From traveling minstrels to inspirational generals, fantasy has a strong tradition of characters that captivate and influence others through their ability to perform. Realm of Runes presents the bard class, focused on many different kinds of performances: instrumental, vocal, visual or percussive. All bards can use any of these types of performance at their discretion, but many bardic abilities specify which types of performance must be used to create them. Some are universal, so even if your bard prefers to focus on one type of performance, there are still many different uses that performance can have.
COMPOSITIONS AND ACCENTS
Compositions are bardic powers, special spells that can only be learned through bard class feats. Accents are metamagic used to alter and influence an accompanied composition. At first level, every bard gains two bonus feats that are used to pick compositions and accents. There are seven 1st-level compositions to choose from and the same amount of 1st-level accents, and the available pool grows as a bard gains levels, so there is incredible diversity in a bard's potential repertoire, right from the start.
Most compositions are Cantrips, spells that are not expended when cast, and have a duration of Concentration, which lasts as long as the caster continues to actively maintain it. There is no arbitrary limit to how many active compositions a bard can have at once, but since concentration requires an action the effective limit is naturally determined by how many actions are available and what other things the bard wants to do with its turn. If the situation calls for a bard to spend its whole turn beginning and maintaining compositions, it can. Whether this is a good idea or not is entirely up to the bard.
Accents influence the compositions they are attached to, and add a great deal of diversity to a bard's repertoire. Many bards might perform inspire courage to aid their allies in battle, but one might play it Fortissimo to have those allies re-roll 1s on damage dice, another might play it Legato to increase resistance to fear, or another as a Counter Performance to bolster saving throws. A bard that knows all of those can freely change which accent they use as the situation evolves. Accents require an action to add to a composition, but once added they typically last until the associated composition ends or another accent is used. Some accents are Finales instead, which provide more powerful instantaneous effects but end all ongoing compositions when used.
TYPES OF PERFORMANCE
Which type of performance a bard uses to activate its compositions and accents has an important influence on how those abilities manifest. At the most basic level, certain compositions and accents can only be used with specified types, but each type also has more specific influences that reflect the type of performance used.
Instrumental performances require the use of an instrument, though singing can also be an instrument if only the tone is more important than the lyrical content, if any. Instrumental performances always have the auditory trait, and must be heard by targets to be effective. Because instruments tend to occupy one or both of a bard's hands, many instrumental compositions and accents provide ways of replacing the utility of things like weapon attacks, such as the Chord of Shards accent which deals sonic damage to an area within the accented composition.
Percussive performances are visceral, and even creatures which can't hear can still feel the beat. Percussion performances do not gain any traits, and only require a creature be within range of the magic to take effect. Percussion-specific compositions and accents reflect their visceral nature in their effects, such as Quickening Pulse, which drives opponent heartbeats faster and faster until they start taking bleed damage.
Visual performances don't typically require anything to be held in hand, and are some of the easiest performances to pair with more typical forms of combat, like weapons. Visual compositions and accents always gain the visual trait, and must be seen by targets to be effective. Visual-specific compositions and accents tend to involve dancing or martial arts, such as the Fluidic accent which uses never-ceasing movement to drive allies into inexorable attacks that are harder to resist.
Vocal performances require nothing but the user's speech, but can also be the most limiting. All vocal performances gain the lingual trait, which means the content must be understood by targets to be effective. Vocal performances must be used in a specific language, and only those that know that language can be affected. The language used can be sign language, so whether a vocal performance has the auditory or visual trait is up to the user. Vocal performances are speeches, comedy, or singing where the lyrics are important to the the effect.
Because bards are not restricted to one type of performance over another, and there is no limit to the number of compositions a bard can have going at once, they can freely combine these mediums of expression within the limits of their turn. Even a 1st-level bard can sing, dance and play an instrument all at the same time.
OCCULT SPELLS & SPELL POINTS
In addition to their compositions and accents, bards in Realm of Runes can also spontaneously cast occult spells they learn. They have a pool of Spell Points which all bards can use to cast spells from their repertoire without expending a spell slot, and some composition and accents cost Spell Points to cast. Every bard's pool of Spell Points is equal to its Charisma modifier, but each feat that adds an ability that costs Spell Points also increases the size of the pool, so the more Spell Point abilities you have the more points you have to go around.
Bards also have the ability to use their performance as their casting actions, allowing them to never have to provide Somatic or Verbal casting actions unless they choose to. So if your bard likes to use an instrument that takes both hands, you don't have to put it down or stop playing in order to use your magic effectively.
BARD CLASS FEATS
A large number of bard class feats add new compositions and accents, but there are also many that provide other useful effects. Spell Pageantry lets you disguise spellcasting as performance, which can trick others into not even realizing that you're casting a spell, possibly depriving them of the chance to Recognize or Counterspell your magic. Practiced Maestro lets you swap Charisma as your key ability for spells, Spell Points and Performance skill with Intelligence. Harmonize lets your Concentration maintain more than one composition at once, and is great for bards that want to utilize multiple different performances without having to spend their whole turn doing so. Collaborative Performance is a teamwork metamagic feat, which uses your actions to boost the power of another caster's spell. Bards in Realm of Runes can find ways to pair well with any party composition, and there is enough diversity within the bard class itself that a traveling band entirely of bards can be an effective troupe.
With dozens of compositions and accents to mix and match, and many different ways of using them, bards are an incredibly diverse and flexible class. They also tend to be good at skills, and are are in a great position to make full use of the flexibility offered by the Performance skill, and have their own special ways of increasing the ways that skill can be used to cover the effects of other skills. Next time we're going to continue our exploration of skills with the Intelligence skills.
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