Hey, I‘m going to be the dm for a character that is a bard with a heavy focus on music. I really think that music is something interesting to explore story-wise and I can think of a handfull of small arcs that could be fun, but mechanically you don't really have that much for musicians.
There are spells or bardic abilities that say in their discription that you can use music to inspire your allies or weaken your enimies. But making music just for the sake of making good music isn't really a gameplay element. I want music competitions with the winner getting invited to the king's castle, I want a professional conducter coming up to the character to compliment them on their performance and their improvement and I want the character to work for improving their skill.
It would be great to have something to measure their progress in a certain instrument beyond just having proficiency. Maybe extended rules for performances, rules for composing a song and rules for learning new techniques and incorporating them in the performances.
I just feel like, if it's such a huge part for the character's story there should also be more complexity for it in the rules. The character's ultimate goal is to compose a song cicle about their adventures, which is neat because it leaves a lot of room for shenanigans. And music would be the overarching theme.
If you now any rules of this kind or have any ideas, please let me know. Thanks :)
One thought is to use variant Performance checks to address different aspects of music. Charisma works well for the performer’s ability to communicate with their audience through their music, but perhaps consider:
- Dexterity (Performance) checks for playing technically challenging pieces;
- Intelligence (Performance) checks for understanding musical theory and writing complex fugues and counterpoint;
- Wisdom (Performance) checks for sensitively accompanying another musician or for writing or performing spiritual or religious music;
- Constitution (Performance) checks for getting through a particularly demanding performance.
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Hey, I‘m going to be the dm for a character that is a bard with a heavy focus on music. I really think that music is something interesting to explore story-wise and I can think of a handfull of small arcs that could be fun, but mechanically you don't really have that much for musicians.
There are spells or bardic abilities that say in their discription that you can use music to inspire your allies or weaken your enimies. But making music just for the sake of making good music isn't really a gameplay element. I want music competitions with the winner getting invited to the king's castle, I want a professional conducter coming up to the character to compliment them on their performance and their improvement and I want the character to work for improving their skill.
It would be great to have something to measure their progress in a certain instrument beyond just having proficiency. Maybe extended rules for performances, rules for composing a song and rules for learning new techniques and incorporating them in the performances.
I just feel like, if it's such a huge part for the character's story there should also be more complexity for it in the rules. The character's ultimate goal is to compose a song cicle about their adventures, which is neat because it leaves a lot of room for shenanigans. And music would be the overarching theme.
If you now any rules of this kind or have any ideas, please let me know. Thanks :)
One thought is to use variant Performance checks to address different aspects of music. Charisma works well for the performer’s ability to communicate with their audience through their music, but perhaps consider:
- Dexterity (Performance) checks for playing technically challenging pieces;
- Intelligence (Performance) checks for understanding musical theory and writing complex fugues and counterpoint;
- Wisdom (Performance) checks for sensitively accompanying another musician or for writing or performing spiritual or religious music;
- Constitution (Performance) checks for getting through a particularly demanding performance.