO occurring from foes and also able stand a lot damage.

I hope it's not THAT combat-oriented. :o But then again, I don't mind tailoring my games to the players in them. Just that not everyone might enjoy a good fight, so I'd like to keep some balance so everyone involved has some fun. Some people might favor heavy plot development, heavy adventure, heavy sex, ect. ect. ect.

[Zaer Darkwail]

Well, crusader and all the three base classes in book of nine swords FOCUS on battle. Their powers work mostly only if they hit something with a sword but also all classes got good base skills and skill points because many 'maneuvers' (special tricks for combat) asks often skill checks (like do DC 20 jump check to gain X advantage over X foe with this one attack).

Plainly told crusader can do a melee strike on foe, and gain then for 1 round DR 5/Admantium, he cannot redo the trick until all his powers replenish automatically in 2-3 rounds and even that case only 2-3 powers he can use immediately (and known for sure) and rest powers are chosen randomly from his 'known power' list and come usable one round at the time.

The random element is called 'divine inspiration' which means that crusades gets random urges and visions from their gods or beliefs which leads to make or able to use certain maneuver. Crusader is very fun class because it's replenishment system is automatic and also has nice random element in it.

Any case martial classes in Book of Nine Swords are combat heavy but they can do fine in non-combat situations with their skills what they have but I thinked make Crusader for the few cases where bard party would end into combat and in there my char would work on his role as 'protector' of the group and inspires others most amount with inspire courage which modifier is only matched up by pure bard or specific PrC which improves inspire courage feature.