... now with 35% more arrogance!

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Bardic Satire

I thought over the level penalties for bad reputation idea and how it should relate to bards without spells. Here's my quick rules write-up: a bard can satirize a person in song by singing songs that smear the target's reputation. The audience *must* be people that matter to the target, and the target must want to be respected or feared by the audience; most monsters, all mindless creatures or automatons, and loners who reject society are immune. The audience must be at least 20 people.

Roll a reaction roll to the song, but treat it as turning undead: add double the bard's level and subtract double the target's level. On a Good reaction (9+), the target drops one level. The bard can repeat this for a different audience twice, for a maximum drop of three levels. This effect does not stack with any other level loss, including the satires of other bards; in other words, the target drops 1 to 3 levels below the max level indicated by the target's experience points.

Satire doesn't reduce a target below level 1. Level loss is always applied to the target's highest class level.

2 comments:

  1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtKGlOK4RTk
    Seemed relevant.

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    Replies
    1. ... Or the minstrels from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

      Whether Brave Sir Robin's solution to the minstrel problem will work in a game is up to the GM.

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