![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI keep on thinking of Bard characters and then getting stuck on the thing where I don't know much music.
Bards could in theory be primarioy Oratory or Conedy dudes though, and honestly I'm not coming up with much for that either.
I was trying to get my head around Skalds, for a party with a Barbarian and a Skald in it, and they don't look too interesting, but they don't look as creeptastically mind controlly as a basic Bard.
But then at leve 14 they can cast an area effect Raise Dead... that wears off as soon as they stop singing.
And by then they have a fair few rounds of bardic song in them, but, that means, they could maybe get, like, a minute? Three if there's only one person.
And the rules aren't real clear, to me, on how you deal with healing while temporarily alive. Like, can your Skald raise your Healer and have her sort everything out, or would she just drop dead at the end of the song even after spending cure spells? Could you only use Breath of Life? Are we looking at temporary animation, followed by hoping like hell you've got enough scrolls to go around?
It is clearly the most drama and angst of the Skalds powers, by far, so now I'm just thinking about that. That one thing at level 14 that would be drama once.
... actually I started out thinking
Torchwood in Golarion
doing Rise of the Runelords
so now I'm thinking
the only way to make That scene in Children of Earth more angsty
if he can keep him alive but only as long as he can keep performing...
I was thinking it should be one of those once for fun once for Angsty Woe things that martial arts movies are good at. So we set up a little 'Get up and Dance' song, one that the Skald hums a lot, one that wakes the party up if the Skald is on last watch, or wakes his boyfriend up in private. And then: TPK threatens.
At 14th level there are ample dramatic opportunities for things to just go That wrong.
So the Skald, support and ranged weaponry, is last man standing, and he just goes over to the Barbarian boyfriend, and he's not moving. Not responding to healing spells. And the Skald goes a little bit nuts, and starts singing the Get up and Dance song, probably in a different tempo and key...
And it *works*
and then the bad guys who were standing around gloating are on the sharp end of a reversal
but, Skald has never done this before! So if he stops singing they all just... stop.
... by 14th level they really very better have enough scrolls to go around, but, if they did, why would he just be singing to them?
I guess Raise Dead is not usually handy in the middle of a fight.
Thing is I'm getting stuck on what kind of
get up and dance
(with death, reprise)
song could even go there
at which point I have to admit I know not of music.
I am getting many ideas for how to fit these Torchwood inspire characters into this Runelords adventure, what character arcs they can have etc.
But it wouldnt be good fanfic, or properly original, so then I dont get around to writing it.
I like game rules though, they give you such an epic climbing frame.
I do have another Bard character in mind where I could think of songs for all their spells
as long s they were Disney
with a hint of Bagpuss.
... that's unuseable for a whole other reason long before you get to Mood though.
You can get a long way with Queen's Greatest Hits as well.
If you try and make up music you get a really tough challenge, because music is primarily connotational, so you have to build the connotations before you use them.
And if you're trying to do that in text
where you can't use key and tempo anyway
you're just stuck trying to make up really meaningful poetry
that your Bard could say
in six seconds.
Trick-y.
Ah well.
Bards could in theory be primarioy Oratory or Conedy dudes though, and honestly I'm not coming up with much for that either.
I was trying to get my head around Skalds, for a party with a Barbarian and a Skald in it, and they don't look too interesting, but they don't look as creeptastically mind controlly as a basic Bard.
But then at leve 14 they can cast an area effect Raise Dead... that wears off as soon as they stop singing.
And by then they have a fair few rounds of bardic song in them, but, that means, they could maybe get, like, a minute? Three if there's only one person.
And the rules aren't real clear, to me, on how you deal with healing while temporarily alive. Like, can your Skald raise your Healer and have her sort everything out, or would she just drop dead at the end of the song even after spending cure spells? Could you only use Breath of Life? Are we looking at temporary animation, followed by hoping like hell you've got enough scrolls to go around?
It is clearly the most drama and angst of the Skalds powers, by far, so now I'm just thinking about that. That one thing at level 14 that would be drama once.
... actually I started out thinking
Torchwood in Golarion
doing Rise of the Runelords
so now I'm thinking
the only way to make That scene in Children of Earth more angsty
if he can keep him alive but only as long as he can keep performing...
I was thinking it should be one of those once for fun once for Angsty Woe things that martial arts movies are good at. So we set up a little 'Get up and Dance' song, one that the Skald hums a lot, one that wakes the party up if the Skald is on last watch, or wakes his boyfriend up in private. And then: TPK threatens.
At 14th level there are ample dramatic opportunities for things to just go That wrong.
So the Skald, support and ranged weaponry, is last man standing, and he just goes over to the Barbarian boyfriend, and he's not moving. Not responding to healing spells. And the Skald goes a little bit nuts, and starts singing the Get up and Dance song, probably in a different tempo and key...
And it *works*
and then the bad guys who were standing around gloating are on the sharp end of a reversal
but, Skald has never done this before! So if he stops singing they all just... stop.
... by 14th level they really very better have enough scrolls to go around, but, if they did, why would he just be singing to them?
I guess Raise Dead is not usually handy in the middle of a fight.
Thing is I'm getting stuck on what kind of
get up and dance
(with death, reprise)
song could even go there
at which point I have to admit I know not of music.
I am getting many ideas for how to fit these Torchwood inspire characters into this Runelords adventure, what character arcs they can have etc.
But it wouldnt be good fanfic, or properly original, so then I dont get around to writing it.
I like game rules though, they give you such an epic climbing frame.
I do have another Bard character in mind where I could think of songs for all their spells
as long s they were Disney
with a hint of Bagpuss.
... that's unuseable for a whole other reason long before you get to Mood though.
You can get a long way with Queen's Greatest Hits as well.
If you try and make up music you get a really tough challenge, because music is primarily connotational, so you have to build the connotations before you use them.
And if you're trying to do that in text
where you can't use key and tempo anyway
you're just stuck trying to make up really meaningful poetry
that your Bard could say
in six seconds.
Trick-y.
Ah well.